How to: Put your movies on your new iPod

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.

9 thoughts on “How to: Put your movies on your new iPod”

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. you can right click on the video (movie) and push convert. this will take a while but it works.

    note; you can only do this on itunes from apple

Leave a Comment