For making transferrable H.264 videos, the only program that ive found that uses the correct low complexity settings of H.264 (And it does a brilliant job, and for free) is Handbrake. Just google Handbrake, download it for windows or MAC, it will convert a dvd, or any type of video file that you have and itll automatically configure just about any setting.

My videos for my iTouch are getting made at 480x272 and they look amazing on the F700BT in "Full" mode. Remember, making videos at anything larger than 480 wont do you any good, since the limitation of the NTSC television system (composite video) is 480 lines of resolution.

Enjoy!

WRONG!!!!

NTSC is 720x480

That is 720 Pixels Wide by 480 Tall

Where as HD is in several formats

720p, 1080i and 1080p

To get the best image out of your screen 720x480 is the best resolution to digitize to.

Your Nintendo, or whatever childish game system that you may be using puts out a TRUE NTSC 720x480 signal, NOT this antiquated 480x272 signal that you talk of, which is almost equivalent to CGA graphic quality (which was used in the 80's, over 20 years ago if you can't do the math).

And for the record while you may encode the video at 480x272 the iPod will still up convert it to 720x480 because the output on the iPod is set for NTSC video output. You can change this in the settings to PAL(720x576), but then we are getting in over our heads with different frame rates as well. So when the iPod upScales your 480x272 to 720x480 it does not improve video quality of your compressed rip, but just enlarges the imperfections.

Now your AVIC screen is 800x480, so it is already the right size to display a great NTSC signal.

Do some research next time.

Well if you are going to be an ass about it perhaps you should check your facts too.

NTSC - resolution 648 x 486

D-1 NTSC - resolution 720x486

D-1 NTSC Square Pix - resolution 720x540

Well if you are going to be an ass about it perhaps you should check your facts too.

 

NTSC - resolution 648 x 486

D-1 NTSC - resolution 720x486

D-1 NTSC Square Pix - resolution 720x540

Ok Allow me to explain, I have no Idea where you are getting these numbers. NTSC is 720x480, also known commonly as 480i or 480p. i stands for interlaced and is therefore split into two 240 fields horizontally, whereas p stands for progressive and is one full and uninterlaced field. A far better and superior image for digital displays.

Go pick up the manual that came with your cheap sanyo LCD and read about the display resolutions that it will support. Or you can go here:

http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/article.php? ... Definition

But if you are too lazy to actually figure it out on your own I've already gone ahead and picked out the important stuff.

Remember what we are talking about here is DIGITAL VIDEO, or DV.

DV NTSC then is represented by a grid of 720x480 pixels at 29.97 frames per second for NTSC and 720x576 at 25 fps for PAL. These are interlaces, so actually there are near 60 half frames per second for NTSC and 50 for PAL. We commonly denote DV NTSC as 480i or 480/60i to indicate the 480 pixels vertically (480 scan lines which actually carry visual information of NTSC's 525 total lines) and interlaced at 60 fields or half-frames per second. These digital specifications are used for MiniDV, Digital8, and DVD recording camcorders, as well as for DVD-video players of today.

All the above discussion concerns the 4:3 aspect ratio of "normal TV" (legacy of the last 40+ years). The aspect ratio tells us how wide versus how high. A common old TV screen is 4 parts wide to 3 parts high, or 1.33 to 1, but commonly just written 4:3. Widescreen refers to a screen that is wider than normal - usually 16:9 or 2.35:1 although there have been many various aspect ratios used.

I guess all of this would matter if the ipod had a resolution greater than 480x320 and all you cared about was playing the vids on your AVIC. But if you want to watch them on your itouch/iphone then encoding at 720x480 isnt going to give you any additional benefit and will just take up extra space.

Either way, the point of the thread was to inform people that Handbrake as a piece of software actually creates H.264 files that work with the iphone/itouch whereas just about every other encoding suite that ive tried creates h.264 files that ARE NOT transferrable.

I could care less what resolution people encode their videos at, just that Handbrake creates transferrable H.264 vids that are compatible with the iTouch/iPhone.

Just being helpful, since in this forums infinite wisdom nobody could answer the question about which software would create transferrable workable H.264 files in 4 days of the post being live. I answered it myself and wanted to share the knowledge.

Thanks for the graphs though

WRONG!!!!

 

 

NTSC is 720x480

 

That is 720 Pixels Wide by 480 Tall

Where as HD is in several formats

720p, 1080i and 1080p

 

To get the best image out of your screen 720x480 is the best resolution to digitize to.

 

Your Nintendo, or whatever childish game system that you may be using puts out a TRUE NTSC 720x480 signal, NOT this antiquated 480x272 signal that you talk of, which is almost equivalent to CGA graphic quality (which was used in the 80's, over 20 years ago if you can't do the math).

 

And for the record while you may encode the video at 480x272 the iPod will still up convert it to 720x480 because the output on the iPod is set for NTSC video output. You can change this in the settings to PAL(720x576), but then we are getting in over our heads with different frame rates as well. So when the iPod upScales your 480x272 to 720x480 it does not improve video quality of your compressed rip, but just enlarges the imperfections.

 

Now your AVIC screen is 800x480, so it is already the right size to display a great NTSC signal.

 

Do some research next time.

Do some research next time? Are you serious or just being a jackoff for the hell of it.

480x272 is what I came up with when I cropped the borders out of the 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen video that I was encoding to watch on my ipod / AVIC. 480x272 is a popular resolution not just for ipod/itouch encoding but for PSP as well.

And 800x480 is a perfect resolution for ntsc widescreen viewing? Really? Because its a nonstandard resolution so your the one who sounds antiquated. 848x480 would be 16:9, so what the hell is 800x480... Its somewhere around 1.66:1 ratio which is completely non standard.

Here's some help:

480x272 is the native resolution of the iPod screen and would be ideal for viewing on the iPod, but not for viewing on a larger display. To view on a larger display.... a DV NTSC Display 720x480 would be ideal.

Now that the Avic has an 800x480 screen you will be able to display a DV NTSC signal on at at full resolution without any upscaling and if Pioneer did it right no distortion. Unfortunately right now any signal you put into the avic it will stretch to fill full screen so you will get a bit of horizontal distortion. The right way for pioneer to have done it would to have been to put small black bars on the left and right side of the video to maintain the aspect ratio of the video signal.

P.S. The max video resolution that the iPod is capable of decoding is 640x480, so whenever you are using handbrake use the universal preset and adjust the width to 640. This will give you the best possible image on your AVIC.

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

Yea, 480x272 is not the native resolution, sorry.

And if Pioneer wasnt able to get the 2D GPS map to face the direction your going what makes you think they got the auto-fill aspect ratio correct?

In any event, thanks for turning an informative thread on Handbrake usage into a shitfest.

If any mod was going to add this info to a sticky, I guess the amended information should read.

Encode in H.264 @ 480x320 if you want to maximize file size efficiency for iTouch/iPhone and still use on the AVIC or use 720x480 if you only plan to watch on your AVIC and dont care about file size.

P.S. The max video resolution that the iPod is capable of decoding is 640x480, so whenever you are using handbrake use the universal preset and adjust the width to 640. This will give you the best possible image on your AVIC.

Do you really not see the inherent problem with encoding widescreen videos at 640x480... Your taking widescreen content, re-encoding it at 4:3 ratio, and then playing it back on a widescreen display. Thats about the dumbest thing ive ever heard.

Also, did you bother to look at the chart you just posted... The maximum output resolution of the iPhone/iTouch is 480x320... So why would anybody encode at 640x480.

And if Pioneer wasnt able to get the 2D GPS map to face the direction your going what makes you think they got the auto-fill aspect ratio correct?

Once again, this is out of Pioneer's hands, and that iGo version (8.0) does not support north heading, no matter which OS you put it on.

If you're complaining about this informative thread becoming a shitfest, why are you continuing to argue? Do you care that much about being right? Agree to disagree and let the members who will actually use this info post their reviews

I dont care about being right, I just think that the body of information out there on how to make this stuff work correctly is crap, and itd be nice if it was neatly packaged for people to read like the rest of the sticky's.

1) Use Handbrake in H.264 Mode to Encode.

2) Do not encode at 640x480 (Your AVIC screen is not 4:3 its widescreen)

3) Encode at whatever the maximum output resolution is for your device.

a) If iTouch / iPhone then 480x320 or 480x272

4) In any case, set your iPod to widescreen mode in iPod settings.

5) Set AVIC to "Full Mode" when displaying video.

I dont care about being right, I just think that the body of information out there on how to make this stuff work correctly is crap, and itd be nice if it was neatly packaged for people to read like the rest of the sticky's.

 

1) Use Handbrake in H.264 Mode to Encode.

2) Do not encode at 640x480 (Your AVIC screen is not 4:3 its widescreen)

3) Encode at whatever the maximum output resolution is for your device.

a) If iTouch / iPhone then 480x320 or 480x272

4) In any case, set your iPod to widescreen mode in iPod settings.

5) Set AVIC to "Full Mode" when displaying video.

Much better, we now have some direction here. Now for the answers:

1) Yes, H.264 is the best codec to do this

2) You do want to encode at a horizontal scan of 640, Handbrake will adjust the vert lines accordingly and will maintain your source aspect ratio.

The AVIC is neither 4:3 nor is it a widescreen. It is a computer resolution of 800x480, which makes things tricky.

3) Encode at the native res, or as close to, of the intended display device. In this case the intended display device is the AVIC. Higherst allowable res, ie 640x?? where ?? doesnt exceed 480 is going to get you the best picture on the AVIC

4&5) Since the AVIC is not a true widescreen (16x9) which the iPod would encode for, you can try whatever you like here.

I dont care about being right, I just think that the body of information out there on how to make this stuff work correctly is crap, and itd be nice if it was neatly packaged for people to read like the rest of the sticky's.

 

1) Use Handbrake in H.264 Mode to Encode.

2) Do not encode at 640x480 (Your AVIC screen is not 4:3 its widescreen)

3) Encode at whatever the maximum output resolution is for your device.

a) If iTouch / iPhone then 480x320 or 480x272

4) In any case, set your iPod to widescreen mode in iPod settings.

5) Set AVIC to "Full Mode" when displaying video.

 

Much better, we now have some direction here. Now for the answers:

 

1) Yes, H.264 is the best codec to do this

2) You do want to encode at a horizontal scan of 640, Handbrake will adjust the vert lines accordingly and will maintain your source aspect ratio.

The AVIC is neither 4:3 nor is it a widescreen. It is a computer resolution of 800x480, which makes things tricky.

3) Encode at the native res, or as close to, of the intended display device. In this case the intended display device is the AVIC. Higherst allowable res, ie 640x?? where ?? doesnt exceed 480 is going to get you the best picture on the AVIC

4&5) Since the AVIC is not a true widescreen (16x9) which the iPod would encode for, you can try whatever you like here.

Only thing i'd ad is, per the graph that you posted, the maximum TV output of the iPhone/iTouch is 480x320 so on those devices it wouldnt do you any good to waste file space by encoding at 640, because the tv output on the device maxes out @ 480 lines. If you have a 4:3 iPod like a regular iPod video then 640 horizontal will work and then the only thing your worrying about is maintaining correct aspect.

Regardless of iPod variation setting Widescreen in the iPod settings menu is the correct option.

actually... im not sure what would happen on an iPhone/iTouch if you encoded at ??? x 480 where ??? is larger than 480. If the graph is right and the max tv output res is 480x320 then anything above that would be clipped, but it seems weird that they would have different maximum output resolutions for standard NTSC video on different iPods.

The way that resolution reads out is 720x480.etc where 720 is lines across and 480 is lines down.

WxH ratio. Yes you would be occuping useless space if you only intended to watch these videos on the ipod alone, but since tou intend to view them on the AVIC this added file size will give you a better image on the in dash screen which is almost 3x higher res than the iPod.

All right, I suppose I just got schooled a bit. I was looking at the 5G iPod specs post Firmware 1.2, since that is what I am running.

Though that doesn't make sense that apple would do something like that.

I wasnt trying to school you man, just trying to figure out why the hell they would do that... I guess when I get home from work i'll just have to try and encode files at something higher than 480x320 on my iTouch and plug it in and see what happens. My guess is that graph is in error, but I guess we'll see.

A bit O.T. do you use an apple ipod cable to attach to the AVIC or the pioneer Cable, and what ver iPhone do you have?

Im using this:

and im not really sure what version my iTouch is. I dont have it in front of me. Its fairly new though.

Another kinda OT comment. I think its REALLY bizarre that Pioneer would require the audio/video data to go through composite and analog audio cables while the control of the ipod go through USB instead of all of it going through USB...

Im using this:

 

Another kinda OT comment. I think its REALLY bizarre that Pioneer would require the audio/video data to go through composite and analog audio cables while the control of the ipod go through USB instead of all of it going through USB...

Thats not a pioneer thing. I work for a large electronics manufacturer. We make several units that interface with the iPod product line and it is actually a limitation on the Apple side of things. The transfer of media digitally, I believe as part of their Digital Rights restrictions. All of our equipment controls over the USB protocol and transfers video and audio over standard line level.

Ahh, I never really thought about it from a DRM standpoint. That makes much more sense though why they would do that.

Im gonna go TOTALLY off topic now. Is there any way to access the full potential of the AVIC's screen. Like if someone wanted to put an XBOX360 under their seat and have a vga/dvi cable run to the AVIC? I know that 800x480 would be a supported resolution on the 360 if you used the VGA route.

Whats the deal with the EXT1 / EXT2 inputs on the menu, I googled to try and find out how to use them because I have dreamed up all kinds of schemes for external video sources. Another one I want to do is put one of those cheap DTV tuners under my seat and be able to get ATSC Digital Television on my AVIC while driving so I can watch basketball games.