I happened to read in my MacWorld magazine that I received yesterday about the iTunes update. In the article, it mentioned that you could now convert videos (.avi, .mov, whatever format) to an iPod format (.mp4) within the application iTunes. I tested it out - and sure enough, it converted the music video I had of Billy Corgan's "Walking Shade" single from a .mpg format to .mp4 in about 30 seconds via the right-click option "Convert Selection for iPod." Anyone else tried this yet? I don't know the restrictions/limitations but I'm sure there must be some. Here are some before/after specs:
Before:
Kind: QuickTime movie file
Size: 33.1 MB
Total Bit Rate: 1396 kbps
After:
Kind: MPEG-4 video file
Size: 16.3 MB
Total Bit Rate: 685 kbps
I doubt you can change the settings - but I wonder if it encoded it with the h.264 codec?
The only problem? The sound doesn't work on the compressed file. Bummer.