Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with video and ipod

AniPod?

Oktober — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:29:15 -0800

I have a substantial amount of anime that I'd like to watch, but a less-than-perfect system for doing it. Pretty much all of it is in .mkv files (h.264 video and AAC audio) with subtitles, and I'd like to transcode them to a format that's playable on either my iPhone or my PS3 with subtitles intact. I've tried both handbrake and VLC, and I either get 1) no subtitles in handbrake or 2) encoder errors in VLC. So, hive mind, what am I doing wrong here?

iPod Touch Recovery

Kiwi — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:31:34 -0800

How to recover videos from an iPod Touch? My video files were kept on an external HD, which has now bitten the dust. Does anyone have any experience with getting the videos back off the iPod and onto my PC?

How to merge mp4 files without re-encoding?

ptsampras14 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:40:05 -0800

How can I merge mp4's with out re-encoding, or losslessly? I have 21 minute TV shows, divided up in to 3 clips seven minutes each. I need to merge them or join them into one large clip in mp4 format, the three clips are mp4 format. I tried Mediacoder, but that re-encodes them so it takes about a half hour.. I have 50 shows so thats not possible..
I need to merge the clips losslessly so it should be quick. I know YAMB can do this, but when I try, part 1's audio shows with video from part 2. I don't know how to fix it.

Youtube Videos to Ipod

madmamasmith — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:45:10 -0800

I want to import a youtube video on to my ipod. I downloaded a firefox add on that is supposed to convert the files to FLV as well as a download helper. A little icon appears on the bottom of the screen and it is supposed to download the video to my computer, but it doesnt work. SO I downloaded itube and something called ares tube but nothing is working!!!! It always says error....am I doing it wrong? or is there an easier way to transfer videos to my ipod? Please help....and keep in mind, I am not technology minded at all.

Digital camera movies into an iPod?

keijo — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:47:16 -0800

When movies taken with a digital camera have been transferred to iPhoto, how to get one out to one's iPod to show around? My dad has a Canon Digital IXUS 950 IS, and syncs the camera with his Mac with his photos and the occasional movie ending up in the iPhoto library. Now, he would like to transfer a couple of these movies to his video iPod. I know you need to do this via iTunes, but i cannot even make the movies show there much less transfer them over. Help the poor iPodless son.

DIY Photo Upload?

bluefly — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:39:54 -0800

Is there a way to manually upload photos to an iPod Video? i.e. without syncing and erasing the files already on my iPod? I already manually manage music and video on it. I'd take any solutions for Windows or Mac OS.

Help Me Stop Watching My iPod With My Glasses Off, Please

interrobang — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:04:04 -0800

Audio and video are out of sync on mp4s downloaded from Google Video about 80% of the time. Is there anything simple that I can do about this? OSX, by the way, and it's mostly for watching on my iPod.

Easy video onto the PSP?

zardoz — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 05:38:54 -0800

I have a PSP and would like to download YouTube videos so I can watch them on my commute. This brings up a number of questions... I want to make this a daily thing--watching the news on the train. This news junky needs his fix, and the morning commute is the best time do it.

First off, I'd like to download political videos--clips from U.S. news shows, debate, etc. Other than the politics category at YouTube, are there any other sites I can download videos of this kind? .mp4 files are ideal, but anything I can download would be fine. If you've got a video iPod, then PSPs use the same .mp4 format.

And perhaps most importantly, is there a decent Firefox downloader for video files? I have a Firefox extension called Download Helper and another called FlashGot, but can't get either of them to download a batch of video files located on one page.

Having this process be as automated as possible is ideal. Yet another question I have is the .mp4 format for the PSP--Sony goes out of their way to make sure putting video on your PSP is as painful a process as possible. I can convert downloaded .flv files with PSP Video 9, but it's extremely time-consuming. Any REALLY simple way to get YouTube videos (along with the necessary THM files) onto my PSP?

Thanks for reading the whole thing!

Sound failing in video files ripped with Handbrake

bitter-girl.com — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:15:08 -0800

TV show episodes ripped to iPod via Handbrake (aka MediaFork) are dropping audio 3/4 of the way into the file. Arrrrrgh! Has anyone found a reliable way of overcoming it? Or do you have a better program to recommend? I see that it's a known problem, but barring a sudden breakthrough over at the Handbrake forums, has anyone found a solution (I'm running the most recent Mac OS, FYI) or another, better program?

I'm annoyed to have spent days ripping all of Firefly only to have files with ooky sound. (Ah well, at least it wasn't all of Buffy. YET). Thanks in advance.

Is there a way to make separate videos play continuously, and in order on my Ipod?

Apo11o — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:17:23 -0800

I would like to make several episodes of an internet show i (legally) downloaded play continuously on my 5G Ipod. Normally, when a video, finishes, it stops and returns to the video list menu. I don't want it to do that, i want it to play the next episode automatically, without having to manually select it to play. Can anyone help?

Sudden problem encoding video

ascullion — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:05:16 -0800

I regularly use ffmpeg to encode videos (from mpeg2 to mpeg4) for my ipod. I've been doing this for nearly a year with no problems. Now, every time I start an encode, my system is suddenly under a lot of pressure - I can't use any other application. If I go into the windows task manager and set the priority to 'below normal', all is fine again. Anyone have any idea why this change might have occured, or any idea how I can get around it (preferably without using task manager)? For info - i think this is a windows problem, rather than an ffmpeg problem. I suspect windows isn't allocating resourced properly anymore, for some reason. The same symptoms happen with other software sometimes - ffmpeg is just the one i use most.

Can I record straight to my iPod?

beammeup4 — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:06:18 -0800

Can I record video from my ATI DVR straight to my iPod? I've got an ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 tuner with the ability to record shows onto your computer like a DVR. The software has a number of recording settings, including an option to define your own custom record settings.

Does anyone with this device or an ATI All-in-Wonder know if you can define the video recording settings in a way that it is automatically compatible with the iPod? There is an option to record in MPEG-4, but it records it with an AVI extension that I can't drag into iTunes.

Anyone able to rip a video from the dotcomedy site?

GatorDavid — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:09:55 -0800

Anyone able to rip a video from the dotcomedy site? There's a FF adddon that will let you rip a video from YouTube and MySpace, etc. video sites, but it doesn't work with NBC's dotcomedy site. I've been pulling my hair out trying to get the Alec Baldwin Valtrex commercial onto my PC so I can put it on my iPod, but no luck.

Anyone got any ideas?

Video here: http://www.dotcomedy.com/cs/Satellite?c=DCVideo&childpagename=DotComedy%2FDCLayout&cid=1156354328731&packedargs=channel%3DTV%2B%2526%2BMovies%26channelid%3D1154010052517&pagename=DCWrapper

Help me convert my iPod video, please!

antifuse — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:06:21 -0800

What is the best way to convert my videos for iPod viewing? Ok, here's the story: I have lots of dvds (mostly TV dvd box sets) that I have legally (well, I suppose it's questionable what with the DMCA and all, but I'm going for fair use here) converted to divx in order to watch them on my computer. I would like to convert them to ipod compatible video so that I can watch them during my commute, or on my lunch break at work, or during random downtime when I've got my ipod on me. The problem is, every single ipod video converter I've found seems to be COMPLETE GARBAGE. My requirements aren't all that complicated, but I haven't found a converter that does what I need:

1) Maintain the aspect ratio. So if I throw a bunch of widescreen videos in with a bunch of non-widescreen videos, it will convert them all to 320 by (insert appropriate value to maintain aspect ratio). This is the primary feature that I can't seem to find anywhere.

2) Convert without doing that lame "live preview" thing that shows every 10th frame or whatever. I don't really need this at all, and it just slows things down.

3) Let me do a batch of videos, rather than having to do it one at a time (one at a time would be... painful)

I'm perfectly happy to pay for a good piece of software that'll do this, so long as I'm sure it can do what I need. Really, the biggest pain in the arse is the aspect ratio bits. I could probably live with the live preview if I didn't have to manually sort my stuff between widescreen and non-widescreen when converting.

Burnin up screens near you!

antifuse — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:58:51 -0800

Will leaving my 5.5g iPod connected to the computer cause burn-in on the screen? I'm a bit concerned with the behaviour of my 5.5g iPod. I've only noticed this recently because I've left it connected to my computer all day at work. When it's connected to the computer, the screen stays backlit, with the "Do not disconnect" message and flashing symbol on it. Will this cause burn-in issues on the screen, or am I being overly paranoid?

I need video on my ipod!!

keep it tight — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 10:18:47 -0800

How can I download my existing videos into my ipod? I just bought my daughter a new Ipod Video 30gb. She was able to move all her music from Windows media player over to Itunes, however, all her videos apparently need to be in .mov format...

Is there an easy way to do this? i downloaded VLC player that will apparently convert videos to .mov, but when I do that, there is picture but no sound!

Any experience out there in the hive?

Thanks

Choose my new gadget.

The Wig — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:46:25 -0800

Help me buy a new MP3 player. I've had an iPod for about 3 years and it is finally starting to die. So I am now in the market for a new portable music gadget, and what with video out there now I am completely lost. I want to know what is out there besides the iPod that meets my features wish-list.

I have looked through a few previous topical questions here, but I think a new question on the subject is warranted for my situation.

I'm a Mac user, so I want something that will talk to my Mac. Preferably without a 3rd party software suite (like MusicMatch Jukebox?). Ideally something that just mounts as an external storage device and lets me manipulate the files on it myself.

My digital music collection is ~60 GB, so I am looking for something that is hard drive based. Doesn't have to be 60 GB, 20 GB is fine with me, but no flash based players.

Should I get one of these gadgets that does video? I am a big cartoon watcher and have many episodes of cartoons on DVD and also ripped to my hard drive as smaller avis (for, um, backup purposes in case I lose my DVDs). So a video gadget that will let me watch a video on a TV without any externuous hardware is good. I think it would be pretty neat to be able to dump a bunch of cartoons on it, so I could bring them to a friends house and watch them there.

I like the idea of a hard drive based mp3 player with a cheap low quality camera in it. I don't have a camera phone, and this would seem to be a good way to replicate the always-have-a-camera experience. I looked at the Archos Gmini 402cc (featured on the main page of Archos) but nobody in Canada sells it; I don't want to buy one without holding it in my hands first. Are there any other gadgets that do this?

Has anyone had such a good experience with the Gmini 402cc that I shouldn't even worry about trying one in a store first? Reviews on this gadget are scarce and I'd like to hear from anyone here who has one, or knows someone who does.

Is a video iPod my best bet? It looks like Archos has some comparable products, but I've never used one of their gadgets, so I have no ideas. Any opinions from people who've tried Mac-compatible manufacturers besides Apple?

squeezing audio from a video podcast

GrumpyMonkey — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 11:23:09 -0800

Is there a way to play the audio from video podcasts on my iPod? I have several .m4v and .mp4 files and when I drag them to my iPod nothing happens. Normal podcast files transfer fine of course.

I have tried the "Convert Selection for IPod" in iTunes and it says that the files already are in the correct format.

I have found a million hacks to actually play the videos on my Nano but I really do not care about that - all that I really want to be able to do is to listen to the podcasts while driving to work. I can always watch the video when I actually am at my computer.

I am on a PC, using ITunes 6.0.4.2 with iPod software version 1.1.1.

What are the numbers for video iPod use?

k8t — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 08:21:57 -0800

What are people watching on their Video iPods and other devices that use downloaded video content? How many people are buying them? What are the stats on what people are buying (PSP vs. Archos vs. iPod, etc.) I'm looking for information about video players specifically. Sure, the iTunes store tells me what people are legally downloading from them, but I assume that the majority of items downloaded aren't legal. Any stats are helpful. I've seen Apple's financial statement, but that's not terribly useful. Any info that is region specific, especially concerning Europe would be great.

Slurping videos from the iPod

skylar — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 15:51:48 -0800

Is there a way to extract videos from the video iPod onto a Mac? I've scoured the AskMeFi archive but can't seem to find any discussion of this. Extracting MP3s from an iPod onto the Mac is no problem - I'm used to doing this. But I'm having no luck with extracting videos using the same applications. Can anyone recommend a program which will allow me to slurp some movies onto my Mac from a video iPod? Thanks.

Ipod Video

danielpcummings — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 13:04:03 -0800

Are all P2P file sharting networks evil and infect your computer with wiruses and spyware? Also, does anyone know how to copy DVDs (that I have legally purchased and copy them to my video iPod?

From Tivo to iPod?

ericbop — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:50:13 -0800

So, I think I'll get me one of them new iPods that plays video. Maybe. What would definitely push me over the edge would be if there was a way to get TV shows off my Tivo and onto the iPod. What's the easiest/cheapest/simplest way to accomplish this? I have a Powerbook G4 and my wife has a Windows XP laptop, if that helps. And while we're on the subject... can I also get the Tivo content onto either computer and simply burn it to DVD?