Database Users

Movie Conversion

Does anyone know of a good Movie convertor? I have all my movies already converted on my PC to full size Xvid for streaming to the TV (Pinnacle showcenter) but want ro reduce them down for my exec.
I have always used pocket divx and lathe in the past but can never get the audio in sync.
I have been trialling Pocket DVD studio but the playback is far inferior and choppy compared to pocket divx encoder!

You've got 2 options.
1. DVD to Pocket PC by Makayama Software Tokyo, Japan. Compress 2hr DVD to 128 mb only.
2. Canopus Pro Coder 2 also a good compressor to all formats and media type. http://www.canopus.us/us/products/procoder2/pm_procoder2.asp
I use both of them and very satisfied. All my memory cards were full of Movies or Music.

Or take the plunge and learn how to use VirtualDub for the best results. It takes a fair bit of learning, but once you know what you're doing it's quicker and produces better results than any other software.

Already posted in this forum..use Advanced X-Video Convertor or use the Smart Movie Convertor 2.76..yr problems will be solved...

hdubli said:
Already posted in this forum..use Advanced X-Video Convertor or use the Smart Movie Convertor 2.76..yr problems will be solved...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the help folks. These two look exactly what I am looking for.
I cant try them yet as I am doing a conversion using movie shrink & burn 2. I will post my results for all that I test later!

Hi question...
Coming from a P9 user, so please excuse my ignorance..
Isnt there any need to resize the screen/view? what's the dimension? When i converted movies for my p9 before, i had to make the movie smaller to fit my realplayer.. is there such a thing for Universal? What are the dimensions?
Thanks!!!

The screensize on the universal is 640x480 which is about the same as a 700MB XviD or DivX which may jitter a little and take up way too much storage.
I usually shrink down to 320 x 240 (maintaining the aspect ratio) or even less which doesnt present any noticeable loss of picture quality on such a small screen. For best playback result I use the free TCPMP (formerly Betaplayer) in full screen.

Try pocket DVD studio, simple easy uses wm codec, so you get good quality. Aslo allows you to output films, fo ppc, palm and other players. Bst thing is it does all the hard work. You can also cover pretty much all files. I have just converted all my south park series from realplayer to my m5000.
And you can resize screen to your hearts content from smartphone to vga size.

Hi, a quick question about video screen size. I have tried full screen mode on my o2 Exec and the playback is still the same size, with a dark boarder around it, what can i do to fix it? Thanks!

@keith
I think that for WMP to play at full screen the movie needs to be converted to 640x480 otherwise it will remain at 320x240 even when full screen, I think that betaplayer does not suffer this problem and will expand the movie to fill the screen.
So either convert your movie to 640x480 or change your movie player.
Don't quote me on any of this, I dont even have my Universal yet but from what I have read this seems to be the case.
Regards

I will try a different player; to convert them into 640X480 will be space consuming... thanks.
gooroo said:
@keith
I think that for WMP to play at full screen the movie needs to be converted to 640x480 otherwise it will remain at 320x240 even when full screen, I think that betaplayer does not suffer this problem and will expand the movie to fill the screen.
So either convert your movie to 640x480 or change your movie player.
Don't quote me on any of this, I dont even have my Universal yet but from what I have read this seems to be the case.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I've had your same problem. I tried resizing videos (with no success).
I now use TCPMP. I can now play avi's and mpeg's in full screen (File sizes are a bit prohibitive though)

No offence if I can covert a 3hr long bolloywood film to fit easily approx 250mb at vga resloution? How can you not covet 2 hour films in high quality to tiny sizes?
Have you also tried pocket divx?

Can I say that the scale to fit function is not working for media player? Logically, I would assume that scale to fit means whatever the resolution, stretch it to fit the screen, even if that means quality lost, no? i am not a big fan of converting it to 640 if that means double the size...

Thanks!
Got it now... Im using TCPMP now and it's far superior than WMP. I never did use WMP after I installed this wonderful video player.. It even played smallville xvid... which i cant even play in my laptop without the codecs installed..
Really enjoying this phone.. well, despite of the bugs..

keithchk said:
Can I say that the scale to fit function is not working for media player? Logically, I would assume that scale to fit means whatever the resolution, stretch it to fit the screen, even if that means quality lost, no? i am not a big fan of converting it to 640 if that means double the size...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use the right software to encode you can then also then play natively at 640 on your exec.

TCPMP includes Xvid/Divx codecs so it doesnt care what codec was used to encode and doesnt suffer from the WMP screensize problem. IMHO TCPMP is far superior to any other player. If you want a free encoder for your existing movies use pocketdivx encoder. I trialed about 5 commercial products a few months back but didnt have time to post my results. None of them were perfect and pocketdivx encoder produced the best picture/sound quality results but does suffer from time sync issues from time to time.
Its a bit like the cheap £30 asda dvd syndrome. They play anything whilst the top of the range Japanes brands play nothing except retail DVDs

I use Pocket DVD Player for Palm, yes for PALM, to convert a movie and use TCPMP to resize it to fit the screen of my O2 EXEC. So basically, I use the 5th setting where the black part on a wide screen DVD is automatically croped out, thus giving a a full screen effect by automatically taking out the black part of the screen found on the bottom and top part of a wide screen DVD movie.
I use the following settings:
Resolution: 464x224 (104kPixel)
Output Size: about 488 MB
Audio: 40 Kbps, 44 KHz, Mono
Video: 464x224, 15 fps
Duration: about 2:08:00
With the following settings I can convert any DVD and play it smoothly with no lags, skips, nor any miss in audio. As you can see, the only drawback is it uses up a huge amount of SD card space, about 488 MB. But I don't care, as long as it is easy and simple. I can easily delete and exchange any movie I want. I can also make the output size smaller, but it causes skips and the quality of conversion is not that good. With the above settings, my EXEC turns into a mini DVD player. Heck, it made my friends wonder and ask, "where did I bought such a small DVD player?" They were amazed to hear, "Ohhhh it's my phone."
Not only that, since I am using 464x224 size conversion, I can play it on my TH55/E1 and O2 XDA EXEC with one conversion and both running on TCPMP.

Dvd to the PPC

hi guys,
im looking for something to compress some home/family movie clips to my phone. they are about 3gb each and i would really like to get them down to as small as possible say 100mb-500mb or whatever is possible.
been searching the web and cant really find anything. the best i found was to convert to divx
any help please

you could use something like an ipod converter so it will majorly cut it down in size (though it may be the wrong resolution and look crap), or try dvd2avi and specifically set the resolution u want it to

cool mate thank you very much trying it now

personally i use Gordian Knot.
It is a program that uses a combination of smaller products (hence the name Knot) (like DVD-ripper, Virtual Dub, Vobsub etc) in order to rip a dvd.
You can use it for ripping dvds as well as modifying a movie. You can select the resolution yourself, a long with a lot of features.
I have to say that this is a bit advanced and you will get lost if you dont do your homework...There is a tutorial (google is your friend ) and once you do that you should be set to go..
Just a note, when i started using it, progress was slow but now i can do everything quite fast..
If you have the time, patience and good quality movies, you cant go wrong with this
ps: i make xvid format films with it, but divx is also supported

Giannis86 said:
I have to say that this is a bit advanced and you will get lost if you dont do your homework...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and nobody uses this anymore because there are 1click solutions that do it better and faster... this is a tool that is 5000 years old
To convert from dvd, xvid, divx, ... to an avi/wmv that fits on your htc, without tutorials, without advanced nonsense go for SPB mobile DVD
you can even tell the converter to not exceed a certain filesize, so I guess this fits yours needs perfectly

I have found iSoft DVD to PPC converter to be the best I have come across so far. I have been looking at this type of software since I bought a 4GB Sony Ericsson about 3 years ago approx. I have used the iSoft about 11 times already to convert the 11 DVD's I currently have on my 16GB Touch Pro

i like clonedvdmobile or spb mobile dvd
otherwise there are plenty of movie convertors which will convert/downsize movies

My touch HD video experience

Hi everyone.
I would like to share with you my experience with the touch HD and the settings I use for video playback.
I own both an iphone 3g and a HTC touch HD and set about looking for a piece of software that could encode video once and playback perfectly on both phones.
After many hours of trying various encoding programs I have finally found one that encodes perfectly for both devices and plays in the standard HTC media player. Best of all its free!!
The software I use is called Freestar ipod video converter and the settings I use are as follows..
Select the device as iphone and under advanced settings alter the video quality to 512. Its as simple as that!
I have encoded around 30 movies using various source code from DVD rips to divx/xvid and have had no problems at all. All the videos have played perfectly on both the iphone 3g and the HTC touch HD.
Hope this helps in some way.
Richard

Thanks for sharing. I'm interested in looking into this. I've tried super.. and can't figure out how to START the conversion (am I an idiot???) I've tried the purpose build HD encoder program I found on here and it doens't seem to make ANY different to my player. I'd be interested in checking this process out.
Regards,
BANE

The only problem I have is shutting down the software after it has finished converting, I am using Vista 32 bit and have to go through task manager to close the program.
Other than that small issue I find the software really easy to use. Simply click add and browse to the file you want to convert then click convert.
It averages around 13 to 15 minutes to convert a full length movie on my machine. Q6600,4GB ram,8800gtx.
Cheers.....Richard

Exciting! I too have yet to find the solution that works. I note that Freestar takes the VOB files as input rther than IFO files. Can I ask how you concatanate the converted files together to make one seamless movie when the various VOBs have been converted?

BANE said:
Thanks for sharing. I'm interested in looking into this. I've tried super.. and can't figure out how to START the conversion (am I an idiot???) I've tried the purpose build HD encoder program I found on here and it doens't seem to make ANY different to my player. I'd be interested in checking this process out.
Regards,
BANE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drag your media file into the bottom section of Super, once there choose your settings for encode etc then make your the file in the bottom section is "ticked" and click encode - should work.. Think default output location is program files\super or summit like that..

I'm not joking... but I don't seem to have an ENCODE buttone. Out of curiosity, could you please tell me exactly where this button is on your program so i can make sure it's not staring me in the face??
Thanks

golightlygl said:
Exciting! I too have yet to find the solution that works. I note that Freestar takes the VOB files as input rther than IFO files. Can I ask how you concatanate the converted files together to make one seamless movie when the various VOBs have been converted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a program called videoredoplus to concatenate mpg (and vob) files which streamcopies as oppposed to recodes. Concatenate before recoding (with anything) for the best quality results

BANE said:
I'm not joking... but I don't seem to have an ENCODE buttone. Out of curiosity, could you please tell me exactly where this button is on your program so i can make sure it's not staring me in the face??
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what my screen looks like.. Bottom left is the encode button..

DVDCatalyst is the bomb!
Look no further than this program for video encoding.
http://pocketdvd.ca/products/dvd catalyst 3.html
It even has a device profile for the HD and it works perfectly. I use it on a Vista 64 Ultimate system and have had no problems. They offer a 7 day full feature trial download. My 8 core Xeon system can do a 1:45 movie in 17 minutes in HQ mode!
Very impressive and easy to use UI. Three things needed to configure it is to tell it that you have a Touch HD (HQ mode preferred), where to put the file (unless you want the default location) and press "GO". It's that easy. $19.95 USD is a bargain.
Regards,
Gordo

^^ its a **** program.
I used a trial to convert a HD film to that 800x480 and just picked the profile HTC HD (HQ) and the film is unwatchable.
Got a benchmark of 54%.
In the end, i guess it doesn't come down to the program but the device.
This is getting ridiculous!

Psygnosis84 said:
^^ its a **** program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little harsh but I tend to agree with this sentiment after doing a couple of flics.. perhaps it's virtues lie somewhere yet to be discovered.

I use the ipod me video converter in the maximum resolution and in the options - slow, quality and the videos in the touch HD play perfect.
And it also allows to use subtitles (srt) (The encoder in this forum also works but it doesn't allow subtitles and sometimes I have sound issues...)

Psygnosis84 said:
^^ its a **** program.
I used a trial to convert a HD film to that 800x480 and just picked the profile HTC HD (HQ) and the film is unwatchable.
Got a benchmark of 54%.
In the end, i guess it doesn't come down to the program but the device.
This is getting ridiculous!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, I have burned several movies and just selected the HD (HQ) profile and changed nothing else (defaults for everything except for conversion priortiy, I set that to Very High, as I have an 8 core Xeon with 32GB of RAM and therefore get 17-18 minute conversions) and it views perfectly. What player are you using? I am using the standard, built in Windows Media Player and get superb results.
Try it again with WMP and let me know what results you get.
Gordo

what do you mean with HTC built in media player? The windows mobile media player? That's one of the worst players in my opinion.

jetjockgordo said:
Look no further than this program for video encoding.
http://pocketdvd.ca/products/dvd catalyst 3.html
It even has a device profile for the HD and it works perfectly. I use it on a Vista 64 Ultimate system and have had no problems. They offer a 7 day full feature trial download. My 8 core Xeon system can do a 1:45 movie in 17 minutes in HQ mode!
Very impressive and easy to use UI. Three things needed to configure it is to tell it that you have a Touch HD (HQ mode preferred), where to put the file (unless you want the default location) and press "GO". It's that easy. $19.95 USD is a bargain.
Regards,
Gordo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to say that I'm watching a full length vid now on my HTC Touch HD having used DVD Catalyst 3 on trial and it is perfect in both WMP and Album player (I don't really see any difference.)
I've not had any sucess previously with Super Converter no matter what setting I tried, yet with this, as Gordo said, just set it running with the default settings for the HTC and it converted seamlessly.
Most impressed and I think I shall be buying this one after the trial.

Trixter: Thank you very much for the screen shot. I can confirm that those buttons do NOT show up in the build I have :S (can't recall which build it is offhand) Weird.
And is it just me or is it really difficult to find this for download? I go to their site download page, but end up navigating in circles :S
BANE

hurzwa said:
what do you mean with HTC built in media player? The windows mobile media player? That's one of the worst players in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I beg to differ. While the UI sucks somewhat, I found WMP to sound better than Coreplayer (after tweaking it for hours!) and Pocketplayer. This is true with both my Shure SE530's and my Moto S9-HD's.
Here is a link to a video I shot with my son's Flip video camera so the quality is not perfect. I could not get close enough and keep the Touch HD in focus and let you see how clean the movie is. As I said in my earlier posts, DVDCatalyst and WMP work together perfectly.
Right click this link and do a "save as".
http://www.jetjocktech.com/gordo/Posted Pics/VID00006.AVI
http://www.jetjocktech.com/gordo/Posted Pics/VID00004.AVI
Gordo

...at last!
Fabulous! Having tried many of the solutions available, this is the first one that takes a real DVD (as opposed to a video file) and extracts and encodes the file to a size that allows playback on the Touch HD without stuttering.
Belive me, I've tried many solutions but this is not only effective, it's incredibly easy to use!
I recommend everyone to give it a try. I shall be paying. I've spent more time and money trying to get video to work on the Touch HD that the price seems lke a brgain now even though it might not have done when I started the process.

ok, update. Thankfully now SUPER encoder WORKS. IE the ENCODE NOW button and the rest of the buttons at the bottom have appeared.
I'm running a Vaio UX280P as my main computer, and whether it's to do with changing my poser setting from MAXIMUM BATTERY to Desktop use, or the fact that my resolution is higher when I plug it into an external monitor, It's worked.
I encoded a movie today and it not only works a treat, it did it in a pretty decent amount of time. My past experience with encoding stuff took HOURS!
Anywa, seems like a great program now i've had the chance to use it.
BANE

free video/music mp4 for htc hd full screen!!
try this site http://keepvid.com/
go to exsample ,youtube kopie the link to keepvideo its will convert to mp4 and you can play direct on your phone.

DVD to AVI conversion

Hi Guys
Not long had my Touch HD and now wanting to get some movies onto it to watch whilst travelling into work.
I downloaded a trial of DVD catalyst 3, however I did a conversion and the result is pretty poor. Nothing to show off by!
I just wondered, what video settings I should be using and even the best video conversion software to be using.
Thanks
Cb25

Hi,
you should really do a search, there have been many settings for many various applications posted, there is even a GUI you can use (based on menconder).

Actually getting a decent DVDtoDIVx converter is quite hard... I'd suggest Xilisoft DVD Ripper really

DVDCatalyst is the best for me. The Touch HD is listed as a device with default conversion setting and watching movies with Windows Media Player is fantastic. Images are smooth and the HD screen is fantastic. Using the HD defualt settings in DCat creates files between 450-550 megs. DVDCatalyst is well worth the $20. They offer a full featured 7 day trial version here http://www.a3vs.com/
Regards,
Gordo

I've tried a few, and the best I've found is the one johnpatcher mentions above : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=474955
Use DVDDecryptor to rip the DVD to VOBs, then VOBmerger to make the VOB files 1 big one - then run the Encoder above to make it perfect for the Touch HD. I admit its a bit of a faffing about, but it doesn't take much longer than using Xilisoft or something - which ends up with a movie with stuttery playback!

Can't watch Avatar on the HD2

Hi Folks-
I know there are several threads on video encoding, but I think I am asking something new. I am using the retail version of Winx DVD Ripper which does a nice job overcoming encryption from my store bought DVDs so I can rip to my computer and then transfer to my HD2. Problem is I have workable mp4 files on my computer that I can watch after the process, but I am having mixed success watching them on the HD2.
Just recently, I ripped a nice mp4 version of Avatar that played fine on my computer, but when I transferred it to the phone, it would show the circle for the video player for half a second and then go back to my file explorer. This also happened with Black Hawk Down. I've had success with other movies such as Iron Man, etc. Am I running into some form of copy protection? If so, I'm annoyed as these are 100% retail DVDs I have purchased.
Specific settings for Winx include 800x480 resolution, sound to at least 160, using high resolution mode, even safe mode the second time I ripped Avatar to see if that would help.
Any ideas would be most appreciated, thanks!

Try the HTC Video Encoder. I've encoded 1080p .mkv files with no playback issues on my HD2. It's free, so can't hurt to give it a shot.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112

i view my movies using a divx player with no problems at all.
Mike

Try TCPMP player , install it then open the program and hit file than open and select the movie! let me know if this works.

xeebot said:
Try the HTC Video Encoder. I've encoded 1080p .mkv files with no playback issues on my HD2. It's free, so can't hurt to give it a shot.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its just called video encoding GUI (saying htc implies they made it, when they didn't). But yes, I can highly recommend using it.
Also using tcpmp doesn't allow for full hardware acceleration.

ibeQuint said:
Its just called video encoding GUI (saying htc implies they made it, when they didn't). But yes, I can highly recommend using it.
Also using tcpmp doesn't allow for full hardware acceleration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know what player do you recommend?

core player and tcmp player work all the time.. Dix player"sometimes work" but has small keys and audio issues but at least you can adjust sound and timeframe in fullscreen.

I will try the other encoding program. I downloaded pocket divx player and I couldn't figure out how to open up a new file and I tried to follow the directions in the program. Is it possible that I am having a hard time with my mp4 files because I transferred them not via Activesync but by the other option that pops up when you first connect your phone to a computer? Will post in a bit when I try the new encoder.
Edit: Tried the new encoder, but all sorts of error messages when I showed them the contents of my Avatar DVD. I have 33 files on the actual DVD, which ones am I trying to encode?

Don't use the video encoding GUI as it is awfully slow and doesn't even give you a great image quality due to the settings being made suitable for a Touch HD.
Just head over to doom9 and download MeGui. A bit harder to use, but at least you'll be able to encode them in under an hour with great IQ.
Just did an encode of my Avatar Blu-Ray(45Gb) that took a little under an hour and ended up with a 3Gb file with a bitrate of 2453Kbps and max at 10Mbps. Split it into two files of 1500Mb and the HD2 played them like a champ without a stutter in sight.
I also recommend you download eac3to(for audio ripping) and yamb(mp4 splitting).

Will try meGUI, guess people are thinking it has to do with the encoding huh? Even if it works ok on my computer but not HD2?

did you try the tcpmp player?

tgerbracht said:
Will try meGUI, guess people are thinking it has to do with the encoding huh? Even if it works ok on my computer but not HD2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Just because it plays on the computer doesn't mean it'll play on the phone. Your computer's hardware is substantially "faster" than the HD2's. Optimizing the video through encoding is usually the answer.

Toss3 said:
Don't use the video encoding GUI as it is awfully slow and doesn't even give you a great image quality due to the settings being made suitable for a Touch HD.
Just head over to doom9 and download MeGui. A bit harder to use, but at least you'll be able to encode them in under an hour with great IQ.
Just did an encode of my Avatar Blu-Ray(45Gb) that took a little under an hour and ended up with a 3Gb file with a bitrate of 2453Kbps and max at 10Mbps. Split it into two files of 1500Mb and the HD2 played them like a champ without a stutter in sight.
I also recommend you download eac3to(for audio ripping) and yamb(mp4 splitting).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oof, this program does look confusing. I'm going to go through the help files and try to get a grasp of it all, but if you have some preset settings or a streamlined bit of advice, I'm all for it. So far I'm trying one-click method and I've been able to show it where the .vob files are and create a directory to place the file and working directory. There is a hick-up with something about the chapter titles and it looks like it needs a file but it shows nothing when I explore my DVD drive. The Megui wiki isn't very clear here...though the program looks promising!

try using dvdfab, select iphone/ipod encoding and after transfer your encoded avatar to your sd card.. i did it like that.

juwan de leon said:
try using dvdfab, select iphone/ipod encoding and after transfer your encoded avatar to your sd card.. i did it like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will try this-along with tcmp and will report back.

xeebot said:
Try the HTC Video Encoder. I've encoded 1080p .mkv files with no playback issues on my HD2. It's free, so can't hurt to give it a shot.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow.... cool app! Thanks for the link!!!

juwan de leon said:
try using dvdfab, select iphone/ipod encoding and after transfer your encoded avatar to your sd card.. i did it like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANKS! The ---only--- DVD encoder that just worked!
Edit:
Tried Handbrake (couldn't reliably read DVD to burn), Winx DVD Ripper (couldnt play on HD2), couldnt figure out meGUI and the other encoder linked here, and I didn't have to use any other player other than the nice HTC one. Thanks again.

tgerbracht said:
Hi Folks-
I know there are several threads on video encoding, but I think I am asking something new. I am using the retail version of Winx DVD Ripper which does a nice job overcoming encryption from my store bought DVDs so I can rip to my computer and then transfer to my HD2. Problem is I have workable mp4 files on my computer that I can watch after the process, but I am having mixed success watching them on the HD2.
Just recently, I ripped a nice mp4 version of Avatar that played fine on my computer, but when I transferred it to the phone, it would show the circle for the video player for half a second and then go back to my file explorer. This also happened with Black Hawk Down. I've had success with other movies such as Iron Man, etc. Am I running into some form of copy protection? If so, I'm annoyed as these are 100% retail DVDs I have purchased.
Specific settings for Winx include 800x480 resolution, sound to at least 160, using high resolution mode, even safe mode the second time I ripped Avatar to see if that would help.
Any ideas would be most appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of standalone players worldwide need a firmware update to make it work because Avatar BD uses a new encryption scheme called BD+ 5. I recommend u a blu ray ripper named PavTube. I think the Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper Software is currently the best ripping software and surprisingly it can rip both DVDs & Blu-Ray Discs without the need of having a different Undo-Protection program. I have tried many brands of ripping software with poor results. PavTube Blue-Ray Ripper is a real "Swiss Knife". Download a demo version and you will find it is definitly worth buying.Experience Blu Ray Avatar in the center of your Home Theater System