Chapter 10

You Oughta Be in Pictures: Video on Your iPhone

In This Chapter

Finding videos

Playing videos on your iPhone

Shooting video

Editing footage

Picture this scene: The smell of popcorn permeates the room as you and your family congregate to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster. A motion picture soundtrack swells up. The images on the screen are stunning. And all eyes are fixed on the iPhone.

Okay, here’s the reality check. The iPhone is not going to replace a wall-sized high-definition television as the centerpiece of your home theater, even on the larger 4.7-inch screen of the 6, or the comparatively massive 5.5-inch screen of the 6 Plus. But we want to emphasize that on that glorious widescreen display, as well as the smaller displays on older models, watching movies and other videos on the iPhone can be a cinematic delight. And if you’re banking on the larger screen, you can always use your iPhone to pump video to an Apple TV via AirPlay.

As you discover later in this chapter, you can even shoot your own blockbuster footage in the top 1080p high-definition video standard. Let’s get on with the show!

Finding Stuff to Watch

The video you’ll watch on the iPhone generally falls into one of four categories:

• Movies, TV shows, and music videos that you’ve downloaded directly to your iPhone or that reside in iTunes software on your PC or Mac that you synchronize with your iPhone: You can watch these by tapping the Videos icon on the Home screen, and then tapping the Store button at the upper-left side of the screen, or by tapping the iTunes Store icon on the Home screen, and then tapping Movies or TV Shows at the bottom of the screen. For more on synchronization, check out Chapter 3.

  Apple’s own iTunes Store features dedicated sections for purchasing episodes of TV shows (from Breaking Bad to Modern Family) and movies (such as Frozen or classics such as The Wizard of Oz). The typical price as of this writing is $2.99 per episode for popular TV shows in standard definition and $3.99 in high definition. You can also buy complete seasons of certain series. For example, Game of Thrones, Season 1 costs $38.99 in high definition and $28.99 in standard definition. Movies generally fetch between $9.99 and $19.99, at least for features, though you’ll find bargains below these, um, ticket prices, some for as little as 99¢. And yea, higher prices too.

  You can also rent some movies, typically for $2.99 or $4.99, but again sometimes for less and sometimes more. You’ll have 30 days to begin watching a rented flick, and 24 hours to finish once you’ve started. The number of days before your rental expires is displayed.

  You can find films in the store by genre (Kids & Family, Drama, Horror, and many more categories), by consulting a list of chart toppers, and by the movies Apple features (New & Noteworthy, Indie New Releases, and so forth).

• The boatload of video podcasts and courseware, featured in the free Podcasts and iTunes U apps, both from Apple: Podcasts started out as another form of Internet radio, although instead of listening to live streams, you downloaded files onto your computer or iPod to take in at your leisure. Lots of audio podcasts are still available, but the focus here is on video. You can watch free episodes that cover Sesame Street videos, sports, investing, political shows, and much more. For more on iTunes U, check out Chapter 17. And you can take a seminar at Harvard, Stanford, and thousands of other prestigious institutions. Indeed, iTunes U boasts more than 750,000 free lectures and other educational resources from around the world, many of them videos. Better still: no homework, no grades, and no tuition.
• Homegrown videos from the popular YouTube Internet site or the third-party YouTube app: As readers of the business pages know, Apple and Google, which owns YouTube, are major rivals. However, you can still fetch a YouTube app from Google for free in the iTunes Store.
• The movies you’ve created on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad (in iMovie software or other software on the Mac or, for that matter, other programs on the PC): Plus all the other videos you may have downloaded from the Internet.

You may have to prepare these videos so that they’ll play on your iPhone. To do so, highlight the video in question after it resides in your iTunes library. Go to the File menu in iTunes on your computer, and click Create New Version⇒Create iPod or iPhone Version.

For more on compatibility, visit www.dummies.com/extras/iphone.

Playing Video

Now that you know what you want to watch, here’s how to watch it:

1. On the Home screen, tap the Videos icon.

   You see a tabbed interface for Movies, TV Shows, and Music Videos, and also a tab for Rentals if you’ve rented any content. If your computer has Home Sharing turned on through iTunes, a Shared tab will also be visible.

2. Select the Movies tab.

   Note: The procedure for TV Shows and Music Videos is similar.

   You see poster thumbnails for any movies you previously purchased through iTunes, as shown in Figure 10-1, left. You’ll see these posters even if you haven’t downloaded the movies onto the phone. (Some posters may reveal only a dimmed box, showing the title of the movie plus a filmstrip icon.) The iCloud symbol on the video thumbnail means you can stream the movie, provided you have a decent Internet connection.

   In the settings for Videos, you can choose whether to present thumbnails for all the videos you have stored in iCloud or on the device, or show only those that have been downloaded to the phone.

3. Flick your finger to scroll through the list, and then tap the video you want to play.

   You see a summary page for the movie that reveals a larger movie poster, a play icon, and Details, Chapters, and Related tabs.

4. You don’t have to explore a movie to the nth degree, of course, but if you love movies like we do, you’ll appreciate the following options:
   1. To see the plot summary, run time, and more info about the movie: Tap Details (if you’re not already in that view).

      

   2. To jump to a particular scene or chapter in the movie and watch from that location: Tap Chapters.

      In the TV Shows section, you see an Episodes tab instead of a Chapters tab.

   3. To see posters representing movies similar to this one and available to rent or buy in iTunes: Tap Related.

   Figure 10-2 shows all these tabbed views for Frozen.

5. Tap the play icon to watch the movie.

   If you haven’t downloaded the movie to your phone so that you’re streaming it from iCloud, you will be at the mercy of your Internet connection. You may see a spinning gear and the word Loading before the video begins. If you’ve downloaded the flick, you shouldn’t detect any noticeable delay.

6. Turn the device to its side.

   The iPhone plays videos from the Videos app or those you buy or rent from the store only in landscape, or widescreen, mode. Video you shoot yourself in portrait mode using the iPhone camera, however, plays back in portrait mode.

   You’ll be watching the flick as the filmmaker intended, in a cinematic aspect ratio.

   

7. Now that the video is playing, tap the screen to display the controls shown in Figure 10-3.

   

8. Tap the controls that follow, as needed:
   • To play or pause the video, tap the play/pause icon.
   • Drag the volume slider to the right to raise the volume and to the left to lower it. Alternatively, use the physical volume buttons to control the audio levels. If the video is oriented properly, the buttons will be on the bottom-left of the iPhone.
   • Tap the restart/rewind icon to restart the video or tap and hold down the same icon to rewind.
   • Tap and hold down the fast forward icon to advance the video. Or skip ahead by dragging the playhead along the scrubber bar.
   • Tap the scale icon to toggle between filling the entire screen with video and fitting the video to the screen. (You won’t see this icon in every movie.) Alternatively, you can double-tap the video to go back and forth between fitting and filling the screen.

     Fitting the video to the screen displays the film in its theatrical aspect ratio. But you may see translucent bars above or below the video (or to its sides), which some people don’t like. Filling the screen brings you in closer but the sides or top of the picture are cropped, or trimmed, so you aren’t seeing the complete scene that the camera operator shot.

   • Tap the subtitles icon (shown only if the movie offers them) to display subtitles in an available language.
9. Tap the screen again to make the controls go away (or just wait a few moments until they disappear on their own). Tap again to bring them back.
10. Tap Done when you’ve finished watching. (You have to summon the controls back if they’re not already present.)

    You return to the iPhone’s video menu screen.

To watch video podcasts or iTunes U courses, download the free Podcasts or iTunes U app from the App Store.

To remove a downloaded video from the device — the movie remains online — tap Edit from the main Movies or TV Shows list screen, and then tap the x-in-a-circle that appears inside the movie poster. (If you don’t have any movies residing on the phone, you won’t see the Edit option.) Apple will ask if you’re sure you want to delete the video. If you are, tap Cancel.

Shooting Video

All the iPhones dating back to 3GS can shoot video. The 4s and later can produce high-definition video at what techies refer to as 1080p. The 6 and 6 Plus models also provide continuous autofocus as you shoot, which helps when you, or the people you’re trying to shoot, are on the run. These models also let you shoot at a frame rate of 60 FPS instead of 30 FPS.

The front-facing camera on the iPhone plays in the high-def leagues, too, but at the lower 720p video resolution standard. It’s known as the FaceTime HD camera on the 6 and 6 Plus and can capture more light than its predecessors. The front camera on the 4s does not do high-def.

The iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s made further improvements to the video stabilization feature introduced in the 4s. And through a process known as temporal noise reduction, you can shoot terrific video even in dim light. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus added cinematic image stabilization for reducing the shakes of a shooter and smoothing out the resulting videos, as your authors joyfully discovered.

Here’s how to shoot video on these latest phone models. Note that you can capture video in portrait or landscape mode:

1. Tap the Camera icon on the Home screen.
2. Drag the screen or swipe across the options so that Video becomes your preferred shooting format.

   If you read the preceding chapter on Photos, you’re already familiar with how to do this step. If you haven’t read it yet, don’t sweat because nothing could be simpler. You’ll know you’ve selected Video because the word Video appears in yellow, just below a yellow dot and just above the round red shutter icon that you press to start and stop your video. Take a peek at Figure 10-4, which shows what the screen looks like before (left) and after (right) you press the icon. You can also choose Slo-Mo and Time-Lapse on the iPhone 5s, 6, and 6 Plus. Note: When you choose a non-video shooting format — Photo, Square, or Pano, as outlined in Chapter 9 — the round shutter icon will be white.

   When using the iPhone Camera app, you can scroll to select the desired shooting mode as well as tap to make that selection. The capability to do one or the other came with iOS 8.

3. Tap the big red shutter icon at the bottom center to begin shooting a scene.

   At the top center of the screen, a tiny red circle blinks next to a counter that times the length of your video. Meanwhile, the big red icon that you tapped morphs into an encircled smaller red rectangle.

4. (Optional) You can exploit the iPhone’s pinch to zoom capabilities to move closer to the subject. On the 5s, 6, or 6 Plus, you can zoom by up to 3X.
5. When you’re finished, tap the now-circled red shutter icon again to stop recording.

   Your video is automatically saved to the Recently Added folder (or Camera Roll), alongside any other saved videos and still pictures.

   

You can tap the flash icon to shine an LED light while you record video. And, as with taking digital stills, you can switch from the front to the rear camera before starting to shoot video. But you can’t switch from the front to back camera while you’re capturing video. Remember too that the flash is available only with the rear camera.

Note the 60 FPS frame rate indicator in Figure 10-4, which appears only if you’re shooting at that high-quality frame rate. If you choose not to shoot at 60 FPS, go to Settings⇒Photos & Camera⇒Record Video at 60 FPS and make sure the switch is turned off. (This setting is off by default because 60 FPS videos eat more storage.)

You can capture still images while you’re shooting video. Tap the white camera icon that appears when you’re shooting video (labeled in Figure 10-4, right). If you’re shooting in landscape mode, the white camera icon appears below the red shutter icon. Note: You see the white camera icon whether you’re using the rear-facing iSight camera or the front-facing FaceTime camera.

Videos that you shoot on the iPhone land in the Recently Added folder (or Camera Roll), where they are identified by the movie camera icon and the video length on their corresponding thumbnail, as well as by their own special Videos album listing in the Photos app. If you shoot a slow-motion video (read the next section), the icon on top of the video thumbnail in the Recently Added folder (or Camera Roll) or the Videos album is encircled by lines.

Going slow

If you have the iPhone 5s, 6, or 6 Plus, you get another shooting benefit: the capability to capture video in slow motion, which we think is truly nifty. You’ll love playing back in slow motion your kid’s amazing catch in the varsity football game, just like the TV networks do to show off super plays by the pros.

When shooting in slow motion on the 5s, the iSight camera records video at a high rate of 120 frames per second in 720p high-definition video. On the 6 or 6 Plus, you have the option to shoot slow-mo at 240 FPS. Tap the 120 FPS or 240 FPS on-screen indicator to toggle from one slo-mo frame rate to the other. You get to select where to play back the video at quarter speed, as we show you in a moment.

But first things first: You have to grab the video before you can play it back. To shoot in slow motion, launch the Camera app and select Slo-Mo as your shooting format of choice. Remember, you will see the Slo-Mo option only if you have the iPhone 5s, 6 ,or 6 Plus.

Shoot your slow-motion footage the same way you shoot at regular speeds. Note that the white circle surrounding the red shutter icon has teeny-tiny lines around it.

Tap the slow-motion video you want to watch. The video starts playing at normal speed, and then slows at a point determined by the phone. You can adjust this slow-motion section by sliding the vertical bars below the frame viewer (see Figure 10-5). When the vertical lines are close, the video is playing back at a normal speed. The video plays back slowly when the lines are spread apart. When you’re playing back a segment in slow motion, any accompanying audio is slowed too.

Going fast

The Time-Lapse camera feature added in iOS 8 has the opposite effect of Slo-Mo, enabling you to capture a scene and play it back at a warped speed. Choose Time-Lapse the same way that you select other shooting modes and then tap the record icon. The app captures photos at dynamically selected intervals. As of this writing, there was no way to adjust the interval period manually.

When you’re ready to watch the sped-up sequence, tap play as you do with any other video.

Editing what you shot

We assume that you captured some really great stuff — as well as some footage that belongs on the cutting room floor. That’s not a problem because you can perform simple edits right on your iPhone. Just do the following:

1. Tap a video recording to display the on-screen controls.
2. Drag the start and end points along the timeline to select only the video you want to keep, as shown in Figure 10-6.

   Hold your finger over the section to expand the timeline to make it easier to apply your edits. You can tap the play icon to preview the edit.

3. Tap Trim, in the upper-right corner.
4. Decide what to do with your trimmed clip.

   You can tap Trim Original to permanently remove scenes from the original clip. Or tap Save as New Clip to create a newly trimmed video clip; the original video is unaffected and the new clip is stored in the Recently Added folder (or Camera Roll). Or tap Cancel to start over.

If you want to do more ambitious editing, check out iMovie for iPhone, a $4.99 app that resembles an ultralite version of iMovie for Mac computers. If you bought a new iPhone with iOS 7 or iOS 8, however, you can get the iMovie app gratis, along with iPhoto, Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet), and Keynote (presentations).

After loading the video clips you’ve shot on the phone, iMovie lets you go Hollywood, within limits. Apple supplies eight custom themes — Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful, Neon, Simple, CNN iReport, and News — for adding titles and transitions to your budding masterpiece. Custom soundtracks are available, though you can also select a tune from your own music library. The cool feature is that you can make movie trailers, with a dozen possible styles. When you’ve finished editing, you can export the movie in one of three file sizes and send the project to iTunes. Or you can send it to the Recently Added folder (or Camera Roll), Facebook, Vimeo, CNN iReport, or YouTube. When iOS8 came out, Apple updated iMovie with new video filters and other editing tools.

Sharing video

Unlike other video on your iPhone, you can play back what you’ve just shot in portrait or landscape mode. And if the video is any good (and why wouldn’t it be?), you’re likely going to want to share it with others. To do so, display the playback controls by tapping the screen, and then tap the share icon, which appears almost all the way to the bottom left of the screen (and in the margin). You have several options: Make the video part of a slideshow (see Chapter 9), email the video, include it in a message, or send it to iCloud, Facebook, Vimeo, or YouTube. (You have additional options if you’ve enabled a Chinese keyboard.) You can also share the video via AirDrop with a person who is nearby and carrying his or her own AirDrop-compatible device.

To help you remember a video that’s worth sharing, tap the heart icon that appears with the playback controls to designate it a favorite. As noted in Chapter 9, you can also tap the heart for still images.

Watching video on TV

The Retina display on the iPhone is worth boasting about, but sometimes you want to watch videos on your iPhone on a larger screen television. Apple affords you several ways to do so:

• Add a cable: Apple is all too happy to sell you a cable to connect the iPhone to a TV. The cable you choose depends on your TV setup, the available ports, and the iPhone model you own. Wired choices from Apple include a digital A/V adapter and HDMI cable (iPhone 4s); a composite A/V cable; and a VGA adapter and VGA cable. The 5 was the first iPhone to use Apple’s new Lightning connector. Apple sells a Lightning Digital AV adapter for $49 and a Lightning–to–VGA adapter for the same price.
• Use wireless streaming: You’ve heard us mention AirPlay, a wonderful feature for people who have iPhones and Apple TV boxes. As you’re watching video, tap the AirPlay icon or summon it from Control Center, and then choose an Apple TV unit from the list of AirPlay devices that shows up. If all goes well, the video you’re watching now appears like magic on your TV set. If all doesn’t go well, make sure the Apple TV is tapping into the same wireless network as your phone.

You can take AirPlay streaming one step further and exploit the AirPlay Mirroring feature. It lets you share, or mirror, to a TV anything on the iPhone screen — not just videos or music, but also games, pictures, web pages, and so on. As you rotate the iPhone from portrait to landscape or back, AirPlay Mirroring follows suit on the big screen. We think you’ll agree that the feature is cool and useful, especially if you want to share what you’re watching or doing with a larger audience. Note, however, that the quality of the experience is related to the quality of your network connection.

Restricting video and other usage

If you’ve given an iPhone to your kid or someone who works for you, you may not want that person spending time watching videos. You want him or her to do something more productive, such as homework or the quarterly budget.

That’s where parental (or might we say “Mean Boss”) restrictions come in. Please note that the use of this iron-fist tool can make you unpopular.

Tap Settings⇒General⇒Restrictions. Then tap Enable Restrictions. You’ll be asked to establish or enter a previously established passcode. Twice. Having done so, in the Allowed Content section, tap Movies, TV Shows, and any other content you want to restrict. Choose the Don’t Allow option for each, or choose a movie rating or a TV show rating (PG or whatever) or both that you feel comfortable having the youngsters watch. If you made any specific app a no-no, when you return to the Home screen the icon for that app is missing in action and you can’t search for it using Spotlight. Same goes for other restricted activities. To restore privileges, go back to Restrictions and tap Disable Restrictions. You’ll have to reenter your passcode.

You can apply restrictions also to Safari, the Camera app, FaceTime, iTunes, Siri, AirDrop, and more, as you see when we delve into Settings further (see Chapter 14).

With that, let’s roll the closing credits to this chapter.