iPod touch Best video resolution / frame size to view fullscreen on iPod Touch 4G ?

[Rhlsg]

I am wondering what frame size to keep when converting videos for watching on my iPod touch 4G.
I usually use Any Video Converter and not iTunes.
For transferring the file i use iFunbox, instead of iTunes.
It seems the screen resolution for this iPod is 960x640, but a video with that frame size shows up with black borders on the top and bottom. Double tapping on the screen does nothing.
I would not mind the video stretching a bit to make it show up fullscreen.
I saw that some iTunes U videos had a resolution 320x240 and they show with black borders on the left and right of the video.
I converted one of those video to have a resolution of 480x320 and that showed up fullscreen, but then i used the same resolution for a movie, but it still showed black bars on top and bottom.

Does the ability to view fullscreen also depend on the original resolution of the video, from which I am converting to 480x320 or any other frame size ?

Is there any video player app, which can adjust the aspect ratio of videos to fill up the screen ?
Stretching is ok, cropping is not, IMO.

Any suggestions would be appreciated !
Thanks.

 

[designs216]

I am wondering what frame size to keep when converting videos for watching on my iPod touch 4G...

Just download Handbrake and use the iPod preset.

 

[Rhlsg]

Just download Handbrake and use the iPod preset.

Ok, i am trying that.
I used handbrake on Vista PC, and it seemed to have finished encoding but I did not see any output file in the destination folder.
BTW..I also realized that while converting with Any Video Converter, it is adding in the black bars while converting the frame size. Thats why though the total size of the frame is, say 480x320, it still has black borders on top and bottom.
Handbrake preserves the aspect ratio thus does not add black borders when converting using iPod touch preset.

It seems I can preserve the aspect ratio and use Handbrake which seems to give good results.
Or use Format Factory to change the aspect ratio to the exact one I want - which will stretch the video and thus degrade the quality a bit.
Will try both versions and see which one looks better on the iPod.
Any Video has an option to not preserve aspect ratio. will try that too.

 

[designs216]

Ok, i am trying that.
I used handbrake on Vista PC, and it seemed to have finished encoding but I did not see any output file in the destination folder.

Not sure about that one. I've never been able to get HB to run right on Windoze.

 

[PikamoSenior]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1599035/

 

[Rhlsg]

Not sure about that one. I've never been able to get HB to run right on Windoze.

it worked on a Win 7 PC, but not on my Vista laptop.
anyway, it keeps the aspect ratio so the video still has letterboxing when viewing on the iTouch.
I got the AVplayer which can stretch the video to fill the screen, distorting it a bit, but seems ok so far.

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https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1599035/

i am not sure how that thread is related to my issue.