Help me get my videos ready for my iPod touch!

[JHacker]

I'm upgrading from a 4th generation iPod so I haven't had any experience with encoding videos for the iPod. I want maximum quality and resolution, and I have Handbrake.

Will using the iPhone plugin be correct? Or should I be using a custom setting to hit the resolution exactly?

Please give me insight and tell me exactly what to do to get my videos ready to load on my iPod as soon as it comes!

Thanks-
J

[tmoney468]

Whatever the settings are for the iPhone, the same will work for the iPod touch...they're essentially the same thing (same components including the screen) except one is a phone. So you should be all set if you have settings for the iPhone

[squeeks]

im going to use my turbo h.264 hardware encoder, its really fast, and has an iphone preset

[clevin]

every parameter set to max is USELESS and WASTE of SPACE!

set:
res: 320x480
bitrate: 450

thats good enough, for that big a screen, anything higher is a waste and unwise.

[astrostu]

So it does not make sense to rip it at a higher resolution, but rather the iPod's native resolution? It won't make it sharper at all by averaging four pixels to one (if it's ripped at 2x resolution)?

[PkennethV]

Originally Posted by astrostu

So it does not make sense to rip it at a higher resolution, but rather the iPod's native resolution? It won't make it sharper at all by averaging four pixels to one (if it's ripped at 2x resolution)?

Nope it shouldn't make a difference. I don't think iTunes would even sync the video if it's not native resolution (that's how it was with 5g iPods). And even if it is slightly better quality, are you willing to cut that 16 or 8 GBs in half just for that? Also, even if the iPod was able to play higher than native res video, it would take more cpu power to downsize the video, therefore decreasing battery life (there's even a difference in battery life between playing AIFF and ACC audio files).

[astrostu]

Originally Posted by PkennethV

Nope it shouldn't make a difference. I don't think iTunes would even sync the video if it's not native resolution (that's how it was with 5g iPods).

And even if it is slightly better quality, are you willing to cut that 16 or 8 GBs in half just for that? Also, even if the iPod was able to play higher than native res video, it would take more cpu power to downsize the video, therefore decreasing battery life (there's even a difference in battery life between playing AIFF and ACC audio files).

On your first point, yes, Apple states it supports 640x480 resolution. I'm guessing that's because that's what downloads are now from the iTunes store (which I don't use, so I don't really know).

On the second and third, good points. I thought of both of them, especially the latter a few minutes after I posted my original question.

I think what I'll do is a simple test ... when it gets here. And I'll see if I can tell the difference, and then decide whether it's worth it if I see a significant difference.

[gloss]

I just bought VisualHub ($24) and am in the process of converting some of my anime to iPhone (aka iPod Touch) format. This program is massively awesome. It converts nearly EVERYTHING (including Matroska Video) and the output quality is immaculate. At max quality settings, an iPhone-formatted 23-minute h.264 video is about 97 megs, down from 171 for the original file. And it looks fantastic.

I highly recommend it if you've got an extra $25 lying around.