ipod and zune video specs So the question has been raised: "Which is better for video the Zune or iPod?", and "Will I start making ACM movies available in a zune friendly format?". Both good questions let's check the specs for both players.

The Zune:
Windows Media Video (.wmv): Main Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 1.5 Mbps peak video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio; Simple Profile, CBR, up to 736 Kbps video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio.

The iPod:
Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

The Conclusion:
To boil down the numbers the Zune uses the propritary WMV formatted video at a 320x240 resolution for both 1.5 Mbps, and 736Kbps encoding rates.The iPod uses iso standard MPEG4 and MPEG4 H.264. The encoding limits are 1.5 Mbps 640x480 for MPEG4 h.264 and 2.5Mbps at 640x480 using MPEG 4. The bottom line is that I can encode the highest quality video if I use MPEG4 flavors native to the iPod. I cannot achieve the same level of quality if I use WMV to encode for the Zune, but if you are planning to buy a Zune, all of the videos available here can be down sampled and played on Zune using the software that's included, but keep in mind the re-encoding process is very time consuming. So, to answer the questions above I am going to continue to stick with MPEG4 unless something amazing happens with some other video codec in the near future.

As of Dec 7, 2006 I've revamped ACM. Before it was only one page with three links. Sure the graphics are little big but it's a site that offers downloadable full length movies. I figured nobody would care that I'm using 100+ k pngs. I've included direct links to all the movies in my podcast in the movie library. Since this is new I really don't have that much news to report only that I'll be trying to do more updates to the podcast, library, watch now sections. If anybody has anything old movie related stuff you can email me here scottsaunders@mac.com.

Spy Smasher available on DVD.
Starring Kane Richmond and directed by William Witney, Spy Smasher is one of my favorite serials. It's got everything, stuff blows up, cool aircraft, and Nazi bad guys. It's considered one of the best serials ever made, and is now available for the first time on DVD through AC comics.
click to go there.