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[micahmj11]

I have downloaded several videos from iTunes and have been able to upload them to my iPod via MC, but it has been a little complicated.  I thought I would post my observations.

The files I have downloaded are in an m4v format.  MC will not import them when I click import media, but it will if I drag and drop them into MC.  MC then imports them as data files.  I change them to video files so they appear in the video section of MC.

I figured that because of apples drm, I would have to upload at least one video via iTunes first, so they would work (I later found this to be true.)  After I uploaded a video with iTunes, I then tried to upload the rest via MC.  MC would not do it because they were "unsupported file formats".  So I manually changed each of them to be listed as "mp4" and tried to sync.  It worked.  After I ejected, I was able to view the files on the iPod.

But there was a few other problems.  First, they were all lumped together under the movies menu item on the iPod.  To work around this, I created several smartlist that would break them out into different groups. (Desperate Housewives, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, music videos, triailers, etc.)  After syncing, they were then neatly organized on the iPod.

The really big problem is that when viewing the files that were m4v's on the iPod, I was unable to fast forward the content.  I could do it on the other videos that were actually mp4s, but not the stuff I downloaded from iTunes.  I then noticed that in MC, those files had nothing listed in the Duration or Bitrate fields.  I suspect this is the problem.  The iPod has no idea how long each episode is, and is therefore unable to scrub through it in fast forward.

Is there anything I can do now that will fix this, or is this part of the work you are doing to better support iPod video?

Micah

[JimH]

We hope to get video working on the iPod soon.  I appreciate you posting your findings.  Thanks for the details.

[JustinChase]

Anyone know if the iPod video only plays .mp4 format.  I have a bunch of video files in different formats (none are DRM - nor bought from iTunes).  I can convert them to whatever format, and whatever size i need, but am just trying to find out what actually needs to be done in order to get them working on the iPod.  I don't have iTunes, and don't want to install it either.

Finally, is there any chance that .mp4 will be supported internally (please yaboing?!?)

[micahmj11]

I have only gotten the iPod to play two video formats.  The first is m4v which is the format of video files downloaded from iTunes which are DRM protected.  The other are files that I specifically converted to ipod mp4 format.  I have tried several differnt converters.  The one I use is called pqDvd and can be downloaded here:

http://www.pqdvd.com

I like it because it has a very simple user interface, will rip dvd's and convert them directly to an ipod format, as well as convert files already on your computer in many other formats (Tivo, DivX, MPEG, WMV, AVI).  The downside is that the software costs $35.  There are free programs out there, including videora, which converts files nicely, although it does not rip dvd's.  You can download this program here:

http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

You can also upgrade Quicktime to the professional edition for a price which will allow you to convert .mov files to work on the iPod.  I tried it but it coverts very slowly.

Right now, I have serveral different video files working on my iPod.

• 34 episodes of Desperate Housewives downloaded from iTunes in m4v format.
• 7 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia that recorded on my Tivo and converted with pqDVD.
• 5 different movies ripped from DVDs with pqDVD.
• Several movie trailers that I downloaded for free from www.apple.com/trailers and converted with Quicktime Pro
• Several other video clips that I downloaded off the internet and converted with pqDVD

I had to create video playlists to seperate them out into various categories, or else MC will lump them all together in the Movies section in the Video Menu of iPod.  By syncing each of my video playlists, it put them all neatly organized in the Video Playlist section of the Video Menu of the iPod.

If you are transfering any m4v files, for now you will need to use the workaround I described above.  Also, make sure that you upload one file via iTunes first to get the DRM license to make them work.  The way I did it was to make sure that iTunes does NOTHING automatically...especially upload any songs or videos.  I then plug in my ipod and drag-n-drop a video into the ipod to upload it.  Then disconnect and resync with MC.  If I allow iTunes to automatically sync any music or videos, it does not play nicely with MC and screws things up.

As for the non iTunes video files (everything on my list except the Desperate Housewives), MC seems to upload them without much problem and they play in the iPod fine.

I do use iTunes for one other thing...Pictures.  I have found that iTunes will upload photos via automatic sync without causing other problems with MC and the ipod.  So I use iTunes to upload pictures, and MC for everything else. 

[lukecro]

Yeah, I've been using the free Videora iPod Converter as well: http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

It's working quite well -- small, free, stable, has a variety of options, and does the job. And it's built specifically for this task, so it performs in a way that only a speciality program can (meaning, regrettably, it can't do anything else, but, thankfully, it doesn't try to do anything else). Since the itunes digital rights management stuff doesn't come into play with files that you create/convert  on your own, MC is able to upload them without a problem, even if you don't have itunes installed, etc.

Of course, Videora's got so many options that it can be a little difficult to figure out what settings and formats are best -- I visited a few websites on the topic, and everyone seems to have a different opinion, none of which correspond with the Videora  defaults. So you've gotta play around with it for a while to see what's best for you.

Also, you need to decide on the quality vs. size issue in so far as the ipod doesn't need a really high-quality file (since it's such a small screen), so you're really better off going with a lower-quality file so the file size is smaller (so you can fit more videos on your ipod). But this means that you'll want to keep the higher-rez version of the movie/video on your PC (in case you ever want to watch it on your monitor or a TV, etc.)... which could be annoying if you don't want to waste room on your hard-drive keeping two of each file (one high quality for PC playback and one low quality for ipod playback). If you'd prefer to only keep one copy of each of your films/shows, then you'll want to convert everything to high quality and erase your old files, but that means the files will take up a ton of space on your ipod. So, again, you'll want to play around with whatever converter program you're using until you find a size-to-quality ratio that you're comfortable with.

The other problem is that converting video does take a while. Even converting just a 4-minute music video took ... well, I'm not sure how long, but it felt like forever... and converting longer shows took, as you might expect, much longer. And then uploading video files onto the ipod isn't exactly super-fast either.... all-in-all, it makes me wonder  if it's all worth the trouble, in terms of converting and uploading all my old videos, films, and TV shows, just so I can watch them on the little screen.

Of course, now that the video ipod is out there, people will be more likely to rip DVDs and distribute music videos and such in an ipod-video compatible format (you're already seeing that kind of thing among bittorrent users) so things will only get easier. It was a rather brilliant (if nasty) move by Apple to only allow a couple of specific (Apply-centric) file types to be used on the Video ipod, since it's going to popularize these formats in a wild, crazy way.... Much like the way Apple shot so many music-file formats in the foot to begin with (thank god iPod accepts MP3's, anyway).

[butlertl]

I've tried using pqdvd to convert tivo filew without aby luck.  Can you suggest a process or a location to find additional help?

Thanks

[nel]

Thanks for your tips regarding m4v format, it answers the question I posted in the Portable section of the forum. It's working well aside the problem you described with FF.