[farmcock]

I have been able to convert some of my DVD movies to H.264 codec using Handbrake. I then changed the extention to .m4v so they would import into iTunes, fetched artwork from the web for coverflow and they look no different than ones downloaded from iTunes.

This works great for the iMac and frontrow viewing, but if i purchased a video iPod, I'm wondering if these would sync to the iPod or would only the single purchased movie that i have from iTunes (Flight Plan) be the only one that would sync?

[Aptmunich]

If they are 640x480 or less in size, then they will play.

[farmcock]

Does Apple only allow movies that are purchased through the store to be sync'd to iPod?

[Dimitri]

The iPod can playback any video playable in iTunes provided it fits within the following criteria:

-Standard mpeg-4 codec, <= 640x480, <= 2500kbps video bitrate
-h.264 mpeg-4 codec, <= 320x240, <= 800kbps video bitrate
-h.264 mpeg-4 Baseline LC codec, <= 640x480, <= 1500kbps video bitrate

I believe the audio should be AAC <= 160kbps as well.

Otherwise, if it doesn't play on the ipod, it won't transfer to it either, and you'll get a message whining about it after a sync. You can then either re-rip or choose to convert to ipod in the iTunes menu, though it's quite slow.

NOTE: I believe the 3rd option above is not yet available on the latest Handbrake 0.7.1 release. You'd have to use iSquint or ffmpegx after ripping to .vob using something like MacTheRipper.

[djames42]

...There's also Popcorn for converting to iPod format (which still requires MacTheRipper, as it won't touch CSS encrypted DVDs).

[Aptmunich]

Or the excellent and free iSquint...

And before you ask again, yes - even movies that aren't from the iTunes store will sync.

[djames42]

Originally Posted by Aptmunich

Or the excellent and free iSquint...

Always forget that can do it too. I've only used that for converting youtube flv files to h.264 (and don't yet have a video ipod, so I haven't paid much attention to that capability).

Popcorn has the advantage of also being able to support conversion to PSP and DivX formats, but that wasn't what we were talking about, so I'll be quiet now