- First, the Facts about iPod Video Support
- Getting Content
- Creating Your Own Content
- Summary
Creating Your Own Content
It only took a few short weeks for a plethora of tools to come out that support the iPod video specifications. The reason for this is simple: The video in the iPod is built on existing standards. If you have any experience in creating video content, you will have no problem at all creating content for the new iPod.
The biggest challenge you are faced with is whether you create video on a Macintosh or a PC. If you have the choice, you should create content on the Mac (because there is more software available for the Mac thanthe PC).
Start with Apple’s QuickTime Pro. If you have not done so, you need to upgrade your QuickTime to the Pro version. It is only $29, and you get a heck of a lot of software for a small amount of money.
Once you have QuickTime Pro, you can choose any video file on your desk top. I have a lot of family video that is created in MPEG 4/ASF files for the Windows Media Player. QuickTime had no problem opening the files.
Open a file and play it in the QuickTime Player. The video should play correctly. Select File, Export, and you see an export window in which you can choose from the many different export types. One export type is Movie For iPod. The file will encode.
After you encode the video, drag it into iTunes, which is is the synchronization tool for your iPod. Synch your iPod up with iTunes. Now you can search for the video on your iPod and watch your home movies. It is a simple as that.
The steps are the same for both PC and Mac.
As you can imagine there is a lot of software you can use that makes this process even easier. The solutions range from Mac-only tools such as OnlyMac’s Video2Pod, Digigami’s MoveToGo and DVDxDvs software to PC solutions such as Applian’s Replay Media. All of these tools are great and only cost a few bucks. You can also check out free solutions such as Videora PC-only iPod converter.