What kind of video encoding is Apple using for their new iPad 2 guides?

[shaggles]

http://movies.apple.com/ipad/guided-tours/

I was just wondering. The videos load quickly, are big and super crisp. Would love to use this encoding on my websites. I understand it's .mov and some form of quicktime. If anyone has more details or ideas how they made this please let me know!

I would be happy with other video formats too. I just think I was never able to create an h264 encoded mp4 that loads so quickly and looks so crisp.

[guns1inger]

The way you get videos that look that crisp is by starting with high quality source. That means a high quality HD camera, a tripod, proper studio quality lighting - basically professionally shot material.

The actual specs for the facetime video are

General
Complete name                    : x:\xxxxxx\xxxx\xxxxxxxxx\apple-ipad2-guidedtour-facetime-us-20110308_r848-9cie.mov
Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : QuickTime
Codec ID                         : qt  
File size                        : 27.3 MiB
Duration                         : 1mn 13s
Overall bit rate                 : 3 123 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-03-10 13:28:09
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-03-10 13:28:11
Writing library                  : Apple QuickTime
Media/UUID                       : 8F43896F-B398-40CD-A9A4-A7B2FAA13658

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC           : No
Format settings, ReFrames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 1mn 13s
Duration_LastFrame               : 3s 545ms
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 2 866 Kbps
Width                            : 848 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.294
Stream size                      : 26.1 MiB (96%)
Language                         : English
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-02-27 21:28:05
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-03-10 13:28:11
Color primaries                  : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics         : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients              : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio
ID                               : 3
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : LC
Format settings, SBR             : No
Codec ID                         : 40
Duration                         : 1mn 13s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 125 Kbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 128 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L R
Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz
Stream size                      : 1.09 MiB (4%)
Language                         : English
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-02-27 21:28:10
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-03-10 13:28:11

Menu
ID                               : 2
Encoded date                     : UTC 2011-02-27 21:28:05
Tagged date                      : UTC 2011-03-10 13:28:11
Bit rate mode                    : CBR

The video has been resized to 1:1 PAR NTSC widescreen resolution, and encoded at a relatively high bitrate for that resolution. To put it in context - those specs applied to a 90 minute movie would give you a 2GB filesize.

As for fast loading and serving - if you had Apple's budget, you could do that too.

[shaggles]

You are awesome guns1inger! Thanks a lot! What software did you use to get the movie details? And how did you get the movie?

I tried to get it with jdownloader but it just showed me the some startup.mov and not the real video.

[yoda313]

Mediainfo or avicodec would tell you the file details.

Streamtransport or quicktime pro would you get the file - quicktime pro is required to save quicktime videos directly from a websites quicktime player. Streamtransport does it differently.

[shaggles]

Great thx yoda! May the force be with you!

[guns1inger]

I used QT Pro to save the file, and mediainfo to read the specs.

[shaggles]

Thx!

[guns1inger]

However, going back to your original question - even if you match those specs bit for bit in your encoding, you will only get those results if you have high quality source.

[shaggles]

Yeah, that's no problem. We shoot with HD cams (5D Mark II) and edit the videos ourselves. I was just amazed by the loading speed of those videos. I'm in Thailand right now and even standard definition youtube videos take longer to load than those Apple videos... and I doubt they have a local server here.

[sum_guy]

Nothing is impossible with streaming video, you want the ultimate, it just costs more.

[shaggles]

sum_guy did Apple use streaming video? It did look like it was preloaded like any other clip.

[guns1inger]

Definitely streams. It does seem to buffer a reasonable amount before starting though.

[poisondeathray]

It's progressive download "streaming", not RTSP

Huge bandwidth on Apple's end, I'm sure they have worldwide CDN, including Thailand

[sum_guy]

It's definitely being streamed. My connection is very fast, but it still buffered before playback. If you have enough server and bandwidth, streaming a 27 mb file isn't that tough. Apple isn't being cheap with it's downstream bandwidth.

[shaggles]

Wow poisondeathray that you brought up CDNs made my day! I make money online since several years and run several websites but never looked into CDNs. Quite embarrassing lol. There are actually some that are pretty affordable and from what I read pretty fast too. Thanks!

[poisondeathray]

IMO Amazon cloudfront is a good one, with reasonable prices, worldwide coverage

[shaggles]

Yeah I will go for that or maxcdn.

[icecream]

thanks for your sharing !

[sum_guy]

Good free CDN if anyone is interested...

http://www.coralcdn.org/

[TreeTops]

From the CoralCDN home page: all for the price of a $50/month

[sum_guy]

Coral is a free peer-to-peer content distribution network, comprised of a world-wide network of web proxies and nameservers. It allows a user to run a web site that offers high performance and meets huge demand, all for the price of a $50/month cable modem.

It's free, just append the following to your URL.. .nyud.net