| How to convert video files and rip DVD to Apple iPod video MP4 format? |
| Step 1. Download AVS Video Converter |
| You can try out the Windows-only Video Converter for free, but a watermark will appear throughout your video. If you're serious about converting video, purchase the program for US$39.95; the variety of supported file formats makes it worth it. |
| |
| Step 2. Launch AVS Video Converter |
 |
|
Start > All Programs > AVS Media > AVS Video Tools > AVS Video Converter |
| |
| Step 3. Select Output File Type |
 |
|
Click the To MP4 button along the top of the interface. When creating a video for the iPod, always select the MP4 file format. |
| |
| Step 4. Choose Video File or DVD |
 |
|
Click the uppermost Browse button on the right. Navigate to the location where you keep your video files or DVDs, and select the video that you would like to convert. Click Open.
Note: When your input is a DVD Disc, you will need to select the path to your source file: X://Video_TS/Video_TS.IFO. "X" stands for your DVD-ROM or the hard disk drive folder where your DVD is stored.
It is important to select the IFO file, rather than VOB or VRO file, because the IFO file contains the information about the entire DVD structure and this way you will avoid audio and video de-synch problems when converting. Also, most DVDs have several VOB or VRO files (files with actual video) and if you convert VOBs or VROs instead of IFO, you will have to merge them afterwards, which is not the case with the IFO files.
Anyway if you have only VRO or VOB files, select them. AVS Video Converter converts these files perfectly too. |
| |
| Step 5. Select the Output Location |
 |
|
Click the bottom Browse button on the right. Choose the location where you would like to save your converted video file. Click Save. |
| |
| Step 6. Select the Output Format Profile |
 |
|
In the list of Profiles (MP4 Profile Field) select one of the offered iPod profiles:
- iPod H.264: Highest Available Quality;
- iPod H.264: Standard Quality;
- iPod MP4: Best Quality;
- iPod MP4: Economy Quality;
- iPod MP4: for TV output.
You can also click Edit Profile button to manually set the iPod profile parameters. |
| |
| Step 7. Convert Video |
 |
|
Click Convert Now and step away from the computer (processor performance will be seriously affected during conversion). If you want to watch the progress while you convert, click the Advanced button until the viewing screen pops out of the bottom.
Note: AVS converted our original 22-minute MPEG-4 file at a rate slightly faster than real time on an Intel 2.8GHz P4 system with 1GB of RAM. Our source file was 224MB, and our resulting iPod-compatible file was 199MB. |
| |
| Step 8. Transfer Video to the iPod |
 |
|
Open Apple iTunes and drag the newly converted video file to the library window. If you have selected "Automatically update all videos" for the video preferences for your iPod, the new video will automatically transfer when you connect the player. If you have selected "Automatically update the selected playlists only," make sure that you drag the new video to one of the selected playlists.
Note: You'll probably want to update the information of the video when you move it to the iTunes library. To do this, select Videos from the left-hand column and go to list view. Then, click the file for which you want to edit info and select Get Info from the File menu (or simply right-click). You can edit the boxes found under the Info tab. |
| |
