pfurrie
13th May 2008, 14:04
So, you've converted all your DVDs to MP4 files, with all widescreen movies dutifully cropped of any previous black edges, and anamorphically compressed using the Handbrake PAR setting.
Cool.
Some time later, you get an iPod Touch, and think it would be really cool to put some of those videos on the iPod. But wait. Turns out you can't just copy those files over. Settings on the original MP4s you made don't seem to play well with Quicktime/iTunes/iPod. And even when you transcode to account for those issues, you end up with videos which appear horizontally squished -- the PAR has come back to bite us.
Could try Videolan to transcode. Easy to setup, doesn't take too long, and the aspect ratio is now right, but the resultant video is rather choppy... seems like not all the frames are there. Handbrake is out, as you need a VOB for input. And other transcode-for-iPod programs don't seem to do well with normalizing the anamorphic MP4 video.
At least this is my experience. Yes, I could go back to the DVDs and re-rip just for the iPod, but was hopping to skip that step (I'm sure you can understand). Hopefully someone here has already slain this dragon, and can offer some sage wisdom.
Thanks
Pat
Cool.
Some time later, you get an iPod Touch, and think it would be really cool to put some of those videos on the iPod. But wait. Turns out you can't just copy those files over. Settings on the original MP4s you made don't seem to play well with Quicktime/iTunes/iPod. And even when you transcode to account for those issues, you end up with videos which appear horizontally squished -- the PAR has come back to bite us.
Could try Videolan to transcode. Easy to setup, doesn't take too long, and the aspect ratio is now right, but the resultant video is rather choppy... seems like not all the frames are there. Handbrake is out, as you need a VOB for input. And other transcode-for-iPod programs don't seem to do well with normalizing the anamorphic MP4 video.
At least this is my experience. Yes, I could go back to the DVDs and re-rip just for the iPod, but was hopping to skip that step (I'm sure you can understand). Hopefully someone here has already slain this dragon, and can offer some sage wisdom.
Thanks
Pat