Tips for watching AVI on a PPC/XDA

fatherdougalmag

Hi,
Just wondering if any of you wizards out there have any tips for watching AVI files on the likes of an XDA.

I know, probably pushing it a bit. I've copied an episode of The Simpsons over (100MB) to my shiny new SD card and I'm using PocketDivX to watch it. It's a bit jumpy. I've tried allocating more mem for programs (as opposed to storage) but it's not making much of a difference. I've tried Pocket MVP as well but that was a bit resource hungry in itself so it sort of fell at the first hurdle.

flywheel

I use Pocket TV on the Pocket PC and Smartphone - works a treat - although windows media player ain't bad and does squish the file down quite a bit more more compared to MPEG... just got to watch that battery life

BrianG

Dr. Dre

With my SPV I like to use windows media encoder here to decode/encode to wmv format, I find it gives far better results than using mpeg or avi. All you do is use the wizard to "optimize for pocket pc 150kps" and the movies tend to turn out great.
Of course if you're anal (like me ) you can go the whole hog and tweak the movies, in microsoft movie maker or adobe premiere, as well.
Was watching bo' selecta in the pub last night via the gift of wmv.

The Brigadier

Why would you go to the pub and watch your pocket PC for half an hour? With all your friends around you?

Dr. Dre

:rolleyes:
Sorry, meant a bo' selecta video clip ~1min, showing it to the lads.
And not a pocket pc, a smartphone :rolleyes:

fatherdougalmag

Well the cigar goes to Dr. Dre (so far anyway). Just squished it down to a watchable 35MB WMV and it plays like a dream with Media Player! Still have to give PocketTV a go but that seems to be MPG only. Fantastic stuff all the same though.

Thanks for the tips.

flywheel

Originally posted by fatherdougalmag
Just squished it down to a watchable 35MB WMV and it plays like a dream with Media Player! Still have to give PocketTV a go but that seems to be MPG only.

used to use WMV files - mainly with likes of SnapStream recording TV for the Pocket PC, file size isn't everything and in the end MPEG won out for me when encoding content like my own DVDs for playback

the MPEG certainly has a larger file than windows media (although still smaller than AVI!) but the quality wins for me over squeezing down the file (and the quality out) - i'd invested in a couple of decent sized SD cards to keep me going

the Smartphone (SPV device) gags on an AVI - the poor processor can't handle it - you can really tweak the MPEG output to give some stunning results on the device

the PocketTV player is a much better video player then the Smartphone 2002 Windows Media Player - which isn't any good at video playback of content longer than a few minutes

if you have to conserve space then WMV is the best option but make sure to check you are using the right encoder for your media player - the encoders come in different versions - the quality tends to improve with each release due to newer video codecs being used

a recent app that provided a DVD direct to Windows Media Video file was launched recently (but it requires Windows Mobile 2003 to work as it uses Media Player 9)
http://www.makayama.com/dvdtopocketpc.html

wazzup

DubWireless wrote:

the Smartphone (SPV device) gags on an AVI - the poor processor can't handle it - you can really tweak the MPEG output to give some stunning results on the device...

hey i have the imate smartphone 1 and was wondering:

the above posts have led me to believe that mpg format is the best for the smartphone... hence if i have a 586mb .mpg file, how do i compress it to form an .mpg file which is less than 100 mb ???which software and player would i use ?? i have a 256 mb sd card with 100 mb free space...

thanks much

flywheel

hi, i use these references for creating MPEG files for playback on Windows Mobile Pocket PC / Smartphone with Pocket TV, hopefully some of the links should be some help:
http://www.pockettv.com/encoding.html

P.S. this is an old thread, so anyone with the latest model of MS Smartphone (running 2003 Second Edition) should have a better experience with the Windows Media player compared to the version referred to in this thread

wazzup

DubWireless wrote:

hi, i use these references for creating MPEG files for playback on Windows Mobile Pocket PC / Smartphone with Pocket TV, hopefully some of the links should be some help:
http://www.pockettv.com/encoding.html

P.S. this is an old thread, so anyone with the latest model of MS Smartphone (running 2003 Second Edition) should have a better experience with the Windows Media player compared to the version referred to in this thread

My smartphone has the microsoft 2002 edition ..... also, most of the software in that encoding thread has a price. i was hoping to find a software which was free.........

thanks for ur help..

flywheel

hi, under the 'Freeware MPEG Encoders' listed on that page check out TMPGEnc - it should do the job fine - you will need to tweak the output settings but use the sample templates they provide for a start and experiment

the quality of your source file can determine how well the output will look, bearing in mind the device itself will be pushed hard during playback

the PS wasn't directed at you, sorry for the confusion - aimed at those who have purchased the latest devices with the newer OS on it (e.g. the SP3, SP3i)

wazzup

well i already have tmpgenc .. tried using the resolutoin of 208x160 with a bitrate of 225 kb/sec but the output file had a big file size.... i was trying to convert a 110-120 mb .avi file to .mpg so that i could put it on my phone.. i have only 140 mb free space on my sd card and need to get the filesize to below that..

Also the presets are for vcds so im thinking that th eresolutoin and output file size would matter..

do u know the settings i could use for tempgenc?

thanks

Chalk

http://forum.pocketmovies.net/viewtopic.php?p=3415#3415

you can use the templates in there guide
load one in tmpenc and it will do all the settings to optimise the encode

flywheel

do u know the settings i could use for tempgenc?

hi, have you tried with the templates Pocket TV provide, they have three templates to choose from:

- Smartphone portrait 176x136 is for portrait video that plays at full framerate. The average bitrate should be around 120 Kbit/sec

- Smartphone fullscreen 224x176 is for fullscreen video (lower fps). The average bitrate should be around 160 Kbit/sec.

- Smartphone widescreen 224x128 is for widescreen video. The average bitrate should be around 140 Kbit/sec.

if required you can use those as a starting point to tweak further to see if you can squeeze the resulting file size down any more or improve the quality etc...

check the links they have to their guide and the templates under entry for TMPGEnc in the Freeware MPEG Encoders section