Hi Everyone!
First, I want to explain the purpose of this guide. This guide explains in detail how you can prepare video to watch on you Palm handheld. It usable mostly for converting full-length 1.5-2 hour movies to be stored on even a small 128mb sd-card with uperior quality. But you can use it as well for preparing video taken with digital or video camera , tv-tuner captured video or another video from any other source which is stored in MPEG or AVI format , also Mpeg2. This includes most popular now-a-days DIVX and XVID videos. However it does not include converting a DVD ? this is different process and I?m aiming to write another uide which explains it. (please tell me anybody if you need such guide.) .
This guide is targeted for an inexperienced users as well. So anybody which is not familiar with video conversion/compression issue could also prepare and watch movies. The text marked with /*?.*/ is some additional advanced explanations, and comments. If you are new to all this and you just want to prepare quality video for your palm ? you don?t need to read them.
This guide was inspired by my previous guide Here on the rabroad.
All programs mentioned in this guide are free , mostly open-source software best in their field.
The only program which is shareware ? is a player for Palm ? Mmplayer . But it is the only player for palm which can directly play Divx/Xvid/Mpeg video.
/* If you know another such player ? please tell me. */
Now , before we start doing anything, a reasonable request from your side would be to test the result immediately. So you can decide from the beginning whether it worth dealing with.
No problem at all. I prepared a couple of files ? parts of movies already good for watching them on Palm. So all you need to do ? is download a Mmplayer and one or more of the test video files and see by yourself. You can download any version of Mmplayer, the last for now is version 0.2.12. Get it here: MMPlayer0.2.12.zip. I personally use version 0.2.8, here: MMPlayer0.2.8.zip and 0.2.6 , MMPlayer0.2.6.zip . The guide was tested on 0.2.6 and 0.2.8 version. Since everything works fine for me with these versions already ? I see no reason to upgrade. Also there are rumors that newer version might be slower. OK, here are some examples for download. : These files were prepared to be watched on Zire71, so they should run smooth any other equivalent or faster OS5 machines, which means all other machines except Tungsten|E .
/* T|E users also can watch movies on their pda, but you need overclocking, just read ahead */
video type: Fast motion ( ?The Matrix? fighting scene)
resolution: 320x144
file length: 2min 6sec, file size: 5.5mb
download Here
video type: cartoon
resolution: 320x176
file length: 1min 52 sec, file size: 5.5mb
download Here
-=Specially for Tungsten||T3 users or other with 480x320 screen.=-
video type: fast motion (StarWars space fight scene)
resolution: 480x224
file length: 3min 4sec, file size: 8.8mb
download Here
All files were created using Xvid video codec (last version) and Mp3 audio codec.
P.s Of course you can watch files on your computer too, but they look MUCH better on Palm?s screen than on computer monitor.
P.s2: Some users said that they can?t download files. Well these are not direct link to the .avi files because the server I?m storing files on, doesn?t support direct download. (If anyone know better free server to store some 20mb ? tell me) So after clicking on the file, you just need to click on ?follow this link to save the file?
Well, I know this is silly to try to ?show? how video looks on palm screen by pictures, but anyways, here?s a couple of screenshots of my zire71 screen :
If somebody has troubles playing those files, here?s short explanation. It depends whether you have or Don?t have card reader
A)you do have card-reader. Just copy the .avi files on your SD card, than, after launching MMplayer, you will see this window:
Than go to ?Playlist? tab and add your file(s)
Than go back to ?Main? and play the file(s).
B)You Don?t have card-reader. You can encounter some problems adding .avi file to your handheld. So I suggest using this simple technique: just rename the .avi file to .pdb file so, hotsync manager won?t complain. After you synchronized , you have to rename the file back to .avi on the palm itself using any file manager, like Filez (free) /Mcfile/Zlauncher?
/* OK, now, before I start the guide itself, some of you make ask the following question:
Why to use especially THIS solution? There are many programs like Kinoma/ Smartmovie/ PocketDVD/other?
Let me explain about this in couple of words. First, all these programs can be divided into 2 categories:
1) programs like Kinoma, which use their own format to play, It also includes a application for PC which will convert files.
2) Programs like Smartmovie just help you to convert the file to smaller .avi format ? similar to what we will do in the guide.
1) Of course kinoma has it?s advantages ? it is very fast, easy to use. If you have older M515 or other OS4 pda ? kinoma is probably your only choice. But you can?t compare kinoma?s format to the most advanced video compression format in the world, which is Divx/Xvid, and other mpeg-4 (wmv9/rv10/vp6/sbc/?) There is no any other ?special? format which will give you better quality/size that Divx, especially Xvid. So if you want to be able to put full movie on 128mb card having superior quality ? you have to use Mpeg-4 (divx/xvid).
2) Most programs of this category will not give you access to some advanced codec parameters, which will give you even better quality/smaller size. I?m talking about things like amount of b-frames/ vhq mode, etc.
Bottom line: So why spending money on buying software , if you can do
everything by yourself, and even with maybe better result all for free? */
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