Stupid bloody Apple, why do they DO things like this???? Folks, this is a tough one, and yes, I've read through the Casey-initiated thread. Good start but sadly optimistic.
The question is, how do we pump out vids that are 640x480 and have the "baseline low- complexity" profile, thus being both iPod and (presumably) Apple TV compatible? Baseline can be selected when exporting with your own settings, but the "low-complexity" sub-option cannot. According to Apple's developer spec, low-complexity has been defined by Apple for the iPod, and it seems to be restricted to the Export for iPod option, which cannot be configured. When exporting an iPod video, QuickTime chooses automatically whether to use "baseline" or "baseline low-complexity" - in a nutshell, anything upwards of 320x240 gets low- complexity. Gory details here: http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2007/tn2188.html Three possible workarounds. I am not in front of QTPro right now so will try later: 1) Use the Export for iPod option with the source vid sized at 640x480 - this will goad QTPro into using low-complexity - and then find some way of saving the resulting video _again_ with a chopped-down bitrate, perhaps by doing a "Save as ..." but without re- encoding. 2) Do it the other way round - export at the bitrate etc. that you want, then run it through the iPod export. The developer spec suggests QT iPod exporter using a 640x480 source file will pick its own bitrate according to a complex formula ("DR = { (nMC * 8 ) / 3 } - 100" I kid you not, check out the developer link above) between 700 and 1500kbps. But maybe if the source file is already lower, it won't jump up the bitrate too shockingly. The MC in the equation stands for "macroblock" and if the number of these can be reduced in the source file (how? Dunno) then, doing the maths, you are headed for a smaller result. 3) Resize your source video to 640x480, whack it through Export for iPod and hope the filesize is not too bloated. As in the formula above, this should produce something between 700kbps and 1500kbps, although Apple doesn't say whether the audio is included in that bitrate (AAARGH!). I found to my horror this afternoon that my carefully crafted 640x480 recipe with meticulously pared down video and sound bitrates that delivered a file of 5MB/minute that looks alright on the telly via laptop S-Video cable doesn't work on the iPod. I am just about ready to tell Apple where to shove their TV box ... and all of the above still leaves the question unanswered: will the aforementioned oblong suppository PLAY H.264 BASELINE LOW-COMPLEXITY??? Anyone got one of these boxes? That's all for now. I know none of the above is tested but I thought I'd post now while my blood is up, and to give others the chance to look for a solution. Waz from Crash Test Kitchen http://www.crashtestkitchen.com
