MPEG 4 converter for iPod Video

corkurk

Hey guys. I just picked up a 30 gig iPod video to replace my aging 2 gen iPod. 10 more gigs, the color screen and the ability to play videos was enough to push me over the edge and upgrade. I was watching some videos I bought off iTunes this morning on the commute to work (subway, not driving...although it is Boston, so nothing would surprise me around here) and I must say the picture is really nice for such a tiny screen.



I've got quite a few music videos and some shorts that I have saved as Quicktime files. Can anyone make any recommendations on the best way to convert them to Mpeg 4 to play on the new Pod? Any personal experiences of certain ones to try (or avoid)? I've looked around on the web and found a few options although many of them look to be Windows only. I'm using a MacBook Pro, so the app would have to be compatable with the Intel Macs, but other than that...any suggestions are welcome.



Thanks all.

o4blackwrx

My personal favorite is Podner but it does cost $9.95. If you are looking for a free alternative use iSquint. Both applications are good, I just like the look and feel that Podner has. They both are Universal Binary and both have batch processing so what's not to love.

ireland

Quote:

Originally posted by Corkurk

Hey guys. I just picked up a 30 gig iPod video to replace my aging 2 gen iPod. 10 more gigs, the color screen and the ability to play videos was enough to push me over the edge and upgrade. I was watching some videos I bought off iTunes this morning on the commute to work (subway, not driving...although it is Boston, so nothing would surprise me around here) and I must say the picture is really nice for such a tiny screen.



I've got quite a few music videos and some shorts that I have saved as Quicktime files. Can anyone make any recommendations on the best way to convert them to Mpeg 4 to play on the new Pod? Any personal experiences of certain ones to try (or avoid)? I've looked around on the web and found a few options although many of them look to be Windows only. I'm using a MacBook Pro, so the app would have to be compatable with the Intel Macs, but other than that...any suggestions are welcome.



Thanks all.

If you've got Quicktime Pro, and an intel Mac I'd go that route. However if you don't, go get Podner



Demo will only encode the first two and a half minutes of any video, but the licence is not overpriced.

sandau

iSquint is a free and very good converter. I use it all the time for my videos to iPod / TV. We've watched 3 seasons of 24, 2.5 seasons of Battlestar Galactica, and 3 seasons of Sopranos with the iPod using a TV connection. Most of these were converted with iSquint and the optimize for TV or iPod is handy. They look great on a regular TV btw, but don't expect high def.



http://www.isquint.org/

corkurk

Thanks for help guys. Those two options both look pretty good. Sandau, when you have used iSquint, what optimization have you used more: TV or iPod? I plan on watching the clips on the iPod, but also using the TV connector to display them that way too. Should I go with TV optimization for everything? Does that just use a higher resolution and make for a larger file size, or are there other differences too?

sandau

I'm not sure, i think he explains it in the application. I've never used my iPod to view videos on the screen, only on the TV...as odd as that sounds. So I always select optimize for TV.

telomar

As always I recommend MPEG Streamclip. It does require the MPEG-2 playback component for DVD or MPEG-2 streams but otherwise it is a very good video encoder in general with support for a range of PVRs and has presets for the iPod.