So, I have an iPod Video and I have a bunch of movies that I’ve converted to MP4 files that have incredibly small video sizes and are basically just to play on my iPod. On Wikipedia (I know, not a good source, but I’m curious) it says that iPods can play AVI files with a plugin. I would like to know where to get this plugin or, if one doesn’t exist, suggestions for good MP3 players that also play video files in AVI format.
The ipod only plays mp4 encoded video, if you input avi files into iTunes it will just convert them into mp4 and transfer that to the iPod.
Anyway AVI is a container, not a codec, with iPodlinux you can only play 1 avi format at about 15fps max and with Rockbox you can play 30fps mpeg2 files.
Hm, wait a second. If I open AVI files in iTunes it will convert them and put them on the iPod? So will the converted file take up any more space or will it only be on the iPod? And any other players that you would recommend?
I think the converted file gets saved on the PC as well because of how iTunes works, if you delete it it will probably also disappear from the ipod next time you “synchronize” all the songs, but I really am not sure because I never used iTunes except to restore the firmware.
I prefer Winamp for copying songs into an iPod but I use the ml_ipod plugin because the one built into winamp doesn’t work with some types of ipods, also winamp doesn’t encode videos, they have to be in mp4 format already.
Zune software already supports .avi files, and .avi support for the ZunHD will probably be added soon.
Zune can play .avi files? Everywhere I look it says it won’t. If it really does then I’ll probably get one of those the next time I get an MP3 player.
Archos.
Yeah, I saw the ones made by Archos but I’m kind of hesitant from how many people on Amazon were complaining about how it died after a few months.
Mine lasted well over a year before I did something something really stupid with the firmware and bricked it. It would have lasted a lot longer. Those things are built like bricks. At least mine was (Archos 605 wifi)
EDIT: Never mind, wrong again 
They probably say it can’t because it was only just recently added. It was from an update a little under a month ago. The Zune player itself can’t play .avi yet, but they are working on it.
Archos looks nice, but the really low prices make me suspicious.
Just make sure you don’t buy the new archos 5 or 7 series, my friend had 2 old archos players (404 and 604) which were pretty much unbreakable so he was confident archos was always about good quality, but the new archos 7 he bought broke in about 2 days, after best buy said no refunds.
On the other hand, he might have been unlucky, the newest archos 5 runs google android, so you could play more video formats than any other portable device.