1. What is VideoPix ?
A. An app that can be used to grab images(frames) from the video with the precision of single frame. It can also be used to play video in slow motion, fast motion, pause, and navigate through all the frames of the video directly on your iPhone or iPod touch or iPad. You can also output the video to your TV using for example Apple VGA or Digital AV adaptor and watch it in slow/fast motion, or move frame by frame.
2. What do you mean by frame ? How many frames are there in a Video?
A. In layman terms, every video is composed of a sequence of images taken in quick succession in very short intervals of time. When you watch a video, what you essentially are seeing is a sequence of photos in quick succession imparting a sense of motion of the brain. There are generally 24 or 30 frames in every second of video, though it may vary from video to video.
3. What devices are compatible with VideoPix ?
A. VideoPix runs on any device that is running iOS4.1 or later.
4. What are the video sources that the app can work with ?
A. Any of the following:
(i) Any video from Photo Library/Camera Roll,
(ii) non-DRM videos in Videos app(requires iOS 5 or later),
(iii) Videos imported directly into the app from computer using iTunes File Sharing,
(iv) Video recorded from within app(reqiuires an iOS device with video camera),
So if you have videos shot by your SD or HD camcorder, then you can import it and grab frames on your iPhone or iPod touch at leisure. If you have your favorite movie in a DVD, you can rip it and then import the video to Videos app using iTunes.
Not only that, videos shot by digital camera in MJPEG format can also be imported into the app and used with the app
Note that videos on youtube.com are available in 360p or 720p mp4 format, and so you can also import those videos into the app by first downloading them on your PC/Mac(using any of the free youtube downloaders available on the internet).
4. Is the app compatible with iPod touch 4g ?
A. Yes, the app is compatible with iPod touch 4g - you can select any video in your iPod touch 4g photo library or Videos app and grab frames, shoot video using in built video recorder and grab perfect frames at leisure. Not only that, the resolution of grabbed frames is higher than in built ipod touch 4g still camera !
5. What are the app features in the latest version of VideoPix ?
A. The latest version ofVideoPix has several new and unique features including:
i) Play video with sound at any frame rate between 1 fps to 60 fps configurable on the fly. Pause, move frame forward and backward single frame at a time, and optionally save the current video frame,
ii) Watch slow motion or fast motion playback on an external display such as Television connected to iOS device,
iii) Select video from Photo Albums or Videos app,
iv) Record video within the app on iPhone 4S/iPhone 4/iPhone 3GS/iPad 2,
v) No trimming/compression interface when selecting video as commonly witnessed in other video apps on iPhone.
vi) iOS4.1 compatible supporting multitasking and support for retina display on iPhone 4S/iPhone 4
vii) Ability to import upto 1080p MOV/MP4 videos from your computer and play them at normal rate, slow motion, fast motion, or grab stills from them
viii) Grab pix with correct geo and time meta data
ix) Share Pix to Facebook from within the app
6. I get "Access Denied" when i try to open Videos from Camera Roll, why is that and what do I do ?
A. From iPhone/iPad home screen, open the Settings app, tap General, then tap Location Services, and turn VideoPix switch to ON. Now reopen the app and access would be enabled.
This is required by the iOS framework in order to grant direct access to Videos and therefore avoid the frustrating "Compression" interface which takes long time to select Video. The app also needs gep information from the Videos in order to copy it to the grabbed images.
7.What is the format and resolution of videos that I can import from computer ?
A. (i) On iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch3G/4G, you can import upto 1080p(1920x1080) H264 videos in MP4/MOV file format. Upto 1600x1200 MJPEG videos are also supported in MP4/MOV/AVI format.
(ii) On iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G or 3G(8GB model), upto 640x480 H264 videos in MP4/MOV file format are supported.
8.Do I need to convert videos before importing them in Video Library(Videos app) or directly into the app ?
A. Only if the video is not in the above mentioned format, the conversion is needed. For example, if you have videos that you shot with Flip Mino HD camcorder or your iPod Nano(5G) video camera or even your digital camera(whose output is MJPEG in MOV/MP4 format), then NO conversion is needed and the videos can directly be imported into the app. Check your camcorder manual to see if it outputs H.264 videos in mp4 format.
9.How do I convert videos to compatible format ?
A. There are several free tools on the web which convert video to iPhone or Apple TV compatible format. The free tools that are popular are Videora(http://www.videora.com) and HandBrake(http://www.handbrake.fr). Download the Videora Apple TV converter or the latest version of HandBrake to perform the conversion. Both these tools are available for Windows as well as Mac and are free. See this link on how to do sample conversion.
10.I am a iPhone 3G user and am unable to select video from camera roll, why is that ?
A. This problem is no longer present in the latest version of VideoPix. iPhone 3G/iPod Touch users can select any video from Camera Roll or Photo Albums,
11.What is the resolution of grabbed frames ?
A. Equal to resolution of the video. If you use it on a 1920x1080 video, it will be 1920x1080 and if you use it on 640x480 video, it will be 640x480. So working with hi res videos is generally recommended whenever possible.
12.How do I share grabbed pictures ?
A. There is an internal photo library in the app where all the frames are saved by default. You can press the action button(the curved arrow) at the lower left corner and then tap on upto 20 pictures to attach and send in a single email. Now you can also share the pix on Facebook directly from VideoPix library using the above method.
13.Can I select video in my Videos directory(Videos app) and grab frames ?
A. Yes, provided you are using iOS 5.0 or later.
14. I upgraded to new iOS version or restored my device, and now find the internal Saved VideoPix library to be empty ? Why is that and do I lose anything ?
A. VideoPix always stores the grabbed frames in two locations - Photo Library/Camera Roll of your iOS device and along with it internally within the app(called Saved VideoPix Library) for various purposes like Facebook sharing. So there is duplication in storage which could have potentially caused duplication of data in iCloud while backups. To solve this issue, the copy stored in internal Saved VideoPix library have been excluded from iCloud backups and so will be reset when you restore your device. You do not lose anything because a persistent copy of the photo is always stored in Photo Library which is backedup in iCloud, always.
[Last Updated : Oct 15, 2011]
VideoPix FAQ