How to convert almost any video file to play on your iPhone or iPod Touch

This tutorial will walk you through the steps required to convert pretty much any video file to a format that your iPhone and iPod Touch can play. And the software used to accomplish this is free.

1. First up - download and install the iPhone/iPod Touch version of MediaCoder. The installation is very straight forward - you’ll just click “next” a bunch of times.

   MediaCoder allows you to convert any of the following video file types - AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, RealMedia, ASF, Quicktime, OGM, Xvid, MPEG 1/2/4, Theora, Flash Video, 3ivx, RealVideo, Windows Media Video, VCD and DVD - to an iPhone, iPod Touch and Video iPod friendly format.

2. Once you’ve finished installing MediaCoder, launch it. If it doesn’t appear on your screen right away, check your System Tray (see screenshot below). Double-click the icon in the system tray to bring MediaCoder to your desktop.



3. And a “dual-windowed” MediaCoder will appear (again, see screenshot below).


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4. Click the Add button from the top toolbar, and navigate to the file you want to convert to play on your iPhone and/or iPod Touch.



5. Once you’ve selected the file, it will appear in the queue.


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6. To preview how it will look on your iPhone/iPod Touch (very neat feature) - click the Play button.



7. The bottom Device window will start playing the video. When you’ve seen enough, click Stop.


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8. I’ve found that leaving the default selection of H.264 is just fine in terms of video quality. But if you want even higher video quality, select the Format drop-down list, and select H.264 (2-Pass). This will increase the amount of time it takes to encode your video, but the quality will be higher. You can also increase the audio quality by selecting a higher Audio Bitrate from its drop-down menu.


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9. When you’re ready to encode your video, click the Start button.



10. A Statistics window will appear, letting you know the status of your video encoding. Here’s where you’ll want to go grab a cup of coffee (or your favorite beverage). The speed of your PC, amount of RAM and length of the video will all affect how long the encoding takes.


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11. NOTE: I have noticed that once the encoding is complete, it takes another minute or two for the “Transcoding completed” message to appear. So don’t be surprised/worried if the Spastics window shows that the encoding is done, but ‘nothing happens’ right away.



12. That’s it - you’re done. The file will be in the same location as your original video, but will have an mp4 extension. Add that file to iTunes (or whatever software you use to manage your device) and then transfer it to your iPhone/iPod Touch.

    One final tip - you can add a number of videos to the queue before you start encoding, and leave it running over night. Just keep clicking the Add button before you click Start.

    Happy watching!