Apple produces a KB article on iFrame

Quincy Pince-Nez
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October 13, 2009
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Apple's new iFrame format kind of blind-sided us.  While we catch up, we'll provide some of the more interesting tidbits.  We'll start with Apple's just posted KB on the subject. 

  • The standard resolution of iframe is an unconventional 960x540 pixels and is also called iFrame on the new Sanyos.  Something tells us that this resolution is important for another product coming soon.
  • It is indicated by a star icon:   (looks like iMovie, no?)
  • Sanyo VPC-HD2000A and Sanyo VPC-FH1A are the only two camcorders in the world that currently support this resolution
  • The resolution, demonstrated in red below against other popular formats, is quarter 1080P in pixels (half width, half height). 

 

Comments (18)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 3:56pm

Also one quarter 1080p, so you could double the width and height and you've got 1080 fro the iFrame by upscaling.

WOnder how the iPhone resolution fits with this, the minimum resolution for iTune LP and also where a tablet and ATV would have its resolution.

rogerdodger (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 4:34pm

better iSight in the forthcoming iMac?

iStevo (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 4:39pm

While iFrame's resolution of 960 x 540 would be low for Apple's iTablet, my guess is that the iTablet's resolution will be 50% more than iFrame in each dimension, or 1440 x 810.

This resolution would be consistent with a 10" tablet that keeps the same pixel density as the iPhone. Just do the math. Keeping the same pixel density might be important for the finger detection software.

This resolution would be great to watch HD movies and would also be better than most netbooks for internet surfing.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 5:01pm

Could this mean that the rumoured iTablet is actually going to be called the iFrame ? Apple tend to like keeping it simple, and so would ideally have a new video format designed for a specific device carry the moniker of that device itself.

iPod format video...
iFrame format video...

If so, how copyright protectable would the name iFrame be, given that it is part of html syntax ?

Kev Orng (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 6:00pm

Oh, good, another video format! Hooray!

Know how this would be useful though? If you could import the video into iMovie in iFrame format, edit the video, then when you're ready to output, tell iMovie to re-import just the clips you used in the movie at full HD. What we call a batch capture in Final Cut.

Ells (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 6:38pm

960x540? or 940x540? Something some'where (image chart or article) is incorrect and is confusing the hell out of me :)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 14, 2009 - 5:22pm

The Apple support page says 960 :-)

I guess 9to5mac made a typo in their graphic.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 7:20pm

I think this resolution is a no brainer. Very good transitional resolution. 720P seems to be the oddball. Some video guy will be able to say if this is actually easier to scale. The iFrame format should be able very simple math to scale up to cover a 1080P screen with no blurring. So this makes it an excellent distribution format for AppleTV.

9to5Mac Noob William (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 8:10pm

Perhaps if we multiply the 960 by 2 (1920) and the 540 by 2 (1080), then we would find that it is half the resolution of 1080p???

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 28, 2009 - 12:05pm

Half the number of horizontal lines as 1080p, but one quarter the resolution (double 960 AND double 540... 2x2=4).

Just my $0.02

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 8:28pm

This "format" isn't anything new to iMovie. It may be new to camcorder resolutions, but not iMovie. 960X540 has been the default "Large" video resolution for importing ANY video into iMovie for a long time now. This seems like a lot of smoke and mirrors to me. Like I said, this "format" has been in iMovie for a while. Apple has just managed to convince some manufacturer(s) to put this setting in their camcorders as the default recording format so that when you import the video into iMovie, it won't have to do any converting.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 8:31pm

This "format" isn't anything new to iMovie. It may be new to camcorder resolutions, but not iMovie. 960X540 has been the default "Large" video resolution for importing ANY video into iMovie for a long time now. This seems like a lot of smoke and mirrors to me. Like I said, this "format" has been in iMovie for a while. Apple has just managed to convince some manufacturer(s) to put this setting in their camcorders as the default recording format so that when you import the video into iMovie, it won't have to do any converting.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 13, 2009 - 8:33pm

Who did the crappy job on the frame graphics? It's hard to read against some of the colors and the font is to small. Come on...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 14, 2009 - 6:20am

Who did a crappy job of learning English? 'to small' 'too small'
See it's easy to make a little mistake.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 14, 2009 - 11:44am

yeah i think the graphic says 940 x 540 not 960 x 540.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 14, 2009 - 11:45am

yeah i think the graphic says 940 x 540 not 960 x 540.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 14, 2009 - 8:11am

There is already a category of video codecs in editorial referred to as I-frame.

toke lahti (not verified) | October 15, 2009 - 11:12am

Hmm, this revolutionary resolution seems to same than my Panasonic HVX-200 has in its chips...
Btw, dvcprohd has 960x720, so this is almost same.

If iFrame is i-frame-only AVC, it's quite identical with AVC-intra (well, not the same color depth or bitrate, but..)..