Kinda stump on this converting file thing.Help please

I downloaded some .AVI files. Now know that to get them to my ipod I need to turn them to .m4v. Well,how can I make Handbrake achieve that? My ipod is the old square one but here is the issue. Even thought Handbrake is on ipod settings when I put the movie in itunes i have to convert it within iTunes itself and honestly that takes forever.

Also,what does the half circle and the full circle on some of my videos mean?

Try using video monkey instead of handbrake.

The full circle is unwatched, the half-circle is part watched

ill report back thanks!

So far so good,thanks for the help. What kind fo quality do you have yours set at?I put it at "go nuts" and encoding at normal.

For another option you could use what I use, which is iSquint. Google it. It's free and the programmer has a sense of humor in the GUI. I've had it very rarely fail to convert just about anything to m4v and I have a lot of video on my iPod/iPhone.