Pocketnow Reviews Pocket-DVD Studio

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=397' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?...=reviews&id=397</a><br /><br /></div>" It seems that every day I am hearing about a new memory card that has greater storage capacity, or I am hearing about how memory card prices are falling. With the fall of prices in memory cards, Pocket PCs become more powerful because they can do more with memory cards and more inexpensively, too. For example, one can easily convert 7 hours of CD-quality music to a 500MB medium (compact disc, high memory card, etc.). Pocket PCs are great multi-media players and memory cards make this possible.<br /><br />What about movies? A DVD holds some 5 gigabytes of information which is enough information for your favorite movie to be crystal clear on big-screen monitor. But what if we wanted to watch our DVDs on a Pocket PC screen? There isn't a DVD player for Pocket PCs. But thanks to software like DVD-Pocket PC Studio, you can watch your movies on your Pocket PC as well!"<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20040531_pocketdvd.jpg" /> <br /><br />Scott Logsdon (no relation) has written an excellent, in-depth review of this software, which he apparently likes. I'm curious as to how this stacks up against other encoders, like <a href="http://divx.ppccool.com/">Pocket DivX encoder.</a> Has anyone tried both? What are your thoughts? <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore//PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;jid=5X69XECFA47C29F5FECCD6C9X2D6F574&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;productId=111156&amp;sectionId=0&amp;catalog=30">Pocket DVD Studio</a> is $32.99. [Affiliate]

[OneAngryDwarf]

This is the only program that I've tried and liked (I've tried a ton).... I don't have problems w/ A/V synching or w/ choppy frame rates or anything like that... the file size that i usually aim for is perhaps a little higher than what I imagine many are aiming for but this one does a great job for what I want (good qual video at full frame rate w/ good sound - that does have to be tweaked a bit to get good sound in this program). I just wish it could convert other types of video rather than just dvd... be nice to convert some divx and xvid tv shows w/ the same level of quality that I'm getting from my DVD's... please msg me if u've found a program to do that and retains full frame rate and doesn't have A/V synching issues. My life would then be complete.

[papasula]

I had a very tough time purchasing from Handango and (after 3 times) have still yet to get a reg code from them...even though they have charged me 3 times! Twice refunded and awaiting more response from CS.

In the mean time, I bought DVD to PPC and have done a couple movies. The first was "This is Spinal Tap" and I did it at the 'normal' setting (quality). The audio slowly moves ahead of the video until it was a couple seconds off. I then tried "Winged Migration" (I'm a bird nerd, too) and was blown away! I encoded at Higher quality with great results! I am a bit thrown by the amount of time it takes (10+ hours to do W.M.).

Still waiting to try pqDVD....we'll see

[hollis_f]

Pocket DVD Studio is almost the application I've been waiting for. In the past I've used various combinations of freeware and commercial apps to try and get movies onto my PPC. Anything I've got to work has been slow and complex. Anything fast and simple has had major problems. PocketDivXEncoder looked as if it might be 'The One'. But encoding The Matrix resulted in a file that was of lower quality than the same size file encoded with VirtualDub - and with unsynchronised sound.

So far I've only tried PDVD Studio on a couple of DVDs. The first time it gave up after about 40 minutes (no idea why). The second attempt with the same film worked perfectly - as did the next two films.

Why do I say it's 'almost' what I've been waiting for? Two main reasons -
1. It's obviously not 100% reliable.
2. It doesn't have the option to encode direct to landscape format (which should improve playback on the PPC).

[rob_ocelot]

Pocket DivX Encoder combined with Picard's Betaplayer gives *excellent* results -- much better than any manual 2-pass encode I've been able to do. One hour of video gives me roughly 110MB at the quality I like, with no missed frames or blockiness (even on dark areas). Pocket Divx encoder is FAST, and by fast I mean lightning fast. It takes 30-40 min to do a 2-pass on a feature film. Both programs are free and still in development.

To be fair, you cannot go directly from DVD to an Xvid with this combo and the commercial programs are more of a turn-key solution so we are talkaing about two different types of end users here. I prefer to have some control over the parts of the process and don't the extra step to rip my dvd's -- so I like the combo solution better.

[tourdewolf]

Pocket DivX Encoder combined with Picard's Betaplayer gives *excellent* results -- much better than any manual 2-pass encode I've been able to do. One hour of video gives me roughly 110MB at the quality I like, with no missed frames or blockiness (even on dark areas). Pocket Divx encoder is FAST, and by fast I mean lightning fast. It takes 30-40 min to do a 2-pass on a feature film. Both programs are free and still in development.

To be fair, you cannot go directly from DVD to an Xvid with this combo and the commercial programs are more of a turn-key solution so we are talkaing about two different types of end users here. I prefer to have some control over the parts of the process and don't the extra step to rip my dvd's -- so I like the combo solution better.


Ditto!

[Warwick]

I have been doing this for a long time now, but its all free stuff so I thought I would post on it. Its a little longer to do though so some might not like it.

I use DVD Decryptor to rip the DVD to a single huge VOB file, rename the VOB to AVI, then use windows media encoder do encode it down into a PPC usable video.

I aim for 100meg files, and most come down to 80megs or so, you go argh thats got to be crappy to watch but no its very watchable and video/audio sync is perfect. Took a while to get the right settings and it was all using free tools.

[hollis_f]

I use DVD Decryptor to rip the DVD to a single huge VOB file, rename the VOB to AVI, then use windows media encoder do encode it down into a PPC usable video.
8O Now that's interesting. I didn't realise you could just rename a VOB and manipulate it as an AVI.