iPad Video Playback Question and Blu-Ray Encoding

[pjtoadie]

First of all I don’t have an iPad yet so I’m curious to know about the video playback. I’ve read other threads and articles stating that all video played on the iPad has black bars on the top and sides of the video. However on Apple’s site they show a movie being played in widescreen and by double tapping the screen will change the video to full screen. I’m mainly curious about videos in 1024x576 or 720p. The last couple of days I’ve ripped some Blu-Rays and converted them in Handbrake under the Apple TV settings. If Apple claims that you can watch a video in 1024x576 at full screen then that’s obviously the case right? Any info would be great.

On another note for people out there that rip Blu-Rays through Handbrake what settings do you use? I use the Apple TV setting and I change the size to 1024 with keep aspect ratio checked and have anamorphic to none. For bitrate I kept it on constant quality 60%. I’m not really too worried about the audio since the iPad’s speakers are small so I just output the audio to aac stereo. Anything else I’m missing? I really just go by the Apple TV settings and change a couple of things mentioned above. Thanks!!

 

[tacoshell]

First of all I don’t have an iPad yet so I’m curious to know about the video playback. I’ve read other threads and articles stating that all video played on the iPad has black bars on the top and sides of the video. However on Apple’s site they show a movie being played in widescreen and by double tapping the screen will change the video to full screen. I’m mainly curious about videos in 1024x576 or 720p. The last couple of days I’ve ripped some Blu-Rays and converted them in Handbrake under the Apple TV settings. If Apple claims that you can watch a video in 1024x576 at full screen then that’s obviously the case right? Any info would be great.

What you are referring to is not whether it is full screen, but what the aspect ratio of the film is. The iPad is not actually wide screen, so when playing a wide screen movie you will see black bars even in Full Screen mode. Now you ~can~ 'fill the screen' with a button and you will not see the bars, but in essence you are just zooming the movie. If you prefer this way, then yes you can do it.

 

[pjtoadie]

What you are referring to is not whether it is full screen, but what the aspect ratio of the film is. The iPad is not actually wide screen, so when playing a wide screen movie you will see black bars even in Full Screen mode. Now you ~can~ 'fill the screen' with a button and you will not see the bars, but in essence you are just zooming the movie. If you prefer this way, then yes you can do it.

Ahh so basically Apple was just zooming the movie on their demonstartion video? If the aspect ratio of the video is 1024x576 and you zoom it then it should still look decent because of the resolution of the video? I can see an SD movie looking crappy if you were to zoom it, right?

 

[tacoshell]

Ahh so basically Apple was just zooming the movie on their demonstartion video? If the aspect ratio of the video is 1024x576 and you zoom it then it should still look decent because of the resolution of the video? I can see an SD movie looking crappy if you were to zoom it, right?

In essence, this is the same as a TV. The iPad is 4:3 (1024x768) resolution, where wide screen movies are 16x9 (1024x576). So it would be like watching a typical wide screen movie on a non wide screen TV. You would most likely watch it with the black bars to see the whole scene, or if you prefer you could zoom it and only see the 'center'. As to the resolution, on a 9 inch screen, there is no way your eyes could detect the difference between the zoomed and non zoomed 720p video. As for SD movies, they are typically released in 4:3 anyway, like standard definition TV sets.