Apple Archive

Converting Video and Adding Album Art for Your iPod

- 2006.01.17

Earlier this month I discussed how Apple was cutting costs in their new video iPod without really adding very many features outside of the ability to watch videos.

Transferring videos to the iPod is done by iTunes, much as you'd transfer a song - just drag the video to the iPod icon in the source list.

Videos can be added to iTunes in two ways. You can download them for $1.99 from the iTunes Music Store, or you can import your own videos. Since Apple would prefer if you downloaded and paid for their videos, they make it a bit more difficult to convert and import your own videos into iTunes.

Video to iPod

Apple's way of having you to do it involves using QuickTime 7 and exporting your MPEG file to the iPod format via a menu option (in a break with the past, you no longer need to buy the Pro version of QuickTime to convert to iPod format). However, this seems to take a long time, and on my 867 MHz 12" PowerBook it sometimes stops halfway with a timeout error.

This leads me to standalone applications. The first one I found is MoviesformyPod, which gives you some options for quality as well as the option to rotate the video that you're converting.

I had no problems with it stopping halfway, but I had issues with some of the files not having audio (and the software itself warns that it cannot convert the audio in muxed MPEG files). If you're like me and have a number of these files you want to play on your video iPod, you might try iSquint.

Like MoviesformyPod, iSquint gives you some choice over quality settings, which affects file size. However, it also gives you some advanced settings where you can crop the movie, change the frame rate, and even change the bitrate for the audio.

It also gives you the opportunity to have a list of several files you want converted to the iPod format so you don't need to manually go back and convert each one. And, if you want, iSquint will even automatically add the movie files to iTunes for you.

But you're still not done, because you'll have to tell iTunes whether the video you just converted is a music video or a movie. If it's a music video, "get info" on the video, choose options, and select "music video". The iPod will even play the audio track alone if you access it by going to the "music" menu and not the "video" menu. You can name the file by artist and title like you would any MP3 file.

Album Cover Art

The other thing you can do with color-screen iPods is copy over album artwork - but in order do that, you must first have the artwork applied to the songs in iTunes. To do this you could scan the cover of all of your CDs, but I've found that I can usually find a roughly 300 x 300 JPEG of the cover of any given album by using an image search engine.

Copy that to your desktop, make sure that Show Artwork is selected in iTunes from the Edit menu (and above the window is showing Selected Song, not Now Playing), select the songs you want the album art to be applied to, and drag the image file into the album artwork window. Now when you copy these songs to your color iPod, you'll be able to see them on the iPod's screen when a song from that album is playing. Push the center button on the iPod's scroll wheel twice, and you'll get a large-sized display of the artwork alone.

Join us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Recent Apple Archive articles

iPods, notebooks, and other modern electronics more readily replaced than repaired, 2007.12.07. Whether it's an intermittent failure or a broken display cable, more often than not it's cheaper to replace a broken electronics device than repair it.
Options for replacing your older iPod, 2007.11.19. Whether you've run out of space on your old iPod or want features it doesn't have, here are your options in new and used iPods.
Could the $200 'green' PC with gOS Linux become a threat to Apple?, 2007.11.14. The low cost, low power Everex desktop comes with a customized version of Ubuntu Linux, has a Mac-like Dock, and sells for $400 less than the Mac mini.
More in the Apple Archive index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac IIfx, introduced 1990.03.19. This 'wicked fast' 40 MHz Mac trumped the 33 MHz DOS world.
February 14 in LEM history: 98: A perfect compact Mac - 00: Extended computer warranties worth the cost? - Making your PC work with your Mac - 01: Customize Microsoft Word - 02: Quadra revives a passion for computing - 03: Real world performance - DIY Pismo screen replacement - Best Mac for writing - 03: Fastest browser on the Mac - 06: 15" MacBook Pro - Impressions of a newly acquired Lisa - Finding and using free WiFi - Apple should liberate OS 9 - 07: New Mac mini cheaper than upgrading a Power Mac - 08: Falling in love with OS X
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Apple Archive articles copyright ©2000-07 by Adam Robert Guha. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay