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View Full Version : Guide: how to convert(rip) video and dvd for Pocket PC/Palm


ginger
02-22-2006, 01:40 PM
1. Download, install and run Pocket DVD Studio (http://www.lightsparkle.com/download/pdvdstudio_v723.exe). It can convert from video files(wmv, avi, mpg, mpeg, rm, rmvb, Tivo2go, etc) and DVDs.
(Pocket DVD Studio Download (http://www.lightsparkle.com/download/pdvdstudio_v723.exe))

http://www.lightsparkle.com/images/products/12297/icon_2.gif (http://www.lightsparkle.com/download/pdvdstudio_v723.exe)

2. Click "Open ..." button and choose a video file or DVD disc to open (or just insert the DVD movie disk in the DVD-ROM). Wait for the movie to start playing in the preview window.

http://www.lightsparkle.com/images/guides/974/open.gif

3. You can choose a resolution from the list. Different devices have different screen resolutions. For example, Treo 600 has a 160x160 screen, so you need to choose one of the 160x... resolutions from the list. Most palm devices have 320x320 or 480x320 screen resolutions. You may choose any resolution that is smaller than the screen.

Larger resolutions require more space in your memory card. For example, 416x240 (100kpixel) usually requires twice the space as 272x160 (44kpixel) requires under the same movie quality.

Alternatively, you can choose a Crop Mode to cut unimportant parts of the video (like top/bottom black bars or subtitles).

You can also adjust the desired quality to reduce the output size of the movie.

In the preview window you will see what the resulting movie will look like.

When you have set the desired settings simple click on the "Record it" button to convert the video/DVD.

http://www.lightsparkle.com/images/guides/974/settings.gif

4. Choose output folder where the converted movie will be placed, click on the "OK" button and the conversion will start. Depending on the settings a 60 minutes video is converted on average for 20 minutes.

http://www.lightsparkle.com/images/guides/974/folder_select.gif

Tips
Drag the trackbar to seek position and preview. When the trackbar is focused, use left, right arrow to move forward/backward for a few seconds, use page-up, page-down to move several minutes.

You may encode a movie for a few minutes and see its result on your PDA before the whole process.

Before choosing the output size, split size, check the free space of your memory card first. A formatted 128MB card is less than 128MB, file system occupies some space for directory/file entry table.

Testing recorded video file:
You can test the recorded video file on your PC using Windows Media Player. If it plays fine on your PC but has problems on your pocket PC/palm, try to free some RAM in your device or reset the device or increase buffers in your player's settings.

Troubleshooting
DVD subtitle(subpicture), language:
It is recommended to use the native DVD menu in the preview panel to set subtitle(subpicture) and language. (Click "DVD menu" button on the right to show native DVD menu in the preview panel) You may also change the subtitle(subpicture), language in the program's Options menu, but there are some DVDs that require the change must be made in the native DVD menu instead of the program's menu.

Cannot initialize Lame:
Go to "Options" menu -> "Output Settings", check whether your audio setting is correct. Try to increase the audio bitrate.

DVD Video / Audio and decoder problem:
Go to "Options" menu -> "DVD Settings", manually choose a DVD Video and Audio Decoder, for example [ InterVideo Video Decoder, InterVideo Audio Decoder ] or [ CyberLink Video/SP Decoder, CyberLink Audio Decoder ]. It is recommended to use both video and audio decoders of the same manufacture instead of mixing two different brands.

Additional Settings

1. Video Settings

Video Frame Rate
Known as Frame Per Second (FPS) refers to the number of pictures displayed in 1 second in order to form continuous motions. The default frame rate is 15 fps. You may choose higher fps and increase the output size to get more continuos motions.

The maximum fps for NTSC films is 24fps. Countries using NTSC standard include: USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea,...

The maximum fps for PALfilms is 25fps. Countries using NTSC standard include most European countries, Australia, China, Israel,...

IMPORTANT : If your palm device is not powerful enough to handle 20fps or 24fps video in high bitrate, it will actually drop frames and cause video to shutter.

2-pass encoding
This setting allows the recorder to analyse the video stream (in the 1st pass) before recording. Based on the analysis data, the 2nd pass will generate video in better quality (especially in fast motion scenes). This is done by distributing more bits to the fast motion part (analysed during the 1st pass) and giving less bits to the more static part.

The analysis pass is a little faster than the real recording pass. So the overall recording time of 2-pass recording is less than (single pass recording time * 2).

Brightness Level
Increase the level to make video appear brighter on your Pocket PC screen. The default is level 0 (No brightness change from the original video).

Increase the level to make video appear brighter on your Pocket PC screen. The default is level 0 (No brightness change from the original video).

2. Audio Options

Audio bitrate (in bits per second)
Audio bitrate refers to how many data storage is allocated to store audio signals. The higher audio bitrate, the better audio quality. There are some other factors that influence the audio quality as well, such as audio sampling frequency.

Sampling frequency
Using 44KHz sampling can reduce audio distortion on high frequency level, however it consumes more audio bitrate.

The average human ear can hear sounds in the frequency range 20-20000Hz. To reproduce a sound at a given frequency the audio sampling rate must be more than twice that frequency. This means that with a sampling frequency of 22000Hz (22 KHz) some high frequency information will be lost. The higher sampling frequency (44100Hz) have cut-offs above normal human hearing range.

Audio Volume
You can change output audio volume in "Output Settings" dialog. The default volume level is 5 (original volume).

Stereo to Mono
When the output audio is set to Mono, you can choose which stereo channel (of input source) to be copied into the Mono channel (output). It is useful for some video sources (e.g. VCD) which use the left, right channels for different languages or for karaoke.

gripper
03-15-2006, 11:31 AM
Great tutorial, good work ginger!
And the software is quite good, this is the fastest converter I have used!

gripper
03-31-2006, 08:10 AM
What is the fastest way to upload the converted movies on the PDA? I'm currently using ActiveSync but it's not very fast.

Nurhisham Hussein
03-31-2006, 11:51 AM
Use a card reader.

gripper
04-11-2006, 09:11 AM
Use a card reader.

10x hishamh, I bought a universal reader and the increase in copy speed is unbelievable!

Nurhisham Hussein
04-11-2006, 05:33 PM
You're welcome! AS transfer speeds are slightly below USB1.1 spec, almost all recent card readers transfer files at USB 2.0 speeds - the difference in speed is about at minimum 6 to 1. You can get more detailed info here:

http://www.usb.org/channel/USB-PerformData-04.pdf

tbernstein
04-25-2006, 09:38 PM
Is there a free piece of software that will allow me to use/view.convert a .avi format video clip on my PPC?
It needs to be freeware for the obvious reason that there is abslolutely no way I could justify spending ( wasting) money just so that I can tinker for a few minutes. I don't need to see the clips on my Acer N50, but it would be fun to try.

The bundled Windows Media player version in my WinMobile 2003 SE device doesn't want to play .avi files, even though the version on my desktop does.

Nurhisham Hussein
04-26-2006, 01:46 AM
The problem is that .avi is a container format - the codec used might be different e.g. DivX. In this case, instead of worrying about trying to transcode files, first download and install TCPMP (http://corecodec.org/projects/tcpmp) and try playing the files you want with this - TCPMP can play virtually anything! (Ok, that was hyperbole, but justifiable hyperbole 8) ).

If you still want to transcode, then I suggest PocketDivxEncoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) for existing video files, or Fairuse Lite (http://www.fairusewizard.com/) if you're wanting to rip some DVDs.

All three programs are freeware.

nategesner
06-01-2006, 05:16 PM
This is a nice guide, but Fairuse has a free program that can do the same thing. Some would argue it does it better. Do a search for "Fairuse Tutorial" on this board or at Aximsite.com and try it out.

If you simply must pay for software, DVD Catalyst is a pretty good program for under $20. In fact, it was on sale recently for $15 at Handango (I think).

Nurhisham Hussein
06-02-2006, 01:00 AM
If you read my post above yours, I already put in the link for Fairuse - no need to search!