Slightly off (Skritter) topic, but I want increase my exposure to Mandarin during the day by loading up my itouch with videos in Mandarin. Any good suggestions for what and how? (If it isn't clear from the question, I'm computer illiterate.) Something with Chinese subtitles would be ideal. I'm not looking for Chinese lessons; just something potentially entertaining with native native speakers. Thanks much.

I can't remember if they have subtitles or not, and it may not be native native, but Voice of America have lots of mandarin programmes (video) you can download from itunes.

www.tudou.com then use something like flashgot or downloadhelper to download.

Marc

PPlive is a bit similar to tudou but instead of easy streaming in your browser you have to install a small program through which you stream and then watch the shows/movies. To be honest, I would avoid it though because the before mentioned program still does all sorts of things you don't want it to (sets itself as your screensaver, loads adds etc.) and thereby slows the system down noticeably.
If all that doesn't scare you, here's the link (at the time I had the feeling it had a slightly wider range than tudou)

http://www.pptv.com/en/about.html

www.youku.com has loads of stuff - 喜羊羊 is probably a good place to start - http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_3805358.html

and you can use this - http://www.flvcd.com/ - to rip it from the website

and this - http://www.convertfiles.com/ - to change the format if you need to

tv.sohu.com is better than youku and tudou for quality but you can't download. They got movies and series, I'm a fan of the movies 天下无贼 and 非诚无扰 (the movie not the matchmaking show)

I agree about 天下无贼, personally not so much about 非诚勿扰. 葛优 and 范伟 are great, but I don't like 舒淇.

My top recommendations if you like comedy:
疯狂的赛车 (with 黄渤), 倔强萝卜 (strange & funny, also with 黄渤), 夜店 (with 徐峥).
All available on http://dianying.cntv.cn/lcomedy/index.shtml.

If you like patriotic movies: 建国大业, 天安门

Strongly suggest you to grab the weekly episode of 康熙來了 on youtube, it's often hilarious.

Umm, dont download flashgot, it is spyware.

I'd recommend http://flvcd.com if you want to download videos on 土豆，优酷, 酷6 etc.

yes, use the websites and rip the videos, don't install chinese software unless you have a good reason or trust it. I try to avoid sentences with blablabla nationality blablabla but in the case of software...definitely a problem in that area

about videos, i never watched a lot of chinese tv programs but 我的团我的团长 or something like that wasn't too bad, I had too low a level back then, but I wished I understood more so can't have been too bad. Also many of the characters speak with the accent or even dialect (i don't think very extreme though), so that would be a nice intro to chinese regions. Has subtitles, as I think most of the programs do.

correction the name is 我的团长我的团