iPod: The Missing Manual, 10th Edition

Chapter 8. It’s Showtime: Video on the iPod

VIDEO-PLAYING IPODS HAVE BEEN AROUND SINCE OCTOBER 2005, when Apple introduced that year’s ‘Pod with a video chip on the inside and a video screen on the outside. Among the 2011 iPods, just the Touch and the faithful old Classic still play moving pictures.

The iPod Touch, with its high-resolution, 3.5-inch screen, has become the premier video iPod on all levels. Although previous iPod Nanos before 2010 played—and even recorded—video, Apple removed the video features from the current, tiny Nano to recast it as the iPod that focused on music and fitness.

Touch or Classic—no matter which iPod you use, you’re not stuck watching just 2- or 3-minute music videos. As explained in the previous chapter, the iTunes Store has all kinds of cinematic goodies you can buy: full-length Hollywood movies and episodes (or entire seasons) of TV shows. Some videos even come in super-sharp, high-definition format, which looks great on both your TV and your computer screen. And yes, if you want music videos, like the kind MTV used to play back when it, uh, played music, you can choose from thousands of them.

This chapter shows you how to get videos from computer to iPod—and how to enjoy them on your own shirt-pocket cinema.

Add Your Own Videos to iTunes

THE ITUNES STORE IS full of videos you can buy or rent (Chapter 7 shows you how), but sometimes you want to add your own flicks to your iTunes library. No problem; you can do that in four ways. One is to drag the ...