Can you download better codecs on Itunes?

[Derek70]

i was wondering you could download better stronger codecs for your Itunes. the same kind of codecs that Quicktime and VLC uses. and then put the codec on your ipod, so all your videos can play better or does codecs take up alot of space?
I just don't have the money or the means to get better video Youtube downloader. the one i have was free ( you get what you pay for)

[Sparkee]

In the first place the quality of video you get out of YouTube will be hit or miss at best. If your objective is to copy YouTube video your best bet is to look at the software you are using to download it. But if it is poor quality to begin with you will not improve it.

iTunes already uses the QuickTime codecs and can play almost any video QuickTime can. When it come to iPods the video needs to meet specific requirements to ensure iPods and iOS devices can play the video smoothly with out overtaxing the limited processor. So even though they use the same codecs the settings used to convert the video may be lowered to keep the file sizes low and not overtax the iPods processor.

The h.264 mpeg 4 video normally used can be very high quality and I don't believe it is necessary to use any other on an iOS device. iTunes however is not a very good tool to convert your video for an iPod. It is good enough to convert the occasional video but there are much better programs available. Rather than trying to change codecs look at the quality of the video you are trying to convert and the settings the program is using to convert. Quality may even vary between programs using the same codecs.

If you start with lower quality video it will not get better, and will probably look even worse if you try to use higher quality settings. With good video file to start with use the presets in the software, Apple TV and iPad settings may give you better results but may not play on older smaller devices. With HandBrake I find their Universal Apple setting best which may still create larger file sizes but the video will still play on my oldest iPod.

There is still many good free converter programs available which you'll have to try. For some reason on Windows a program that works for one system may not work as good on another. On Apple computers you can't beat HandBrake for DVD ripping and movies with 5.1 surround tracks or VideoMonkey fast no-frills converting of video. Both programs can produce very high quality mpeg4 and h.264 video which plays fine on iTunes as well as all iPods/iOS devices with no additional codecs.