HOW-TO: Play "movies" on an iPod Photo

We picked up an iPod Photo the other day, and most observers have asked us "Can that thing play movies?" The short answer is no, only music and photos-but the longer answer is "sorta, but not really anything worth calling a movie". In this week's how-to we'll show you how to "play" a movie on an iPod Photo by exporting frames of a movie, importing them to the iPod and playing them manually by click-wheeling through thousands of images, or even viewing 3d views of objects. Pointless? Yes. Will a lot of people try this and put movie trailers and porn on their iPod Photo? You betcha, and as always, we're here to help.

Getting started

All you'll need for this is QuickTime Pro, iTunes, and an iPod photo— the same instructions work on both the Mac and PC side. For our examples we're going to show both the PC and the Mac steps.

Getting a movie
Just about any QuickTime movie will do, for our example we're going to use the Star Wars trailer for Episode III. We found one here via Waxy.org. You can right click (PC) or control click (Mac) to download the movie to your local system.

Once downloaded, open the movie in QuickTime. You might have other applications that can export sound and frames, if so, feel free to use those.

Exporting the sound

First, we're going to export the sound. Once exported we'll add it to the iPod Photo so we can listen to the sound track as we play the movie.

On a PC, with the movie open, click File > Export. Choose Movie to WAV, click options and choose. 44kHz, 16 bit, Stereo.

On a Mac, with the movie open, click File > Export. Choose Movie to AIFF, click options and choose the same settings.

Import the sound in to iTunes, you can export them to the iPod now, or later, it doesn't really matter.

If you don't want to try and export the sound and try to sync it as you play, that's fine too. H. M. Warner said it best—"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?".

Exporting the movie to an image sequence
Now that the sound is out of the movie, it's time to export each frame. The frame rate of the movie we downloaded was 15 frames per second, we'll export the same in QuickTime

On a PC, with the movie open, click File > Export. Choose JPEG, type 15 for frames per second and click options. We select medium for quality, but feel free to experiment.

On a Mac, with the movie open, click File > Export. Choose Export Image Sequence and also select the same options as we did in the PC example.

We exported these to a new folder to keep them all tidy and one spot.

When you're finished, the 1 minute, 47 second movie exports to 1,616 frames (107 frames x 15.1 frames per second = 1,616). This might take awhile, so set it to export and get comfy.

On a Mac QuickTime gave us 1,626...

...and on a PC 1,616 not sure why, but there it is.

Transferring the photo sequence to the iPod photo
Now that we have 1,616 photos, we'll use the new feature(s) in iTunes to sync the photos over the iPod photo.

On a PC, click Edit > Preferences > iPod, choose Photos and click "Choose folder". Select the folder you saved all the images to from QuickTime.

On a Mac, click iTunes > Preferences > iPod, same deal.

Once selected, you'll see the total number of photos that will be imported. iTunes will now convert (optimize) the images before they're sent over to the iPod Photo. Once completed, they'll then be sent over, again, this might take awhile.

Playing the "movie" on the iPod Photo

After the photos are synced over to the iPod Photo, disconnect the iPod from the dock, to listen to the sound while you play the movie, click Music > Songs > Episode_III_Teaser_Trailer and press play. To start the movie click Menu > Menu > Photos > Photo Library > the iPod photo will spin up and display the thumbnails, depending on where the soundtrack is, or where you want to start playing, click wheel to a photo and press the center button, as it plays quickly spin your finger around the wheel to get a "movie-like" playback.

With practice you can play clips of movies and for the most part it looks as you'd expect, kinda crummy. So, what does it look like to play "movies" on the iPod photo?

Click here to watch a video of us, well, playing a video (Windows Media, WMV)

...and click here to watch a QuickTime version (MOV).

Some bad news...
It seems on both a Mac and PC the photos (frames) do not import in order, it's likely a weird modification date or something else, we went in manually and removed some photos, re-synced and that works (sometimes). If anyone has any suggestions on why this would happen, or ideas, please let us know.

Other uses...
A simple but very cool version of this is to create "VR" objects or 3D views of an object and import them to the iPod. On example, is an iPod on an iPod that the folks over at Griffin made an sent along to us. To make your own, just take a few photos of an object at different rotations around the object and import them in the same way as we did with the movie frames.

Click here

to view (QuickTime, MOV).

And the killer use...
We didn't have time to document the best use of this simple trick, but we'll be working on it shortly—which is of course to export the Wizard of Oz and play it along with the Dark Side of the Moon.

If you don't know what we're talking about, follow the yellow brick road here.

Okay—really playing movies...
Now that being said, the screens on the iPod are quite nice and if real movie playback was possible, it wouldn't be that bad at all— we're hoping that Apple considers it, but if they don't there are tons of alternatives. And of course if you'd really like to play movies on a portable device, you can hold off on that $500 iPod photo purchase and pick up an Archos, Creative Zen or about dozen other choices. But hey, there's nothing like doing an old fashion trick on a new shiny iPod. We like the Creative Zen Portable Media Center for what it's worth.

---

Phillip Torrone can be reached via his personal site, http://www.flashenabled.com.

[wogdog @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I forsee a lot of sprained thumbs.

[Walter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I've written about this before but it IS possible to play movies on iPods... well, USING iPods.

Step 1) Using a method VERY SIMILAR to the method previously described on Engadget for using your iPod as a remote control, convert frames of video into audio signals. Same idea as converting the infrared signals into audio. Note: The technology for converting frames of video into audio is already available and is decades old-- MODEMs do this every day, so recorded MODEM sounds would work fine here.

Step 2) Create a device that plugs into the iPod a la the iTrip that can decode the audio signals coming out of it and encode them into NTSC video and out to an RCA jack.

Step 3) PROFIT!

Stop shaking your head and get with the program, this has been done for DECADES, people have been putting entire VIDEO GAMES onto VINYL RECORDS for years! How do you think the original TAPE DRIVES worked??! Read my slashdot post for more examples and ideas: http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125111&threshold=-1&commentsort=3&tid=176&mode=thread&cid=10495351

[n8 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Or try this Walter: sell your iPod on ebay for $450, get an Archos Gmini for $350, put the extra $100 in the bank for the rainy day when the MPAA sues you.

Stop shaking your head and get with the program, if you buy an ipod don't expect it to do video -- and if you want to play video, don't "create a device," just buy a freakin Archos!

[crackhead @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

You can make your own stop-action movies with a digital camera in "continuous shutter" mode. (My Canon S200 shoots about 1 frame a second in decent lighting.) Simply hold down the shutter for a few minutes while recording some movement, then import the frames into the iPod.

[Nagromme @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Cool. I was amazed at how fast the iPod I played with would cycle through images.

A fun hack, not useful maybe, but why not?

[Cortland Klein @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I'm looking into using Linux on iPod to play video, especially if the video out port can be used at full resolution.

Now all I wonder is if the processor will be powerful enough to decode mpeg or not.

[mac @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

kind of lame that it has to be done that way

[redfusion @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

movies aren't that fun without sound though..

[Tony @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

archos gmini 400 plays video and is cheeper and better.................

[rocafellaice @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

that's just sad

[Jody @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

LOL... that is posibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Wait... WOAH. WOAH! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TITLES ON THE COMMENTS!?

[ragebomb @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

You see, that's why this site rocks. You guys do all the crazy stuff we would do if we had lots of extra time and resources. Seeing this in action really makes me think it would be criminal for Apple to not update the software to support video.

[Kapila Wimalaratne @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I thought the iPod photo had a slideshow feature.
Why the manual thumb scrolling? (can't set the time delay low enough?)

Kap

[pt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

the slideshow can only do a 2 sec delay per pictures, so manually scrolling is the only way to get motion-looking effects.

cheers,
pt

[Michael Zapp @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I've created an AppleScript to automate most of this on the Mac. You still need to manually handle the sync in iTunes but it will automatically export the JPEGs, re-sequence them so they're in the correct order on the iPod, export the audio, and load the audio into iTunes (converted using your current encoder settings and put into a "Movie Audio" playlist).

Simply download it from http://www.zapptek.com/Downloads/MovietoiPodPhoto.scpt.sit and put it into your ~/Library/Scripts folder to run via the Script Menu.

Enjoy,

Michael

[Jacco @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This is way cool!
Just like the sketches you drew in the corners of books so you could flip through there to make your own animation! I love that scrollwheel..

[Keith @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

How about silent movies? Because of the audio/video synchronization issues, it is indeed a bit lame to try to watch a modern movie this way, but it seems to me that this would be a great way to review all the grand old classics of the silent screen. Hmm, maybe after my 60GB model arrives in a couple of days I'll rent some videos and digitize them with my EyeTV. (Mary Pickford is still just as beautiful as she was eighty years ago, and Charlie Chaplin is still just as funny...)

[thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

i love it to see when your finger scrolls the pictures.. like in the early days in moviehistory... :-)

[theone3 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Hey, there's already a linux for iPod, and it dosent even screw up the mac OS (you get a dual boot menu when you reset)

http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net/

It's only a matter of time before someone ports a video player to it, and makes it compatible with 4G and colour ipods. Cmon guys, get busy!

Or, you could, as has been said before, just buy an Archos ;).

[Gary Fixler @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Was it skipping around because it was using alphabetical sorting? Padding is always such a pain. Maybe it wants more standard camera-format numbering, such as img0001, img0002, instead of img1, img2, etc..? It's very likely - ACDSee, for example, skips around like that. I noticed your output frame names aren't padded.

There are all sorts of padding converters, or you can roll your own in any number of languages if this turns out to be the case.

[Gary Fixler @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

scratch that last comment - the images were tiny and blurry, and I couldn't see the zero pads. It looked like there weren't any.

[Walter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

n8 you are right. There is already a plethora of mp3 players out there with this feature and more. But the fact that this engadget article even exists points to the need for Griffin Technologies, or a very smart engineer, to try to build something like what I've described.

There is a demand for this amongst the incredibly large number of iPod owners, I'm just trying to get my idea noticed :)

cheers

[Aaron @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

HAHA! That's great!

Does the iPod Photo display animated GIFs in animated form? My Sony-Ericsson T810 phone does, although it has very limited RAM. I put tiny, looping, animated GIFs on my phone as movies. It works pretty well, but no sound.

-Aaron-

[Blax @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

So I guess the chances are pretty good that Apple are working on a video version of the iTunes store but have not got all the studios signed on yet. Seems to me the photo slidehow is a lame attempt to hide the fact that they want a color screen and video out jack for video playback. When they flick the switch on the store, we can start using the video iPods immediately to buy Finding Nemo in copy protected Pixlet format or somesuch. Maybe even rent Finding Nemo on a limited or timed download format.

Who wants to bet the video store is announced in January: Expo time.

[Jason Green @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I have to say this is the most pathetic, useless hack I think i have ever seen. I mean, what the hell is the point? A whole lot of work for a really lame end result.

Sorry! It had to be said! :-)

[joshpaul @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

(posted at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5835)

I don't know what to call them, but I wondered about this the other day...

Can I create a playlist where each track is associated with a different album cover? My assumption is "yes."

So, what if I break down one of the Presidential debates into audio tracks and associate each track with an "album cover" of the person who's speaking? I think I would wind up with a talking storyboard, in a sense.

This could be extrapolated out into works of Shakespeare, tv shows, movies and even "original" or "independent" works.

Would Apple be interested in selling this type of entertainment via the Music Store? I assume so, since it would "push" iPod Photo sales.

But, until I can get my hands on one, this is only a theory...

Thoughts?

[Jason K @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This has got to be one of the LAMEST things I have ever seen. My Lord. This is so pathetic, but so ironic.

iPod users say "we like the fact that its so easy to use," which is only the case because it has so few features. Then they say "but we want to view videos on this simple brick of a device that plays 3 types of audio formats and shows pictures." Well it aint gonna happen morons. Now you are entering the "techie" realm. OOOOOOH. That means you might as well just go check out some of the other players with all the features you really want, but didn't know you did because you didn't know they existed due to being trapped in your iPod bubble.

But, don't get all mad when you realize there are superior players out there (iRiver, Archos, Rio, etc) that have WAY more functionality (much of it you didn't realize you could have or that you wanted) and require that you devote 15 minutes of your lives to reading the manual that comes with it to learn how to truly enjoy all these amazing features.

Which is harder: reading the manual on a player that is the same size as an iPod, has more features than an iPod, and costs less than an iPod (iRiver H320) and can play videos (yes there is firmware that has been released and it plays on US versions, or just go with the Archos) or buying your holy iPod and having to convert the movie file to individual pictures, synching it with audio, and having to USE THE SCROLL WHEEL THE WHOLE TIME! Yeah, iPod is ALL about ease, huh? It is, for playing 3 audio formats and showing pics. That's it, though. If you want more, iPod says, "Go elsewhere, techie!"

[Dejo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Great work! Don't be discouraged by the nay-sayers and their Archos'. It's always nice to see someone finding ways to creatively push the limits of new technology.

I liked the concept and wondered if one could try another approach instead of the manual scrolling. Knowing the iPod Photo can only do a minimum of 2 seconds per frame (on auto-pilot), I exported my images at .5 frames per second, to create a more "comic-book" style slideshow. So, now my Episode 3 Teaser is 54 frames long. I set my iPod Photo to 2 seconds per slide and the audio track playing in the background. The verdict: It works okay, but not great. I still have issues with the syncing between the slideshow and audio. Seems the slides are about 2 seconds behind the music. Darn. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Gee I thought this sounded so cool. Then the more I read it the more I thought what a waste of time. Why bother I mean really?

[Royce @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This is the dumbest and most idiotic thing i have read on the internet for a while.

[Denis @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

He he, that How-To is really funny.

It seems to me that 15 pictures per second is quite good even with "optimized" pictures. Does it jump frames in reality?

Did you try it with the AV cable to a TV?

[David Boroditsky @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Cool. Now where is the movie of someone playing this movie on their photo ipod along the lines of http://www.infinitecat.com/infinite/cat-html/1.html

[rzenij @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

why not just make a ton of 1/15sec MP3s and put each frame as the cover art? it wouldn't be so bad if you had a script to do the work

[Momo the Monster @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

As a VJ, this is pretty awesome.
Question: Can it track backwards as well? I don't see why it wouldn.'t
Question 2: Can you set it to loop an album or something? This would be great for making short loops (1-2seconds) that I could loop during a VJ Performance and scratch back and forth. I bet even if/when Apple releases a video player for the iPod, it won't let you do frame perfect scrubbing like this.

[Andreas Hansen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

A quick question. I got a 40gb 4g iPod with a Belkin cardreader, and I am thinking about buying an iPod Photo instead.

BUT when I have transfered my jpg-pictures (appr. 3,5 mb each - got a canon 20D) to the iPod, will I then be able to see the pictures right away? Or do I haft to go through iTunes 4.7? A lot of the coolness - and "on the road" will be gone if that's not the case.

Secondly - how much do you think a 40gb 4g iPod is worth? It still has 9 month waranty, but the screen does have a few scratches. REALLY minor - I always carry it in a box - but they are their. Unfortunatly.

:) Andreas

ps - do you think the iPod Photo is strong enough to show video just by a firmware update, or do we need to buy an iPod Movie in half a year? :)

[Andreas Hansen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

A quick question. I got a 40gb 4g iPod with a Belkin cardreader, and I am thinking about buying an iPod Photo instead.

BUT when I have transfered my jpg-pictures (appr. 3,5 mb each - got a canon 20D) to the iPod, will I then be able to see the pictures right away? Or do I haft to go through iTunes 4.7? A lot of the coolness - and "on the road" will be gone if that's not the case.

Secondly - how much do you think a 40gb 4g iPod is worth? It still has 9 month waranty, but the screen does have a few scratches. REALLY minor - I always carry it in a box - but they are their. Unfortunatly.

:) Andreas

ps - do you think the iPod Photo is strong enough to show video just by a firmware update, or do we need to buy an iPod Movie in half a year? :)

[Burv @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I do a bit of VJing, and after just thinking the iPod Photo wasn't for me, more of an expensive gimmicky thing, I want one. This would be awsome for scratching video, the toch sensitive scroll is even circular! I don't see why it cant go back and forth, as I guess people would want to go back to photos to show again, if it does this, i'll save up a little extra and get the Photo iPod.

[ketul @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

How about automatic spin?! You can probably use some electronic products, i.e. a motor and "speed controller", and attach some type of material that would be recognized by those sensors on the wheel.

I wish I had iPod photo so that I can try doing this motor experiment.

Try doing that Phillip. You can find motors and other things at radioshack or digikey.com.

And give ur finger(s) some rest...!

[Andreas Hansen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

A quick question. I got a 40gb 4g iPod with a Belkin cardreader, and I am thinking about buying an iPod Photo instead.

BUT when I have transfered my jpg-pictures (appr. 3,5 mb each - got a canon 20D) to the iPod, will I then be able to see the pictures right away? Or do I haft to go through iTunes 4.7? A lot of the coolness - and "on the road" will be gone if that's not the case.

Secondly - how much do you think a 40gb 4g iPod is worth? It still has 9 month waranty, but the screen does have a few scratches. REALLY minor - I always carry it in a box - but they are their. Unfortunatly.

:) Andreas

ps - do you think the iPod Photo is strong enough to show video just by a firmware update, or do we need to buy an iPod Movie in half a year? :)

[iPod Savant @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This does demonstrate how cool and useful it would be for the iPod Photo to support video. Personally I have home video and this would be so much easier to bring with me. I already bring my music whereever I go, now I could have home video. That would be very cool.

[ketul @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I hate u Andreas!!!! I'm stuck with Canon 10D.
20D came out few months after I bought 10D.

:(

[Andreas Hansen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

A quick question. I got a 40gb 4g iPod with a Belkin cardreader, and I am thinking about buying an iPod Photo instead.

BUT when I have transfered my jpg-pictures (appr. 3,5 mb each - got a canon 20D) to the iPod, will I then be able to see the pictures right away? Or do I haft to go through iTunes 4.7? A lot of the coolness - and "on the road" will be gone if that's not the case.

Secondly - how much do you think a 40gb 4g iPod is worth? It still has 9 month waranty, but the screen does have a few scratches. REALLY minor - I always carry it in a box - but they are their. Unfortunatly.

:) Andreas

ps - do you think the iPod Photo is strong enough to show video just by a firmware update, or do we need to buy an iPod Movie in half a year? :)

[Andreas Hansen @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Well my problem exactly with the iPod - but I must admit I am also considering AV420 or something like that. It seems to me that you get A LOT more for the dollars...

[James Stone @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

One use for it would be if you are animator and you could output you days work to it and preview it on the way home on the tube.

[Daan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Guys, This is Great!! Yeah, it's expensive, but hey.. it's apple.
Don't listen to the big-grey-unstylish-cheap-pc lovers here, they do not understand the love to Apple.
Keep up the good work!

Get a life,
Get a mac:) peace,

[Randy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

SOMEONE HELP!

Ok I tried doing this and somehow the images were placed on my desktop. Im runnig a g4 powerbook 17" 1.5 GHZ machine with 512 mb ram installed. I can run my applications but i cannot clikc on anything that is on the desktop! I think that there is just too many files. I tried restarting and force quit, but neither of them work to make the desktop "unfreeze" My mouse pointer works, but it will not let me click anything on the desktop, but like I said, it will let me select my applications from the application menu at the bottom of the screen.

I am not sure of how to get my desktop funtioning agian. I need to get if fixed so that I can open my HD! Does anyone know how to do this?? Feel free to either email me or post back. Thanks

Randy

[Pikemann Urge @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Yeah, an animated GIF file would be better. Or, if PNG supports it, an animated PNG file. BMP supports animation as well. But seeing as the output on the iPod itself is so small, the limited colours in a GIF image is not such a handicap.

[Ryan O'Connell @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

for the slide show - you get options like play a new frame every 2 seconds, every 5 seconds . . etc.

If there is a way to hack into the ipod, all you would need to do is set the delay between frames to 1/15th of a second . . . that shouldn't be too hard right . . . so come on hackers, get hacking!

and with ?o frame advance - that would save a lot of sore thumbs!

[Jon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

in response to post number 46

randy, try using the finder window to clear up your desktop.
just hit command+n after you boot up. there should be an icon for your desktop folder in the tray on the left. click that and make a new folder and then drag all your image files into that folder.

hope that helps
__--(_() JD

[Trinidad @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Geez, this is sad... and oddly desperate...