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iPod touch How do I convert AVI use on Touch?

M

mrhockey123

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2007
148
0
I see several Handbrake threads, and I did download the software, however all I want to do is convert AVI files that are on my comp to the correct format for the Touch.

I have Googled, and I come up with software that costs money even though I"m sure there's freeware that works just as well if not better.

Please don't scream at me for starting another thread - I've done as much research as possible to avoid this.

I would really appreciate the help!
PS still no iPod, but I have to prepare for its arrival
 
Dave10492 said:
One word. iSquint.
Click to expand...

Thanks that's working.
Should I use any custom settings? I set the quality to highest (without the H.264 encoding and the file came out as big as the original. I'm doing an experiment and encoding with H.264 to see what the diff is.

Should I manually set the resolution? or will it stretch the picture if I do that - or will it stretch anyway?
 
mrhockey123 said:
Thanks that's working.
Should I use any custom settings? I set the quality to highest (without the H.264 encoding and the file came out as big as the original. I'm doing an experiment and encoding with H.264 to see what the diff is.

Should I manually set the resolution? or will it stretch the picture if I do that - or will it stretch anyway?
Click to expand...


I've been manually setting the resolution, because I think otherwise it will stretch it. I preview the file in VLC to find out what the reso is, then put that in and convert. I started off using "Go Nuts", but that was generating files larger than the originals (either 175 or 350MB avi's), so I've been using standard, and it seems to be OK. Just depends what you want to do in regards to space vs compression. Watching pixellated video drives me nuts, I'd prefer to have a smaller selection of good quality stuff.

According to what i've read, H.264 is supposed to have a better quality to space ratio than standard .mp4, but when I tried to convert a 175MB avi, it said it would take 15 minutes to convert, compared to the usual 4! Not worth it in my books.
 
Dave10492 said:
I've been manually setting the resolution, because I think otherwise it will stretch it. I preview the file in VLC to find out what the reso is, then put that in and convert.

According to what i've read, H.264 is supposed to have a better quality to space ratio than standard .mp4, but when I tried to convert a 175MB avi, it said it would take 15 minutes to convert, compared to the usual 4! Not worth it in my books.
Click to expand...

I tried converting the same file with "go nuts" and h.264...
Original size was 170MB, it was 180 without H, and 130 with H.
That is almost at 25% savings in terms of file size.
It took 8 minutes to convert with H and about 4 without it.
Now I'm trying to manually set resolution (320 X 480) while using H. I will post results when I"m done.

Once I get the iPod, I will upload a few diff things with diff settings / resolutions to see if there's a diff.

Hey I'm putting on an entire season of episodes so if they take up 4 gigs on the ipod, what's the diff? it will take me a few weeks at least to get through them, and then I will just find other stuff to put on.

Are the rumors true about not being able to manually put stuff on / off iPod? man that would cheese me off. I have random stuff in my library that I rarely listen to, and if it makes me upload everything, it will just be a waste of space.

But at any rate, I'm getting 8GB which is 7.7 actually? so 4 gigs for a season of shows plus my whole music collection should all fit! I'm stoked to get that baby in my hands.
 
mrhockey123 said:
I tried converting the same file with "go nuts" and h.264...
Original size was 170MB, it was 180 without H, and 130 with H.
That is almost at 25% savings in terms of file size.
It took 8 minutes to convert with H and about 4 without it.
Now I'm trying to manually set resolution (320 X 480) while using H. I will post results when I"m done.
Click to expand...

I converted a 175MB episode at standard and got 103 with h and 127 without. I set the custom resolution for both (624*352). When you say manually set resolution, why is it 320*480, wouldn't that mean that the video is like a horizontal photo? It would be taller than it is wide.

God, what Mac have you got? 8 minutes is almost twice as fast as mine! I've got a C2D Black Macbook 2GB RAM.
 
Are the rumors true about not being able to manually put stuff on / off iPod? man that would cheese me off. I have random stuff in my library that I rarely listen to, and if it makes me upload everything, it will just be a waste of space.
Click to expand...

Mine gives me the option to automatically manage, manually manage, or only sync ticked items. Mind you, I haven't tested anything other than auto, as I've got a 16GB model and only 2.5GB of music + 5GB of video atm.
 
Dave10492 said:
According to what i've read, H.264 is supposed to have a better quality to space ratio than standard .mp4, but when I tried to convert a 175MB avi, it said it would take 15 minutes to convert, compared to the usual 4! Not worth it in my books.
Click to expand...

LOL.

Do you really have not enough time in your life to wait an extra 9 mins for something better? Really, some people... lol :p
 
MagicWok said:
LOL.

Do you really have not enough time in your life to wait an extra 9 mins for something better? Really, some people... lol :p
Click to expand...

Well, it's 9 minutes for that particular file, but if you're converting 5 standard tv episodes or a couple of movies, it all adds up. I just checked converting an episode of Without a Trace, it takes 8 minutes on .mp4 or 25 minutes on H.264. I cancelled the H.264 one before it completed, I'm not prepared to wait that long unless the results are much much better. I'd prefer to crank the .mp4 quality up to "Go Nuts" and take up a bit extra space rather than spend more than 3x as long converting. If you do it overnight it doesn't really matter I guess.
 
I converted Frasier season 6 from 4.3 to 3.3GB using the H.264 so obviously there is quite a valid reason to compress!

Note that when I didn't use the H.264 the files actually turned out larger than the AVI source files so you would have been looking at probably 5GB or so?

Makes a big diff when apple says 8GB but gives you 7.5 - 300 megs
 
Dave10492 said:
Well, it's 9 minutes for that particular file, but if you're converting 5 standard tv episodes or a couple of movies, it all adds up. I just checked converting an episode of Without a Trace, it takes 8 minutes on .mp4 or 25 minutes on H.264. I cancelled the H.264 one before it completed, I'm not prepared to wait that long unless the results are much much better. I'd prefer to crank the .mp4 quality up to "Go Nuts" and take up a bit extra space rather than spend more than 3x as long converting. If you do it overnight it doesn't really matter I guess.
Click to expand...

Make a queue and leave it overnight. That's what I do.

h.264 is a better alternative. Equal quality at a lower bitrate = more video on your iPod.
 
Dave10492 said:
So am I correct in saying that h.264 is not better quality than ordinary .mp4, it just takes up less space for the same quality file. Or, is it capable of better quality too?
Click to expand...

For two files that have the same quality, the h.264 file will be of a smaller size.

For two files of the same size, the h.264 will be of better quality.

This is just a general rule of thumb remember, but is mostly true!
 
MagicWok said:
For two files that have the same quality, the h.264 file will be of a smaller size.

For two files of the same size, the h.264 will be of better quality.

This is just a general rule of thumb remember, but is mostly true!
Click to expand...

OK, so let me ask you this...

If i've got a 350MB episode of CSI, and I convert it on standard quality, exactly the same settings for both files, one .mp4 and one H.264, one will be smaller than the other (more effective compression), but will they both have the same quality?

Basically what I'm getting at is that I'm never going to fill up my iPod Touch with 14GB of video, so is there any reason for me to use H.264, seeing as space isn't really an issue?
 
Scarlet Fever said:
no, just uploading of a 100MB file, and the downloading of a slightly smaller file. It's a lot easier to just get iSquint.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Bandwitdh is much better used downloading other stuff lol.

Isquint is annoying in its level of sarcasm, but you can't argue with its functionality.

I put an H.264 and a regular file on the touch and they looked pretty much identical.

I think the standard of "is it TECHNICALLY better" ie does it have a faster frame rate, etc, is irrelevant. I mean, there are many sounds outside the range of human hearing, and those are cut out by MP3 compression yet nobody really cares. Same thing with video. If you can't see a diff in the quality of video as you're watching it on your iPod, then what's the diff if it has a slightly higher or lower frame rate?

Why and how does apple get away with over-stating memory by almost a gig? In terms of usable space, my 8GB has 7.2 and apparently the 16 has only 15? I understand if you buy a gig of ram and you get 997MB in stead, or if you get an HD and it's supposed to be 2GB and it's 1.99 but how do you go from 8 to 7.5? (7.2 + 300 megs for "OSX" which be included)
 
mrhockey123 said:
I think the standard of "is it TECHNICALLY better" ie does it have a faster frame rate, etc, is irrelevant. ... If you can't see a diff in the quality of video as you're watching it on your iPod, then what's the diff if it has a slightly higher or lower frame rate?
Click to expand...

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, I couldn't really notice the difference either. On the other hand, when I first got the touch, I did a test converting an episode of CSI (350mb avi) at 1000kbps and 800 (both standard .mp4), and could definitely notice the difference between those, so what gives?


Why and how does apple get away with over-stating memory by almost a gig? In terms of usable space, my 8GB has 7.2 and apparently the 16 has only 15? I understand if you buy a gig of ram and you get 997MB in stead, or if you get an HD and it's supposed to be 2GB and it's 1.99 but how do you go from 8 to 7.5? (7.2 + 300 megs for "OSX" which be included)
Click to expand...

My 160GB HDD only has 150GB of space available for use. I can't directly answer your question, as I don't know what's filling the space up, but on a computers HDD, it is almost always buffer space that takes up the extra capacity.
 
I thought the whole memory issue was because an actual GB is 1024Mb, but when advertising how big something is, they only go by 1000Mb, and in the large sizes, those 24Mbs add up.
 
Well concerning loosing space to the hard drives. Most of the time you loose hard drive space to formatting. And for the ipod touch you have formatting plus the os and then whatever is left is what you get. And you only get to start with an 8gig or 16gig.

however I'm a systems administrator by day though so I live and breathe by this kind of stuff so I may just be used to the "loss" of hard drive space and memory space :)
 
cmuench said:
Well concerning loosing space to the hard drives. Most of the time you loose hard drive space to formatting. And for the ipod touch you have formatting plus the os and then whatever is left is what you get. And you only get to start with an 8gig or 16gig.

however I'm a systems administrator by day though so I live and breathe by this kind of stuff so I may just be used to the "loss" of hard drive space and memory space :)
Click to expand...
Losing what hard drive space? The manufacturers of storage devices define storage differently then what is actually implemented by the software.

iSquint is nice and Visual Hub is even better. I suggest spending the money on it for peace of mind video conversion for the iPod Touch and just about anything else.

I downloaded iSquint again just to remember what it was like back in 2006. :rolleyes:
 
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