Ipod video doesn't accept higher res. files?

Well today I decided to experiment with getting a higher res. video on my ipod video, but having little luck. I've put a lot of my favorite DVDs on my video ipod using h.264 in a 320x240 resolution without a problem. I decided to try converting some DVDs using a 720x480 resolution also using the same h.264 settings I used for the lower res. videos, but I'm having problems. I try to drag the files over to my ipod and nothing happens. I try with the lower res. files and no problems at all. I'm assuming itunes won't allow any sort of larger resolution files to get transferred to the ipod since the ipod itself can't output higher resolution files. I can import the higher resolution files to my hard drive library without a problem. Can anybody confirm this? Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. Aren't the movies that can be downloaded from the itunes store higher resolution than 320x240?

I should point out that the reason I was experimenting with this is so that I could potentially play higher res. files from the ipod on my 26" LCD in my bedroom to watch my movies and higher resolution podcasts. The 320x240 lower resolution videos look pretty bad when scaled up to full screen on the 26" TV. If it's not possible then I'll just forget about it, but if there's a way I'd definitely be interested.

Thanks!

Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Make sure you have all of the quality settings correct

Well I'm stumped. I just tried re-converting one of my movies in 640x*** (it was a letterbox movie) @ 600kbps using the x264 baseline profile and I tried bringing it over to the ipod and nothing happens. I don't see what I'm doing so wrong.

What program are you using to convert the videos with?

I've been using handbrake for all of my video conversion.

Well, your size is too big for starters. Go with 640 x 480 (or 640 x whatever for widescreen) and you should be fine. Remember that the video bit rate can not exceed 1500k and make sure you are selecting the H.264 iPod baseline setting.

There are links to tutorials in my signature as well.

I'll check out the links, but that's the strange part. The second time around I did convert at 640x272 (widescreen in this case) and used the baseline setting and converted at 600k. That's why I don't know what I did so wrong.

I just noticed the newer beta version of HB. I downloaded it and I'm trying again. You say in your tutorial that movies in 320x'whatever' looks fine on a TV 40"+. I've got a 50" plasma that may occasionally see use of the ipod video, but I'm a little skeptical about upscaling that small of a resolution. That's the whole reason I decided to try encoding at 640x480.

I've watched self ripped content (320x240 750K) on a 61 inch big screen. The Video quality was quite good considering the file size and video settings. It's definitely good enough to watch but it's not perfect.