If you want to encode video that you have on DVD for your iPod Video, a nice utility called HandBrake will do it for you. It works pretty well on Mac OS X, but my laptop's a little slow in the I/O department, and I prefer to use my Linux desktop for encoding. Caveat: it's illegal to rip commercial, encrypted DVDs to your computer. Non-encrypted DVDs for which you have copyright permission, for example your home videos, are legal to rip. Don't say I didn't warn you. Now that that's out of the way, here's a little script I wrote to rip DVDs using HandBrake for linux: #!/bin/bash # Filename is dvd2ipod # $1 - output filename # $2 - title number handbrake -f mp4 -i /dev/dvdrw \ -o $1 -t $2 -e ffmpeg -E faac -w 320 It assumes that you've installed HandBrake, and renamed HBTest to 'handbrake' and put it somewhere in your path. It also assumes that your DVD drive is /dev/dvdrw. This outputs video in a format that iTunes will let you import, and subsequently play on your iPod Video. I didn't set anything for audio tracks, subtitles, etc. It uses the defaults. You can easily modify this script for that. The important things are the dimensions ( -w 320 ) and the codecs ( -e ffmpeg, -f mp4, -E faac ). The first argument is the output filename you want, and the second is the title number that you want from the DVD. Say you have a DVD from your wedding with two titles -- the wedding, and the reception. If the wedding is title 1, and the reception is title 2, to rip the reception, you'd do this: dvd2ipod OurWeddingReception.mp4 2 Wait a bit, ignore the error messages as long as it keeps encoding, and enjoy showing your friends/family/coworkers your reception (or whatever)! ADDENDUM 2007-02-07: You can now use larger movie sizes, up to 640x480, so you may want to change that if you plan on playing to an external display device. Otherwise, stick with what's written above, as the 5G video ipod only has a QVGA screen.