Movies on Ipod - My Attempts and Learnings

[pokipoki]

Open the .avi in QT7 (Mac OS X), press CMD-I to "Get Info", confirm if you see DX50?

For XviD movies :
- install #1 *OR* (#2 + #3)

For DivX movies :
- install #3

For movies containing AC3 tracks :
- install #4

Example on my Mac, in order to play all Xvid/Divx/AC3/MP3 movies, I install #1, #3 and #4.

DivX6 is not yet available for Mac OS X, download & use Divx 5.2.1. The seeking somewhere issue with DivX is probably due to lack of b-frames/key frame support.

It will still search & play if you wait a while longer. I would pause movie, seek, wait for frame to appear, then press play again.

Use VLC for .mkv & .ogg movies on a Mac.

If you can play Xvid/Divx movies but encounter artifacts/blockiness, temporarily remove either Xvid or Divx component & test alternately. One of them is causing the issue.

 

[Wodgy]

In case anyone is confused and just wants to play Xvid/DivX on OS X, you don't need to jump through all these hoops. VLC (and probably MPlayerOSX as well) will play almost all videos you find online without having to install anything special. The QT components are only necessary if you want to play those formats through Quicktime.

 

[kloan]

Well I don't know how or why I have Divx 6 on my mac, but I do.. and I didn't put it there.

Xvids are playing fine for me after installing the Xvid codec.

 

[Taphil]

The avi I encoded from HD-mpeg2 says Divx 4.1.2. (It was encoded by ATI MMC so I have no choice over what encoder version I can use). However, I have other divx files I just tested, Divx 3 and 5, and they now play fine in QT7. So thanks for that!

The reason I want QT7 to play divx files is because some of the files I have play poorly in VLC and Mplayer under Tiger. I had not too many issues under Panther, but now in VLC there are video artifacts and horizontal lines that appear here and there, and in Mplayer there is static popping noises but no video problem. Also, I like QT's control bar that appers in full screen.

Besdies, with the new iPod and Export to iPod option in QT7, it seems like QT should be the ideal program to use to make videos for the iPod....if it plays in QT, then just a click or two and you can get a video for the iPod....or at least that's what Apple made it out to be. And Handbrake only seems to convert DVD to H.264, but not ordinary video files.

 

[vranswer]

OK, we're getting closer. Just tried Videora iPodConverter and got some results. It did generate a video mp4 file that QT7 displayed properly. Problem now is there's no audio on the movie when played in QT, and when export is attempted it once again hangs on 8% completed (same as it did before).

Anyone have any better luck, perhaps altering some of the settings/prefs?

 

[jmr]

Here is an insightful page that might help link.

For those interested in success with Videora for iPod read through the comments.

 

[vranswer]

I have new hope now. Re-reading the Videora 'how-to', I realized I had unchecked all audio streams - thus no sound. Re-ripped and converting now.

 

[pokipoki]

Will someone please describe the requirements of movie playback on iPods? AV Codecs supported, opt bitrate & res details...

I do some encoding work for other platforms & web streaming but iPod movies are strangers to me.

QT703 on Mac could play my test movie (.avi exported to .mp4) but iTunes 6 couldn't. Do I need an iPod to test those movies? Thanks.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taphil Besdies, with the new iPod and Export to iPod option in QT7, it seems like QT should be the ideal program to use to make videos for the iPod....if it plays in QT, then just a click or two and you can get a video for the iPod....or at least that's what Apple made it out to be. And Handbrake only seems to convert DVD to H.264, but not ordinary video files.

handbrake converts to both h.264 and mpeg4. mpeg4 is pretty quick while h.264 takes longer. mpeg4 at half the framerate and low bitrate still looks pretty good on a treo. at 30fps and 600-700kbps, it will look very good on the ipod, albeit small.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pokipoki Will someone please describe the requirements of movie playback on iPods? AV Codecs supported, opt bitrate & res details... I do some encoding work for other platforms & web streaming but iPod movies are strangers to me. QT703 on Mac could play my test movie (.avi exported to .mp4) but iTunes 6 couldn't. Do I need an iPod to test those movies? Thanks.

from apple's website:

"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"

 

[LFC_SL]

I don't mean to thread crap, but creating videos to play on the PSP is trivial.

 

[vranswer]

Got it to work quite easily now. Once I got the rip right, Videora made the conversion quickly and correctly. Don't even need to open in QT7 then export, as the resulting mp4 file is actually iPod ready. Just imported it into iTunes and it played perfectly. I don't have one of the new iPods yet, but I'm certain (almost) that it will play just fine as it's the correct format. Pretty cool!

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vranswer Got it to work quite easily now. Once I got the rip right, Videora made the conversion quickly and correctly. Don't even need to open in QT7 then export, as the resulting mp4 file is actually iPod ready. Just imported it into iTunes and it played perfectly. I don't have one of the new iPods yet, but I'm certain (almost) that it will play just fine as it's the correct format. Pretty cool!

glad you got it working. what bitrates and framerates are you using for video and what bitrates for audio? it would be nice to get a sense for what levels lead to minimal gains, as i'd be more interested in smaller files than terrific quality since the screen is so small anyway.

 

[wnewport]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino glad you got it working. what bitrates and framerates are you using for video and what bitrates for audio? it would be nice to get a sense for what levels lead to minimal gains, as i'd be more interested in smaller files than terrific quality since the screen is so small anyway.

I have used the same program, it is set to 768kbps video and 128kbps audio. The full length movie of Pulp Fiction took up less than a Gig of space on Harddrive. 768 is supposed to be 30fps.

 

[vranswer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino glad you got it working. what bitrates and framerates are you using for video and what bitrates for audio? it would be nice to get a sense for what levels lead to minimal gains, as i'd be more interested in smaller files than terrific quality since the screen is so small anyway.

Same results as wnewport. My movie ended up being just under 700 MB, with the program preset at video 768 Kbps, audio 128 Kbps (mp4 & AAC). Pretty awesome. Enlarging the screen doesn't lose a lot of quality either, very scalable.