Using Multiple Encodings for Multiple Devices

[jamiemlaw]

Today I came across the "play videos using standard definition version" checkbox in iTunes' preferences; it's to do with the fact that when you buy an HD movie you also get an SD movie to play on your iPod. Having not bought any HD movies (and not really planning to), I didn't realise this. I assume that despite getting the two movies, they only show up as one file, and iTunes automatically decides which to play depending on the capabilities of the device, or whether you checked the "use SD version" box. Is this true, or does the movie show up twice?

If it's the former, that brings me on to my question:

I've been trying to sort out the best way to encode DVDs for universal use, and I've come to the conclusion that the sort of encoding I want for my computer (high profile, maximum resolution) is not the same as I'd want for an iPod (low profile, small resolution and file size). On seeing this thing that iTunes does got me thinking: is it possible to encode a video twice under two different settings, and tell iTunes to play one on your computer but sync just the low-res version to any external devices? And do this so that only one file shows up in the iTunes library?

[ascianti]

That tickbox "play videos using standard definition version" does what it says. If both HD and SD are present, double-clicking on the HD one instead plays the SD one. The two movies show up as two movies, one sd one with little hd thing beside it (defying gravity was made available for free in hd and sd when the show was first announced).

Two ways to do what you want:
1) encode the video twice in handbrake.
2) encode it once in the high-quality version, then in itunes right-click on it and choose "create iphone/ipod version"
The former will be faster and likely higher quality.

It will still show up twice in iTunes.

[jamiemlaw]

Thanks for the clarification.

Out of interest, in the time it took for the original post to be accepted by the moderators, I did some hunting around and found a plausible way to end up with one file (at least as shown in the iTunes library) that comes across as high profile on the computer but will still sync to the iPhone as low profile: it involves our good friend the reference movie.

For some reason I got this working, but couldn't get it working again. I followed Apple's tutorial for creating reference movies: made my two video files under different presets, and used makerefmovie to add them together. And it worked. But, as I say, I can't get it working anymore. I deleted the original test I did, claiming it was a cinch, but all subsequent times I haven't been able to get it to sync to my iPod. I know that the iPod version of the video will sync fine on its own, but I can't get the ref movie to play ball.

Maybe someone can find out exactly what the steps are, and if they are simple enough, this might mean an end to the "oh, I don't know what settings I need to use because I want it in HD for my AppleTV but but I also want to play it on my iPod which has limited storage".

[jamiemlaw]

Gah! With some additional searching, I came across this site, which explains how to do it using the videos' cnID and HD tags. I didn't use the tool he suggested – I used Subler instead – but it worked the same way. I guess I hadn't come across it because I was using the wrong keywords. But it's good to know that that's the official solution rather than my hacked version. Still, it was interesting to put into practice.

[creamyhorror]

On seeing this thing that iTunes does got me thinking: is it possible to encode a video twice under two different settings, and tell iTunes to play one on your computer but sync just the low-res version to any external devices? And do this so that only one file shows up in the iTunes library?

You use iTunes to play videos? (Sorry if this is common knowledge, I didn't even know people did that, I just use iTunes for syncing.) I wouldn't think it'd be a very capable player though.

Personally, I import only the low-res encode into iTunes; I play back with MPC-HC (a proper player ).

[ascianti]

iTunes video playback is basically quicktime with a media library.

[creamyhorror]

iTunes video playback is basically quicktime with a media library.

Hmm, as a Windows user I'd never use Quicktime to play back video. The mere idea is strange, given its association with the .MOV extension and what I've heard about it failing as a H.264 decoder (plus it isn't multithreaded). I'd even use VLC over it, and VLC is pretty crappy for H.264.

To each his own

[baggss]

Don't know what you've hear about QT failing, but on the Mac side it works just fine for playback. Frankly I prefer QT to iTunes just for the simplicity.