Your collection of DVDs, home movies, and Mac-recorded TV shows is also perfect fodder. With the right software, you can quickly convert these movies into iPod-compatible files and take them with you on your morning commute or your next holiday.
Although music continues to be the primary focus of iTunes Music Store, it’s not the only thing you’ll find there. In addition to offering audiobooks and podcasts (both audio and video), iTunes also gives you access to animated shorts, music videos, and more. If you have a video-capable iPod, you can even take your video on the road catching up with the latest episode of your favourite TV show while at the gym, or learning new photo-editing tricks while on the bus to work.
But the addition of video brings new challenges. For example, you can’t just drag home movies onto your video iPod and expect them to play. You must first convert them into the right format. And the videos you download from the iTunes Music Store come with their own limitations. Here’s what you need to know to download, organise, convert, and play video files in iTunes and on your iPod.
Finding Videos
To pursue what’s available on iTunes, go to the Music Store and select ‘Music Video’, ‘Movie Trailers’, or ‘Pixar’ from the Inside The Music Store column. Video downloads will set you back £1.89 GBP, although when TV shows become available you’ll be able to buy a Multi Pass that enables you to buy entire seasons at a discount.
You can also find free videos on the iTunes Music Store, in the form of video podcasts. To access them, click on the ‘Podcasts’ item on the Music Store home page, and then click on the ‘Video Podcasts’ button in the centre of the Podcasts page.
As with audio podcasts, you can add video podcasts to your library simply by clicking on the ‘Subscribe’ button. If you want to download just one episode of a podcast, click on the podcast’s title and then click on the ‘Get Episode’ button next to the item you’re interested in.
Managing video purchases
Downloaded videos will appear alongside your music tracks and podcasts in the iTunes library. You can distinguish them from other files with the help of the small grey video icon that appears after the title. To see all your videos in one place, click on the ‘Videos’ item in the ‘Source’ list.
The downside of video
Video download times aren’t particularly speedy and you will need a broadband connection to get the content. Then you can expect to spend about three minutes downloading a four-minute music video. Downloading a one-hour TV show (about 44 minutes without commercials) could take as long as 40 minutes, depending on your hardware.