Video for IPAD

Problem: You have a DIVX/DVD video on your computer and you want to watch it on your iPad.

Solution: There are a few options how to convert your video:

• If the original file is supported by QuickTime it would be your first and simplest choice. Just load your file into QuickTime X and choose Save As from the File menu. Then choose HD 480p as a desired format and wait till the conversion is finished (this may take a while)



• If you have some esoteric data format or you have to get more control over the encoding process or simply you want to get better quality than HD 480p, then you have to use something else.
  Basically there are plenty of choice (I assume you are coming from Unix world):

  
  
  
  
  
  1. Mencoder (part of Mplayer)
  
  
  2. ffmpeg
  
  
  3. x264 - this is free implementation of h.264 codec. The first two use it as a depndecny anyway
  
  
  
  
  

  I had a luck with tool number 2. Here is an example how I converted some video files to iPad format:

  
  
  

  for i in *.avi; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -acodec libfaac \
  -ab 96k -vcodec libx264 -s 1024x576 -vpre lossless_ultrafast \
  -crf 20 -threads 2 "$i".mp4; done
  

  
  
  Probably you'd like to set higher audio bitrate etc. But the command above will get you started. If you need explanations what these params do, please refer to the links above.

The only thing left now is to add the newly converted file to your iTunes library and sync with your iPad.

Enjoy!