iPhone
Contents
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 sufficent.
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.
