Creating video podcast -- movie format requirements

Question

I have QTPro and have used
Export--->Movie to iPod
in order to make the flie podcast-ready. The only problem is that the resultant file is twice the size of the original.
I'm wondering if these specs will also work for a podcast:
Format:
AAC, Mono, 22.050 kHz
H.263, 300 x 225, Millions
FPS:
14.56
Data Rate:
380.49
Size:
300 x 225
Unfortunately, I do not have a v iPod to test on. Does anyone know off-hand if a .mov file with the above specs will work for a podcast?
Thanks!
-M
Dual 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

Answer 1

Hi mmusic, welcome to the discussions!
As you discovered, the default iPod export settings make huge files.
Instead of exporting as .mov, use .mp4 and the H.264 setting, which gives the best quality of video.
BUT, you do need to do something which will make it work on the video iPod, and that's set it to "Baseline." Where is baseline? It's almost hidden in QTPro.
The "Baseline" setting can only be found by doing the following:
Use the Movie to MPEG-4 setting
File format: MP4
Video format: H.264
This will give a "Video Option" button. Change to "Baseline" only
That's the key. After that, any settings can be used, such as data rate, frame rate, etc.
Here's what we use. You can modify to your own liking. We keep our data rate way down in order to make small file sizes.
Do as above.
(Under the Video Options button) Restrict Profile to Baseline
Encoding mode: Best quality (multi-pass)
Video format: H.264
Data rate: 75 kbps
Optimized for download
Image size 320x240 QVGA
Frame Rate: 15fps
Key frame automatic
Audio: AAC-LC
Data rate: 48
Channels: Mono
Output Sample rate: 44.100
Encoding Quality: Best
You can change any of the settings as long as you have the "Baseline" profile checked.
Hope this answers your question.