Splasm Software Discussions

So I bought Podner today and my first two encodes are...a little off.

1) I'm encoding from 8-bit uncompressed 720X486 media. My resulting H.264 file is 320X216. I thought the non-square pixel issue was addressed in 1.1.

2) Why does it export H.264 movies with the .mov sufix rather than m4v?

A.

1. If the source was not captured or processed by a QuickTime application before coming into Podner chances are it does not have the QuickTime pixel aspect ratio information that we need to handle the pixel aspect ratio automatically. We're very eager to understand why this is happening in your case. Could you send over some info about your source material, such as what applications have touched it from capture or generation until Podner? If you're pretty sure the pixel aspect ratio info should be in the file, you could even send us a sample at support@splasm.com.

2. .m4v is supposed to indicate a raw MPEG-4 video stream, sans audio. Also, because Podner can create regular MPEG-4 and H.264 but can also be set to pass through or flatten the original source embedded in a QuickTime movie file, we chose to use the more general-purpose .mov file extension. It's acceptable in any QuickTime application and works on the iPod.

Unfortunately, our decision to stick to principle and err on the side of general compatibility ended up biting a few of our users. Strangely, iTunes can't set artwork for files ending in .mov - only the artwork in files ending in .m4v may be edited. We still feel .m4v is not appropriate in all circumstances so we're considering how to handle this elegantly.

_________________
Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com

The material was captured in Final Cut Pro 5 via a Kona 2 capture card. It was captured as 10-bit uncompressed and is about as prestine as you can get. QuickTime can open it no problem and it sees the material as 720X486.

As per the m4v suffix. Can you make it such that we can choose the suffix?

Thanks,

Anton

Is the video distorted at 720x486? It should be if the pixel aspect ratio is not 1:1. Even so, without the QuickTime pixel aspect ratio definition inside we can't make the right decision automatically about the final resolution. If the video does not appear distorted in QuickTime Player at 720x486 then 320x216 should be correct. If it is distorted then there's an issue with the pixel aspect ratio inside the source - it could be missing or it could be that Podner can't find it or is misinterpreting it. In that case we would need to see a small sample similar to the source that is not working correctly so we can duplicate and resolve the issue here. If you can create or snip a sample please send it to support@splasm.com.

Allowing the user to choose the file extension is the likely possibility. Please understand there are numerous considerations before we can make this change, which is why we won't commit to a course of action until we're certain we will follow through.

_________________
Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com