Article
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)
By Jesse David Hollington
Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, July 26, 2007
Category: iPod 101 Tutorials
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Recorded TV Content
Another type of content that many iPod and Apple TV users will want to convert is content recorded from broadcast television sources, such as over-the-air, cable, and satellite programming.
This content can come from a digital video recording software installed directly onto a PC, or from an external DVR such as a Tivo, and there are solutions that allow for the handling of either.
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MyTv To Go http://www.roxio.com Windows, $30 |
MyTv To Go provides a basic video conversion solution for both Windows Media Centre and TiVo users, allowing for transfer of TV shows recorded on a Windows Media Centre Edition PC or from a TiVo Series 2 device with TiVoToGo support.
The conversion options are relatively limited, providing basic iPod-ready 640x480 formats. The actual configuration and management screens are designed to be viewed and managed directly from a Windows Media Centre Edition system, and therefore look quite large and unusual when being used on a non-media-centre PC:
To convert shows for the iPod from a Media Centre PC, simply select the shows you want to convert, and hit the “Copy TV Shows” button.
The converted files will either be saved to the computer’s hard drive, or transferred directly to the iPod after conversion if it is connected to the computer.
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Hauppauge Wing http://www.hauppauge.com Windows, $25 |
For users of the Hauppauge WinTV series of video capture and TV tuner cards, Hauppauge also offers a small $25 tool to provide direct recording of TV content from a WinTV card to an Apple-ready file format. Like MyTvToGo, the presets are limited to iPod-ready formats only (640x480 1500kbps H.264), but some customization options are also available:
Advanced features include the ability to schedule recordings using the TitanTV guide service which will be recorded directly into an iPod-compatible format.
Wing can also convert existing MPEG-2 files that have been previously recorded using the WinTV software (or any other MPEG-2 compatible application).
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AutoPilot http://www.tvharmony.com Windows, Free (beta version) |
Another product that may be more specifically appropriate for TiVoToGo users is AutoPilot. Although still technically in beta, current versions appear relatively stable, and this provides a free solution for downloading and converting TiVoToGo content into various formats. Like the other solutions above, the presets include only an iPod-specific (640x480 1500kbps H.264) format, but some customization is available.
When AutoPilot is first run, it will take the user through a setup wizard to specify common options. Conversions can be scheduled to occur during specific times of the day, manually, or at any time:
AutoPilot can be configured to be accessed directly from the TiVo itself:
Or from the Internet:
A variety of output formats are supported:
Lastly, AutoPilot can also automatically discover your TiVo device if it’s located on the same network segment, or you can provide the IP address manually:
In addition to downloading content from a TiVoToGo compatible device, AutoPilot can also be used as a manual video conversion tool, queuing up video clips manually for immediate or scheduled conversion:
One interesting advanced feature also offered by AutoPilot is “ComSkip” which allows the video conversion to attempt to detect and remove commercials from converted videos. To enable this, simply select “Use ComSkip” from the destination selection dialog box:
This option can be further customized by clicking the “ComSkip Options” button, which will allow configuration of what types of transitions ComSkip looks for when detecting commercials:
Page four: Converting Home Movies…
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1
Is it possible to get this guide as a PDF? And the other guides, too?
Posted by GrilledGrouper on September 4, 2007 at 7:16 PM (PDT)
2
how to use in sim cade contan, how to transfer music & Videos to the Iphone & How to Converting Videos & Audios Plz Tail my about.
Posted by mohd.afzal on May 9, 2008 at 5:06 AM (PDT)
3
Good !!!
Posted by pRinCy on May 19, 2008 at 2:55 AM (PDT)
4
I Downloaded some Movies and When i tried to play them on my 80 GB Ipod Classic It Said TV Out Enabled. Please Connect Video Accessory. What does that mean and how do i do that?
Thank-you for all your help.
Posted by Garrett on May 24, 2008 at 2:18 PM (PDT)
5
That message implies that you have the “TV Out” option turned on under Video, Settings. Simply go to that menu and turn it off, unless you actually do want to watch your videos on a TV screen, in which case you will need to attach an iPod classic compatible video out accessory.
Posted by Jesse David Hollington in Toronto on May 25, 2008 at 12:05 PM (PDT)
6
Can you retreive lost songs, if so how do you?
Posted by catilyn abercrombie on June 8, 2008 at 9:53 AM (PDT)
7
Hi Jesse,
Do DVDdecrypter and DVD43 run on windows Vista yet?
Cheers
Posted by phillipjfry on July 6, 2008 at 8:48 PM (PDT)
8
I got an iphone 3g 8g! Incredible…However, I am trying to add movies that I burned on my hard drive and I keep getting the “Ghostbusters” sign. Is it possible that the movies are ripped at an mpeg4 instead of another format? If so, which format? Do I have to rip it again (entire movie)? or can I just rip the mpeg4 to the correct format. Thanks!
JH
Posted by Jason on July 12, 2008 at 9:33 AM (PDT)
9
Great guide; can you help with this issue? When trying to use the iTunes conversion option (for video podcasts I have downloaded via iTunes or for external h.264 video, for example) iTunes will start the conversion process, then after a few minutes will give me an error message that “the disk could not be read from or written to.” This happens whether I have the iPod connected, or not. Any advice about what’s up with that?
Posted by Lee on September 5, 2008 at 8:47 AM (PDT)
10
Hey, thanks for the great help. I have a queiry though…I have copied a couple of videos onto itunes which is fine but then when I tried syncing them with my ipod nano (latest 8gb version) it said that the format was not conpatible. So I tried clicking on it as you said to ‘convert to ipod’ but it didn’t come up at all, does this mean I should download Handbrake and see if it works that way? Also my digital camera records in AVI format, itunes is not resistering anything in that file at all so can I convert them for use on my ipod with Handbrake?
Thanks
Posted by Nina on September 14, 2008 at 7:09 AM (PDT)
11
can you walk me though the process for copying videos from my hard drive to my i-pod touch?
Posted by ccpot on October 4, 2008 at 2:49 PM (PDT)
12
i had a quick question- my friend sent me a movie.. and im not sure how to get it into my itunes in order to put in onto my ipod
what do i do?
i tried importing it.. and nothing happend!
thanks so much!
-tal
Posted by tals on October 24, 2008 at 3:49 AM (PDT)
13
trouble adding second ipod on my computer
Posted by bill price on November 25, 2008 at 10:18 AM (PDT)
14
How do I make my 30 G ipod compatable with my windows vista and re arrange songs in folders???? please reply
Posted by Howard Griffith on December 1, 2008 at 12:46 PM (PDT)
15
I have my video ipod connected to a tv through the headphone jack and when I try and play my ipod, I get a message “please connect video accessory” I thought it was connected? What’s the deal?
Posted by Jacobb on December 24, 2008 at 10:34 PM (PDT)
16
You should really change the title of this guide to “DVD to Ipod/Iphone/Apple TV” because this said nothing about avi/mpeg/wmv video conversion.
Posted by andy on December 30, 2008 at 12:33 AM (PDT)
17
Hi Jesse,
This doesn’t really have anything to do with avi/mpeg/wmv video conversion, but it’s great help for other purposes. Anyway, I have an ipod touch 2G 8gb and I want to put videos into it but it only allows “MPEG-4” files. Do you reccomend any programs I can use to convert different files into “MPEG-4”? Please help.
Regards,
Posted by cathh on January 15, 2009 at 9:44 PM (PDT)
18
i got an ipod touch and i recently purcahsed applications and it wont let me sync them on my ipod its making very frustrated please help me.
thank you
Posted by brooke crenter on January 22, 2009 at 6:13 PM (PDT)
19
I have the newest version of HandBrake, 0.9.3, for windows, the GUI version, and I have a 3rd generation video nano iPod. I use DVD43 to encode them and then use HandBrake, but the movies won’t fit on my iPod because I can’t change the aspect ratio to 1.33:1. Do you know how to change the aspect ratio on HandBrake 0.9.3 for windows? Thank you please help me!!!
Posted by Danny on March 28, 2009 at 12:17 PM (PDT)
20
Nevermind, I fixed it using custom crop. By the way this is a nice page for help on converting.
Posted by Danny on March 29, 2009 at 6:18 AM (PDT)
21
After following this process I converted several DVD’s but when playing the movies there is a noticeable lag between audio and video tracks. How is this solved?
Posted by Mathew on July 20, 2009 at 5:10 PM (PDT)
22
I tried to put a WMV type file into itunes so I could convert it but nothing happened when I tried to import it into iTunes.
Posted by Raine on July 27, 2009 at 2:24 PM (PDT)
23
My ipod is frozen how do I unfreeze it?
Thanks, Karen Nencka
Posted by karen Nencka on August 20, 2009 at 6:23 PM (PDT)
24
omg , i can not get this music video on my new ipod touch . i dont know what to do , im a dumb blondee and im confusedd . pleasee helpp me !!!!!!!!!!
~katiee
Posted by katiee on November 13, 2009 at 7:34 PM (PDT)
25
i just added a new hard drive and transfered my itunes to it. I don’t know why but it copied everything twice and I’m looking for an easy way to delete the copies. I have over 14,000 songs so doing it one by one is not an option. Thanks for your help.
Posted by michael on November 19, 2009 at 6:39 PM (PDT)