Adding video to iPod 5(Click wheel)

[kruuth]

I'm trying to add some videos to an older ipod 5. I used to have a tool back in XP that did it, but now I can't seem to get it going. What do I need to do to convert the videos over to the right format and get them into iTunes?

[johnmeyer]

MeGUI would be a good choice. It has (or used to have) presets for each iPod generation.

[kruuth]

Ok. Will iTunes see it then?

[hech54]

Handbrake for me.

[kruuth]

Oh, is there a guide to do it? All I can find is for the ipod touch

[kruuth]

Ok. Got handbrake to encode, but how to get them on the ipod? iTunes doesn't seem to like them

[johnmeyer]

iTunes is probably the worst piece of software (at least on the PC) that I have ever been forced to use. It is completely inconsistent on how it handles music, pictures, and video.

If it "doesn't like them," you probably didn't encode them with the correct presets. The earlier generation iPods were pretty limited, and you had to pay attention to:

From the Apple site:

• H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
  
• MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
  
• Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

You have to make sure your video conforms in every respect.

[hech54]

iTunes really does suck...
This is my favorite iTUNES SUCKS app - http://www.app2pro.com/

[orsetto]

I still use an 80GB iPod 5.5-Gen as my everyday music & video jukebox. The screen is small and its annoying to carry an extra item, but its worth it for the reliability and quick navigation compared to dealing with frequent SD expansion card corruption that plagues Android phones. Handbrake is the easiest, most foolproof way to convert videos for these ancient iPods- but you need to know the preset tricks. I'm using an older version of Handbrake on an old Mac I dedicate for running old gadgets, but current Windows versions should be similar. (I had Handbrake on my old Windows XP box, but never installed it on my current Win 7 PCs, so can't remember if there are interface differences.)

Open Handbrake, load a video file you want to convert, and make sure the Presets window shows to the right of the primary Handbrake screen. If you don't see it, go to the Window menu and click on Presets Drawer to make it appear. There are two options for the click-wheel video iPods: smaller files that exactly match the small screen resolution of the iPod, and larger files of roughly double that resolution that will play better on an external TV connected to the iPod (useful if you travel a lot and want to plug into hotel televisions, otherwise not needed). For normal iPod resolution choose the "iPod" preset near the top of the list. For higher resolution, choose the "iPod Legacy" preset at the bottom of the list.

VERY IMPORTANT: in the Video Output Settings section of the primary Handbrake window, you MUST click the checkbox "iPod 5G Support" (if your version of Handbrake has this). Turning this on forces Handbrake to stay within Apple's guidelines for click-wheel iPod compatibility. For reasons known only to the developer, Handbrake WILL NOT create clickwheel iPod compatible files unless you tick the checkbox, even if the iPod presets are chosen. If your Handbrake has this 5G checkbox, turn it on.

Add the converted files to your iTunes library, and you should be able to copy them over to your iPod 5G with no issues. I manually add and delete files from my 5G: I do not have auto-sync enabled in either my iPod or iTunes. Many problems people encounter can be avoided by disabling auto-sync.

[johnmeyer]

VERY IMPORTANT: in the Video Output Settings section of the primary Handbrake window, you MUST click the checkbox "iPod 5G Support" (if your version of Handbrake has this). Turning this on forces Handbrake to stay within Apple's guidelines for click-wheel iPod compatibility. For reasons known only to the developer, Handbrake WILL NOT create clickwheel iPod compatible files unless you tick the checkbox, even if the iPod presets are chosen. If your Handbrake has this 5G checkbox, turn it on.

Great piece of advice! I did not know that.

[orsetto]

Yep, that special "5G" toggle is easy to overlook and totally non-intuitive. One would assume if they select iPod Classic or iPod Legacy as the encoding profile, Handbrake will create a file compatible with those devices, but it doesn't: they import into iTunes OK, but the iPod won't accept them (as kruuth has discovered). This has tripped me up any number of times- when using Handbrake to create video files for old click-wheel iPods, it isn't enough to simply select the iPod profile: you also always need to click the "5G Support" toggle to ensure compatible file specs.