MP4 for viewing in iPhone?

PeterWright wrote on 3/13/2012, 10:31 PM

I've been asked to convert some .mov files to 640 x 480 MP4 files for viewing on iPhone.

I know there are some folks here with these devices, so I'd appreciate any tips for settings, bitrate etc.

Thanks

Comments

monoparadox wrote on 3/13/2012, 11:32 PM

I use Sony or Mainconcept AVC 720p for both iphone and ipad. I've usually been happier using Sony's.

PeterWright wrote on 3/14/2012, 12:01 AM

Thanks monoparadox - I've just been sent an example file, which has resulted in much fun and games:

Firstly the supplied .mov crashed Vegas whenever I tried to add it to the timeline - this was with both Vegas 10 and 11, 32 and 64 bit, XP and W7.....

So I used Handbrake to convert it to an intermediate MP4, which worked fine on the Vegas timeline.

This was a "vertical" 720 x 1280 video, and to keep its aspect ratio I rendered it to a 360 x 640 MP4 which I've sent to the client to see if it works ok and stays "upright" in an iPhone ....... we'll see .....

Laurence wrote on 3/14/2012, 12:21 AM

I would use Handbrake. A tiny low bitrate file will look great whereas with Vegas, you'd have to use a much higher bitrate to achieve the same quality. An iPhone only has so much storage, and every little bit of savings helps.

PeterWright wrote on 3/14/2012, 12:50 AM

Thanks for the idea Laurence - but I'm not sure that Handbrake can handle the 90 degree rotated "vertical" nature of these clips - the intermediate I created earlier displayed "sideways" instead of vertical, but I was able to correct this with the render in Vegas.

.... and I've just heard from the client that the test render worked perfectly for vertical playback on computer and iphone, so I'll stick with that!

Incidentally, I used a bitrate of 2,300,000 which produced a 2 Mb MP4 file, compared with the original .mov file which was 11 Mb.

Peter

amendegw wrote on 3/14/2012, 5:34 AM

"Thanks for the idea Laurence - but I'm not sure that Handbrake can handle the 90 degree rotated "vertical" nature of these clips - the intermediate I created earlier displayed "sideways" instead of vertical, but I was able to correct this with the render in Vegas."You could always use Vegas to correct the rotation by rendering to an intermediate (DNxHD?) and then use HandBrake for the final render.

I don't do much rendering for the iPhone, but HandBrake has iPhone/iPad/iPod presets that the HandBrake community has spent mucho effort to get the proper h264 render params.

Also, as stated earlier in this thread, I can attest to the fact that HandBrake produces higher quality video at a given bitrate when compared to the MainConcept & Sony encoders.

...Jerry

PeterWright wrote on 3/14/2012, 9:42 AM

Thanks Jerry - that does sound a good idea - but - the original .mov files crash Vegas every time I try and add them, so I had to use Handbrake to make an MP4 which would work in Vegas, then do the rotation thing in Vegas, then render again. I could try the DNxHD way, but it just seems like too many renders.

I'll try tomorrow to get what I want with one step in Handbrake, that'd be the ideal .... I believe you can cue up several clips at a time - I have 70.