Why only 320x240 video?

The iPod shows 320x240 [320x180 Wide screen letterboxed]. Why question it? It's here, that's the deal. KInd of like Spinal Tap, "why not make 10 louder? This goes to 11...."

You camera does what it does, did you question the retailer after purchasing why other cameras can take better video than the one you bought?

Geezz, more excuses. Are you trying to justify paying $300+?

Actually to be technically accurate, ViPod's specs are as follows (taken from the following URL http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html):

H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

Hmmm sounds like a perfect camera. unfortunately though you cannot record with the ipod video.You may only wathc videos which has the set screen size of 320x240 for optimal viewing for the ipod screen size of videos you sync to it. If your so pleased with your id say stick with that ...though music would be hard to listen too. I dont think it has to deal with anything related to a mandated size set by any industry.

GFF

Since the iPod screen is so small, what sense would it make recording in much higher quality? It would be nice to watch videos full screen on your computer in HQ, but that would only limit the amount of video stored on the iPod, thus not making it attractive as a video device if it could only hold 20 hours of videos.

I just sold my iPod, but will be getting another one in the future. I only want it for music. Simple. If I can play a video or two, that's ok, and is really more of a gimmick for me at this point.

Someday when Apple produces the 8" widescreen video player, that will be fun to watch movies on. Until then the iPod is a music player first and foremost for me.

Bryan

Hi,

i read a post on here i think, but it read like this:

Quote:

Okay, let me put this to rest.

At 320 x 240, any video whether it's h.264 or MPEG4 is going to look like crap over a composite connection on a TV (especially if the source video was already compressed to begin with). This goes extra for HDTVs.

The amazing thing about the iPod is that it actually allows for higher resolutions than 320x240. You can obtain very nice 480P like resolutions if you are using MPEG4 (versus h.264).

I encoded one of my DVD movies using Handbrake at a resolution of 720x304 at a bitrate of 2500 kbits/sec (combined audio/video) and it looks absolutely gougeous on both my analog and HDTV.
The average person would not be able to tell that it isn't a DVD.

The trick with setting resolutions is to stay under a certain pixel total. Credit for the information below goes to the people at macosxhints.com:
For mpeg4, "480x480 = 230,400 pixels. So 720x304, keeping the aspect ratio, comes to 218,880, which is less. Keeping inside that maximum I believe is the only restriction"

A good formula to calculate bitrate is:
"width = pixel width of the picture
height = pixel height of the picture
FPS = source DVD's frames per second
Q = bits per pixel quality for the codec. A good setting for MPEG4 is .23, and a good setting for H.264 is .15. You can change those to suit your tastes.
For a 720 x 304 widescreen movie at 24 FPS, the equation looks like this:

(720 * 304 * 24 * .15) / 1024 = ~770"

Unquote:

i havent had time to try this, but i'd suggest giving it a go with a chapter from a dvd, put it in you iPod then try it on the tv by what he says it should look awesome, hope it helps

- Mike

Hi Fredric,
Just to give this a little more perspective. Your camera records at 640x480 but the screen doesn't have nearly that resolution (most likely less, much less, than the 320x240 on the iPod). Your camera is primarily a recording device while the iPod is a playback device. And as an earlier post noted, you can encode movies for playback on the iPod with more than 320x240 resolution (MPEG) and play them on a TV.
And hey, I can understand the rant. 😉

Do you know the application iSquint? It gives some options: optimize for iPod or TV when you hook it up (which is a nice size - even on my laptop if I make it twice the size, it's pretty comfortable viewing), and also conserve size or make it best quality.

I was hoping to load bigger videos for the iPod, so that I can show off my home videos to my family by hooking it to a TV. I was a bit confused by the detailed settings the iPod can take, so it's nice that iSquint does it for you. I like optimizing the size for TV very much.

The iPod player automatically performs "on-the-fly" scaling of larger formats to fit the iPod display screen when played on the iPod.

2.0GHZ G5/533MHz G4 DeskTop/400MHz G4 PB Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Mm, it's not super-duper clear, but it definitely makes a difference from 320x240. I guess it looks like a video that's pretty well recorded. I took a look at one of my videos that's been iSquint-ed to TV size, and the width is 512.

Oops, I meant for the TV. For the iPod, it does not make an enormous difference - I guess the quality looks pretty good, better than doing it at 320x240, because I make it large size and low-ish bitrate. So some of the more action-packed videos could get a bit blocky/pixelated if I convert at iPod size.

Apple states that display should be limited to 320x240 for the H.264/AAC format and 480x480 (or 230,400 pixels) for the MPEG4/AAC format. However, people have reportedly used other dimensons and claimed they were iPod compatible. The iLounge confirmed this information and added that other, non-standard dimensions would work if, and only if, they conformed to a 16 pixel macro block limit of 900. (E.g., a 480x480 screen contains 30x30 16-pixel macro blocks.) Since if I wish to watch DVD content on my TV, I would do so from the original DVD using the DVD palyer, this is not a major isue with me. I bought the iPod as a portable device for watching material on the iPod's own screen.

And, yes, if the iPod's CPU is not overdriven, it will automatically scale the oversized material down for display on the iPod screen. However, if overdriven, the display may begin to stutter, drop frames, skip and playback may become very "jerky" or freeze altogether.

2.0GHZ G5/533MHz G4 DeskTop/400MHz G4 PB Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Hi Fredric,

I can confirm, Using Handbrake. Mpeg4. Average Bitrate.1000kbps.Picture settings 640*352. Works fine on iPod and on TV Great Quality, i have tried with 720 video but it's not accepting it in the iPod, i'm going to keep trying, i've got this far. i'm gonna make sure i get dvd quality out of it, if anybody knows what i'm doing wrong to get 720 video in to the iPod please help??

I'll keep trying and post back, when it works!!

- Mike