Getting Video for Your iPod
For those of you with your fancy little video iPod you might have discovered that getting video on there isn't the easiest. iPod's only support one format of video which is the .mp4 or .mov formats. These are the quicktime ones.
When I first purchased my iPod, I wanted to put a few of my videos on there but it didn't work. You need to either download them in the right format in the first place or convert your existing ones.
Note: Your iPod can play any of these .mp4's or .mov's, but they don't have to be high resolution since the screen is so small. It is in your advantage to have the iPod format ones since you will be able to fit a lot more of them onto your iPod as well. The only downside is they don't look as good on your PC, so you would have to download them special just for the iPod or convert them. Also, if you have the Audio/Video cable for your iPod, you can play them on a television monitor. If they are low quality they will look bad on there too.
Downloading in MP4 Format
This can be done through all of Apple's "you purchase" applications like iTunes. This is really the simplest, but has the least amount of selection. Just download and synch it to your iPod.
If you are looking for movie trailers, these are almost always in Quicktime on the movie's main website. Youl will almost always see the option to download the iPod versions as well (it will be quite a bit smaller since it doesn't have to be as high a resolution on the small screen to look good).
Bittorrent and the file sharing networks are a good, but illegal source as well. A lot of people will share their mp4's on there so if you know you want to watch it on your iPod, you might as well just download the mp4 or mov format. Some sites will also have the iPod format resolution ones as well. Smaller file sizes and everything.
If you can get an account on BitMeTv, they have an awesome selection of iPod formatted videos. You can pull whole seasons of Family Guy, Simpsons, CSI, Lost, etc. Try out Mininova as well, they havea few.
Converting Existing Videos
This can be done with a variety of video conversion programs. They almost all charge a small license fee. Just google it to find one you like. I personally use WinAvi and I have tried Cucusoft's. I believe the professional version of Quicktime can do the conversion for you as well.
You basically take the mpeg, divx, avi, wmv, or whatever other video format you have and use this program to convert it. They usually have a default setting for converting to iPod, PSP, or other devices so it is pretty simple.
If you find a good free program, let me know. I haven't found one I liked yet.
Note: Converting video takes time. Depending on the speed of your computer, it can take the same amount of time it takes to watch it as it does to convert it to mp4. I own 4 year old Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 1GB RAM and my computer converts about 45 frames per second and the video itself is about 30 frames per second so a 23 minute Simpsons episode can take around 15 minutes to encode.
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Category: Computers
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