Platform nightmares.

I was recently contracted by a start-up to help create content for portable devices. The media was targeted at a few different types of platforms, iPods (video & audio), windows media devices, smartphones ect. They were getting into this with ideas of delivering content across these platforms easily. Needless to say there is NO easy way to do it!

Problems started to arise regarding chaptering. Video set up with chapters only works correctly on ipods, and only video ipods. Also, every peice of media needed to be created in the correct format for the device, so video needed to be created in both mac (m4a + m4v) for itunes and ipods, and wma and wmv for windows media devices, a nightmare right from the get-go. It seems the windows devices, as well as windows media player will not handle m4a or m4v on most machines or devices, and chapters don't work at all. The only way to do "chapters" on wm platforms is to create seperate files and an asf (playlist) file, a process that takes some time.
This proved to be frustrating for my client as these options greatly increased the cost of creating and formating the media, thus denting thier bottom line. Also, the platform problems dont end there, on my end it was even worst! Need to do a video with chapters? Get on the Mac. Need to create WIndows media playlist? Get on the PC... A constant headache.

When, if ever will we converge the multiple format options out there? Is it so hard for itunes to handle wmv and windows media player to handle m4a/m4v? Smooth, consistent, easy content delivery will not be possible until media can be used across platforms and devices and it will continue to take twice the time to produce as long as there is a Beta vs. VHS type thing going on in the world of mobile media.