Apple's iPod has transformed from a digital music player to a digital media player par excellence. Now in its fifth generation, the iPod brand covers devices that play music, display pictures of album covers, allow touch based interfaces, and even play your favorite movies and television programs, all available through the Apple Music Store. Beyond the commercial options, you can also download copies of your own video programming to your iPod through the iTunes music store.
This has a direct impact on something you see in the news - the Writer's Guild of America strike. The Writer's Guild (WGA) is on strike (shutting down production of a lot of television programs) because of discrepancies in the way that residuals are billed on digital content distributed through the Internet, including through Apple's iTunes online store.
Converting a movie you already own to play on the iPod is a bit tricky. There are compatibility problems lurking under the surface of the device, and it does take a bit of time. Remember that your time is also a valuable part of the equation - ask yourself how much two dollars of your time is actually worth before you start this quest.
If you still want to rip an existing DVD movie on to your iPod video, start by downloading software available on the web but be careful! Choose only those that support the iPod video format. Look for features that are easy to use and fast,brief interface and design
The iPod video converter should be able to integrate with all video/audio encoders/codecs. It should also support a preview function so you can be sure that the iPod movies turn out well. Examples of these are PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter, Handbrake or ImTOO iPod Movie Converter v2.1.
In light of this, knowing how to load your own copies of digital media on the iPod from DVDs you already own, is important - it lets you stand up for the WGA, by making sure that what you purchase actually supports them.
But as legal issues over piracy and copyright laws are beginning to be strict, many are concerned about the future of iPod movies. Will the users be made liable for home videos or ripped DVDs downloaded on their iPod movies' play list?
Good software will give you a lot of options for the conversion process, and have a clean user interface. Two good candidates are PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter and ImTOO iPod Movie Converter. Both of these options have nice interfaces, allow you to dump video to MPEG 4 format, and synchronize the audio streams automatically.
One signal of where that change is going is TV episodes by iPod, which are currently a legal and financial hot potatoe, both between the networks and Apple, and between production companies and writers. The writers want payment of digital distribution in the form of residuals comparable to an airing of a rerun on TV - the production companies are saying otherwise (while pocketing almost a billion dollars in ad revenues from this.)
Creative issues aside, an iPod is a great way to share videos with your friends; you can show it to them on the little screen, or wirelessly connect to a digital media center, or just use the TV Out jack and wide screen options. Understand that digital video compression will make most of the videos come out a little darker than usual.
Other useful accessories for your iPod enjoyment include external speakers, and cable set ups - there are even stereos with "iPod docks" to let you just plug your iPod in.
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1 comment:
Nice post, fyi there are some great programs out there for copying and converting your DVD movies to the iPod, Zune and Sony PSP. My favorite DVD copy software for this is DVD neXt Copy. There is a whole list of DVD burning and ripping software programs listed at www.dvdxcopy.com , with side-by-side comparisons, rankings and in-depth product reviews. Hope this helps - thanks again!
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