New H264 -640x480- spec for iPod with latest updater?

[rumplestiltskin]

New iPod specs for acceptable video encoding (although I don't see an iPod firmware update for this so, presumably, it's the new iTunes version that permits the larger pixel size to be copied into the iPod):

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Low-Complexity Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; (blah, blah, blah...the rest per the prior specs...)

So I'll direct this to Major and ask if there's anything special one must do to have ffmpegX yield a video with the above encoding.

Perhaps (assuming he can do this in the 25th hour of his 24 hour day ) he might post a config file that we might use as a template?

Many thanks (again) to Major for providing a valuable tool.

[rumplestiltskin]

Oops! Looks like the 5G iPod may really be a 6G and only the latest version supports the 640x480 H264. Hmmm. Is my old 5G now obsolete??

[rumplestiltskin]

And another Oops!

From MacRumors:

- To the delight of many existing 5G owners, iPod Software 1.2 (included with iTunes 7) will provide capability to playback the increased resolution of new iTunes TV Shows, Music Videos, and Movies.

[ahmontgo]

640x480 H.264 videos from the iTMS seem to work just fine; the question is what they've done to break existing solutions. The clue seems to be "Baseline Low-Complexity"; 320x240 just mentions "Baseline"

[major]

A test with the actual device is mandatory, though probably this profile is not right now supported by x264.

[GMaq]

Hi,
This is good news, If they are going to sell movies for $9.99 a pop they are going to have to up the quality factor significantly. H.264 is impressive for what you get with the current limitations but it doesn't look to hot on large plasmas Any idea if the new firmware will address the video playback issues with the last 1.1 update?? I had to roll my 5G back to 1.0 just to get to play my movies again!

[rumplestiltskin]

A test with the actual device is mandatory, though probably this profile is not right now supported by x264.

QT Pro will not export to the proper spec. MPEG Streamclip and iSquint are also not ready for this. As you've indicated, ffmpegX is not supporting this yet.

Looks like we need updates to all of our tools. *sigh*

[KTH]

How can you tell what video's are in the new 640x480 format at the iTunes Music Store? I wanted to purchase one to try it out. Can someone list a few titles (not movies if possible). I didn't want to spend $9.99 for a test.

[rumplestiltskin]

I successfully transcoded an AVI (that played properly in QT Player) using the "export to iPod" functionality within the new version of QT Player Pro that accompanied the latest update.

As well, if the video plays properly within QT Player, "save as" a reference movie (.mov), then drop that file into iTunes. Select "convert selection for iPod" from the Advanced menu. Wait a l-o-n-g time. Result: 1600kbit/sec, just under 1GB per hour.

Would love to have a way of halving that bitrate.

[ssj2_goha]

With the larger resolution they also have included chapter point in the movies you download from iTunes. I got the movie cursed for my wife yesterday and it uploaded to her iPod perfectly. I am willing to donate my time and my iPod to setting up test profiles to find a freeware way of encodeing video in this new specs. Also i opened up the cursed movie file in VLC and looked at the media info and found that it says it has a subtitle track in it. Is this one of the future features that the "iTV" of maybe frontrow will use?

[peter321]

If you have Final Cut Studio, the latest version of Compressor will let you encode at a lower bit rate.

It defaults to 1100 kbit/sec for the video.

Encoding takes a long time (longer than QT) because 2-pass is mandatory (you can't turn it off).

But the quality is great.

I tested this on an episode of 24 - QT ended up with a file around 500MB, Compressor took the same file to 374MB.

Comparing the 2 files, they looked very similar in quality, so my guess is that QT encodes faster, but selects a higher bitrate to compensate for the more sluggish encoding.

Compressor takes more time analysing the video and therefore can encode at a lower bitrate but at more or less the same quality.

I'm waiting for my new 80GB iPod, so I have only tested playback on the Mac.

[ssj2_goha]

Does anyone have any ideas as to what "low complexity" means? Is this a new profile that is propritary to Apple?

[major]

Does updating the older iPod break compatibility with x264? Does the newer iPod support 320x240 x264?

[rumplestiltskin]

Almost none of the existing utilities use "low-complexity" encoding. Be patient and they'll be updated.

Video2Go does work, however, for the new 640x480 H264 "low-complexity" spec.

[ssj2_goha]

is low complexity a profile level? like level 2 or something? the old specs used level 1.3 i know.

[ssj2_goha]

Does updating the older iPod break compatibility with x264? Does the newer iPod support 320x240 x264?

Yes it does support both still. I'm lookin forward to seeing how to encode for the iPod

[major]

So there's no "break of existing solutions" apart when trying to use x264 to encode at 640x480 for the iPod?

[ssj2_goha]

Nope it's just this new stuff that don't work. I did some research on the chip that the 5G iPod uses http://www.broadcom.com/products/Cellular/Mobile-Multimedia-Processors/BCM2722 and the firmware sets how the GPU works.

[major]

Try to email me (major4@mac.com) a short clip (10 seconds) which does work, and the same encoded with x264 and not working.

[ssj2_goha]

OK will do. it will be from j.kint@yahoo.com any help i can give i'll be happy to give.

[major]

is low complexity a profile level? like level 2 or something? the old specs used level 1.3 i know.

As far as I know, no such profile is documented in the h264 standard. In general, profiles define which options the encoder/decoder is allowed to use (eg. is CABAC available? etc), while levels constrain the stream complexity. So, possibly it could mean "Baseline profile, level 2", as level 1 only supports CIF/QCIF resolutions. If that would be the case, you could maybe try with level 2.2, but bitrate will be also an important parameter. Or it could be something else.

[ssj2_goha]

I will try all the profiles with the commandline version of ffmpeg (my new mac is on it's way so i'm stuck with a windows comp) with a 5 second clip I rendered. I will post what command string works if i can get any to work.

[brazilianx]

As far as video compression tools updating their profiles for the 'new iPod format', here is a press release from Techspansion who believe they have cracked it for their latest realease of Visual Hub:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/20/visualhub/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

Haven't tested it myself, but would be good to get this sorted for ffmpegx.

[thefiddler]

I emailed erightsoft, the makers of SUPER about all this. Below is a link to their forums on the matter:

http://www.w3exchange.com/view_topic-pid-516.html#p516

That post is my email to them with their reply. I'm just not sure this works though, so I emailed them again to make sure they understood that it's not just setting a higher res to make it compatible with the new iPod standard. I don't have time right now to try it out and see if by some chance this method would work, but I'm pretty sure it won't based on tests I've done with the MainConcept encoder in Vegas. Just thought I'd let everyone know that the makers of SUPER are looking at it though (even if they don't get it yet).

[major]

I suggest playing with these command lines, http://videotranscoding.wikispaces.com/EncodeForIPodorPSP and trying levels 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 32. I'll also make some clips and send to anyone having a new iPod for testing.

[major]

Checking with iTunes clips.. apparently there's some extra atom like for PSP streams, I'll try to add it back.

[ssj2_goha]

F:\avoid'>atomicparsley cursed.m4v -t
Atom "----" contains: 33587214
Atom "cnam" contains: Cursed
Atom "cgen" contains: Horror
Atom "cday" contains: 2005-02-25T08:00:00Z
Atom "pgap" contains:
Atom "apID" contains: XXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXXX.com
Atom "cprt" contains: â,-
Atom "cnID" contains: 188764979
Atom "rtng" contains: Inoffensive
Atom "atID" contains: 0
Atom "geID" contains: 4408
Atom "sfID" contains: 143441
Atom "akID" contains:
Atom "stik" contains: Short Film
Atom "purd" contains: 2006-09-13 11:11:05
Atom "----" contains: mpaa|PG-13|300|
Atom "----" contains: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.
com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>cast</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>3413178</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Christina Ricci</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>189034695</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Joshua Jackson</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>6843220</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Jesse Eisenberg</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>189034697</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Judy Greer</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>189034699</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Scott Baio</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>directors</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>189034958</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Wes Craven</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>producers</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>189035900</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Marianne Maddalena</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>adamId</key>
<integer>54756763</integer>
<key>name</key>
<string>Kevin Williamson</string>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>

Atom "covr" contains: 1 piece of artwork

this is from the movie cured that i get on the iTunes store for my wife.
If this helps I don't know.

[major]

Looks like it works now. I'll release a new version soon.

[peter321]

Will it be possible to encode in "current size" and have it playback OK, as long as it is smaller than 640x480?

I have some files that are 624 x 352 and scaling up to 640 in width adds a lot of pixelation, so I would prefer to keep them at their current size.

Looking forward to the new version.

cheers
Peter

[ssj2_goha]

yeah the old 320x240 still works fine