P800 for MP3 and Video

iwb

I am starting to explore my SonyEricsson phone further and have some questions.
I can either sync the phone via USB or use a USB card reader for the 128MB stick I have. What is the best way to put MP3 music on the phone? Most of the MP3's I have are at least 128kbps so that will fill the card fairly quickly. Windows Media Player doesn't recognise the phone so it won't automatically convert the files to a smaller size and push them over.
Also, what program can I use to convert videos to mp4 format for the phone?
Thanks, iwb

chernobyl

You should convert your mp3's to oggvorbis. basically, they are half the size and the same quality [well you wont notice any difference from that tiny speaker or your headphones.

http://www.vorbis.com/

You will need to install the oggplayer too.

If you cant be bothered, i would re-encode your mp3's to 64kbs as again, you wont be able to tell the difference.

The best way to tranfer files to the memory stick is to actually buy a memory card reader [expecially if transferring large files] as you can do it alot faster.

example: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=106018

Im sure you can find a cheaper [usb] version if you shop about.

Best P800 forum: http://www.esato.com/board/viewforum.php?forum=35

iwb

Thanks Chernobyl. I guess I should've made myself clearer on the MP3's. I would like to keep them at the bigger file size for home listening but also be able to transfer them to the phone at smaller size. If I reencode them to smaller aswell in two separate directories, it gets complicated for when I add or delete any. I have a few thousand files in total.
I do have a USB card reader and it was a great buy for €40.

flywheel

as chernobyl says - a card reader is the best bet (picked up nice a SanDisk USB2 MS/CF/SD/MMC/SM for about $30 in the US)

was a bit disappointed with the P800 headphones - thought they might use some decent (higher end) in-the-ear Sony jobs - or allow you to attach your own with a 3.5mm mini-jack into the mic/call answer unit

there are 2.5mm phone to regular 3.5mm headphone converters available but you loose the mic and call answer functionality

made a decision a while back to encode all my MP3s into 96k for use on a couple of different devices so they would work on which ever one was being used at the time

oggvorbis is great for compression but to get the benefit of it's high quality at low bit rates you really need to encoding from source rather than conversion from one 'lossy' format into another (like the degradation that results in a photocopy of a photocopy scenario) - i'd use it if it the P800 was the only portable device the files would be used on – so i stick with mp3

re video - had been creating content for the pocket pc already (saving source in AVI)

so used QuickTime Pro (6.3) to convert to mpeg4 for playback in the built-in packet video player
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

Alternatively Packet Video offer their own solution the PV Author:
http://www.packetvideo.com/info/p800/

Here's a specific Multimedia Forum for the P800 (UIQ)
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=28

hth,
BrianG