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iPod touch Video on Touch: Thoughts on Handbrake
- Thread starter aidanpendragon
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The bigger the bitrate, the bigger the file size. Past a certain point, you won't see any better quality on the iPod but will have a file that's twice as big - and if you're doing whole TV seasons for a Touch, you'll want to look out for the 16GB ceiling.
So far, 1000kbps looks great to me. Will report back with my H.264 findings.
I've done a few movies in h.264 at 1000kbps, and they look damn fine. Really great. I did Empire Strikes Back (deluxe version) and Last Crusade. They look amazing.
Takes about 15 more minutes than mpeg4.
so im a nub at this. I the touch is my first video ipod i am switching from my mini. so i noticed that the apple website says the screen is 480 by 320 but the video settings say 640 by 480. What is the differnce in the video if there is any?
On a PPC Mac, H.264 will take hours longer to encode. Intel Macs are much snappier at this.
The screen is indeed 480 x 320, or a 3:2 ratio (widescreen). 640 x 480 is 4:3, like a standard, squarish tube TV.
If you play 640 x 480 video on the Touch, it will shrink to fit all dimensions (or, you can do so by hitting the button in the top right, right of the time bar). But if you encode/crop your video to fit within the 480 x 320 (make sure both values are at or below those dimensions), you'll get more of a "widescreen" picture, esp. if you're working from a widescreen DVD.
In practical terms, the best reason to make things 480 x 320 is that file sizes will be smaller; you won't have a too-big file that you're shrinking to fit anyway.
Well, I did another conversion of the same movie and it worked moving to itunes. So, I must have closed the program before it was completely finished.
Looks like the file is close to 1GB, 796MB. The settings are 480x320, 600kpbs, 2 pass. Will this work for a widescreen movie?
I'm now converting the other one.
How do I convert a .AVI file?
SK
Looks like the file is close to 1GB, 796MB. The settings are 480x320, 600kpbs, 2 pass. Will this work for a widescreen movie?
I'm now converting the other one.
How do I convert a .AVI file?
SK
Crap - H.264, 600kbps, looks fine and is 60MB smaller than my Mpeg-4 @ 1000kbps. Doesn't sound like much, but added up by 10-12 episodes of a TV series (Venture Bros.), it's decent change. Guess I'm stuck with long encode times (1.5 hrs., compared to 30-35 min.)
Interestingly, I noticed big diffs. in files sizes between 1000kbps Mpeg-4 and 600kbps Mpeg-4/H.264 with animation. But for a Stargate episode (45min), it's only a 20MB diff. btwn. 1000 and 600kbps Mpeg-4. I thought I'd see more savings. Is animation (interlaced, at that) somehow more complex, thus bigger file sizes at higher bitrates? Would love to not have to use H.264 for everything, given the encode times.
Apparently, you don't need to do 2-pass for H.264 - it adds time without much more quality.
Interestingly, I noticed big diffs. in files sizes between 1000kbps Mpeg-4 and 600kbps Mpeg-4/H.264 with animation. But for a Stargate episode (45min), it's only a 20MB diff. btwn. 1000 and 600kbps Mpeg-4. I thought I'd see more savings. Is animation (interlaced, at that) somehow more complex, thus bigger file sizes at higher bitrates? Would love to not have to use H.264 for everything, given the encode times.
Apparently, you don't need to do 2-pass for H.264 - it adds time without much more quality.
thanks also what is a good free program to use for windows or is there one?
Huh. At 600kbps, my H.264 encode of live-action is only slightly smaller in filesize, and noticeably darker. Last thing I want on the Touch...
That's odd that your encodes are so similar in size despite the very different bitrates. I have never actually paid close attention to or compared file sizes, I assumed they would be close. But I guess not. Are you sure the audio bitrates are the same. Not that they should account for such a large difference anyway...I guess I will try some comparisons too.
I did read on the ATV board that 2-pass does help a bit with H.264, plus there is a 'turbo 1st-pass' that apparently is pretty quick. But that contradicts with what I heard from the experienced posters at the HandBrake forums, so I don't know. The last thing you want to do on a PPC is do a second pass with H.264 anyways!
I did read on the ATV board that 2-pass does help a bit with H.264, plus there is a 'turbo 1st-pass' that apparently is pretty quick. But that contradicts with what I heard from the experienced posters at the HandBrake forums, so I don't know. The last thing you want to do on a PPC is do a second pass with H.264 anyways!
I have been using quicktime
with it set to H.264
480x320 cropped
I didnt realize that the data rate was set to 256 after exporting like 5 movies
But I can always re do them all in a day because quicktime can do a bunch at once.
If I re do them it should set it at like 600 I guess
Is it bad to export like 5 movies at once in quicktime?
with it set to H.264
480x320 cropped
I didnt realize that the data rate was set to 256 after exporting like 5 movies
But I can always re do them all in a day because quicktime can do a bunch at once.
If I re do them it should set it at like 600 I guess
Is it bad to export like 5 movies at once in quicktime?
I have used Handbrake to rip a few DVDs in preperation for my Touch but I don't want to do too many incase it's the wrong dimensions etc At the moment I'm just using the iPhone preset, will this work fine on the touch i.e. will it fill screen without black bars around it?
Sorry, just another idiotic beginner's question.
I'm ripping from a DVD, it says the source is 720*576 and the output will be 496*208. If I click on the Picture Settings button, I get the sample picture in the middle of the screen, with a lot of empty space around it.
Is this preview screen literally showing how the finished article will look on my device?
Just wondering if there's an easy way to maximise the widescreen films to make the most of the screen on the Touch?
I'm ripping from a DVD, it says the source is 720*576 and the output will be 496*208. If I click on the Picture Settings button, I get the sample picture in the middle of the screen, with a lot of empty space around it.
Is this preview screen literally showing how the finished article will look on my device?
Just wondering if there's an easy way to maximise the widescreen films to make the most of the screen on the Touch?
No the iphone preset puts pretty thick bars on the touch. Thats why I was asking. Maybe if I just manually set it to the touch's screen dimensions it will get rid of them. The touch is a wide screen display right?
iPhone and Touch have the same screen size & resolution (and iPhone preset is right for Touch). The issue is that it's a 480 x 320 (3:2) ratio, and a lot of DVD comes in different resolutions/ratios.
When you scale video so BOTH dimensions fit in the Touch's limits, it's rare that it comes out to exactly 480 x 320. One or another will be different, again, b/c of the source ratio - 432 x 320, for example, or 480 x 272.
In all of those cases, you'll see black bars on the top/bottom or sides (whichever dimension is "shorter").
The Touch has a small 2-arrow control at the upper-right that switches between a standard and "fullscreen" resolution. If you do fullscreen, the black bars will disappear, but some of your picture will be cropped.
iPhone and iTouch have same screen resolutions, so what you posted doesn't make a lot of sense.
Ok, I'm not concerned about there being black bars at all it's just that they take up most of the screen. Is there any way to change it so that I will still be in widescreen just with less black bar and more picture? For instance the movies I bought off of itunes seem to only have small black bars but the ones I rip using handbreak have huge black bars. Is there a way to fix that or is it just because that's how the dvd is set up.
***OK, nevermind I think I get it now. To make the black bars smaller I would end up cutting off the sides like it does when you click the full screen button.
You can already "zoom" by double tapping on the movie, it will still be in widescreen but it will be zoomed in a bit, which crops the sides off of the movie.
Anything more zoomed in than this would mean more cropping, which would seriously affect the way the movie looked, you would have chopped off actors faces, etc, not pleasant.
If you change the aspect ratio than everything will be stretched. So you won't have as big of black bars but instead everyone will appear stretched and skinny.
The reality is that many movies today are shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. When you play a 2.35 aspect film on a 16:9 screen like the ipod it's going to have big black bars on it.
If you think it sucks on a 3.5" ipod think about what it's like when you have a $3000 60" TV.
Yea, thats why I hate using the full screen button because I don't want anything chopped off.
Touch is not 16:9 (1.78:1) it's 1.5:1 - so any 2.35:1 will look even worse.
IMPORTANT: when you convert in Handbrake, uncheck the "anamorphic (PAR)" button under "picture settings," then check the "keep aspect ratio" button above it. For very-widescreen video, trying to keep anamorphic would result in scaling it down too much - maybe so much that it explains your big black bars.
If you've checked "keep aspect ratio," you should end up with something, when you reduce the size, fairly close to 480 x 320. Like I said before, it may be more like 432 x 320, or 480 x 272 - but in most cases, you shouldn't have massively black bars.
IMPORTANT: when you convert in Handbrake, uncheck the "anamorphic (PAR)" button under "picture settings," then check the "keep aspect ratio" button above it. For very-widescreen video, trying to keep anamorphic would result in scaling it down too much - maybe so much that it explains your big black bars.
If you've checked "keep aspect ratio," you should end up with something, when you reduce the size, fairly close to 480 x 320. Like I said before, it may be more like 432 x 320, or 480 x 272 - but in most cases, you shouldn't have massively black bars.