I was going to give this post some funny, thought provoking or obscure title but then realized, the task at hand is to provide a little bit of useful information. So instead, this will be plain and simple.

(For those who are way too hyper to read any further, here is the download link and the screen pic show the settings I use for videos with do not exceed the max resolution of the iPod. For everyone else, feel free to keep reading.)

If you have an iPod that supports video and you have videos that are not supported by your iPod, the solution is to convert them. There are lots of tools to do the job. iTunes will do it for you but very inefficiently (slot and bloated results). You can buy software that make light work of it for you (at a cost). You can use ffmpeg if you like command-line tools (a call to all Linux users here). Or you can use SUPER.

SUPER? stands for “Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer”. (And for the record, SUPER actually uses ffmpeg but you don’t need to know what it does <grin>.)

If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file, without reading manuals or spending long hours training, then SUPER ? is all you need. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click. SUPER? is 100% FREE to download and to use. SUPER? does NOT require any additional external codec to be installed, absolutely nothing. SUPER? can also play and save Internet Media Streams with different protocols ( mms://  rtsp://  http://). 
Source: eRightSoft

While the quote looks like an advertisement, it true so I call it a testimonial. I’ve used a lot of different software to convert video podcasts, the odd TV show from my old PVR, or a funny video off the Internet. Most did a good job. SUPER did a good job with a decent user interface, batch processing, and at the magic price point of $0.00.

The only comment I will make about SUPER is their website. It has lots of good information *and* it’s hard to find the actual download link. There are a number of links that you expect to be the download, but each one takes you to the next page of information. Only after getting thru all of the pages of features, descriptions, examples, etc, will you get the actual link to download. So, I suggest you read thru all of the pages *and* here is the download link.

A couple of notes of video resolution you may or may not have read – the iPod Video (or iPod 5) officially supports up to 640×480 resolution starting with the 1.2 firmware. *But*, if you are planning to view the movie thru a TV, projector, or other output device capable of greater resolution, then what you are more interested in is the “307200 pixel” limit. With a few exceptions, if the width x height of the video will be less than 307200 pixels, you don’t need to reduce the resolution. I say “with a few exceptions” because if you are close to exceeding the maximum resolution, then you may need to understand “macroblocks”. I won’t go into them here. You can read up on that elsewhere. Suffice it to say, you can load a 16:9 widescreen video onto the iPod at up to 720×405 and it will play!

A few weeks ago I “gave up TV”. Now I will confess that I have not been totally “TV-free”.  I tried reading news on-line and getting weather the same way. To some extent it worked but not well enough. My solution has been to seek out streaming media.

So I have settled into a pretty comfortable routine. I catch ABC News NOW for about 20-30 minutes in the morning. I multitask this time with reading blogs. I also surf on over to the local FOX TV website for local weather. In the evening, I get the NBC Nightly News from a broadcast feed streamed from Austin Texas. There are a number of movies now out on  DVD I’ve never gotten around to watching so I try to keep one or two of those around for “rainy day-nights”. I have also found some of the ABC and NBC lineup are streamed from their sites. I may resort to those for the one or two shows I really want to follow (like Heroes). Unfortunately, favorites like Eureka and others will become a distant memory or a “special treat” when traveling. But that’s OK, I already find I am getting more stuff done without the TV <grin>. And, the new Harry Potter book is nearly here so that will kill off three or four nights !

I’ve had a Windows based DVR (digital video recorder) for about 2 years now. It was working fine when I used it as just a DVR but for the past 9 months, it’s served double duty as a DVR and a Media Center. the problem seems to be that the software – SageTV – doesn’t like being interrupted. If I happen to change the channel at the top/bottom of the hour when it is trying to close one recording and start another; or I tell it to stop playback just as the recording is ending, it hangs. I’ve had enough.

I’ve decided to “go Linux” for my media center. I don’t use the machine for anything else these days so I’m safe to do a clean wipe and fresh install. The best option appears to be MythTV. However, being a neophyte when it comes to Linux, I want a pre-packaged distribution rather than a incremental installation of Linux, plus components, plus MythTV.

There are a few contenders so I’ve narrowed it down to iMedia Linux and KnoppMyth. I’ll start with KnoppMyth – not because I think I will prefer it, but because it appears “well used”. Also, KnoppMyth is primarily focused on TV whereas iMedia is more of a Media Center. Do misunderstand, MythTV does a lot more than just TV, but TV is my primary goal. Since this is my *only* TV, I would be happy if it did one thing really well rather than a bunch of things “just so so”.

Fortunately, my media machine has some spare drives ever since I deployed my NAS and no longer need 4 HDDs in my media center <grin>. So, rather than nuke my existing machine, I’ll pull the Windows drive and move one of the storage drives to the head of the line. Worse case, I can reinstall the Windows drive and get back to my current state.