I used to spend hours perfecting the settings in Compressor for Final Cut Pro so the the video looked good, sounded good and was the file wasn't very large. Then I used encode a short version of my video just to see what the settings did to my beautiful, full-quality material.

After previewing the result, inevitably I would not be happy and tweak the settings just a little bit. Then, I would need to encode a short section again. Check the quality, tweak, encode and so on.

I don't have to do that anymore. Not since I found ViddyUp (formerly known as Podner).

For $9.95, I get a no headaches, great looking video ready for iPod Video player, iTunes, Blip.tv and YouTube. No fuss. And if you are a Cambridge Community Television member, you can use our copies in the edit suites.

Here is how:

1. Out of iMovie or Final Cut Pro, export a full frame Quicktime Movie.
2. In Final Cut Pro, for a quick export, uncheck the "self-contained" check box. This allows a fast export, but you can't move the file to any other computer because it references the existing media files.
3. Drop the exported Quicktime file into Viddyup's
   Here are the settings that I like:

4. iPod
5. 320 width x 240 heigth
6. MPEG-4
7. Quality:Good

Good luck!