Full Screen Ipod Nano 5th gen conversion

[nerys]

I am converting television episodes from my sage system for my ipod.

its the 5th gen video camera ipod. I looked up the specs its screen is 376x240

I encode my video at 376x240 (ignoring aspect ratio) but I still get black bars top and bottom?

I am using super to convert (its painfully simple so I use it)

what am I doing wrong? I tried 370x240 just to see if something would change but no joy its still the same black bars top and bottom.

so I am guessing itunes or the ipod itself it "marking" it somehow to display it in this aspect ratio. no transcoding it happening. SO how to I convert tag or whatever these files to make them display using ALL of the screen space.?

Thanks!

[aedipuss]

it only plays 320x240 video. if you look at one playing video even on the apple site there are black bars on both sides.

http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/specs.html

[nerys]

ahh mine plays full screen width wise its the HEIGHT thats the problem. it plays all the way left to right but the black bars are on the top and bottom.

also where are the specs No where in that link (that I could see) says video is 320x240 ??? The CAMERA built into it records at 640x480 and it plays those videos back without an issue???

I don't care what resolution I need to use. I just need to know "what" resolution will net me full screen

mathmatically its 376x282 (to maintain the aspect ratio of 640x480 and 320x240 but the specs clearly say its 376x240

[aedipuss]

it only plays one size 320x240 anything else is most likely re-encoded by itunes to 320x240.

height when you are holding it vertically or horizontally?

try xmedia recode it has a 5th gen 320x240 preset.

[nerys]

well I know its not transcoded. as fast as computers are today I am sorry but there is no way its transcoding it that fast I put a 300mb video onto it in 30 seconds. Plus I am doing this on a 900mhz P3. I do not even want to KNOW how long it would take that machine to transcode any video (its my media laptop everyone plugs their MP3 players into it for syncing) hey I got it for $60 and its got a gorgeous 1440x1050 screen

now maybe itunes is "setting" an aspect ratio tag or something? but definately NOT transcoding anything. Would take hours for this machine to transcode anything.

again your data is not correct. it plays the 640x480 videos that it itself RECORDS just fine.

height is media standard. height is up down width is left right.

Its like watching a widescreen movie on a 4:3 screen. bars on top and bottom but much smaller since its "sort of" a widescreen itself.

Like this

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where those bars are just a few pixels each. not "pronounced" like 16:9 content on a 4:3 screen.

[aedipuss]

you can't play a 640x480 video on a screen with 376x240 pixels without resizing it. must be the 5th gen is smart enough to resize on the fly to 320x240.

5th gen nano specs 640x480 video. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3845
5th gen ipod 320x240. http://support.apple.com/kb/SP41

[nerys]

well off course. MOST video players do not "require" the video to be the exact resolution of the screen in order to play them back. They interpolate on the fly.

I would prefer not to goto 640x480 since that will result in a larger file size.

its just odd that a 376x240 video will not play on a 376x240 screen. Figure I must be doing something wrong in the encode or something.

[aedipuss]

it's not you, it's the device.

most mp3/video players do require a single set size, and are pretty picky about what settings are used to encode the video.

[festmaster]

I would prefer not to go to 640x480 since that will result in a larger file size.

At the end of the day, that is the easiest solution. It is also nice if you ever hook your iPod to a TV because you will get better resolution.

[rumplestiltskin]

When you play the episodes on your computer (prior to the conversion), are they letterboxed (black bars top/bottom)?

[nerys]

negative. I checked that. i know it "can" use all the vertical pixels since when I play 4:3 content it is boxed left and right and uses the full height.

while 640x480 might be easier the cool thing about computers is only the "first" one is hard. after that you just press the button rinse and repeat

in "my" experience most videos players are pretty damned agnostic about what video they will play (not counting fringe formats) only Monopolistic players (such as ipod and zune) and China Crap amz players give a damned about what video format they will take.

if I want to connect to a TV I have my Zen or my Tablet to do that. they play pretty much anything.

Can the nano even connect to a TV? I did not think it could. I will have to look into that.

alas its only 16gb. that means space/quality is a priority and VGA will either kill quality or increase file size. I would like to try to avoid that.

OK more and more I am thinking this is an ASPECT RATIO problem

I have TWO videos. BOTH are 376x240 encoded using identical settings.

one was wide screen and is letter boxed on the ipod the other is 4:3 and is left right boxed ON the ipod.

yet BOTH are 376x240 so "something" in the video is TELLING the player to use an aspect ratio different from the physical dimensions of the video.

How do I alter this and which do I need to use for 376x240 ? its less than 16:9 but way more than 4:3

[nerys]

when I look at the properties it DOES SAY the video is 16:9

so it seems the ipod is ignoring the 376x244 resolution (I tried makign it taller to see what would happen) and is interpolating the video to 16:9

how do I change this aspect ratio in the meta data and which ratio do I need for full screen on the nano 376x240 screen?

[rumplestiltskin]

Try it using MPEG Streamclip to export it to MP4. Use the "Preview" button (for 30 seconds or so) and see what you are getting. When it looks right, save the encoding parameters as a "preset". Then you may "rinse and repeat".

edit: When you save it to a particular resolution in H264, the wide-screen flag will have nothing to do with this any more. So save it to the resolution in which you want to view it.