PocketDivXEncoder + BetaPlayer + 1GB SD Card =

[Shadrack]

I've noticed that these two have been posted here before, but just for the users who have ever missed these applications let me just say: they rock!

This has to be the simplest, cheapest, and most effective way of getting video on your PocketPC that I have found. 2nd best would have to be Windows Media Encoder, but it has less predictable results and very few options (when it doesn't crash).

PocketDivXEncoder - Download and start converting your larger video files to a format reasonable for your pocket pc. Be sure to run on "2 Pass Encoding" for best results. I also found that the resulting size is slightly less then what it originally estimates. Just play around with it, very easy to use!

BetaPlayer - very straight forward video playing software for your PPC. I have found the latest "unstable" beta very stable, BTW.

:D - I was trying all kinds of DivX/XVid encoder/players and was getting very frustrated. Then I stumbled upon a post recommending the two above and I was very impressed.

-nic

[Cube]

yea thats what I use, the converter is sometimes buggy though. twice I couldnt get my seinfeld episodes to convert. I'll try again when I have free time

[nellydoom]

yeh pocketdivx is a life saver when it comes to south park and my h320. ive only ever had 1 problem with it and that was yesterday but all is fine now

[Quboid]

How long does it take to rip a typically ~30 min episode? What settings (resolution etc) do you use? Also, what sort of filesize do you end up with?

My Dell X50v w/ 1GB SD is in the post :)

[Vice]

it took me 1min and 23 seconds to encode "Family Guy episode 7 series 1 - Brian - Portrait Of A Dog" for my PocketPC the file was 138MB in size was 22mins long, the output file 76.6MB with all settings to the fullest i.e. 20 on Video Quality and 6 on Audio Quality. dimensions 320 x 240.

I can easily get it under 50mb if I put the quality lower but for you Quboid I figured I would do a good test? lol

System:

OS: Windows XP w/SP2

CPU: 3200+ @ 2.20GHz 512kb L2 Cache

RAM: 512MB DDR400 3200

HD: ATA 7200RPM Drive

I think they are the only things that really effect encoding if you want any other specs just ask.

[Shadrack]

Quboid: on my machine it takes a couple mins to convert a file. I haven't tried anything with DVDs. This is all stuff I recorded from my TV Card :shifty:

I'm pretty satisfied with ~40mb for 30 min episode (really they are 20mins). I'd even go less for somethings like south park. For some reason even crappier encoding can add to the shows crappy animation.

[nellydoom]

it takes a bout an hour for em to encode 17 south park episodes.

[Quboid]

Whoa, that's not bad. I tried ripping a DVD (2 hour movie) to a fairly high quality format for my PC. It said it would take 5 hours, so I cancelled.

Does that couple of minutes include everything, as in you start with a DVD in your hand and end with a movie file ready to be transfered?

[Shadrack]

Quboid: probably not. I would use something like AutoGK for converting DVD files to AVI files. I think you can only use .avi and .mpeg for pocketdivxencoder, though I haven't tried anything else yet.

AutoGK is pretty straight forward to use as well. Just set the output resolution to 320x240 and enter how many MB you want the resulting avi to be.

When you are doing some sort of a mpeg4 conversion and trying to keep things high quality (like, 250-350MB an episode, 700-1400MB for an entire DVD) it is going to take a lot longer to encode that. But when you are formatting it for a PocketPC (320x240 here, with lower video quality) it isn't going to take as long.

-Nic