iPlayerHD Supports Mobile Media

iPlayerHD supports Mobile media for Apple devices.

Did you know you can use your iPlayer account to deliver video to the iPhone, iPod and iPad? We're still testing formats for the other devices like Android, Nexus and Blackberry. More on that later. Since most mobile video is consumed on Apple devices, that's where we started.

Those devices use video players that play MP4, MOV and M4V format videos. Their small screens and resolutions mean bitrates smaller than you create for your iPlayerHD account. You’ll deliver a single bit rate video to mobile devices – no need to create multiple bit rates as we don’t use bandwidth detection on mobiles.

Follow these three steps to get mobile video on your website:

1. Encode your video specifically for Apple smart phones.

2. Upload your video to your iPlayerHD account.

3. Create a link to your video on your website.

Apple iPad and iPhone visitors to your site simply click on your video links and the device will open and play the video.

Using the method prescribed below, we'll create M4V files using the H264 codec.

Here are the details:

Encoding your videos

We’ll use QuickTime Player Pro as our encoding tool and we are doing it on a PC. There may be slight variations in the appearance of the options but the choices will be the same if you do this on a Mac. The source files for this example are QuickTime Movies.

Open your source video file in QuickTime Player Pro.

Click "File" then "Export for Web".

In the window that opens, give your file a name and a location where it will be saved

Choose "Export Versions for iPhone" (not cellular).

Click OK. The video will encode.

You may encode several videos at the same time – the faster your processor, the faster multiple encodes will complete.

Upload your video to your iPlayerHD account

In your iPlayer Management Console, click on Media Files/Upload Media/Browse. You may upload multiple files at the same time. Once your file is uploaded, you’ll see it listed in your media files. Click on “Details” next to the file name and then copy the file’s URL. It should look like this ( this is an active link - read this Blog on your Apple device and click on the link):

http://www.iplayerhd.com/Videos/1fc7935c-f150-450f-9800-a89abd339bdf/33e25699-cb49-4519-911d-16758e298de4-blue_marvel_m720p-iPhone.m4v

Create a link to your video on your website

Add thumbnails or other links to your website that signify mobile media. Visitors to your site click on the links and your video will open and play in the mobile device’s video player.

Here's an example - watch it from your Apple device as this is not meant for your desktop.

Click here to watch the video.

As always, if you have questions or need support, email us at

info@iplayerhd.com or by telephone at 603.778.7000.