Apple store videos won't import into Video iPod

Question

I spent about 19 hours over the last few days talking with mac support phone people, my own Mac repair guy, and the "geniuses" at the local Apple store, and no-one seems to know why I can't get the tv episode I downloaded from the Apple store website to go onto my new video iPod. The Apple store "genius" I first talked to noticed I had an iPod programmed to work in Windows, even though I have a G4, running 10.4.3, with the newest versions of iPhoto, Quicktime, and iTunes, and told the guy that info when I ordered the thing in October. The "genius" did a system restore, and loaded a couple of music videos, which I could view.
When I synced it up to my computer, I got the dialog box asking if I wanted to associate the iPod with my computer instead of the one at the store. I did, and I lost the ability to import videos. When I clicked on the iPod icon at the bottom of the iTunes page to see preferences, both video and photo buttons were missing. Calls up to the 2nd level of iTunes support and Desktop support failed to restore it, even after I did an archive install of Tiger. I finally installed Tiger on another internal drive (it had Panther), updated everything, and when I boot from that drive, I see the video and photo buttons in the iPod preferences. After making my other drive point to my iTunes library on the first hard-drive, I re-downloaded all of my music files to the iPod, but it still won't import the tv show (it also no longer allows me to import my podcasts). Apple support personnel recommended I exchange the iPod for another one, but the folks at the local Apple store wouldn't let me, even though I have a case number (#56524834, in case any Apple monitors want to help out). I've lost so much time and have become so frustrated (I could have watched the show on my Mac 19 times by now; it does play on the computer, so I know the file works) that I'm thinking of dumping my Apple stock. After all, if the customer service is this lousy for a guy who's always used Macs, I think the company is going to lose ground to other companies. Any ideas on how I can get the videos into my iPod (and regain the ability to import podcasts)? thanks, in advance!

Answer 1

But it was the actual MP4 file downloaded from Apple's own website, so I doubt that it was encoded incorrectly. I think it's faulty software, and I'm waiting for Apple to release a patch to fix it. But I don't expect they'll admit it. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with the fact that my iPod was originally encoded to work on PCs.
I'm not an expert but my understanding is that the files are supposed to be independent of the HD here. If you were able to load any files to the iPod before this problem, then I don't see why HD format should be a problem in this one particular case.
As to the file being from Apple's own web site, I don't consider that a guarantee that mistakes won't be made. However, as a commercial ($$$) enterprise, I consider their product in a "professional" light and hold them to a higher standard than I would others. The file I previosuly mentioned was, strangely enough, a tutorial on podcasting. It is from a series dealing with Apple products (like Aperture) and techniques (like exporting an iPod compatible file from iMovie or batch procissing in QT using Automator) so I assumed the authors are either Apple Techs or Apple "Specialists." That is why I was surprised when one of the podcasts would not sync.
In any case, the conversion of media to iPod compatible format and podcasting is in what... a 60-75 day infancy. So I do expect there will be problems. Especially based on the mistakes I've made in performing any own conversions and initial podcasting test of a public domain (old 1936 Republic "Saturday" matinee movie) Ray "Crash" Corrigan serial. Software, techniques, and workflows simply aren't "perfected" at this point, so I tend to try and learn from the mistakes -- both my own and others.
On the other hand, however, it might be a god idea to post a list of "problem" podcast files to see if these problems are actually file related, download related, or unique to individual iPods. In any case, best of luck to you.
2.0GHZ G5/533MHz G4 DeskTop/400MHz G4 PB   Mac OS X (10.4.3)