Help: DV Windows Movie Maker - M4V for iPod 640x480 QuickTime Pro

Question

Good morning,
I have a few home videos on a 300GB hard drive, originally taken with my PAL DV camcorder, saved as AVI files using Windows Movie Maker when I was still using my Windows XP system for video editing, which I would like to convert to H.264 for long term storage on my Mac and view on my video capable iPod.
I am working on an Intel processor based computer with a registered version of QuickTime Pro and an up-to-date operating system.
Opening the files in QuickTime Player and inspecting them via the traditional Movie Info window reports the expected information:
Format: DV, 720 x 576 (768 x 576), Millions, Stereo, 48.000 kHz
FPS: 25
If I attempt to convert them to my target format of choice using a simple File -> Export -> Movie to iPod, I get, of course, an interlaced video which I promptly File -> Move to Trash.
If I convert them to an intermediate QuickTime format ("Move to QuickTime Movie", mov, Options -> Size -> Deinterlace source video) and then transcode them via the aforementioned "Move to iPod" method, I get good quality m4v files for the size, which play on my iPod, fully satisfying my quality requirements.
This intermediate step is time consuming though, and I am sure unnecessary, and I am looking for a more elegant way of accomplishing the above. I have limited time to investigate this personally so I am asking for a little help, which I am prepare to reward.
After having looked at the published iPod specifications, I have tried to File -> Export -> Movie to QuickTime Movie and manually applying encoding settings as follows:
Compression Type: H.264
Frame rate: Current fps
Key Frames: Automatic
Frame Reordering: Enabled
Data Rate: Restrict to 1500 kbits/sec (inspired by the spec)
Encoding: Best Quality (multi-pass)
Optimised for: CD/DVD-ROM
Size: Dimensions 640 x 480 VGA (Deinterlace Source Video)
The resulting video file does not play back on my iPod and is inferior in quality to those I produce through the intermediate step described previously.
Questions:
1) how can I encode and deinterlace PAL DV videos for H.264 storage and iPod playback in 640x480 in one go?
2) how do I get the best quality/size ratio I possibly can out of process 1) ?
3) is there any way to batch process multiple files in a given folder?
Many thanks in advance for your help!
best regards,
Maroloccio
  Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Answer 1

Thanks for you post, Jon, but my questions remain largely unanswered.
Sorry, must have been half asleep when I attempted to respond.
After having looked at the published iPod specifications, I have tried to File -> Export -> Movie to QuickTime Movie and manually applying encoding settings as follows:
Compression Type: H.264
Frame rate: Current fps
Key Frames: Automatic
Frame Reordering: Enabled
Data Rate: Restrict to 1500 kbits/sec (inspired by the spec)
Encoding: Best Quality (multi-pass)
Optimised for: CD/DVD-ROM
Size: Dimensions 640 x 480 VGA (Deinterlace Source Video)
The resulting video file does not play back on my iPod and is inferior in quality to those I produce through the intermediate step described previously.
This approach does not work because neither the "Movie to QT > H.264" nor the "Movie to MPEG-4" have access to the Baseline LC profile. Only Mac applications I know of that currently access this profile are the current QT Pro/iTunes, ViddyUp! (v1.7), and ffmpegX (v0.0.9x).
1) I have downloaded Streamclip and tried to do as you suggested but the output video still doesn't play on my iPod. Again, I am looking for a tested workflow which would spare me the time it takes to get fully acquainted with the intricacies of H.264 profiles. I will certainly want to learn more about this in the near future, but for the time being I just need a solution to convert my media catalogue.
Sorry, was concentrating so much on the de-interlace issue that I completely forgot you wanted an iPod compatible target file. Only Mac application that seems to offer both de-interlace and direct Baseline LC profile is ffmpegX v0.0.9x. Have not used the de-interlace feature in this application, so I don't know how well it works. (In addition, its crop/scale option does not work to my satisfaction nor does it allow me to source multiple VOB files or a single VOB in excess of 4 GBs.) On the other hand, I do use de-interlace in MPEG streamclip on a regular basis and, while it is a bit "soft," have found it satisfactory. However, I create a QT DV/DVPRO intermediate file which is crop/scaled and make brightness, contrast, saturation and/or volume adjustments "on the fly" at the same time. Using this format is much quicker than encoding to H.264 twice.
2) If I am to believe the published iPod specs, your suggestion would not work on one, at least not on the current generation.
Yes, really blew it there thinking all you wanted was an H.264/AAC file that did not need to be iPod compatible.
3) Parallel processing results in thrashing of resources, I believe for these scenarios enqueueing works better.
Have not encountered any serious problems using this approach on the G5. Believe it does increase processing time to a small degree while "thrashing between resources," but comes in handy when converting a series of files while I go to a doctor's appointment (did 4 Doctor Who episodes on Tuesday this way), go shopping, pay bills, etc.