Knowledge Base/Tips & Tricks
The iTunes compatible preset
Jendrik Bertram
posted this on July 02, 2011 09:59
Starting with version 1.4 iFlicks has a new iTunes compatible preset. This preset is a replacement for the widely used Flatten to QuickTime movie preset. The change of the name of this preset was performed to give users a clearer understanding of what is done and also to show that this preset has gained new features.
Depending on the content of the video file to process, this preset now does following:
For video files with H.264 video content (most mkv, flv files), this preset creates a m4v file. The H.264 track is then muxed into this new files (very fast). The audio tracks from the original video are either muxed (AAC, AC-3), or encoded as necessary. In case audio encoding is necessary, surround audio wil be encoded to AC-3 and stereo audio will be encoded to AAC. While doing this, iFlicks ensures that at least on AAC track is available for every audio language. One more thing to note is, that iFlicks also specifies the AAC track as the fallback for available AC-3 tracks of the same language. This ensures, that all Apple Devices only show one audio track, but choose the one most suitable. Available subtitle tracks will also be included as soft subtitles in the resulting m4v file.
By performing these steps, almost all of these video files will be directly playable on the Apple TV 2, iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
Any video that does not contain any H.264 tracks will be processed as it was by earlier versions of iFlicks using QuickTime. These videos will be muxed to a mov container and can then be played in iTunes or QuickTime. For this to work and to support a wide variety of video formats it is necessary to install the freely available Perian. Perian is a nice QuickTime component that brings support for many video files to QuickTime, that are not natively supported.
One exception to above guidelines can also be configured. If the option Allow muxing of MPEG-4 Visual tracks is enabled, all video material containing one of these tracks will be processed, just like videos with H.264 content.
MPEG4-Visual tracks are included in almost every avi file, like the ones encoded with Xvid.
Important: The Apple MPEG-4 Visual decoder is very very limited. This can make itself visible through artefacts or "jumpy" playback of files processed this way. Some videos might not play at all. These effects are usually only visible in iTunes, but the videos play fine on the Apple TV 2.
Due to this, use muxing of MPEG-4 Visual tracks with care. It is not supported and there is nothing iFlicks can do to fix these problems.
Comments
Ok it sounds good! But I can't find these options at the moment in the iflicks version i have. Where can i get this version because i get some issue with mkv and atv2 with the version 1.2.3.
The beta can be downloaded from here. Version 1.4 will be available soon.
I signed up to just say that I love you! This Application was good but it was missing this critical function. Its absolutely fantastic that this has been incorporated into the App. I just wish I had bought it through the Mac App Store rather then from your website. Makes it easier to manage my update.
This new process is WAY slower than the previous version. It takes a long time to process my m4v files with the new setting. How can I roll back to the previous version of the software?
The previous version was much quicker and did exactly what I wanted it to do. How do I replicate what the old version did please? My files are encoded adequately, but are missing the metadata, which your software does a sterling job of providing.
For already encoded videos iFlicks does exactly the same thing as the previous version, for most things this version is even much faster. I am expecting the differences in performance somewhere else. Can you please send me a feedback report from within iFlicks, so I can check on this?
Jendrik, I'm experiencing the same thing as the previous two comments. I've my MKV files already converted into m4v files via MKVtools which is very fast and simply puts the files into a new container (or something). The previous version of iFlicks assigned the meta data and within a minute or so the file was in iTunes. Now, with the iTunes compatibility preset, it takes almost 20 minutes (!) for a single file and - even worse - it's converting the file again!
Just to make sure I didn't mess up I tried it with files that worked fast with the old version of iFlicks and they are now re-encoded too. Any way we can have a legacy download of the older iFlicks app where it was faster until this is fixed?
I've just submitted feedback after cancelling the re-encode. Is it possible to get a copy of the last version whilst this is resolved?
I am having problems with iTunes Compatible as well. It takes an extra 5 minutes or so to "optimize streaming"
I have been using Handbrake to create m4v's for ages. I am now also getting the same behaviour as mentioned by Robert Newton, Julia Altermann and Kyle Mark. Please see screenshot attached of issue. "iTunes compatible" preset is chosen, files are in m4v format (done with Handbrake with the Apple "Universal" preset as always). iFlicks is "Optimizing Video for Streaming" when trying to add metadata. Thanks for the link to the previous version.
I think the difference in speed the above people are seeing is the "Optimizing" stage. Even though the m4v file is not being re-encoded, the entire file is being re-written in order to place the metadata at the beginning of the file (needed for streaming to Homeshare enabled devices). I believe the previous version of iFlicks just appended the metadata to the file, which is much quicker and doesn't require a new file be written to disk. Maybe a preference like "Enable streaming optimization" could allow users to decide whether they want the process to be quicker with the metadata at the end of the file or not. I personally like the optimization feature as i don't have to run the files through the optimize function of mp4file.
It really looks like I should add an option to disable the optimizing part. The problem I see there is, that some videos won't play on the Apple TV anymore causing a whole bunch of unnecessary support requests.
As a long term solution I am working on a way that the optimization part can be omitted completely, but this involves some more work.
Hey Jendrik,
I'd like to echo Robert Newton and other's comments. I already have the file encoded and formatted in the way I want it. I just use iFlicks to add meta data - which v1.2.3 was doing an excellent job of.
Another thing I've noticed is that when I select the 'iTunes compatible preset' and 'add to itunes library', the encoded file gets placed in the iTunes music folder instead of the location specified. This is a change in behavior from 1.2.3 (which, again, was perfect for my needs).
I hope you release the long term solution you're taking about pretty quick.
Thanks,
This is a great app & I would like to purchase it but.... The video conversion needs to be able to be switched off somehow & the interface buttons need to be clearer. I am very competent computer wise but I have to guess what I am doing with this app. It just needs clear labels like "no video conversion" or "meta data only" from within the app itself. My comments could be dismissed by someone writing the code as they probably think it is self explanatory but it is not. I think if you change the interface slightly & make it so that the metadata only is converted like lots of people have asked for then the app could sell a lot better. I really hope that the person responsible for this will act quickly as a way to prove to customers that he is interested in developing the product further.
I was wondering if the option to disable video encoding was coming soon? I had stopped using this program completely because I do not want to go through any other encoding as I use Handbrake first, and then used this program only for Metadata. This worked perfect. I currently using the older version listed in the thread, but please enable the just the metadata tagging again.
Yes, please enable update metadata only. i also use mkv-tools to convert files from mkv to mp4 and iflicks to update the metadata. this worked perfect with the old version. now with the version from appstore - iflicks will convert the mp4 again or whatever.
I originally posted a month ago & we have had no response from the developer of this app. I find this pretty disappointing as I have customers of my own & I will generally respond within a day at the latest. Unfortunately I can only assume the the developer of this app has either no interest in developing it further or simply does not care about the customers. I would like to be proven wrong & to have a response on here from them.
It is a great app for the meta data but I do not use this app anymore because it continues to process video which many of us do not want it to do. Maybe a suggestion could be to write a slightly different app without the video processing & metadata only. A response would be nice but if we do not hear anything then I guess we can all come to our own conclusions about how much this developer cares about their customers..
+1
I'm in the same boat as other Handbrake users. I use iFlicks exclusively as a metadata tool. Reverting to 1.2.3 for now.
+1 once again. Just entered the 14 day trial period. I like the clean interface, but will likely not purchase the app as long as this optimization step cannot be bypassed.
Question, if I do this, will the file be compatible with the AppleTV 1 (original) ? or must I select AppleTV1 on "video conversion"
I realize this is beyond the intended scope of this application, but I also find that this "Optimizing for Streaming" seems to be responsible for breaking compatibility with anything but the Apple TV/iPod/iPad/iPhone. I used to be able to share my iTunes library with my Xbox 360 through a 3rd party app, but it now shows files edited by iFlicks as incompatible when I attempt to play them on the Xbox 360. I can take those same files and run them through iTunes Video Importer (iVI) and they work fine. Both iFlicks and iVI are just passing the video through, but there does seem to be differences in how the .m4v is created. I'm guessing it's this optimize stage that is breaking it. I don't believe that iVI is optimizing the files (at least it makes no attempt to say that it is). An option to disable that would be nice (even if it carried a warning that it might make the file not work with the Apple devices).
I know this thread has been dead or near it for some time, but I wanted to get a final answer. If I have already had the file converted and optimized for iTunes / Apple TV before I gave it to iFlicks, is it not possible to just metadata the files as they are, like the "Update Metadata of Selected" option does in iTunes? The "optimizing for streaming" step takes a very long time for me and is unnecessary.
Works pretty well so far!
Is it possible to change the order of the audio tracks?
Currently, first track is stereo AAC and then comes the Dolby AC3 track.
I would prefer if the AC3 track comes first, as my Bluray player selects track 1 as default. Otherwise I have to manually switch to track 2. :-(
There is one question I would like to be answered. Actually I rip with makemkv and then put that file to handbrake. What settings in handbrake are necessary therefore after that and putting that file to iflicks iflicks will not convert etc. that file again! Right now I use the appleTv2-preset in handbrake. That file I put to iflicks. But THEN it takes about an hour in iflicks to convert and add. Hm .... that is pretty annoying. So, what settings in handbrake are to set that iflicks will only have to add tags?
P.S.: I don't want to put the makemkv file direct to iflicks. Because handbrake provides much more smaller files! :-)