iPod Quicktime Export to iPod 320 x 240

[madmaxmedia]

thank you madmax. its just sad that you had to post this info again. people dont seem to search the threads around here. this has been posted for days now. there are MULTIPLE threads on this site about this and a new one seems to pop up every day asking the same questions over and over.

No prob. I've been so impressed with the iPod's ability to output higher res MPEG4, I don't mind helping people understand. Especially because Apple's specs are not very clear, and even some good reviews don't really go into this (because they didn't know that great higher-res MPEG4 is possible.)

OP (snowmoon) actually deserves all the credit, he made some great test clips to try out.

I think Apple didnt make a big deal out of this because, well, it basically encourage illegal circumvention of DRM. Apple also wanted to focus on the iTMS store content (and rightfully so.) To be honest, I was also impressed with the H264 320 x 240 playback on my analog 36" TV. That's still a pretty big image, and it's a Panasonic Tau (similar to the analog Sony WEGA's.)

But I am just using composite RCA video from my iPod. With a dock and s-video, the higher-res MPEG4 should look even better.

 

[chaos86]

my guess is it has less to do with resolution and more to do with kbps (video + audio). of course there must be a max resolution that that little video decoder chip can handle, but the more obvious restriction would be the actual throughput the chip has to deal with.

i dont have a video ipod, if someone wants to test this, try encoding at 15 fps but a higher resolution than works at 30 fps. might be an interesting way to get better resolution at lower frame rate. i know that, when using a projector, you can go as low as 20 or 15 fps because of the residual light effect.

 

[bepster]

mh, I think you're right there, madmax!
apple didn't make a big deal out of it..

...when I was thinking about the fact that QT pro is so slow, one thought stroke my mind:

does apple want to make the conversion of bigger files like for example movies as hard as possible??

I don't know but I really hope that there will be a special app out soon for conversion to ipod...

 

[ironmaiden5536]

use ipod videora to convert most things to ipod format
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/
it works great

 

[chaos86]

use ipod videora to convert most things to ipod format
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/
it works great

...most of us are here because we are trying to get away from windows. this software is windows only.

 

[Linkjeniero]

...most of us are here because we are trying to get away from windows. this software is windows only.

I think that's relevant anyway. Even though we are in a mac forum, this is the iPod & iTunes section, and some people can benefit from that info. I for example, use my PowerBook as my main computer but I have a PC sitting next to me, so I can use that program to rip my DVDs in the PC (wich has a lot more HP than my PB).

 

[bousozoku]

Scary to see the results here.

I took a fully functioning QuickTime movie of a 320x240 music video and exported it for iPod. The result worked in iTunes but there was no sound.

With everything that's been happening, I think Apple will be producing a few bug fixes and code optimisations for the export feature.

 

[chaos86]

The result worked in iTunes but there was no sound.

i had that problem too, every time.

 

[Linkjeniero]

Scary to see the results here.

I took a fully functioning QuickTime movie of a 320x240 music video and exported it for iPod. The result worked in iTunes but there was no sound.

With everything that's been happening, I think Apple will be producing a few bug fixes and code optimisations for the export feature.

Did you remember to change the sample rate of the sound to 48000? I think it's the only sample rate that's supported for video in the iPod (plus, it has to be under 160 kbps). I could be mistaken though. In my case, I've encoded a few movies, and they play just fine.

 

[chaos86]

Did you remember to change the sample rate of the sound to 48000? I think it's the only sample rate that's supported for video in the iPod (plus, it has to be under 160 kbps). I could be mistaken though. In my case, I've encoded a few movies, and they play just fine.

if he's got the same problem as me, it's nothing to do with the ipod. qt pro actually ignores the audio tracks and produces a mute file. as in, no little sound meter things to the right of the progress bar, no soundtrack whatsoever. i dont even have a 5g ipod yet.

 

[Ubuntu]

I use Podner. I have Quicktime Pro, but I use it for other things so it wasn't a waste, as it's conversion utility for the iPod sucks. You'll find that most non-iTunes music videos won't have any sound if you use Quicktime. I recommend Podner, it's good, you have to pay a bit though.

I think iSquint is adequate, and free, though.

 

[devman]

Scary to see the results here.

I took a fully functioning QuickTime movie of a 320x240 music video and exported it for iPod. The result worked in iTunes but there was no sound.

With everything that's been happening, I think Apple will be producing a few bug fixes and code optimisations for the export feature.

Was the input file mpeg muxed? If so, QT cannot transcode audio from a muxed mpeg.

 

[devman]

mh, I think you're right there, madmax!
apple didn't make a big deal out of it..

...when I was thinking about the fact that QT pro is so slow, one thought stroke my mind:

does apple want to make the conversion of bigger files like for example movies as hard as possible??

I don't know but I really hope that there will be a special app out soon for conversion to ipod...

I think a lot of the comments are just down to not comparing like for like.

The QT Pro iPod export goes for the best quality converted file - dual pass, etc. It also is a H.264 encode and H.264 takes a lot of time and cpu.

Some are using Handbrake but are encoding mpeg-4 - which is a much faster encode than H.264. And then you get some of these people posting in with times for a Handbrake mpeg-4 encode that's only a one pass encode and thus you get the "Handbrake took 5 minutes where QT Pro took an hour."

Now, I'm not saying this is the case for every post and every person, but there has been a lot of it and it has led to some confusion about what's really going on.

Then, you have other details such as a H.264 file must be 320x240. A larger size will not play on the iPod. An mpeg-4 file can be larger and will play on the iPod. Back to H.264, it must be baseline profile to work on the iPod. And finally, you also have the max bandwidth. If you're playing with different settings in Handbrake and you exceed the magic bandwidth number (which I forget right now and I'm too lazy to go look it up) then you also get files that don't play.

Bottom-line, the QT Pro export option is the simple, easy to use option with three considerations. 1. It takes time (with good reason - h.264, dual pass, etc.). 2. You have to buy it. 3. muxed mpeg files cannot be converted and preserve the audio.

If you have the need and desire to go beyond the simple QT Pro function, then Handbrake and VLC are two very useful options. With all their added functions comes added complexity.

 

[chaos86]

isquint is the best i've seen. simple enough for me but gives options too.

 

[KKKL]

simply try this
Nero Digital Pro
I can convert video to mp4 format
faster and more video types suopport than qt

but it only export to mp4 and mp4 with H.263, not H.264