IPhone

Supported codecs

Video Codec	mp4v, H264	up to 2500 kbps	and up to 640x480px
Audio Codec	mp4a, aac	up to 160 kbps
Container	mp4
Screen size	480x320px	(1.5:1 or 3:2)

iPhone Movie Conversion Hints

For a more complete description with pictures read the iPod video conversion guide! The following has been tested for VLC media player 0.8.6i.

Video files

Codec: H264 leads to better videos than mp4v but is lots slower. I strongly recommend to use the mp4v codec.

Size: Usually the smaller video dimension is the height. Therefore setting the video height to the phone screen height (320px) is reasonable. Instead of always calculating the corresponding width use the canvas-aspect parameter, VLC will then do it for you. Only go larger if you plan to watch iPhone movies also on larger screens. In this case, the limiting size will most probably be the width (max 640px).

Bitrate: 768 kbps shows good results and reasonable file size. If you have action movies with many fast movements 1024 kbps or even more are recommended.

Audio files

Codec: mp4a works nicely. aac was not tested.

Bitrate: For listening with earplugs 160 kbps are sufficient.

Converting via command line

Here an example conversion of a DVD is shown and commented.

vlc "dvdsimple://D:@1 :sub-track=0 :audio-track=2" 
:sout="#transcode{canvas-aspect=1.5:1,height=320,vcodec=mp4v,vb=768,
acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2,soverlay}
:std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=movie.mp4}" vlc:quit

height=320,canvas-aspect=1.5:1,vcodec=mp4v,vb=768,

Sets the height to the screen height, the correct width with canvas aspect, the video codec is MPEG-4 video and the bitrate is 768 kbps

acodec=mp4a,ab=160,channels=2

Codec for audio is MPEG-4 audio, bitrate 160 and channels = 2 means normal stereo output.

soverlay

Burns the subtitles in the movie. The default size is large enough to be readable.