Playback of (audio modified) DivX and xVid files on the iPad

A month ago I wrote about the possibility to quickly transcode existing H.264 video files fin MKV containers for playback on the iPad (Link). It saves a lot of time to just recode the audio track and copy over the video track.

Over the time I did some more experiments and I’m always astonished how many video files the iPad (non jailbreak) will play back with GoodReader. Other apps might provide you with the same result, as I assume that most app developers rely on Apple’s SDK provided video playback routines, but I haven’t tested other apps.

Commonly used codecs xVid and DivX just work fine and playback nicely on the iPad after converting the audio track to the AAC codec.

In general the prep of the video is the same: Within avidemux copy the video stream unchanged and set the audio stream to a conversion to AAC and save the result to a MP4 container.

Following a list of codecs that work with the described method:

Codec, Codec Profile

DivX5, Simple@L1
DivX5, Advanced Simple@L5

xVid, Simple@L3
xVid, Advanced Simple@L5

This selection will cover a lot of files you might have in your archives. I’ll add more information as I find out.

– PersTechLife –

Quickly prep video (H.264 in MKV container) for the iPad

I just recently received my iPad and besides using the much appreciated and wonderful AirVideo (when at home or within reach of a decent pipe to the Internet), I want to take some video with me on the road for offline playback.

As with all Apple products, this means that I have to get the videos to the right format. From the Apple Web site:

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

iTunes is very strict in which content it will copy over to any device and there is no exception. Main Profile level 4.1 videos aren’t copied over. However, using for example GoodReader I succeeded in copying Profile level 4.1 videos onto my iPad and they played back nicely. You might want to check your video files codec details using MediaInfo Mac.

In the past I mostly relied on Handbrake to do the conversion for iPhone or AppleTV playback. And Handbrake always did a nice job, the only caveat is, that it takes a quite while to completely re-encode a video file and utilizes even my iMac with the Core-i7 massively.

As the iPad has more horse power at hand to play back video (read: 720p input files are fine) I tried out a different approach and succeeded. As a starting point I use an 720p-H.264-MKV file (MKV is a container format for any mostly any kind of video and audio codec – more details found on Wikipedia). This MKV file I load into avidemux. The application detects the H.264 codec and provides an option for further processing. As I don’t want to do any editing I choose “No”.

avidemux dialog during opening an H.264 file

As the video track with H.264 is in the right format, the “Copy” option is just fine. For the audio track I choose “AAC (Faac)” and the output format is set to “MP4″. With these settings the video is saved as MP4 file.

The beauty of this approach is, that only the audio track needs re-encoding, the video track remains unchanged. And this saves a lot of time.

Settings for the export as MP4 file

Depending on the size and length of the source video file it may take some seconds to some minutes. From there it’s up to you how you want to proceed.

Processing the video during export

For a test I used the Panasonic demo file (Panasonic.HD.Demo-Flowers.720p.X264.mkv). This file has an original size of 130 MB and a runtime of 3 minutes 20 seconds. Saving it back to the hard disk took about 10 seconds.

You might want to add the resulting MP4 to your iTunes video library (but you have to stay within the Apple allowed Profiles) and sync the file over to your iPad. Or you “attach” the MP4 file to an App within the iTunes ‘App’ tab. Or with an App like e.g. GoodReader you transfer the file via WLan to you iPad. Due to the sheer size of the MP4 files I mostly prefer the USB sync via iTunes.

– PersTechLife –

Novatel recalling MiFi 2372 devices due to battery problems [Updated]

Engadget Posting

Based on reports appearing on different tech sites, Bell mobility is recalling Novatel MiFi 2372 (GSM version for North American netword frequencies) devices due to possible “battery swell” and “malfunction of the device”. Some Updated posted below.

Novatels Mobiles website currently hosts only a very careful “Product Advisory” on problems with the MiFi 2372. There is no information to be found problems with any similar product (like the MiFi 2352 – European GSM version). It’s also unclear if this problem is limited to a batch of devices sold to Bell Mobility or more widespread.

Novatel MiFi® 2372 Product Advisory

It’s also unclear if there are any known incidents with the now recalled MiFi 2372 and what “effect” these problems might have produced. Looking at the very harsh measures Bell Mobility is taking (Recalling the device and deactivating them on the network) this might be serious trouble.

In a previous post I reported about a charging / battery problem I was having with my a MiFi 2352 unit (http://blog.perstechlife.com/2009/10/22/mifi-2352-does-novatel-have-a-larger-problem-with-charger-or-device/) . My problem might have been isolated without any coincidence, but right now I’m no longer sure about this. But it was obvious, that my problem was more battery related, than charger related.

As soon as I know more I’ll let you know.

– PersTechLife –

[Update] Kevin Thornton of the Novatel Wireless team has posted the following statement in the comments.

This is Kevin Thornton with the Novatel Wireless team, below is the official statement from Novatel Wireless regarding the Bell MiFi 2372:

Novatel’s top priorities are to serve our customers and end-consumers and to provide for the safe use of our products. There have been two incidents reported from Bell and Virgin Mobile Canada, with battery overheating issues. While we can’t comment on specific consumer incidents, it has been reported that some customers have had difficulties opening the battery door thus utilizing sharp objects or excessive force to open it. While doing this, customers can inadvertently puncture the battery when trying to remove it and this can cause the battery to over-heat. To reduce the probability of user-induced damage to the battery, we have redesigned the battery door to make it easier to open.

Any product or battery issue is considered a matter of utmost importance for Novatel Wireless. Consistent with that and as a preventive measure, the Company has communicated an exchange program for Bell and Virgin Mobile Canada customers to replace the MiFi 2372 battery and battery door.

The EMEA MiFi 2352 is shipping with a new battery cover.

[Update 2] In a statement Novatel has placed on their web site they clarify that the MiFi 2200 is not affected and that all new shipments of the MiFi 2372 and 2352 (beginning 2010-04-30) are shipping with a new battery door. Novatel states here  http://www.novatelwireless.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=378 that as an extra precaution they exchange the batteries only for Bell Mobility and Virgin Mobile Canada customers.

Currently I’m waiting on a  clarification if the battery overheating problem is definitely related to user-induced damage resulting out of the problem with the battery door.  Or if there are more general overheating problems with the battery pack for the MiFi 2352 and 2372.

MiFi 2352 Firmware Upgrade to 5.21 [Updated]

2010-02-19 Engadget on MiFi

Over the time there have been different Novatel press or fair announcements regarding upgrades for the MiFi. Most of them referred to feature updates with an app-store like approach.

To my knowledge so far non of these updates or updated devices have been published. It will be interesting to see if they really bring enhanced functionality to the already sold devices or if they will only deliver new devices with these updates.

I however stumbled over a small firmware update, that on the surface (aka as web interface) now allows to select between different GSM modes:

• Automatic
• 3G only
• GPRS/EDGE only

To update your device you might want to look out for a file named 20418536_ MUU_ 2352_5.21_EMEAGeneric_pkg.exe (Google will be your friend). The executable requires a Microsoft Windows PC. It ran on my Microsoft Windows 7 laptop without a problem.

Mifi 2352 Firmware Upgrade Snapshot

After several minutes of running, the process finished with a success statement. After rebooting my MiFi it interestingly and logging into it, I realized that it kept all my configuration settings [I was updating from version 5.15!]. So far everything seems to work as expected. The coming weeks and month will show if there are any further notable differences between the firmware version.

Update

I’m currently on the Road and found out that the MiFi web interface now has a setting that distinguishes auto-connect between Roaming- and Home-Network.

Screenshot for the Auto-connect mode options

In general I experienced some (new) problems with the MiFi while driving long distance. In several situations the MiFi lost the network connection while the carrier was still at hand and I had to manually force a reconnect or in one instance remove the battery to reboot the device. My MiFi settings should have enabled a auto-reconnect.

What is definitely missing is an option to set the carrier you want to operate the MiFi with.

– PersTechLife –

Back again

Dear Friends,

due to other commitments I had to stay away from this blog for a while. Now I’m back and I hope you’ll find some use in my upcoming posts. I’ll cover my newly purchased iMac (27″ – Intel i7), some updates to my MiFi and a number of “data management” related topics, including my updated home backup process, my usage of RSS feeds and how I store information snippets.

Regards,

– PTL –