(5 votes, average: 3.4 out of 5)
Loading ...A Beginner’s Guide to Video for the IPod
It seems like everyone and his brother received an iPod for Christmas this holiday season. For the last month, my blog has gotten almost double the number of hits it usually gets, and I’m almost positive this is because of the two articles I wrote (here and here) about the Video iPod. Those articles are long and somewhat technical at times, so for new Video iPod owners they might be a little overwhelming.
Because Apple wasn’t sure how well their new video features would go over, they didn’t put a whole lot of effort into making it easy for people to learn how to put videos on their new toys. They also started with so few titles in their own store, that most people would naturally be quickly seeking ways of getting additional content from elsewhere. Really, all Apple was telling people was to buy an additional piece of software called QuickTime Pro. This has changed recently, but it can still be confusing for new iPod owners who expect to be able to just go home and click on the “put DVD movie on iPod” button. Of course there is no such button and you still can’t do this sort of thing with the ease that you can add a music CD’s to your iPod.
This all gave me the idea to compose yet another article about the Video iPod, but this one would be geared more towards people who were new to the iPod, to the world of digital video, or to both. You may even have some technical expertise, but this article should hopefully at least give you a real run down on what kind of options you have for getting video on your iPod.
I urge you to also read some additionl material that will really reduce your frustrations with your new iPod. Because Apple has a reputation for making things as easy as possible, they often don’t put information about how to do things they deem too “advanced” into the paltry manual that’s included with their product. While this is good for our trees, and perhaps a fair decision considering a lot of people won’t read manuals anyway, it often means that when people do want to do things that aren’t quite basic, they get lost. Well, luckily, there are plenty of places where you can get information online, so I thought I’d mention just a few.
Ilounge.com: this is a great place for information about iPods, an incredibly extensive collection of iPod accessory reviews, and a very active forum of users, some of whom are very knowledgeable (much more than me!) and are very willing to help those new to the iPod.
Apple iPod Yahoo! Group: If you’re more comfortable with an email list than a bulletin board, than the Apple iPod Yahoo! Group has some great information and users willing to help (including myself). One of the resident experts is a guy named Kirk McElhearn, who’s written a number of computer books, including a bunch on the Mac and the iPod.
Apple: Apple has a great support site for the iPod with answers to frequently asked questions, forums, and a special area called iPod 101 which has some great tutorials for beginners which go into a lot more detail then their manual.
But lets get back to Video, shall we? Where to begin? Probably the thing that comes to mind before even thinking about the iPod itself should be “what kind of video am I going to put on my iPod and where will I get it?” It’s a very basic first question that probably most of us don’t think about because we already have a specific source of video in mind. Even so, many people may also be unaware of some other kinds of video that may prove as valuable as the one they did have in mind! There are at least four major places to look for video that I can think of:
Where to Get Video
- DVD’s: the source probably most people think of first is that of their own DVD library. You can’t simply tell iTunes to take your DVD and put it on your iPod. You need additional pieces (or piece) of software.
- Home Video: probably the second most obvious source is video that you’ve shot yourself via a camcorder. You will probably need to convert this into a format that’s compatible with the iPod.
- Online: Not quite as obvious is video you might find on the Internet. Ok, one of these is very obvious (iTunes), but the rest may not be:
- iTunes: the iTunes Music Store (which you can get to only through the iTunes program that came with your iPod) has a growing collection of TV shows ranging from really old ones to currently running ones, all selling at $2 a pop. It even has some free videos - short clips from Saturday Night Live, previews, short featurettes akin to what you might see on a DVD, etc. So far, there are no feature-length movies, but I have no doubt that these will come at some point. None of the iTunes video content require any real additional work other than making the purchase transaction and waiting as your file gets downloaded to your computer.
- File Sharing: there are certainly ways you can download copyrighted material illegally off the Internet. The entertainment industry, as it’s done before, is bungling yet another paradigm shift to online media. The can’t think creatively about how to work with this new world, but instead want to impose their old rules which just don’t work here. Eventually they will catch up, but in the mean time, they are forcing many people to illegally download material because they aren’t providing a legal (or affordable) way to get it legally. While we can all disagree on what should and shouldn’t be legal, I’m not going to suggest that you do anything that is obviously not legal, like downloading a movie that you’ve never paid for legally, and which you could easily do by buying the DVD or even renting it.
- Free Stuff: Why limit yourself (and put yourself in legal jeopardy) by downloading illegal material when there’s plenty of perfectly legal stuff out there? This massive amount of free video can be found primarily as:
- Video Podcasts: if you haven’t heard of “podcasts” you may have been living under a rock for the last year. Podcasts started out as just audio, but now come in video as well. They are basically just audio or video files that are hosted online for people to download. However, they usually are not just isolated single files, but an ongoing “show” that comes out at some regular interval and which you can, with the help of software like iTunes, subscribe to so that they are automatically downloaded and then transferred to your iPod whenever you plug it in. This makes the process of getting new episodes to watch something that doesn’t require any additional work after the initial setup. As I said, iTunes lets you subscribe to podcasts (just choose the “Podcasts” genre within the iTunes Music Store), and there are a bunch of other podcast applications out there as well. While not all of these video podcasts will play on an iPod without conversion, I think more and more are being offered in iPod-compatible formats.
- Public Domain: this content includes old movies and TV shows which have gone into the public domain mainly due to their copyright having run out, although some may have simply been offered to the public domain to start with or as a gift to the public way before the copyright would have expired. You can download these from the site Archive.org. There may be other online sources, but Archive.org is definitely the biggest.
- And More: there are still other sources of free content which aren’t podcasts and also aren’t on Archive.org. These include Google Video (here’s Google’s instructions on downloading video for your iPod) , and various other sources. There are at least a couple of websites that provide an ongoing list of new sources of video specifically made for the iPod which are very helpful: freeipodvideos.org and podguide.tv.
- TiVo: yes, you can take the programs that you’ve recorded on your TiVo and transfer them to your iPod. Currently this isn’t supported by TiVo, although they have stated that they are planning to offer this functionality soon. In the mean time, there’s a third-party application that claims to do this from TVHarmony.com. I tried it, but it seemed to go so slowly that it would have taken many, many hours to convert just a 30-minute video, so something must have been wrong. Whether you use this or an upcoming TiVo product, you still have to get your video from your TiVo box to your computer, and that can sometimes be a slow process depending on what kind of setup you have. If you have a different DVR than a TiVo, in particular one made by a Cable or Satellite provider, chances are you won’t be able to convert video programs on it to your iPod. This may change, but for now you can’t do it as far as I know. Some of these companies have stated that they will be creating the ability to put the video on a portable device, but that device is not the iPod.
Adding Video to your iPod
Ok, so you’ve gotten your video that hopefully is in iPod-compatible format (if not we’ll deal with that later), but now it’s still just on your computer, you need to actually get it onto your iPod. While this is an easy task for anyone who’s owned an iPod before, for new iPod owners it may not be. If you buy videos (or download some of the free ones) off of the iTunes Music Store, then you don’t really need to worry - they are automatically added to your iTunes library and transferred to your iPod the next time you connect it to your computer. The same should hold true if you subscribe to a video podcast via iTunes.
If you’ve gotten a video from somewhere else, though, you will need to add it to your iTunes library. First, open iTunes if its not already open. Then in the File menu, choose “Add File to Library.” This will open up a dialog box that will let you browse through your computer’s file system so that you can locate that video file. Once you find it, select it and hit the Open button, and the file should then appear in your iTunes library.
There are a couple ways to look at your videos. One is via the “Videos” area in the “source” menu on the upper right:
If you don’t see such a menu item, than you may have it turned off in iTunes. To make it visible, Choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click on the “General” tab, which is the first, leftmost tab on the window that comes up, and make sure there’s a checkmark next to “Videos”:
Clicking on the “Videos” in the Source menu brings up a special page with a black background and thumbnail images representing the first second in each of the video clips, their title, and their duration (see screen capture above). Unfortunately, when iTunes displays this page, it needs to look inside each video clip to grab that thumbnail, and so it can take some time, especially if your computer isn’t the fastest and/or you have more than a handful of videos. Personally, I like to use the regular iTunes Library listing. You can see a lot more information, like when the video was added to your library, a rating if you’ve made one for it, comments, etc. However, if you have a ton of music on your iPod, you may not see the video file that you’ve just added right away in your library, let alone others that you’ve added before. A good way to filter your library to only show videos is by activating the search bar in iTunes. You do this by selecting “Show Search Bar” in the edit menu. If you only see the option “Hide Search Bar” that means the search bar is already visible. Here’s what it looks like:
Just click on the “Videos” and you will only see the videos in your library – this is a good way to keep track of these files if you have hundreds or thousands of music or audio book files on your iPod and don’t want to keep scrolling through these to find your videos.
Once these files are listed in your iTunes library, they will be transferred the next time you plug in your iPod. However, if the video isn’t compatible, you will get a warning from iTunes when it’s transferring to the iPod, which brings us to our next subject:
Video Compatibility
The iPod can’t simply play any old video file. Just as you can’t play a tape in a CD player, there are different file “formats” for video, and not all are compatible with the iPod. The iPod will only play a couple of different types of video file formats. They are both types of the file format known as MPEG4. One is called H.264 (also known as “AVC” or “Part 10″), and the other is sometimes just called “MPEG4,” but to be more exact should be called “MPEG4 Simple Profile” or just “MPEG4 SP.” If you look at the actual file, you might see a file extension (a few letters/numbers after the main file name) of “.AVI” or “WMV” or “.MP4″ or “.M4V” or “.MOV.” Only the last three are possibly (but not always) compatible with the iPod. Even if the file is in H.264 or MPEG4 SP, it won’t necessarily play on the iPod. There are some other settings within the video file that may not allow for this.
So how do you deal with this issue of compatibility? First of all, you can avoid it completely by using video content that has been made specifically for the iPod, downloaded from the iPod Music Store, and other places online. If you can’t find video that is already in iPod Format, however, you can actually convert it, which can be easy or hard depending on the tool you use, and perhaps a bit of luck. In order to convert video into an iPod-compatible format from a non-compatible one, you need to use at least one of a number of different programs:
Converting Video
Video clips are a bit more straightforward than convernting DVD’s, so lets go over these first. There are a few free options as well as many that will cost you, but usually not a very large sum.
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Free Options |
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| iTunes | |
| Videora |  Videora iPod Converter is the other free application that until last week was the only option for Windows PC users if you didn’t want to pay to convert.Pros: it’s very flexible, and it’s free. You can tell it how to convert your files in many ways – by the screen dimensions, the frame rate, the quality/size (bit rate), even what kind of audio quality you want along with the video. In addition, you can queue up a series of files you want to convert without having to come back to your computer after each is done. It also can convert files in a much shorter time than iTunes or Quicktime Pro – as low as around 15 minutes or so for a 14-minute video.Cons: the major downside to Videora is that it is not particularly easy to use. It’s free and the people who created it haven’t come out with a new version for over two months. It’s beta software, which means not all the bugs or user interface design issues have been worked out, and while they have a very useful discussion forum, it’s the fellow users who provide the answers, not the programmers, so they can only guess at some things, and of course can’t make fixes to the actual software. There is no real official support. If you are not afraid of spending some time trying to figure things out, it’s perfectly usable, but you will probably have to look through the discussion forums a lot as you run into inevitable problems. I’ve also posted a couple of entries (here and here) myself that go into a fair amount of detail about converting using Videora that might be helpful. |
| ffmpegX |  ffmpegX is a UNIX application that was ported to Mac OSX (which is a varant of UNIX). While it may be more streightforward than the typical UNIX command-line application, it may not be as simple as many other programs made for the Mac. Since I don’t own a Mac, I can’t really speak to how simple this is to use or how well it works, but the engine it uses is used by many of these other converters Windows. If you are a Mac user and have used this, some feedback would be great! |
| iSquint |  Another free Mac converter, iSquint looks like it will give you a lot of recommendations and hand-holding, but still let you tweak settings if you need to. Since I don’t have a Mac, I couldn’t evaluate it directly, but it seems to be the preferred converter out there for Macs. If anyone has used it, feedback would be great |
| 3gp Converter |  3gp Converter is a free Windows program that I don’t think tons of people use or even know about. It apparently is developed by a developer or group of developers in Japan. They don’t have an English language site, but here’s a Google-translated site which you might be able to at least glean a little from. Fortunately the program itself does have different language versions and there’s a simple but good tutuorial on how to use it here. The program itself is very simple. You just drag your video file onto it, and it converts it. It lets you pick a few different options in terms of bit rate settings, that yield a H.264 variations, and one high-quality, high resolution MPEG4 SP version suitable for outputting to TV. It converted all the video files I through at it, but I didn’t test every conceivable file, so their could be ones that it still has problems with. Still, for a free program, there’s no reason not to use this one until (or if) you run into problems.The one problem I did encounter was that it doesn’t seem to be able to format widescreen videos properly. There are no options for dealing with different aspect ratios, so it just stuffs everything into the same standard dimensions, so widescreen movies get squeezed and so look wrong.Maybe a new version will deal with this (the developer seems to come out with a new version somewhat regularly, although the last version was almost two months ago), and looking at their configuration files, one might just be able to change the resolutions there, but that would mean some extra work that detracts from the simplicity of this program.I would say, though, that for programs that are not widescreen, this is by far the easiest program I’ve used, albeit with few ways to customize the output. But if you’re looking for something that requires no learning curve and still gives you more output options than iTunes and does it several times faster, this is probably your best bet. It also happens to be one of only two programs (the other being iTunes) out of all of these (shareware and commercial ones included), that automatically adds the video to your iTunes library. |
| Nero Recode |  I know that a number of people have gotten this Windows application to work, but I could not. Nero Recode is one of the many products within the collection of products branded as Nero. Initially I was confused about this and thought you could only use it if you bought the commercial product called Nero Ultra. That includes Nero Recode, but you can also download Nero Recode for free.In any case, I was able to convert files that would play through iTunes, but no matter how careful I was to customize these according to the settings that I knew would work on the iPod, these videos would not transfer. So, while you might be able to get this to work for you if you work at it, it’s probably not going to be easy for the beginner. It lets you see a lot of information and particularly for DVD conversions (you still need a seperate program to remove a copy-protected DVD’s encryption - see below), it looks like it would be very useful as far as picking a given audio track, subtitles, etc. |
* What does this mean and why would you care? When converting a video file, just like when converting an audio file, you can make the end product smaller (so that you can fit more on your iPod). This size goes hand in hand with the quality of the video and is expressed as a measurement of “bit rate.” The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality and the bigger the file (and the longer the conversion will take to some extent). In addition to how small you make the file itself, you can also change the actual dimensions of the video as seen on the screen. ITunes just converts everything to the exact dimensions of the iPod’s screen, which is 320×240 pixels. In most cases, that’s fine, but if you ever want to be able to show these videos on a TV (or your computer), the small dimensions blown up to a 19″ Monitor or 27″ TV will not look good at all! More ondisplaying your video from your iPod to your TV below.
Of course, you don’t have to go with the free options at all. Even if you are on a budget, most of the options that cost money are only around $30, and hey, you spent $300-400 for that iPod and probably a bunch more for a case and/or some other accessories, right? So what’s another $30 for a program that will do all your video conversion chores? These are all Windows programs - I’ve yet to see any for the Mac that aren’t free except for Quicktime Pro which is now somewhat irrelevant now that iTunes can do the same conversions it can
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The problem really is in choosing the right one of these programs for you. There are a growing number of these programs and probably a lot of similarity between them. I’ve tried out a bunch of these to test them, but haven’t spent nearly the time on them that I have with Videora, so my personal recommendation would actually be to read these micro reviews and then download and try out the ones that sound good to you (or all of them for that matter), since they all have trial versions for free download. Those trial versions have limitations that make them unusable or at least very impractical for anything but testing purposes, but they will give you a good idea about how easy they are to use and how well they work..
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Options at an Added Price |
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| PQDVD |  PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter is the application that I seem to hear mentioned about most online, probably because it also lets you record DVD’s (see below). You can convert many different types of video files with it and specify quality/size (bit rate) settings, dimensions of the screen, whether you want to crop or stretch the image to fill more/less of the iPod’s (or your TV’s) screen, etc. It makes many of these options fairly easy to understand in a graphical, uncluttered way, and the conversion (as with most of these non-free programs), is pretty quick. However, PQDVD doesn’t have quite the flexibility of some of the others. Basically you sacrifice some flexibility for ease-of-use. |
$35 |
| Cucusoft |  Cucusoft iPod Video Converter is more flexible in some ways than PQDVD, as it lets you specify the type of encoding you want to use (similar to Videora). But unlike Videora, it also gives you recommendations for the best choice of settings and also gives you more information about how various settings will affect your final video. Cucusoft also, like Videora, has a batch feature so that you can give it multiple files and then let it run for a long time without the need to come back and tell it to convert each and every one. Unfortunately Cucusoft was the only program of the ones here that I got to work in the first place which didn’t automatically determine the correct dimensions for the widescreen video I fed it, so this means a bit more work in figuring that out for different videos. |
$29 |
| Xilisoft |  Xilisoft iPod Video Converter lets you customize settings, but doesn’t give you much help in this area. There are pull-down lists of possible settings, but many of these have just one option, and so if you don’t like it, you have to type in your own. If you don’t know what you’re doing, this could very easily create files that aren’t compatible in some way with the iPod. So it seems that it doesn’t provide much in the way of ease-of-use. To me, this seems the closest program in some ways to the free Videora, except that it doesn’t allow the user to set up different profiles for different types of convesions, and it costs $30.I attempted to convert a test .avi file (which converted fine on all the other products), but the end result couldn’t even be added to my iTunes library, let alone to the iPod. This was using the default settings for the program. Perhaps I needed to change them, but the point is here that this is not a program for beginners so I’m not sure why anyone would pay $30 for it when a similarly difficult program is available for free. |
$29 |
| ImTOO | I’m not sure which of these programs came first, but it appears that ImTOO is just a rebranding of Xilisoft or visa versa. The prices for each of the conversion programs, the dvd-ripping programs, and the bundles are identical. And if you look at the screenshots of Xilisoft and of ImTOO, and you will see they are also virtually identical! | $29 |
| WinAVI |  WinAVI 3GB/MP4/PSP/iPod Video Converter (maybe they need to come up with a catchier name?) has some interesting features which I’m not sure I’d use, like being able to flip the image upside down and soften it. (What I’d really like to see is something that would increase the brightness of an image since some darker videos are difficult to see if you have a protective screen that produces glare and you’re not in a dark room.)WinAVI lets you control the dimensions of the video and the bit rate settings, although the numbers they use seem not to coincide with what the standard bit rate options are. It will also let you split the output file into multiple files, or merge multiple input files into one output file. I’m not sure what I would use those for, but I know some people have uses for these features. A batch mode also adds to the functionality. |
$25 |
| AVOne |  AVOne iPod Video Converter seems the least polished of any of these programs. First of all, it took much longer to convert the file. It’s batch feature doesn’t seem to work. It has only a few built-in profile setups, and while it lets you create your own profiles with many settings options, it gives you absolutely no help in figuring out what those settings should be. Finally, after a couple of tries of specifying exactly where I wanted my output file to be saved, after converting (which took a lot longer than the other programs), I simply could not locate any output file on my computer. |
$25 |
| Total Video Recorder |  Total Video Recorder is the most expensive converter. It is fairly easy to use and understand, and has a lot of customization features if you want to tweak things. Unfortunately, while it was able to convert some video files, it was unable to convert one that I had downloaded from a digital camcorder. The other programs didn’t have such a problem, except for Videora which also couldn’t convert it. The resulting file when played in iTunes was covered with green and red blocks constantly moving. At first I thought this was feature that prevented one from using a trial version for real use, but after converting another file that wasn’t from my video camera, it played fine in iTunes. I was able to transfer both files to my iPod. So far so good, except when I tried to play either one, not only did the iPod not play the files, but playing them actually caused the iPod to reset! I did not use any special settings for these conversions, so while there may be some ways to avoid these problems, it’s another case of a program that takes a lot of extra work. While I didn’t mind this extra work for a free program like Videora, it seems a bit too much when paying $45! Some people have no problem with this program, so, as I stated at the beginning, you might want to try it out - even though I didn’t get it working doesn’t mean you might not have great luck with it. |
$45 |
Once you convert your video to an iPod-compatible format, you still need to add them to your iTunes library in order to have them transferred to your iPod, so check out the section about doing this above.
ITunes to iPod
As I mentioned above, if your video isn’t compatible with the iPod, it won’t transfer to it even if you’ve been able to add it to iTunes and even if iTunes can play your video. iTunes can play many kinds of video files, but as I’ve detailed above, the iPod has a lot more limitations. However, there does appear to be a problem that some people have run into when trying to transfer video to their iPod even when it is compatible. That problem is in a setting in iTunes that turns off automatic transfers of videos. Some people have suggested that this is actually the default setting, so I would recommend also double-checking that you have this set correctly. You will need to first plug your iPod into your computer, and when your computer recognizes the iPod, choose Preferences from the Edit menu. Then go to the iPod tab, which is the second from the left. Here make sure that the topmost “Automatically update all videos” is selected:
Note that this only applies to those who have their iTunes set to automatically synch their files. If you have it set for manual transfer, then this tab will be disabled. In this case, like with music files, you just have to drag the video file from your iTunes library onto the iPod icon in iTunes in order to transfer a video to it.
For DVD’s, it can be a little more complicated than converting a video clip that you download off the Internet from one of the free sources I’ve mentioned, or via the iTunes Music Store. DVD’s were never meant to be converted or copied. They contain an encryption scheme called CSS (Content Scrambling System) that is supposed to prevent this. Within just a couple of years after DVD’s hit the market, though, CSS was cracked and this crack, known as DeCSS, became widely available on the net both as pure code, as well as parts of numerous programs designed to allow the average user to “decrypt” their DVD’s. Depending on which country you live in, these programs may or may not be legal to use. The whole issue of legality is very confusing. On the one hand, in the U.S., “fair use” seems to dictate that one should be able to freely make backup copies of a DVD you own for personal use. On the other hand, part of the Digital Milenium Copyright Act specifically forbids compromising the copy-protection for a DVD. There are numerous court cases that are trying to determine exactly what is legal and what isn’t, but in the mean time, such programs are available and being used ubiquitously, making things that much more uncertain.
In any case, in order to put your DVD’s into an iPod compatible format, you will need to transfer the file to your hard drive, remove the encryption, and then finally convert it to a format that’s compatible with the iPod. This can require one or two different programs depending on what kind of functional is included. Again, there are both free ones and ones that have a price tag:
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Free Options |
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| DVD Decryptor |  The developers of this Windows application were forced to remove it and they were eventually bought by Macrovision. One can find the application on the net, but it’s legality is in question. It will allow you to break the encoding of a DVD and transfer it to your hard drive, after which various conversion applications can be used to make it iPod-compatible. Videora has a tutorial on their site on how to use it to create the inital file. Be forwarned, though, this is not a program designed with ease-of-use in mind. |
$0 |
| DVDFab Decryptor |  DVDFab Decrypter is another program that’s similar to DVD DecrypterThis is another program similar to DVD Decryptor but with a simpler infterface. It copies the files from the DVD to one’s hard drive and removes the encryption in the process. Just note that it, like DVD Decrypter, will not create a file that is iPod compatible. You will still need to convert it using one of the programs listed above. |
$0 |
| Fair Use Wizard LE |  This Windows application takes a slightly more user-friendly approach than DVD Decrypter, guding you through the process of converting your DVD a little more. But it’s also different in that it doesn’t just decrypt, but decrypts and converts to an xVid format video file. This process itseld could take a couple of hours, and then on top of this you will have to reconvert it to an iPod-compatible format. The same site has a $20 program that will supposedly convert to iPod-compatible formats (see below). |
$0 |
| HandBrake |  HandBrake is the one free Mac option that will remove the encryption on a DVD and save the resulting file to your hard drive. Since I don’t own a Mac, I couldn’t evaluate this myself, but if anyone does own this, feedback would be great. |
$0 |
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Options at an Added Price |
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| AnyDVD |  This Windows Application will remove the encryption from a DVD, after which you will need another program to convert it to an iPod-compatible format. At first I thought it might be more of a wizard than DVD Decrypter, but really what it’s meant to do is to do the decryption transparently. That way you can tell a conversion program to look at one of the files on the DVD itself, or maybe you still need to copy it to your hard drive, but the decryption happens as you copy. The problem is that there’s no good way of figuring out what files are for what on the DVD. Sure some may be simple if there’s only one file or a few with similar names, but that’s not always the case. For some movies, you have many files each representing a different chapter. On DVD’s of TV episodes, you can have one or more files representing each episode |
$39 |
| PQDVD | Yes, I already mentioned PQDVD above, but it also will let you convert DVD’s. However, I’m not sure if it actually removes the encryption from DVD’s like some of these other programs, but rather streams the dvd video at faster than normal speed and somehow “captures” it and converts it on the fly. You will actually see the DVD playing while it’s converting. I’m not sure if I was simply doing something wrong or if my system did not have enough free memory or processor speed, but while it did convert a small clip for me successfully, when I played it back both in iTunes as well as on my iPod, the audio was badly distorted. |
$35 |
| Cucusoft | Cucusoft also makes a DVD to iPod Converter for Windows which seems to work very similarly to PQDVD, but gives the advanced user more access to custom settings. Of course many of these settings will be meaningless if you are at all a beginner at this stuff. I also experienced the same audio distorions with this product as with PQDVD, so chances are it’s a problem with audio on my computer. The other thing I could not figure out with this program was how to limit the program to just a specified length of time. This would be helpful for recording a bunch of TV episodes on a DVD into seperate files (especially if these are not seperated into seperate files on the DVD), but it doesn’t seem like there’s any easy way to do this here, whereas in PQDVD, one can scroll through to find exactly where one episode ends and another begins, and then you can specify when you want the start of the recording and the end to be. |
$30 |
| Xilisoft |  Xilisoft makes a DVD to iPod Converter for Windows as well, and it seems to work in a similar way as the previous two. Unfortunately I could not get it to work at all. Others I know have been able to get it to work, and I know there have been some complaints concerning audio syncing. But without even being able to record anything myself, it’s impossible for me to say much about this tool. |
$29 |
| Fair Use Wizard | Fair Use Wizard also offers a “Full Edition” that provides some additional features. Whether those features are worth it, I’m not sure, and there’s no way to try them out, since the Lite edition is the only one you can download from their site without actually paying. However, from what I can tell from the Lite Edition, it has some option for iPod Video, so it might be useful as an all-in-one DVD conversion tool. |
$20 |
| Total Video Recorder | Total Video Recorder also has a DVD recording facility that works somewhat like PQDVD and CUCUSoft, except that it doesn’t actually play the DVD while recording, at least not in a way that’s visible to you. It offers a good deal of flexibility and it’s pretty easy and straightforward. Unlike PQDVD and CUCUSoft, when I played the sample I had recorded in iTunes, there were no problems with the audio. This could have just been a fluke, but it was still very promising. Then I transferred the video over to my iPod and started to play it. The same thing happened as with the non-DVD video clips I had converted with this same program - when starting to play the file, my iPod would reset itself. Not good! Again, maybe I was doing something wrong, or I wasn’t setting something in the right way, but for a $45 program, I really don’t think it should be reseting my iPod unless I really screw with the settings in a very creative way! |
$45 |
| DVDFab Express, Gold, Platinum | DVDFab Decryptor is a free program, but the same developer has made several other versions that have various other capabilities which may be useful for some people, but aren’t necessary to get one’s DVD video onto an iPod. Still, if these extra features appeal to you and you can afford the price, than it might be a good option. I chose not to try these out myself since I successfully tested the free version and can’t imagine these would be that different. |
$40-60 |
One other issue that I alluded to above is that you can actually take your iPod to a friend’s house (or on vacation, or on a business trip, etc., etc.) and play a video for them not just on the iPod’s screen, but on a TV that you hook your iPod to in the same way that you would hook your DVD player to your TV. Unfortunately the iPod can’t do this “out of the box” but instead requires the purchase of an additional cable. Apple sells one for $30, although you can get it for a lot cheaper at Amazon.com or even cheaper at Handhelditems.com and a retractable one to boot.
Because the iPod screen is so small, the standard iPod-compatible video is pretty small in resolution – 320×240 pixels. When this tiny image is then blown up to fit a much larger screen, everything gets that much fuzzier. In order to avoid this, you can convert the video in such a way that the resolution is higher, and some of the applications I’ve listed will actually guide you with the words “TV.” However, not all programs let you do this, even if you do it yourself with customized settings. If you convert something to a higher resolution for this type of usage, it will come at the price of added conversion time and storage space, and you won’t be able to convert to just any resolution - at some point you also bump up against a limitation of what the iPod can handle, so you will never get, for example, a DVD-quality video image played from your iPod to a TV. It may look very good, and you might not even be able to tell the difference on a small TV (19″ or smaller) between a video played through your iPod and one from a DVD player. Still, for anything bigger than a 19″ set, the picture will be inferior. And compared to a true high definition picture, forget it! If you do want to convert to higher resolutions, I would recommend taking a look at the two entries (here and here) I posted about converting with Videora. Whether you use Videora or not, these will at least give you some ideas about what issues to look for.
Final Notes
When Apple came out with the Video iPod back in late September of last year, they did it very tentatively – at least as far as video was concerned. They provided only a handful of TV series in their iTunes Music Store, and in order to make other sources of video play on the iPod, Apple would only tell you that you needed to purchase their QuickTime Pro at $30 additional charge. As you can see, in the proceeding three and a half months, a slew of new content has come out both within the iTunes Music Store and on the net in free form. In addition, many companies have been developing programs that make getting your videos onto your iPod. It’s still a little confusing for the average consumer, though, but if the progress during these first few months is any indication, things should get easier and easier, sooner rather than later. In the mean time, I hope this guide has helped some of you get your mind around the various tasks, options, and concepts concerning getting video onto your iPod.
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January 20th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Man for some reason i cant listen to my videos. Its sickening me, I can watch them but i cant listen to them. What should i do or what can i do?
January 20th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Luis, you never said which application(s) you are trying to use to convert your videos. Since there are more than one free tools out there, and a bunch that have trial versions, maybe you should try some others and see if they will work?
January 22nd, 2006 at 2:54 pm
ok, so i think ive decrypted the dvd i want using the free version of dvdfab, i go to the “add file to libray” option on itunes i select the file, i press open aaaaaannnnnnndd… nothing, nothing happens what is going on?
January 22nd, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Peter, apparently I didn’t make it clear enough in my description of DVDFab Decrypter (which I’ve since added a bit more to), but using this program only decrypts the dvd (removes it’s copy-protection encryption). You still need to take that file and convert it into something iPod-compatible (using one of the programs I’ve listed) before you can add it to your iTunes library and transfer it to your iPod… Sorry for the confusion!
January 23rd, 2006 at 6:39 pm
The problem I’m having is when I’ve finally got the video I want onto the Ipod itself: I’ve used ImToo to convert to the correct file format, used iTunes to get it onto the Ipod by drag & drop method, but once unplugged and Ipodding it, the video sound plays, but the video itself is displayed as a thumbnail with its title next to it in the viewing pane - no moving picture. Even the time continues to elapse at the bottom of the pane, volume for sound can be altered yet no freakin’ film to watch. I thought at first this may be a setting I could change on the Ipod itself, but it ain’t. Where am I going wrong??
Separate point: On ITunes, when I go into Edit>Preferences>Ipod>Video, its all greyed out, and you can see that the ‘Do not udate videos’ radio button is ticked, but you can’t alter anything. I have the latest version of Itunes so I know its not that, but if you can shed any light on these issues I (and probably many others) would be very grateful.
January 23rd, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Joeski, I had a similar issue with a home video clip using Videora, it just wouldn’t convert it. As it turns out, some of the other converters don’t have a problem with it. It could very well be that there is some setting that is causing the problem, but there could be other things about the source file that the converter is having problems with. You could try experimenting with a lot of different setting combinations, but when I tried this with Videora it didn’t really help. It just wouldn’t convert no matter what setting combo I tried. So, what I would probably do is at least download some of these other programs and try converting the clip in these other applications. Most have trials that will convert at least a small portion or the whole thing but with a watermark. And of course some programs are just free, as I’ve noted above.
On your second point, when you do this, do you have your iPod connected? As I mentioned in the article, it has to be connected to your computer while you access the settings for it or else it will be greyed out.
January 24th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
I had a look on the Apple websitetoday and it turns out that problem #1 as noted above is actually quite easy to sort out - there is a setting for TV Out in Video Settings on the Ipod itself which if selected as ‘on’ will not display picture, only sound. This can be remedied by turning this function to ‘Off’ or ‘Ask’. Although I now have a new problem(!) which is that when I update my Ipod using Anapod Explorer, the video files I put on there seem to ‘disappear’, although I don’t think they’ve been erased as the Gb space ratio would change to reflect this, but it doesn’t. It’s beginning to drive me insane.
With regards to problem #2 - yes, my Ipod is connected but the settings still appear greyed out. Not sure why this is. Any possibility of there being a problem of both iTunes and Anapod Explorer being installed on the same PC?
January 24th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Joesky, great comment! I hadn’t thought about that setting, which probably could be throwing some people off.
As far as your second issue, when you connect your iPod, you shouuld see several subtabs under the iPod tab. If all of these tabs are greyed out, I’m not sure what to tell you. Have you looked for that issue on the Apple site as well?
January 25th, 2006 at 6:59 am
Downloaded the trial version of Cucusoft dvd ipod converter and seems to work well aprat from the auido seems slightly out of sink with the images - any clues remedies ?
January 25th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Ed, on my machine, as I noted, the audio was getting all messed up, so I couldn’t tell really whether it was in sync or not. What I do know is that with Videora, a remedy that has worked with me is to use a custom flag and specifically tell it to use 29.97 frames per second (the default setting just tries to determine it automatically, and so maybe just rounds up to 30fps, thus slowly making the video more and more out of sync with the audio?). I can’t recall now whether you can specify the frame rate in Cucusoft, but that may be something you want to take a look at. The “custom ffmegx flag” I use in Videora is “-async 1″ but I’m again unsure whether this is something you can manually set in Cucusoft…
January 25th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Handbrake is great. I’ve been using Decrypter and Videora to convert my movies for Ipod with no problem. What I’ve learned the last couple of months is that most of the problems people have with converting for the Ipod is not reading the directions for these programs. They work great but you have to take a minute or two to actually learn how to use them. I tried Handbrake today on a MAC and was highly, highly impressed. Unlike Decrypter and Videora, handbrake does the ripping and compressing all in one, in about the exact time frame as the other two. Right now it takes me about 2 hours exact to rip and convert a CD with Decrypter and Videora. With handbrake, you put in your DVD, check your settings, hit Rip, and when it’s done you have file ready to transfer with ITUNes to your Ipod. Oh yeah, it even does cropping for you so that you have widescreen without the black lines, and the picture takes up all the Ipod screen real estate. Thanks for your guide, I’ve learned a lot from reading your program comparisons. For PC, in my opinion, Videora and Decrypter are the best. For Mac, handbrake is the best. Now if they make handbrake for PC, forget about it, Handbrake would win by a landslide. There’s also FFMPEG but I haven’t tried that program yet.
January 26th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Thanks for the info on Handbrake. It sounds good except that I dont necessarily WANT cropping of widescreen images, even with the iPod’s small screen - I don’t want to miss things on the sides, and this is even worse than pan & scan (how widescreen movies are converted to ‘full-screen’ for dvd’s), because the cropping is indescriminate, whereas with P&S at least they are trying to make intelligent choices about which part of the image is the most important. Is there any way to turn this cropping off and have HandBrake actually give you the full widescreen image?
January 26th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Yes, you can turn off the cropping and have Handbrake give you the full widescreen image. The program gives you many options in the picture setting tab. The only problem with Handbrake is that it might have some problems ripping copyprotected DVD’s. For this reason, most folks are pointing me to the FFMPEG program which is suppose to be superior. However, let me tell you that the Handbrake file I ripped, looked a whole lot better then my Videora file. Don’t know why, it just does. LOL!
January 28th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Hey, great article dude. Thanks
January 28th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
do I need a special AV cable or can I use the Apple ibook AV cable. The video on my ipod appears encrypted now- wavy lines and lateral interference. Monster AV cable doesn’t work at all.
January 29th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
If you mean an AV cable to connect the iPod to the television, all you need is the regular audio/video red/yellow/white cable. The red acts as the video. This is a secret that many folks don’t know about. They spend money on the Apple AV cables not knowing that the regular AV cables will work fine. I got this tip from lifehacker. LOL!
January 29th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
El tiburon is correct. You don’t need the iPod A/V cable. If you have something similar but that’s made for another device (but with the same 1/8″ male mini plug on one end to fit into the iPod and the three male RCA plugs (for left and right audio and video) on the other end to fit into your TV, then that should work, but as El tiburon says, you will need to use the red for video and the yellow for right audio for this to work.
January 29th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
I am havign problems chanign the video settings on my ipod. When i go into ipod opptions in itunes the tabis stuck on ‘do not update video’s’ and i cannot unclick it and click the other tab, it is liek the screen is locked. How can i obvercome this porblem?
January 29th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Hello, I am quite new to the whole video Ipod thing, I have put my videos and such on my ipod and when I go to play them on the ipod the video will play for about 15 seconds and then freeze up for a bit and when it unfreezes there will be the video and no sound. Also the sound will not meet up with the person talking. Thanks.
January 29th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Matt, 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, you will have a program called “iPod Updater 2005-10-12″ - choose that and 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.
Whatever you do, good luck, Apple screwed up this one! Hopefully it wasn’t intentional
January 29th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Hey its me again, I used videora. How would I convert my videos with Itunes? I would be willing to try and do it that way. Also I have another ques. can i put videos that i dvd2one them. If it is at all possible can you please go on AIM so I can get a little help person to person?
January 30th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
when i put videos on my ipod i get great pic quality but no sound any ideas anyone
January 31st, 2006 at 9:45 am
Arun, I did a bit of digging and found that the video tab is only accessible if you have your iPod set to automatically synch files. Apparently you have it set to do manual transfers, so in this case you just need to drag the video files from your iTunes library onto the iPod icon in iTunes, as you would do with music tracks. I’ve updated the info in the article about this, but let us know if you still continue to have problems…
January 31st, 2006 at 11:53 am
Thanks for the tip, i did what ou said and it worked.
However i cant put video’s onto itunes. When i drag an mpg video onto the video’s section it shows the plus sign as if i can add it but it does not add the video to itunes or the ipod?
January 31st, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Arun, did you try it the way I described in the article - file > add files to library ? Try that. If that doesn’t work, make sure the file you are adding is compatible. It should have an extension of MP4, M4v, or MOV. Otherwise it will not play (or probably even be transferrable) to the iPod. You might also try downloading a video from the iTunes Music store. They have free ones. This way, you can test it out on a file that you know you can get into iTunes and one that you know is iPod-compatible.
January 31st, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Hi I was wondering if you had made any progress witht he question i asked.
I have turned on video’s on my actual ipod settings but when I connect my ipod to the computer and use itunes to go into ‘ipod options’ and click the ‘video’ tab I cannot deselect the ‘do not update video’s’ tab and select one of the other options.
January 31st, 2006 at 6:38 pm
dean- “when i put videos on my ipod i get great pic quality but no sound any ideas anyone” Same problem here! Levi do you know how to solve this? I tried the video file before putting it through videoara then when i get the converted copy there is no sound when its in itunes!
February 3rd, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Hey I have the same problem as Dean. Could it be that we are converting .mpg files using iTunes “Convert Selection for iPod”? The video is great but there’s no audio.
Thanks for all your great tips. This site has helped solve lots of issues!
February 9th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
I used iTunes to convert my video, and I too am getting a great video, but no sound. The files in MPEG-4 video format too, so what can I do?
February 17th, 2006 at 10:29 am
I bought Cucusoft’s DVD to iPOD suite, converted a DVD, added it to my iTunes library, and then added it to my iPOD. When I go to “Videos” on the iPOD however, it does not show up. Am I looking in the wrong place? Thanks!
February 17th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Has anyone figured out why there is no sound when converting MPEG1 or MPEG4 in ITUnes????
I have the same problem.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:29 am
Chris. Are you sure you have the ‘Automatically Update All Videos’ checked on your i-Pod settings? Also, don’t add video directly to your library. Create a playlist and drag it there. Happy viewing.
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:25 am
Instead of the DVD Decryptor can you use Shrink 3.2? I think this is by far the best one I have ever used.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:48 pm
I have the same no sound problem. I’ve copied a .mpg file from a music cd - run it thru QT 7 - when I look at the file description it says there is no sound with the original movie. I have no problems playing the file on my iBook thru’ QT or iTunes. This defines the problem but doesn’t explain it - any help appreciated.
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:47 pm
I answered my own question (2 spots up)… you can use DVD shrink, then Videora to add DVD Video to your ipod… REAL EASY!
The only issue I have is the DVD is made in several different files (apx 7)
Is there a way to put it all in 1 file so you can scroll through the dvd menues? or scene selection? or just to have the movie in one file instead of several parts?
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Thank you for writing this, but i have a question. How come sometimes when i convert a video, the sound is off from the video? The video and sound are fine before I convert them, but they are off after. What shold i do?
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:52 pm
what i mean is that i see their mouthes moving but the audio is not correctly lined up with the video, what should i do??
February 25th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
This audio issue is happening to me to; I am using Videora - does it happen with other applications?
March 1st, 2006 at 9:28 am
Great stuff!
I’we tried many Ipod video converters, and the ones I like the most, is:
Cucusoft Ipod Video Converter and ImToo Video converter.
But of course I have trouble with both of them. Cucusoft I am unable to input custom resolution to the video. And with ImTOO i get 0.5 - 1sec audio delay 30 min out in the movie.
If I encode a movie with 48000kHz, or 44100kHz the Itunes wont let me transfer the files to the iPod… whats up with that?
I need to cut the sampling fequency in half (22500kHz and 24000kHz) But, as I said… ImToo gives me some video/audio sync issues.
Richard
March 1st, 2006 at 9:30 am
Basicly the same problem as Linda and John
Richard
March 1st, 2006 at 7:35 pm
I figured it out!
When converting Xvid video @ 23.98fps, I needed to set the converter program to 29.97fps.. dont ask me why.. but it works!
March 1st, 2006 at 10:07 pm
This page has info on tweaking 3GP_Converter to support widescreen videos.
http://www.drewery.net/blog/2006/01/13/getting-video-on-to-the-ipod/
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:55 am
Thanks for your info. how can convert m4v files (music videos from i-tunes) to make a dvd?
March 5th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
can anyone tell me how to convert video using quicktime 7 pro on windows
i can’t even get the dvd to play on quicktime ,so obviously i cant convert it, it would be great if someone could help me out
March 7th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Hi I need help… I recetly decided to convert my movies w/ videora ipod converter. ..and I imported two movies and had no problem. …now here is my problem. I recorded several tv shows using windows media center. and I wanted to convert these files so that i can play them in my ipod. I could see the show, but there is no audio. for the movies i used dvd decrypter and videora converter. for the other files i just used videora …any suggestions as to what may me the problem???
March 8th, 2006 at 10:30 am
hello. i have problem with the codes and stuff with videora.
a problem with the audio video sync issue./
i could not understand anything
March 9th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
I have no idea why, but i can’t get this av/cable to work on my any tv. yes… i have an ipod video or i wouldn’t be watching the videos. i tried the red for the video, doesn’t work, the yellow doesn’t work. what am i doing wrong. send the info to my e-mail please.
March 12th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I’ve the same problem as Kevin way up. How do you get all the seperate files into one?
March 13th, 2006 at 1:58 am
Levi, thanks for your very useful notes. I have had problems with 3gp Converter - it converted all the video files I tried, but the sound was out of synch in most of them. The best programme I have found is Free iPod Video Converter at http://www.jodix.com - it is simple to use, reasonably fast, reliable, and allows batch conversion of many files at the same time. So far as I can detect, it does not contain any malware.
March 13th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Frank, I’ve occasionaly had audio synch issues with 3GP, although it has worked better than Videora in that regard. Thanks for the heads up on the other application, I will have to take a look at it…
March 14th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
I have converter videos using videora, but when i click to add file to my library in Itunes, it won’t do anything at all. And all my preferences that i checked are correct also, any suggestions?
March 24th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Hey I really appreciate all the info you provided! It helped me convert all of my downloaded movies/music videos and they display perfectly on my Ipod.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:31 am
I have used dvd decrypter and 3gp converter. I added the larger of the two files the decrypter gave and drag and dropped it into 3gp. 3gp has reached 100% but is still processing. It was a 3.5 GB file. Is this normal and should I just be patient. Also is there a good program for converting vcd to ipod format, 3gp does not seam to convert these.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Hey I have a question with the 30 GB video ipod i just purchased. I downloaded some tv shows and music videos from limewire and converted them to the necessary format using Videora. The files converted flawlessly, but when I go to add the files to my library, absolutely nothing happens. Does anyone know why this is happening? It’s the most frustrating thing!
Thanks, Anam
March 26th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Hey Im having the same problem as Luis, I convert the videos I have on my computer using the iTunes convert for ipod option and the video plays but I get no audio. WTF mate?
March 26th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
I came across the same apparent problem as Joeski: On ITunes, when I go into Edit>Preferences>Ipod>Video, its all greyed out, and you can see that the ‘Do not update videos’ radio button is ticked, but you can’t alter anything. I have the latest version of Itunes so I know its not that.
What’s happening here is the option of Manual Updates is on under Music and this is tied with Video, you need Automatic Updates on for Music to get this option in Video. You can still drag Video files in manually as long as they are compatible which all the tools pointed out here can help you out with, KUDOS!
March 30th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I tried to figure this out on my own, but must admit ignorance. Where is the setting in videora to change 23.98 to 29.97? I need paths for dummies or something, I looked under every option (I thought).
Thank you very much in advance.
March 30th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
A big thanks =)
April 1st, 2006 at 4:05 pm
I bought a video from iTunes and i get no video on my ipod. The video file is there but i just get sound and no picture, the screen looks like it does when I’m playing a music file. How do I make it show the video?!?!?!?
April 4th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Hi! thanks for a great article! i got a problem when ive converted my movie files to mp4 and whant to see them in my ipod they dosnt start no sound no image at all just black! and after a few second it goes back to the previous meny! is it anyone that knows whats wrong and that could help me?
April 15th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
ive used al but the nero converter and all seem to have problems with the sound being delayed. Free iPod Video Converter at http://www.jodix.com i tried and when i would try to convert it gives me an error.
April 19th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Hi,
I’m having a problem transfering movie files to itunes. The files converted flawlessly, but when I go to add the files to my library, absolutely nothing happens. Does anyone know why this is happening? It’s driving me crazy.
Thanks.
April 21st, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Hi there. . . thanks for the great articles. Very informative for the iPod novice. I do have a question though, which doesn’t seem to be covered anywhere else, and it is this: When I use Cucusoft DVD to iPod converter on a 2.35:1 ratio film the resulting MP4 file comes out very long and thin. To get a file even approximately the right ratio I have to set the output resolution to 320×260pixels, not 320×240. Any idea why? I’m stumped! Thanks in advance- Jim je007c9914@blueyonder.co.uk
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:11 am
Thanks for the info was relli helpful…Jus wondering if anyone else on Mac is using HandBrake..im using it at the moment and im not sure if its workon fast enough its managing around 6 -7 fps at its best times an taking upto 7 hours to rip a 1.30hr DVD is trhis right…. Props on the info
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:42 am
Iv jus had another problem after ripping a DVD ointo my comp which took 11 hours!!! it came up in grey..im sue i left grey scale unticked what could be wrong.
note was using HandBrake
April 27th, 2006 at 2:10 am
how do u change the settings in videora to make the sound and picture in sync ?
April 29th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Ok…I have used DVDFab to download my DVD onto my hard drive. I know I need to convert the DVD file to an ipod compatible file. (I plan on using videora). But which file do I convert???? There are a whole bunch of VTS.IFO, VTS.BUP, VTS.VOB files, and not to mention the audio files. Which file do I tell videora to convert? I’m sorry if this is a dumb question. Thanks.
May 1st, 2006 at 10:11 pm
How do I put the video files I download on limewire into videora ipod convertor? PLLLLEEEAAASEE help i’ve tried everywhere else and heard you’re the best!
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:36 am
I am baffled. I have a brand new 60 gig ipod and have transferred all my contents of itunes to ipod including two series of tv shows. The problem is I just bought the 4th season of alias and downloaded it to ITUNES without a hitch but when I try to automatically or manually transfer it to my IPOD it does not “accept” the transfer. Does any one have any reasons why or better yet what I can do? I still have a lot of open space on the IPOD. thanks tm
May 4th, 2006 at 10:42 am
hey….I am sure you get this question alot, but I download my videos from Limewire. Then I drag them into iTunes and let iTunes convert them. Everything goes fine and the videos are put onto my iPod just fine, but the problem is when I go to watch them….their is no sound. They play great, but their is no sound. I tried using Videora iPod Converter, but I have no idea what I am doing, but I think it just did the same thing. What should I do?
May 15th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Hello, thanks for the guide. I have been using DVD Decrypter and Videora, and they work perfectly except for one thing. The first time I did the whole thing my file turned out to be nothing, in fact, so I changed the profile things in the setup(they are H2something, MPEG4-Movie(0-2h), etc. I changed it to MPEG-Movie(0-2h), as my movie was Final Fantasy VII:Advent Children. It worked fine after that, and it transferred to my itunes and ipod with no trouble. I then proceeded to do the same thing with Black Hawk Down, and I changed the profile to 2.5-3h(it actually is less than that, but I didn’t know), and it worked. But, after that when I tried to do a movie(Braveheart), it would just not continue after it got to 100 percent. It would say that it was still processing, but it wouldn’t start the next pass. I then decided to give it a rest, and I went to sleep. In the morning, I saw that it was done. But, when I attempted to put it in iTunes, it wouldn’t go. Then I decided to play it on its own, and it said that it wasn’t a movie file. Now every movie I have done since then has done the same thing, including the stopping at 100. I am thinking that this is due to the profile change I made. Which profile works?
May 19th, 2006 at 12:12 am
I currently have a QuickTime movie file in iTune, but i just don’t understand why it won’t import it into my ipod. I mean I already set the setting to Automatically update all videos and it still wouldn’t work. Any reason why?? I can play the file in iTune, and the size of the file is 1.21GB. Please help, thanks!
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Hey there! I’ve been trying to get video’s onto my ipod for a long time, and my video’s are on my playlist, but when i update my ipod, they don’t show up on my ipod….Why is that? It would be great if you could find out for me! Thank you!!!
~Rose~
June 4th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Hi, the guide is great, but I’m having a problem viewing my video. I bought the video from Itunes, and manually dragged it over to my IPOD but when I try to play it all I can see is the little picture of what the front of the tape would look like. I can hear sound I just can’t get the movie to actually play
June 10th, 2006 at 11:02 am
I have a 3g movie that copied to my computers Hard drive, using videora, the complete movie plays fine on the computer. The problem is it won’t transfer to itunes, i have done….quote all the sure ways i could find on the net nothing has worked….any suggestions. I would like to tranfer it to my ipod.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
I downloaded the DvdFab decryptor, and when I press the Start button a message comes up warning me that all files in the selected destination will be deleted and asks if I want to proceed. I’m guessing that’s a bad thing; does anyone know what that means/what do to about it?
June 30th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
i’m comberting some concerts music videos and is doing a great job; but when it comberts the video it separates it into the diferent tracks, so i have to start each track manually. is there a way of keeping the tracks running consecutive. . . thanks
July 3rd, 2006 at 3:10 pm
hey i have a question is there any program out there that it can possibly can covert my normal ipod with pictures to an ipod video instead of buyin the ipod video??
July 6th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I have thesame problem as a bunch of other people. The video is perfect but I can’t hear a thing! i have Videora but I don’t know what to do! Help!
July 8th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
I have converted 5 movies using ImToo and none will load to my iPod. Videora works half the time. I have used the ImToo MPEG to iPod and DVD to iPod with no success. What am I missing?
July 9th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Hi following your really helpful comments I have used dvd fab decrypter to decode some dvd’s and then used 3gp converter to get this into itunes and thne onto my ipod, however I have a problem, if i try and convert a dvd that has a series of episodes on it, like a tv programme series dvd it gets the episode breaks wrong most of the time, so for examole to watch episode 10 i need to watch the last 5 minutes of episode 9 and then watch episode 10, this is really frustrating, is there any way around this? Bizarrely it sometimes does it just right but probably only one time in 15 or 20 episodes. If you don’t have an answer thn can you suggest anywhere else I can look?
July 21st, 2006 at 3:26 pm
I converted a file using the Cucusoft Software and it converted perfectly. I also added it to my ipod video and it wworkd perfectly, except for one small prob. After about 10 seconds the sound goes out and the video plays by itself. When I pause and play again, the sound comes on, but goes off after 10 secs. Can you tell me why this is happening?
July 29th, 2006 at 12:46 am
ok..I added some videos to my ipod..and I went under the ADVANCED tab and selected “convert selected to ipod selection” or whatever. Yet when I go into my ipod I still cant see it all. I dont understand this.
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:10 pm
This article was extremely helpful, thanks! I’ve been trying to figure out this stuff on my own, and now that I have a video iPod my troubles are only beginning again. Let me just say that if you hear audio but no video, then turn your TV setting off. If you see video but no audio…then you have my problem: your audio is muxed, meaning that the audio and video are mixed together into one file that iTunes and Quicktime can read, but iPod can’t (the Apple article is http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302588). I’m currently trying to figure this one out; you need a converter that can convert muxed audio (mine is MPEG-1 muxed) to MPEG-4. I’m going to try some of the converters that you recommended and see what I get. If anyone finds anything helpful in that department let me know!
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:32 pm
I wrote earlier about my problem with muxed audio, which is when the video will play on your iPod but the audio won’t, yet everything works fine on iTunes and Quicktime. This is because your audio and video are in one file that the iPod can’t read. I converted my muxed movies to MPEG-4 using Videora and it’s worked great! It was very easy to use and very quick to convert. Some of my videos still won’t play but I don’t think that’s related to this seeing as my other converted ones work just fine. That was a very helpful solution and I’d recommend Videora to anyone else having muxed problems.
August 9th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
I have “million dollar baby” on dvd and i put it in the dvd drive on my computer and i used the dvd decrypter and then i used videora. i tried to import it, to add file and add folder to my itunes library, but it doesnt show up. help?
August 13th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
my videos show up on ipod but do not play any one know why
August 15th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
jodix.com is the best converter that i have come across, transforms into iPod format dead easily.
August 16th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
I red the beginner’s guide, & I wanted to put my dvd movie into my ipod so I used one of the option that you gave me which is the Fair Use Wizard to convert the dvd into divx which it takes a long time, I created a special file just for the convert dvd into divx. But now my question is what do I do? How do I convert the movie to the ipod? What should be my next step?
September 12th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
I download music videos in limewire and a movie but i still cannot put it on my ipod and i am getting really frustrated please help me???
Thank you Ashley
September 18th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
i can see the videos clearly, on my 80gb ipod video.. but i cant hear anything.. help plz =[
September 21st, 2006 at 7:57 am
i can watch videos on my ipod 30 gig but i can hear them please help
September 23rd, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I AM TRYING TO BE VERY CALM ABOUT THE WHOLE THING AND NOT SCREAM!!!. BUT HERES MY PROBLEM (THERE ARE MANY PERSONS WITH SIMILIAR PROBS.) I HAVE DONE THE FILE CONVERSION FROM AVI TO MOV.USING AVS CONVERTER 4. THEN TRIED TO MP4(USING PROFILE MP4-HIGHEST AVAILABLE QUALITY(MPEG4,24FPS,352X288,MPEG4 AAC LC)TRIED BOTH FORMATS AS SUGGESTED BY CNET.COM,AVSMEDIA.COMAND VIDEOJUG.COM. AS I SAID DONE EVERYTHING. BUT WHEN I TRY TO PUT IT INTO ITUNES NOTHING!!! WON’T TRANFER WONT UPDATE WONT SHOWUP ANYWHERE. WHAT SHOULD I DO THIS THING IS VERY FUSTRATING I HOPE I’M NOT OVER THINKING THIS PROBLEM… PLEASE ASSIST.
October 7th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I SELECTED “DO NOT UPLOAD VIDEOS” BEFORE AND NOW IT SEEMS LIKE I CANT SWITCH BACK TO “AUTOMATICALLY” OR “MANUALLY” WHATEVER. MEANING I CAN’T UPLOAD ANY VIDEOS. HOW CAN I FIX THIS
October 11th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
i’m thinking of buying a video ipod but i am unsure about buying the 30G or the 80G, basically i would like to know how much does the file size changes when converting from avi to an ipod compatible format. For example i’ve downloaded many avi movies and they are about 800mb, will the file size stay the same when i change them to an ipod compatible format? If not, how much will it change?. I’d appreciate help with this because it will determine the choice i make . THX
October 12th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
Yeah im using jodix, and when i try to convert a video to mpeg4 format, it said it could not be done. so i clicked on the help section and didnt do anything what can i do!?!
October 15th, 2006 at 8:46 am
HELP!!!
I tried converting files using videora, but when I want to add the file to the library, it won’t show! Grateful for help/advise on this!
October 24th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
i have videos on itunes and did the convert selection to ipod but it still doesnt show up on my ipod
October 31st, 2006 at 6:32 am
I use Videora and when I convert a video I see the converted video in my folder but when I try and import it to iTunes it doesnt work. This doesnt happen all the time. Only every now and then. Could it be the files I have? I got them all from the same place. Any help would be great. Thanks.
November 6th, 2006 at 7:12 am
K, like everyone else on this page I have similar or the same problems. I have Windows XP, 30G ipod, and all new downloaded today - Quicktime 7.1.3 as recommended by my camera manufacturer technical help line Olympus (scary because they actually said to download QT version 8 - does this even exist?!!). I am trying to convert the videos that are currently in .MOV format. They won’t play properly, but instead stop and start, and on top of that there is no sound. I choose the convert option from the Advanced tab in iTunes and get this message: Error occurred while converting the file “name of file”. An unknown error occurred (-2002).
Has anyone seen this before and of course, then know how to fix it?!!
This website is a great idea and I am quite hopeful that I will get some help, but, is anyone answering these questions somewhere else, or has there been no feed back for a while??
November 10th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Well im using the latest Itunes and Quicktime SOftware and i think thats the biggest mistake ive made. I have used many programs such as: 3gp converter, Winavi, Cucusoft Ipod movie converter and much more but im still unable to convert files to ipod format properly. Once conversion is completed i add the file to itunes and the video plays all distorted colours however the audio plays fine. This is very frustrating and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
November 11th, 2006 at 9:52 am
You are a genius.. thanks!!!
November 19th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
thanks a whole lot, the Videora Ipod Converter works PERFECT, thanks again
November 20th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Having the same issues as people before me.. after i do dvd decrypter and videora, how do i get the audio to play. pic is perfect but audio… well there is none.. please help
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:08 pm
try this to help with converting dvds to your ipod video http://www.anders.com/guides/convert/video/iPod/windows.html
November 23rd, 2006 at 2:52 am
Thanks for all this advice. ITunes doesn’t let me add a converted DVD Movie to the Library. I am using Sothink Ripper which has various setting for the conversion but none of them seem to match excatly with what you say. Any ideas? Andy
November 24th, 2006 at 10:09 am
I use Quicktime Pro to convert mpgs to m4v or mp4 & no probs with the process but no audio when played in iTunes or on iPod. Have latest software & new 30G model but will not accept MOV files on iPod but OK on iTunes. Very puzzling, manual says MOV files compatible with iPOd? Have tried using iTunes to “convert to iPod” option but alas still no audio. Only trying to convert small 4 min music mpgs/mov so file size no issue. This is dumb.. Apple software v poor
November 26th, 2006 at 1:19 am
I have a number of mpeg2 files from my pvr that I have converted to mpeg4 for my ipod. THe only software that has worked for me is Videora. The source files are quite large - approx 3-4 GB. When I use any of the other software (cucusoft, xilian, nero recode), they try to dowload the entire file before conversion and the programs just hang. I guess they are not familiar with stream processing.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
I have dycrypted it fine. But Ijust cannot move it into iTunes. can anyone help?
December 5th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
I have a 80 gig video and before that i had a 30. I have downloaded a movie and it will not play sound. I have no clue what to do. I converted it using the itunes converter, and i put it on my ipod. I was reading some of the comments and saw the one about the video settings. i changed them and i couldnt get sound on either one. help please!
December 6th, 2006 at 3:17 am
it doesnt work… lol meh .. thanks for ur help anyway.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:36 am
Thanks for the great article. I can convert videos fine with Videora, and have put a selection of videos on my iPod.
However, since changing the category for some to TV Show I cannot find them anywhere on my iPod. Theres the options for Movies and Music Videos (the other two categories, but nothing for TV Shows).
Obviously, I can change them back to the Movies Category in iTunes and resync but just wondered if there was another way? I liked the extra info options you had in TV Shows.
December 7th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Thank you in advance. I use DVDFab Decrypter. It decrypts into several files. I do not know how to convert several files into one MPEG4 file for my IPOD. I have access to JODIX and PQDVD.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Awesome guide man, it took your time to “craft” it, now I take mine to thank you.
December 25th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I can never get any video onto my iPod and it wont show up when it says its added
December 26th, 2006 at 8:10 am
I was just woundering if you knew how to get the movies onto different sections like music videos, Because when i trasfer the videos to my ipod they play back fine but all of my music videos are in the movies section……Do you know how to put these music videos in the actual music videos section of your ipod?
December 26th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Hi,
*
Good site, came across it on a google search, thanks! Thought I’d ask this question here. I have just got a 30gb ipod video and trying to add videos using Videora. The files are from a dvd and a typical film will be split over four files, eg. ‘VTS_01_1′, ‘VTS_01_2′ and so on up to 01_4. Is there any way to have the whole film within just one file so that I only have to click on one title on the ipod to watch the film?
*
I tried using WonderShare Ipod Suite on the trial version, which gets the whole film as one file, but the quality was so poor, not to mention that after one evening of using it, the program fails every time I open it, I’ve opted back to Videora… bigger files but better quality, if only I could have just one title! Any solution to this? I’d be very grateful for any info, thanks :0)
December 26th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
I converted the video using itunes, and the video is fine and got on my ipod fine and everything. But why is there no audio? How do you fix this?
December 26th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Just to add to the comment I left earlier… I have tried using various software to join/merge the mpeg4 files but the output format is always .avi, which ipod doesn’t support.
December 26th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
I used dvd decryptor and then videora to put my dvds in an ipod compatible format, but when I tried to put them into itunes nothing happened. First, I tried import and when that didn’t work I tried add file. I was looking for them in videos, should I look for them somewhere else? If not, what can I do?
December 27th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
I would personally like to thank you for your guide and the time taken to write it. I have know put countless vidoes on my ipod. Thanks again
November 4th, 2007 at 11:39 am
well i bought get a episode of mind of mencia and american dad from the itunes stre right i transferd them to my ipod but it shows the like an album picture and plays sound only i have no clue what to do
February 8th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I can watch and hear video on the ipod when I try to hook it up to a tv I get nothing. with the tv out active. is there a trick to this.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Ive decrypted my dvd movie using the dvd decrypter and later used the videora to convert into my ipod touch, it worked out fine, and automatically adds up in my itunes. Big thing is when i played it in my ipod touch at some point the video stopped video but the audio continued.. tooo bad the audio & video are not in synch… :((
April 5th, 2008 at 5:13 am
hi
i cant add any videos to my ipod nano 3rd generation
can you please advise me why
thanks in advance
ibe
April 5th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Hi Ibe,
I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to be a little more specific about how it doesn’t work. What exactly are you doing? Are you converting it into a form that should work? Can you play it in iTunes but it won’t add to the iPod? Does your iPod give you any errors when you try to synch your videos onto the iPod?
April 5th, 2008 at 10:43 am
When I convert a music video in Itunes, there is no audio even though the whole video is there. and the problem persists when I sync the video with my ipod. I will appreciate your help! Thanks.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
i have some information on the program “Handbrake” there is now a version for windows out! it is not as good as the original version for mac but still excellent, though hard to use if you are not sure what you’re doing, though there are online tutorials with easy to follow instructions.
i have a problem with putting videos on my iPod, the video plays in iTunes fine and videos are meant to be transferred, however when i synch my iPod (classic 80GB 5th generation) it says i cannot play the video on my iPod so the file was not copied over. i there anything i should do?
April 19th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
okay, i downloaded a t.v. episode off of limewire and then converted it to my IPod Video using the convertor that comes with Itunes and it shows up great and everything except for there’s no sound at all, not even when I play it on Itunes instead of my IPod so what’s up?Please help?
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 am
I converted my .avi to .mp4 using Videora software. It indeed was added to my iPod, but there is no sound. It’s been bothering me for weeks. I’ve tried everything I knew — trying to raise the volume in iTunes, rebooting, etc. It plays fine on the iTunes, but when I disconnect the iPod and try to play it on the iPod by itself it doesn’t give me any sound. I don’t remember there was anything about sound options in Videora. My iPod is a Classic iPod (5th gen 80 GB). And also, Videora accepts some .avi movies and some not, although all of them are .avi movie files. I’ve tried lessening or increasing the memory, I’ve tried changing names of the files, but for some reason it always says it has ‘error in opening the file’. I’ll try asking this in Videora forum as well, but do you have any idea why my mp4 video won’t have any sound?
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
Hey Gina, as I’ve mentioned here before, I’ve not used Videora in some time, so I’m not sure if I can really help other than to say that your problem seems fairly common. You might want to look for a newer program that does this. I’m not sure how recently Videora has been updated, and it was one of the first if not the first, so it’s bound to have some issues that more recent programs don’t… Good luck!
June 12th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Hi Levi
MANY THANKS for all the info on iPod. I am a new iPod user and was having trouble converting a recorded television program on my computer into a file which could be played on my iPod Classic 80Gb. For days I battled with AVSVideo either to get the thing to work or to accept my paid for registration. Gave up in the end and downloaded Videora. Wow, within minutes I was watching a video on my iPod. Not only does Videora convert the file quickly it also automatically uploads to Itunes! Recommend it 5 Star!
Marian
September 24th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hi this is driving me crazy.
I am using videora, and trying to get videos 2 fit perfectly onto my 30 gb 5th gen ipod. but i hav tried most settings and i have no idea wt to do. every time i convert a video, wen i put it on my ipod, insted of filling up my ipod screen (should work at 320*240 i think) it is like a strip alon ght emiddle of the screen taking up a third of the screen. i am going crazy trying 2 figure it ut. does any1 hav sum info for me 2 use like change settings on videora, coz i hav no clue.
any help much appreciated
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:18 am
Hey!
so i have a video in my itunes library, but whenever i drag it to my ipod, it just doesn’t seem to show up.
i have done this before and it worked for other videos, but this one video will not go into my ipod.
Any advice?
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:01 am
AHHH
ok, so i have a 30GB video ipod. one of the first they came out with.
anyways, ive tried to add a few videos on to my ipod, and their all MPEG-4, and only 4 out of 12 work. its upsetting to me, because my favourites wont upload. PLEASE help. im not sure what other information i need to add. i got the videos by using:
file2hd.com
if any ones heard of it.
PLEASE PLEASE help!
D:
December 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Ok I have an 8gb five gen nano. I have those digital movies that certain dvds have so you can play them on your ipod. I transfered the movie onto itunes but then when asked to sync it says I am not allowed to have the movie on my PC. I also havent a clue how to transfer a movie that was decoded to placed on my ipod. I tried several ways but to no avail.I bought the cucysoft software trial download and still nothing. Could you please help
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Work great! I used Videora to convert my videos. Fast and easy program. Your instructions were great. Im a comp nerd but sometimes im an idiot lol. Thanks levi
January 19th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
i putted some music videos on mp4 format to my ipod. some works but some didn’t. what do you think is wrong with it?
help please. thanks
January 21st, 2009 at 12:17 am
Helpful and educational site. Thank you
April 13th, 2009 at 2:51 am
my ipod video 5th gen is not connecting to my pc and Ipod, i used all Ipod usb cable that i have but i can’t transfer musics and videos because its only charging. what im going to do.. help me! please!
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:36 pm
hi, i recently have been trying to convert videos to my ipod. i was using zamzar to convert it. i thought i finally had it figured out and was succesful. but my itunes won’t let me import it. it won’t even come up in itunes when i try to import in my library. and when i try to just manually drag it to my ipod, it says that it can’t be played on my ipod nano .
any help would be appreciate, thx
May 19th, 2009 at 8:54 am
which extension video file we can store in ipod that is i don’t know.but using this help i make sure.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:00 am
nice post out there. I use because it is super fast (up to 4x faster) DVD movie conversion in high video quality.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:05 am
nice post out there. I use ipod converterbecause it is super fast (up to 4x faster) DVD movie conversion in high video quality.
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I recently got an iPod video (yes, generation 5), I converted with Videora because that was before I found this article. I can hear the videos but it appears to just show a random screenshot or something. Also, is it supposed to show up so small, and is there some way to use the full screen for video?