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itouch encode settings for full screen playback

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:13 pm
by radar tech
handbrake is a great tool, thank you for being there!! when i use the itouch presettings, the encode of transformers come out w black bands top/bottom. i searched but couldnt find crop settings so that plays full screen. Thank you for help.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:52 pm
by jbrjake
And you're not using your iPod's zoom feature because...?

Actually...

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:44 pm
by amalgam
(I'll just take for granted that you mean the iPod touch...)

I don't think it's 100 percent clear how to choose the right settings in handbrake for the zoom function in the iPod to work. (For instance, if you choose the setting 640 x 480, the zoom function doesn't work.)

So, the answer is:

If you choose the width 640 (or perhaps less if you only want the film to work in the touch) and erase the value in the field for "height" and choose automatic crop you should get the correct (zoomable) result.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:04 pm
by daman123x
dont lock to 640x480. set a width, use auto crop, let HB figure out height (or just use itouch preset) then you will get your black bars. to zoom double tap the screen while playing.

Re: Actually...

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:49 pm
by jbrjake
amalgam wrote:I don't think it's 100 percent clear how to choose the right settings in handbrake for the zoom function in the iPod to work.
No, it's quite clear. Use the preset, and zoom will work. All the time.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:37 pm
by radar tech
ok somewhat embarrased here. whats the zoom feature i dont see that. i do see widescreen setting on video on ipod touch. where zoom? double tapping screen doesnt do much still have the bars.

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:04 am
by daman123x
Tap the screen once so the controls come up. Then, in the upper right corner, you want the two arrows facing diagonally away from each other

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:43 am
by radar tech
right, doesnt help. Transformers is a wide screen format movie on dvd no way to make bars go away unless i do so thru h x w settings. not all movies do it

Re: Actually...

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:37 am
by amalgam
jbrjake wrote:
amalgam wrote:I don't think it's 100 percent clear how to choose the right settings in handbrake for the zoom function in the iPod to work.
No, it's quite clear. Use the preset, and zoom will work. All the time.
It's quite clear if you know it, sure, but I don't really know in what way it's "clear" that you should erase the numbers popping up in the "height" field if you should enter a different value than the value in the width preset. Now that I know that Handbrake will do the math, it's perfectly clear, but before that... Well well.

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:02 pm
by cowboyshootist
I don't think it's clear either.

First, why use 480 for Width in the preset for Touch/iPhone? You can have a width of 640, theoretically.

Second why use zoom? Wouldn't that distort the picture somewhat?

Why not use Handbrake to produce a video file that is a) the correct apsect ratio for the input content and b) maximizes the use of the available screen realestate?

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:01 am
by jbrjake
cowboyshootist wrote:First, why use 480 for Width in the preset for Touch/iPhone? You can have a width of 640, theoretically.
Yes, and theoretically you can have a bitrate of 10,000kbps and it'll play on an iPhone too, but you only have 16 gigs of storage at most (on a Touch) so why not make the most of it? Apple themselves say to use 480*360 as a bounding box. The iPhone/Touch screen is only 480*320, and anything larger is pointless. I'm not sure what's preventing you from using the 640-width iPod High-Rez preset anyway, if you're keen on higher resolution video. Or customizing the preset.
Second why use zoom? Wouldn't that distort the picture somewhat?
No, it will chop off part of the picture.
Why not use Handbrake to produce a video file that is a) the correct apsect ratio for the input content and b) maximizes the use of the available screen realestate?
Um...that's what I already have the preset doing!

It maintains the correct aspect for the input -- 1.78:1, 2.35:1, 1.33:1, or 1.85:1 in most cases -- for the available screen real estate, which is an irregular 1.5:1 aspect in a 480*320 array.

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:50 am
by cowboyshootist
jbrjake wrote:
cowboyshootist wrote:First, why use 480 for Width in the preset for Touch/iPhone? You can have a width of 640, theoretically.
Yes, and theoretically you can have a bitrate of 10,000kbps and it'll play on an iPhone too, but you only have 16 gigs of storage at most (on a Touch) so why not make the most of it? Apple themselves say to use 480*360 as a bounding box. The iPhone/Touch screen is only 480*320, and anything larger is pointless. I'm not sure what's preventing you from using the 640-width iPod High-Rez preset anyway, if you're keen on higher resolution video. Or customizing the preset.
Second why use zoom? Wouldn't that distort the picture somewhat?
No, it will chop off part of the picture.
Why not use Handbrake to produce a video file that is a) the correct apsect ratio for the input content and b) maximizes the use of the available screen realestate?
Um...that's what I already have the preset doing!

It maintains the correct aspect for the input -- 1.78:1, 2.35:1, 1.33:1, or 1.85:1 in most cases -- for the available screen real estate, which is an irregular 1.5:1 aspect in a 480*320 array.
OK I see where I was confusing the resolution of the actual screen with the supported video resolution. Now that makes sense.

I feel the removing any portion of the content is "distortion" of the original content, therefore, chopping off parts of the video would be a worst case distortion (IMHO).

Good to know that it will maintain the correct aspect ratio. Some other conversion products I have used do not seem to do this. That may be due to some of the intermediate steps in the process, I don't know. I know that when using content recorded on Tivo and Videora for conversion it does not use enough of the available screen. This may be bad parameter settings on my part, I don't know. This is why I am reading the forums and trying to understand how to simplify the conversion process while getting maximum quality for the iPod Touch. I'll give Handbrake a try to night on a couple of shows I have recorded.

Thanks for your input.