Movie player recommendations?

[terrypin]

Never got around to this before, but I'm about to try downloading a few MPEG files for amusement on my PPC. So I would appreciate suggestions on the better programs for this please.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[Darius Wey]

The two major MPG applications for the Pocket PC are BetaPlayer (http://betaplayer.corecodec.org) and PocketTV (http://www.pockettv.com/).

BetaPlayer takes it one step further and supports other file formats as well. It also performs very well. That's the one I tend to use.

[terrypin]

Thanks, I'll download BetaPlayer now and try it.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[terrypin]

Duly installed, but I'm plainly doing something wrong. I've copied various MPEG files to my CF card, and Resco Explorer can see them. But in BetaPlayer 0.04, File>Open does not display any of them files.

BTW, is there any Help documentation accessible from the BetaPlayer on the PPC please?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[Don't Panic!]

Pocket TV also includes color controls. Try the unstable version of BetaPlayer. It works fine and has more options but not color control.

[terrypin]

Pocket TV also includes color controls. Try the unstable version of BetaPlayer. It works fine and has more options but not color control.

Thanks, I may well try Pocket TV later. But first I'd like to at least open my first .mpeg file with this 'stable' version of BetaPlayer!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[Ripper014]

You need the plug-ins in order to run mpeg's on Betaplayer you can get them from the same site...

Of the two players Betaplayer is by far the most flexible...

[Don't Panic!]

Thise are MPEG-1 files right? MPEG-2 files won't work.

[picard]

But first I'd like to at least open my first .mpeg file with this 'stable' version of BetaPlayer!
You should use the 'unstable' because only that supports mpeg1 files.

[Darius Wey]

But in BetaPlayer 0.04, File>Open does not display any of them files.

You need the plug-ins in order to run mpeg's on Betaplayer you can get them from the same site...

Grab the unstable version (0.095). It's as stable as ever. :P

You can do away with the added plug-ins since the MPEG support is already preinstalled by default.

[terrypin]

Thanks for the follow-ups. Pleased to say I installed 0.95 as recommended and can now view MPEGs. I think the failure before was because the Filter was set by default to MPEG Audio Files, and I hadn't noticed. Have now set to 'Media Files (all types)'.

Could anyone recommend (free) sources of files I might play with please?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[Darius Wey]

Here (http://www.pocketmovies.net/) you go.

[terrypin]

Here (http://www.pocketmovies.net/) you go.

Great - thanks very much. All I need now is a few extra GB! :)

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[koppee1]

or use the free pocket divx encoder (found in the betaplayer site) and encode it into divx :) added bonus of a smaller size.

[terrypin]

Here (http://www.pocketmovies.net/) you go.

Great - thanks very much. All I need now is a few extra GB! :)

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

As a footnote, BetaPlayer performed fine. But I have to say that very few of the 20 or so MPG files I downloaded from http://www.pocketmovies.net were of any interest to me. Most seemed kids stuff or very amateurish and derivative. (Even in that small batch, there were two with virtually identical themes: a NASA craft's forced landing on a city road.)

I suppose you get what you pay for!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[ipaq1940]

Ya, doesnt BetaPlayer only play AVI?
I'm using it to watch some older Seinfeld episodes. For MPEG< use Pokcet TV.

edit: someone already suggested that...

[terrypin]

[quote="ipaq1940"]Ya, doesnt BetaPlayer only play AVI?
I'm using it to watch some older Seinfeld episodes. For MPEG< use Pokcet TV.

No, BetaPlayer handles a very large variety of formats, including MPEG (in various flavouurs), ASX,WMX, AAC, OGG, AVI, DIVX, WAV, RMP, etc. I don't believe it plays WMV files though? And it also apparently handles playlist types PLS, M3U. The only type I've tried so far is MPEG, as I ise PocketMusic and WMP for my music (mainly WMA - which BetaPlayer does not play).

Presumably your Seinfeld MPEGS were bought, not free?

Does anyone know of any free sources of worthwhile MPEGS, i.e, not trailers, kids cartoons or 2 minute experimental animations etc?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[Don't Panic!]

The Prelinger Internet Archive of Moving Images (http://www.archive.org/movies/movies.php) has a bunch of more relevant stuff including .mp4 and .mpeg-1 files. Betaplayer can handle them. You'll need those GB's for this one. :wink:

[ipaq1940]

[quote=ipaq1940]Ya, doesnt BetaPlayer only play AVI?
I'm using it to watch some older Seinfeld episodes. For MPEG< use Pokcet TV.

No, BetaPlayer handles a very large variety of formats, including MPEG (in various flavouurs), ASX,WMX, AAC, OGG, AVI, DIVX, WAV, RMP, etc. I don't believe it plays WMV files though? And it also apparently handles playlist types PLS, M3U. The only type I've tried so far is MPEG, as I ise PocketMusic and WMP for my music (mainly WMA - which BetaPlayer does not play).

Presumably your Seinfeld MPEGS were bought, not free?

Does anyone know of any free sources of worthwhile MPEGS, i.e, not trailers, kids cartoons or 2 minute experimental animations etc?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.
Yes....... bought what ever you say.
Mpegs? Maybe you'll find some at http://www.bi-torrent.com.
Some movies and tv shows there.... it's not illegal becau-
*runs*

[/i]

[Darius Wey]

Ya, doesnt BetaPlayer only play AVI?
I'm using it to watch some older Seinfeld episodes. For MPEG< use Pokcet TV.

IIRC, the unstable version provides more file format support than the stable version. So give that a go.

No, BetaPlayer handles a very large variety of formats, including MPEG (in various flavouurs), ASX,WMX, AAC, OGG, AVI, DIVX, WAV, RMP, etc. I don't believe it plays WMV files though?

Terry, just a heads-up in case you didn't know, if you want support for a few extra formats, you can install the additional plugins. (http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/plugins.html)

[terrypin]

Thanks for the heads up, but I'm already using the 'unstable', many-fotmat version.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[Don't Panic!]

What did you think of the Prelinger Archive?

[terrypin]

What did you think of the Prelinger Archive?

Looks good, thanks! Only just started downloading, but it certainly seems an interesting and rich source.

I'm not familiar with movie formats, but I'm staggered by the difference in size. For example, for one particular file I'm downloading right now (17DaysTh1945_256kb.mp4 from ia200130.eu.archive.org), here are the options:
MPEG2 236.8M
MPEG4 22.0M
MPEG1 172.9M
MP4 9.6M

Will I see a big difference in quality?

And what are these two please?
XML 4.8K
XML 908.0B

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[terrypin]

bought[/i] what ever you say.
Mpegs? Maybe you'll find some at http://www.bi-torrent.com.
Some movies and tv shows there.... it's not illegal becau-
*runs*

[/i]

Thanks for the link. But so far I've not had much success. It's a peer-to-peer thing, yes? I installed the specified software, Azureus, to download the 'torrent' files. But the first I tried was glacially slow. Apparently because the 'Health' of my conguration wasn't adequate (a yellow icon). Something about my 'NAT'. All technical gobbledygook to me!

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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Using iPAQ 2210 with WM2003.

[terrypin]

Bobby: As well as a few initial MPEG4s, I also downlaoded some MOV files from that Prelinger site. But although I've installed the latest version of QuickTime Movie Player, they have all failed to play (on my PC, so obviously no point trying PPC). I got message "QuickTime is missing software required to display this movie file. Unfortunately, it is not available on the QuickTime server." Also o another "You may experience problems playing a video track in London14.mov because the required compressor couldnot be found."

Did you try any MOV yourself? Any ideas (anyone) on likely problem please?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

[Don't Panic!]

terrypin-I use betaplayer 0.096 on my Dell AximX50v and I have no problem playing the 256KB MPEG-4 files which have less pixelation than the 64KB MPEG-4 files. the XML stuff is reviews. I never tried the MOV files.MPEG2 is the next file format the creator of betaplayer is going to take a crack at. So maybe in version 0,097 or one of the alpha-numeric updates to 0.096 it will have that ability and we can both discover what all the fuss is about with MPEG-2. :D