Disaster.

Question

I have a big problem with my iPod. I was using it in my friend's car and plugged it into the USB port into the car radio to play music. Before this, it was completely fine. Once I plugged it in, it went haywire. It jumped from song to song and did not stop on one for more than thirty seconds. I tried to push play, but none of the songs would play. It would not play a song, and not remain on one for more than half a minute. The battery is almost dead, perhaps that has something to do with it. By plugging it into the car port, it would have charged it. The next morning (today) I reset the settings on the iPod about ten times. That did nothing to improve it's condition. Now, I am docking it to my computer. It is not being recognized by iTunes, or my computer at all. I changed where the dock was plugged in. I moved the connection to a direct port from the computer rather than the keyboard. Still nothing. It is docked, but not charging. The battery is gradually turning green, but the moment I remove it from the dock, it immediately returns to dangerously red. This is all that I have tried other than making sure my iTunes software is up to date. There is not much I can do now. I intended to restore to factory settings, but due to the inability to sync or even have it be recognized by iTunes or my computer. I am in serious need of help, please, any assistance would be very welcome.

Answer 1

1. There's no easy way to show the full image on your TV. As your friend correctly said, it's a feature of the TV. Probably 99% of all TVs. The part of the image we actually see is called the "TV Safe Area".
iDVD lets us view the (estimated) portion of the image that will be displayed on the TV. In iDVD, choose View > Show TV Safe Area.
The only way I know to fix this problem is to create a QuickTime movie that has a black background, with your movie layered on top of it, reduced in size. That requires QuickTime Pro. Essentially, you create a video sandwich, then you export it to a new movie that you import to iDVD.
It's a bit complicated. There may be instructions posted somewhere. This page at Dan's site describes how to build a sandwich with a still image. It's for an older version of QuickTime Pro but it might help:
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6022.shtml
2. About the jaggies you see. There's a bug in iMovie HD that adds "jaggies" -- stair-stepping along sharp edges -- to still images when you do ALL of these:
1. Import a still image to iMovie HD with the Ken Burns Effect checkbox turned OFF.
2. Export the project to iDVD.
3. When iMovie HD asks, you grant permission to render before sending the project to iDVD. If you do, iMovie renders (any un-rendered stills) poorly, adding the jaggies.
To avoid iMovie adding the jaggies, do ANY of the these:
• Turn on the Ken Burns checkbox before importing the images. (Best solution.) iMovie won't ask to render them later, at least not those clips.
• When asked, refuse permission to render the images after you share to iDVD. (This may cause OTHER clips to not be rendered that should be rendered.)
• Drag the iMovie HD project file into the iDVD project window. (This may cause OTHER clips to not be rendered that should be rendered.)
Once the jaggies have been added to a clip it cannot be fixed. It's necessary to re-import the photo.
Karl