Encoding Video For Mobile Devices? 177
MadGeek007 writes "I am developing an app for Android that will use many short (averaging 10-20 minutes) instructional videos. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about encoding video. I'd like to use a codec that is supported by Android and iOS out-of-the-box. I need the videos to look decent on large mobile displays (IPhone 4, HTC EVO, etc.), and still be able to stream well on a good 3G connection. The sound quality is also important. With so many different display resolutions on mobile devices, do I need to encode multiple copies of the same video? Or can I get away with a one-size-fits-all video? Can anyone recommend encoding software, codecs, resolutions, and bitrates that would work best for this application?"
Re:Handbrake (Score:2, Insightful)
And that's because pirate groups insist on using an obsolete format based on a container that's more than two decades old.
Hint to those in "the scene": fuck DivX and fuck MKV, start using H.264+AAC in standard mp4 containers.
Re:Handbrake (Score:5, Insightful)
Who is the ignorant one? He asked specifically for a format supported by both Android and iOS4 - that pretty much means h.264 unless he delivers two different videos to the two platforms, and if you can get decent performance from one format that both support, why bother to make it hard for yourself? Presumably you will also want to target hardware video decoders where possible, which also lends itself to h.264.
If the ideology behind using a format other than h.264 is that strong, he shouldn't be developing for iOS 4 in the first place.
Re:How about now vs. later? Terrible advice. (Score:4, Insightful)
There is no need to push hardware developers, they already make DSP chips for mobile devices that will be able to do HW acceleration for WebM. We're just waiting for software to make this happen.
No one is going to do [x] on a mobile device? (Score:3, Insightful)
I only had a buck every time I read, "No one is going to do [x] on a mobile device," over the past few years...
I have entire seasons of TV shows (Last Airbender) queued up on my phone for when I get trapped waiting somewhere and/or my son is bored on car trips, etc. It's not 2004 any more - the whole "mobisodes" trend came and went as it was discovered people don't *like* 2 minute custom-created content for the phones. They want normal length videos, and with today's large screens and relatively massive storage there's no problem with that.
-Russ
Re:mediacoder (Score:4, Insightful)
I just read that entire stupid ass bug. I can't possibly imagine why the author decided to tell the ffmpeg guys to fuck off.
Re:mediacoder (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Multiple versions (Score:3, Insightful)
For that iPhone if bandwidth is a problem for 960x640 video, you may want to look at say 480x320 resolution video. Yes it has to scale up, but I can imagine it looks better than 480p or 360p as every video pixel becomes exactly 2x2 screen pixels. Instead of having to interpolate or whatever you have to do to make it fit on a non-matching resolution, like 1.5 screen pixels per video pixel.
From my experience with LCD screens it is the non-matching of resolutions that make them look crappy. When using the exact half resolution they look good again, as the pixels fit nicely.
Re:Audio: speech or more? (Score:1, Insightful)
If it's ALL speech, or only speech and noise but no music, then you don't need a music codec at all.
Ogg Speex will encode crystal clear human speech (particularly most male speakers of English) at just a few kbit/s
But then you say you want it to work on iOS. So that throws everything out. Just ask Apple what they want you to do, and do that, there's no point in trying to think, Apple doesn't reward thinking. Obey.
Re:mediacoder (Score:4, Insightful)
"Hey, MediaCoder violates our license. What can we do about it?"
"No it doesn't!"
"Yes it does. Read the license for ffmpeg."
"I don't want to. Read it for me!"
"Seriously, read the license for the software you are reselling."
"I didn't do it! Someone else did it first!"
"I don't care. Read the damn license."
"Reading is hard. Please read the license for me."
"Why don't you just read the license?"
"How about I release a patch? I haven't done it yet, but let's just pretend that I will. Does that make everything better?"
"No. Read the license."
"Okay, here's a patch. Is everything okay now?"
"That doesn't help. Just read the license for ffmpeg and stop violating it."
"I don't want to. Maybe I could change the colour of the windows in the installer. Why isn't anyone helping me? Why won't you tell me what I can do?"
"Have you tried reading the license?"
While things certainly could have been handled better by both sides, when you are taking someone else's work and reselling it the way that Mediacoder is, it shouldn't be too much to ask that you spend a little bit of time making sure that you aren't violating the license you acquired it under. Being too busy selling copies of ffmpeg for $399 [mediacoderhq.com] isn't an excuse for not being able to read.