Announcing first beta of PocketTV - MPEG video player

[Guest ajb3000]

Have you used the new beta 1b of pocketmvp? it has a nice UI, faster framerate and you can install and go, no messing around with regedit or relying on third party apps for it to work.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

The CAB file I found on http://www.angelfire.com/alt/spv-soft/ does not want to install on my phone.

[Guest Palindrome]

Well, it certainly is nice to see a bit of competition.

I'm certainly glad the PocketTV Team released their beta now, even with the reg problems. It is a beta and the fact that they're open to feedback on it is very necessary to whether it will be a good or great media player.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Thanks.

By the way, all the problems we have now are due to Microsoft bugs :x

1) Bug in the IPSM file system preventing the app from running when installed in the phone's memory.

2) Bug in the CAB installer causing it to create incorrect registry keys for file association when the app is installed on a storage card

For the IPSM problem, there's not much we can do, but we'll work around the other one, not a major problem, just an ennoyance.

[Guest midnight]

i aint worried about fps, in fact, movies at 10fps are fine to be honest, it is a tiny screen and on a phone aswell, even the interface gui isnt too much of a worry so long as it does what it does, but my main concern with movies is filesize, quite a lot of people have 128mb cards, which you may think is big enough for movies, but remember, most peiople also install apps and mp3's to that same card, and so, every meg of space saved is a good thing.

also, like your app, pocketmvp is developing and will doubt fix the problems with the ui etc.

like what has been mentioned, competition is good, but dont write of pocketmvp as a serious competitor, as i mentioned, dont compare your app with win media player, that has already been beaten in every way (except ui) by pocketmvp, your comparisons should be with pocketmvp

[Guest Dave DR]

worked perfectly first time!! great stuff!!

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Well, personally i really feel a big difference in comfort when watching video playing at 24 vs. playing at 10 fps.

For example, I prefer very much 176x136@24 rather than 224x176@10. But that's a question of personal preference.

Regarding Storage Cards, you should know that the price of memory is going down very fast. I paid less than $80 for the last 256MB SD card that I purchased (over the internet). So file size in not really that of a big issue.

We know PocketMVP (that's the new name of PocketDivX), and we have coexisted with them on the Pocket PC for years. They are a good alternative, so people will have to try both and make their choice, based on the one they prefer (or based on some religious beliefs).

[Guest receedo]

Installed it no probs and its working pretty damn fine... Full screen moooovies look great...

I am having a few probs encoding files but as it's late i'll give this another go tomorrow...

Wicked programme......

PS: the backlight does tend to stay on on my SPV.... ;)

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

> I am having a few probs encoding files but as it's late i'll give this another go tomorrow...

Yes, you should not use the wizard of TMPGEnc. just set the setting manually, AFTER loading the video file! (loading a video file changes the Size setting to the nominal size of the source, in the Video tab)

> Wicked programme......

Thanks!

PS: the backlight does tend to stay on on my SPV.... ;)

Yes, this has been fixed in the current CAB file, it is not an issue anymore.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

For the mean time, lets keep it simple: this thread on the beta test of PocketTV and the PocketMVP thread on the topic of PMVP.

If you want to compare the two start a new thread for it!

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Yes, I agree, in this thread we should discuss only PocketTV, and in the PocketMVP thread we should discuss only PocketMVP.

If someone wants to start a thread comparing the merits of each, you can do it.

[Guest ClintEastman]

with what I have converted and seen with WMP is just pants :)

but then again clinteastman's not released anything in that format, YET ;)

I have you know!!

http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic...r=asc&start=180

They also work on the "other player" too! 8)

[Guest PsychoDave]

Clint:

They also work on the "other player" too! 8)

lol 8)

[Guest Richie M]

Hi Tristan, i've only just had time to look into this properly, and i think i've found the problems in your original CAB file as found Here.

(before i continue please try and be civilized in you reply ;))

For your registry enteries you are using %CE1% instead of using %InstallDir%.

Also the file extention association registry enteries are missing.

For example;

(entered as above in a post install xml)

I also believe there are an extra set of double quotes in your HKCRpockettv_mpgfileShellOpenCommand entry (i'm not sure but is it necessary for to %1 to be written enclosed in double quotes).

As i have mentioned before, i think it may be better if you don't allow the user the option to install to the phone and default it to the storage card. This is easily achieved by not using %InstallDir% in your CE strings.

Please bear in mind that Smartphone 2002 windows CE is a cut down version of Pocket PC Windows CE, therefore somethings you are used to doing with Pocket PC will not work with Smartphone :)

I hope this helps :D

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

"I NOW INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE TOO FAR FROM REALITY." :D

> i've only just had time to look into this properly, and i think i've found the problems in your original CAB file as found Here.

(before i continue please try and be civilized in you reply ;))

For your registry enteries you are using %CE1% instead of using %InstallDir%.

Also the file extention association registry enteries are missing.

They are created at run-time by PocketTV, the first time the application runs.

We decided not to put them in the registry, so that if you install PocketDivX, then remove PocketTV, it will not remove the file assoc keys that can be used by PocketDivX. BTW this is not logo-compliant.

For example;

(entered as above in a post install xml)

The .inf is correct, and the bug was confirmed by others.

So this is a real bug in the CAB installer, not in our .inf file.

But thanks for looking at it.

> I also believe there are an extra set of double quotes in your HKCRpockettv_mpgfileShellOpenCommand entry (i'm not sure but is it necessary for to %1 to be written enclosed in double quotes).

The double quotes are VERY necessary, both around the program pathname and the parameter. It not, when the app pathname or the parameter is a file name that contains a space, it does not work.

Some applications do not care and re-built the filename (with the space) based on the content on the command line passed to the app. but PocketTV can take a command-line with saveral parameters and options, so the double-quote is very necessary.

> As i have mentioned before, i think it may be better if you don't allow the user the option to install to the phone and default it to the storage card. This is easily achieved by not using %InstallDir% in your CE strings.

No, it's not easiely acieved, because the Storage Card is not guaranteed to be called "Storage Card", so hard-coding the name in the CAB file is *NOT* a good idea (we talked to some MS engineer about this issue).

> Please bear in mind that Smartphone 2002 windows CE is a cut down version of Pocket PC Windows CE, therefore somethings you are used to doing with Pocket PC will not work with Smartphone :)

In fact, we are talking about things that SHOULD work (according to MS). If they don't, it's because of some bugs.

For example, we want to have the possibility to installand run our app in IPSM, but we cannot, because of a serious bug of the OS (or iactually in the IPSM file system implementation) that prevents large binaries from running properly on WinCE 3.0 systems. This bug was confirmed by MS, and by several developers.

> I hope this helps ;)

Not really, but thanks for your comments!

[Guest gradiation]

My mom said, if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all ;)

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Sorry, I just answered The Information Minister's post the best I could, because what he suggested was not accurate.

But be reassured, we all love the Information Minister ;)

We'll implement a work-around for the installer's bug, but suggesting that there is not bug is incorrect.

Other developers have CONFIRMED that there is a bug in the Smartphone installer, causing reg keys crated by the CAB file to be incorrect when the app is installed at a non-standard location. That was confirmed on the MS smartphone developer news group.

And we don't *want* to install PocketTV on the Storage Card, but currently we have to, until MS come with a hot-fix for that nasty IPSM bug.

[Guest gradiation]

Fair enough, but it just seemed you weren't willing to try his theories, maybe you have followed everything by the book of MS, but as we all know MS don't know eveything, people tend to find work arounds, and yes maybe it won't work EXACTLY how you want it, but it's gotta be better to have an installer that installs everything for u in a set directory (Storage Card or not) than fiddleing about with the registry and everything yourself. Plus you can always release another version that does work how u want it.

But please try before u shoot down others, you may be suprised.

[Guest gradiation]

Ooops, contradicted my first post ;)

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

If you want it MS certified (which i think he does), then you will have to go by the book of MS...

[Guest gradiation]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i see...............................DOH!

But still might be worth a go.

[Guest ClintEastman]

And also he is tryin to get MS to sort out their mess (bugs). You go girl.... ;)

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

If you want it MS certified (which i think he does), then you will have to go by the book of MS...

Yes, we would like to be logo-certified (if possible).

And we have had the habit of not hard-coding pathnames, which allowed our app to work correctly on ALL the Pocket PCs, regarless of brand, localizations, etc. For example, "Storage Card" is sometimes called "SD Card", "Storage Card2", "SDMMC Disk2" etc (we have seen all that). When other Smartphone hit the market, it will be the same as what happened with Pocket PC.

We intend to keep our good habits for the Smartphone, even though there are only a handful of devices deployed on the market today.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

And also he is tryin to get MS to sort out their mess (bugs). You go girl.... ;)

Yes, that's also true :)

We want MS to aknowledge when they have a bug, and fix it. Developers that silently work-around bugs are not helping, in a way... The bug stay, and sometimes MS does not even know they exist!

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i see...............................DOH!

But still might be worth a go.

Don't worry, we'll work around the problems that we can work around.