Requirements
- Monochrome iPod with Rockbox firmware installed
- A computer
- A video file (240p or lower)
- FFmpeg or an online video converter
A note on resolution
Every monochrome iPod has a different screen size, so the resolution you need to set depends on your model. Using the wrong resolution will result in a stretched image or the video refusing to play entirely. Here are the correct resolutions:
- iPod Mini (1st and 2nd gen): 138 x 110
- iPod 1st, 2nd, 3rd gen: 160 x 128
- iPod 4th gen (monochrome): 160 x 128
How To
1. Get your video file
Start with the video. It does not need to be low resolution to begin with as you will be downscaling it later. If you are downloading a video from the internet, any quality is good since you are going to convert it later.
2. Downscale the video
This is the most important step. The iPod screen is so small that it can only handle very low resolutions: you need to shrink the video down to fit. There are two ways to do this:
Option A: Using FFmpeg (recommended)
FFmpeg is a free command line tool that handles this perfectly. Once you have it installed, open a terminal, CD to the folder where your video is and run :
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf scale=138:110 -r 15 output.mpg
Replace Video.mp4 with your actual filename, and replace 138:110 with the correct resolution for your iPod model I showed you before. The "-r 15" sets frame rate to 15fps.
Option B: Using an online converter
If you do not want to use the command line, sites like FreeConvert or CloudConvert can do the job. set the output format to MPG and resolution to the one for your iPod.
3. Convert to .MPG
Rockbox only accepts MPEG-1with the .MPG extension. If you used FFmpeg, you are good . If you used an online tool, make sure the output format was set to MPG.
4. Copy the file to your iPod
Connect your iPod to your computer and place the .MPG file on the iPod.
5. Play it through Rockbox
Open Rockbox files menu and navigate to the .MPG file.
If the video looks bad or does not play just double check that both the resolution and the file format are correct.