Putting movies on an iPod
Last Christmas I managed to find a 60GB Video iPod in time for the Christmas rush, and I have been enjoying it ever since.
One of the things I decided to do was to put some movies on there and see how it does with playing movies. After all, it is a VIDEO iPod, so it should handle a music video or two. This was not as simple as I had hoped, but it did not take too much effort once I knew what to do.
First off, the iPod does not recognize mpg, mov, wmv, or avi files. So, putting in a stock video does not work. What is needed is software that can make the conversion. I picked Xilisoft's iPod DVD Converter and Video Converter applications (there are several applications to do this stuff, and they all are roughly equivalent so it comes down to what application is most intuitive). These do the deed for almost everything, although I managed to find a music video that would not convert, using ANY application, so that one didn't go.
Ripping from DVD was more or less a mindless task. Set the tracks I want, tell application to rip, and come back later. To pull one DVD of episodes of 24, it takes approximately an hour. There is no hurrying the process.
When done, add the directory containing the episodes to the iTunes library, then tell iTunes to update the iPod. That's all there is to it.
How does it work? Nice. With the earbuds in, it is very much like watching TV on a 2"x1.5" screen, which is not nearly as bad as it sounds - no commercials, and you can watch in bed without waking the spouse. The catch is that watching video on the iPod drains the battery very quickly.
One of the things I decided to do was to put some movies on there and see how it does with playing movies. After all, it is a VIDEO iPod, so it should handle a music video or two. This was not as simple as I had hoped, but it did not take too much effort once I knew what to do.
First off, the iPod does not recognize mpg, mov, wmv, or avi files. So, putting in a stock video does not work. What is needed is software that can make the conversion. I picked Xilisoft's iPod DVD Converter and Video Converter applications (there are several applications to do this stuff, and they all are roughly equivalent so it comes down to what application is most intuitive). These do the deed for almost everything, although I managed to find a music video that would not convert, using ANY application, so that one didn't go.
Ripping from DVD was more or less a mindless task. Set the tracks I want, tell application to rip, and come back later. To pull one DVD of episodes of 24, it takes approximately an hour. There is no hurrying the process.
When done, add the directory containing the episodes to the iTunes library, then tell iTunes to update the iPod. That's all there is to it.
How does it work? Nice. With the earbuds in, it is very much like watching TV on a 2"x1.5" screen, which is not nearly as bad as it sounds - no commercials, and you can watch in bed without waking the spouse. The catch is that watching video on the iPod drains the battery very quickly.
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