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?"

Comments

How about now vs. later? Terrible advice.

[SuperKendall]

Well, for Android you could always use WebM, and for iOS H.264.

Oh really? Oh what currently shipping device would that work?

If you can name a shipping device on which that would work, then mull over the battery implications of playing back hardware decoded video vs. using the mobile CPU to do all the decoding.

WebM is a great idea and it will be interesting to see if Google can push hardware makers to support it, but to suggest using it for anything that plans to ship in under a year is awful advice.