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In the "honorable mention" category is a relative newcomer, iSquint. It's a nice, compact utility that pretty much exists only for iPod video conversion (fig. 5). Drag a clip (or series of clips) into iSquint, choose "Optimize for iPod," select a quality setting, and hit Start. If you want, you can also override the default quality settings and enter your own options in the handy slide-out drawer.
Figure 5
iSquint is off to a great start (the batch conversion and format support are already excellent), but it only gets honorable mention status for now because of a few glaring issues. One, H.264 support isn't yet included. Two, the interface is somewhat unpolished, acting awkwardly when you want to override the defaults. Three, I'm not sure what the purpose of the "Optimize for TV" option is yet, since it produces MPEG-4 clips that are of a higher data rate and frame size than the iPod allows. But iSquint is definitely usable right now, and should only get better.
A Windows option
I'm not a big Windows dude, but I was able to find a pretty nice (and free) utility that should appeal to our Windows-using friends: Videora iPod Converter, which I'll just call ViC from here on out (fig. 6).
Figure 6
Like the Mac programs mentioned earlier, ViC also handles clips in all manner of formats (MPEG, QuickTime, VOB, unprotected Windows Media, etc.). However, since it only can compress to MPEG-4 and H.264, it's not really suitable as a general-purpose compression utility. The batch conversion function is nice, but it's not a simple drag-and-drop?you have to start a clip and then manually begin other conversions to add them to the queue. ViC comes with a default 1-click setting, which makes conversion very simple, and you can also add your own specific settings to handle widescreen clips or alternative data rates and set any one of those as the 1-click default. I did have a few issues with certain QuickTime codecs and WMV conversion, but despite that, ViC itself is a perfectly fine (and pretty fast) iPod video utility for Windows users.
Transferring to the iPod
Whichever program you end up using to convert your video to iPod format, you still have to get it into the iPod itself for playback. While this seems the obvious portion of our program today, it never hurts to do a quick rundown. You'll need iTunes 6, of course, since earlier versions can't handle video. So fire up iTunes 6, and drag your clips into the Library. Once you have clips in iTunes, they show up in the Video window (fig. 7).
Figure 7
Now, depending on how you've set your iPod update options, you have a few choices for how your clips actually make it over to your iPod:
- If you manually manage your playlists, you can just select clips and drag them into the iPod icon.
- If iTunes is set to update everything automatically, any videos in the Video window will get moved over during the next update (provided you have enough free space on the iPod, of course).
- If iTunes only updates selected lists, it's a good idea to set up a dedicated video playlist that gets copied to the iPod (fig. 8).
Figure 8
Once all your clips have been copied over, you're good to go (fig. 9):
Figure 9: This picture stinks, but you get the idea. These new iPods are really reflective and hard to photograph in action...
So there you have it
Since you've already dropped a bundle on your shiny new iPod, it's good to know that you don't need to flitter away any more dough just to get video into it. All that's required is some time and perhaps a little patience. Hopefully, you have some idea by now of how to format existing video for the iPod, and once you've selected your encoding program and have worked through a couple of clip tests, the process should go from potentially confusing to relatively painless. So good luck, and enjoy your new iPod-based video library!
Though the fame, riches, and notoriety of being a DMN contributor are both tantalizing and substantial, Kevin Schmitt still stubbornly insists on continuing his work as the Director of Interactive Services at EFX Media, a production house located just outside of Washington, D.C. Feel free to follow his updates and contact him through Twitter if you have something to share - he's ready to believe you!
Related Sites: Digital Video Editing , Digital Webcast , Digital Post Production , Oceania , MacVideoPro , CEN - Consumer Electronics Net , CEN - Audio , CEN - iPod , BN - Webcast
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