Creating videos for the iPod

[Craig]

Just in case anyone's interested:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/creatingvideo.html

Craig

[waynealanharold]

I made a few to test them out:

http://podcasts.lurid.com/

I dropped them into the Lurid Lounge podcast feed, but they didn't work. Could it be a Feedburner problem with the new "m4v" files?

For now, I'm just making them downloadable from the site--I hope to be able to add a dedicated "video feed" in the future.

It also takes a loooooong time to encode--well over an hour for a five minute clip, and i have a new PowerBook. :shock:

[Canis Lupus]

just tried it myself with a new PB as well. verrrryy slowww and a total processor pig.
I believe Jobs said the iPod also plays .mp4 so that would be a much better way to go from a compression time standpoint.

[Craig]

just tried it myself with a new PB as well. verrrryy slowww and a total processor pig.
I believe Jobs said the iPod also plays .mp4 so that would be a much better way to go from a compression time standpoint.
I'd be curious to know the difference in size between the two at the same quality level.

Craig

[Canis Lupus]

Glad you were curious Craig: Here are the results:

10 second clip exported from Final Cut Pro (720 x 480 DV)
Export time: iPod - about 90 seconds
Export time: .mp4 using Compressor - about 12 seconds
--

Resulting iPod file (no advanced options in export - it is what it is):

Video: H264 , 29.97fps at 691Kbps, 320 x 213! frame size (hmmm)
Audio: AAC 44.1 Stereo
File Size: 820k
--

Resulting .mp4 file (advanced encoding ability in Compressor)
Video: .mp4, 29.97fps at 800Kbps (i set the bitrate to 691 before export),
320 x 240 size
Audio: AAC 44.1 Stereo
File Size: 1 Mb
--

The iPod export looks much better when comparing the detail of the text on a graphic which i used along with a piece of video for the test.
--

Conclusion: If you're willing to wait for the almost 7x longer export, you'll get better video at about an 18% reduction in file size (although this could be misleading because even though I chose a 691 bitrate [the resulting bitrate of the iPod export], Compressor bumped it to 800) .

The frame size however is a bit disconcerting as real estate on the iPod screen is precious and I exported from a 720 x 480 file which should result in a 360 x 240 (no reason to be losing those other pixels).

Interesting test though.

[Version3]

The frame size however is a bit disconcerting as real estate on the iPod screen is precious and I exported from a 720 x 480 file which should result in a 360 x 240 (no reason to be losing those other pixels).

Interesting test though.

Not at all. Resolution on the iPod is restricted to 320x240... if you tried to send it a 720x480 file, the correct scale would be 320x213. 360x240 would give you a file too wide for the iPod.

[Canis Lupus]

ah yes - you are correct sir! i thought i heard Jobs say it was 360 x 240, so yes that would be the correct scale. my bad.

the image quality in the test was what was most revealing though, as the h264 at a slightly smaller file size did a much better job cleaning the text and the graphic than the .mp4 did.

so the only thing left out there is the compression time - now THAT's a bit disconcerting! :)

[The Professor]

H.264 is a brilliant codec, and the results are buch cleaner than a comparably set mpeg-4 file - but Apple's "Movie to iPod" feature does not allow for any customizing of the settings (like capping the data rate) - Apple's specs claim to be able to play "H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec." but seem to be unable to play any H.264 that isn't encoded using the QT 7.0.3 "Movie to iPod" setting... However, the new iPods seem to be capable of handling just about every type of mpeg-4 that's been tried, leaving it as the codec of choice if you want control over how large your files are.

But for "iPod ready" H.264, I've had better results exporting a DV copy from Final Cut Pro, then using QT 7.0.3 to convert to iPod, rather than encoding direct from FCP.

More narrative can be found at http://www.theinvincibles.org

[audiocollective]

We have done a few videos but it has been such a pain to get it all converted and stuff. I found a cool program for PC's that lets you convert to "iPod format" automatically and for free!

Videora iPod Converter (http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/)

It works well and it is what we are going to be using to do our video cast this weekend with. It should be out sometime Sunday if anyone would be kind enough to let us know what you think of the quality. thanks!

[audiocollective]

Here is a link to the video we did for the podcast.

http://audiocollective.podlot.net/audiocollectiveV02.mp4

I did notice that there was some digital noise in a few portions of the audio and I’m not sure what caused it, most likely the encoder for h.264.

[Ijsbakje]

Thanks for the guides!! :)

[goodfangji]

just tried it myself with a new PB as well. verrrryy slowww and a total processor pig.
HOHO!!!

[james169]

I did notice that there was some digital noise in a few portions of the audio and I’m not sure what caused it, most likely the encoder for h.264.