by John Benson

Created on: February 12, 2008

The way we have watched films and television has changed radically over the last 5-10 years. We no longer need a television and VCR or DVD player to play and watch our favourite films. Today we can download and watch them on our PC, or on the move with our iPod. It is very straight forward to download films from iTunes onto your iPod (it is essentially the same process as music), but what if you have films on your PC or elsewhere that you want to watch on your iPod? Below are my tips and instructions for how to download movies onto your iPod from your PC:

Firstly: While it seems silly to say, make sure your iPod will play movies. Some are for music only, and you can usually tell if yours will play films from its screen. Hopefully you already know that yours will play films, but I have to check!

It will be through your PC that you will download the films and programmes that you want to watch on your iPod, so you need to attach you iPod to your PC using the USB port on the computer.

The video iPod only plays films that are in the MP4 format, this means that most of the formats on your PC (e.g. MPEG, MPG etc) will not be compatible. You therefore need a software program that will convert these files into MP4. Such programs are very common and can be found on the net, the good thing about these converters is that they also compress the files allowing you to download more films to your iPod.

Software such as iTunes 7.0 will allow you to transfer movie files from your PC onto your iPod.

If you use iTunes directly then downloading movies couldn't be easier. By simply selecting which movie you want and selecting iPod' and then download' you can purchase the film and keep it in the basket' of your own iTunes store. It is then a case of hooking your iPod up to your PC via the USB port, add the movie file to your library and open'. By then updating all videos automatically' your film will be available on your iPod to play at our convenience by selecting videos' and then movies'.

The above tips should allow you to download movies onto your iPod with little difficulty. The thing to remember is that with iPod and iTunes software everything is relatively easy and straightforward and the support is superb. Happy movie viewing!

Learn more about this author, John Benson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.