Q: I run a video podcast for posting videos of my kids for friends and family in distant places. Since I bought an iMac in January I’ve been using iMovie to create the videos, creating an iPod-compatible version for posting on the podcast. The problem is that when I select the Share, iPod setting in iMovie, it exports the file as a 320×240 video.
I know iPods can support much better resolution, and 320×240 looks very bad on a computer screen. Is there a way to change this setting so that I don’t lose file quality OR the convenience of the exporting directly to an iPod-ready format?
– Jason
A: Unfortunately, this setting in iMovie is pre-configured and there’s no way to change it. However, you can use the QuickTime export setting, and then select the “Movie to iPod” preset from QuickTime, which is pre-configured to produce a 640×480 iPod-ready video file.
To do this, simply choose QuickTime from the Share menu, and you will be presented with the export to QuickTime dialog box:
Select “Expert Settings” from the “Compress Movie for:” option, and then simply click the “Share” button. A QuickTime dialog box will then come up, asking you to choose your export settings and provide a name for the resulting file.
Simply choose “Movie to iPod” from the export settings and click “Save” and QuickTime will create an iPod-ready converted file for you.
