New High-Resolution Format
A little background... (skip to pretty pictures)
The iPod, Apple TV, Xbox 360 and PS3 all have different video capabilities, some better than
others.
In order to create a single video file that will play on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, iPod, Apple TV,
Xbox 360 and PS3, you are limited (by the iPod) to a resolution of 640x480.
For standard 4:3 content, this works alright...but for widescreen content, this comes out to a
resolution of 640x360. When scaled up for playback on a widescreen TV, there's a good chance the
image will appear blurry or muddy. In fact, the Apple TV gets a lot of flak for bad image quality, based
solely on the
low resolution of widescreen videos purchased from the iTunes Store.
Leveraging the 640x480 maximum that the iPod can muster, VisualHub 1.24 introduces a new way to
create a widescreen H.264 MP4 file from high-quality sources compatible with all the devices
above, but with a higher resolution, providing crisper playback on TV and computer screens!
Widescreen Display Resolution:
Standard iPod/TV Screen: 230,400 pixels
VisualHub 1.24 Hi-Res: 409,440 pixels! (as displayed, 307,200 actual)
34% better actual resolution, 78% higher displayed resolution.
Another way to look
at it:
Conversion from DVD source, loss of data:
Standard iPod/TV Screen: 35%
VisualHub 1.24 Hi-Res: 11%
Samples
Confusing? tl;dr?
Here are some samples that demonstrate the difference!
The Office (USA)
VisualHub Hi-Res - 6MB
Standard iPod/TV - 6MB
Elephant's Dream
VisualHub Hi-Res - 10MB
Standard iPod/TV - 10MB
All videos created with the .vhub Settings file below, and including Two
Pass.
How-To
Here are the VisualHub settings files:
hires.vhub - 4K
hires235.vhub for 2.35:1 movies: 22% quality increase. - 4K
Just double-click the .vhub file after downloading, and VisualHub will choose all the correct settings
for you.
For the best results with high-quality sources, it's beneficial to enable Two Pass,
although not
recommended on slower systems.
Compatibility
This new format has been tested on the following software and devices:
iPod 5G
Apple TV
QuickTime 7 (Mac/Win)
VLC (Mac/Win/Linux)
MPlayer (Mac/Win/Linux)
Playstation 3
Xbox 360 (with Spring Dashboard Update)
iPhone and Fall 2007+ iPods do not support the VisualHub Hi-Res format.
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