I am really struggling with this and wanted to get some feedback. I use (almost exclusively) iphones or touchs now. I really like the "Personal Media Device" concept. I try to keep some movies and shows on mine and my 6yr old daughter's for occasional entertainment (when we travel or are out) . Mostly I do watch my movies on a 46" HD LCD or on some 30" SDTVs in my house.
I had been using the Legacy Iphone(480w resolution) setting to encode my movies and honestly have been very happy watching them on the iPods, or even when played back on the SDTVs. I notice that apple (iTunes store) seems to sell their videos at a 640w resolution. When I play back the iphone encoded files on my HDTV they seem fine. No they are not as crisp as a DVD itself, but they are certainly watchable, and don't really seem that poor in quality either.
I have seen all the debate going on about the Universal format and it really being there for no compromise quality. Well I am thinking I want to find a medium between filesize and quality. So my results show a Universal encoding is somewhere in the realm of 3 - 3.5GB for most average movies, Modifing the Universal format down to a max width of 640 (and reducing the audio bitrate to 128k) tends to yield about 2GB and the Current iPhone renders most around 1GB (these are rough).
I don't have an AppleTV but have been think of getting one. I would like to settle on a format that provides the best compromise of disk space for the quality. Is there really that visable of a difference between 480w and 640w on a HDTV to make is worth double the space? Same question between 640 and Universal?
With a 16GB iphone and touch, (with all the apps and music) I have about 8gb left for video. seems like I might only get 2-3 movies on them at the universal level, 3-5 at the modified Universal (640w), and 8-9 at the iPhone level.
What are other peoples thoughts? I am not a puriest when it comes to quality. I am really wondering more around efficiency in space use, that allows good average quality and higher use of my devices (more on them).
Thoughts?
Subjective Question on Compromise.
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Re: Subjective Question on Compromise.
Hi edbmdave
3 - 3.5Gb sounds awfully high for an average movie encode. My average is around the 2Gb mark with near DVD transparency and a 5.1 DD Soundtrack with Dynaflash's Main Profile settings of 62% crf ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all:b-adapt=2. You will have to ditch the 5.1 soundtrack, remove CABAC, and maybe a couple of other things for an ipod friendly file though. You could even drop to 59% crf as your main objective is not quality. Also, iTunes movies are 640 width, but the 480 you refer to is the height. DVDs are 720 x 575 Pal or 720 x 480 NTSC, the difference between iTunes and DVD is actually quality lost by reducing the movie from 720 down to 640. It doesn't sound a lot but IMHO it is definitely noticeable on the Apple TV on a 42" screen, but I am very particular on quality.
3 - 3.5Gb sounds awfully high for an average movie encode. My average is around the 2Gb mark with near DVD transparency and a 5.1 DD Soundtrack with Dynaflash's Main Profile settings of 62% crf ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all:b-adapt=2. You will have to ditch the 5.1 soundtrack, remove CABAC, and maybe a couple of other things for an ipod friendly file though. You could even drop to 59% crf as your main objective is not quality. Also, iTunes movies are 640 width, but the 480 you refer to is the height. DVDs are 720 x 575 Pal or 720 x 480 NTSC, the difference between iTunes and DVD is actually quality lost by reducing the movie from 720 down to 640. It doesn't sound a lot but IMHO it is definitely noticeable on the Apple TV on a 42" screen, but I am very particular on quality.
Re: Subjective Question on Compromise.
My thoughts on this are that I am quite satisfied to encode video and audio quality to target a single device. My 1hr encodes for HDTV shows hit between 1.09-1.25GB for my AppleTV with 540 pixel height, Dolby Digital and AAC audio tracks and I'm quite happy with the quality/filesize tradeoff there.
If I were to encode for a iPhone/Pod/touch, I'd look to get an hour of programming down to around 500MB, perhaps even less because I'd have no use for a DD audio track. I realize this is not what the Universal preset is for, but I'm targeting size for the device, and I'll let the compy just do a second encode.
If I were to encode for a iPhone/Pod/touch, I'd look to get an hour of programming down to around 500MB, perhaps even less because I'd have no use for a DD audio track. I realize this is not what the Universal preset is for, but I'm targeting size for the device, and I'll let the compy just do a second encode.
Re: Subjective Question on Compromise.
Thanks for the comments.
The 480 is actually the width for the screen resolution for the iphone. (I believe). it's a 480x320 device.
I am really beginning to wonder if I need to see one on an AppleTV verses just playing back through the TV out on my iPod...
Is this a custom profile? How does it differ from the Universal? (file Type?, audio?) Any idea what is was targetted for?JVHB wrote:Dynaflash's Main Profile settings of 62% crf ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all:b-adapt=2.
The 480 is actually the width for the screen resolution for the iphone. (I believe). it's a 480x320 device.
I am really beginning to wonder if I need to see one on an AppleTV verses just playing back through the TV out on my iPod...
Re: Subjective Question on Compromise.
ATV only, will *not* play on any flavor of iPod.
Re: Subjective Question on Compromise.
Thanks. All. I did go and buy a AppleTV, and honestly the quality from the iPhone & Touch profile looks good enough that I am sticking with it. The Universal was crisper, and it was difficult for me to really see a difference between the iphone & touch profile verses using the Universal Profile with max width of 640..
Re: Subjective Question on Compromise.
Dude!!!edbmdave wrote:Thanks. All. I did go and buy a AppleTV, and honestly the quality from the iPhone & Touch profile looks good enough that I am sticking with it. The Universal was crisper, and it was difficult for me to really see a difference between the iphone & touch profile verses using the Universal Profile with max width of 640..
Use the Universal preset and have done with it, it works on ATV and iTouch/Phone, and will look much better than using the iTouch/Phone preset. And when you get a better TV and Hi-Fi system later down the line, you won't kick yourself for encoding with the wrong preset.
Nate