turn video into video podcasts?

[motulist]

How do you turn a video into a podcast and then import it into your iPod?

I have a ton of videos on my ipod, but I only want to watch them once, but I can't remember which I've watched and which I haven't. So the perfect solution is to turn them into podcasts so that after I've watched them they'll just automatically be removed from my iPod.

 

[overanalyzer]

You can tell in iTunes if you've watched a video based on the last played date and/or play count. You could create a Smart Playlist for videos where the play count is zero with live updating to always have a list of what you've watched without making the files into podcasts.

What iPod do you have? I can't remember if there's an indicator on 5th gen videos for whether a video has been played (I can check mine, just not right this second), but there is on the iPod Touch/iPhone. Not sure about the Classic/new Nanos because I don't have them.

 

[motulist]

80 GB classic. Good idea, I'll go check out that idea right now.

 

[overanalyzer]

80 GB classic. Good idea, I'll go check out that idea right now.

I've never used a Classic, so I don't know if they have an indicator for play status. On the iPhone/iPod Touch there's a dot that shows for unwatched that disappears when you've watched the video, and you can actually delete the video directly from the device if you want after watching it. They also can sync videos from a playlist, which is how I manage syncing TV episodes to my iPhone, basically doing what I suggested so I only have things I haven't watched yet. But I'm not sure how the options for the Classic compare....

 

[motulist]

It works! Great idea! It's still not nearly as cool and elegant as iTunes being able to remove them automatically though. If anyone knows an easy way to make that happen, I'd like to hear it.

Otherwise, this method will totally get the job done. Thanks overanalyzer!

 

[motulist]

On the iPhone/iPod Touch there's a dot that shows for unwatched that disappears when you've watched the video, and you can actually delete the video directly from the device if you want after watching it.

On the Classic there's no blue dot for unwatched videos like there is next to my unwatched video podcasts. How do you delete a video directly through the itouch interface? I bet neither of these features is available on the classic, even though they really should be there are would be very easy to add to the device.

 

[overanalyzer]

It works! Great idea! It's still not nearly as cool and elegant as iTunes being able to remove them automatically though. If anyone knows an easy way to make that happen, I'd like to hear it.

Otherwise, this method will totally get the job done. Thanks overanalyzer!

You're welcome

I'm wondering if you could build an Automator workflow for it. You could create a Smart Playlist that would have whatever you want to delete (i.e. Play Count of at least 1), but I don't see an option to remove from iTunes library in the default Automator actions. You could record that part, though. Might be worth a shot.

On the Classic there's no blue dot for unwatched videos like there is next to my unwatched video podcasts. How do you delete a video directly through the itouch interface? I bet neither of these features is available on the classic, even though they really should be there are would be very easy to add to the device.

After it plays it prompts you if you want to delete it, or you can swipe to delete (same way as deleting most things in the touch interface). So the Classic may very well not have a comparable feature. Perhaps there will be a software update at some point with that functionality....

 

[motulist]

You're welcome

I'm wondering if you could build an Automator workflow for it. You could create a Smart Playlist that would have whatever you want to delete (i.e. Play Count of at least 1), but I don't see an option to remove from iTunes library in the default Automator actions. You could record that part, though. Might be worth a shot.



After it plays it prompts you if you want to delete it, or you can swipe to delete (same way as deleting most things in the touch interface). So the Classic may very well not have a comparable feature. Perhaps there will be a software update at some point with that functionality....

Ooo, another great idea! I've used automator several times before to make up for iTunes many short comings. Luckily I wouldn't need the automator action to include a delete function, because for any function that automator doesn't include I just record a 'watch me do' process, and that way automator can automate almost anything! I used an automator watch me do script for compilation albums. I made it swap album name into the artist field and move the artist name to the beginning of each song. Automator is awesome!

 

[overanalyzer]

Ooo, another great idea! I've used automator several times before to make up for iTunes many short comings. Luckily I wouldn't need the automator action to include a delete function, because for any function that automator doesn't include I just record a 'watch me do' process, and that way automator can automate almost anything! I used an automator watch me do script for compilation albums. I made it swap album name into the artist field and move the artist name to the beginning of each song. Automator is awesome!

Yeah, the "watch me do" was what I meant when I said "record" (what the button's labeled in Automator). So that should make life easy...just play back the workflow whenever you want or perhaps schedule it to run regularly.