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Ask iLounge 1-3-08

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By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, January 3, 2008
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-related questions from a member of the iLounge editorial team. We'll answer several questions here each week, and of course, you can always get help with more immediate concerns from the iLounge Discussion Forums. Submit your questions for consideration using our Ask iLounge Submit Form. We reserve the right to edit questions for grammar, spelling, and length.

The most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?

Click here for the answer.

The second most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I put DVDs on my iPod?


For converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and home movies to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, we have a three-part series outlining the best formats, settings, and various tools to use for converting all types of video content for use on these devices.

The Complete Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)

Top five questions most recently asked by iLounge readers:

Q: What are the best speakers to use with my iPod? (15, 76-79, and 90-92)

Q: What are the best headphones to use with my iPod? (10, 72-75, and 90-92)

Q: I really want to get a nice case for my iPod. Do you have any suggestions? (36-37, 54-67, and 90-92)

Q: How can I connect my iPod to my car stereo? (14, 32-35, 68-71, and 90-92)

Q: Are there any batteries that I can use to extend my iPod's battery life? (82-83 and 90-92)

A: Answers to these and many other questions can be found in two places. Our Free iPod Book 3.3 provides a complete report card to all of the iPod accessories we've reviewed as of summer 2007, as well as over 125 iTunes and iPod tips & tricks. Further, our new 2008 iPod & iPhone Buyers' Guide has accessory tutorials at the page numbers listed in parentheses above. These and other publications in our Library are free downloads, developed by the editors of iLounge!

And now, for this week's Ask iLounge column:

Q: Do you know if the Altec Lansing iM600 iPod speaker system is compatible with the new iPod Nano 3rd Generation with Video. The Apple Store says that it is not but Altec Lansing claims on their website that this speaker system works with all iPod models. I have not tried it yet for fear of damaging my new Nano. I checked out your review and it says that it is compatible with the nano, but it does not specify which models. I really liked the demo that I heard and would like to purchase one. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

- Chris

A: For the purposes of audio playback, the iM600 speaker system is compatible with all of the 2007 iPod models, and even the iPhone (although you will receive a prompt about enabling “Airplane Mode” on the iPhone, as with most other iPod speakers).

The only function of the iM600 that does not work with the 2007 iPod models is the “Video Out” port, which may be why this particular speaker system is not being listed by Apple as compatible. As we have discussed in previous week’s columns, the new iPod models require specific new accessories to enable the video out functionality, and the iM does not include the necessary authentication chip to enable this feature.

Realistically, however, video output is clearly not a core feature for a speaker system such as this, and it’s likely not going to be an issue for most users. All audio playback related functions of the iM600 work fine with all of the 2007 iPod models, including the remote control functions.

Q: I have a new iPod classic 160 GB that I’m loading with videos. I’ve read that a 640x480 file is the same MB size as a 320x176 file if encoded at the same kbps (bit-rate). Is this correct? Is there an advantage to the bigger size? Is there a “definitive” guide you can point me to that explains the relation between resolution and kbps clearly. Thanks in advance, and keep up the great work.

- Alex

A: As odd as it may sound, it is actually correct that a given video file’s size is based on the bit-rate of that file, expressed in kbps or kilobits per second, rather than on the resolution.

Much like audio files, the bit-rate defines how much data is stored for each second of playback. This means that a 1500 kbps video file has 1,500,000 bits of data stored for each second of playback time. In that sense, basic math will let you determine the size of a file relative to the bit-rate.

This may seem counterintuitive, since you expect a higher resolution file to occupy more space, in the same way that a higher resolution picture occupies more space. While this may be true in the case of an uncompressed video, the reality is that modern video compression algorithms are “lossy” by nature, and do not actually store a full image for each frame of video—instead, “reference” frames are stored, and then additional data is used to represent the changes between reference frames. These are interpreted during playback to produce relatively smooth motion video.

The catch is that there actually is a direct relationship between the bit-rate of a video and the resolution—or perhaps more accurately, between the resolution and an acceptable bit-rate. The larger the image, the more data is going to be required to accurately represent the motion within that image. For instance, although you may technically be able to encode a 640x480 and a 320x172 video file at the same bit-rate, you will either be creating an unnecessarily large 320x172 video (if the bit-rate is too high), or creating a very poor quality 640x480 video (if the bit-rate is too low). Generally, the bit-rate needs to be appropriate for the video resolution in order to produce an acceptable playback experience with reasonable quality. Too low of a bit-rate will produce a movie file that with visual problems such as “artifacting” and “macroblocking” and possibly even choppy playback (skipped frames).

As a rule, for acceptable playback when encoding video for the iPod using the H.264 codec, a 320x240 video file (encoded for the iPod screen), can generally be done with a bit-rate of approximately 750kbps, whereas a 640x480 file should use a bit-rate of approximately 1500kbps. On the other hand, videos encoded into standard MPEG-4 require slightly higher bit-rates, as the standard MPEG-4 codec is not as efficient.

You can find a much more detailed discussion about this, as well the suggested formats and display resolutions in our iPod 101 tutorial The Complete Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats

Q: Is it possible to define different rules for different podcasts? I’d like to keep only the previous 5 or only those unplayed - but a couple I want to keep all the podcasts. Can I do this somehow?

- Anonymous

A: Although you cannot define different rules for different podcasts, you can exempt some podcasts from the default auto-delete settings.

To do this, simply highlight the podcast subscription within iTunes, and then right-click on the podcast title and choose “Do Not Auto Delete” from the contextual menu:

This will exempt all episodes of that particular podcast, both current and future, from the default auto-deletion settings. Note that you can also do this for a single podcast episode, if you prefer—simply highlight the specific episode instead of the podcast heading, and choose “Do Not Auto Delete” for that particular episode.

There is no visual indication of whether this option is set or not, but if you right-click on the podcast or episode title again, you will note that the “Do Not Auto Delete” option changes to “Allow Auto Delete” which both indicates the current setting and gives you the option to change it back.

Note that if both “Do Not Auto Delete” and “Allow Auto Delete” appear when selecting a podcast heading and right-clicking, this means that some episodes within the podcast are set to not allow auto deletion while others are.

Selecting one of the two options will set all of the episodes within that podcast to the chosen setting.

Q: I downloaded videos to my iPod but they all have no sound? They were all converted and there was still no sound. What am I doing wrong or are they not compatible with my iPod.

- Jeff

A: The most likely cause of this is a problem during the actual conversion process. Both iTunes and Quicktime Pro have problems with source video files that use “multiplexed” audio. Many MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files, particularly VOB files extracted from DVDs are encoded in this format, and therefore cannot be reliably converted by iTunes or Quicktime.

See Apple’s knowledgebase article, iPod plays video but not audio of some exported files for more information.

Your best option in this case is to look to a third-party video encoding tool, such as Videora (for PC) or iSquint (for Mac). Our iPod 101 tutorials provide more information on some of these tools:

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)

Q: I buy my iTunes content here in Canada, but I will be going away to the Caribbean for a few months for work, can I use my Canadian iTunes card on the Canadian iTunes store to purchase music and videos while in the Caribbean?

- Kathy

A: The iTunes Store bases its international purchase restrictions on your actual billing address associated with your credit card, and not your present physical location. You should therefore not have any problems using your Canadian iTunes Store account while abroad.

Q: I just got a new iPod classic and I’m trying to upload content onto it. It’s working but when I try to upload a movie, I check “Sync Movies” and then a box appears that says: Are you sure you want to sync movies? All existing Songs, Movies and TV shows on the iPod will be removed and replaced with movies from your iTunes libary. How do I upload movies without having to remove all existing songs and movies?

- Beci

A: The most likely cause of this is that you have been transferring music to your iPod manually, so it is not already in any kind of automatic synchronization mode. This warning is advising you that to transfer movies on using automatic synchronization, you must set iTunes to synchronize all content to your iPod automatically.

Essentially, confirming that you want to do this will set iTunes to automatically synchronize your music and video content to your iPod. This will replace everything that is presently on your iPod with content from your iTunes library. Of course, if the content in your iPod is still in your iTunes library, then switching to automatic synchronization is really not an issue, as iTunes will simply go through the library and retransfer the same content back again (in reality, it will probably recognize most of the content and simply match it up, rather than retransferring it).

If, on the other hand, you’ve been using manual mode to transfer music to your iPod and remove it from your iTunes library, or you have another reason for wanting to use manual mode, then you will need to transfer your video content in the same way—by dragging and dropping it onto your iPod. In this case, leave the “Sync Movies” checkbox OFF in iTunes, and just take items from within your “Movies” folder in iTunes and drag them onto your iPod in the same way that you transfer your music.

Q: When loading audio books onto my iPod, they do not appear in the “Audiobooks” folder on my iPod or even in iTunes. Nor can I add any new categories or folders other then the 5 or 6 that came with the iPod (ie, Music, Movies, TV Shows, Audiobooks etc).

- Susan

A: The default categories that appear in the source list in iTunes are somewhat fixed. These can be hidden or displayed via a series of checkboxes in iTunes’ General Preferences, but you cannot further customize them or add your own.

The only option for additional organization is to create folders and playlists within the iTunes library, which appear further down in the source list. Folders are only shown within iTunes and on the iPod classic and iPod nano—other models of iPod omit the folder structure and display only the playlists.

Content is organized into these various main categories based on tags within the content files themselves. Most audio content is imported as “Music” by default, and most video content as “Movies.” Video content can be re-categorized as “TV Show” or “Music Video” from within the individual track properties, but no such built-in option exists for audio files.

Normally, audiobooks downloaded from the iTunes Store or Audible.com come into the Audiobooks category automatically. Other files that you import yourself will default to being listed as “Music” even if they happen to be audiobooks initially.

There is a workaround to this, however, if you want your own audiobooks to be listed in the “Audiobooks” category: Simply encode the file as an AAC file when you rip it from CD, or convert an existing MP3 to AAC. Then, rename the resulting file from “.M4A” to “.M4B” before importing it into iTunes. This will place it in the “Audiobooks” category during import.

If you have already imported the file as an M4A, you will need to remove it from the iTunes library (ensuring that you select “Keep Files” when prompted as to whether or not you wish to delete the actual file) then rename it to M4B and reimport it.

MP3 files that you’ve already ripped will have to be converted to AAC (.M4A) before you can do this with them. iTunes can handle this conversion for you (see the “Convert to...” option under the Advanced menu), or there are third-party options available.

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Ask iLounge Archives:

5-9-08: About iPod battery life and charging, Using Apple FM Radio remote on older iPod models, Scan and Fix dialog using iPod on Windows Vista, Preserving iTunes metadata when reinstalling Windows, Importing multiple tracks into iTunes, About iTunes and ID3 tags

5-2-08: Transferring digital camera movies to iPod, Reordering and shuffling playlists, Transferring playlists between iTunes libraries, Importing audiobooks, Correcting tags on CD import, Burning CDs with longer gaps

4-25-08: Finding Duplicates in iTunes, Setting files to open in iTunes automatically, Resetting authorizations, 1G iPod nano and voice recording, Syncing a library larger than your iPod capacity, Grouping multi-disc albums

4-17-08: Ripping CDs to external hard drive, Zeppelin speakers and USB port, Bluetooth stereo on iPhone, Converting TV shows to iPod, Audio recording on iPod touch, Wireless security on iPod touch

4-10-08: Transferring LPs to iTunes, Movie Rentals and 5G iPod, New iPod models on older Macs, Maintaining Playback Position on iPod, Importing CDs on multiple computers

See the rest of the Archives...

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Next: Ask iLounge 1-10-08

Previous: The Value of iTunes Video Rentals

Comments

1

i have an ipod video (30gb), i don’t know what did just happened, my pc doesn’t recognize it as a usb device and itunes neither, when i connect it, the screen turns on in a white or a black color, but 5 secs later the ipod just turns off and nothin happen until i reconnect it..i have an ipod video (30gb), i don’t know what did just happened, my pc doesn’t recognize it as a usb device and itunes neither, when i connect it, the screen turns on in a white or a black color, but 5 secs later the ipod just turns off and nothing happen until i reconnect it.. if the ipod has battery and i press menu is the same, the screen turns on and few secs later turns off

Posted by e2ectro on January 9, 2008 at 10:23 PM (PDT)

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