iPod video format support

[Chengbin]

I thought iPods only supported one format, the H.264 baseline profile. It seems like it supports another format, according to the Apple site, called "MPEG 4". What format is that?

[neuron2]

MPEG4 ASP. That's the spec used by Xvid and DivX.

[Chengbin]

So it can play XviD and DivX? I've never heard of that.

[neuron2]

No, you asked what is MPEG4 video.

According to the Apple specs it can play MPEG4 video in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats. DivX and Xvid are AVI format.

This is OT for this forum so I am moving it.

[Keiyakusha]

So it can play XviD and DivX? I've never heard of that.

Try to mux Divx or Xvid encoded video from avi to mp4 using YAMB and see what happens.

[Chengbin]

I don't have an iPod. I'm just curious as it claims to support 2 video formats (the H.264 maximum bitrate support is 1.5Mbps, but MPEG-4 is 2.5Mbps)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

DivX and Xvid are AVI format.

That's not correct. At least Xvid is available as an encoder library and it's not specific to a certain container format (such as AVI).

Which container format is used solely depends on the individual application that calls the Xvid library.

And even DivX can't be called an "AVI format", just because the tools provided by DivX Inc. create AVI files. Remuxing can be done easily.

[neuron2]

You're nitpicking. It's clear what Chengbin was referring to.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

You're nitpicking. It's clear what Chengbin was referring to.

Why? There are many applications available that can encode MPEG-4 ASP to MP4 by using the Xvid encoder. For example Avidemux, just to name one.

And even if he used the VfW version of Xvid (e.g. from VirtualDub), he can simply remux from AVI to MP4, as suggested by Keiyakusha.

So he clearly should be able to play Xvid encodes on his iPod. Giving the indication that Xvid was bound to the AVI container is misleading in my opinion...

[Inspector.Gadget]

The long and short of it is this: iPods, iPhones, etc. support a subset of features of both MPEG-4 ASP and MPEG-4 AVC. Therefore, since in 99% of iPod playback cases you'll need to re-encode a file you didn't originally encode with the iPod in mind, you might as well encode to AVC.

[b66pak]

unless you are in a big hurry and MPEG-4 ASP can be handy...
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