Convert movies for your iPhone/iPod Touch

iPodMe converts movies for your machine. It is wonderful. Not to say that iPodMe is the best free program for iPod Touchor iPhone. Life is too short to test them all. But for what it does it appears to be the best.

iPodMe is a free, open source program that can convert video into MP4 format suitable for iPod Touch or iPhone playback.

You use it if you want to convert your videos so you can play them on your iPod Touch or iPhone.

It is built around a handful of pre-determined conversion ‘profiles’ designed to make it easy or users to decide on what kind of conversion they want based on three parameters:

The desired speed of conversion (slow/fast/turbo).
Whether to optimize for video quality or for optimal video size.
A custom possibility for those who are never satisfied and keep wanting to ponce around with things. I recommend you ignore it.

The program is free. As in at no charge. The perfect price.

Here’s how to get excellent video conversions for iPhone or iPod Touch every time.
Resolution: set at 640×480.  If you have an older Ipod you may need to use 320×240. This resolution because it plays well on both the Ipod and the PC screens.
Profile: custom
Click the ‘More options’ button and set the output folder where you want your converted files.
Encoder: x264
Profile: Best Quality. Might take slightly longer than the others but time is not normally an issue here.
Mode: Output size. Tell it the size of your output file in megs. Somewhere close to the original or 700 megs to fit a single CD.
Check ‘resample audio track’, set Frequency at 48000
Set bitrate at 160 kbps (which is the max that can be used on an Ipod video).

That’s it.

Here are reasons why this program is so excellent at what it does:

The way it deals with video resolution: when making your decision as to the resolution you prefer (640×480, 480×320, or 320×240), iPodMe will automatically resize to the closest resolution to the one you request while maintaining the original aspect ratio. That is without stretching or distorting or surrounding your video with black lines on top and bottom. If you actually want to stretch and resize your video you can check a box and the program can do that as well.

Encoders: you can choose from either x264 or Xvid. Both are built in.

Three quality modes: you can either choose to (a) set average bitrate, (b) set a constant quality quantizer, or (c) set output size, and let the program determine the bitrate. Use the third.

Batch conversions are possible. Will use the same settings for all selected files, which can be useful if, say, you are converting a bunch of episodes from a TV series and want the same output parameters. If you want to watch all of Sex and the City this is for you. Not me.

A single, self contained file, approx 4 megs. Unzip and run. Note that it requires MS .NET to run.

The user interface is simple, uncomplicated and straightforward. I understood it and in matters technical I am not the brightest one in the bunch.

Not many people boil a white woolen pullover to get it whiter in a plastic bucket on an open gas stove. I did. No one lets me forget.

It can burn subtitles: use an .srt subtitle file with the exact same name as the video you are converting. Cannot think why you would bother unless it is a very foreign language.

Open source as in free and at no charge. A price that cannot be beaten.

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or newer. (This is already pre-installed in Vista).

Go to the program page: http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/ipodme/
to download the latest version (approx 3.9 megs). The enjoy.

Then color it wonderful.

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