X3 and iPad

[Sevendog]

Has anyone been able to render a video with X3 that will play on the iPad and takes advantage of the iPad's higher resolution screen? Using the iPhone preset works, but that renders at a lower resolution to fit the iPhone's screen.

Apple claims that the iPad supports 720p video (even though the screen resolution is slightly smaller than that). I have tried the custom settings in X3 for for .mp4, and rendered at 720p. The original video also happens to be 720p. The rendered file will play fine in QuickTime on my PC, but won't work on the iPad. iTunes won't even let me import it to the iPad. Could it be a bit rate issue? If it is a screen resolution issue, is there a way to render at user-defined resolutions in .mp4 format? ("User defined resolution" always seems to be grayed out in the menu.) I'm going to keep experimenting with settings to see if I can find something that works, but just wondering if anyone has already got this figured out.

Thanks,
Seven

[Sevendog]

I finally had some time to try to figure this out again, and I was able to answer my own question.

For those interested, the "Upload to Vimeo" preset "MPEG-4 HD (16:9)" works just great for rendering 720p video that plays on the iPad, and which is easily imported through iTunes. This preset uses a 5000kbps video rate, which to my eye, causes slight, but noticeable, artifacts in some areas of the video.

To use a higher bit-rate, from the "Share" page, click "Create Video File", "Custom", then from the "Save as type" drop-down menu select "MPEG-4 Files", then click the "Options..." button. Click on the "Compression" tab, then from the "Video type" drop-down menu select "H.264-MAIN". DON'T set your video rate, yet, even though the option is here on this tab. Next click on the "General" tab, then select "1280 x 720" from the "Frame Size/Standard" drop-down menu. You will notice the frame-rate setting will automatically change to 29.970. Leave this, or you can change it to 25.000, if your original video is 25fps. Now click on the "Compression" tab again, and set the "Video data rate" to what you like.

Apple says the iPad can play up to 14000kbps, but that didn't work for me. 13000kbps worked just fine; I didn't try any values in between, so maybe you can go all the way up to 13999kbps? Anyway, I tried several lower bit rates between 5000kbps and 13000kbps, and decided I liked 10000kbps as the lowest bit rate at which I couldn't detect any appreciable degradation of quality, at least with a couple quick test clips.

Lastly, you can just leave the sound set to AAC, 44100Hz, 128kbps, which should be the default setting. I didn't try anything else in my tests.

Save your file, which should automatically be given a .mp4 suffix. Then simply import it into iTunes like you would any other media. (You can just drag it onto your library.) Connect your iPad to your computer, and on the left column of iTunes, under "Devices", click on your iPad. Then select the "Movies" tab, and check the box by your newly imported movie. Now sync your iPad, and the movie file should be transferred to the iPad. It can be played like any other video, from the "Videos" app that came on the iPad. (Tap the "Movies" button at the top of the screen, of course.)

Hope this was helpful!

-Sevendog


These are the iPad video specs from Apple's web site: [ and as a note: H.264 Main Profile level 3.1 should be able to do up to 14000kbps, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC ]

H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format