How to avoid "Optimizing movie..." in iBooks Author?

Question

How to avoid "Optimizing movie..." in iBooks Author?

I find the "tips" at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5065 highly confusing.

It states that files that are already meeting the "requirements for audio and video on the iPad", will not be re-optimzied. (quote is a url-link on the support site)

Firstly, that link goes to "http://www.apple.com/ipad/", which is just iPad promo for consumers, nothing about the above promised requirements.

Secondly, when exporting from FCPX, using "Format: Apple Devices", I end up with a .m4v file - which according to the support states "You cannot use media that has .m4v or .m4p file extensions."

Thirdly, I waste my computer´s and my lifetime to sit and wait for hours of re-optimizing video...

iBookstore-OTHER

Posted on Mar 21, 2014 1:35 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 25, 2014 1:36 AM in response to Ebookdeveloper

Having exactly the same problem. I have 30MB .mp4 file that I have converted specifically to fit iPad and iBook Author has been "optimizing" the file for over 20 minutes and it claims it is going to take another 48 minutes to complete - although the time just keeps going up so I think there is a bug in this process.

Previous version of iBook Author on Mountain Lion worked perfectly. Only getting this problem since I upgraded to OSX 10.9.

I wish someone at Apple would look into this issue and provide some feedback.

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Answer 2

Jun 25, 2014 2:56 AM in response to Ebookdeveloper

I just resolved this issue by restoring v2.1.1 using my TimeMachine backup. Took a big .MOV file and it loaded in seconds. If I use version 2.1.3 then I just get the message "Optimizing movie...." which lasts forever and the ProTranscoderTool takes all my CPU cycles.

So looks like Apple has a huge bug with loading movie files into v2.1.3. As I can open iBooks created in v2.1.3 using v2.1.1 I do at least now have a workaround :-)

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Answer 3

MaciPad

Level 1

15 points

Jun 26, 2014 1:27 AM in response to Ebookdeveloper

Has anyone tried Compressor - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/compressor/id424390742 for optimizing videos before putting them in iBooks Author?

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Answer 4

Oct 16, 2014 3:08 AM in response to Ebookdeveloper

I have just come across this problem after updating some ibooks with new movies, what a pain in the A#$. Surely Apple now about this bug, my work is now taking 10 times as long to complete.

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Answer 5

Oct 16, 2014 5:24 AM in response to Ebookdeveloper

Also is there a way of downgrading back to 2.1.1..???

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Answer 6

Lmorsch

Level 1

8 points

Oct 16, 2014 1:57 PM in response to Ebookdeveloper

I would also add that once my video loads, it looks super compressed and I can't read the writing anymore despite the original video being 720p. I've tried loading my video (~8 MB) as mp4, m4v and as mov and none work any better.

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Answer 7

Oct 16, 2014 2:15 PM in response to Lmorsch

Agree with the quality issue also, this is a big bug with the Author program, hopefully after they have finished with their release parties they can get back to fixing the software...

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Answer 8

Oct 17, 2014 8:50 AM in response to KarlBundy

Hi All,

Yes I have used compressor to prepare movie files for iBooks and when importing the movie file into iBA it starts to compress the already compressed file.

Additionally it also starts to compress other files that need no compression.

For example I wanted to use animated gifs in iBooks Author and it converts them into .mv4 files and the Gifs are unusable for the compression is so severe that the animated GIFs become unreadable.

Regards,

Nigel

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Answer 9

Lmorsch

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2014 1:11 PM in response to Ebookdeveloper

This is fixed in the newest update 2.2. I upgraded to Yosemite at updated IBA and the videos load fine quickly and without becoming pixelated.

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Answer 10

Aug 4, 2016 4:50 PM in response to Ebookdeveloper

As of this date, iBooks Author is at version 2.4.1 and many of these issues have been largely resolved. Today, you can throw even a huge ProRes 444 file at iBooks Author and its optimizer will pare that down to a more reasonable bit rate.

That said, I find that encoding my source files (usually ProRes 444) with Handbrake's iPad preset will minimize the time that the optimizer spends on the file. Sometimes, it gets by untouched. Handbrake is much, much faster than the optimizer.

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