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Getting Your Video iPod ready for Your DVDs

 The video iPod has every DVD owner drooling at the thought of having their favorites in the palm of their hand. What they are not so happy about is the hours of conversion time it will take to make this happen. With a full charge, the 30GB video iPod gives only two hours of playback, while the 60GB gives three. The good thing is that now converting your DVDs can be done in one easy step with the Handbrake program (freeware) that can make DVD compatible with your video iPod. You no longer have to save your DVD to your hard drive and convert the file to video format.

 How to Convert your Videos

To start your video iPod conversion, download the Handbrake program, once it is installed, insert your DVD and launch it. Your DVD will be detected as '/dev/rdisk#'. Select this file and the click 'Open'. Once Handbrake has scanned your disk, choose the selections you want to convert, you will see all the contents like special features, and movie trailers and these will show up in the 'Titles' drop-down list. Your movie will probably be the longest title in the list. Select the title first and then select the chapter range you want to convert, start with first to last chapter. The program will give you the total time of video you are converting; most conversions are about two hours.

 Selecting the best options

To make the most of your Handbrake program settings for your video iPod, in the video window, select the frame rate of 29.97, which works well for output to the video iPod and on most TV's as well. It is also wise to enable the 2-pass encoding option, although it will take twice as long using this method, your video image will be crisper and the audio clearer.

In 'Picture Settings', you can choose what size you want your finished movie to be. Here is where the format’s maximum picture size is used. If you are only going to output your video to your video iPod, keep aspect ratio as it is checked and change the picture width to 320 pixels, the width of your video iPod screen.

 The settings for your video iPod are one thing, but your setting for the output to your TV are different, you will want to make your movie as large as possible. Remember, the H.264 format allows for 76,800 pixels and MPEG-4 format allows for 230,400 pixels. You will have decrease the size of your video until the number of pixels wide multiplied by the number of pixels high is just less than the total number of pixels that you’re allowed-use your calculator for this - so you can get it right.

In most cases, the automatic crop option in the Handbrake program will properly detect and remove any black bars around your movie. Check the other parts of your movie with the 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons. If you see black bars in some of the preview frames, change the crop settings manually. This is the steps to getting the ball rolling. You are now on your way to watching your favorite movies, listening to your favorite tunes, or else playing your favorite games. You can also download data onto your iPod so that it will be available to you anywhere you go, and anytime you will need the information.

 Some of the best devices ever are on the market, yet updates are always coming to the fore. Therefore, keep watch for latest news and updates to get the most out of your iPod experience.