How to move videos into iTunes

There are quite a lot of different movie Codecs and so it is not surprising that some people have a little bit of difficulty in getting their videos into iTunes so that they can view them. I have made a video showing how to convert files that are not supported by iTunes, so that you can bring them in and watch them, either in iTunes or on your iOS devices. So you can transfer files to iPad .

 

How to add movies to iTunes

If your file is in a .mov, .mp4 or .m4v, then it is a simple procedure of dragging the file from your Finder window into the sidebar on iTunes on the left-hand side. I have found is easier and more reliable to drag it into the area that has the word Library at the top of it. On occasions, I have also found it possible to drag and drop a movie file into the main area showing the other movie files available in your iTunes application.

Converting and adding files into iTunes

My all-time favourite application for converting files so that they can be added to iTunes, would be Handbrake. Handbrake is quick and easy-to-use, despite it lacking the drag-and-drop functionality for choosing the file that you want to convert. In any case, it is easy enough to go into the menu and file choosing system that is available and get the source file that you want to convert.

So you have chosen the file that you want to convert in Handbrake and the best thing to do is to use one of the presets. There are presets there available for all of the Apple devices and a couple of Android settings. It is also possible to create your own presets and to save them. I have a preset saved that allows me to save movies that are in the correct format, to send to YouTube. The Handbrake application is not complicated to use and after choosing the source file and the preset, most times you can just click on Start and away it goes. Sometimes you will need to just check to make sure that the file is going to where you want it to be actually saved. This is usually the case when you have saved a movie file to a different place than usual when you have used handbrake previously, to compress a movie file and this time you want the completed file to go somewhere else.

Other applications to get movies into iTunes

Another very simple application to use is one called Miro Converter. Once again there are presets that you can use to make sure that the conversion is correct for the device that you want to use the movie file on. There is also a checkbox on the converter that you can tick if you want the completed file to be automatically added into iTunes. You will often find that this application is very fast to do its work. Before you know it your video is converted and available for you to watch in iTunes. There are quite a few free applications for the Mac to convert your video files.

MPEG Stream Clip

This application is perhaps not quite as friendly as the other two apps I’ve already mentioned, but there are a huge amount of settings that you can use if you know what you’re doing. You could have a look in the Wizardgold YouTube channel for a recipe for using this MPEG Stream Clip application to suit the device that you want to have the movie ready to be viewed upon, that is one way to get you started. Either that, you could do some research and find out the actual requirements and set it up from scratch yourself.

 

the video converter tool that is used by Mac20Q

The application that I prefer to use, the one that is the go to tool for my movie conversions for iTunes is Handbrake. It is fast to convert files for you, and the quality of the output is just right as well. Another good thing about Handbrake is that you can set up a batch of videos to be converted. I would like to see the addition of some drag-and-drop abilities within the application, which would be particularly useful when wanting to set up a batch of movie files to be converted for iTunes. It would be just so much easier to get them into the application rather than having to do them one at a time. Just so long as you’re using the presets that you have available within Handbrake, then you can’t really go wrong.