Since writing my last entry, I hadn’t done too much with video on my iPod other than download a few video podcasts. However, this last week I decided to put an episode of West Wing on the iPod. West Wing is actually in widescreen format. I encoded it with a 640×360 resolution accordingly and this produced what I thought was a flawless program. No banding even the resolution was higher than that of the iPod screen. This made some sense because the banding that I noticed for the full-frame clip I was using for my testing was mainly in the top 10th of the screen.
(Note: after writing this article, I’ve done much more research on putting videos on an iPod and wrote up a new article that covers this in more basic terms – A Beginner’s Guide to Video for the IPod. I urge you to read that article first, especially if you don’t have much or any experience with digital video, the iPod, or both together)
Great, I thought! Now I can at least use one format for displaying on the iPod or the TV. But wait, it gets better!
I decided to copy an episode of Six Feet Under onto the iPod and test out another hypothesis by the moderator of the Videora iPod Converter forum, Sketchy, that you should make sure that your resolution was divisible by 16, since MPEG4 divides the screen up into 16×16 blocks. 640 and 360 are both divisible by 16[it turns out 360 is not divisible by 16, oops, but read on], so maybe that was the key to flawless, higher-resolution video on the iPod. The previous 544 x 408 resolution wasn’t [and it turns out that it wasn't even the highest resolution allowable - it's 552 x 414]. 544 is divisible, but 408 isn’t. In order to maintain the 1:33 aspect ratio, the highest resolution you can use that doesn’t go over the total pixel count of 230,400, but which is still divisible by 16 in both width and height, is 512 x 384[oops again, it turns out that it is 528x400] So, I encoded the program using this and voila, perfect-looking video!
Great news again, right? Now I can do the same thing with full-frame videos and just use that one resolution for both iPod viewing and TV viewing. Sure 512 x 384 isn’t HD, or even DVD quality. But it’s perfectly watchable on even my 34″ TV. Yet again, though, it gets better, or perhaps better and worse at the same time?
I thought I should update the spreadsheet with this information, so I dug out the old 55-second clip, and proceeded to convert it again but this time using the new 512 x 384 resolution instead of the older 544 x 408. I did this for all the various modes, 1-pass and 2-pass, and put them on the iPod. I started watching them and they all looked great! This wasn’t a big surprise, since the Six Feet Under episode also looked great. But here is the weird part – I also reloaded the old 544 x 408 clips for comparison sake and when I started watching some of these, they also looked absolutely fine! No banding whatsoever! I was flummoxed.
So I bring my iPod into the bedroom where my wife is still half awake and ask her to look at these since I’m starting to not trust my own eyes anymore. Only when I play them for her, the banding is back! And it’s not just back on the old clips, but the new clips as well. Huh? When I was first playing them back in the office, my iPod was plugged into the computer getting charged, so I thought, hey, maybe that has something to do with it. So I plug it into the wall and try again. No go, the banding is still there. I than decided to try one more thing – I reset the iPod. Once I did this, no more banding was visible!
So, to conclude, the problems with banding are not unavoidable. If you experience them, just reset your iPod. My guess is that putting the iPod in and out of video mode can produce this artifact, but if you just watch one program straight through, there shouldn’t be an issue. Of course resetting can be a nuisance, but if you were interested in only storing one format for a given file which you plan to view on both the iPod and a TV (or your computer), then it might not be that big a deal.
Based on this further development, I’ve edited the spreadsheet and included the new information. Based on this new information, my conclusion is a bit different. Basically, if you never see the possibility of wanting to play these files on a TV or computer, then you should stick with one of the 320×240 resolutions, preferably one that has a higher bit rate that would produce less artifacting. As I said above, H.264 > CBR, 1 pass is a good option since it’s fast to convert and small in size. This will allow you to convert an hour’s worth of video in a little over an hour and will produce a file that is about 380MB.
However, if you do want to have a single file for multiple uses – iPod viewing, TV viewing, computer viewing, then choose one of the 544 x 408 552 x 414 resolution ones, again with the higher bit rate (or lower Qscale). I’ve found I can’t really tell the difference between the higher bit rate (lower Qscale) versions. They all look incredibly crisp and clear, with no artifacting. However, the one that seems to come out on top in terms of both a smaller size file as well as a faster conversion is the plain MPEG4>CBR yet again. For a one-hour piece of video, the conversion time will likely be between two and three hours, perhaps closer to three. The file size will be about 1GB. That’s not really much better than the video stored on a DVD, which is definitely better quality.
Obviously the tradeoff of having the flexibility of one file for all purposes is that it will take a lot longer to convert your video and it will also take up considerably more space – maybe three times as much! For some people, though, this is a good compromise. For others who want to store more on their iPod but still want the possibility of displaying their videos on a TV via the iPod, yet another option might be worth the additional time – actually encoding it in both a 320×240 version specifically for viewing on the iPod’s screen, and an additional version at 544 x 408 552 x 414. This latter version could be archived on your hard drive or even DVD-R, although at 1GB/hour, you might need a lot of DVD’s to store a big collection!
Personally, I don’t have the time, patience or storage space to convert my DVD collection, so I suppose I will just convert things as I feel the urge to watch them and will probably use the higher resolution unless I have no intention of watching a given video via the TV…
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Cool find, boss. Check your thread in the converter forum for some feedback.
really good job on these entries! just wanted to ask how you transfered these high (above 320×240) resolutions onto the ipod?
Thank you
What do you mean how did I transfer them? Same way you would transfer any videos – by adding them to the library. Itunes will take a lot of file formats. It’s what files will transfer to the iPod that is the question. As long as the files are under 230,400 pixels for MPEG4 (it’s less if you use H.264 Encoding), and the bitrate stays under 768Kbps for H.264 or 2500 for plain MPEG4, then it should transfer…
oh I was using H.264 and it didnt want to transfer, gonna try mpeg4 w/ higher resolutions now. Wanted to try out 528×400 and other resolutions. Yea I know Itunes will take a lot of file formats, it installs quicktime and crap for petes sake
, I was talkin aboit making them work on ipod or rather hope that itunes wants to transfer them to ipod 
Has anyone tried transfering files w/ other programs instead of iTunes? Since iPod can play (decode) much more formats than iTunes lets you transfer.
Thanks!
Nice spreadsheet and commentary. I’ve been looking into this for a friend and managed to draw on a little experience in other formats to produce the following settings -
Mode: MPEG-4 > A-VBR
Bitrate: 210 kbps
Resolution: 320×240 (320 x 180 for 16:9).
Passes: 2
Min Rate: 200
Max Rate: 512
I generally knock the audio back a bit too – 56kbps/24000Hz and it’s not too bad.
Useful settings for very small sizes but acceptable quality ~ 120MB/hr.
NB. Haven’t tested this on the iPod yet but looking at it on my laptop it’s well and truly acceptable.
I BOUGHT THE 30GB IPOD VIDEO AND I WAS WONDERING IF THERE WAS ANY FREEWARE THAT ACTUALLY LETS ME RIP DVDs THAT I HAVE TO PUT ON MY IPOD. IF YOU KNOW OF ANY PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
NM, if you look at my first post about converting stuff for the Video Ipod, (twelveblackcodemonkeys.com/converting_video_for_the_video_ipod.htm) I mention DVD Decryptor, but there are others out there, including Fair Use Wizard.
I have converted two movies to my iPod and a couple five minute video clips. The video quality on all are great but during the full length movies the sound lags about 20 minutes in and is does not match the video for the rest of the movie. This was not a problem for the short video clips. I have tried many settings and have not yet found one that matches the sound and video for long movies. Any suggestions???
Mike, according to the FAQ for Videora, you should set the frame rate at 29.97 and include the following custom FFMPEG flag: -async 1
This solved my issue of audio sync, but I haven’t converted long movies, only 20 and 50-minute TV episodes…
dman, that’s only happened to me when I tried to convert something to 640×480. I’m not sure why it would do this with the resolution that worked fine for me. Are you able to play it in iTunes? The only thing I can think is that there is some additional setting that isn’t working… Try decreasing the resolution a little and see if that helps. And you are using MPEG4 > CBR setting, and not some H.264 setting, right?
I am using the 552×414 setting. I did everything including putting the video on my ipod. When i try to watch it though, the screen is black and then it changes back to the video selection screen. What should i do.
what video files can iPod’s take? i downloaded an episode of Law and Order and it is mpg and also an avi file. they dont seem to work though. what can i do??
Joel, this is what this whole discussion is about. If you look at the specs for the iPod in the manual or Apple’s website, it clearly says what video formats it’s compatible with, but if you’re new to video, basically, it is only compatible with MPEG4 Simple Profile, or MPEG4 H.264. There are other limitations, but as far as the basic format, this is it. These come in the extensions .mov, .mp4, and .m4v. Anything else needs to be converted, and Videora happens to be the one free program still that does this. But there are many, many others, they will just cost you money – mostly anywhere from $20 to $30.
Yes i am using the MPEG4>CBR format. I also tried the 544×408 resolition. Here are my exact settings. MPEG4 > CBR res.= 544×408, 552×414 passes= 1 Birate= 2500 kbps framerate= 29.97 audio= 128 kbps
I have no clue, then. You might try posting to the Videora Forums and see if anyone has any ideas…
Hey ive tried to convert my movies lots of times now, and I get them into iTunes and stuff, but I cant figure out how to turn them into MPEG4 files. When im finished converting them they’re just still quicktime files… My settings are: H264-Cbr (ive tried MPEG4-CBR aswell), resolution: 320×240, Bitrate: 216kbps… help!?
i have tried three settings now using both mpeg and the h one. the movies work fine in itunes but on my ipod all i see is a black screen for about ten seconds then it goes back to the menu. any sugestons?
hi levi, i tried seting the frame rate at 29.97 and typing -async 1 in the custom FFMPEG flag field, but my audio still won’t sync, and i’m only converting a 20-minute downloaded episode of friends. it starts off fine but then the video slowly starts to lag behind the audio as the show progresses until it becomes really bad towards the end. i’ve played around with other profiles, but they all produce the same results. any ideas?
I converted my small video clip on videora but I can’t seem to import it to itunes. I Don’t knwo much about technology.
Les, I’m not sure why they are still Quicktime. The only thing I can think is that you are still looking at the old files as opposed to the new ones? Make sure the files are the ones that are actually being created.
Skee, hve you looked at original file for the episode? Maybe the original episode itself has some synch issues? If not, you might try downloading one of the many programs that convert stuff but cost some money. You can download trial versions for free, though, just to test to see if it’s something that’s solvable? Have you tried other files? I’ve had some videos that seemed to all come from the same source, but from which one of the files didn’t convert, even though it seemed identical to the others, so go figure! I’m no expert at encoding so I can only recommend some general troubleshooting by trying to eliminate potential causes…
Andrew, if you don’t know much about this stuff, Videora probably isn’t the best choice unless you want to spend a lot of time playing around! You might try downloading one of the converters that cost some money – you can get them for a trial period although they either give you a limitation of how long a video you can convert or they put a watermark over the video.
Actually, I should be posting a new entry later today or tomorrow that talks about these other applications and gives a more beginner’s version of this kind of info…
Hey man. Awesome info.
There’s just one thing. What would I use if I want to put my LOTR EE’s onto my iPod and have it fill the screen? I mean I don’t want the widescreen/letterbox effect.
If you could help me, I’d love it.
Hey Levi, Thanks for all the help writing these articles you’ve changed my life! haha, anyway. I finally got video on the ipod, but I didnt like the way it looked, I used mpeg4/320×240 768 and 128 audio or something like that and the dvd was a widescreen so when I played it on the ipod the video looked “squished.” So I played with the settings and read up some more and went with a resolution of 320×180 which made the image look proportionate, however, now it is widescreen and the image size is even smaller then the 2.5 inch ipod screen. I was wondering if there was a setting that would allow me to get a widescreen DVD to take up the fullscreen on the ipod and still look right and not “squished” I switch the widescreen setting on the ipod from on to off and nothing changed…is there anyway to do this? Thank for the help man.
wow i guess i totally missed Magus’ comment which is the same thing i asked just 2 years shorter in length haha, YEAH what he said!
Carlos, it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too!
The problem of course is that the iPod’s screen isn’t widescreen, it’s the standard 4:3 ratio that most TV’s came in until just the last few year (at least here in the U.S.). So, if you want to see the entire image, you HAVE to shrink it and that produces the black bars on the top and bottom of the image. If you want it to take up the whole screen, you either have to squish the dimensions to make it fit (but then as you noticed it will look distorted), or else you don’t squish it but you lose the left and right sides of the image when enlarging the entire thing. It’s hard to explain in words, but you can probably imagine this visually. Anyway, so you won’t see part of the image. One way to do this, I believe, is to just disable “widescreen” in the video settings on the iPod itself. If that doesn’t work, then you will have to make actual crops to the image in Videora, something that I haven’t done myself because I always want to see the entire image, no matter how much smaller that makes it…
t:
“However, if you do want to have a single file for multiple uses – iPod viewing, TV viewing, computer viewing, then choose one of the 544 x 408 552 x 414 resolution ones, again with the higher bit rate (or lower Qscale). I’ve found I can’t really tell the difference between the higher bit rate (lower Qscale) versions. They all look incredibly crisp and clear, with no artifacting. However, the one that seems to come out on top in terms of both a smaller size file as well as a faster conversion is the plain MPEG4>CBR yet again.”
Have fun.
OK, I figured it out! Thanks Levi. But, one more concern. I put pulp fiction on the ipod but since the widescreen isn’t the usual 1.85:1 but 2.35:1 (some of my dvds are even 2.40:1), so it’s even smaller on the ipod screen. I converted it with the usual widescreen profile 320×180 etc. and the screen was squished but horizontally now, not vertically like before. I went back and converted the same file but with my “fullscreen” profile which is mp4 @ 320×240 resolution and it fit fine. Do you know of a setting that would fill most of the screen up (even if it means cutting out some of the left and right sides of the image)? I would try out some of these convertions myself but they take like 4 hours for pulp fiction…I really should start writing down what settings I use for some of these, it gets confusing..well hope you can help. TIA
Carlos, you can’t just rely on the standard profiles in Videora to provide every conceivable aspect ratio. You have to create your own profile if none of these work, and provide the resolution you need. For a 2.35:1 movie, you may have to use MPEG4 and resolution of 705×300, 329×140, or a range of others. For 1:85 you would use 629×340, 333×180, and some others. I’m getting these figures from a program that’s very helpful in figuring out your own resolutions, called Ratio Calcultator:
http://www.1-4a.com/ratiocalculator/index.htm
Levi, on your article (which is great, btw), towards the end, you start to point out what would be the best setting, although they look similar. You said:
“However, the one that seems to come out on top in terms of both a smaller size file as well as a faster conversion.”
But you never mentioned which configuration you mean.
Another thing is that the spreadsheet in both your articles seems to be exactly the same. Is that so? Anyway, thanks a lot! I’ve learned very much in the last 24h (that’s for how long I own my iPod). Cheers from Brazil
Rick, thanks for the heads up! Not sure how I missed that one. I’ve included the extra info for that sentence. As for the spreadsheet, I had a link to the old one! So I’ve changed that as well. Doh!
Wow, that was quick!! I’ll try the CBR settings and see how it goes. Thanks again!
“yo son made this comment, i have tried three settings now using both mpeg and the h one. the movies work fine in itunes but on my ipod all i see is a black screen for about ten seconds then it goes back to the menu. any sugestons?”
I have exactly the same problem and have looked on all the forums on videora for help, but to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks
Karli, and yo son. First of all, Videora seems to have problems with some files no matter what you do. So it could be a video that simply can’t be converted. This has happened to me with some clips I’ve tried to convert. I’ve had much better success with 3GP converter with these troublesome clips. You might want to check out my other entry which includes info on that program and many others:
http://twelveblackcodemonkeys.com/videoipodbasics.htm
Hi Levi, I have used the 552 x 414 resolution to encode several short videos and it looks great! But whenever I try to encode a full length movie, several hours later, it won’t load to iTunes. And when I play the mp4 movie in Quicktime it gives me the error “-2048: this file is not a movie file”. I’ve tried different mp4 modes and movies. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have converted a few files from DVD using Handbrake. They work great on my PowerBook. But they’re not loading into the iPod. Is there a minimum bitrate to transfer? They’re 320×240, H.264, 24fps, bitrate is low like 100-200. What are the actual parameters to avoid?
Jace, if it won’t even load into iTunes it sounds like the conversion isn’t producing a propper file. Maybe Videora can’t handle the source file? Are these videos you’ve ripped yourself from dvd? If you can’t get this to work with Videora, you might try some of the other programs I mention in my newer entry:
http://twelveblackcodemonkeys.com/videoipodbasics. htm
I’ve found Videora just doesn’t seem to like certain source files…
Ridoph, I have not used Handbrake because I don’t have a Mac. As far as I know there is no minimum bit rate, however there may be an issue with your fps, I don’t know. You might try another Mac program out there to see if it might work better – like iSquint.
Levi, I have successfully encoded the dvd decrypter movie files with Videora in the 320×240 resolution. I have even successfully encoded a 600 MB file split block-from dvd decrypter- with the 552×414 and the 528×400 resolutions. But I still can’t get a full length movie to play. Maybe the long, higher resolution files are just too big? Has anyone successfully converted a full length movie dvd dycrypted .VOB to an mp4 in the 552×414 resolution?
i have the ipod video 60gb. I had about 8 videos on it and they were working fine, but i then converted about 15 more videos, added them to the ipod and played them. Video is fine, but when it gets to just passed 30seconds the audio stops on the longer videos(over about 20 minutes).can someone help me with this? thanks
Coly, you have run into a problem with the latest firmware update (1.1 from January 6, 2006). Loading this breaks video playback if the video was converted using anything except iTunes or QuickTime Pro, and I believe Nero Recode. The options you have are:
1) reconvert everything using iTunes ot QuickTime Pro
2) wait for the next firmware update from Apple, which hopefully will solve the issue
3) revert back to the original firmware. The easiest way to do this is to do a restore. If you installed the original software CD you got with your iPod, you will have a program called “iPod Updater 2005-10-12″ – run that and choose the “restore” option. Just note that this will erase all the content that is on your iPod, so be sure you have a backup of it on your computer – if you keep your computer and your iPod synched with the same content, you won’t have to worry, as the next time you plug the iPod in, it will put back everything.
I understand you want to let people have their own mind but maybe my english is not good enough or I just dont have enough tension span to make out everything your saying. So could you please just tell me which resolution you recommend for best tv quality on widescreen and non-widescreen mode?
much thanks, t.
Hi Levi, fantastic articles! Appreciate all the time and work you did in your experimenting all the diferent resolutions…. I’ve only had my 60g video for a couple weeks and my first goal was getting video on there. I use Videora, which is a really good program as you have mentioned… Here is what I have encountered and can’t find much online about it… yet… I tested with DVD Decrypted segments from movies, from full screen, widescreen 1:85 and WS 2:35…. Using a variety of high res settings with MP4 CBR @ 2500kb as test vs. lowered settings or Videora presets, I have noticed that no matter what setting I use, areas in the videos like doors and walls seem to have the wavy, or pastel, or washed swirly quality (like a jpg picture of low res of a blue sky you can see this).. I don’t know what it is called, but I don’t think this is artifacting. I usually term artifacting as pixel blocks that appear during video……. Anyway, objects, people, movement, 3 dimensional things, etc, in the videos all look great but those solid surface items don’t….. Have you or any of your readers seen this and how to correct ?… I can get buy with it, but when you want to the video to look the best it is kind of annoying…. Any info would be appreciated…. Thanks in advance, vince
thanks fot the info levi. Just to clarify, so i do the restore as you say, does this mean that the video will be fine once uploaded onto my ipod again(does the restore mean i will be using the original firmware)?
The video iPods shipped after 10 Jan 2006 have the 1.1 firmware on the disc. So if you bought you iPod recently, like me, you’ll have to use Quicktime Pro’s “export” function to create a file that plays back without pauses.
1. Go to File > Export
2. Set “Export” to “Movie to MPEG-4″
3. Click “Options” button
4. Set “Video Format” to Pass through
5. Select “Audio” from the window dropdown
6. Set “Audio Format” to Pass through
7. Click OK
8. Set “File name:” as desired.
9. Click Save
The resulting file will play on your iPod without pausing.
Im doing the factory restore at the minute on my ipod, was just wondering how long it takes? thanks
Metrocume, that’s only if you have Quicktime Pro, which not everyone does – it’s an additional cost. However, with the latest version of iTunes you can convert video files now as well. I think it uses the same conversion engine as QuickTime Pro.
Coly, it should take that long to restore, but what does take a while is to put all the content back on your iPod – at least if you have a lot. I have 50GB+ and it took a few hours to get all that back on…
are there any sites other than youtube that you can convert off of? Id like to convert movies
With the ipod, is it possible to delete all of my files on itunes and still keep them on my ipod when i connect to the USB?
Levi,
I was so frustrated…and then like a beacon of light, I found this information. Thank you so much for posting your experiments, this is what the internet is all about.
-Jason
Hey,when i convert any video around 10 minutes and up the sound gets off from the video. It gets worse as the program/movie is playing. can anyone give me some helpful hints on how to eliminate this? however it doesnt get off on very low video quality in the 0-2h setting but i just want to increase the resolution but still maintain the matching audio.
have a prob……I just finished transcoding from mpeg to mpeg4 but i dont see the job/video at the queue…..
Hi. I just transfered some videos to my 30gb ipod video. I go to play them (they are downloaded clips) but there is no sound. Why is this? Thanks
HI
Im getting the error message when starting the videora ipod convertor software
THE DYNAMIC LINK LIBRARY MSCOREE.DLL COULD NOT BE FOUND….
Please tell me the solution for this
i have an ipod video 30gb and i recently just download a music video onto my computer and try to put it into my ipod it said converting when it was done there was no video on my ipod… how do i get the videos onto there this time ?
Hi, I have Apollo DVD to iPod software, and I was wondering how I can achieve the BEST quality for watching videos on the tv, through the iPod of course. I don’t care about what it looks like on the ipod, or how long it takes. It seems that the maximum video bitrate on this program is 1500kbps, why is that? I thought iPod could play 2500kbps? Should I use other software? Thanks a lot!!
i have read your articles with great interest. i have been concentrating on the best settings for ipod viewing and for both ipod and tv viewing.
I definitely get great results for the ipod only vieiwng.
I want to try and use the mpeg > cbr, 552 by 414 but it doesnt seem to be an option on res settings within videora 0.91. I think i am being stupid so could put me out of my misery and point out where i am going wrong.
cheers
Hi, your article and responses are very detailed and helpful. I have read through them, but still have a question. I am trying to convert an AVI movie from Limewire to iTunes. I have downloaded the the Videora converter and it gives me several options in the quality profile box. I want to use MPEG 4 quality, but there are several to choose from. There are 11 different quality types that are 320×240 and then some that are MPEG4/Downloaded Video, MPEG4/movie etc..There are not any listed that are higher than 320×240. I am trying to upload the movies onto my 30GB ipod so I can watch them on my TV. I have a 34′ HD, which quality profile do I use for the absolute best quality?? Please help!!!
Joe, you are looking at the predfined profiles that already exist in Videora. You will need to create your own profiles with the resolutions and bit rates that you want in order to customize how you want it to encode something.
Thanks Levi, now I see….it seems as though column AF on your spreadsheet is the best quality I can hope for on my TV. Correct? (>QC-VBR/ 2500kbps/ 544×408 res/ 1 pass)One problem…I can’t seem to get the resolution quality to 544×408. The only choices it gives me is 160×120, 320×180, 320×240, 480×480, 640×272, 640×360, 720×306, 720×320. Do I use Quality Profile MPEG4/Movie 2-2.5 hrs or something different? Should I just use input for framerate? And what do I use for Bitrate and Sample rate for the audio settings? Sorry, I’m new at this, I appreciate all your help!
Joe, you have to physically click in the box and type in the custom resolution you want. For framerate using 29.97 can sometimes help you avoid audio synch issues. Generally I use the highest bitrate possible. For MPEG4 (not H.264), that’s 2500. But if you want to have the video take up less space on your ipod, you can try going lower, just know that it will mean poorer quality video.
OK, I’ve done this part, entered in my created quality profile name, and then pressed the transcode now button. It works for about 2 seconds and says it is complete, but I don’t see my video anywhere. What next ipod idol?
Hey everyone… just thot id add a few things to this already well done article… that i think is pretty valuable.
for starters i have now 4 movies 5 tv shows and about 170 music videos on my ipod. (yea i know i dont have a life lol)
the first program i used which i found very useful was the free trial version of xilisoft video converter. it never expires however the limit of use is that you can only convert 5 minutes, which works pretty good for music video conversion. then i moved on to videora for my longer videos (such as mad tv clips that were 10 minutes)
the good thing about xilisoft was that you could convert the file into practically anything you wanted such as avi, of even from video to mp3. as long as it was under 5 minutes. also, it is VERY fast, sometimes taking 30 seconds to a minute to convert a 4 minute music video.
another very useful program which i encountered was anydvd and copy dvd mobile from slysoft.com using these two programs together allow you to (in a relatively quick time period) convert a dvd straight to ipod format. i prefer to first copy the dvd files to the computer, then convert those files to the ipod format using dvd copy mobile because it goes faster since its not reading the disc. the only problem with these programs is that they arent free and relatively expensive (about 35 each or i think 50 for both).
well i hope that was useful for someone.
Hi everyone,
I am trying to convert an AVI movie to my ipod to play on my 34′ HD television. What settings would be the best for optimal quality? I have heard that H264 is the way to go, but MPEG4 seems to be the ticket on this site. As you can see above, I have tried to transcode a video at the optimal MPEG4 setting per spreadsheet, but it does not transfer onto the ipod. Does anyone know what video mode, resolution, passes, bitrate, audio mode gives highest quality that is transferable to ipod and then to TV? All your help is MUCH appreciated!
It’s somewhat a pain going through your spreadsheet. For conversion of DVDs and TV episodes to be viewed on the iPod screen only, what settings do you recommend?
I’ve converted a couple of large .dat files using Free iPod video Converter (source:jodix.com) and it’s playing fine on the iPod. However, when the video ends, my iPod automatically reboots. This problem does not exist for smaller sized .mpg files converted using the same software.
I don’t know why this is happening. Any pointers would be very helpful.
Thanks.
i have a question that was probably answered already. but, when i convert(using videora) movies, then download them onto my ipod, they are stretched(up and down). can someone give me the settings to put into videora that will make the videos play in widescreen mode on my ipod video? i know it will have the black bars on the top and bottom, but i dont care. please help me. email me with the settings (b20coupe03@hotmail.com), or just leave a message here. thank you.
Hello There,
Can someone plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me converting the videos for the iPod format? I download some freeware softwares but I’m unhappy, Movkit is good but I’m only trying it and trial bases. I also have download Videora but it doens’t get to install damn it. I download the file and when I try install it, it start downloading one more big file which take a while and does stop after 50%, I just haven’t had luck installing the Videora. Please help me and email me about it. Saniya_amiable@yahoo.com
Hi I have a video ipod for a while now and have no problem with converting tv shows and importing them in to itunes however when i try to put larger converted eg. movie itunes will not recognise it although it is in mpeg4 format does anyone know what i am doing wrong?
I used the settings of H264/320×240/256kbps Stereo/96 kbps in Videora and it seemed to work fine. However after I converted about 50 GB of movies and series I noticed some of the videos had this annoying habit: They would play fine for about one minute, stop and then resume with no audio. If I stopped it manually and re-started, same thing. I notice Apple only specifies the Ipod for a 48 KHz Stereo. So I manually created a new profile with 48 KHz audio and will recovert the movies. On the PC it plays fine, I guess it can handle that update rate. Also, strangely, some videos did play OK with the 96 kbps audio rate.
Don, my guess is that this has nothing to do with the setings you are using. The symptom is the same as the one that’s been reported by people who downloaded and installed the new iPod firmware (1.1) for the 5G. If you’ve done this, you might want to try restoring to the old firmware and see if that solves the problem…
Hey.. I’ve just tried to put a music video into my IPOD, which means I have to convert it via i Tunes. But unfortunately, when I converted my videos with Itunes, it doesn’t take its sound from the original piece. So, could anyone plz helppp…
I am trying to update the software on my fifth gen video ipod, and it’s been doing the “restore process” for about an hour now. I’m thinking it should probably take much less time than this, but I have no way of knowing. I’m afraid to reboot my computer or unplug it while this is going on, but since there’s no status bar or anything, I have no idea if it’s hung up or if it is actually doing something. any suggestions?
Levi, nice job on this, I could never understand this stuff… anyway, I’ve been converting videos for a while now, but I just recently got DVD Decrypter which is great. My problem is that after a video reaches the 2 hour mark, the video player (be it real player or the ipod) wont let me fast forward or even resume it from a certain spot. If I fast forward to and hour and 59 minutes into the movie, it still plays, but it wont resume past 2 hours. The ipod will actually crash. Help if you can please.
tried converting videos to ipod format it worked but the files now have no sound!!! HELP!!
Hi
I am having the same problem as a guy above. The video and audio are in sync until about twenty mins in when they separate, and get increasingly distorted until the end. Has anyone found a solution to this?
HE JUST SAID THE ANSWER TO THAT! Set the framerate to 29.97 fps and type in the FFMPEG tag “-async 1″ without the quotes.
To answer the question about audio not working: I found that when I use the DVD Decrypter I have problems too. What I found was that when I would decrypt a DVD I would not specify which audio file to use under the “stream proccessing” tab, or I would leave a few or all of them checked. You can only have one audio track checked. If you check more than one then you will get no sound at all.
HERE IS MY GOAL – I NEED A LITTLE HELP WITH IT.
I want to put videos on my IPOD to view back through the TV. I want best quality…I don’t care about file size as I will rotate videos in and out. When I hook up the IPOD and DVD player to the TV and play from each unit, I want the IPOD to look exactly the same as the DVD. OK, I know I wont get the same quality,thats ok, I just want the best the IPOD can give. I want the picture to be EXACTLY the same. I don’t want any stretching or squeezing to happen that wont keep the aspect ratio. If I see a lamp post at the edge of the screen on the dvd then i want to see it when I play the IPOD. I dont want it cropped or stretched unproportionally. I have spent MANY hours days and months working on this and all I can say I now know alot about video files…yeah… I use DVD Decrypter and Vidoria. OK. I found the resolution settings to keep the same aspect ratio for a 720×480 video. I just cross multiplied 720/480 by an even number/X and got what I needed. Now I heard that the IPOD can’t handle more than 900 macroblocks which I calculate at (horizontal res /16) x (verticle res /16). I found that it works, but not lately. I transcode at mpeg4 CBR, 2500 kbps, 23.976fps(as this is what dvds are recorded as…29.97fps is overkill and the eye cant see more that 24fps.) Well, I havent been able to get resolution settings any higher than 480×320 which calculates to only 600 macroblocks. I tried 540×360 which is about 800 macroblocks and it will load onto itunes and the ipod, but the ipod wont play it. Whats going on? If you can help me I will try to also post a spread sheet of all my successful tests to help everyone else. I see you use 544×408, but that is slightly, ever so slightly, a different aspect ratio than 720×480. Yes 544×408 is 1.333, but that gets complicated with rectangular pixels and I get a little confused with all of that. 720×480 is res on most dvds wide screen or not. Wide screen is still a 720×480 image on most dvds but it is just letterboxed to accomidate the widescreen view. 720/480 = 1.5 and I Want to keep all of my resolution settings at a 1.5 aspect ratio. Help me if you can. Thanx.
I’m an idiot…I had my audio settings at 128kbps which apparently is too much for the ipod. I had no clue it had an audio limit. It plays now! I tinker with it some more and let you know how it goes. What is the maximum for audio rate? If you play the video at less than 2500 kbps does that mean you can increase the kbps of sound?
I ripped one of my dvds with dvd decrypter and I’m now converting it with Videora. I was just wondering how long this second step takes, as it’s been running for quite some time. The VOB file size is 5,717,464. Thanks.
i got the 30gb vpod and converted a dvd movie with decrptor and videora , can some one tell me how much will it take to transfer it onto my vpod and how can i convert a 3 in 1 movie dvd
Josh, Videora can take a long time depending on the settings. I transcode my videos at a high resolution at 2500kbps, 24fps, and two passes with a high priority. I have a fast computer and it still takes 5 or more hours. Transcoding at one pass will significantly reduce the amount of time it will take.
Help! If you read my earlier entries, you will see that I have been doing alot with my video conversion. I have tried multiple res settings such as 582×388, 570×380, 564×376, 576×384, 552×414, 528×400 and many more. All of my settings are 2500kbps, 24 or 30 fps, one pass at MPEG4 CBR. All of my res settings are less than 900 macroblocks or 230,400 pixels. I have only gotten two videos to work. One was all of these same settings at 480×320 and another at 320×240. Whats wrong? Now, this is wierd…I did a test at 2500kbps,23.976fps,one pass at 540×360 WITH 80kbps audio quality-It did not work. I tried another with the same settings at ONLY 80kbps audio and it WORKED!?@!? Ok, I tried playing with the audio on other settings and still, nothing works. All My IPOD does when I hit play is come to a black screen for about 10 seconds then returns to the menu. What’s going on?!?! do I need to update my firmware? HELP before i shoot the stupid IPOD that I love so much!
hey man, i checked the spreadsheet you made and i was just wondering, if im going to watch like a full length movie in the ipod itself what settings should i use for video and audio to get the best quality. nevermind the time it takes or the space. help please!
Hi. Okay, here’s my problem. I’m using Cucusoft to convert – using 320×240. mpg files convert ok, but avi files squish. Then I open the mp4 in Quicktime and change the resolution to 540×320. Plays perfectly in Quicktime, plays perfectly in iTunes (with top & bottom bands though), but shows squished (without bands) when I transfer to the iPod. Setting widescreen on / off on the iPod makes no difference. What gives?
hi i downloded videora and converted a short clip into mpeg format and put it in itunes then i downloaded it onto my ipod. i went on my videos on my ipod and it only plays as a sound it doesnt come up as a video can someone please help! thnx
Hello, I have recently bought an iPod (30G) Video thing, and I’m having trouble with the Video. I am using iTunes as my Converter. I can play the Video without any problems, but I can’t HEAR it.
How do I rip a dvd onto my ipod in one complete section?
Yes i see that 544 x 408 is suppose to be best for T.V viewing but you can’t divide 408 by 16 and get a whole number. Are you sure it will still work.
Everyone is saying that the iPod video can only handle videos that total 230,400 pixels. I have Alive iPod video Converter and it has settings for 720×480 which makes 345,600 pixels. These play great on my iPod and through the AV cable to the T.V – How come this size works when everyone is saying that iPod videos can only handle 230,400 or less?
I have converted some videos tha t i had on my pc into ipod form. When I transfer them into my ipod they endup in the mivie folder not misic videos. Every time the video is over I have to click to play the next video, it doesnt start by itself. What am I doing wrong? Please help, Im so frastrated!!!
we keep trying to convert using videora and we get the sound and a video file that is white and green banding. if we just use the ipod converter, the video works but with no sound. please help. we are computer users, pc, and normally learn these things pretty quickly. your site is very helpful! thank you so much for all of your hard work!
Why aren’t any of these questions being answered?
Steve, and everyone else asking questions: I devoted a lot of time to writing these articles almost a year ago when I was working with this program and testing it out. While I initially tried to answer as many questions as I could, eventually I could not handle the many questions both due to time but also because I wasn’t doing much converting after a while. But wanted them to be posted in case someone else might help, which did happen from time to time. As you might see from the incredibly infrequent blog entries over tha last several months, I’ve been too busy to write much. As I mentioned in my articles, a great place to get help from other people troubleshooting issues is the Videora discussion forums. You might also try the iLounge discussion forums and the Apple forums as well. You can continue to pose your questions here, but chances are you will have a much faster response from more than one person who has dealt with similar issues if you post on one of the forums I mention. Thanks.
hey guys i had a question, i have a few full length movies i wanna put on my ipod, and im using the itunes converter where u just like click it and it converts in itunes. i just wanted to know if there was a MUCH faster way of converting, because itunes is taking like 10-12 hours to do 1, 2 hour movie.
I upload my music on the my ipod using real player (its very friendly and esay to manage). Is it possible to upload videos to my ipod using real player? thanks
when i first tried to put videos onto my ipod, it would only video with no sound. then i used iTunes to convert the video and i got no audio and no video. then i used videora and now i get only sound, no video. how can i get video and audio???
Levi,
I just wanted to thank you for the article. It was really, really helpful.
Seems like a lot of people are looking for some settings that will work. Here’s what I’ve found to work (after having many of the problems people have mentioned including Audio not syncing with video for long movies as well as the Video only working for 10 seconds then stopping):
In Videora iPod Converter click “Setup” and then go to the “Profiles” tab. Click on the “New Profile” Button and then enter the following values depending on the aspect ratio of your original video file:
For Superwide: Mode: MPEG-4 > CBR Bitrate: 768 kbps Resolution: 400×176 (you must actually type this, it isn’t in the pulldown) Framerate: 29.97 fps Passes: One Custom FFMPEG Flags: “-async 1″ (type that in the box without the quotation marks) AVS Script: (empty) Bitrate: 64 kbps Channels: Stereo Sample Rate: Input Volume: 100%
For Medium Widescreen: Mode: MPEG-4 > CBR Bitrate: 768 kbps Resolution: 400×224 (you must actually type this, it isn’t in the pulldown) Framerate: 29.97 fps Passes: One Custom FFMPEG Flags: “-async 1″ (type that in the box without the quotation marks) AVS Script: (empty) Bitrate: 64 kbps Channels: Stereo Sample Rate: Input Volume: 100%
For Regular (will fill your ipod screen with no black bars): Mode: MPEG-4 > CBR Bitrate: 768 kbps Resolution: 400×304 (you must actually type this, it isn’t in the pulldown) Framerate: 29.97 fps Passes: One Custom FFMPEG Flags: “-async 1″ (type that in the box without the quotation marks) AVS Script: (empty) Bitrate: 64 kbps Channels: Stereo Sample Rate: Input Volume: 100%
These settings should produce files for full length movies that will import into iTunes and then onto your iPod. They seem to be a good mix of quality versus filesize. There may be better settings out there, this is just what I’ve had success with.
For those who are having the problem with video only playing back for a short time and then returning to the iPod movies list (or freezing altogether) I would recommend downgrading your iPod version to version 1.0 instead of version 1.1. I did that and it fixed that problem. You can download the iPod Updater from the apple website (be sure to get version 1.0).
I hope this clears things up and helps out some people.
And a huge Thanks to Levi.
YEEAAAHHHHH!!!!!! Finally. Hey every one this guy “dwickham” has got it right on I had tried converting Blow, I got it off Limewire,at least 5 different ways and still had audio/video sync issues until I tried the settings he listed above, it came out perfect thanks to Levi and dwickham
i’ve got the 80gb ipod and am having trouble putting video on it. i’ve followed the steps; got videora, a dvd decryptor, and can put it on itunes in correct format. once there i sync my ipod, i am getting sound on my ipod but no video, just the art work. please help…
Is it normal for the process (using dwickhams “regular” process) for this thing to take 20+ hours?
i cant any videos on my ipod video ive tried almost everything
i am running a factory restore on my ipod, and it doesn’t seem to be making any progress. the “do not disconnect” screen has shown on my ipod for as much as twelve hours before i gave up and unplugged it. i was wondering if i need to request online assistance at this stage.
Ok, I give up. I ripped using DVD Dycrypter to an MP4 file (which is viewable in QT) then converted using suggested settings on the Videora iPod Converter. I’m left with a folder containing only one folder (VIDEO_TS) which contains three files, *IFO, *TXT, and *VOB. I have two questions: 1. How do I get these onto my iPod? 2. Is there a need to have an AUDIO_TS folder like DVDs have as well? The answer’s probably simple but I haven’t been able to find it. Any help would be appreciated.
ok… got a ton of videos ready to lay on the ipod (30gb) no upgrade to the firmware, using xilsoft dvd to ipod on an xp machine… movies play fine in quicktime, itunes but has NO AUDIO on the ipod. please help!
I had converted the video in iTunes and everything and when i try to play it on my 30 GB iPod …there is no audio at all…can u PLEASE HELP ME…!!! this is irritating me.!!!
Hi levi, i have the xilisoft program to convert my music videos to ipod but everytime i convert these there is a lag between the video and the audio of about 2 or 3 seconds. Do you have any tips that I could use. I tried to look on their forums and FAQ’s but I can’t seem to find anything.
THank you
There are a lot of converters now and I like Tunecab, it has many features such as audio conversion, video conversion, extract sound from video, remove DRM, download and convert video from YouTube etc. http://www.tunecab.com