A new Massachusetts-based service called TVMyPod offers users the opportunity to buy a video iPod and DVDs, which it will pre-load onto the video iPod for you.
The easiest way of getting videos onto the new iPod is to buy them from the iTunes Music Store and download them — iTunes will automatically synchronize the iPod with the new video content, much as it does with songs.
But many users may want content they can’t buy online — favorite movies or TV shows, for example, sports or more. You can certainly buy a lot of that content on DVD, rip it and then convert the ripped video to a format your iPod can understand. There are utilities both freeware and shareware to help you do that. But they’re time-consuming and inconvenient, according to TVMyPod cofounder Vijay Raghavan.
“At TVMyPod we hope to fill this void for our customers and allow them to watch their favorite TV shows or movies whenever and wherever they want,” he said in a statement.
TVMyPod sells you the DVDs of your choice — based on what’s available and what you’re interested in — and will pre-load that content on your iPod. They then ship the iPod and the DVDs to you.
The company sells 30 and 60GB iPods at retail price and also sells a wide variety of DVDs, many marked down from their suggested retail prices. Documentation on the Web site suggests that it takes 3-5 weeks from the time the iPod is ordered before it is shipped, but TVMyPod offers an expedited order option for an additional fee.
The company also plans to offer the service to users who have already purchased iPods, and is also toying with the idea of a subscription service to periodically provide iPod users with new video content.