iPod: The Missing Manual, 9th 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 2010 iPods, just the Touch and the faithful old Classic still play moving pictures. Of the two, one plays video especially well: With its high-resolution, 3.5-inch screen, the iPod Touch seems like it was made for video.

In fact, the Touch has become the premier video iPod on all levels. Although previous iPod Nanos played—and even recorded—video, Apple removed the video features from the tiny Nano of 2010 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 chock-full of videos you can buy or rent (Chapter 7 shows you how), but sometimes you want to add your own flicks ...