Mac and Apple TV app preview: 1920x1080 landscape, probe it first

For Mac and Apple TV apps, Apple's specification page lists a landscape size of 1920 by 1080, a length of 15 to 30 seconds and a file limit of 500 MB. A desktop screen recording is already landscape, so the main job is to check the numbers before upload. Sume video inspect returns a probe of a clip you host, without re-encoding it.

What does Apple list?

The same page lists 15 to 30 seconds, up to 500 MB, H.264 in .mov, .m4v or .mp4 (or ProRes 422 HQ in .mov), up to 30 fps, and stereo 256 kbps AAC audio.

How do I check my clip?

Import the file with POST /v1/media-imports, then call video inspect with frames: false. That returns only the probe, with no stills to pay for. Compare the probe with the table: duration between 15 and 30 seconds, a 1920x1080 frame, a frame rate of 30 or less, and an audio track present (probe.has_audio).

The call is sync by default and waits up to 30 seconds; if it takes longer you get 202 and poll the job.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-inspect \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: mac-preview-probe-1" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/mac-preview.mp4",
    "frames": false
  }'

What if it is too long?

Cut it with Video trim: send start and either end or duration and get a new MP4 for a flat $0.02. Probe the new file, not the old one. If the recording has the wrong frame size, fix it in your recorder and run the probe again; this post does not cover resizing.

What else should I check?

The probe is a quick gate. Add a visual check before you upload.

• Pull three stills with video frames and look for cut-off menus.
• Make sure no text sits within the edge of the frame.
• Check that the first frame explains the app, since a visitor may not play it.
• Re-run the probe after any trim.

Why not resize inside Sume?

The Sume media tools in the docs trim, crop, filter and compose clips. A probe tells you whether the file already meets the numbers, which is the cheapest answer. If it does not, fix the source at its origin where you can, since a re-encode adds another generation of compression to a screen recording.