How to convert videos for your iPhone and iPods

I have read this very common question in iPhone and iPod forums a thousand times before: How do I convert my videos for the iPhone/iPod? And I’ve also read a million of different answers. All of their answers might be right but some may be suggesting the use of expensive video converters. In reality the best video converters out there are free. Let’s take for example, Handbrake – this is one of the best video converter tools and did I say it’s free? Handbrake does the job and does it well and it’s what we’re gonna use for this tutorial.

What you need

1. Handbrake – Download
2. An hour or less. It depends really on how long your movie is and how fast your machine goes.

Here’s what you need to do

1. If you haven’t installed HandBrake yet, you may download the installer here and install it on your computer. After the installation open HandBrake and a window will appear.
   
   
2. Click on Source and a dropdown menu will appear. Choose Video File option and then look for the file that you are going to convert. If you are converting a DVD, then choose the DVD Drive or if you have your DVD copied to your computer’s hard drive, choose the DVD/VIDEO_TS Folder option.
3. After choosing the source, choose iPhone & iPod Touch on one of the available Presets panel on the right side of the Handbrake Window. The Output Settings panel will change to the Preset you have chosen. You can change the output format if you prefer to but if you are not sure, leave it as is.
   
   

   

4. Don’t forget to choose your destination folder. Just click the Browse button on the Destination panel and name your destination file.
   
   

   

5. You are now good to go! Press the Start button on top and a window will appear showing you the Encoding task. You’ll also see the remaining time left (ETA). Sit back and relax while waiting for it to finish. The window will automatically close after the encoding process and an Encoding Finished message on the bottom left of the window will appear.
   
   

   

6. You’re done! Now you can transfer the converted video to your iPhone or iPod Touch device. Watch it later on the bus or while you are doing nothing at school or at the office.

If you’re wondering on how to transfer your videos to your iPhone, just add the new video to your iTunes library and sync it to your device. If you want for a tutorial on that, let us know in the comments and we’ll be happy to write one for you.

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