CarryDVD: Movies On-The-Go

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=142447' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/brainstore/...roductId=142447</a><br /><br /></div><i>"We do not compromise on quality to get better speed. In fact we know we are slightly slower than our competition but we have put reliability at the forefront in importance, because we know you do not want to spend some four hours compressing a video to then find there is something wrong with it."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041107-CarryDVD.jpg" /><br /><br />You know that when "reliability" becomes a key factor, it's a product that is likely to deliver the goods! CarryDVD allows you to backup your DVDs and transfer them to your Pocket PC for playback, and all you need is Windows Media Player for the Pocket PC – simple! A handy feature of the software is its ability to track the progress of the backup. In the case of a power failure (or some unexpected intervention), CarryDVD recognises where it left off and continues with the backup on the next startup.<br /><br />It has been recently updated to Version 2.2. As usual, you can grab a trial copy or purchase the full version for $24.99 at <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=142447">Handango.</a> [Affiliate]

[jeffmd]

looks like a nice clean UI. Still.. its WMV

[EricMCarson]

looks like a nice clean UI. Still.. its WMV

What's wrong with WMV?

[Felix Torres]

looks like a nice clean UI. Still.. its WMV

Uh, with the arrival of Windows Media Center Extenders and, above all, the XBOX EXTENDER Kit, WMV is going to be the *preferred* video archival medium for *lots* of folks.

Video Quality is good to excellent, compression is excellent, movies are commercially-available in the format and non-PC player hardware is available now and will continue to be available indefinitely since WMV is a *required* format for both HD-DVD and BluRay HD players, as well as several red-laser HD players like the FVD-players in the far east.

To say nothing of PocketPCs, SmartPhones, and PMCs.

It may not be your cup of tea but for millions it will be the cornerstone of their home media server video system.

[ipaq_wannabe]

does anyone have an info of how long this would be able to encode a 1-hr DVD-quality video file?

[brianchris]

Nice......but is it legal in the U.S.?

[Felix Torres]

does anyone have an info of how long this would be able to encode a 1-hr DVD-quality video file?

Windows Media 9 can reduce a 640x480 video to around 250-300Mb per hour, without sacrificing quality.

[SHC]

Well just downloaded the trial and it wont install, says it wont run on my "16 bit subsytem" (windows xp 16 bit??)

[jlp]

PMC like iRiver's only run WMV as far as video files go.

That means NO DivX, NO XviD, NO MPEG, NO AVI, etc.

OTOH iRiver's PMP don't run WMV :evil: Even the Archos AV4xx don't run WMV.

Looks like these b@st@rds at M$ want to force you to get PMCs that don't run nothing else than WMV.

PMCs look like the only choice if you wanna play WMV :evil: :bad-words: :snipersmile: :splat:

[warptime]

Installed OK, works great for about 3 seconds then crashes without a word, dialog, or murmur. I am running a 2 month old Gateway3.4GHz XP patched up to, but not including SP2 (SP2 really screwed things up! - I will wait til my annual software reload).


I don't much care for the interface the developer uses, but that is a personal thing. Will try a few things but figure it will go into the recycle bin. Oh well.

warptime
iPAQ 4155

[jlp]

Installed OK, but refuses to open the DVD, yet I can view it with Nero Showtime. :?: :?:

[sponge]

People have been saying that for WMA since it's inception, yet it's still 2nd or 3rd overall. WMV is not going to take over anytime soon, especially with Quicktime, DivX and it's variants, and good ol' MPEG.

[jeffmd]

media centers... lots of noise... lots of problems. Media center is a nice catch phrase.. but they wont ever catch on for some simple reasons. They require specific hardware. I must buy a whole new expensive pre built computer for it. It wont ever be a store sold upgrade simply because it wont work on %99.9 of the computers out there. Apparently someone and microsoft thinks making an OS that requires an expensive hardware decoder to play the same video files weve been playing in normal windows for 8 years now was a good idea.

WMV may be accepted by lots, but WMV will never be a GOOD choice simply because microsoft has never acceled in a single thing in its life. they make an adiquit OS, and adiquit media player, and adiquit audio codec, and an adiquit video codec. But the buck stops there. Windows media codec is very profesional editor unfriendly to the point of forcing companys to not support it. They rarly update it, usualy only doing so to add some new feature, but they never actually increase its performance or compatability. And lastly is WMV is windows only. There is a mac codec, but thats it. Divx on the other hand is supported on windows, mac, linux, pocket pc,xbox, PS2, dreamcast, and several dvd players. The divx codec gets updated regularly and its creators are allways trying to obtain faster speeds, and the codec has a plethora of settings so you can choose your own balance of quality vs encoding speed.

WMV is for the lazy person. No pain for shoddy quality. Divx is for the artist and when you put in the work for it, you will end up with a picaso.

Quicktime would be great if apple would actually support more of it on pc then just a bloated player. The day quicktime becomes a selectable codec in virtual dub is the day I will acknowledge it as more then a cheesy wmv/real clone.

[mattsmith0622]

The trial version installed perfectly on my Vaio laptop. The DVD opened fine and it seems to be working well. It said that I would only get a few minutes of encoding with the trial version, but it's been going for about two hours.

[silver99]

WMV is for the lazy person. No pain for shoddy quality. Divx is for the artist and when you put in the work for it, you will end up with a picaso.


Untrue. WMV does get very respectable results on a Pocket PC. I have absolutely no problem watching WMV movies on my PPC.

Encoding is easy and is also available in the majority of OS including Linux (MEncoder) and Mac (Flip4Mac).

It sounds like you're very Anti-Microsoft which would blind you from any great innovation (including WMV) that Microsoft may have. Pitty.

[seaboo3113]

My iPaq 4155 met with an unfortunate ending and has been replaced with the same model, however, windows media player is not installed and I'm having a difficult time locating Windows Media Player 9. Any ideas?

I realize this is a tangent from this thread but I can't view my DVD's on my pocket pc at the moment :(

[jeffmd]

Silver, and it seems you're anti logic. Could it possibly be that indeed wmv is flawed and you just dont see it? Theres a difference between being anti microsoft, and knowing microsoft sucks. I can backup why microsoft sucks. And indeed what I posted above was just a small amount of why the video enthusiest community shuns away from wmv. I see tv showes and movies in divx, xvid, mpeg2, and thats it. Quicktime is nice, if you give it a large bitrate. WMV is also nice if you give it a large bitrate, in fact I belive thats why alot of anime RAW's are using wmv. The raw suppliers wanted to quickly encode non edited high resolution video, and thats fine since raws are usualy saught only by fansub groups, and those fans who actually speak japanese. The only optimization factor needed here is time. But when you need to encode a movie into an end product for the masses, you want to be in efficent in size vs quality. Skillfull editing, use of filters, stuff you cant do with the limited wmv codec.

[jlp]

I tried another DVD, The 10 Commandments, just to see if the problem I had is a protection scheme one. I wanted to skip the first 9 minutes -since CarryDVD does NOT allow to start at a specific chapter (to skip Cecil B DeMille's opening comment and the actor's list)- but it looks like the program actually encodes the whole part without saving it; in other words it takes approximately 30 minutes to "skip" thru the first 9 minutes to then start saving the file :pukeface: .

Besides I can't choose the language track; I had a DVD that has Dutch as the first track, but can't access either the French, nor the English tracks :evil:.

For a so called version 2.2 of the program, it's a seriously impairing overlook :snipersmile:

Needless to say CarryDVD won't last on my PC 0X.

[CarryDVD]

We have 24/7 support in 4 languages. English, Spanish, French and Italian.

If there is something that concerns CarryDVD we are willing to contact you by phone if necessary to help you sort it out. However we can be of little assistance if your operating system is unstable for some reason. Having said that we are still willing to give it a shot at trying to troubleshoot the problem.

Other points you want to see changed please feel free to e-mail us. You can rest assured that your comments, if valid, would be considered for inclusion as new features. Chances are they're already there as future updates.

[sracer]

WMV is for the lazy person. No pain for shoddy quality. Divx is for the artist and when you put in the work for it, you will end up with a picaso.[/u]
Hey whatever works for you. I don't have the time to continue to try the myriad of Divx encoding frontends (that basically use the same Divx codec) trying to get one to work. I have a nice HT system and don't want to watch movies on my computer as my primary method of viewing.

I prefer to use quick and easy methods that work the first time without a lot of tweaking and tinkering. I'm willing to sacrifice the slight reduction in overall quality for the time and spaced saved.

I convert my DVDs solely for temporary playback on my PPC. I'd rather have two 2 hour movies (120MB each) that have acceptable quality on a 256MB CF card than 1/2 of a movie in ultra-high quality.

It is unfortunate that so many Divx proponents over-simplify the issue of video converting and encoding. There are many reasons why someone would convert a movie. Attempting to push one solution as a "one size fits all" really does a disservice to the people seeking assistance and advice.

http://percontifamily.com/speedzone/vid.html

[Jay_Frase]

On a DVD with Multiple languages, does anyone know how to force CarryDVD to use English? I tried to use it and it would get about 1 second of English, then back up and get one second of Spanish, back up and get one second of French, the go on to the next second. Very frustrating.

[Techtoys]

I've been using this product for a couple of weeks. It works very well - you can literally pop a DVD in the drive, press open and press play. You get a WMV file in the quality you request (even the lowest quality is watchable).
I had one problem with Minority Report that I told the author about. He worked around the clock to fix it, and now it is fixed.

I've used a number of other programs - they all take longer to figure out the set up, and often have a 2 stage process that reaults in excessive times to record a DVD. This one works in a single pass.

What can I say - I want to watch movies on my PPC and now I can. Thanks Kevin!

[poppy_morenito]

I used the trial and liked. I went to purchase it to make a movie for my flight in the morning and go this:

Registration Key: Your registration key will be emailed to you at [email protected] from the software developer of CarryDVD within 2 business days. If you do not receive your registration key, contact [email protected].

THis is a little frustrating. :roll:

UPDATE: 30 minutes later ---

Thank you for purchasing CarryDVD. Please find your registration code and password. (Please type exactly or copy and paste):


We are committed to improve CarryDVD so included as this month’s special offer you will be able to enjoy 1 year of FREE upgrades and support.

Your feedback will be immensely appreciated. Enjoy our product and please keep in touch for future upgrades.


Yours Sincerely


The CarryDVD support team

[poppy_morenito]

It took 5 hours to convert Kill Bill ... Medium Quality Medium Compresson.
That seems toolong, I could have watched the movie twice - anyone using diff. settings ? the file size was over 200 mb should I do more compression ?

[CarryDVD]

We have released a new version that should address most of your concerns.

The problem with jumpy scenes is that some DVDs have interleaved streams with different scenes in them. A DVD player can interpret these and jump to different locations skipping irrelevant scenes. To do the same would require writing something that is way beyond an cheap and affordable software.

In fact try to use one of these DVDs (Star Wars Episodes 4,5 &amp; 6 for example) with competition and you would see how ungracefully it would crash.

Thus we have added a tool that lets you see these parts and allows you to remove them from the final production.

As for speed, we are quite willing to admit CarryDVD is a little slower than our competition, however if it takes five hours on your machine then it is going to take 4.5 with some other software. On my laptop with a 2.67 GHz with 384 MB of RAM Lord of The Rings The Return of The king takes 6.5 hours and that is a 3.5 hour long video.

Still we wanted to address this issue anyway because if we can we try and make CarryDVD better. For this reason with 2.6 we have added increasing process priority. This way if you leave it over night it can go much faster. An initial test showed we shaved off a good 30% with this feature.

The reason CarryDVD is a little slower is that it does a lot of checking to make sure the smoothness of the video and sound track synchronisation works correctly and also keeps track on what is going on so that if your machine fails it can continue from where it left off.

As to the problem with the registration codes; The minute we receive confirmation of the order we send it. Unfortunatly we have to rely on other organisations that handle actual credit card transactions over which we have no control. And beleive me when I tell you, they hardly waste many e-mails for any complaints.

Kevin Smith
The CarryDVD Support

[poppy_morenito]

Kev, I upgraded to new version and used the priorty setting and it was faster. I converted Kill Bill Again and it was 2/3 the times.

Keep those improvement coming, its what makes it worth paying for software verses Kazaa and manually doing all the encoding yourself :wink:

[poppy_morenito]

Ahh, it only worked one time faster now the upgrade does not work at all. My systems just hangs there. I even installed it on another machine and the same thing " CarryDVD not responding " !!! Can I back out of the upgrade ? or is this a known problem .... I used the exact same DVD to make sure it was not a problem with the disk ....