Videos taken with camera are playable with Quicktime but won't sync

[Chew]

Hey all,

I have a weird issue I don't really understand. First, let me describe my setup: I have a digital camera I take photos and videos with. These are organized by iPhoto '09 on my MacBook Pro.
In iTunes, I sync my photos directly from iPhoto, including videos. After syncing my iPad, iTunes would give me a notification message, saying that all of my videos stored in iPhoto - thus taken with my camera - wouldn't be playable on my iPad and hence won't be synced.

BUT: If I go to one of the videos in the Finder and just double click on it, QuickTime would come up and play the video perfectly. If I furthermore import the video as a MOVIE to iTunes, the video IS synced with my iPad AND it playes just as perfectly.

Do you have any advices? Obviously my iPad can play the videos, iTunes just doesn't want to sync them together with my photos. This really annoys me, I always miss the videos when showing vacation pictures to my friends.

Thank you for all help!

 

[X2thaP]

well, just because iPhoto and quicktime will play something, even if iTunes will play it, this does not mean the iPad will play it.
Your videos need to be in an iPad compatible format first for them to sync.

Then again, I myself have experienced some weird stuff happening where files would sync one time, but not the next.

So, what I would say is, if you know you can get your videos to sync when you first import them as a movie in iTunes, then just import them first.
I'd prefer it this way anyway as your videos can now be found in your VIDEOS app on the iPad instead of the photos app (which is where they would be when syncing iPhoto).
But for you, if you want to show your photos and videos to family and friends, you might indeed forget them...

To solve this, I usually make a simple movie using iMovie. I make an intro, import all my photos (use the Ken Burns effect), put some videos in it, some music in the background,... Save it in a format compatible with the iPad and then put this in your iPhoto photo album with the rest of your stuff.

Btw, when you import them to iTunes as a movie, in what exact way do you do this? I'm asking to find out if maybe they are being converted when doing this, so making them compatible.

 

[Chew]

Thank you for your response!

Hm, you have a good point, perhaps iTunes just converts the video. Well, I just did a drag&drop from Finder into iTunes if I remember correctly.

I mentioned the video would be playable in QuickTime (not Pro) because I think I read that this would be the requirement for a video to be playable on the iOS devices. Perhaps I'm wrong here.

And I'd just like to download all data from my camera and then sync it with my iPad. Without the need to (manually?) extract all videos and add them to iTunes separately. Additionally to my wish to show photos and then see the videos at the correct place (because the videos are embedded in the "story" the photos are telling, of course).

But perhaps there is some kind of conversion happening. If it is, I have at least an explanation for why syncing works the one but not the other way.

 

[X2thaP]

Hm, you have a good point, perhaps iTunes just converts the video. Well, I just did a drag&drop from Finder into iTunes if I remember correctly.

Next time you drag&drop a video, see what it does.

I mentioned the video would be playable in QuickTime (not Pro) because I think I read that this would be the requirement for a video to be playable on the iOS devices. Perhaps I'm wrong here.

Not 100% sure here, but I think you are wrong, haha. I believe both normal QT and QT Pro should play compatible and incompatible files just fine. But again, not 100% sure.

And I'd just like to download all data from my camera and then sync it with my iPad. Without the need to (manually?) extract all videos and add them to iTunes separately. Additionally to my wish to show photos and then see the videos at the correct place (because the videos are embedded in the "story" the photos are telling, of course).

I understand completely what you would like to achieve, but I have no idea to get both your pictures and your videos in the same location to make the storytelling a smooth experience... I take photos and videos on the iPhone4, import these into iPhoto in a created album and they get synced onto my iPad into this same folder; which is what you want to achieve, correct? But because the iDevices play nice with each other, I have never experienced your problem, so haven't had to look for an exact solution...

BUT, again, if you are on a Mac, I would suggest to take the time to look into using iMovie to make a simple movie containing both your photos and your videos. You can choose how long to show photos, you can have transitions, effects,... It'sa nice way to get everything into one file, a nice bit of music in the background, and you can save it within the album together with our photos. It's just an idea. If you don't like to do the extra step (making the movie doesn't take long, 'rendering' it does), then someone else will have to help you out here ;-)