Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
timeandpreservingvideoquality.Also,ifyoulike,inthe“eye”view,selecttheAddtoiTunes
checkbox.
Figure 51:
iFlicks can convert video as well, and in the case of this MKV
file (it was meowing at the back door, honest!), it takes only a minute, be-
cause all that needs to be changed is the container, not the actual encoded
movie itself.
When you're ready, click Start.
Offload Movies to Another Disk
As I'm sure you've noticed, ripped DVDs and Blu-rays are
huge
—ranging from 1 to 10 giga-
bytes,evenafteryou'veconvertedthemtoiTunesformat.Youcanrunoutofdrivespacefast,
especiallyifyouuseoneofthetinySSDsthatAppleprefersinitsnewerlaptops.Fortunately,
youcanstoreyourvideosonanexternaldriveandloadtheminiTuneswithoutcopyingthem
to your boot drive. Here are two methods of doing so, plus a sidebar about
Which One to
The Easy Option
Move your video files to an external disk. Then, hold down the Option key while dragging
them into iTunes. A pointer toeach file is added toyour iTunes library without iTunes copy-
ing the file. Because only a pointer is added, if you move the file in the Finder, iTunes won't
be able to find it. And, if the external drive isn't mounted, iTunes may not handle the “miss-
ing” files well.
Tip:
Store all your video files in one place. Don't mix local and external locations—pick
one or the other. That cuts down on confusion as to where any particular file is stored.
