Watch videos on your 1st Generation iPod Nano installing RockBox

Before you begin you need

1. A 1^st Generation iPod Nano - (Check if your player is supported by rockbox here)
   
2. A backup of all the data on the iPod

With these + a whole lot of courage follow these steps :-

1. Install RockBox (An Open Source Jukebox Firmware)
• You can download the current build from here - http://build.rockbox.org/
• Connect the 1st Generation iPod Nano to the PC via USB
• Connect it to the PC in Disk Mode
• Pressing both the Menu and the Select (center) buttons reboots the Nano
• As the Nano is rebooting if you hold the Play and the Select (center) button it will reboot into Disk Mode
• Extract the contents of the file downloaded into the root directory of the iPod Nano
• Explore the contents of the iPod with win explorer. You will see a directory called .rockbox (NOTE: Do not change the name of this directory or any of its sub-directories)
• Now, In order to make your player load and execute the Rockbox firmware you have just installed, you will need to install the Rockbox bootloader (next step)
  
2. Run the iPodPatcher
• Download ipodpatcher.exe from here and run it
• Follow the instructions
• Congratulations you have a iPod that dual boots Rockbox and the Apple OS firmware
• REMEMBER the patcher installs the RockBox as the default OS
• Now to boot into the RockBox firmware
• Do nothing Reboot the iPod Nano – it boots RockBox by default
• And to boot into the Apple OS firmware -
• Reboot the iPod Nano pressing both the Menu and the Select (center) buttons
• Hold the Menu key to reboot to the Apple OS firmware
• For more details on the installation visit this link
  
3. Encode your favorite videos
• To be played on the 1^st Generation iPod Nano using WinFF from - http://biggmatt.com/winff/ - WinFF is a GUI for the command line video converter, FFMPEG

IMPORTANT NOTE :-

If anything goes wrong you can restore your iPod Nano Apple OS firmware using iTunes’ Restore utility. Just remember - In order to ensure that you do not damage your iPod, before disconnecting your cable be sure that you see the “Ok to Disconnect” message on your iPod.