Watching a DVD on Your Phone It's a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
By MobileDiva
Mobile Phone: HTC 8125
Software: Pocket DVD Wizard and Windows Media Player 10
Mobile Expansion Memory: Kingston 512-MB miniSD card
My new HTC 8125 Smartphone/PDA is Windows Mobile 5.0 based and includes Windows Media Player. As a test, I played the
phone's sample clip of bees buzzing around flowers with music in the background. The resolution of the 'appetizer'
video on the device was good quality.
Encouraged by the simplicity of viewing the video, I decided to secure more video content for viewing from my phone.
After a few misfires of download services like video renting for mobile phones with its complexities and
incompatibilities with my phone, I decided to take another route and buy movies pre-loaded on memory cards. After
searching the Internet for titles, I came up with nothing.
It seemed there was only one option left: take a video from a DVD, store it on a Flash memory card and run it from
my handset that had a slot for a miniSD card. Since the memory card I bought for my digital camera was full of photos
and the wrong size for my mobile phone, I went to shop.kingston.com where I had purchased my camera's standard size SD
(Secure Digital) card and bought an additional 512-MB miniSD card for use with my 8125. The miniSD came with a
full-sized SD card adapter to allow me to easily move files between my PC and handset (and even my camera, if I wanted
to do so later).
My challenge of course was to see if I could successfully get video from a DVD (usually very large files) to fit on
such a tiny memory card and then seamlessly run it on my handset's Windows Media Player. Since my content-on-card
solution was my own doing, my wireless carrier promptly dismissed giving me any serious help, but they did tell me
that figuring out a compatible 'file type' was crucial to my successful viewing of the video.
Long story short, the lesson learned is that what you are able to play on your PC probably won't work on your mobile
phone (even when using similar Windows Media file types) unless you go through a conversion process and synchronize
the file format for mobile devices to the Flash memory card.
For my phone, my files had to be ".wmv" and converted within Windows Media Player, and copied to the Kingston miniSD
card before they could be ready to view on my 8125.
I checked out some technical magazines at my local newsstand and found a review of three or four applications that
take a DVD or video file and convert it to a viewable (.wmv) file for my phone.
I looked for editors' top picks and narrowed it down to:
Pocket DVD Studio
Pocket DVD Wizard
DVD Shrink
After a few false starts and futile attempts with DVD Shrink and Pocket DVD Studio, I found a site,
www.Handango.com that's devoted to wireless devices and
configured a program preferences page for my 8125 mobile phone.
I discovered that "Pocket DVD Wizard" was recommended for my 8125. The description on the site said if I could view
the movie on my PC in Windows Media Player then it was a workable file for me to convert and enjoy on the 8125. This
was good news.
I loaded the trial version. The steps were intuitive and helpful. Much like a software installation 'wizard' in Windows,
there were boxes inside that moved you logically through the process.
There were several 'helpful hints' that provided great information to help me to understand how the information was
backing up, converting and migrating from the DVD through the program and onto the miniSD card.
One interesting thing I learned, for example, is that DVD video is usually called "VIDEO_TS" and folders with this
designation are typically what you will be looking for in working with the program. Oddly, this may have been one
of the problems I encountered when trying to get some of the other programs to capture/store a video clip, since I
was trying to use VIDEO_TS as well as an AUDIO file folder simultaneously.
You can spend tons of time when trying to figure out what you're doing so I started out small by using a video trailer
that a friend recorded for me and did the following:
Put the DVD containing the trailer into my PC DVD Reader/Player (just load it, don't run it).
Opened Pocket DVD Wizard's trial version
It asked me to select a DVD or video file; I selected the DVD button since that was where the video clip resided.
What proceeded was a series of logical steps that guided me successfully through the process (complete with red/green arrows telling me the progress of each stage as the backup and conversion continued).
Once the video was recorded, the Pocket DVD Wizard stored the file (telling me where it was saved) and directed me to open it in Windows Media Player.
In Windows Media Player, I confirmed that the newly created file was there; checked it for playback and then selected the Sync tab in order to synchronize the file to the storage card (this is the process of how you will get the video clip from Windows Media Player on the PC to the memory card where it will ultimately be viewable on the mobile phone).
I placed the miniSD card into the SD card adapter, inserted it into the card reader on my PC and in Windows Media Player performed the synchronization process to convert a viewable copy of the video clip from Windows Media Player onto the storage card.
When it was done, I safely removed the card, took the miniSD out of the adapter and put it into the phone.
On the 8125, I opened up Windows Media Player, selected the Library option, updated the files--ensuring that it was accessing the miniSD storage card--and once I saw that the particular video was on the card, voila! I played the video on the phone.
I now have several videos recorded and will be previewing them this weekend. My next success story will be converting a
full-length movie. I hear Actimagine has a good reader with excellent video compression that I'll have to check out.
Stay tuned!
Note: Our testimonial writer does not work for any handset maker or software developer.
In writing about her own experience using a mobile phone, she is not receiving any compensation or endorsement from any
software or mobile phone company. Maintaining respect for copyright, no duplication of protected material was performed
or suggested in the body of this testimonial.
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