Changes to the HD feed...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 10:33AM This post is for ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was disappointed that the current HD and ED versions of the show don't play on the iPad - a bit of a blow. I've now found some settings that will enable me to encode the 1280x720 version of the show so that it will play on the iPad.
The good news is, that these look gorgeous on the iPad screen - very crisp and sharp, just how I intended.
The bad news is, I'm going to have to go back over the previous shows, encode new versions, and upload them.
This is not a trivial task in time, effort and expense. So I've had to come up with a plan.
As from this weeks show, if you're subscribed to the members HD feed, any shows you download from this point on will be playable on your Mac, Apple TV and iPad. This new encoding format (still in 1280x720) will be indicated by having the [HD & iPad] label at the end of the show title and will appear in iTunes just as usual.
So if you're happy with just receiving new shows to play on your iPad, no action required. Just sync the HD feed with your iPad and new shows from this week on will appear on your iPad.
If you want to access previous shows in iPad format, there are a few steps to take.
Initially, I'll convert all the 2010 shows and upload them. Because of limitations on my hosting plan, I'll start by uploading 4 shows as a trial - they will be:
SCO0233 - Drobo, Droboshare & DroboPro [HD & iPad]
SCO0234 - Mac Maintenance [HD & iPad]
SCO0235 - Pathfinder 5 [HD & iPad]
SCO0236 - Boxee Beta [HD & iPad]
So how do you get these files?
Easy...
Go to iTunes and select your SCOnline HD - 2010 feed.
You should see these files but just with [HD] at the end of each title.
Delete the original entry for the episode you wish to re-download in the new format.
If you're running iTunes 9 or above, right-click on the podcast title and select 'show all available episodes'
Alternatively, refresh the podcast by selecting the podcast title and holding down the ALT or OPTION key, click on the the disclosure triangle next to the podcast title.
After a few seconds, you should see a new entry where the previous version was, this time it will have [HD & iPad] in the title.
Click the GET button next to the episode to download it.
Sync the podcast with your iPad in iTunes.
One thing to note is that the chapter list does not appear for some reason. You can still jump to chapters so the chapter marks are there, it's just that you can't access the list. Once I'm happy that this is working OK, I'll take a look at uploading the rest of this years shows but it may take a while to upload them all.
Note to viewers of the Free versions - Only the iPod version of the free editions of the show will play on the iPad
Reader Comments (10)
Out of interest, what settings did you have to change for the iPad to like it? Initially I thought it would be a resolution issue but it seems to be more than that.
To be honest, I've not looked into it too deeply. I found an iPad compatible iPad compressor setting on the Apple support discussion groups. It worked so I went with that.
Hi Don, I Just Renewed my Membership the other day, and Look forward to watching ScreenCastOnline "about the ipad on the ipad" : ) Thanks Dennis
Don -- I hope that after you do the re-encoding you don't find out that you have to do yet another re-encoding to get the chapter titles list to appear.
I don't think it's a problem with the encoding. If you download the files via the full file list on the members site and transfer them as movies to the iPad, the chapters appear on the opening page as they should. Seems to me like a bug in the Podcast section of the Movie app.
Don, In iTunes 9 you don't have to do all the 'click while holding option' stuff. If you right-click on the podcast title and select 'show all available episodes' that will do the same thing.
Thanks Jonathan - i'll update the post
Don,
I've found that my iPad has made a major change in my workflow. It should be no problem switching my member's feed from Miro to iTunes, yeah?
Sure Frank, just visit the members site and subscribe to the HD feed. Actually, I think I've found a way to make the ED version also iPad compatible so all three versions of the show going forward will be playable on the iPad.
Just wanted to say thanks for the speedy response to the iPad issue.