converted video not play in ipod touch 2g and 3g

[Alexandre Vázquez]

Hi everybody,

I have used Arista Transcoder for the last year to convert the video of my favourites tvshows to my iPod Touch device, but the last week I'm having problems with the transformation, the converted videos can't be played by the ipod touch and are not recognized by the iTunes application as "valid videos for the iPod". This occurs to all mi iPod devices (2nd generation and 3rd generation) I can transfer via SSH but can't be played by the video application. (VLC open's it without a problem)

I am using (during this week) Ubuntu 12.04 precise (development branch) and the version of arista is 0.9.7. I'm trying the default preset for iPod Touch as the new version hosted in the arista homepage (version 1.2 of Daniel) but the result is the same.

I'm comparing the new converted videos versus the old ones (by its metadata and there is some diferentes that can help us to solve this problem).

---- ACTUAL VERSION ---

General
Complete name : Castle.2009.S04E15.HDTV.XviD-LOL.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 172 MiB
Duration : 41mn 58s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 573 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-10 12:07:11
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-10 12:07:11
Writing application : transcode-1.0.6

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : <email address hidden>
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 41mn 58s
Bit rate : 503 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 23.976 fps
Maximum frame rate : 24.169 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.095
Stream size : 151 MiB (88%)
Writing library : x264 core 120 r2151 a3f4407
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=47 / keyint_min=4 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=21.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=2048 / vbv_bufsize=1228 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-10 12:07:11
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-10 12:07:11

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 41mn 58s
Duration_LastFrame : -3ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 64.1 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 77.0 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 320 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 19.2 MiB (11%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-03-10 12:07:11
Tagged date : UTC 2012-03-10 12:07:11

--- PREVIOUS VERSION --

General
Complete name : Glee.S03E04.HDTV.XviD-LOL.[VTV].mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 266 MiB
Duration : 42mn 43s
Overall bit rate : 871 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-01-01 13:36:41
Tagged date : UTC 2012-01-01 13:36:41
Writing application : x264

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : <email address hidden>
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 42mn 43s
Bit rate : 738 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 23.762 fps
Maximum frame rate : 28.916 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.140
Stream size : 226 MiB (85%)
Writing library : x264 core 116 r2042 178455c
Encoding settings : cabac=0 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=umh / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=47 / keyint_min=4 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=21.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=2048 / vbv_bufsize=1228 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-01-01 13:36:41
Tagged date : UTC 2012-01-01 13:36:41

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 42mn 43s
Duration_LastFrame : -8ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 32.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 39.1 MiB (15%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2012-01-01 13:36:41
Tagged date : UTC 2012-01-01 13:36:41

Thank you very much for your help!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Exeleration-G (exeleration-g)]

This happens to me too, using an iPod Classic 5G. The converted video's can be added in iTunes, but iTunes won't put them on the iPod Classic when synchronising. This has never been a problem in Ubuntu 11.10, where I was using the default version of Arista from the 11.10 repo's.

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04, Arista 0.9.7, but the problem was happening too using the default version of Arista from the 12.04 repo's.

[Exeleration-G (exeleration-g)]

This isn't iTunes-related: it happens as well when you try to synchronise videos with Banshee. A workaround for this is to use ffmpeg instead:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i video.avi -b 300 -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -g 300 -ab 96000 -s 320:240 -aspect 4:3 videoforipod.mp4

As found on http://samdanielson.com/2007/11/11/convert-mythtv-video-for-ipod

You'll see that this MP4-file is playable on the iPod.

Tested with Banshee on an iPod Classic 5th generation, 80 GB.

[Exeleration-G (exeleration-g)]

Optionally, you can change 96000 to 128000 to increase the bitrate.

[B K (bhavanirk)]

I have had this issue with Arista (0.97), ubuntu (12.04) and Ipod 2G classic. Can anybody suggest a solution?