How to: Put your movies on your new iPod

Wednesday, October 12th, 2005

Movie to iPod

No one actually has their new 5G (video capable) iPod yet, but you can start preparing your movies now, by using a new preset in QuickTime 7.0.3 (Pro). Simply open the movie that you would like to put on your iPod (when you get it), and select Export from the File pull-down menu. From there, select “Movie to iPod (320×240)”, and click save. The result is a 320×240 m4v file encoded with H.264, AAC audio. The fps (frames per second) will be the same as your source movie (up to 30fps). Strangely enough, there are no configurable options associated with the preset, like the other presets.

Next, just add the movie to your iTunes 6 library, like you would with any other song, and sync with your new iPod.

UPDATE: Mark Pilgrim has put together a nice tutorial on how to go directly from DVD, to iPod-ready movie files, using the opensource app, Handbrake.

UPDATE #2: Apple has posted a tutorial on how to create Video Podcasts.

UPDATE #3: I’ve written a post with useful information about iPod video format, bitrate, and battery life.

Filed in: Apple, Software, Tips & Tricks

9 Comments to How to: Put your movies on your new iPod

Great tips, but what kind of Quicktime do you use, is this ordinary Pro-version of QT?

Jem555 on October 15th, 2005

what kind of Quicktime do you use, is this ordinary Pro-version of QT?

You need QuickTime Pro, version 7.0.3 (or higher). Version 7.0.3 was released the same day as the new iPod.

paul on October 15th, 2005

Actually, not all movies come out as 320×240. They are 320 pixels wide, but the height is automatically adjusted to maintain the aspect ratio of the original file.

Nice feature, actually.

Brad on October 16th, 2005

Does this process take a very long time or is it just me??

Phil on October 28th, 2005

When i export files with Quicktime Pro 7.0.3 the audio doesn’t play in any files. The options button doesn’t come up either in the audio options.

Rene Chirinos on November 6th, 2005

are there other software that can convert videos for the ipod 5G? quicktime 7 pro is still not available in my country and so I can not put videos in my ipod

tinapie on November 24th, 2005

Yep, new software seems to be poppnig up every day. A good place to start your search is VersionTracker.com. Several come up if you search for iPod Video.