I'm new with converting videos too and have been using Handbrake for DVD's. I've been using the iPhone preset. It lets you select chapters which is cool if you don't want the entire DVD. Like for music video DVD's. For movies i shot with my camera, i use Quicktime Pro to export the movie as a iPod ready. iTunes also has an export out to iPod. Quicktime and iTunes are good for short videos. I've read they are slow but if it's something under 10 minutes, they do fine.