11-01-2004, 07:00 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 26
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How To Watch DVD on the Go
Introduction
When I first saw Portable video players (PVPs) in an airport duty free shop about a year ago, I thought of how cool it would be if my Pocket PC could do something similar. After all, it is small and portable (I bought it originally to play games), and there is a decent media player built in. But alas, how could it fit? How would the formats be compatible? Have I got time to look into this? Nah! Good idea but it is waaaay too time consuming and difficult...! Case closed... Turn forward the clock to the present day, and that cool thought is now a commercial reality ...
Top 3 DVD to Pocket PC Products
The following 3 applications allow anybody to watch DVDs on their Pocket PCs ... (note - no ranking implied by way of ordering)
Makayama's DVD to Pocket PC
Coding Workshop's Pocket DVD Wizard
... and last (but by no means least) PQDVD's Pocket DVD Studio
The Ole' Days
In order to appreciate exactly how cool these products are, one has to look back on how this technically complex feat was achieved in the days before these software applications were made available. There were a few solutions made public on the internet, which involved using a number of freely available programs, in some sequence which ultimately resulted in the data stored on the DVD magically converted to WMV/DIVX format - capable of being played on the Pocket PC.
I personally have not experienced this, but I remember observing a friend spending a whole day assembling all these programs together and squeezing a movie onto his 128 MB SD card. I remember being totally freaked out when I saw the movie running on his IPAQ 3970 at the time. Very cool indeed! However, I found out later - that day of experience was a result of a few more days before hand of getting it wrong! I was quickly convinced that the task was not suited for a computer layman like myself 
DVD - As Easy as 1,2,3...
Then, in come the forementioned products. Quite literally, these products let you do what took hours or days of aggravation into a one or two click process. Choose your favourite DVD, put it in your computer DVD drive, turn on the program, click a few buttons, and wait for the goods! The only drag is this depends on how fast your computer is - you might have to wait a few hours (I personally put the DVD in before I go to bed, and it would be done when I wake up in the morning :-) ) Once completed, your movie is converted into a file that fits on a 128MB or 256MB memory card. Not bad for about 25 to 30 sheets worth of software. I am also pleased to say that (for a limited time) www.clickapps.com has managed to get exclusive discounts for the products courtesy of Makayama (20% discount), the Coding Workshop (25% discount) and PQDVD (25% discount).
Is it lawful?
There are some legal questions surrounding the use of these products - centered around copyright laws. As a result, there is a disclaimer that comes with the purchase of these products, along the lines of "You can only use this software to convert personally owned DVDs". However, this disclaimer is still not sufficient for some countries, where it is a violation of copyright law for the software to physically decrypt the content scrambling system and macrovision protection on DVDs. However, I am aware that new versions of the above mentioned software will no longer decrypt DVD content as a result of the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which legally allows authorized equipment and software to unlock this DVD encryption. In the case of the windows environment, the Windows Media Player has the job of unlocking the disc's encryption, and the conversion software simply extracts the unlocked content and compresses it into a file that you can use on your Pocket PC.
Conclusion
As an avid Pocket PC user, and frequent traveller, I think that these are killer apps for my Pocket PC. I can now watch my favourite DVDs when I am out and about - how cool is that?
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The above article is a paid advertisement for Clickapps.com and does not necessarily represent the views of Pocket PC Thoughts.
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11-02-2004, 10:02 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 241
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Here's one better.
http://divx.ppccool.com/
Pocket Divx Encoder is Freeware, it will convert many formats to avi, including VOB right off the dvd.
On the opening screen you select the picture of the device the movie will be played on and it makes the settings for you. (raise audio quality to the max though, unless you like heavily compressed audio)
It supports 2 pass encoding and works with xvid, it supports b-frames (very cool) and is geared to work with another free program, Betaplayer (the only ppc media player to support bframes)
I converted 10 divx movies (700 meg) through this to about 250-340 megs per movie in about 4 hours.
If you are considering checking out a dvd solution, i highly recommend this.
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11-02-2004, 10:45 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 148
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haaa... beat me to it
I too, highly recommend Pocketdivixencoder. I have used for hundreds of movies, all flawless. Love the batch encode.
TD
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11-03-2004, 12:33 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 278
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Do all / any of these products allow you to FF through a movie and/or contain a "resume" feature?
For example, if I am watching a movie on my PPC, I may only be able to watch 30 minutes of it, but then when I come back to it, I want to pick up where I left off. Unless they have a resume feature, or the ability to FF through the first 30 minutes, this could be a real pain.
Any comments?
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11-03-2004, 01:15 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 86
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This would be a function of the player rather than the encoder. I don't believe betaplayer has this ability, short of pausing playback and not closing the app itself.
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11-03-2004, 01:46 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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That's for the "resume" feature answer; what about FF?
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11-03-2004, 02:01 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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Since Pocket Divx Encoder is Freeware and because this article is a paid advertisement, it's not being part of the article.
Too bad because as usual money is more important than truth :evil:.
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11-03-2004, 02:52 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 315
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after all.. the best stuff is allways the pay stuff! Video compressors.. no..wait..vdub. Codecs! no.. no..divx. Players! Wait.. nah zoom and media player classic. dvd rippers and shrinkers! hmm not that either, dvd decrypter and dvd shrink.
Aside from the all mighty adobe, freeware owns the video editing market. Most comerical video editors and compressors are using common moduals, free easy to get code, and generaly rely on windows built in features, librarys, and the codecs to do the majority of the work still.
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11-03-2004, 03:17 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 212
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I use Pocket Divx Encoder and Betaplayer on my HP4150 and love it. Works great in the car using my tape adapter for sound through the car speakers. I got the PPC sitting on my dash in front of the speedometer and it works great on those long commutes back home from work.
Ya, the eyes stay on the road, the commute is slow, so I'm not going to hit anyone in front ! :lol:
__________________
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11-03-2004, 04:12 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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If your eyes stay on the road, how can you watch your ipaq?! 8O
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Linear Mode
