Smartphone battery enough 4 watching movies?

[Guest TOPGUN1988]

hey, i am thinking of getting one of those programs "DVD 2 Smartphone", "DVDtoMobile" etc. that squeeze a movie into a SD card, even four movies on a 512 card, anyway all i want to know before i do this, is the battery enough for watching a whole film??? i have the motorola MPx200 and it's battery life is not something i am proud of... will that battery be able to hold up for a film and then have some stand-by hours left or will phone crash after 20 mins? just askin to know if its worth it takin one of these progs... has anyone tried it yet..? please let me know if you have. PS: of course use of headphones is a must because phone's speaker kills battery and also generates lots of heat right? If my battery is not able of holding up for a film do you maybe know if there are batteries with larger energy capacities than the one motorola is providing? Thanks!!!

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Hi Topgun1988 I did some tests a while back on my old E200. My battery was quite nicely conditioned by then so I got good results but the MPX battery was much better than the E200 battery so with a conditioned battery you should get better results.

Check out towards the bottom of this thread

As for the software I use PocketDivXEncoder to convert movie files/DVD's this is free ;)

For movie playback I mentioned BetaPlayer, this is now called The Core Pocket Media Player and this is also free :D

PocketDivXEncoder is very straight forward just pick the file you want to convert, pick SmartPhone then set the audio/video options and click Direct Encoding. If you need more details do a search as there have been many articles on PcoketDivXEncoder/TCPMP

[Guest TOPGUN1988]

Does this Pocket DivX Encoder you mention handle files included in DVDs? I know betaplayer of course i have it on my phone, but i don't want to just convert the DVD's video file into a DivX file. I want to be able to select chapters, select subtitles, audio language etc. on my phone... Is this possible with Pocket DivX Encoder? ;)

[Guest dc7blue]

i can watch two full length movies

[Guest Dr_StrangeTrick]

Hi again Topgun1988, PocketDivXEncoder will convert from DVD and it will allow you to pick your audio stream as well but thats about it (it is free remember)

It can convert to DivX and XVid, it converts really fast and most amazing of all you do not need DivX or XVid codecs on your machine its all built into PocketDivXEncoder. You don't even need to install it, just download the exe and doubleclick...

You can preview a small sample of the finished movie, you can playback DivX and XVid files, it automatically rotates the file for you, you can pick SmartPhone, PocketPC (for QVGA devices) etc and its just a matter of adjusting the audio/video quality.

Typically a normal film will shrink to 120Mb (I have some which shrank to 70Mb :shock: ) but like I said its free and all it does it convert movie files (not just DVD) into DivX and XVid format for playback on handheld devices. But it does it good ;)

Give it a try, I am sure you wont be disappointed as for playback there is nothing better than TCPMP.

[Guest peekie]

i manged to watch 3 full movies on my C550 while i was in the hotel after the modaco meet and still had enough power till i was home the next day ;)

[Guest TOPGUN1988]

wow C550 rocks!!

i'll try shrinking my first movie as soon as i get that 1GB SD card... ;)

[Guest Matt Kirby]

If you have a C550 download TCPMP from here.

Currently this is version 0.66 L (file name "tcpmp.smartphone.0.66l.exe"), which I think is a beta, but this version adds support for the higher resolution of the C550. I had to hunt around to find this, so hopefuly it will help.

When you use PocketDivxEncoder, select "PDA" as your handheld device type, as the "Smartphone" option won't let you set the resolution high enough (the C550 is 320x240, the "Smartphone" option gives 220x176 max).

I've just started playing with it today, and I thought that this info might be of use (once you get that 1gig SD!). By the way, if you haven't done so already, it's worth looking on Ebay for SD cards, there are many bargains to be had.

Hope that helps.

[Guest TOPGUN1988]

Problem with Pocket DivX encoder!! :cry: :cry: i select the file everything cool, i select settings everything cool, i start encoding everything cool, after about 5% encoded computer stops encoding... ;) it's not the machine's problem as TMPG Encoder works perfectly...running on an 64-bit Athlon XP 3000+, ASUS mainboard, NForce chipset, 768 ram ddr, ATI 9700 128MB ddr.. help..!!!

[Guest martin]

i select the file everything cool, i select settings everything cool, i start encoding everything cool, after about 5% encoded computer stops encoding... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've not had that problem before :| Make sure there are no file conflicts. I would put PocketDivXEncoder is in it's own directory and check what files you have stored in the root directory.

What are the video and audio formats in the file that you are converting ?

Have you tried converting other files ?

[Guest martin]

Does this Pocket DivX Encoder you mention handle files included in DVDs? I know betaplayer of course i have it on my phone, but i don't want to just convert the DVD's video file into a DivX file. I want to be able to select chapters, select subtitles, audio language etc. on my phone... Is this possible with Pocket DivX Encoder?  ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You will need to use a container file like mkv (Matroska) which supports all of the above . I have just managed to code the movie 'Constantine' with DivX video, three audio streams (English, English commentry and German), Chapters and English subtitles.

Using TCPMP on the smartphone I can swap between audio streams and use chapters but unfortunately there is no support for subtitles yet. I can still play the movie in BSplayer on the PC which displays the subtitles so I know it works.

I do believe someone has unofficially created a TCPMP subtitle plugin for the pocket PC but not the smartphone.

[Guest xabdullahx]

My S710 can watch 2 movies. Watching movies doesnt use much battery, gonna check with Qtek 9100 / Wizard

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Surprising, since it keeps the display on which is very power hungry!

P

[Guest Menneisyys]

Surprising, since it keeps the display on which is very power hungry!

P

Not necessarily - in general, CPU usage is the most important factor, not that of the backlight (unless you max out the backlight )

[Guest Menneisyys]

Guys and gals, as I don't have the time to answer all the questions one-by-one, just a generic overview. As it's ALWAYS the CPU usage that has the most impact on battery life (unless you use advanced, multimedia-optimized hardware like the Nokia N95), you MUST strive to minimizing CPU usage. There're several ways of doing this.

- try using an app supporting hardware acceleration, particularly when your handset has some kind of a, currently, supported acceleerator (2700G in the Dell Axim x50v/x51v or the ATI ImageOn chipset in several Pocket PC's and PPC Phones)

- only two apps belong to the above category. These two apps (the free, less recommended TCPMP and the commercial, highly recommended CorePlayer), in addition, have the LEAST CPU usage of all.

- ALWAYS try using 320-wide ASP (DivX, Xvid) videos with, if you stick to TCPMP, MP3 sound (with CorePlayer, AAC is OK too); they'll result in the least power consumption.

I've elaborated on all these q's in my recent H.264 Bible ( http://www.modaco.com/content/Pocket-PC-Ge...-and-AVC-Bible/ ) - there, you'll see in practice how this all works, what the CPU usage means as far as battery life is concerned etc.

[Guest Menneisyys]

You will need to use a container file like mkv (Matroska) which supports all of the above . I have just managed to code the movie 'Constantine' with DivX video, three audio streams (English, English commentry and German), Chapters and English subtitles.

Using TCPMP on the smartphone I can swap between audio streams and use chapters but unfortunately there is no support for subtitles yet. I can still play the movie in BSplayer on the PC which displays the subtitles so I know it works.

I do believe someone has unofficially created a TCPMP subtitle plugin for the pocket PC but not the smartphone.

Yup, as three audio tracks are needed (MP4 only supports two, as has also been explained in my H.264 Bible), Matroska is the only WinMo-friendly way to go.

[Guest leoquinn2001]

I have some movies converted to 3gp that play in Windows Media Player on my BlackJack II. All movies are 100-200 MB in size.

PM me if anyone is interested in the 3GP Converter. I can provide links to where the files are located

[Guest angelinalove]

I would say nokia but it also becomes sluggish while functioning.