BetaPlayer: New Pocket PC DivX and XviD Player

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/' target='_blank'>http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20040503_betaplayer.jpg" /><br /><br />There's a new DivX player in town, and it looks like a winner! In addition to regular DivX playback, the program can handle DivX, XviD, OGG and OGM files, and even supports enhanced features such as B-Frames, FFmpeg, XviD and VGA. As if all of that wasn't enough, it's also capable of playing higher bitrate files than PocketMVP. 8O <br /><br />There's a <a href="http://corecodec.com/modules.php?op=modload&amp;name=PNphpBB2&amp;file=viewtopic&amp;t=689&amp;postdays=0&amp;postorder=asc&amp;start=0">long thread</a> over in the PocketMVP forums about this software. Be sure to check it out if you're interested in more in-depth details; the author is very active and responsive. I'll be installing and testing this as soon as I get home! From all that I've read, this thing is better than PocketMVP in almost all respects. Has anyone tried this already? What do you think?

[dean_shan]

Nice. I love Xvid and King of the Hill.

[entropy1980]

It is MUCH better than Pocket MVP.... better UI, better performance... did I mention it's better? :lol:

[ctitanic]

It is MUCH better than Pocket MVP.... better UI, better performance... did I mention it's better? :lol:

did you read my mind?

the speed is great and the quality is great! :devilboy:

[entropy1980]

did you read my mind?
the speed is great and the quality is great! :devilboy:

LOL! I always used PocketMVP because it was the only Divx player and while it's functional never really was very exciting. I would equate BetaPlayer as the PocketTV of the Divx world, very polished especially for being such an early release!

[Pat Logsdon]

A few quick observations. I just happened to have a movie on my extra SD card, so I installed the program and tried it. I only watched about 10 seconds of the movie, but I'm already impressed. First of all, it ran with 6mb of program space available. I usually need close to 15mb for PocketMVP to run. I also really like the scroll bar - much better (and faster) than using either the scroll bar or "Jump To:" dialog box combination in PocketMVP.

So far, so good! 8)

[Bill Gunn]

Given the ease of encoding Windows Media and the fact that the player is in ROM, what is the advantage of using a different player?

[ctitanic]

Given the ease of encoding Windows Media and the fact that the player is in ROM, what is the advantage of using a different player?

Quality!

[g0097]

Given the ease of encoding Windows Media and the fact that the player is in ROM, what is the advantage of using a different player?

I asked the same question until I encoded a video using both windows media encoder and divx. The file size were roughly the same but the quality was crazy different! ( :D I have no idea what i just said)

To put it in more visual terms, in one part of the video there was sand and rocks. While the WMV file showed this as a grayish blob, I could actally make out the hard lines of the rock and the texture of the sand with the divx video. For me its a quality issue. I could get the same quality with WMV but I am not sure if I could get the files as small as I do with Divx.

[Karma2002]

This looks very interesting.

I'm very familar with DivX but new to Pocket PCs. What encoding settings would anyone recommend for a PPC? (I have a Dell Axim)

Thanks!
Karma

[entropy1980]

This looks very interesting.

I'm very familar with DivX but new to Pocket PCs. What encoding settings would anyone recommend for a PPC? (I have a Dell Axim)

Thanks!
Karma
here's an awesome app that does all the work for you.... settings and all!!

http://divx.ppccool.com/

[Jeff Rutledge]

This is a very nice little app. Clean and simple. That's the way to code a program!

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Fantastic. I have some really high bitrate music videos (~600kbps) and some of them will play with 200+ dropped frames in PMVP. In BetaPlayer, it finished with 9 dropped frames.

Very impressive!

[sponge]

Great little app, beats that overpriced DVD app for PPC.

[entropy1980]

The easiest way to transcode DVDs I have found is to use DVDx (http://www.labdv.com/dvdx/), then use Pocket Divx encoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) to get it shrunk down right... works great!!

[Boxster S]

This rocks. Kicks that buggy POS PocketDIVX from here to timbucktu

[Fishie]

Man the Toshiba e800/805 really shines with this.

Optimised for the Toshiba videop^rocesor and encoded with Pocket DiVX encoder I can watch a high quality full VGA video full screen in in landscape WITOUTH ANY FRAMES DROPPED WHATSOEVER.

Impressed the heck out of me.

[Gremmie]

This is much better than PocketMVP. No skipping or freezing frames during rapid movements. It also runs on minimal program memory.

[dMores]

Xvid? that's that strange codec i downloaded last month and got me a nasty virus/worm/something that screwed around with my registry and set the default browser page to something strange and had me removing stuff from my registry for a few hours?

now on my ppc? no thank you.

[Pat Logsdon]

Xvid? that's that strange codec i downloaded last month and got me a nasty virus/worm/something that screwed around with my registry and set the default browser page to something strange and had me removing stuff from my registry for a few hours?

now on my ppc? no thank you.
Sorry to hear that, but it's got nothing to do with the codec - XviD is legit. The best place to get it is from the source: xvid.org. (http://www.xvid.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=6)

[bjornkeizers]

I just tried it - Amazing! I installed it and ran an *unconverted* DivX file on it (a Stargate episode) and it ran full tilt, full screen, with great audio and good video. Only some slight choppiness on occasion.

And, get this, I'm using an Ipaq 1915 and I ran the movie from a SD card! 8O

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Xvid? that's that strange codec i downloaded last month and got me a nasty virus/worm/something that screwed around with my registry and set the default browser page to something strange and had me removing stuff from my registry for a few hours?

now on my ppc? no thank you.
Sorry to hear that, but it's got nothing to do with the codec - XviD is legit. The best place to get it is from the source: xvid.org. (http://www.xvid.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=6)
Right. If a XviD CODEC download led to all those actions, I can only conclude that the installer was infected somehow by a 3rd party because the CODEC is completely legit. As for BetaPlayer, we already have dozens of users between here and those on the CoreCodec boards who have been using this player without any such issues.

[dMores]

i wasn't trying to put down any performance advantages xvid has over other codecs, i just had a bad start with the thing :)

anyway, don't let my problems scare you off, just make sure you download a proper version, and run a scanner over it after downloading (although mcafee didn't find anything with my file).

[dma1965]

i wasn't trying to put down any performance advantages xvid has over other codecs, i just had a bad start with the thing :)

anyway, don't let my problems scare you off, just make sure you download a proper version, and run a scanner over it after downloading (although mcafee didn't find anything with my file).

Actually virus scanners will not pick up most browser hijackers or programs which make registry changes and otherwise cause headaches, mess up your PC, and ruin your day and mine.
Only about 5% of the PCs I have cleaned up in the last 6 months were actually infected by a bonafide virus. Most "infections" are now "legit" by virus scannner standards, which just makes my iob harder.

[Tom W.M.]

This sounds really nice and all, but it's useless—useless—to me without MIPS support. That's a shame, because I could really use a speedy, stripped-down player for videos on my BE-300. I'm tired of the buginess of PMVP.

[Boxster S]

This sounds really nice and all, but it's useless—useless—to me without MIPS support. That's a shame, because I could really use a speedy, stripped-down player for videos on my BE-300. I'm tired of the buginess of PMVP.

MIPS support?? Isn't that like asking Microsoft to keep supporting Windows 98 now that years down the road after the fact?

ARM/X-Scale compromise 100% of the PPC market and when was the last time a NEW MIPS PocketPC was announced??

The developer may end up releasing a MIPS port, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

This sounds really nice and all, but it's useless—useless—to me without MIPS support.
Easy there... if you read through the thread, the developer does plan on supporting MIPS, but as it stands this is a brand new player that is still in development (currently at release 0.2). It's a no-brainer that his initial focus would be XScale devices.

[hollis_f]

This is a terrible program - far too costly. Don't buy it unless you can afford a few 1GB CF cards - because you'll need them for all the movies you'll want to carry around.

I have two movies on my CF card at the moment - one done with VirtualDub and one with PocketDivXEncoder. Both around 250MB.
The first will open in PMVP after about 30 seconds and plays perfectly well - as long as I don't try jumping forward. That locks the machine for another 30-50 seconds. The second takes almost a minute to open and doesn't display properly at all.

With this app they both open in 1 or two seconds, both play perfectly and I can fast forward with ease. This is the PPC movie playing I've been dreaming of for the last four years.

Now I'm looking forward to my next plane journey - except that I want to take more than two movies, so I'm gonna have to splash out on another 1GB card. Or two.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

This is a terrible program - far too costly. Don't buy it unless you can afford a few 1GB CF cards - because you'll need them for all the movies you'll want to carry around.
...
Now I'm looking forward to my next plane journey - except that I want to take more than two movies, so I'm gonna have to splash out on another 1GB card. Or two.
May I recommend you look into Hitachi's 4GB Microdrive that you can obtain for about the same price as a 1GB CF card? I purchased one from eBay and found that playing a full length movie with caching enabled doesn't drain the battery much more than playing that same movie from a solid state memory card. Also, leaving the microdrive card sitting idle in your PPC doesn't drain the battery as the earlier generation microdrives did. Definitely a worthwhile investment IMO.

[The PocketTV Team]

Yes, I agree, it's a very nice application, and it works much better than PocketMVP.

Not perfect yet, but very good. Thanks, Gabor!

:)

[bjornkeizers]

This sounds really nice and all, but it's useless—useless—to me without MIPS support. That's a shame, because I could really use a speedy, stripped-down player for videos on my BE-300. I'm tired of the buginess of PMVP.

MIPS? People still use MIPS? You poor, poor people. Let's all chip in and get our processor-challenged brethren some 1910's :D

Saying that developers must support mips is like demanding that Ford make a car with a steam engine...


This is a terrible program - far too costly. Don't buy it unless you can afford a few 1GB CF cards - because you'll need them for all the movies you'll want to carry around.


Yuh, really. I played a few minutes of Stargate and I was like.... oh f***, now I'll need a bigger card again :D

[picard]

Not perfect yet, but very good. Thanks, Gabor!:)

thanks! did you check the ati rotation part? almost no speed loss (at least with mpeg4). i've added ati brightness too (not perfect, theoretically could cause some trouble with very bright videos) i will work on the mpeg1 video support, to have a chance of comparison :)

i really like pockettv's stability and high level of program quality.

bye, Picard

[The PocketTV Team]

> thanks! did you check the ati rotation part?

Yes, but when you use ATI Imageon, you only use the overlay, don't you ?

Because I noticed that you have a contrast/Brightness control that works with the Imageon. When we do the full decoding with the Imageon, we cannot have this, because the Imageon 3200 does not have any gamma control by hardware. So the only way to do that is to change the YUV data.

> almost no speed loss.

That's not too difficult, we do that too. Currently PocketTV uses surfaces in the Internal Memory to do the fast rotation, but some day, our plan is to implement it as part as decoding (i.e. we can do a diagonal flip by re-ordering the blocks in the MB, and the MB in the frame, and by flipping the zigzag, with no performance hit, then doing a mirror with the ATI hardware ahould be much easier than a rotation).

> i've added ati brightness too (not perfect, theoretically could cause some trouble with very bright videos) i will work on the mpeg1 video support, to have a chance of comparison :)

But do you do that by having an extra operation on the Y plane ?

I though about doing it, too. Not implemented yet.

> i really like pockettv's stability and high level of program quality.

Thanks :) yes, I noticed you "stole" a couple of ideas from it!

I guess PMVP is dead. Mark must not be too happy...

[picard]

Yes, but when you use ATI Imageon, you only use the overlay, don't you ?
there is two modes: only overlay and full ati decoding (disabled in QVGA mode...)

contrast is not available in any ati mode, but brightness is (in both modes). with idct decoding i add a constant value to the [0;0] (dc) element of the Y intra idct matrixes. ofcoz this could cause some trouble when the Y is clipped in the buffer.

the rotation with idct is already working in betaplayer (btw i was the one mentioning this idea in brighthand month ago). this is what i meant about no speed loss.

bye, Picard

[The PocketTV Team]

> with idct decoding i add a constant value to the [0;0] (dc) element of the Y intra idct matrixes. ofcoz this could cause some trouble when the Y is clipped in the buffer.

Yes, that's a simple way to do it, i also thought about the idea. But as soon as you have clamping, the prediction will be screwed up and the image quality will be reduced. If the sequences was encoded with correct histogram range, it will happen almost immediately (i mean, with a small constant).

> the rotation with idct is already working in betaplayer (btw i was the one mentioning this idea in brighthand month ago).

I remember. But the diagonal flip will only flip the image diagonally at decoding, you end-up with an image that must be mirrored.

I thought the ATI Imageon did not support hardware mirror of the overlay planes. So you still have to mirror the surfaces, don't you ?

[picard]

i have read at brighthand that you said that current driver doesn't like it when not all macroblocks of the frame is written? are you sure? i skip many unchanged mb's and with rotation i even use differenc order. i had no problem. but i did have problems with shrinking (device freezed) and had to add an ati idle before stretched blitting.

[picard]

I thought the ATI Imageon did not support hardware mirror of the overlay planes. So you still have to mirror the surfaces, don't you ?
i don't have the sdk, so i have no idea about the caps flags, but the device does support overlay mirroring :)

[The PocketTV Team]

i have read at brighthand that you said that current driver doesn't like it when not all macroblocks of the frame is written? are you sure? i skip many unchanged mb's and with rotation i even use differenc order. i had no problem. but i did have problems with shrinking (device freezed) and had to add an ati idle before stretched blitting.
No, actually we found that the ATI firmware has problems :

1) When AhiIDCTFrameEnd is called immediately after AhiIDCTFrameStart (i.e. no MB processed at all). This causes the device to freeze with a UFO-like slowly pulsing display :)

2) If incomplete MB's have been processed (i.e. not all blocks on the MB have been processed), there is no way to "reset" the firmware to a clean state, other than by completing the missing blocks with dummy data. That's quite a pain in case of errors in the stream triggering an exception in the middle of decoding the data of an MB, for example.

Both problems can be worked around in the applications (we did work around them).

[The PocketTV Team]

>i don't have the sdk, so i have no idea about the caps flags,

Hummmm... you don't have the SDK, but you seem to have the libraries and header files from ATI. This is called the SDK!

> but the device does support overlay mirroring :)

Cool, I don't think I tried, but thanks for confirming that it is there.

So we'll certainely add the cool "instant rotation" feature.

But not tomorrow, since I'm going in vacation in europe until June :)

[picard]

No, actually we found that the ATI firmware has problems
Thanks. I'll take this into acount and make adjustment if needed.

[The PocketTV Team]

> but i did have problems with shrinking (device freezed) and had to add an ati idle before stretched blitting.

I never had problem with stretching.

[picard]

Hummmm... you don't have the SDK, but you seem to have the libraries and header files from ATI. This is called the SDK!
but it's not the offcial sdk. i wrote everything by myself, actaully i don't even have a separate header file (many-many hours of testing and trying out possible parameter meanings and tring to examine how pocketmvp does it's job). i'am not in any way connetion with ati. probably nda agreement would prevent me from releasing the source as gpl.

But not tomorrow, since I'm going in vacation in europe until June :)pleasant vacation! hope you will enjoy europe. and ofcoz this means more time for me to catch up with the player :)

[The PocketTV Team]

> but it's not the offcial sdk. i wrote everything by myself,

yeah, right!

> pleasant vacation! hope you will enjoy europe.

I am from europe, too! and I'll visit a country close from yours.

> and ofcoz this means more time for me to catch up with the player :)

I'm not in a race. I have a life, too, and I don't spend 100% of my time working on PocketTV. I'll do more when I return.

[Kacey Green]

This is a terrible program - far too costly. Don't buy it unless you can afford a few 1GB CF cards - because you'll need them for all the movies you'll want to carry around.

I have two movies on my CF card at the moment - one done with VirtualDub and one with PocketDivXEncoder. Both around 250MB.
The first will open in PMVP after about 30 seconds and plays perfectly well - as long as I don't try jumping forward. That locks the machine for another 30-50 seconds. The second takes almost a minute to open and doesn't display properly at all.

With this app they both open in 1 or two seconds, both play perfectly and I can fast forward with ease. This is the PPC movie playing I've been dreaming of for the last four years.

Now I'm looking forward to my next plane journey - except that I want to take more than two movies, so I'm gonna have to splash out on another 1GB card. Or two.

I thought it was a free program :?:

[The PocketTV Team]

> Don't buy it unless you can afford a few 1GB CF cards

4GB Microdrives cost $200-$250. That's quite affordable.

Tip: Order a Muvo2 from Creative ($200), break it open, there is a 4GB Hitachi Microdrive in it! Just needs to be reformatted in FAT format (using any PC + Card reader).

[Kacey Green]

> Don't buy it unless you can afford a few 1GB CF cards

4GB Microdrives cost $200-$250. That's quite affordable.

Tip: Order a Muvo2 from Creative ($200), break it open, there is a 4GB Hitachi Microdrive in it! Just needs to be reformatted in FAT format (using any PC + Card reader).

They haven't changed it to stop you from getting a cheap card yet?

[picard]

>I'm not in a race. I have a life, too, and I don't spend 100% of my time working on PocketTV. I'll do more when I return.
sorry. i went off from my primary goal (which is to have a good player). thanks for reminding me (example in this beta stage mpeg1 video codec is not a priority for me)

but currently i do spend 100% of my free time on BetaPlayer :)

[The PocketTV Team]

They haven't changed it to stop you from getting a cheap card yet?
Card ?

We are talking about Microdrive, there.

I don't think they have changed it.

You can also get an iPod, $250, it also has a 4GB Microdrive inside it.

But that's off-topic. Sorry, my fault.

[bjornkeizers]

I thought it was a free program :?:

He means: it's soooooo good, you'll want to buy a larger card!

Regarding the Muvo's - I heard that all new units have the CF soldered to the motherboard to prevent people from ripping the cards.

[The PocketTV Team]

> but currently i do spend 100% of my free time on BetaPlayer

That's a bit sad to hear that...

But it's your life! :)

[The PocketTV Team]

> Regarding the Muvo's - I heard that all new units have the CF soldered to the motherboard to prevent people from ripping the cards.

I head that too... but there are still plenty of cheap 4GB Microdrive on eBay. I'm sure someone will find a way to un-solder them if it's worth it!

[picard]

> but currently i do spend 100% of my free time on BetaPlayer

That's a bit sad to hear that...

But it's your life! :)

ok, it was an exaggeration, i still go out and have fun. but i didn't expect such a big start and now feel responsible to continue and respond to the demands. ofcoz this level is temporary.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

> but currently i do spend 100% of my free time on BetaPlayer

That's a bit sad to hear that...

But it's your life! :)

ok, it was an exaggeration, i still go out and have fun. but i didn't expect such a big start and now feel responsible to continue and respond to the demands. ofcoz this level is temporary.
Trust me Picard... your efforts are GREATLY appreciated by DivX / PPC users around the world!!! Even if you stopped now, I think it's safe to say that your player has already become our preferred player over PMVP. I am extremely thankful.

Now because of you, I'm going back and re-ripping some of my DivX videos to higher resolutions/bitrates with the confidence that BetaPlayer will be able to handle it.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

> Regarding the Muvo's - I heard that all new units have the CF soldered to the motherboard to prevent people from ripping the cards.

I head that too... but there are still plenty of cheap 4GB Microdrive on eBay. I'm sure someone will find a way to un-solder them if it's worth it!
Yeah, I got mine from eBay. I think that's probably the better alternative at this point... don't have to worry how accessible the CF is. It's definitely a fantastic drive... well worth the $200 USD I paid.

[CoreyJF]

Given the ease of encoding Windows Media and the fact that the player is in ROM, what is the advantage of using a different player?

I asked the same question until I encoded a video using both windows media encoder and divx. The file size were roughly the same but the quality was crazy different! ( :D I have no idea what i just said)

To put it in more visual terms, in one part of the video there was sand and rocks. While the WMV file showed this as a grayish blob, I could actally make out the hard lines of the rock and the texture of the sand with the divx video. For me its a quality issue. I could get the same quality with WMV but I am not sure if I could get the files as small as I do with Divx.

I tried the same thing today. I took an our long MPEG originally encoded with snapstream PVR. I re-encoded the file with divx using Pocket Divx encodeder and wmv 9. I made sure the screen size was the same and reduced both files to just under 70 megs. The windows video file was significantly crisper. The divx was far more pixalated

[Kacey Green]

They haven't changed it to stop you from getting a cheap card yet?
Card ?

We are talking about Microdrive, there.

I don't think they have changed it.

You can also get an iPod, $250, it also has a 4GB Microdrive inside it.

But that's off-topic. Sorry, my fault.

drive yes, I thought the ones in the mini were not compatible with normal devices even after a format?

[Kacey Green]

ebay, check, ~$280 is what i'm finding

[The PocketTV Team]

ebay, check, ~$280 is what i'm finding
prices change everyday on ebay.

i got mine in an auction for $260.

[The PocketTV Team]

drive yes, I thought the ones in the mini were not compatible with normal devices even after a format?
those from the muvo2 are fully compatible. they even work in my digital camera.

i have not tried one from the ipod.

[Kacey Green]

drive yes, I thought the ones in the mini were not compatible with normal devices even after a format?
those from the muvo2 are fully compatible. they even work in my digital camera.

i have not tried one from the ipod.

yeah I know the muvo is compatible, but does anyone know about the ipod mini?

Edit: Pertaining to using this program?

[The PocketTV Team]

> yeah I know the muvo is compatible, but does anyone know about the ipod mini?

This is off topic, you should start a new thread for this topic :)

[Kacey Green]

> yeah I know the muvo is compatible, but does anyone know about the ipod mini?

This is off topic, you should start a new thread for this topic :)

Better? :?
edited the original post in question, I thought I was following the flow of the discussion, but when you go back we are way off topic here!

[Zack Mahdavi]

So I tried out BetaPlayer today.... after spending all day encoding "Boiler Room." It works really nicely... I can't wait for my next plane trip to actually try it out.. :)

[Kaber]

The easiest way to transcode DVDs I have found is to use DVDx (http://www.labdv.com/dvdx/), then use Pocket Divx encoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) to get it shrunk down right... works great!!

Dude! Thank you so very much for posting those links. For one, Pocket Divx encoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) needs a front page link... AGAIN if not already. This is by far one of the easiest ways I have ever found for converting video to the perfect Pocket PC format. I converted some .avi's I had of Chappelle show that I had down to my iPAQ.

I converted down to video quality 10 (22kbps) and audio 4 (16bit stereo 64kbps) @ 310x222. It plays very nice on my iPAQ. I'm getting mass requests to play Rick James out on smoke breaks.

BetaPlayer plays it so smooth and nice.

3 people have gone out and bought Pocket PCs this weekend and I've gotten emails from each of them requesting I "set up" their new PDAs so they can play the video.

I haven't tried xDVD yet, but since converting some of my existing divx vidz with Pocket Divx encoder I have a tasklist of stuff I'd like to shrink down just to have a catalog of dvds i can swap out on my iPAQ at will.

[buckyg]

Add me to the list of folks who've "converted" to BetaPlayer! Pretty slick, even though it's in its early stages. PocketDivxEncoder is pretty slick, too. I'll be using the heck out of both.

[tourdewolf]

drive yes, I thought the ones in the mini were not compatible with normal devices even after a format?
those from the muvo2 are fully compatible. they even work in my digital camera.

i have not tried one from the ipod.

yeah I know the muvo is compatible, but does anyone know about the ipod mini?

Edit: Pertaining to using this program?

Microdrives in the muvos are not soldered, that was a rumor (some say started by a greedy ebay seller), I just cracked one and sold it last week, purchased from JandR. The minis will not work due to the controller not being on the drive (or something to that effect, not sure about technical specifics). Can read more about it on ipodlounge if your interested, but many have tried without success.

mandatory on topic sentence: So far I am loving this betaplayer, I may even sell my 7" portable dvd player.

[Kacey Green]

mandatory on topic sentence: So far I am loving this betaplayer, I may even sell my 7" portable dvd player. :lol:

[JA]

mandatory on topic sentence: So far I am loving this betaplayer, I may even sell my 7" portable dvd player. :lol:

Thanks for making me dial in for this wonderful response. :roll: JA

[Kacey Green]

oh ******** I forgot somepeple still use dialup, and espically on this site use wirless connectivity options and such. I'll get back on my mission of including something usefull in as many posts as possible.


I've used it at school to show people Rex's capabilities and got some envious stares, and a dent in the battery %

[jimiswingin]

Okay, I've been searching the internet for weeks now trying to answer this question... is there ANY way to connect and iPaq to an iPod (40gig) to use the iPod's storage for movies?? can u imagine if this was possible... Does anyone know if it can be done?

Cheers,
Jon

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Okay, I've been searching the internet for weeks now trying to answer this question... is there ANY way to connect and iPaq to an iPod (40gig) to use the iPod's storage for movies?? can u imagine if this was possible... Does anyone know if it can be done?

Cheers,
Jon
I'd imagine that if it were possible, there'd be several more users here who'd be even more interested in an iPod than they already are now. The only way I know of to add more storage is through the SD/CF slots. In order to support an external device such as an iPod, I would guess that you'd probably need some sort of USB hosting functionality with the PPC. The only PPC that I know of that even came close to supporting this functionality was the Casio E-200, and they didn't take their support of this very far.

Yeah, if this were possible, BetaPlayer would be even more of a killer device with the only concern being battery life.

[Kacey Green]

jimiswingin, you could get a CF usb or firewire card and write the drivers and then it would work, but it would be cumbersome, unless the ipod has a sync cable intead of the cradle

[jimiswingin]

are there any usb/firewire cards that support pocket pc 2002? ive looked everywhere and all i can find is a serial card, but it looks kinda scetch and i dont think id work anyhow. im determined to figure this out!!!

[Janak Parekh]

are there any usb/firewire cards that support pocket pc 2002?
Which iPAQ are you talking about? You need one with CF support, and then you can buy a CF USB host card, a USB-to-iPod cable, and a mass storage driver -- and then, it might work. However, note that the iPod's battery will suffer greatly -- it's not designed for extended spinning. During normal use, it reads the song and spins down after a few seconds.

ekkie -- you forgot the Toshibas amongst others that have USB host. ;)

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

the ipod has a sync cable intead of the cradle
The iPod's cradle is strictly optional. You can just unplug it from the iPod, remove the cable from the back of the cradle, and plug it in directly. :)

--janak

[Pete Wilson]

> Regarding the Muvo's - I heard that all new units have the CF soldered to the motherboard to prevent people from ripping the cards.

I head that too... but there are still plenty of cheap 4GB Microdrive on eBay. I'm sure someone will find a way to un-solder them if it's worth it!

As far as I know a faked picture started that rumour - I just got one recently and it worked fine.

[atwnsw]

I downloaded a movie using movielink and haven't viewed it yet.

In an ideal world, I would love to play it on my ipaq 1945.

Is there anyway to convert it?

Thanks

Anthony

[logo20heli]

Anyone having trouble getting the link to the player working? I cannot even ping corecodec.org right now. Is there any other location to download this player? TIA

[Kaber]

Anyone having trouble getting the link to the player working? I cannot even ping corecodec.org right now. Is there any other location to download this player? TIA

http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1080

UPDATE: Grrr! That link isn't working either. I forgot PPCF just forwards.

[Zack Mahdavi]

Anyone having trouble getting the link to the player working? I cannot even ping corecodec.org right now. Is there any other location to download this player? TIA

I tried searching for other places, but couldn't find any that offered their own download of betaplayer. I suggest you try again in a few hours. The site might just be down for maintenance.

[torgamm]

http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1080

UPDATE: Grrr! That link isn't working either. I forgot PPCF just forwards.
You can try again now to download locally.
I put the last version I downloaded.
I'll remove it when the site is up again.

[Kaber]

THANKS! :D

[ricoks]

This link is still not working.
anyone else have this availble for DL???
Ryan

[Zack Mahdavi]

This link is still not working.
anyone else have this availble for DL???
Ryan

PocketPCFreewares has linked the download to here. (http://beta.topcat.hu/) If that doesn't work for you, PM me, and I'll set up a way for you to download it.

[torgamm]

The corecodec site suffered a hardware failure.
But betaplayer is available at http://beta.topcat.hu/

I just changed the link back to the author site (it is safer to get an up-to-date version). If it fails, I did not remove the file on our server. You may try :
http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/files/betaplayer_setup.0.02.exe

[tourdewolf]

I downloaded a movie using movielink and haven't viewed it yet.

In an ideal world, I would love to play it on my ipaq 1945.

Is there anyway to convert it?

Thanks

Anthony

In theory we should be able to play movielink files since they use Windows Media. Thus far I haven't been able to find a conversion technique that is usable.
Maybe someone else has had experiences?
I will check out digital media thoughts...

Mandatory on topic sentence: I wonder if betaplayer could be used to view movielink movies?

[Supaiku]

Can betaplayer switch to landscape view and play properly?

[Darius Wey]

Can betaplayer switch to landscape view and play properly?

Yes. When you click the fullscreen button, it will rotate the video to fit the display, whether it be portrait or landscape orientation.

[jayz2005]

Link to betaplayer 0.5
http://shintak.info/ppc/download/betaplayer/0.5/