iPad video encoding specs

Jules sent me a link on how to compress video for the iPad. I am not against folks trying to make money on their knowledge, but it struck me as a bit cheeky to charge for advice that is common and can be placed in two paragraphs. What follows are the “free” paragraphs I think they should have posted 😉

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Squared 5 offers a free tool to convert video which works on both the Mac and PC. Choose the Apple TV 1280 x 720 preset. These setting will allow all converted video to play on the iPad. However, the iPad (http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/) has a screen that is 1024 x 768. This means that the widest a video can be shown is 1024. As such, here are the correct setting for the standard video frames:

2.35:1

= 1024 x 436

1.85:1

= 1024 x 554

1.78:1 (16:9)

= 1024 x 576

1.33:1 (4:3)

= 1024 x 768

That is just the actual “frame” of the video. Another piece to control is the “Bits Per Second” (ie: not just how wide the thing is but how many bits are compressed in each second of video). The Apple TV (http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html) can process up to 5Mbps. Both the iPad and the iPhone (http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html) can handle up to 2.5Mbps. As such you should set the data rate to 2.5Mbps.

4 thoughts on “iPad video encoding specs”

  1. Ipad is a gimmick that is going to be dated and short lived. It is horrible for widescreen video, it doesn’t use Flash, it is chained to the limited uses of HTML 5 and Apple’s greedy app store. It does not create solutions. What it will create is the perfect market for a manufacturer to create a product that DOES use Flash and Flash apps, that is suited for widescreen video, that is open and not chained to a store, includes USB ports, AND… is available for a reasonable price. $800+ is BS! You can get a 24 inch computer monitor for less. A screen should be well under $400.00

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