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iPad video conversion.

K

kriista1234

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 12, 2008
309
12
Can anyone recommend a good guide for converting videos for use on the iPad?

I've seen a couple on youtube, but most are geared for HD/DVD sized/quality videos.

I've got a bunch of smaller .avi's that I've shot that balloon up in size if I follow any of the guides I've seen online (making a 512x384 video into 1280xwhatever monstrosity). I just need to convert those videos into the right file format without growing in size any. I tried doing it with MPEG Streamclip but a 170mb avi turned into a 200mb mp4 in the process.
 
Won't that make the file size larger?

Actually just took a look and it seemed to leave the size the same. The only difference I can tell between the "Normal" preset and the AppleTV one is it says loose instead of strict, for frame size, and it has "large file size" ticked.

Doing a couple of conversions now to test size/quality and all that.
 
airvideo app for iPad seems to do it good, as well as live streaming, you can convert files then import them into itunes and transfer them to the iPad.
 
I use "Im TOO iPad Video Converter" & it has converted everything perfectly.

With other programs I've had problems mostly with sound & video sync that usually start to unsync about 1/3 through. So I started converting & splitting the movies into 1/2 hour segments & this sort of helped.

I'm TOO iPad video converter plays perfectly every time.

While not free, it isn't a lot considering it does the job correctly... :D
 
or if you use cinexplayer on ipad, you don't need to convert, just drag and drop the videos in itunes filesharing in the app section to copy to ipad and then play straight off the ipad.

i had many issues with imtoo, airvideo does it better.
 
andythursby said:
or if you use cinexplayer on ipad, you don't need to convert, just drag and drop the videos in itunes filesharing in the app section to copy to ipad and then play straight off the ipad.

i had many issues with imtoo, airvideo does it better.
Click to expand...

Agree with that.... airvideo works great but cinexplayer was too picky for me.

But if you're just wanting to convert and you are using a mac running snow
Why not open the video in quicktime then without playing it, go to file save as in the menu bar for quicktime and save it as the last option HD 480p i think and then move the resulting .mov file into iTunes so you can sync with iPad.

It doesn't produce the smallest files but they are not crazy big (i run a 16gb iPad) and the quality is pretty good.
 
After messing about a bit, it seems HandBrake on the "Normal" setting seems to make reasonable looking and decently sized files. I did an AppleTV vs Normal comparison, and the difference, on my iMac screen was fairly negligible.

Wish it was easier to batch convert on it, but it's looking good.

For you guys with lots of shows/movies, do you keep them in your iTunes library after putting them on your device? Can you delete them off the computer, but leave them on the iPad? Don't have too many videos in there, but I can see it ballooning up pretty easily, especially since I got the 64gb iPad (with only a 250gb desktop HD).
 
andythursby said:
airvideo app for iPad seems to do it good, as well as live streaming, you can convert files then import them into itunes and transfer them to the iPad.
Click to expand...

I like the AirVideo app, too. And there's a free version to try out before you decide it's worth buying.
 
you can batch conver ith airvideo too, very handy when prepping stuff when you're going away.

cinexplayer worked fine on 3 out of 4 vids, on one there's no image, just audio, dunno why!
 
kriista1234 said:
Can anyone recommend a good guide for converting videos for use on the iPad?

I've seen a couple on youtube, but most are geared for HD/DVD sized/quality videos.

I've got a bunch of smaller .avi's that I've shot that balloon up in size if I follow any of the guides I've seen online (making a 512x384 video into 1280xwhatever monstrosity). I just need to convert those videos into the right file format without growing in size any. I tried doing it with MPEG Streamclip but a 170mb avi turned into a 200mb mp4 in the process.
Click to expand...

Try iPad Videora. Can configure your file size and quality as you like, most important is free. *link deleted
 
If your looking for an app, oplayer HD is your best bet, their latest release has acceptable playback quality. It can handle normal 180mb .avi files, with no conversion.
 
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