Problems w/ Pocket-DVD Studio: Can't sync audio w/ video

[atwnsw]

I have an IPAQ and have tried 2 different movies while using two different memeory cards.

Can somebody share some advice on how to correct the problem? There is about a 1-2 second delay.

Is there a better piece of software that works consistently as I spent $32 and have nothing to show for it.

I am going to Europe in two weeks and would like a few movies for the plane. I don't know enough about manually converting dvd to avi format and don't have hours upon hours to watch it happen.

Any/all help is appreciated.

Thanks

Anthony
atwnsw@lycos.com

[atwnsw]

I have an IPAQ and have tried 2 different movies while using two different memeory cards.

Can somebody share some advice on how to correct the problem? There is about a 1-2 second delay.

Is there a better piece of software that works consistently as I spent $32 and have nothing to show for it.

I am going to Europe in two weeks and would like a few movies for the plane. I don't know enough about manually converting dvd to avi format and don't have hours upon hours to watch it happen.

Any/all help is appreciated.

Thanks

Anthony
atwnsw@lycos.com

[Falstaff]

I had that same problem, I used VirtualDub to shift the audio over the neccessary amount. I used PocketDVD with great success for smaller sized movies, basically comedies because they tend to have less action and are shorter, so they compress better. But PocketDVD doesn't do a great job if you want to encode larger movies. I tried telling it to do Gladiator for 485 MB (or something similar, as high as it would go), but the resulting file was only ~350MB, and not good enough for what I wanted, so I ended up going back to manually encoding my action movie DVDs (using SmartRipper, DVDx 2, and VirtualDub). Just a little information to help you with encoding in the future. What size memory card(s) do you have?

[atwnsw]

I have 1 sandisk 512mb sd and 2 sd 256mb cards.

[atwnsw]

Can you walk me through the process from beginning to end on how to end up with a quality dvd .avi file that plays music on sync.....

Thanks

Anthony

[Falstaff]

Well, to use the files you've created in Pocket DVD, here it goes:

- Open the .avi file in VirtualDub
- Go to video, and select Direct Stream Copy
- Go to audio, and select Interleaving
- Fill in the appropriate time in the bottom text box in the menu
- Then go to File > Save As avi, name it and you're ready to go
I suggest you be very precise with the timing, as it may take a while to perform the conversion. If you need any more help, post it here, if you want to talk to me real time, try contacting me on AIM or YIM if you have either, my screennames are listed below.

As for doing it yourself from start to finish, try using BigD's guide (though I'd suggest using XviD, which PocketDVD uses, instead of DivX, because it has better compression) or a freeware app such as FairUse (haven't tried it yet, but it looks good) or one of the others on DivX Digest.

[pivaska]

I use DVDtoPocketPC from www.makayama.com. This is the best that I have found and can copy large dvds to 128 or 256 cards with no problem. There are plenty of options with it. However I have upgraded to Windows 2003SE and media player now only plays in 1/4th size. Do not upgrade yet.

[apanther28]

Falstaff is on the money. That should set you straight. There is also a clear guide to doing this in the help section. It's easy, just follow the directions.

[Munkee]

This is by far the cheapest (its free!) way that gives the best results. You need the following free software:-

DVDShrink
Pocketdivxencoder
Betaplayer

"DVDShrink" is an amazing programme and megafast for getting DVD's on to your hard drive. It is the only one of the three programmes above that you will need to read a little about. Don't panic though, it is very simple.

"Pocketdivxencoder" will encode the resulting file from DVDShrink for viewing on your PDA. It creates a very good quality AVI file. It also has various options to taylor the quality vs size ratio of the file (both audio & video).

Betaplayer is, hands down, the best video player for pocket pc! The only downside is that it will only play AVI video, but thats no big loss, especially when the AVI format that is encoded by pocketdivxencoder is very good quality. Betaplayer also has an A/V offset, which means that you can manually adjust the audio/video sync. If it is off sync, just manually input some +/- figures in the offset to correct it. Genius! (Well done Picard)

Hope that all helps. Unfortunately, I think you may have wasted your money as the above software is much better and its free. It is almost as easy to!!