H.264 for AppleTV and 29.97

[Brian Critchlow]

Hi everyone.

I have a question about the AppleTV encoding specifically.

I have been watching some Apple TV HD podcasts lately to get the feel for encoding settings. I noticed that all were 24fps or 23.98.
Being in more of a broadcast environment, we shoot everything 29.97. I went in to encode some of our HD material to an HD podcast and noticed that 29.
97 is NOT AVAILABLE in the H.264 AppleTV format.
What is the deal?
I dont think i have to elaborate on how much of a pain, and time hog it is to go from 29.97 1080i to 24 720p.

Any solutions, workarounds, workflows?

[Greg Boston]

Apple TV supports 1280x720, but only at 24fps (23.98). At 29.97, it only supports 960x540 resolution.


-gb-

[Brian Critchlow]

Thanks for the feedback. I went and read the iTunes tech specs article and it mentioned the same thing you did. I encoded a test clip and it looks suitable. It just seems that if you are going to call it HD, it should at least be 720p
540 doesn't really cut it for me.

thanks!

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Brian Critchlow

Thanks for the feedback. I went and read the iTunes tech specs article and it mentioned the same thing you did. I encoded a test clip and it looks suitable. It just seems that if you are going to call it HD, it should at least be 720p
540 doesn't really cut it for me.

I have encoded some of my XDCAM HD clips at 30P for AppleTV and it looks pretty good. BTW, the sensors in the HVX200 are 960x540 using pixel offset in both directions and it produces a pretty good picture.

-gb-