Getting iTunes to sync standard def videos to your iPad

We’re big fans of the recent PBS Masterpiece series Downton Abbey and bought the high-definition version from iTunes to watch on the big TV that is connected to our Mac mini media server. But when my wife asked me to load the series onto her iPad recently, I ran into an annoying syncing problem based on iTunes’s default treatment of the iPad.

iTunes wants to sync the space-wasting high-definition version of any movie or TV show you own in HD onto the iPad despite the device’s less than high-def 1024 X 768 pixel screen. This was happening even though we also have the standard-def version. iTunes just ignored it. So I couldn’t manage to fit all 7 Downton Abbey episodes (iTunes only sold the British-aired 7 episode version even in the US) with the other music and apps and so on that live on the wife’s iPad.

Messing around with iTunes, I couldn’t find any option or setting until I re-plugged in her iPad. Low and behold, in iTunes, on the “Summary” tab for the iPad, scroll down to the list of setting and there’s a check box for “Prefer standard definition videos.”so if you want iTunes to sync standard definition video to your iPad by default, click it and go.