Postby UrbenLegend » 04 Dec 2006 06:32
OK, I found that for ipod conversions, the gui works better. Also, from the looks of it in the command line, you transcoding to a 320x240 mp4 file, which is NOT RECOMMENDED because you will have aspect ratio problems and because the ipod can support up to 640x480=307200 pixels with the latest 1.2 patch.
Now here is a step-by-step guide to converting to ipod. It has worked for me for some videos. It really is a hit or miss, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
1.) Play the original video file normally and check the resolution in the stream info. In your case it will be 624x352 (which you already know).
2.) Go to Settings->Preferences->Stream Output->Sout stream->Transcode. Click the advanced options checkbox. You will then see the width, height, max width, and max height settings. Input the video file resolution into these four fields, make sure width and max width, height and max height, are the same. Click save.
3.) Click Open. Browse to the original file and select it. Click the stream/save checkbox and then click settings. In the resulting dialog box, check the file checkbox and select target destination of the mp4 file. Select the mp4 radio button. Check the video codec checkbox and select mp4v at 2048 kb/s and scale of 1. Check the audio codec checkbox and select mp4a at 192 kb/s and select two channels. Click OK.
4.) Click OK to start transcoding the file.
Now I must remind you that this only works for some files. You'll find that some transcoded files will receive an error in Quicktime. For these I know of no solution (still waiting for a forum answer). However, some files will play in Quicktime but won't transfer to the ipod. This can easily be remedied by reducing either the video or audio bitrates (I suggest you encode 2 minutes of video using VLC, stop it, and transfer the resulting file to your ipod to check whether it works). Keep in mind that the ipod supports mp4 video files at 2.5 Mbps for video and 160 kb/s for audio, but you can sometimes get away with decreasing video bitrate and raising audio bitrate above the maximum or raising video bitrate above the maximum and reducing audio bitrate.
Also note that the above instructions, if they work for your file, will produce a ipod compatible video file that closely matches if not equal to the quality of the original file. Of course the file size will be a lot larger than the original file because you're using mpeg 4 simple profile. The aspect ratio will be maintained, allowing you to switch between letterbox and fullscreen without any distortion using the ipod video settings menu.
Hope these instructions work for you. Just my 2 cents.
