[Mac User #001]

Stupid question, but I've never had one, so bear with me.

I just converted a video I had for an iPod, just to do it. But it didn't lower the size to that of the iPods, so will it still play? If I had a big 1280 x 720 video and I converted it for the iPod, it'll leave it at that size? And I assume still play?

[::maroma::]

From Apple's site:

iPod Classic
Video

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats


iPod Touch
Video

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats


Looks to be the same for both.

[chriswithpepper]

iTunes may automatically convert it for you, otherwise, you're going to need a free app like Handbrake or VisualHub to convert your DVDs or other videos you may have.

[::maroma::]

You can also export using Quicktime. They have an iPod setting that optimizes the video file.

[phobos]

Don't use quicktime for conversion. It takes unusually long time for a result that can easily be achieved by other programs in half the time.
Visual hub is great and quite speedy. On my MacPro it uses 3 out of the 4 cores but the result is a small file with excellent video quality.
A 45min video file can be converted to the best resolution of the ipod in just 180 or so MBs. And the quality at that size at least is excellent.

[JonoMarshall]

I posted this from another thread, it may be useful it you want the best TV-out quality, etc:

16 x 16 pixels = one macroblock, max macroblocks for the touch = 1200 (res dimensions must be divisible by 16)

So your super-max-fantisimo resolutions would be:
1.85:1 video max would be: 752 x 400 with a slight crop off the source height to 1.88:1 (1175 macroblocks)
2.39:1 video max would be: 864 x 352 with a slight crop off the source height to 2.4545456:1 (1188 macroblocks)
4:3 video max would be: 640 x 480 (native)
16:9 video max would be: 736 x 416 with a slight crop off the source width to 1.7692308:1 (1196 macroblocks)

Most folks seem to be encoding to 720 x 400 for widescreen (1.8:1 and 1125 macroblocks) but you should be able to push that slightly further as above!

[Mac User #001]

Thanks everyone, great responses

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by phobos 

Don't use quicktime for conversion. It takes unusually long time for a result that can easily be achieved by other programs in half the time.
Visual hub is great and quite speedy. On my MacPro it uses 3 out of the 4 cores but the result is a small file with excellent video quality.
A 45min video file can be converted to the best resolution of the ipod in just 180 or so MBs. And the quality at that size at least is excellent.

One thing I will say about the Quicktime exporting is that whenever I try it, the audio gets out of sync about halfway through the video. Seems to happen almost every time. So, I've been using iSquint to do my conversions.

[NoBadBreaks9]

totally agree with the outof sync...