iPod Movie Maker

As the name of this program implies, iPod Movie Maker prepares video files for iPod devices, but also for iPhone, PSP, DVD movies and Zune.

Plus, it can turn the format of videos into MPG, FLV, 3GP, AVI, WMV and MP4, as well as extract the audio stream and save it to MP3.

The interface of the software app is plain and intuitive. Adding files to the list can be done via the file browser, tree view or 'drag and drop' functionality. Working with multiple videos at the same time is permitted.

In the file list you can find out the name, duration, format, size, frames per second, and status of each clip. If you don't mind the default settings, then you can immediately start the conversion operation after selecting the output profile and directory.

Skilled users may tinker with the audio and video properties in regard to the codec, size bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, channel mode and synchronization. Alternatively, you can disable the audio stream.

Additional features of iPod Movie Maker allow you to preview clips in a built-in media player and trim it by marking the start and end position or time values, select the audio track, download clips from YouTube, as well as merge videos.

By accessing the 'Options' screen, you can change the default output folder, specify the process priority and number of threads, and schedule iPod Movie Maker to turn off the computer when all tasks are done. Further customization settings concerning the audio and video are available.

For example, you can adjust the volume level or enable normalization, pick the constant or variable bit rate mode, enable deinterlacing, as well as resize the clips to fit to the height or width. It is also required you set up your YouTube account credentials.

The video processing tool briefly finishes a task while using a moderate amount of system resources. It has a good response time, includes help documentation and delivers videos with a good image and sound quality. We have not found any technical problems during our tests. Unfortunately, iPod Movie Maker has not been updated for a long time.