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Announcing iPad Support

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Posted by: Shiv Kumar

Views: 2092Favorited: 0 Comments: 17

January 29, 2010 02:25 PM

Filed Under: New Feature

Tags: HD Video, iPad, iPhone

ExposureRoom already supports the iPad!

Yes, we already support the iPad. When we implemented support for the iPhone we considered the next gadget from Apple (since there was a lot of speculation about it buzzing around at the time) and what video capability it might have and we're happy to report that we were spot on. Well, almost, we did expect the screen resolution to be 1280x768 or 1280x720, so we were wrong there.

Using an iPad your experience on ExposureRoom will be similar to how you experience it today using a desktop/laptop computer. Since you will still have bandwidth limitations (Wi-Fi or 3G) we’ll support multiple versions for the iPad as well. So you’ll see and have a choice of a Low, Medium and an HD version. Only the HD version may not be the same actual video as the one you’d see when using a computer. But it will push the limits of what the iPad hardware (provided you have the bandwidth) can handle, so if you’re looking at using it to present your creative talents to prospective customers in a bar or at their offices or simply enjoy the content on ExposureRoom you’ll love it. We think the choice of multiple versions for the iPad will let you enjoy your new toy that much more no matter where you are.

Technical Details

The iPad can only support videos encoded with a maximum bit rate 2.5Mbps (video and audio combined) using H.264 Main Level 3.1. Our 720p HD videos are way better than that (meaning the iPad won't be able to handle it). The medium just about comes under the limit so the iPad will be able to handle our medium versions. Note that our medium versions are far better than any other website's HD version.

If the iPad were out today you'd be able to watch the Low, iPhone, Medium and some HD versions. We'll probably introduce another version that is 1280x720 but encoded using the bit rates of our medium version. The picture quality will suffer obviously (larger dimension videos need higher bit rates), but we'll have to compare our 640x360 version at full screen on an iPad versus a 1280x720 at full screen. Note that the ppi (pixels per inch) of the iPhone is higher (160) than that of the iPad (132) so we’re a little uncertain of how things will look up close but on a larger screen. Can’t imagine why Apple compromised on that. The Driod has almost double the ppi (267) of the iPhone and we expected the iPad to have a ppi of at least that of the iPhone if not the Driod (so that was another aspect we were wrong about).

After the iPad hits the Streets

Since the screen resolution of the iPad is only 1024x768 it is going to have to resize both versions which requires a lot of CPU/GPU cycles so we can only test this once we have a few iPads amongst us (XR folks and members). Testing on computers and computer monitors a 640x360 video performs and looks better than a 1280x720 video (both encoded at the same bit rate) with a full screen resolution of 1024x768. And what would these look like on your HD TVs?

It is possible that our HD version for the iPad might be 1024x574 (16:9 aspect) to give you maximum quality and the best performance. Of course we’ll only know for sure after we receive our iPads. But in the mean time, you’ll still have three versions to pick from, we’ll just fine tune a special iPad HD version if need be.

iPad Compatible Embeds

This part is really cool. Those of you using the ExposureRoom Wordpress plug-in just got lucky. People browsing your website using an iPhone or iPad will automatically be presented with the iPhone/iPad version. You don't have to do a thing to make that happen.

Those of you looking to make your non-WordPress websites automatically iPhone/iPad compatible can start playing with what we call the script embed tag. You can watch a video tutorial on it here
Javascript Embed Tag for iPhone/iPad Compatible Embeds

You can also get a sample html page that includes the JavaScript there as well. In time, we'll provide you with a GUI configurator that will produce any/all of the embed tags we provide.

Comments

Abraham Joffe

February 02, 2010 04:25 AM

Well done

Impressive work guys, i am really quite suprised and delighted to see you are already onto this after such a short period of time. Yet another reason why exposure room is the leader in HD streaming resource.

Roy Feldman

February 03, 2010 05:53 AM

IPAD/HTML5

I have a lot of stuff made in flash so I'm not happy that it is excluded on the PAD. Everyone is telling me how wonderful HTML5 is/will be.I have just viewed my youtube stuff in their beta HTML5 viewer, was not thrilled.
From Wired:Jobs thinks Google's "don't be evil" mantra is less-than-genuine and that Adobe is lazy; he said that no one will be using Flash in the future and the world is moving to HTML5.
Any thoughts or plans for HTML5 ?

Shiv Kumar

February 03, 2010 07:36 PM

@Abraham, thank you for your vote of confidence and encouragement.

@Roy,

When you say flash do you mean non video stuff or video. If you mean video do you mean videos in the flv container?

Google recently bought On2VP6 which is the codec used in most Flash video. We used to use it as well (so did YouTube). Can't imagine what their plans are with regards to Html 5 and On3VP6.

I wouldn't worry about Jobs and what he says.

Html 5 is a whole lot more than video and some pretty nice things too. As regards html 5 video - to start with you (the members) won't have to worry about how you encode your videos. And yes, we have a very strong opinion about html 5 (after lots of testing) and you'll hear about what we plan to do about it soon. Maybe tomorrow!

Roy Feldman

February 03, 2010 07:52 PM

The great thing

The great thing about this site is your willingness to adapt quickly to new technology and your(Shiv) personal commitment to explaining it to the rest of us, giving us real numbers in your tutorials as opposed to the "send us anything we'll do the rest". I really was delighted by the 'you should be using a higher bit rate' warning I got.
Can't wait to see what you have to say about HTML5 and hope you do one of your great tutorials on it.
My rant above was about non video stuff and having to redo several web sites if I want them seen on the POD.

Shiv Kumar

February 03, 2010 10:20 PM

Roy,

Thannks! We try to help where we can. Besides, if you're an XR member then you need to understand some of these things (encoding etc.) so not only is it important for you, but in the long run it helps us because knowledge is imparted and we don't have to baby sit :).

Html 5 has got some really nice things and we're looking forward to seeing more browser support so we can begin to use it. Html 5 video is well.... you'll hear our point of view soon :). Don't expect us to jump down that hole any time soon.

The lack of Flash support is really too bad. It serves no one but Apple.

Shiv Kumar

February 04, 2010 03:40 PM

Roy,

Thank a look at this
Flash versus Html 5 Video versus Windows Media/Quick Time

Wide Iris

April 04, 2010 12:11 PM

Exposure Room Doesn't work on my iPad

This all sounds great, but in fact Exposure Room appears not to work on the iPad, not for our videos, not for featured videos, not for low, med or Hi videos. The old "get Flash player" message appears instead, and Adobe Flash appears not to be downloadable to an iPad. Ideas?

Shiv Kumar

April 05, 2010 01:23 PM

Wide Iris,

Can you check again please? At the moment you should see the Medium version (if available) and if not the Low version is available.

"If available" could mean one of two things:
1. We haven't finished trasncoding the appropriate version yet.
2. There is no iPad version available in that version (Medium or Low).

Wide Iris

April 05, 2010 08:49 PM

Works!

Now it works, thanks Shiv!

Steve Mullen

April 05, 2010 11:50 PM

esting on computers and computer monitors

"testing on computers and computer monitors a 640x360 video performs and looks better than a 1280x720 video (both encoded at the same bit rate) with a full screen resolution of 1024x768. And what would these look like on your HD TVs?

It is possible that our HD version for the iPad might be 1024x574 (16:9 aspect) to give you maximum quality and the best performance. Of course we’ll only know for sure after we receive our iPads. But in the mean time, you’ll still have three versions to pick from, we’ll just fine tune a special iPad HD version if need be."

So what did you decide?

What's the difference between LOW and MED?

Shiv Kumar

April 06, 2010 12:22 AM

Steve,

We don't know yet. It takes quite a bit of testing to get the best match. Our typical test suite is comprised of over 1500 videos and it is a lot of repititive comparisions and eye strain as you can imagine.

In some priliminary testing that we have done:
1. A 720p HD video encoded at about 2,300Kbps
2. A 640x360 video encoded at the same (which is really our Medium version and is slightly over the spec limit if you consider the audio component can be encoded between 128Kbps-320Kbps).

The medium version looks much better.

The Low version is a low bandwidth version. It is encoded at 480x270 to maintain the visual quality because it is encoded at a lower bit rate.

The medium is a much better quality (even better then any website's HD version). It is encoded at 640x360 but it has better visual quality than other website's HD versions, because it is smaller in dimension but is encoded at a much higher bit rate then their HD versions. The medium (as mentioned in the main post) is also cutting it real close in terms of what the iPad can handle.

So for the moment, we show you the medium version on an iPad. Besides the better quality as mentioned above, there are limitations of the iPad we have to contend with and many other factors.

I think folks will find that the medium version looks stunning on an iPad.

Michael Allen

April 07, 2010 01:29 PM

HD Video on iPad

I can see my videos on the Exposure Room site on the ipad, but can't see the videos that I have on my website that I have linked by the code provided by Exposure Room. Is there a way I can get the code you use to show videos on your site, or is there another workaround? And, will Iphones have the same ability as the ipad to play video?

Thanks

Michael

Shiv Kumar

April 07, 2010 01:51 PM

iPad Compatible Embeds too

Michael,

Good question. I've updated the post to address your question. At the very bottom you'll see a section called "iPad Compatible Embeds".

Bruce O

May 02, 2010 06:27 PM

Shiv. Our videos still do not work on the iPad. We use the word press plugin and UVA head no problem on the iPhone. On the iPad the thumbnails aren't even formatting properly. Here is a page http://www.firstsightpictures.com/?p=287

Steve Mullen

May 02, 2010 11:24 PM

IPad good at scaling, but ...

Your finding that the 640-360 video looks better than the 720p version makes sense because the iPad upscales very well and your bits go further with the smaller frame size. Despite that fact you keep ignoring it, I suspect you would find 960-540 to look better than your 640-360 versions for three reasons. 1) 960-540 is a perect quarter downscale of 1920-1080 do the video before compression will have both more pixels than 640-360 (which is less than SD) and will have been obtained by skipping every other pixel and so be a very clean downscale. 2) Despite having more pixels than 640-360 it will have many fewer than 1280-720 so compression will be more efficient. 3) The iPad user can choose to view at 540p which requires no upscale or choose to expand to fill the screen horizontally which requies only modest upscaling. I'm surprised you have chosen to test one HD format and one sub-SD format! There is a very good reason Apple supports 540p as it sits perfectly between the SD and HD world. Why not simply pass 960-540 through and compress it to meet the iPad maximum bit-rate limit? It really is the perfect Middle quality choice. Keep your sub-SD choice of 360p for Low and 720p for High. If you are correct, everyone will use Low. Or, at least test 540p!

Shiv Kumar

May 05, 2010 10:54 AM

Hi Bruce, Thank you for the heads up and thank you also for helping us resolve the issue. It was a great help. They tell me you were sending them videos of what you were seeing. That's too cool! It really helps us see what is going on rather than imagine it.

Shiv Kumar

May 05, 2010 11:00 AM

Steve, There are dozens of devices coming out soon (the iPad being just one of them) that are a lot more capable than the iPad in terms of screen resolution and the ability to handle 1080p videos. We obviously can't produce one version for each device so once we have more info on these devices and can normalize it down to a common spec or two we'll re-think this. Another option we're looking at is to provide the option to play the medium or HD version for slate devices (iPad included). So you'll get to choose which version to play. In some cases the iPad may not be able to handle the HD version but in some cases it may. Keep in mind that having x number of bits to represent smaller dimensions produces a better picture quality. So seeing that we can't really increase the bit rate (since the iPad won't handle it) increasing the dimensions will reduce the picture quality.