iPod touch Improved iPod touch H.264 Videos Not Syncing

[cavemonkey50]

Has anyone has any luck syncing a 640x480 2.5Mbps H.264 video? I'm extrememly excited to try the new improved H.264 support, but whatever I do iTunes doesn't seem to want to sync the video to touch. It's clearly within the specs given on spec page.

If you're looking for specifcs, I'm trying to sync Revision3 Large Quicktime videos. They're H.264, 640x480, and less than 2.5Mbps. Is there anything with them that's causing an incompatibilty?

I hope someone can figure this out, because the current 320x240 videos look pixelated on the touch. Sure, I could convert the Large Quicktime videos, but that's an extra step I want to avoid.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Just to test, you may want to try to re-encode at a lower bitrate (video and/or audio), just to find out what will transfer and play on your Touch.

I understand that wouldn't solve your problem, but at least you might be able to figure out what parameter is preventing playback.

 

[gloss]

Pretty sure the iPod touch doesn't play back h.264 larger than 1.5mbps bitrate. Regular MP4 it'll handle up to 2.5mbps.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Apple's specs say otherwise (check OP's link). It depends on the H.264 profile-

H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;

 

[gloss]

Apple's specs say otherwise (check OP's link). It depends on the H.264 profile-

Ah, I was looking at the first bit.

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Odd.

 

[cavemonkey50]

Well, the bitrate is actually lower than 1.5Mbps. iTunes reports the following:

Profile: Low Complexity
Audio Bitrate: 128Kbps
Total Bitrate: 943 Kbps
Video Dimensions: 640x360
Video Codec: H.264
Wrapper: .mov

Compare that to the max supported settings for the Low Complexity profile:

Audio Bitrate: 160Kbps
Total Bitrate: 1.5Mbps
Video Dimensions: 640x480
Video Codec: H.264
Wrapper: .mov, .mp4, .m4v

I can't see any reason why the videos won't sync. I'm going to keep on playing with it and see if I can find the culprit.

 

[madmaxmedia]

That's really odd, since the resolution and bitrate are well within the spec limits.

I would venture to guess there's some encoding parameter that might be holding things up. How did you encode the video?

You could try putting the encoded video through VisualHub at the exact same resolution and bitrate. I bet it would then actually transfer and play fine.

The only other possibility I can think of is if there are brief passages in your video that exceed the bitrate limit. But that's a wild guess, since the average seems to only be 943.

 

[cavemonkey50]

I'm not doing the encoding, these are podcasts downloaded through iTunes. I'm currently downloading the same file outside of iTunes, and I'm going to see if importing manually makes a difference.

I will also then try reencoding it with the same settings. If I can find a setting that's wrong, maybe I can complain to Rev3 to fix that setting.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Gotcha. I thought these were DVD rips or something like that.

I'm sure they'll fix it as soon as reports of this start getting out. It's gotta be some encoding setting that is off.

 

[zedsdead]

In spite of Apples specs say about video specs on the iPhone, it can support h.264 video up to 720x480 and bit rates over 2500.

I am curious as to if the Touch can do it as well.

 

[seattlecard]

I ripped a bunch of DVD's in 720x480 iPhone format, and they WILL NOT copy to my brand new iPod touch that I picked up this morning.

FRUSTRATION!

 

[cavemonkey50]

Alright, I think I may be onto something. The downloaded video file did not sync, so I reencoded it using VisualHub. The reencoded file reports "MPEG-4 video file" in the "Kind" section, while the original reports "Quicktime movie file". The only video podcast that synced for me does use MPEG-4 while everything else is using Quicktime.

Are there different H.264 codecs? The touch spec page makes no mention of different codecs. If there are, why would Apple's own codec (Quicktime) be incompatible with the iPod touch?

 

[gkarris]

I ripped a bunch of DVD's in 720x480 iPhone format, and they WILL NOT copy to my brand new iPod touch that I picked up this morning.

FRUSTRATION!

From what I understand, 720x480 won't work on anything but a Mac. The instructions to Handbrake are pretty good and so far everything I've done with it works on my 5G iPod, my TV, and my new iPhone. I would imagine the Touch as well...

 

[madmaxmedia]

Alright, I think I may be onto something. The downloaded video file did not sync, so I reencoded it using VisualHub. The reencoded file reports "MPEG-4 video file" in the "Kind" section, while the original reports "Quicktime movie file". The only video podcast that synced for me does use MPEG-4 while everything else is using Quicktime.

Are there different H.264 codecs? The touch spec page makes no mention of different codecs. If there are, why would Apple's own codec (Quicktime) be incompatible with the iPod touch?

I think there is only 1 H.264 codec, but there are various settings that can be adjusted. You don't see these settings in VisualHub, but if you open HandBrake you can see a lot of them in the 'Advanced' tab.

Do you know if podcasts from Revision3 play fine on a regular iPod? I assume so, which makes it strange that it wouldn't play on a Touch. But if the Touch has a different video chip then there could be some difference, even if the main specs are the same.

 

[cavemonkey50]

Well, my instincts were right. Rev3 (and many other podcasts) are being distributed in a Quicktime wrapper instead of a MPEG-4 wrapper. For some reason the iPod (and I mean all iPods, not just the touch) don't like Quicktime wrapped H.264 movies.

Thankfully I found a handy guide to changing the wrapper without reconversion. I can change the wrapper on any podcast in under a minute. Now I just need to find a way to automate it with Applescript and I'm set.