Encoding Video for iOS Devices? Watch This First

One surefire audience-pleaser at any Streaming Media conference is Jan Ozer's presentation on how to encode video for iOS mobile devices. iOS is critical to any publishers mobile strategy, so getting strong quality and low file sizes matters. Attendees at the recent Streaming Media East show in New York City learned about the importance of the H.264 codec.

"What is H.264?" Ozer asked. "H.264 is a video compression technology. Most iOS devices can also play an older codec called the MPEG-4 codec, but that codec is much less efficient than H.264. When I say efficient, I mean higher data rate, lower quality. So, if you're producing for iOS devices, typically you're going to want to use the H.264 codec. The reason is you get better quality, it's more widely playable, smaller file sizes. That's where we're going to spend our time -- on the H.264 codec."

So know that attendees knew what H.264 is, how do they produce it and get the best possible results?

"There's myriad options to produce H.264. Most of them relate to quality, some of them relate to compatibility. Compatibility means it's going to play or it's not going to play. Quality means it might look better or worse, but it'll still play," Ozer explained. "When you're producing for iOS devices, of course you want maximum quality, but the areas that we're going to focus on relate to compatibility: How do you make sure the video file that you produce plays on the iOS device that you're targeting?"

For more on encoding for iOS, watch the full session and download Ozer's presentation.

How To: Encoding Video for iOS Devices

This session starts by detailing the playback specs for all iOS devices, old and new. Then you'll learn the strategies used by prominent iTunes publishers to serve the complete range of installed iOS devices. Next, the seminar switches to cellular wireless delivery, with a technical description of Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), including recommendations for the number of streams and Apple's encoding parameters. You'll walk away knowing how to encode for both iTunes and mobile delivery to iOS and compatible devices.

Speaker: Jan Ozer, Principal, Doceo Publishing