Introduction

Who should read this document?

All iTunes U Public Site Manager administrator, contributor, and manager users involved in the management of a public iTunes U site should read this document.

iTunes U administrators, contributors, and managers should read this document to learn about iTunes U Public Site Manager, as well as how to organize their institution’s site, including how to design and customize pages.

System requirements

iTunes U Public Site Manager requires:

• iTunes version 9 or later for Mac or Windows

  In order to guarantee a consistent user experience, always use the latest version of iTunes.

• Safari version 4.0.3 or later for Mac or Windows

For provider-hosted content, to optimize your server bandwidth and performance:

• Enable byte-range serving. Enabling byte-range requests for streaming and resumption of downloads on your web server allows you to send portions of content at a time and can improve the performance of the content caching system iTunes U Public Site Manager uses.

• Verify your server includes and supports: Last-Modified or ETAG headers, partial GET, HEAD requests, If-Modified-Since GET, and If-None-Match GET.

Supported formats

Once your site is live in the iTunes U area of the iTunes Store, your institution's content is available for download on a wide variety of devices (for example, iTunes, iPad, and iPhone) and to a broad worldwide audience with varying server bandwidth and performance. To ensure a good user experience, consider appropriate file size and compression when encoding your content.

iTunes U Public Site Manager supports the distribution of compressed audio and video files. Apple recommends using the following formats for your audio and video content:

• Audio files (AAC, MP3) with appropriate file extensions (.m4a, .mp3). For best results during playback, Apple recommends converting MP3 files greater than 32 megabytes (MB) to AAC format. For AAC audio files, Apple recommends the following specifications:

  • Audio Format: Baseline Low-Complexity Profile with AAC-LC (Music)

  • Data Rate: Up to 160 Kbps

  • Channels: Stereo (in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov formats)

  • Output Sample Rate: 48 kHz

  • Encoding Quality: Better

• Video files (MPEG-4 with H.264 compression) with appropriate file extensions (.mp4, .m4v, .mov). For best results with iPod, Apple recommends using MPEG-4 with H.264 compression with the following specifications:

  • Video Format: MPEG-4 with H.264

  • Data Rate: Up to 1.5 Mbps

  • Image Size: 640 x 480 pixels

  • Frame Rate: 30 frames per second

  • Key Frame: Every 24 frames

  • Audio Tracks: Baseline Low-Complexity Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps

You can also use iTunes U Public Site Manager to distribute Portable Document Format (PDF) and electronic publication (ePub) files. ePub files must pass ePubCheck 1.0.5, include only files listed in the manifest, and use UTF-8/16 characters. For more details, read the complete ePub specification at http://www.idpf.org/specs.htm. PDF and ePub files appear in iTunes U and the iTunes U library with a book icon. To open a PDF or ePub file, download the file and double-click the file. iBooks or another reader is required (download the free iBooks application from the App store). You cannot preview a PDF or ePub file in iTunes U.

iTunes U Public Site Manager supports images embedded in items in JPEG or PNG format with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png) in RGB Color Model. JPEG images can include EXIF or JFIF, but not both.

iTunes U Public Site Manager is designed to support public content and therefore does not support hosting content on a secure server using an SSL URL scheme (https).

If you are using QuickTime to create and edit video content, it is recommended that you export your videos by choosing “Movie to iPod” from the Export pop-up menu in QuickTime Pro. For more information, see http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.

Notes:

• Some MP3 audio files, specifically ID3 version 1.x tagged files, have known issues displaying item artwork information. To use specific artwork with these audio files, Apple recommends either converting the files to MP3 files tagged as ID3 version 2.4 or converting the files to the AAC file type format (.m4a).

• iTunes U does not support the downloading of WAV or AIFF file formats on the iPod, iPhone, or iPad.

• Due to video file profile level requirements, iTunes U might not play some files on the iPad without re-encoding the files. For more information, see the iPad audio playback and TV and video requirements at http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/.

• The supported formats information is specific to iTunes U Public Site Manager collections. For course information, see Supported media types in the iTunes U Course Manager online help.

Getting additional information

For more information about iTunes U Public Site Manager, see:

• iTunes U Guidelines - Creating and Managing Your Public Site, which describes Apple’s design recommendations for creating and managing your site

• Marketing iTunes U, which explains how to correctly promote your institution’s content to learners around the world

• iTunes U Guidelines - Creating Your Course, which describes Apple’s design recommendations for creating courses using iTunes U Course Manager.

For access to all documentation, frequently asked questions, and support and discussion groups, see the iTunes U Support website at http://www.apple.com/support/itunes-u.