Most of the new iPods will have video playback as one of its most advertised features (despite the people at Apple insisting for years that they didn’t think video playback was really their thing).

This is great, but be warned, the world of video is a perilous one. You can’t just copy a video file onto your iPod and assume it will work. It won’t.

You must convert whatever you want to watch into the correct iPod format. This means you’ll need a converter. And if you’re not ­familiar with the vast wilderness of ­different ­formats out there, this could end up being a bit of a nightmare. Fear no more. Movies on iPod ­converts all the most ­popular playback types into the iPod MP4 format.

It can easily convert DVD, SVCD, CVD, DivX, AVI, WMV, MPEG, MP4, and very importantly, FLV (the Flash Video format that many websites, ­including TechSmart.co.za and YouTube use) into iPod-­compatible MP4.

Get it for R399 (incl VAT) from www.phoenixsoftware.co.za.