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Encoding Video For Mobile Devices?
MadGeek007 writes "I am developing an app for Android that will use many short (averaging 10-20 minutes) instructional videos. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about encoding video. I'd like to use a codec that is supported by Android and iOS out-of-the-box. I need the videos to look decent on large mobile displays (IPhone 4, HTC EVO, etc.), and still be able to stream well on a good 3G connection. The sound quality is also important. With so many different display resolutions on mobile devices, do I need to encode multiple copies of the same video? Or can I get away with a one-size-fits-all video? Can anyone recommend encoding software, codecs, resolutions, and bitrates that would work best for this application?"
Who is the ignorant one? He asked specifically for a format supported by both Android and iOS4 - that pretty much means h.264 unless he delivers two different videos to the two platforms, and if you can get decent performance from one format that both support, why bother to make it hard for yourself? Presumably you will also want to target hardware video decoders where possible, which also lends itself to h.264.
If the ideology behind using a format other than h.264 is that strong, he shouldn't be developing for iOS 4 in the first place.