# AVI to iPod conversion
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 12, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212 "2009-03-12T15:53:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/1 "2009-03-12T15:53:15Z")
I’m looking for free software to convert AVIs into iPod compatible video on a Mac. The closest I got googling was iSquint, but this seems to have been discontinued.
Ta in advance . . .
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### Author:  [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/2 "2009-03-12T16:00:23Z")
[Handbrake](http://handbrake.fr/), easy to use, several different presets to fit almost any need, free, and a robust community. Enjoy!
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### Author:  [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/3 "2009-03-12T21:10:22Z")
Hi, and thanks.
I actually tried Handbrake, I have 0.9.1 and it didn’t recognise AVI files. I’m pretty thick at this kind of thing, so maybe I’m doing something wrong?
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/4 "2009-03-12T21:40:28Z")
You should get the latest handbrake. I am not sure if 0.9.1 allowed sources other than DVDs. The notes for 0.9.3 handbrake indicate that it can now use most any input source not just DVDs or the files from DVDs.
> [@](#):
>
> Universal input
>
> HandBrake is no longer limited to DVDs: it will now accept practically any type of video as a source. This massive enhancement was achieved by tapping into the power of libavcodec and libavformat from the FFmpeg project.
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### Author:  [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2009, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/5 "2009-03-13T08:27:20Z")
> [@gazpacho](#):
>
> You should get the latest handbrake. I am not sure if 0.9.1 allowed sources other than DVDs. The notes for 0.9.3 handbrake indicate that it can now use most any input source not just DVDs or the files from DVDs.
Fiddlesticks! That only works on OS 10.5. I have 10.4.
Any other notions?
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### Author:  [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2009, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/6 "2009-03-13T08:41:08Z")
> [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](#):
>
> Fiddlesticks! That only works on OS 10.5. I have 10.4.
>
> Any other notions?
DESCRIPTION
Ollie’s iPod Converter provides a simple and free way to convert your Quicktime compatible files to the .m4v iPod compatible format. Simply choose your file and convert. It’s that simple!
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later, iTunes 6 or later, QuickTime 7.0.3 or later
[http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19735](http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19735)
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2009, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/7 "2009-03-13T10:45:16Z")
I thought that iTunes on OS X had that capability built-in. I know I’ve used it in the past running 10.5 to convert AVIs to MP4s.
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### Author:  [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/8 "2009-03-13T14:34:18Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#):
>
> DESCRIPTION
> Ollie’s iPod Converter provides a simple and free way to convert your Quicktime compatible files to the .m4v iPod compatible format. Simply choose your file and convert. It’s that simple!
This looks to be useful and I’ve downloaded it, but unfortunately doesn’t work for my problem as my Quicktime doesn’t recognise AVI files.
[QUOTE=asterion]
I thought that iTunes on OS X had that capability built-in. I know I’ve used it in the past running 10.5 to convert AVIs to MP4s.
[/QUOTE]
I can’t get my iTunes to even recognise a AVI file. There is a tool that says “Convert to iPod”, but without a file there I can’t use it. I am, however, a doofus, so I maybe mucking something up.
After much searching I found this [free app](http://www.ffmpegx.com/download.html). It takes a bit of fiddling to download and then figure out formats, but it’s done the trick. Thanks for the help, you pointed me in the right directions.
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### Author:  [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avi-to-ipod-conversion/489212/9 "2009-03-13T17:23:04Z")
That’s just the one I was going to recommend. Not only free but open source. Does a dandy job.