Filed under: iPod Family, Software, Video
A New Hope: 720x304 MPEG4 on the iPod
As a follow-up to my earlier post about compressing movies for the iPod, I just wanted to note that I just finished successfully encoding Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope directly from DVD to iPod format using the version of Handbrake linked to at Accelerate Your Macintosh!The resulting video is an MPEG4 file, weighing in at 1GB in size and at a 720x304 aspect ratio. More than is needed for the iPod itself, but it does play on the iPod and displays nicely on an external TV set. Not too bad.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KASO said 8:15PM on 11-02-2005
What about playback? Why don't they play in itunes? Why is the file not read by Quicktime. I know I have had problems pulling Divix files and there is a plug-in... anyone know of what plug in to use. I have seen the quicktime apple site plug-ins and they seem hecka hard. Something about editing the code?
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Mikataur said 8:04PM on 11-02-2005
Everyone's different of course, but when I encoded my Star Wars IV from DVD I did the following:
- Used the patched Handbrake that creates compatible H.264. This version is discussed and downloadable from the Handbrake forums:
http://handbrake.m0k.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=6a44571a26954d6fbb5c8f67883cad1f
- used a custom crop to change the aspect ratio from the cinematic 2.35:1 to 16:9 widescreen: this was a horizontal crop of 90 pixels each side in Handbrake's Picture Settings.
- selected a width of 320, height automatically becomes 176 (16:9).
- chose H.264/AVC
- entered average bitrate of 400 kbps.
Result: a very watchable Star Wars on the iPod screen, that gave me the same goose bumps as when I first saw it in 1977!
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Jack said 8:03PM on 11-02-2005
Actually someting I was thinking of doing, but please. For the love of everything. The first movie was simply called 'Star Wars'. No more of this stupid 'A New Hope' nonsense; Lucase be damned.
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James Snyder said 8:10PM on 11-02-2005
Quick question... MPEG4 as in AVC/H.264 or just plain MPEG4? Also, these movies play fine on the iPod display? I was under the impression that larger formats wouldn't work on the iPod's display, but would play on the AV out. Does it scale nicely?
Curious because it'd be nice to have a universal format for iPod, Mac & DVP642 :-)
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chris ullrich said 8:40PM on 11-02-2005
probably a dumb question that has been answered before but how is your ipod connected to your television? also, have you had success with this type of encoding for the psp?
love the website, btw. read it every day.
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Adam said 8:40PM on 11-02-2005
I think you need to prove it by posting the file for all of us to test out ourselves ;-)
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Joshua Ochs said 8:52PM on 11-02-2005
I would certainly hope that you used the super-nice version of Star Wars that was recently finished. Guy started with the recent DVD release and digitally edited out all of the changes Lucas had made, and even fixed dozens of problems he never bothered to (green shirt guy, piss-poor matte on the tie-fighters, jump cuts, stormtrooper bumping his head, etc).
Just got a copy of that and it's excellent. The version we always wanted. :)
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arkowi said 8:10AM on 11-03-2005
what is the point of this "hacked" handbrake. i have been taking movies right from handbrake to my iPod from day 1.
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HowdyDoody said 9:01PM on 11-02-2005
You do know that this "special" version of Handbrake is only needed if you want to create H.264 video for the iPod, right? The official HB only does "main" profile which is not playable on the iPod. The specialized version is tweaked to use the "baseline" profile to create iPod playable H.264 video. The video that you made, with the specs listed, can be done with the official HB.
H.264 video using 2-pass at 500-600 bit rate with 128kbps audio and 320 res. looks great on the iPod as well as on the TV.
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Oly said 12:29AM on 11-03-2005
dont have a new ipod. question though. has anyone tried encoding at ABOVE the spec listed and then manually placing the video file on their iPod? directories can be accessed via terminal or other ways. apparently the Broadcom chip supports much higher resolutions. just curious if maybe the spec Apple listed is due to file size/playback performance but maybe that is not an issue when you're doing video out. anyone able to try this?
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Nate Groadie said 5:50AM on 11-03-2005
Argh, this version of HB won't work for me either. Same problem as the standard 0.7.0-beta3. I click on the app and nothing happens. I can open the 0.6.2 version and get it going but it stops at 31% and does nothing. I'm running a G3 600 iBook so I realize that things are gonna be slow (it predicted 13hrs for a 1.5hr movie, I'm cool with that) but it shouldn't freeze. Advice? illintechnology@yahoo.com
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George said 7:07AM on 11-03-2005
Do the math:
Max. iPod resolution: 480x480 = 230.400 pixels.
Your encoding resolution: 720x304 = 218.880 pixels.
No wonder why it's working fine.
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Mike said 8:53AM on 11-03-2005
I have put close to 30 DVD movies and Bittorrent (converted AVI files) episodes of Lost on my iPod. Handbrake sold me on the new iPod Video foor sure! Fullframe DVD's work best for maximum viewing, if you have a Widescreen version you can do a cop as well but it takes some tweaking. I encode in MPEG4, use Xvid as the encoder, set the bitrate to 400 and the screen resolution to the usual 320x240 and let it rip. My Dual 2.3 G5 can convert to a finished file in around 45 minutes. After that all you need to do is drag the file into your iTunes library, edit the id tags and go to Amazon and grab the DVD cover artwork and import. You end up with a great list of movies in iTunes and your ready for the next long road/airplane trip. Going to need an 80GB version soon!
This thing really rocks!
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Ryan Thorpe said 11:12AM on 11-03-2005
I'm using a program called forty two dvd vx plus. It is working fine and they just updated the program so that it can convert the ipod movies to 320, 480, 640, and 720 width and also determine what you want for the output size. It's pretty cool. Check it out.
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R said 1:57PM on 11-03-2005
Yeah I don't believe it. A pic of the iPod playing the video would have been nice or the out put to the T.V.
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C.K. Sample, III said 2:34PM on 11-03-2005
R, why the heck would I lie about this? Sheesh.
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HowdyDoody said 1:42AM on 11-04-2005
R,
Put the pipe down man. There are two ways to export video to the TV from the iPod. One is to use the iPod AV cable that plugs into the top jack. Two is to use the universal dock that has S-Video out, which will give you a slightly better image. Read the review at Ars Technica, they took pictures of the TV for people like you.
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adam said 10:02AM on 11-04-2005
Just encoded SW on my ipod as well, and it feels like the aspect ratio at 720x306 is a bit too wide, and given the aspect ratio of the movie (2.35:1) it should look fine.
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