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iPod video is a iPOS! video conversion blues


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iPod video is a iPOS! video conversion blues
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sith_lord
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Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2005-10-19, 14:04

These are the specs you have to adhere by when playing video on the 5th gen.

H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

So I did the first one in this spec from ffmpegX from an original .avi file
H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec
128 kb AAC

I also did the mpeg4 with similar audio settings both had converted easy in 4 hours!

Once I get my iPod video, it's eye candy for me! Well that was yesterday and I'm feeling that I got boned into this deal.

iTunes was able to play all the converted files but can't transfer to my iPod. Worst is that video sidebar icon in iTunes can display all of my podcasts and the converted movies that were setup to play on the ipod but were greyed out in the preference iPod tab under videos.

I'm giving Apple another week to react to the complaints at the Apple discussion board or some firmware to unlock whatever DRM they've implemented.

Anyone out there having this problem? Please give a detailed description on how to get video media to work on it.

On a brighter side, the podcast subscriptions that were able to work were recent episodes of Diggnation, Tiki Bar and a few from Creative Mythology.

I didn't read the posting guidelines.
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JLL
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
 
2005-10-19, 14:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by s_i_t_h_l_o_r_d
Please give a detailed description on how to get video media to work on it.
Step 1: Export as Movie to iPod in QT7 Pro.
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chucker
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2005-10-19, 14:58

Quote:
Originally Posted by s_i_t_h_l_o_r_d
I'm giving Apple another week to react to the complaints at the Apple discussion board or some firmware to unlock whatever DRM they've implemented.
You have to wait -2 weeks: there never was a DRM for your own files to begin with.

Quote:
Anyone out there having this problem? Please give a detailed description on how to get video media to work on it.
Use QT Pro or iMovie, select the "Export to iPod" option.

For that, you need to have the movie playing in QT to begin with.

Also check http://diveintomark.org/howto/ipod-dvd-ripping-guide/
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sith_lord
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Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2005-10-19, 15:22

I failed to mention this on my previous post but I did what you said and exported the file from QT7 and it gave me sound but no picture. I'll have to try iMovie.

I didn't read the posting guidelines.
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sith_lord
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Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2005-10-19, 15:45

Also one feature that Apple has forgotten on the new iPod video is the ability to adjust brightness when viewing videos.
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cuencap
 
 
2005-10-20, 01:55

When I try to "Export to iPod" .mpg files, i get a video, but no audio...

Any suggestions?
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Gizzer
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Hampshire (the original one)
 
2005-10-20, 03:24

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing you also need to buy the QTPro MPEG 2 codec. It's a separate purchase from QT Pro, but it allows you to play MPEG2 and MPEGS with MUXD (is that the term?) sound. That means you should get sound & video.

I don't know this for sure, but read all about it in the Apple Store & see if that fits the problems you are having.
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cyberdoc
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Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-09, 10:34

Just so it's clear, the QuickTime plugin will not demux the video:

1) Note that the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component will not demux audio and video, nor will it enable audio transcoding.

This footnote is from Apples MPEG-2 Playback webpage.
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Mikester
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: London, UK
 
2005-11-09, 11:01

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucker
I used this guide to rip some South Park episodes to iTunes. I haven't yet received my iPod video, but am I going to experience any problems getting the episodes onto the iPod? The diveintomark guide doesn't seem to deal with that bit!

Will I have to use QT7 Pro to do anything, or will I be able to just sync the episodes onto my iPod to watch them without doing anything further?

Thanks for your help.

"Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further" - The Great Gatsby
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Engine Joe
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
 
2005-11-09, 11:05

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikester
I used this guide to rip some South Park episodes to iTunes. I haven't yet received my iPod video, but am I going to experience any problems getting the episodes onto the iPod? The diveintomark guide doesn't seem to deal with that bit!

Will I have to use QT7 Pro to do anything, or will I be able to just sync the episodes onto my iPod to watch them without doing anything further?

Thanks for your help.
If you followed those directions exactly, it will all be automatic. No QT7 Pro needed, no manual labor in iTunes. Just like music, sync and go!
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Mikester
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: London, UK
 
2005-11-09, 11:19

Quote:
Originally Posted by Engine Joe
If you followed those directions exactly, it will all be automatic. No QT7 Pro needed, no manual labor in iTunes. Just like music, sync and go!
Great stuff - thanks!
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Reid
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN
 
2005-11-09, 12:31

There's a new version of Handbrake available now that supports the H.264 baseline profile required by the iPod. Encoding into H.264 is slow as hell, even on a G5, but it does produce a pretty picture. The two formats I've had nice results with straight from DVD to Handbrake have been:

MPEG-4 Video (400 kbps) / AAC-Audio (128 kbps), FFmpegX encoder, 480x272 for widescreen content. This one scales nicely both to the iPod screen (with letterboxing), and to the 17" widescreen on my iMac.

AVC Video (400 kbps) / AAC-Audio (128 kpbs), H.264 baseline profile encoder, 320x240 for 4:3 content. Native resolution of the iPod, and scales okay for across-the-room viewing on the iMac.

I've played both back using the Universal Dock and an S-Video cable to my 27" TV; the picture is indistinguishable from what comes through my digital cable connection.

Note that when Apple says "up to" 480x480 (MPEG-4) or 320x240 (AVC), they really mean 230,400 pixels and 76,800 pixels, respectively. So, technically you could scale a 16:9 MPEG-4 to as large as 640x360 and have a file that will play fine on the iPod, and probably scale well to a 720P HDTV.

Handbrake: http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Last edited by Reid : 2005-11-09 at 12:40.
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Dorian Gray
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2005-11-09, 13:34

Yes, make sure you have the new version of HandBrake if you're going to use it for encoding H.264 content for the iPod.

However, 400 kbps would be ambitious for 480 x 272 pixel content even with H.264. Standard MPEG-4 at that bitrate will produce low quality results with all but the most static, brightly-lit scenes.
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Ebby
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2005-11-09, 15:40

There is a special version of handbreak specially for the iPod.

I'll try to find it again.

EDIT: Here: http://homepage.mac.com/gsf/handbrake-h264-ipod.zip
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Dorian Gray
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2005-11-09, 16:19

Ebby, the new official version of HandBrake is itself fully compatible with the iPod.
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doublem9876
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2005-11-09, 17:04

But even with the new version of handbrake, you still have to limit your bitrate, right? since the ipod can only play up to 768 kbps..
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Ebby
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2005-11-09, 17:10

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorian Gray
Ebby, the new official version of HandBrake is itself fully compatible with the iPod.
Well, yea. But this is a beta version specifically for the iPod.

Oh, nevermind. I was a revision behind. This beta was incorporated into 0.7.0.

Last edited by Ebby : 2005-11-09 at 17:48.
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DanTheMan
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Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-10, 08:31

Hey all. Just to let you know that handbrake is the way to go. I just encoded a 2 hour film to H.264 it took 1 hour 30 to compress at 2 pass encoding! It is fantastic quality, just like a mini DVD movie-very sharp and crystal clear. You can even stretch your widescreen image to 320x240 so it fits perfectly on your ipod. The quality is stunning! Can even convert your DVDs using this for your PSP too. Handbrake is the only way to go. Quicktime Pro is cool for your home movies but for ripping DVDs look no further than handbrake, and its free!

Cheers
Dan
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arnoct
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Join Date: Oct 2005
 
2005-11-10, 08:37

Heh, I don't mean to sound cheeky (especially since this is an APPLE forum,) but if you have a windows machine handy you can try using Videora iPod Converter... I haven't yet made the "switch" but videora is quite possibly the best program I've ever used to encode videos. To encode a 2-hour movie into mp4 it took roughly an hour and a half and it has crystal-clear quality on the iPod. I also got all of firefly (the series) encoded in about 4 or 5 hours. It's sounding like it's more complicated to convert videos on the mac than on the PC :S
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ast3r3x
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2005-11-10, 09:12

When you guys post your uber-speeds, do you mind telling how fast your computer is and what bitrate it was to?
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Dorian Gray
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2005-11-10, 09:25

Quote:
Originally Posted by doublem9876
But even with the new version of handbrake, you still have to limit your bitrate, right?
Afraid so, yes! I would set bitrate no higher than around 600 kbps (if encoding with x264) to make sure it doesn't peak above the maximum allowed bitrate, and because at 320 x 240, H.264 doesn't need higher than that for almost any type of material. You'd probably get good quality even at 400 kbps. Larger frame video encoded as standard MPEG-4 is another thing altogether though. You'll probably want around 1000 kbps and perhaps much higher depending on the material.

Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoct
It's sounding like it's more complicated to convert videos on the mac than on the PC
It's incredibly easy on the Mac with HandBrake (for DVDs) and QTAmateur for everything else. QTAmateur is an excellent little app that gives you the encoding options of QuickTime Pro for free. Recommended for anyone who wants the one-click export to "iPod (320x240)" option that QuickTime Pro offers, but doesn't feel like coughing up £20 for the privilege. QTAmateur uses QTKit so of course you need the free QuickTime Player installed to use it.
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StevesMom
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Join Date: Jul 2004
 
2005-11-10, 09:30

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTheMan
Can even convert your DVDs using this for your PSP too.
Really ? I was under the impression this didn't directly work for H.264 encoded content and instead had to go through remuxing and transcoding again to be in PSP compatible format.

So far the only Mac-based AVC DVD-PSP route I know of is iPSP. Lord knows I've tried the rest. If HandBrake can rip and create PSP-compatible AVC with this revision, that's all to the good. I doubt it can though

SM.

Rick: This is bad.
Evelyn: We've had bad before.
Rick: This is worse.
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DanTheMan
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Join Date: Nov 2005
 
2005-11-10, 10:46

Hey guys getting a bit scared with how fast and high quality Apple's H.264 codec is. Its fantastic! Before I start, I am running a G5 dual 2Ghz, which is pretty fast, but if theses movies were encoding at half the speed they are then I'd still be very impressed. Just encoded one of my dvd movies which is 1hour 50 mins in length. Used Handbrake to rip the quicktime from the video TS folder I'd copied onto my hard drive (this speeds things up a lot). I used 2 pass encoding so the quality looks great, the H.264 codec and encoded at a data rate of 764 kbps. The file encoded in 1 hour 2 mins and is 693 Mb! Now this is seriously impressive for a full length movie ready to pop on my iPod.
You can copy a few of your DVDs onto your hard drive, set a queue up on Handbrake and leave it running over night. Come morning you'll have 10 movies ready to go onto your iPod!
To answer the PSP question, use handbrake to rip your DVDs into H.264 files then get hold of 'PSP Ware' which is a $15 shareware application. Drag your 'handbraked' quicktime onto PSPWare and let it convert it and put all the correct headers etc onto the file so that it runs on your PSP.
One last thing, to the guy suggesting using a PC. Never turn to the dark side of the force! haha

Cheers

Dan
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arnoct
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Join Date: Oct 2005
 
2005-11-10, 11:05

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
When you guys post your uber-speeds, do you mind telling how fast your computer is and what bitrate it was to?
Athlon XP 1800+ with 512mb ram.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanTheMan
One last thing, to the guy suggesting using a PC. Never turn to the dark side of the force! haha
Heh, sadly the issue is I haven't turned to the light side yet. I originally joined this forum because of a few questions I had about buying an iPod :P. Financial constraints prevent me from buying any sort of mac computer until I either save up enough or apple finally allows canadians to get an apple credit account.

Last edited by arnoct : 2005-11-10 at 11:14.
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Dorian Gray
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Join Date: May 2005
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2005-11-10, 14:40

DanTheMan, HandBrake does not use Apple's H.264 codec, it uses the open-source x264 codec to create the H.264 files. Apple's codec is considerably slower. HandBrake is multi-threaded so can take advantage of your two processors, which helps your speed a lot. But I agree, encoding H.264 at nearly 2x real-time is pretty astonishing by anyone's standard. I'd kill for a dual G5! (My 1.2 GHz G4 would take 3-5 times longer to do that encode than your machine. It can encode MPEG-4 (with ffmpeg) at slightly faster than real time though. I'd love to know how fast your machine can pump out MPEG-4 at 320 x 240 video with ffmpeg in HandBrake.)
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NeverFade
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
 
2005-11-11, 00:32

I just got a 5G ipod - it's great BTW - hook it up to the TV and comes out beautiful. Handbrake works great too! Questions I have are of little clips that I want put on my iPod. Some SNL stuff and that that I have dled from limewire would be great.

I have tried opening them up into QT Pro and trying to export them out into the iPod settings, but when I goto open them up, there is no sound. I know others if this thread have mentioned that as well, but I couldn't find an answer...

Anyone know what this is? Oh, and the export from QT Pro for about a 20 minute clip took about 45minutes!!! And then, didn't work.... argh.
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Andrzejjw
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-11-11, 00:47

Great info on handbrake, picked up and ipod video today and it works great
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usurp
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kuwait
 
2005-11-11, 02:07

I was able to convert a divx (or maybe it was an xvid) episode of Magnum PI which I downloaded via torrent to a format playable by the ipod. Here is my saved preset
http://www.unex-t.com/files/ipodvideo.ffx

you could also download ready made files from http://www.podtropolis.com/

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Reid
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN
 
2005-11-11, 14:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorian Gray
Yes, make sure you have the new version of HandBrake if you're going to use it for encoding H.264 content for the iPod.

However, 400 kbps would be ambitious for 480 x 272 pixel content even with H.264. Standard MPEG-4 at that bitrate will produce low quality results with all but the most static, brightly-lit scenes.
I don't know, it looks pretty good to me. I use 2-pass encoding, which takes twice the time but makes a big difference. Bottom line: you probably need to experiment with different sizes/bitrates to find a balance that looks good to you.
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HTee
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Join Date: Oct 2005
 
2005-11-11, 15:52

What am i doing wrong? I used handbrake and set it to h.264 and the ipod wont play it but iTunes will. THen i trying doing the reg MPEG4 and i change the resolution 320x240 change rate to 768 or lower and i rip. when it gets to 100% it just freezes on me. When i try to open it I get a quicktime error like -2048??? PLease help. DO i have a crappy version of handbrake? I thought it was the latest one
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