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View Full Version : Do you watch video on your Smartphone?


Mark Larson
03-20-2005, 08:49 AM
I am about to get an Audiovox SMT-5600 with a 256MB card. My first thought was to use it as an mp3/wma player, but then I started reading about putting video on Smartphones - it seems these devices are compatible with WMV, MPEG4 etc, and can actually play video properly (full-screen). 8O

I have various shows in XviD format and could probably easily convert them to lower size AVI for my SMT-5600. Do any of you do that? Any guides, aside from letting AutoGK do its magic?

sracer
03-21-2005, 04:56 AM
I am about to get an Audiovox SMT-5600 with a 256MB card. My first thought was to use it as an mp3/wma player, but then I started reading about putting video on Smartphones - it seems these devices are compatible with WMV, MPEG4 etc, and can actually play video properly (full-screen). 8O

I have various shows in XviD format and could probably easily convert them to lower size AVI for my SMT-5600. Do any of you do that? Any guides, aside from letting AutoGK do its magic?
I have my SMT-5600 now for 2 weeks and absolutely love it. I've been a big fan of the wma/wmv formats on the PPC and am quite impressed with performance and playback on this phone.

Yes, this phone can play full-screen video beautifully. I'll be updating my wmv encoding guide for optimized playback on smartphones. Fullscreen videos for the PPC using my guide weighed in at 40 MB per hour of video. I suspect that encoding parameters for smartphone playback will yield similarly sized files with better quality.

I highly recommend getting a 512MB card instead of a 256MB. They're selling for $40 on eBay... and considering that the mini-SD cards aren't too easy to swap, it is better to have a single card than two smaller ones that need to be swapped. IMO.

Mike Temporale
03-21-2005, 05:29 AM
I highly recommend getting a 512MB card instead of a 256MB. They're selling for $40 on eBay... and considering that the mini-SD cards aren't too easy to swap, it is better to have a single card than two smaller ones that need to be swapped. IMO.

I couldn't agree more!

Mark Larson
03-21-2005, 06:44 AM
Well, I think i'll wait until I feel the need - my current mp3 player is only 128MB and I think its quite adequate. Where can I buy an adapter to use my own headphones with the phone?

Mike Temporale
03-21-2005, 11:45 AM
If you're going to watch video and store MP3's then you might find the space goes fast. :wink:

You can get adapters from Radio Shack, pretty much any electronics store, or Pocket PC Techs (http://www.pocketpctechs.com/Accessories.asp?type=audio) 8)

keirmeister
03-22-2005, 09:22 PM
I watched last Sunday's Simpsons episode on my SP3i on the way home from work last night.

Make sure you get Windows Media Encoder to make PocketPC/Smartphone-compatible videos to save space.

I have a 256MB card...will update to 1GB when they are available. I only keep a few songs and music videos on the card right now. I still have about 140MB left for temporary storage of TV/movies (I fit the entire "Anchorman" movie on it, and it was very good!).

- Keirmeister

Mark Larson
03-23-2005, 12:12 AM
I noticed that when I used WMP10 to sync music and video with the phone, it automatically converted both the music and the video. The video was converted to wmv and became very small in size. Do i still need to use WME?

xultar
03-23-2005, 11:02 PM
128MB and I think its quite adequate.

I'm gonna have to recommend the 512 too. Think about the pictures and software you're gonna wanna load. Not to mention the themes, documents, voice audio, etc.

algorhythm
06-20-2005, 05:33 AM
I don't know why but I've never been able to make this work. I gave up on DVD2PPC, since I've all but stopped using my iPaq since getting my smartphone. But I can't get a movie onto my smartphone either, and I just can't figure out what the flock I'm doing wrong.

I followed the routine on your speedzone page...tried both DVD2AVI and DGMPGDec. All works fine until I get to WinMedia Encoder 9, converting my AVI's to WMV....I always get an invalid codec message. I run the MS checkup utility, and it finds "Intervideo Decoder ivivideo.ax incompativle with WMP10."

Now, my PC is running WMP9, so why should I even get that message? And how do I find out WHAT codec I need?

Talk to me, dude....youve obviously made this work. I don't =think= I'm a bonehead, but I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

Rocco Augusto
06-26-2005, 12:32 AM
DETAILED VIDEO CONVERSION GUIDE MOVED - http://smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=55991#55991

algorhythm
06-26-2005, 03:59 AM
Thanks, Opti....I'll give this a try.

I've gotten a bit farther on my own using SmartRipper and DVD2AVI, then dumping the AVI to Adobe Premiere....but I still only got 30 min worth of file off a full DVD...haven't watched the disk (it's disk 5 of the Beatles anthology), but I'm sure there's got to be more material on it.

What I'm not clear on is....you're suggesting betaplayer as a better alternative to the 5600's WMP 10? I'm game (long as it doesn't trash my phone...). Just trying to understand it all....I'm an audio guy, and all this video protocol is just twisting my head..... 8O

Rocco Augusto
06-27-2005, 12:32 AM
Thanks, Opti....I'll give this a try.

I've gotten a bit farther on my own using SmartRipper and DVD2AVI, then dumping the AVI to Adobe Premiere....but I still only got 30 min worth of file off a full DVD...haven't watched the disk (it's disk 5 of the Beatles anthology), but I'm sure there's got to be more material on it.

What I'm not clear on is....you're suggesting betaplayer as a better alternative to the 5600's WMP 10? I'm game (long as it doesn't trash my phone...). Just trying to understand it all....I'm an audio guy, and all this video protocol is just twisting my head..... 8O

i use betaplayer because it gives you the option of wwatching movies that are encoded with divx and xvid. unfortunatly wmp10 can not (that i know of). i prefer the xvid codec over wmv because i get cleaner/sharper/clearer rips. the wmv codec tends to look to fuzzy for me.

-opti-

algorhythm
06-27-2005, 01:43 AM
I loaded betaplayer onto my 5600, but when I tell it to open a file on my storage card, the file menu doesn't see the files. (It sees the folders on the card, but shows them as empty....I can see them with file mgr, but that opens them with WMP.)

I DL'ed xvid 1.0.3., but that's for PC, not smartphone.

But meanwhile....I still have to get the files off DVD and into AVI (or MPEG) format before I can use virtualdub. And I'm almost positive =that's= where things are screwing up....the first AVI's wouldn't load into WMEncoder (wrong codec), then I got one that was 200kb, then I got two that were only 14 and 15 minutes each (from an 80min DVD), then I got one that had no audio.

I'm almost positive it's a codec issue, but there seems to be a large assortment of codecs available, and no clues as to which one(s) I need.

FWIW, I got a couple of messages when I first started virtualdub, telling me I had some 'illegal' codecs. I dunno...I'm sure I'll figure this out sooner or later, but it's in-bleeping-creadibly frustrating. Jeez, all I want to do is copy my own DVD's onto my phone.....

Rocco Augusto
06-27-2005, 11:27 PM
tog et the files off the dvd, there is a program out there called DVD2SVCD. that will let you rip the files to an mpeg2 format. from there if you wanted to encode to smartphone you would have to use a different version of virtualdub called virtualdubmod. that will let you process mpeg files.

EDIT: xvid was only for your PC so you could encode the files. betaplayer has its own version of xvid for smartphones that it installs when you install the program. the reason why you most likely cant see the files with betaplayer is because they are mpg or wmv files. i think betaplayer only sees avi files. i could be wrong though

jvanliew
06-29-2005, 05:00 AM
Thanks for your post. I just got a SMT 5600 and am trying to figure out how to get things going. I started working through your instructions and have some questions:

Not sure how to select 'xvid' as my codec, step 8.

Also I was looking for the post of your personal processor setting. I will probably help get me going.

Thanks a bunch for your help!

John

Rocco Augusto
06-29-2005, 07:07 PM
Thanks for your post. I just got a SMT 5600 and am trying to figure out how to get things going. I started working through your instructions and have some questions:

Not sure how to select 'xvid' as my codec, step 8.

Also I was looking for the post of your personal processor setting. I will probably help get me going.

Thanks a bunch for your help!

John

sorry i havent had a chance to post my settings yet, ive been swampped at work (12 hour shifts). i will make sure to post them tonight, i even set a calendar reminder ;)

in the meantime i found the site that i used as reference for encoding to smartphone when i first got my mpx220 (traded for a 5600 ;)). this site uses a flash video as the tutorial. its a lot easier to use for reference than a step by stpe text.

http://www.modaco.com/How_to_make_movies_for_Betaplayer_using_XviD_Codec-t118111.html

my settings are a little bit different because i wanted to get the best video quality possible. its always good to play around with the settings till you find something that fits your needs (smaller video, better quality, better sound, etc.)

hopefully the mods wont mind me posting that link. if they do please let me know and ill remove it, last thing i want to do is step on any toes :)

-opti-

jvanliew
06-29-2005, 09:14 PM
thanks -opti-, I'll check it out.

phoenixag
06-29-2005, 10:15 PM
Newbies who are not very familiar with VirtualDub might want to try PocketDivxEncoder. It does all of that automatically and you just enter in the filename and the output filename and it encodes the file.

It encodes files for smartphones, pocket pcs, vga ppcs, etc.

Search on google for PocketDivxEncoder. It's free but I don't have the link right now with me. It's available on a lot of sites tho.

Rocco Augusto
06-29-2005, 11:09 PM
Newbies who are not very familiar with VirtualDub might want to try PocketDivxEncoder. It does all of that automatically and you just enter in the filename and the output filename and it encodes the file.

It encodes files for smartphones, pocket pcs, vga ppcs, etc.

Search on google for PocketDivxEncoder. It's free but I don't have the link right now with me. It's available on a lot of sites tho.

PocketDivxEncoder
------
http://divx.ppccool.com/

:)