thanks to madmaxmedia i can now tell you how i encoded our "stationvideo" via final cut express (without quicktime pro!) and got an "ipod ready" .mp4:

in fce (but this can also be done via "qtamateur"!)

export > using quicktime conversion > as format choose "mpeg-4", click "options"

for "file format" (top of the window) now choose "mp4" (an n o t "mp4 (isma)" since this one does not give you the h.264 option!)
video format: "h.264"
data rate: (i tried the "ipod maximum") "750 kbits/sec"
image size: "320 x 240 qvga"
frame rate: "30"
key frame every 24 frames (default)

now click "video options...":

here i changed the default setting "restrict profile(s) to:" from "main" (now deactivated!) to "baseline" (now activated!). i do not exactly know what this does and if it is important at all! i did it because the apple "videopodcasts" tutorial mentioned ipod support for "Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3"... but i can tell you that your h.264 encoded movie will work on an ipod using these options...

ok, back to the other options (still in the "h.264 video options" window):

encoding mode: i chose "best quality (multi-pass)". now click "ok".

you are back to the main "mp4 export settings" window. last thing to do: change from the "video" to the "audio" tab and change (!) the "output sample rate" from "44,100 khz" to "48,000 khz" (!), (i left the rest to its default settings: audio format: aac-lc (music), data rate: 128 kbps, channels: stereo, encoding quality: better).

i also did not activate/change the "streaming" tab and back in the video tab i left the "optimized for" option to "download".

what i got was a 22,8 mb file for our 3' 36'' "stationvideo".

i know there are many other ways of doing this, but i can tell you that madmaxmedia from this forum tested audio/video quality of the "stationvideo" on his new video ipod and he says "it works great!". so all mac users could try these settings, if you don't have qt pro you can use "qtamateur": file > batch export...

one last thing: i still have quicktime 7.0.2. i don't know if an update to 7.0.3 would make a difference when using the settings i used...

indiworks