How to Convert Videos for the Video iPod

DVD to iPod using free software:
Mac OSX Guide
Windows Guide

I wanted my Video iPod to be able to play the movies I had taken with my digital camera. It turns out, the Video iPod plays MP4 (mpeg 4) videos no larger than 320 x 240 resolution. I would imagine that some later version of iTunes will convert just about any video file to a format supported by the Video iPod as it currently does with pictures, but in the meantime you have to convert videos externally. There are several programs that you can use for this, and as I’m using a Mac running OSX, I will concentrate on that platform. There is a wrapper to the Open Source package ffmpeg called ffmpegX which makes this task fairly simple. Drag your source file onto the application’s summary page and select “.MP4 – mpeg 4” from the target pull-down. Next, click the video tab and set the resolution to be 320 pixels wide and whatever height keeps the correct aspect ratio. (320 x 240 will be full screen on the Video iPod but if your source is widescreen, things will end up looking stretched unless you use a lower value.) Lastly, click “Encode” and drag the resulting file onto your iPod in iTunes. I am able to reliably convert a wide variety of videos onto my iPod this way. (pic) As mentioned earlier, DVD ripping is also handy using Handbrake and the guide. Linux users should have no problem with ffmpeg and the general 320 x 240 rule.

People searching for this story have used the following search terms. I'm listing them here so others searching for the same thing can find this page as well.

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how do i place converted ipod movies in my itunes - answer: drag them onto your iPod in iTunes
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what format does ipod video use? - answer MP4 (mpeg 4)

Interesting how people search for an entire thought or phrase rather than for keywords. I almost never do this. Seems to me Google has to become more of a search engine for concepts than keywords because of the way people search for things.

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Comments (92)

mike from england

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

Videora has a program out turn .avi .mpg etc. into .mp4.

marcus wood from uk

i wont my vidio's on my i-pod

diego Souto from Brazil

but videora is only for windows. ffmpeg x is for mac

Anders from RTP

Try handbrake for the Mac.

http://www.anders.com/guides/convert/video/iPod/mac.html

Ahmad from

Try Quicktime pro, you can get it from Apple. No products work better for apple product than what they make for it, so nothing works better for IPOD VIDEO than Itune and quicktime

Jennie from Essex

how do u get videos onto your ipod video for free please can someone help

Anders from RTP

Put videos on your iPod for free with Windows or Mac.

alex from ny

when I convert my videos I put them on my Ipod the audio will play but the video will not whats wrong

Jansen from MS

Make sure your video codecs are installed properly.

Jixxa from Australia

Hey i was wondering how to put downloaded video's that are on your compter onto my ipod.

Anders from RTP

Jixxa, on Windows just follow my guide and skip the DVD Decrypter step and start from Videora. On the Mac, you might use iSquint or ffmpegX. iSquint is probably going to be the easiest to do what you want.

moises from panama

i want to know how do i pass the videos from itunes to the video ipod

Anders from RTP

You can drag a video from your iTunes library to your iPod when your iPod is mounted in iTunes.

duff from phils

when I convert my videos (.avi) will play but the video will not. whats wrong? what are video codes?

Anders from RTP

A video codec is the COder / DECoder (hence the name) used to store video on a computer. Yor video typically needs to be encoded with the MP4 codec to be playable on your iPod. (iPods also support H.264 but I haven't been able to get this working reliably) This means you need to encode whatever you have inside your .AVI file into an MP4 file. I talk about how to do that above. Another interesting yet esoteric point: AVI is a container format as is QuickTime. You can use just about any video codec inside an AVI or QuickTime file.

Seb from Holland

Hey Anders thanks for the guide but i have some questions. I used ffmpegX to convert a video file to mp4, and then put it into iTunes. However when i drag it to my iPod (Video 60 GB), it doesnt do anything. The only way for it to work is if I use the iTunes function "convert selection for iPod". Then the videos go to my iPod and work well. However this method takes a long time as iTunes doesnt convert very fast (20 mins of video takes 1 hr to convert). Is there a way around this or am i doing something wrong???

Anders from RTP

Seb: I don't know. I think we have to see the info on the file. Find the file in Finder and do a "Get Info" on the two files (before iTunes convert and after) and post the contents here. Hopefully we'll be able to spot what change iTunes is making so we can tell ffmpegX to do that for you. As well as time, you'll also save some quality as you won't be converting twice.

Seb from Holland

Thanks for the quick reply. I did Get Info, and heres the results: The original version was .avi and 85.6 MB. The FFMpegX version was .mp4 and 88MB. And the iTunes version was .m4v and 124.1 MB. The filename doesnt contain anything weird, only letters, numbers and a hyphen. If I convert straight to .m4v in FFmpegX will that work?

Anders from RTP

Seb: That could do it. You should check to see that it isn't just a naming thing so try calling the ffmpegX file .m4v as an .mp4 is also commonly called .m4v. If it isn't that, open the movies in QuickTime and do a Window -> Show Movie Info which will show you screen resolution and encoder information. Match that up with the iTunes version if you can and let us know the differences.

Seb from Holland

Thanks for the help, but I dont know what the problem is. I used iSquint as well today and that works without a problem, and you dont need to convert it for iPod either. Thats what Im going to use from now on, saves me having to figure out what ffMpegX is doing.

Ryan from San Francisco, CA

Hi Anders, thanks for the guide. I'm trying to convert .m4v video to .avi or .mpg. I've tried MediaCoder and some other shareware transcoders, but no luck yet. Any pointers?

Thanks,
Ryan

Anders from RTP

Ryan, MediaCoder is a Windows application so I assume you are looking for a GUI application. I don't really know what else would be available as far as Windows applications go. If you are adventurous, you could try the command line version of ffmpeg running under cygwin. There is also another option called transcode that will run in cygwin. Command line tools, if you take the time to figure them out, can be extremely powerful.

Andy from AZ

all i want is just to be able to use a dvd i already have for my ipod...how do i get it on the computer, and then how do i convert it?

Matt from San Antonio

yo man i load up videos that i have to my ipod but the audio is not comming out....whats up with that?

Joseph from Pucallpa, Peru

yeah anders. I convert the videos on the i tunes but the sound wont come out . what do I do?

Anders from RTP

I have seen the situation where sound stops about 20 seconds or so into the movie. This seems to happen with longer files like movies but I have no definitive evidence on that. The fix is to pause the video a few seconds before the sound drops out. In my tests, this one pause fixes the audio for the entire 2+ hour movie.

On the subject of the audio never coming up, I would guess it is a separate problem having something to do with audio codecs. Is there anyone who can post a sample video where the sound doesn't work at all? It would be easier to get to the bottom of this with an example. The smaller the movie, the better.

Na from

How do you get video's to go into the Music Video's section and not the Movies section ? Any music video i convert goes into Movies!

Ruth Bramble from Curacao Nederlands Antillen

I have a ipod 30 gb i want to put vidio on it, I diwnload the quicktime and i have the vidios on my itunen but when i conect the ipod to my computer, stil the vidio's wil not go on my ipod.
can you please help me?
I need help step by step
Thank you

Matt Chapman from London

Can i put straight DVDs region2 on my ipod, says i need to decode, im novice at this. HELP!

Anders from RTP

It should work if the DVD drive in your computer can play a region 2 DVD. If not, you have to either switch your DVD drive into region 2 or get a new one that will play region 2. How you do that depends on the drive you have. Google your drive model number.

Whit from Virginia

I have a ipod 30 gb i want to put vidio on it, I diwnload the quicktime and i have the vidios on my itunen but when i conect the ipod to my computer, stil the vidio's wil not go on my ipod.
can you please help me?
I need help step by step
Thank you

Anders from RTP

If videos already in iTunes can't be dragged onto your iPod, then they aren't in a format that the iPod will play. Try re-encoding them using Videora (Windows) or ffmpegX (Mac). Try differient encoding profiles to get something that works.

AJM from Philadelphia/PA/USA

I followed your instructions. After conversion by Videora ("Transcode Complete"), I can't drag the video into iTunes because Videora doesn't list the video. How do I drag the converted video into iTunes? Thanks!

Anders from RTP

You find the file it created on your hard drive and drag that over. It should be under C:\ somewhere.

Liz from Asheville/NC/US

When I drag the file into my library, it doesn't show up?

Anders from RTP

Liz, try different encoding profiles.

Liz from Asheville/NC/US

Still doesn't seem to show up at all =/

Anders from RTP

If you're sure its going in (ie: doesn't slide away from your library when you drag it in there) check your library carefully. A dragged-in file will have little tagging information on it. (should just have the file name) If it is being rejected (ie: snaps back when dragged to the library) then the file you are dragging in is not in the correct format. A known good format is: MPEG-4 video at 320x240 at 768kbps and stereo audio at 128kbps. If all else fails, try downloading a video file from one of the many video podcasts and see what happens when you drag that into your library. For example:
diggnation--0051--2006-06-22--small.m4v

Liz from Asheville/NC/US

Ah it works now, just the file I was trying to convert was corrupted. Thank you!

Geo from Bronx/NY/USA

I converted a total of 15 downlaoded music videos using videora. But only 9 of the videos went into my itunes library. Why is that? They are all in the same exact format mpeg4. I need help.

michael from

I am running on Windows XP. How (using Videoera iPod converter, & DVD Decrypter) do I use this programs on widescreen DVDs? When I convert a widescreen DVD, it end up streched & the sound does not match the video.

michael from

about my last comment - I tested things out and figured out how to getit "not-streched" out. I put the quality format on MPEG-4/Movie(2-2.5h)
BUT
the sound is still off. I tried so many things. the sound is about 3 or 4 seconds behind the movie. This only happens to widescreen movies. please help. Thanks

dream from usa

i have mpg movies that i want to put into my ipod. i used itunes to convert them but when i do that the sound dissapears. how do i resolve this. uuuuuugggghhhh! lol

ohsnaps from

i used the videora ipod convertor and followed the steps but when i loaded it onto my ipod and went to videos it wouldnt show the video only the sound for it...why is that? and i just recently got it.

joe from

my ipod video comes up but the sound doesn't work and its a short two minute video too whats wrong?

George from Alaska

I have followed your steps to decrypt and convert a DVD. The new file goes onto my ipod great. However when I play the file, all I get is video no audio at all. I tried playing it on the ipod, in Itunes, and in quicktime with the same result. Any advise you have would be helpful. thanks in advance.

Rachel from Cheyenne, WY

In Videora the video keeps saying that it is qued and it won't convert the video. How do i fix this? Thanks,
Rachel

greg from sylvan lake canada

i put videos on my ipod 30 gband the sound comes but the picture doesnt

Maha from Chicago

When i load the video to my ipod video 30gb the video comes up fine but the sound is about 3-5 seconds behind the movie.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Juanito from L.A

The best program that I used for DVD to iPod is DVDFab 3.0 it does the whole movie and ready to drag to iPod make sure for iPod Video 80GB the format is .M4V and for 30GB and 60GB is .MP4 hopefully this info could help you guys!

Daniel from Canada

I, used Videora, to convert, but when i go to add them to Itunes, it gives me an error that says "Some of the items Including (Video name) could not be added to the ipod, because they do not work on the IPOD" or something along those lines, and I used Videora and did all the steps to adding the videos, but I always get that error

laney from san diego, CA, USA

i need help. i can't figure out how to put videos on my ipod!!!!

Nicole from Sydney, NSW, Australia

Hi Anders, I followed your instructions but the only sound I have is the soundtrack no talking sound for the movie. Do you know how I can fix this?

Anders from RTP

You should try picking another audio source other than the default in the first (ripping) stage of the process. If you are using the Windows guide, see the note at the bottom of Step #3.

skip from Pitt

ok well i used videro but it won't let me put it onto i tunes, i drag it into the libary but it doesn't work what could i be doing wrong?

Harrison from Onalaska, WI

I recently downloaded both programs for the Windows, I used the DVD Decrypter on "Running Scared" (the movie) and when i tried to convert it with videro it would get to 100% but it would go 21 secs over and wouldnt stop, whats wrong or why wont it stop?

semi from

Thanks for the tip, and as for the searching for thoughts, I tend to do that a lot for things like this as you end up finding forums, comments, and blogs that have useful links in them. In the state the internet is in now, I think that usually works better than keyword searching. We're far past the days of META KEYWORDS being trustable and needing the right searchterms.

Help from Help

Help I don't know what to download to get my music videos converted so i can put them on my iPod

Anders from RTP

Comment #58 - That depends on what format your source material is in. If they are files and you are on a Mac, take a look at iSquint. If you are using Windows, you might be out of luck. I don't know if a simple straight-forward application.

No Comment from No Comment

How do I view my videos in widescreen there on my iPod its just everytime I try to view them the music plays but it doesn't show the video.

Anders from RTP

If you pick your video through the "Music" menu, only the audio will play. If you pick your video through "Video", you should see the video as well.

Steven from Scotland

I need to know how to play my music videos in "Music Videos" it keeps appearing in Movies and in iTunes there is no Music Video area.

laura from durham

why wont my videora work i downloaded it last night and it keeps saying the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135) plzzz help me

Anders from RTP

Laura, I don't know. Try installing it on another computer and see if that works.

isabella from new york

hey ive been trying to get videos into my Ipod;; but the sound doesnt play;; and some of them dont even go into it...i have them on itunes but they just wont go into my Ipod...what can i do?
thnx plz reply asap...
<3

Anders from RTP

If you have videos in iTunes that don't move over to the iPod, then they are not in a format that the iPod can use. The iPod has a maximum bit rate that can't be exceeded while iTunes can deal with higher bit rates. Try re-encoding with the method in the guides.

Sound problems can also be fixed with a re-encode with the above guides. Pay particular attention to the audio track selection before encoding. Experiment with others if one doesn't work.

Tim from Tennesse

I need to know how to play my music videos in "Music Videos" it keeps appearing in Movies and in iTunes there is no Music Video area.

Carissa from California

Anders: I am downloading videos to my video ipod. Everytime i do it tho, it doesnt have any sound. How to i make the video mp4 instead of mp3? I dont understand what ffMpegX means, so thats probley causing me more probelms. How do i get my videos on my ipod with the sound still with it?
please answer ASAP in detail,
thankss [=

Anders from RTP

Carissa: So an mp3 is only audio and an mp4 is usually both audio and video. If you aren't getting audio when you convert a DVD to an mp4, try experimenting by picking other audio channels. I'll assume you are using Windows. In step 3 "Stream Processing" try clicking other audio tracks and running the convert. You might also try another quality profile in Videora. Don't worry about ffmpegX unless you are using a Mac.

Best of luck.

Elenaaa from

Hey, okay i need help. how do i get the converted movie into my itunes, and onto my ipod. iv tried ALMOST every thing. but nothing works. help.

Michael Santos from

hmmm heres the best and easiest way for PC users just go to jodix.com and download the free ipod converter it converts all popular forms of videos as long as you have to codec to support it

jason roberts from barbados

i am useing cucusoft ipod converter suite and when i put the video on my ipod only the song is playing and the video is not moiveing at all,

what kind of video codecs do i need and do i install them on my pc are on my ipod ??

thanks.

Anders from RTP

Jason: No, there aren't any codecs you need to install on your machine and at this point you can't install codecs on an iPod. (it has what you need already)

Apple states that the video iPod will display H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels at 30 frames per sec., Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

In English, that loosely translates to MPEG4 videos up to 640 by 480 resolution with AAC audio. This is generally the standard format you get from a video podcast such as RocketBoom.

As far as why CucuSoft converted videos don't seem to work, I don't really have a suggestion for you beyond trying the above method.

mark from essex uk witham

ive been tring to get vidios to my psp from youtube but most of them cost to sighn up and of course i dont whant to pay and im wondering if u could give me a few sights:)

senida from Las Vegas,Nevada,Carson City

i cant get videos in my ipod. wat do i do?

Maya from Mexico

hi....i have a problem: i have the video converted to mp4, i drag it to itunes and it is stored there in the lybrary.. but when i try to drag it to the ipod it wont let me. i have several videos in the itunes library but none of them in my video ipod.. plz i need help!

Anders from RTP

Maya: Another way to get the video onto your iPod is to use the auto-sync by clicking your iPod in iTunes. When you have it set to "automatically sync" rather than manually drag items to your iPod, you also get a message window that shows up when items won't sync which tells you why. If you are already set to auto-sync, this may be why you can't drag a file to your iPod in the first place.

tom from africa

how to convert vids from youtube????

Optimus from China

You can try the new MediaCoder iPod Touch Edition:
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/device/ipod_touch.html

Alec from Virginia beach VA

I'm using Videora and im trying to Convert videos from youtube to my ipod classic 80gb and it says can not File not found error [404]

T from

my videos will convert on to iTunes but it says the video format is not supported by my iPod touch.

Dan from UK

Hi Anders,

I've been having a strange problem converting .vob files to mp4 with ffmpeg, compiled from source, on SUSE linux.

When converted my first video worked flawlessly on the computer and my ipod (nano). When I've tried another file it also played with no problems on the computer, but had no sound on the ipod. I find this odd as the vob only contained one audio track (I used VLC to confirm this) so I'm not sure why it's not working when other video's do? Any suggestions?
Could it be that the audio channel in the vob is surround or some such thing which is not being played properly on the ipod but is on the laptop?

(I have installed and enabled the ac3 things by the way)

Any help gratefully received.

Cheers,

Dan

Ayushi from India

hay i have a problem that no videos get in my 80 gb ipod...............can anyone help me.......its urgent

Dave from Canada

Best program I have found for converting videos is :
Free iPod Video Converter 1.32 build 852 (downloads.com)
First - its free...no strings attached. Second - it lets YOU decide the quality of both audio and video of your file.
Third - no spyware, trojans or any other crap.

Highly recommend this program!!!

Jessica from Kentucky

I am wanting to move my dvd's to my iPod. I have d/l the programs that you recommended but when I try to use the decrypting software it gives me a msg "not enough space on disk", yet I am using an external HD with plenty of free space. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,

Anders from RTP

Jessica, make sure the output locations are pointed to the external disk instead of the Desktop.

jacob from melbourne australia

gday people i have a ipod i have movie and such on it but it wont play the sound wats with tht ..........?email me at moo_rox12 @hotmail.com if u can help thanks

Melissa from Brisbane Australia

Um i have a question i use Videora ipod converter and it converts my videos fine and it puts it in my itunes for me but it have been making the videos twice as long. It plays fine but then the music video ends then it starts again but with a white screen so this 4 min music video after converted is now a 8 min one. I was wondering how you fix it and stop it from doing that cause it takes up twice as much room. Thanks tons

Jordan from Medcine Hat, AB Canada

i converted my vidoe to go onto my itunes, but now the sound doesn't work, please someone help me! my email is jordan_pede@hotmail.com
thanks!

Wayne23 from Shangh

I think this tutorial is not good enough for me to understand.
I got one from wikihow:
http://www.wikihow.com/Put-Dvd-Movies-on-Your-Ipod-Using-Pavtube-Dvd-to-Ipod-Converter

Anders from RTP

Wayne23: The problem with that guide is the software it suggests you use costs money. This guide only covers free ways to convert DVDs to files that can be played on the video iPod / iPhone / AppleTV.

Cody sarnacki from cadiz,ky,usa

hey i have a question i have a mp4 and i have music videos on it but it keeps saying none is found can anyone help me fix this problem