Converting for iPod vs iPhone, MP4 vs H.264

Discuss about generic usage of MediaCoder.

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Steerpike
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Converting for iPod vs iPhone, MP4 vs H.264

Post by Steerpike » Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:38 am

I'm able to convert a movie shot on my panasonic Lumix camera to play on my iPod using MediaCoder. But I cannot get it to play on my iPhone.

If I convert the movie to 'MPEG4' format (not H.264), the resulting file, when dragged to iTunes (v8.0.2.20), lands in the 'Movies' category, and synchs to my iPod Video, and plays fine. However, anything I convert in this manner (MPEG4) will not synch to the iPhone. [edit/update - I later realized I was not seeing the 'movies' section on the 'Video' tab for the iPhone device in iTunes. There are THREE sections; 'rented movies', 'TV Shows'; and 'Movies'. The 'Movies' section is at the bottom, and was not visible on my laptop screen (1024x768) and I did not see the scroll-bar (sounds dumb, but the layout of the screen suggested all the info was there...!). WHY the layout of these tabs is different from the iPod I don't know. Once I checked the box for movies, the synch occurred.]

I gave the source file to a friend who has 'toast', and he converted it to H.264 for me, and when I drag that file to iTunes, it lands in the 'TV Shows' category, and synchs to my iPhone, and plays on it. So my iTunes/iPhone setup is capable of playing files from my camera, I just can't convert them using MediaCoder.

But all attempts to convert to H.264 format using MediaCoder result in a file that will not be accepted by iTunes - it simply won't 'accept' the file; this suggests there is something incompatible with the H.264 format produced by MediaCoder? [Edit/Update: I later found that the problem was the settings for the H.264 codec; the default profile is 'auto'; I changed that to 'baseline', and the 'level' from '4' to '3', and that seemed to be the trick for me. Framerate, resolution, and other settings seemed less critical. I also got it to work using both the FAAC and the Nero audio encoders ].

Has anyone had success converting to the iPhone (as opposed to iPod) and if so, what is the trick? Thanks!
Last edited by Steerpike on Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Steerpike
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Post by Steerpike » Fri Jan 09, 2009 11:31 am

As I mentioned, every attempt to produce an H.264 file with MediaCoder (version 0.6.2.4242) (varioius bitrates, resolutions, etc) resulted in a file that would not load into iTunes. An H.264 file produced by my friend using Toast (from same source) WOULD load into iTunes.

Basically, when you first load a piece of media into iTunes, it's doing a quick scan of the file to verify it is compatible, and the H.264 files produced by MediaCoder seem to fail this validation. No error message is given; the file simply does not 'load'.

When I use mediaCoder to create an MPEG-4 file, the file loads just fine into iTunes, and plays on my iPod.

Steerpike
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Post by Steerpike » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:29 pm

OK, finally figured it out - or more to the point, got it to work (though it makes little sense why!).

After creating the video, I drag it into iTunes. The item shows in the 'Movies' category in iTunes. For some reason, 'Movies' don't seem to want to synch with my iPhone (but will with my iPod). But all I have to do is right-click the item, choose 'Get Info', then on the 'options' tab, Change the 'Media Kind' from 'Movies' to 'TV Shows'. Once I do that, the item now shows in the 'TV Shows' category and, more importantly, it syncs with the iPhone.

in iTunes, on the iPhone device screen, 'Video' tab, there are two sub-parts - 'Rented Movies' and 'TV Shows'. Under 'rented movies' it says, 'there are no rented movies in your iTunes library that can be transferred to this iPhone'. But once I change the 'kind' of a movie entry from 'Movie' to 'TV Show', the item syncs happily with the iPhone. Go figure!!!

FYI, I can play both Mpeg4 and H.264 encoded videos on the iPhone.

Steerpike
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Post by Steerpike » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:53 am

Well I have to confess to a great big, stupid error on my part! I have updated my original post above so that anyone reading the first post won't be misled (see text in red). Basically, in iTunes, when the phone is plugged in, you get the 'device' entry, and when you select it, you get a set of tabs on the right. One such tab is the 'Video' Tab. On that tab, I was seeing 'Rented Movies' at the top, and 'TV Shows' at the bottom. What I did not notice was the SCROLL BAR on the right ... my resolution is set to 1024x768 on my laptop. When I scroll down, I see a THIRD section, 'Movies', and there I can choose to synch movies!!!! When the iPod is plugged in, you get two tabs - Movies, and TV Shows; both of which fit all info comfortably on the screen and thus, no need to scroll.

It seems with the iPhone they introduced a concept of 'Rented Movies', and also grouped them all on one tab, and made the page bigger. Googling around, I am not the only one to make this dumb mistake !!! :oops:

Interestingly, while both the MP4 and H.264 versions now synch to the iPhone, the H.264 versions won't synch to the iPod still. I will do some more research on this and post an update here when I figure out why.

I also tried the 'iPhone edition' of MediaCoder earlier without success; given my new found success with MediaCoder 'full' version, I'll go back and see if I can get that to work also.

Thanks for the help so far :)

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