DVD to iPod video with QuickTime Pro

[jonas more]

EDIT #2: For an even easier way... https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=312253


I am looking for a guide to convert my DVDs to iPod video using QuickTime Pro with the MPEG2 Playback Component installed.

The following info was found at the Apple Store:

"The QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component supports the playback of MPEG-2 files (.mpg, .mpeg, .vob, .vro, .m2v, .m2a, and .m2s) that contain MPEG audio layers I or II. The MPEG-2 Playback Component does not support audio playback for MPEG-2 files containing PCM, DTS or AC3 audio."

I have tried using MPEG Streamclip to convert my files that have AC3 audio to MPEGs with MP2 audio. Even though the files play correctly in QuickTime, when I export them to iPod video, there is no audio.

The only way I have gotten it to work is to demux with ReJig, convert the audio to MP2 with ffmpegGUI, mux with ImagoMPEG-Muxer, convert to .mov with MPEG Streamclip, then export from QuickTime Pro as M4V.... way to much work for iPod video!

I hope someone knows easier way...

Thanks
Anthony

EDIT:
I just found that if you open your VOB files in MPEG Streamclip and export to .mov (Quicktime) using Apple Motion JPEG A for Compression at the default settings, the resulting file can be converted for iPod in QuickTime Pro... Much, much easier!

EDIT #2: For an even easier way... https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=312253

[GMaq]

Hi,
Quicktime Pro is unfortunately a fast road to nowhere, I know I've taken that trip as well. MPEG Streamclip is an excellent program but it can be flaky with AC3 Audio as noted, Although I use MPEG Streamclip for my MPEG-2 Satellite Captures with MP2 Audio to iPod with no problems for DVD's I suggest Nero Recode, It has very good quality, the latest version has optimized templates for the iPod including Subtitle and chaptering. It handles pretty much any DVD, MPEG, or AVI files with no problems and the A/V Sync is spot on. If you don't have it in a bundle already you can purchase "Nero Digital Pro" at www.nero.com for $29.99 US when I checked last. SUPER is a freeware conversion utility that gets good press here at DVDRHelp I've has AV Sync problems with it myself, Some people also like the Videora iPod Converter but in my experience the final quality of the movies isn't on par with either MPEG Streamclip or Nero Recode. Good Luck!

[jonas more]

...fast road to nowhere... I am beginning to see your point.

The only reasons I want to use QuickTime Pro is :
a) for the new iPod specs (640x480) and
b) if I didn't pay for the piece of crap, I would say to hell with it!!!

I use Nero Recode at times too but I get better results with Jesterware iPod Video Suite and Jesterware DVD Rip to iPod.

Thanks for your reply
Anthony

[GMaq]

Hi Again,
Re: New iPod Specs, There have been a couple of threads running in the MAC Forum lately that are saying as of yet none of the tools (Including QT Pro) are up to making compliant AVC files at the 640x480 resolution that will playback on 5G iPods, though it will only be a matter of time, I'm sure the race is on with the developers to be first to make the new format widely available. As far as shelling the bucks out for QT Pro, Thank God MPEG Streamclip is around to make it useable at least some of the time. For good quality the 3ivX Codec in a .mov container at 512x384 or 624x352 seems to not be limited to bitrate constraints as long as it's in a mov container, It plays back flawlessly on the iPod and looks great for TV Out use, It's a larger file size but better quality than H.264 @ 320x240, It will be interesting to see H.264 @ 640x480 though, It's what they should have done in the first place !!!!

[jonas more]

Oops! My bad... I thought QuickTime Pro 7.1.3 was capable of 640x480...

Hopefully there will be an update for Nero Recode and Jesterware soon!

Thanks again...
Anthony

[KTH]

Actually you can encode @ 640x480 using Quicktime Pro 7.13. I've done it (see image below). I am also having the same problem as you in terms of the no audio when encoding with Quicktime Pro using various file formats. I absolutely cannot get audio using the mpeg2 video format. It does not matter if the audio is LPCM, ac3, mpeg. I even varied the audio and video bitrates of the mpeg files and still can't get any audio. The only way I could get any audio was to convert the video to DV format, then convert this DV file using Quicktime Pro to the H264 m4v format. The iPod conversion template in QTP is 640x480 and non-adjustable. One thing I did notice about doing it this way is that I do seem to lose some sharpness in the picture.

[celtic_druid]

There is a 3rd party free AC3 quicktime component. Probably Mac only. But then QT is even slower under win32 so even less reason to use it.

x264 is faster, better quality and can do iPod compatible encodes (640x480 baseline leve 3).

[jonas more]

I just checked the files I converted with QuickTime Pro and they are 640x480.

I was using small video clips earlier and they turned out great... the quality is really impressive when viewed on my TV.

When I try to add large movie files to MPEG Streamclip, it crashes so I haven't done a full movie yet...

Thanks again
Anthony

[jonas more]

I just found that if you open your VOB files in MPEG Streamclip and export to .mov (Quicktime) using Apple Motion JPEG A for Compression at the default settings, the resulting file can be converted for iPod in QuickTime Pro...

I must have been using the wrong settings last night.

Anthony

[ssj2_goha]

actually baseline level 3 does not work (at least with ffmpeg) tried it with my iPod

[GMaq]

I just checked the files I converted with QuickTime Pro and they are 640x480.

I was using small video clips earlier and they turned out great... the quality is really impressive when viewed on my TV.

When I try to add large movie files to MPEG Streamclip, it crashes so I haven't done a full movie yet...

Thanks again
Anthony

I have also noticed that MPEG Streamclip doesn't seem to play well with files larger than 4 Gig...Weird?!

[ricoman]

I tried Videora Ipod Converter the other day and it worked fine. It's free.
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

[ssj2_goha]

I tried Videora Ipod Converter the other day and it worked fine. It's free.
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

what format does videora output the old 320x240 or the new 640x480

[GMaq]

jonas more
I just tried converting a music video from DVD and as you guys already said QT Pro is already exporting the higher res 640x480, I demultiplexed the Audio from the DVD and Converted it to m4a with dBpowerAMP then tried muxing it with YAMB( which usually works fine) the mux was successful but QT says the file contains invalid data and won't play the muxed file, any other ideas for handling the audio and muxing outside of QT???

PS IMHO Videora iPod Converter hasn't been updated in quite some time, and probably doesn't do the new specs.

[ricoman]

320 x 240, why do you need more for a 2.4' ipod screen?

[GMaq]

ricoman,
That's the problem with most (not all) of the freeware converters they look fine on the iPod itself but not so great on a TV using the TV Out, In fact pretty much everything I've tried at 320x240 whether it's 2-Pass H.264, DivX,XViD, 3ivx, looks pretty crappy on TV's larger than 21" and even more so on LCD's and Plasmas. Although very good results can be achieved with MPEG-4 at higher resolutions, the new 640x480 H.264 is going to close the gap significantly between DVD and "Portable Video Device" quality.

[ssj2_goha]

and some of us (me) are converting our entire dvd library to the iPod format to use with the "iTV" once it comes out in january. so the new format is really what i would like to see

[jonas more]

any other ideas for handling the audio and muxing outside of QT???

Yeah... forget what I said before about demuxing, converting audio, etc...

You can go from ripped VOBs -> MPEG Streamclip -> QuickTime Pro.

Open your VOB files in MPEG Streamclip and export to .mov (Quicktime) using Apple Motion JPEG A for Compression at the default settings, the resulting file can be converted for iPod in QuickTime Pro without demuxing...

I must have been using the wrong settings before.

Let us know if this works for you too!

Anthony

PS Forget what I said earlier about QuickTime Pro being a piece of crap... I am really impressed with its functions and the quality of its output now that I am learning how to use it properly.

[ricoman]

I tried CloneDVDmobile and it will convert to a 512x384 resolution. You can try the full version for 21 days for free at Slysoft.com. It worked well, I don't have a video cable yet to try it on a TV so I can't tell you how it looks. But try it youself.

[ssj2_goha]

the big problem is h.264 files does clonedvdmobile output h.264 files

[ricoman]

You obviously know more than I. Why is h.264 a problem?

[GMaq]

ricoman,
H.264 is not a problem, it's a solution!! Video iPods will playback Regular MPEG-4 Video at resolutions up to 230400 Pixels in total so that means 480x480, 512x384, 624x352 etc. will all work and give decent quality for TV Out depending on what Codecs are used and how knowledgeable the user is, H.264 or AVC is a newer version of MPEG-4 that gives better quality than regular MPEG-4 at lower bitrates. Until now iPods only supported H.264 at resolutions of 320x240 which made for small file sizes and good quality on the iPod's themselves, but stretching such a small resolution across a large TV Screen didn't make for the most impressive result. Now with the advent of their downloadable movies Apple, in the interest of higher quality decided to change their H.264 format to 640x480, which most software (other than QT Pro) is not yet capable of producing, I would hazard to guess that clonemobiledvd is not yet capable either, Anyway that's what everyone is trying to figure out in this thread, because H.264 at this higher resolution will be vastly superior to anything we have so far.

[Mildew]

Now with the advent of their downloadable movies Apple, in the interest of higher quality decided to change their H.264 format to 640x480, which most software (other than QT Pro) is not yet capable of producing, I would hazard to guess that clonemobiledvd is not yet capable either, Anyway that's what everyone is trying to figure out in this thread, because H.264 at this higher resolution will be vastly superior to anything we have so far.

Looks like VisualHub is the first Mac app to support the new iPod H.264 resolution.

[jonas more]

I converted the full length feature film "Saw" to iPod video and watched it yesterday. It truly is close to DVD quality!

I used DVDShrink to re-author the movie into two parts so MPEG Streamclip could handle the files.

I then used the method I described earlier to convert the files to .mov with MPEG Streamclip.

Then I used QuickTime Pro to cut and paste the video files back together and convert to iPod video. The results are fantastic!

A simpler way is to use DVDShrink to compress the movie to a file size that MPEG Streamclip can handle, convert to .mov, then iPod video.

Anthony

[GMaq]

jonas more,
Nice Work! Hopefully as more Windows software gets on board we'll have more streamlined options, but for now thanks for the info, You started this tthread with a question and now you're the dude with the answers

[celtic_druid]

ffmpeg, etc. work fine. Just that iTunes won't upload anything that wasn't generated by Apple with a specific iPod profile. Manually patching the file or uploading using something other than iTunes should allow 3rd party encodes to work.

[Cornucopia]

The problem with QTPro is a longstanding one. Has to do with it's component architecture and where non-native (as in non-QT) stream demuxing occurs.
As you may have guessed, it happens prior and exterior to elementary stream parsing and decoding. So every time it sees a foreign stream--MPEG (1 or 2), DVtype1--it has to rely on this external component to give it something to work with. But that external component doesn't reveal the full stream structure to the rest of QT, so that's why you'll see "muxed mpeg stream" listed and no audio. Or audio playback, but no way to export. Even though you may have what should be the "installed decoders".
MPEG 4 is different than 1 or 2, because it is based on QT file format, so QT considers it a NATIVE stream and parses/decodes it just like any other QT.mov file. DVtype1 has a similar audio/video problem, because the AVI component understands [VIDS] video streams and [AUDS] audio streams, but not [IAVS] streams (or any other type.

So the upshot of all this is that, until Apple fixes QT's architecture and incorporates MPEG parsing more fully into the main part of QT (prob. not going to happen because of licensing), you'll ALWAYS have to demux, and possibly decode prior to using QT pro.

Now, the filesize limitation is a different matter...
Shouldn't be a problem with OSX-formatted drives, unless the app was written poorly. QTPro7 itself should have any problem (there is a limitation with QT6 files, but that ceiling should be higher than the 4GB you're seeing).

Scott

[jonas more]

jonas more,
Nice Work! Hopefully as more Windows software gets on board we'll have more streamlined options, but for now thanks for the info, You started this tthread with a question and now you're the dude with the answers

You're welcome. Glad my info helped!

I was really disappointed last night when I downloaded the latest Nero Recode update and found that its max resolution is still 320x240.

On the upside, I did go ahead and convert a video clip and it seems to produce less artifacting than previous versions.

I am definately keeping my eyes open for an update to Nero Recode as well as my Jesterware programs but for now I can't complain... It takes a bit longer using QuickTime but the results are well worth it in my opinion.

Anthony

[jonas more]

The problem with QTPro is a longstanding one. Has to do with it's component architecture and where non-native (as in non-QT) stream demuxing occurs.

Thanks for the info. I had no idea why I couldn't get QuickTime Pro to properly encode the files I was trying to feed it... I just thought I was doing something wrong.

As you said, it may never happen but as a new QuickTime fan, I hope one day Apple will update the QuickTime architecture so it will be more versatile.

Anthony

[nkarnold]

Jonas,

FYI:
Jesterware DVD to iPod has been updated to support h.264 640x480. - Check out their website, its on the front page.

as with all H264 encoders, its CPU intensive creating 640x480 h264 files, but the quality is amazing.

Cheers
h