Nero Recode Video Ipod 640x480

I am now almost convinced that I want to use H264 for archiving my TV shows. I have been very impressed with the quality I am receiving with DVD Fab and now Nero Recode. I however did not have much luck with SUPER. So now I have a few questions.

1) Is there a better H264 converter than Recode that cost around $50 or less?

2) I understand that Video Ipods can now output 640x480, since I do not have one, what would I need to do with my Recode encodes to encode them at 640x480 and make sure they would play on an Ipod down the line. Is the only thing making sure they are not over 640x480?

Thanks for any help,
John

Hello

I have one of the new ipods (640 x 480) and also encode with Recode2 - very impressed with the results. As far as I know the only thing to watch is that the encoding bitrate does not go above 2.5Mbps. I have done a few films at 1 - 1.2Mbps which result in about a 1GB film. The results are superb.

Thanks. eon

Originally Posted by GMaq

crash447,
To ensure compatibility with iPods and retain a 640x480 resolution at this point in time you have to use Nero Digital in the "Standard" Profile and enable the "Quicktime Compatibility"in the Encoder Settings, As eon has already stated you need to keep the bitrate below 2500kbps, In my experience 1250kbps is sufficient for DVD sources and gives great quality even on HDTV. It is surprising that Nero is taking so long to get a 640x480 AVC/H.264 profile out there. There are other programs that will do this like "Jesterware" and freeware programs like MeGUI but there is a real learning curve and multiple applications to these ie (MeGUI, VirtualDubMod etc.), that's not to say that they don't produce equivalent results, but Nero Recode is about the best Ease of Use/Quality result MPEG-4 Software out there.

Is the "Standard" Profile not H.264? If not it may defeat my purpose.

Thanks,
John

I downloaded the demo of the Jesterware iPod Video Suite. First impressions quite impressed. Unfortunately it does not give you any basic cropping or edit features so your video has to be the right size before the conversion. Only settings were 4:3 or 16:9. The other dissapointment was that it does not accept avisynth .avs files.

On the plus side the quality was good and the encoding time not too bad, but that will vary from one machine spec to the other.

Hopefully they will include some basic edit and crop features in the next release.

Thanks. eon

Although I don't have an iPod, I'm impressed with MeGUI. Do any iPod owners out there use it?

OK I tried the Jesterware IPOD Video Suite instead of the DVD to IPOD converter because it allowed you to put in any VOB file. I am pleased with it for the most part. The only problem I came to find is that the first file I tried seems to be interlaced which I have noticed after playing it back. The Jesterware apparently does not do any analysis and you can manually add a filter. I tried IVTC, but still got the same result. I then tried to use their deinterlace filter and it crashes.

Now I am back to my confusion of interlaced, deinterlaced and ITVC. When I view this file on my laptop LCD I noticed it is interlaced, but on my TV I do not notice it. I know that Recode deinterlaced the same file. So now my new questions.

1) I do not notice this interlacing problem on my Standard TV, will I later notice it on an HDTV or an IPOD?

2) Does Recode only deinterlace and not perform IVTC?

A little confused on where to go now.

Thanks,
John

GMaq,

Thanks for the info on interlacing. That was what I was thinking, but the clarification is great. So my opinions so far on the Jesterware products are this. I like the Jesterware IPOD Video Suite better, because it lets you input any video file. They are the same price.

Pros
#1 Easy to use.
#2 Pretty fast in my opinion. About an hour for a 23 minute TV Show. My XVID encodes take about 55 minutes for one pass of the same.
#3 Easy Batching
#4 I'm very pleased with the quality, but I am new to h.264

Cons
#1Very Simple
#2 Innability to select things like target file size and it only allows a preset of certain bitrates. It jumps from around 1000kbps to 1500kbps
#3 No two pass encoding. However I don't know if this is normal with H.264.


Overall I was pretty impressed, however I really wish DVD Fab Platinum would add a few more features like 640x480 encoding for IPOD and batch encoding for episodic discs.

Thanks again,
John

I just recently purchased the Jesterware suite. Have to admit that I am very impressed with the results.

Compared the same movie converted with Recode (Mpeg4) and Jesterware (H264) the file size was much smaller with Jesterware and the quality was far better, it was even encoded at a lower bit rate than Recode. (Recode 1250bps, Jesterware 1024bps)

Very impressed - only down side is the time to encode to H264, but that is due to the codec and not the software.

Looks like it contains code from x264, mencoder, gpac amongst others. So multiple GPL breaches (no source available, custom license instead of GPL, etc.).

Originally Posted by GMaq

It is surprising that Nero is taking so long to get a 640x480 AVC/H.264 profile out there. There are other programs that will do this like "Jesterware" and freeware programs like MeGUI but there is a real learning curve and multiple applications to these ie (MeGUI, VirtualDubMod etc.), that's not to say that they don't produce equivalent results, but Nero Recode is about the best Ease of Use/Quality result MPEG-4 Software out there.

In my opinion it's not surprising any longer, but really getting obscene now.
Maybe you also want to support the Petition to Nero to finally add advanced H.264 iPod Video support.