DVDCatalast (formerly PocketDVD) adds Nokia 770 support

[Milhouse]

http://pocketdvd.ca/mforum/viewtopic.php?t=203

Nice and simple DVD and video conversion for Windows users :)

Trial version available here (http://pocketdvd.ca/).

I'm in no way connected to this product, other than being a satisfied user.

[andymulhearn]

I bought PocketDVD as well, the best of a bunch of software for doing essentially the same thing. Having said that, it is a pretty good piece of software and excellent value for Money.

Have you had a chance to try it yet? If so, do the settings go down to the recommended spec for playback?

[christianhauck]

in that thread over there:
http://pocketdvd.ca/mforum/viewtopic.php?t=202
what's the issue with the Nokia770 "firmware-limited" video resolution? 800*480 ? 640*480 ? 352x208 ? :confused:

[Milhouse]

From my experimentation it appears that the 770 does not support resolutions beyond 352x208 - higher horizontal resolutions are possible, eg. 360x208 - but any vertical resolution greater than 208 will result in "unsupported format" errors on the 770 when trying to play the video. 352x208 is the closest match to the aspect ratio of the 770 screen.

DVDCatalyst allows you to override the resolution so you can try your own experimentation and determine the upper limits but from my playing around it appears that 352x208 is the best we can achieve with the current player.

The author of DVDCatalsyst has added specific support for the Nokia 770 which will default to 352x208 resolution - select "NOKIA" as the output format and "NOKIA770" for "Maximum Screensize" and away you go... :)

[konttori]

Not trying to advertise too much of it, but you might also like to try out the (free) multimedia converter that uses mencoder.

http://www.internettablettalk.com/software/fileinfo.php?id=16

disclosure: I made that converter, so being a bit biased on this ;)

[Reggie]

Hi Millhouse,

Would you mind adding your experiences at the wiki?

http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php/Multimedia:Converting_videos_to_Nokia_770_format

[Milhouse]

Hi Reggie - wiki updated. I took the liberty of adding a title the original entry for Media Converter. Feel free to make any further changes.

[Reggie]

Thanks Milhouse!

Anyone know of a converter that would work with the Mac?

[konttori]

When i get my hands on one for an hour or two, i can debug it a bit to see why a osx version I made is not working on mac. I whould be able to make the modifications thereafter quite easily to get the mac version up and running. Alas, I'm still home trying to get rid of a common cold, so can't go anywhere (like to the office) to do it. I hope I'm in a better shape tomorrow.

[andymulhearn]

Thanks Millhouse, it's nice when software vendors can react to requests like that. Now if only eReader would do the same...

[konttori]

Thanks Milhouse!

Anyone know of a converter that would work with the Mac?

You can now download a working version of media converter for OSX.
http://www.helsinki.fi/~konttori/MediaConverterOSX.zip

It needs tiger to work (java 5).

Open the zip to a folder.
Navigate to folder. You should see mediaconverter.jar and a folder encoder.

Just doubleclick on the jar and off you go!

[Reggie]

Wow, that was fast!

It works great konttori! I tried converting a WMV file and it played on the 770 perfectly!

Would know if Quicktime Pro can do the same?

[konttori]

I doubt it. It seems that nokia 770 is a bit picky on what exact mpeg 4 variant was used for the encoding.

It took me a few hours to figure out how to make a native call in osx from java, but yeah, it was surprisingly fast work.

Any ideas on how to improve it?

[Reggie]

There are lots of options in Quick Time Pro 7 with regards to exporting videos to different formats. There is an MPEG4 option but I'm not sure what the settings are to have the 770 recognize the videos.

Also, it took a while for me to figure out how to switch java settings to v.5 on the Mac.

As for improvements, on the main screen, maybe you can add some note there what kinds of videos/file types it can convert. A destination folder would also be nice, just in case the 770 is connected to the mac directly, and you want the converted video to be generated on the card directly.

Thanks for all your hard work.

[konttori]

excellent idea about the destination folder. i'll try to look for a nice way to implement that soon.

[Kevint]

Downloaded the 5 day version of DVD Catalyst to try and copied a DVD, resulting file c.120Mb. Copied this onto the 770 memory card, I have a 1Gb RS-MMC, and when trying to load via File Manager get the format not supported error but when opened in Media Player it is fine :confused: , I'm running the latest 770 software.

Kevin

[Milhouse]

The 770 is very picky about resolution - what are the properties of the video on your RS-MMC, i.e what resolution, bit rate etc? Did you choose the Nokia options when performing the conversion? With any video over 352x208 you'll most likely have problems playing it on the 770.

[niko]

I dont know the new Catalyst-770-settings but with an earlier version i had good results.
You could post your last settings here. You will find them somewhere stored in your installationdirectory.

[NokNok770]

I tried this program...it spits out a lot of error messages...but it worked. I tried to combine the videos with the merger software that it comes with....it won't even play on windows media...much less on the nokia.

[myet01]

Use DVD Shrink, it works awesome (at least it did for me) and its free.

Tony

[niko]

@NokNok770
Maybe you have used a not compatible inputfile? I made direct conversion from DVD, no filesplit (if not selectet) and the merger/splitter function works fine for me with manual settings.

[NokNok770]

Maybe this program can't do it, but if I have 1 movie that is composed of 4 divx file. Can I combine them and then convert it to nokia 770 size or convert them and then combine them?...whicever is best. And I'm experiencing video/audio sync problem.

[Hedgecore]

I ripped 12 Monkeys (my only DVD) and the video/audio quality were great. It's currently converting to 770 format, except I don't have an RSMMC big enough to handle it.

Can anyone comment on the quality of DVD -> DVD Catalyst -> 770 Media Converter quality?

I'm not a quality-phile, but if there are long stutters (over a second or two long) that's disappointing.

[niko]

I never had long stutters.
Quality should be equal if you choose the same settings. Both are using mencoder.
(DVD Catalyst uses also ffmpeg, dont know when)
I hope "->" does not mean that you are going to convert a "catalysfile" with "media converter" again :-)

[Hedgecore]

It did, only because I wanted a rip for the PC. I suppose I could've just used DVD Catalyst again, but meh.

[Kevint]

The 770 is very picky about resolution - what are the properties of the video on your RS-MMC, i.e what resolution, bit rate etc? Did you choose the Nokia options when performing the conversion? With any video over 352x208 you'll most likely have problems playing it on the 770.


I used the Nokia 770 settings in DVD Catalyst, 352 x 208

Kevin

[NokNok770]

Question, I ripped a movie with dvd decrypter and now I got all these vobs files. Do I just select all of them and convert?.....will it be one file I can put on my rs-mmc to be viewed on the 770?

Thanks...

[j.pickens]

Question, I ripped a movie with dvd decrypter and now I got all these vobs files. Do I just select all of them and convert?.....will it be one file I can put on my rs-mmc to be viewed on the 770?

Thanks...

Yup, that's how you do it. With the freeware converters, you'll get separate mpeg4 files. I personally don't like to merge the output from the Vob files. It's easier to navigate the movie with it broken into half hour chunks on tthe Nokia. I look at this as a feature, not a bug. Just name the output files so the get listed in order.

[eye.surgeon]

I downloaded this yesterday and fiddled around with it for a while. I'm really impressed, this is a killer ap for the 770. I found that if you used the preset Nokia 770 resolution but went into the advanced settings and set the stretch to 40, it perfectly filled the screen. Looks awesome. Don't forget to go into advanced settings and change the default from mono to stereo and set pass to 2.

UPDATE--

I've done some more testing on this software and found the settings that seem to work the best. Your results may vary.

Set resolution of the Nokia-Nokia770 default

set kbps to 500 for large size/high quality (ie a full length DVD will take up about 550 MB, 400 for medium size/quality (DVD will be about 350MB) or 200 for small size/poor quality. It depends on what your needs are-- I have two 1GB memory cards so I can take lots of stuff on plane trips. If you don't have big memory cards you will be limited.

Set audio to stereo and framerate to 15, pass to 2, and stretch width to 40 for full-width video.

Works great!

[agentdr8]

Not to thread crap here, but for those of us on linux desktops that wish to use a GUI for DVD conversion, I've found that the perl-based dvd::rip (http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/) works wonderfully with the 770.

Use the AVI container, the ffmpeg library, and mpeg4 codec and you're all set.

As long as you downsize the movie to a height of no more than 208 it works fine.

If anyone is interested I can throw together a quick dvd::rip tutorial.

[Fifer]

A tutorial would be very useful.