• First off, if you’re using a flavor of Ubuntu Feisty, build a full version of ffmpeg: http://po-ru.com/diary/bleeding-edge-ffmpeg-on-ubuntu-feisty/
• Next, have a friend with an iPod Video and AppleTV who can test the files for you.
• The specs listed on Apple’s iPod Specs Page are the maximums. You can reduce these down pretty far:
  • Using mono sound instead of stereo
  • Drop the audio sampling rate to as low as 22050 hz
  • Use a resolution lower than 320×240 for h.264
• There are a number of Linux GUIs for converting to iPod video. Avidemux is not one of them, though it works great for producing YouTube-compatible AVI files. I’ve had some success with the GUIs, but I needed more control over bitrates and sampling rates than they currently provide:
  • SIVE
  • Vive
• So instead I modified the very long command line from this site to encode a 320×240 h.264 video with proper rate control: http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/useful-stuff/ipod-video-guide/
• And here’s what I finally came up with for the Creating Comics in Inkscape iPod video files…

Low Quality (h.264 118kbps/AAC 32kbps mono, 15fps, letterboxing a 16×9 video):

ffmpeg -i lgm_video_final_dvd.mpg -aspect 4:3 -acodec aac -ac 1 -ab 32k -s 320x180 -vcodec h264 -r 15 -b 118k -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -flags2 +mixed_refs -me umh -subq 7 -trellis 2 -refs 5 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt 118k -maxrate 768k -bufsize 2M -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 2 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -level 13 -padtop 30 -padbottom 30 creating_comics_in_inkscape_ipod.mp4

High Quality (h.264 372kbps/AAC 128kbps, letterboxing a 16×9 video):

ffmpeg -i lgm_video_final_dvd.mpg -aspect 4:3 -acodec aac -ab 128k -s 320x180 -vcodec h264 -b 372k -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -flags2 +mixed_refs -me umh -subq 7 -trellis 2 -refs 5 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt 372k -maxrate 768k -bufsize 2M -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 2 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -level 13 -padtop 30 -padbottom 30 creating_comics_in_inkscape_ipod_high.mp4

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