Besides the other most popular devices, such as the iPhone, Blackberry, WIndows Mobile and Zune devices, support has been added for the most popular Android phones on the market as well.

Are the other free conversion methods too complicated or too much hassle to work with, just give DVD Catalyst Free a whirl.

Convert DVDs with a single click, drag most of the common video file types such as AVI, DIVX, MPEG onto DVD Catalyst Free, and again, just one click, and all will be done for you.

Please do keep in mind that DVD Catalyst Free has no configuration options, and is not as fast with DVD conversions as DVD Catalyst.

For more options and device profiles, including black bar removal, volume adjustment, as well as faster DVD conversions, please upgrade to DVD Catalyst 3 for less than $10

build 1.7

Convert DVD to your iPod, your iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, Droid, Nexus One or Zune for free. DVD Catalyst Free is the ONLY free 1-click DVD conversion utility available, and enables you to create video files for your portable devices without the need to read through complicated guides or to install a variety of different programs.

Before DVD Catalyst Free, the only option for free DVD conversions was to use guides found on community websites. These guides usually require the user to install a couple of different applications, all designed to perform a single task, and then follow the steps in order to get to the end-result. While these guides do offer a lot more control over the actual conversion quality, the problem is that it takes a lot of time and trial-and-error to get things figured out for new users. In most cases, forums where these guides posted, there are numerous newbie users who are confused or have problems with one step in the process. As a result, we decided to create DVD Catalyst Free.

DVD Catalyst Free takes care of all the steps in those guides, and eliminates the need to install additional software. It is based on DVD Catalyst 3, and while it lacks many advanced features, it retains the 1-click user interface, and the most popular device profiles.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

Included device profiles

Apple iPhone. (All versions) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Touch. (All versions) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Nano. (3G, 4G) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

Apple iPod Video. (5G, 5.5G, Classic) Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. This is the same format Apple uses for its content on iTunes.

· Cellphone 3gpp. Compatible with most cellphones with video capability.

· Zune 4. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 8. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 30. Files are created with the WMV video codec to ensure compatibility.

· Zune 80. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Zune 120. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality.

· Playstation Portable. Files are created with the H264/AVC video codec to produce the best quality. Files need to be stored in the “VIDEO” folder located directly on the memorystick.

· Windows Mobile. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Windows Mobile VGA. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Palm Treo. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Palm Centro. Files are created with the DIVX video codec to produce the best quality. For playback, a DIVX-capable video player application such as TCPMP is required. You can find many versions of TCPMP on www.tools4movies.com/tcpmp

· Audio only MP3. Converts only the audio portion of your videos/DVDs, basically turning them into audiobooks.

NEW in 1.7:

Google Nexus One

HTC Droid Eris

Motorola Droid

Options

DVD Catalyst Free is created to provide a simple way to convert movies for portable devices. Besides a basic quality adjustment, it does not have configuration options to modify settings set by the device profiles. Selecting a device profile automatically sets parameters required for creating video content compatible for the selected device, but nothing else.

To be able to modify additional profile settings, such as audio quality or black-bar removal, please upgrade to one of our other products, found on www.tools4movies.com. Besides offering more configuration options, they offer faster DVD conversions for most DVDs as well.

Selecting a device profile automatically selects the proper video format required for playback on the selected device. Some devices, such as PalmOS- and Windows Mobile-based devices do not have proper video playback, and for these devices, additional software is needed to be able to play the created video files. Please refer to the “Included device profiles” section for details on this.

In addition, the device profile sets the screen size of the device, which is used to optimize the video to make it fit, while preserving the best possible quality. The video will just be resized to fit within the screen size set by the profile, without further modifications. Depending on the device, as well as the video content, you might have black borders when viewing the video on your device. To eliminate this, please upgrade to one of our other software products.

The video quality is also automatically set by the device profile, but you can freely adjust this to fit your needs. The default setting for each device is selected based on providing a good quality at a reasonable file size. A quality indication (Q-value) gives you an indication of what quality to expect. Usually a value of 8 provides good quality. If you increase the video quality, keep in mind that the resulting quality can never be better than the quality of the original video, and going over 12 will not really be noticeable.

So why upgrade to DVD Catalyst 3?

DVD Catalyst Free, is a very basic video converter. It includes profiles for the most common devices, however, it lacks any configuration options. If you have a device not listed in DCF, you can pick one that is close enough to your device (the iPhone profile works fine for most newer blackberries for example) however, it is not fully optimized for it. The screen resolution can be off (the iPhone has 480×320, while newer blackberries have 480×360), and the quality could be affected during playback as well.

With DVD Catalyst 3, you can change just about any aspect of the conversion process. It still works like DVD Catalyst Free, just start a conversion with a single click, however, many settings are configurable that will enable you to create the best possible quality video for your device. Black bar removal, frame rate adjustment, video format choices, screen size selection and much more.

Besides the basic options, DVD Catalyst 3 includes many industry-first and industry-unique features. Because we use our own software, we often run into a scenario where we would like it to perform certain tasks, and as the developer, it’s pretty easy to add this to our own software.

Features such as Multi-Device Queue, which enables you to set up conversions for multiple devices with a single click. Automatic blackbar removal, ejecting a DVD when finished, finding one when you put one in your DVD drive, auto-start conversions, folder monitoring etc.DVD Catalyst 3 is the most feature-rich converter on the market, but the best thing is, unlike wizard or step-by-step conversion tools, DVD Catalyst requires just a single click to start the conversion.

Besides all this, DVD Catalyst 3 also offers faster DVD conversions.

Build 3.84

Convert DVD to your iPod, your iPhone, Pocket PC, Zen, Zune and more in a breeze. DVD Catalyst is the most advanced, feature-rich DVD conversion tool on the market today, and besides the standard features found in similar products, it offers numerous inductry-unique features to make it as easy to use as possible.

DVD Catalyst enables you to convert your own DVD collection to a format that can be played on a video-capable device that does not normally play DVDs. It creates video files from DVDs that are compatible with many different devices, including Apple’s iPod and iPhone devices, Blackberry, Pocket PC, PSP, XBOX 360, PS3, Zen and Zune.

Besides converting DVDs, it can also convert video files from and to a variety of different video formats, without the need to install codecs. No additional software is required for DVD Catalyst to do it’s thing.

Included device profiles

Clearview miPC Infinity
Apple AppleTV (Fast)
Apple AppleTV (HQ)
Apple AppleTV (HD)
Apple AppleTV (HQ HD)
HD ( 720) Apple TV
HD ( 720) Apple TV HQ
HD ( 720) eGreat  720
HD ( 720) eGreat  720 HQ
HD (1080) eGreat 1080
HD (1080) eGreat 1080 HQ
HD ( 720) Zune HD
HD ( 720) Zune HD HQ
HD ( 720) XBOX 360
HD ( 720) XBOX 360 HQ
HD ( 720) PS3
HD ( 720) PS3 HQ
HD ( 720) WD HD
HD ( 720) WD HD HQ
HD ( 720) NMT XVID
HD ( 720) NMT XVID HQ
HD ( 720) NMT H264
HD ( 720) NMT H264 HQ
Apple iPhone (Fast)
Apple iPhone (HQ)
Apple iPhone 3G (Fast)
Apple iPhone 3G (HQ)
Apple iPhone 3GS (Fast)
Apple iPhone 3GS (HQ)
Apple iPod Classic (Fast)
Apple iPod Classic (HQ)
Apple iPod Nano (Fast)
Apple iPod Nano (HQ)
Apple iPod Touch (Fast)
Apple iPod Touch (HQ)
Apple iPod Video (Fast)
Apple iPod Video (HQ)
Apple iPod TV-Out
Toshiba TG01
Toshiba TG01 (HQ)
Generic 3GP Cellphone
Audio Only Movie to MP3
Tivo to MPEG
Tivo to MPEG Copy
Generic VCAST Cellphone
Verizon Droid
Verizon Droid HQ
Verizon Droid HQ2
Motorola Milestone
Motorola Milestone HQ
Generic MPEG4 Cellphone
Generic AVC/H264 Cellphone
Nokia Nokia 3GP
Nokia 9300
Nokia Nokia AVC (N95)
Nokia Nokia 5800
Nokia Nokia MP4
Dingoo A320 (AVI)
Generic Windows Mobile PocketPC (TCPMP)
Generic Windows Mobile Smartphone (TCPMP)
Smartphone Generic DIVX (TCPMP)
HTC Touch (TCPMP)
HTC Touch 3G (TCPMP)
T-Mobile myTouch 3G
HTC Touch Viva (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Pro (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Diamond (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Diamond2 (TCPMP)
HTC Touch Dual (TCPMP)
HTC Fuze (TCPMP)
HTC TyTN II (TCPMP)
HTC P6500 (TCPMP)
HTC P3570 (TCPMP)
Verizon XV6900
HTC Touch Cruise (TCPMP)
HTC Touch HD
HTC Touch HD2
Nokia 810
Nokia 810 HQ
HTC Touch LEO
HTC Touch Pro2
HTC Imagio
HTC Imagio HQ
Verizon VX6975 (Imagio)
Verizon VX6975 (Imagio) HQ
HTC MAX 4G
HTC Touch HD (HQ)
Generic WMV
Generic WMV HQ
Generic DIVX HQ
Generic AVI HQ
Generic MPEG2
Generic MPEG2 HQ
Microsoft Zune 4
Microsoft Zune 4 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 8
Microsoft Zune 8 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 30
Microsoft Zune 30 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 80
Microsoft Zune 80 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune 120
Microsoft Zune 120 (HQ)
Microsoft Zune HD (HQ)
Microsoft Zune HD (TV )
Microsoft Zune HD (TV HQ)
Zune Zune HD (TV)
PocketPC PocketPC 2000
PocketPC PocketPC 2002
Microsoft W Mobile 2003
Palm Palm Treo / Centro
Palm Pre
Palm Pre (HQ)
PocketPC Palm Treo 7XXw
Palm Treo 7XXp (TCPMP)
Epson P2000
Epson P2000 AVI
Epson P4000 AVI
Creative Zen 4GB
Blackberry 81xx Pearl
Blackberry 83xx Curve
Blackberry 8330 Curve
Blackberry 87xx Series
Blackberry Storm
Blackberry Storm2
Blackberry Storm (HQ)
Blackberry Storm2 (HQ)
Blackberry 89xx Curve
Blackberry 89xx Curve (HQ)
Blackberry Tour 9630
Blackberry Tour 9630 (HQ)
Blackberry Bold
Blackberry Bold (HQ)
Misc Meizu M6 Miniplayer
Microsoft W Mobile 2005
Philips GoGear Opus SA5295
Microsoft W Mobile 5
Microsoft W Mobile 2006
Microsoft W Mobile 6
Microsoft W Mobile 2003 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 2005 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 5 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 2006 VGA
Microsoft W Mobile 6 VGA
Microsoft PocketPC DIVX (TCPMP)
Smartphone Smartphone DIVX (TCPMP)
PocketPC DIVX VGA (TCPMP)
Asus eee  7″
Asus eee  9″
Asus eee 10″
MSI Wind  9″
MSI Wind 10″
Generic Netbook 7″
Generic Netbook  9″
Generic Netbook 10″
Generic Netbook 11″
Generic HD Media Player (Average)
Generic HD Media Player (Good)
Generic HD Media Player (Best)
Archos A404 H264
Archos A604 H264
Archos A605 H264
Archos A605 XVID
Archos 105
Archos 405
Archos 5 (with H264 plugin)
Archos 7 (with H264 plugin)
Archos AV500
Archos AV700
Misc Camera2DIVX
Misc Cowon A2
Cowon Q5W
Cowon A3 (DIVX)
Cowon Q5W (H264/AVC)
Cowon iAudio 6
Cowon iAudio 7
Cowon iAudio X5
Cowon S9
Cowon O2PMP (DIVX)
Cowon O2PMP (H264/AVC)
Cowon D2+
iRiver Spinn
iRiver LPlayer
iRiver E100
iRiver P7
iRiver Clix
Samsung Omnia
Samsung i8510 INNOV8
Samsung Omnia II
Samsung Omnia HD i8910
Misc Cavalry CAPP6
Misc Disney MixMax
Motorola KRZR
Motorola RAZR
Motorola SLVR
Motorola MOTOKRZR K1m
Motorola MOTORIZR Z6tv
Motorola MOTORAZR maxx Ve
Motorola ZN5
Motorola MOTORAZR V9m
Motorola MOTO Z6c World Edition
LG VX 8700
LG VX 8350
LG VX 9400
LG enV
LG EnV Touch
LG EnV Touch HQ
LG Chocolate
LG VENUS
LG Voyager
Samsung Gleam
Motorola DEXT MB220
Samsung Eternity
LG Vu CU920
Sony-Ericsson p910
Sony-Ericsson SE Xperia X1a
Sony-Ericsson Aino
Sony-Ericsson Satio
Samsung FlipShot
Samsung SCH-u540
Samsung SCH-u550
Samsung SCH-u620
Samsung Alias SCH–u740
Creative Zen Vision
Creative Zen Vision M
Creative Zen Vision W
Misc GP2X
HandheldPC Jornada 720 (TCPMP)
HandheldPC MobilePro 900 (TCPMP)
HandheldPC MobilePro 900c (TCPMP)
HandheldPC Sigmarion 3 (TCPMP)
HP IPAQ 22xx
Nokia N770
Nokia E72
Nokia N82
Nokia N800
Nokia N900
Nokia N900 HQ
Nokia N70
Nokia N73
Nokia N91
Nokia N93
Sony Playstation 3(PS3)
Sony Playstation 3(PS3) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(MPEG)
Sony Playstation 3(MPEG) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(COPY AUDIO)
Sony Playstation 3(COPY AUDIO) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(AVC)
Sony Playstation 3(AVC) HQ
Sony Playstation 3(H264)
Sony Playstation 3(H264) HQ
Sony Playstation P(PSP)
Sony PSP (PSP)
Sony PSP HQ
Sony Mylo2
Sony Playstation P(PSP) HQ
Sony PS3(AVC)
Sony PS3(AVC) HQ
Sony PS3(H264)
Sony PS3(H264) HQ
Sony PS3 DIVX
Sony PS3 DIVX COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 DIVX HQ
Sony PS3 DIVX HQ COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 XVID
Sony PS3 XVID COPY AUDIO
Sony PS3 XVID HQ
Sony PS3 XVID HQ COPY AUDIO
Sony Walkman NWZ
Sony Walkman X
Samsung S8000 JET
Samsung S5230 STAR
Misc Samsung U800
Misc Sansa Connect
Misc Sansa Fuse
Misc Sansa View
YouTube Flash Video
Misc FLV
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (Fast)
HTC HTC Dream (Fast)
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (Standard)
HTC HTC Dream (Standard)
T-Mobile T-Mobile G1 (HQ)
HTC HTC Dream (HQ)
Android HTC Hero
Android Acer Liquid
Acer neoTouch
Samsung B7620
Generic XVID_MP3
Generic DIVX_MP3

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Video. (5G or 5.5G)

*An Apple iPod Video Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Video, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Video in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Video. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Video (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Video profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Video cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Video, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Video. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Video, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Video screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Video, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Video, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Video to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Video. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Video’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Video is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Video.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Video. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Video.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Video on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Video (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Video. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Video

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Video, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Video works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Touch. (Any model or version will work)

*An Apple iPod Touch Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Touch, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Touch in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Touch. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Touch (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Touch profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Touch cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Touch, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Touch. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Touch, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Touch screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Touch, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Touch, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Touch to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Touch. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Touch’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Touch is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Touch.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Touch. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Touch.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Touch on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Touch (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Touch. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Touch

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Touch, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Touch works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Nano. (3G or Newer)

*An Apple iPod Nano Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Nano, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Nano in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Nano. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Nano (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Nano profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Nano cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Nano, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Nano. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Nano, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Nano screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Nano, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Nano, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Nano to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Nano. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Nano’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Nano is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Nano.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Nano. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Nano.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Nano on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Nano (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Nano. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Nano

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Nano, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Nano works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPod Classic. (Any model or version will work)

*An Apple iPod Classic Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPod Classic, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPod Classic in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPod Classic. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPod Classic (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPod Classic profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPod Classic cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPod Classic, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPod Classic. Because of the smaller screen on the iPod Classic, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPod Classic screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPod Classic, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPod Classic, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPod Classic to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPod Classic. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPod Classic’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPod Classic is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPod Classic.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPod Classic. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPod Classic.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPod Classic on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPod Classic (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPod Classic. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPod Classic

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPod Classic, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPod Classic works the same as for music.

Requirements:

*An Apple iPhone. (Any model or version will work)

*An Apple iPhone Sync cable. (The cable that came with it)

*A Windows-based PC. (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 (Server), Windows 2005 (MCE), Windows Vista or Windows 7)

*Apple iTunes installed on Windows PC (the latest version is recommended, but as long as it is compatible with your iPhone, it will work just fine)

*A DVD drive in Windows-PC. (Needed for DVD conversion) If your computer has more than one DVD drive, we recommend using the DVD burner instead of the DVD-ROM drive. DVD Burners are usually better in reading DVDs, and especially for your first time, it would reduce the chance of any complications that might arise.

*DVD conversion software. (DVD Catalyst 3 is recommended, but DVD Catalyst Free will do as well)

Step 1: Initial Setup.

*Install DVD Catalyst onto your Windows-based computer.  At the end of the install, it has options to open the user guide and to start the program after install. For convenience, uncheck them both.

*The installer puts a shortcut for DVD Catalyst on your desktop. Double-click it to run the program.

*Open your DVD drive tray, and put the DVD you want to watch on your iPhone in the drive. Close the drive-tray.

*After a few seconds, DVD Catalyst will recognize that you inserted a DVD, and it will perform a scanning procedure on it. The scanning procedure is performed by DVD Catalyst to gather information about the DVD, which is uses to optimize it during the next step for the best possible quality on your iPhone. Depending on the DVD itself, if it is a TV DVD or a Movie DVD, it might take a little while before the scanning is complete.

Step 2: Starting the conversion.

*Using the dropdowns at the left, select Apple > iPhone (DVD Catalyst 3) or at the bottom (DVD Catalyst Free), select the iPhone profile. If there are more profiles listed (DVD Catalyst 3) ignore them. These other profiles are more specific, and do not serve a purpose or an explanation in this particular “How To” guide.

*Click the Go button to start the conversion. The conversion will take a while, depending on the speed of your computer.

What DVD Catalyst is doing at this point is converting the video from one format to another format. The video on a DVD is created in a specific video format called MPEG2. While there are many devices that can play this particular video format, the iPhone cannot play video in this format, so to be able to watch the DVD on your iPhone, it has to be converted into a format that will play on it. In addition, DVDs are intended to be viewed on a bigger screen, and to have a good quality on even bigger TV screens, the quality setting used to create the DVD video makes it quite big in file size (4 GB or more). If the video just gets converted to a compatible format, this would mean you can barely fit 2 movies on an 8GB iPhone. Because of the smaller screen on the iPhone, it does not need to be that big to maintain the same quality, so during conversion, DVD Catalyst changes the format to make it compatible, adjusts the screen size to make it fit properly on the iPhone screen, and adjusts the quality itself to reduce the file size. This way, movies that would normally take up more than half of the space on your iPhone, you end up with 10 times as many movies and TV shows.

Step 3: Preparing iTunes for transferring video files.

This is where quite a few people experience some complications. iTunes, Apple’s software for transferring music and video files to your iPhone, is quite powerful in options; however, if these options are not set a certain way, it actually blocks other options.

*Connect your iPhone to your computer with the Sync-cable. iTunes should start automatically after a few seconds. If it does not, double-click on the iTunes icon to start the program.

*On the left side, find your iPhone. It should be listed under “DEVICES”. Click on your iPhone’s name in iTunes, and on the left side it will show some information about it, a few buttons for update and restore, and below that a couple of checkmarks. While iTunes has numerous options to automatically transfer videos and songs, the easiest to transfer videos to your iPhone is by enabling the checkmark for “Manually manage music and videos”. If you do not have this selected, it is hard to manually select the movies you want to transfer.

*Once you have enabled the “Manually manage” checkmark, click on Apply to have it set.

Step 4: Transferring the movie to your iPhone.

When the conversion is finished, DVD Catalyst automatically opens the folder where it stores the video files. By default, the files are stored in your “My Video” (for windows 2000/XP/2003) or “Videos” (Vista/Windows 7), so if you closed the dialog, you can find it again by opening on “My Computer” and browsing to your “My Documents” folder or your “user” folder.

There are a few different ways of transferring the files to your iPhone. If you are like us, and have a big collection build-up with movies and TV shows, it might not be desirable to have them all in iTunes. Rather than having 1000’s of files in iTunes, which makes it a bit slow, we prefer to bypass the iTunes library feature, and just transfer the files we want directly to the iPhone.

Method 1 (preferred), bypassing the iTunes library.

*In iTunes, click on your iPhone on the left, so that right underneath it, it will show Movies, Music (and your playlists if you have any on there) Click once on the movies so it shows the movies that are already on your iPhone (if any) on the left side. Now go to the Windows Explorer dialog that shows the video file(s) created by DVD Catalyst. Left-click and hold the file, and drag it over to the video selection of your iPhone. The mouse arrow should show a green “+” icon after a few seconds. Once this happens, left go of the mouse button, and iTunes will transfer the file.

If you already use iTunes for your music collection, you might want to have it manage your video collection as well. If this is the case, just add the video file to the library.

Method 2: Add to the iTunes library, and then transfer from library to your iPhone

To add files to the iTunes library, just drag the video files to it in the same way as mentioned in method one, however, instead of selecting the “Movies” item underneath your iPhone, select the “Movies” item underneath the library. You can also use the “File > Add file to library” or “File > Add folder to library” in the iTunes top menu as well. Once you have your movies in the iTunes library, transfer of the movies to your iPhone works the same as for music.