Audio, Video & Photo

[#1]

I just bought a palm tx. when I try to move video to the quick install box it says device does not support it. I am new at this I dont know what to do HELP.

Post relates to: Palm TX

Message Edited by smkranz on 08-24-2007 09:51 AM

[#2]

Hi and welcome to the Palm Community Forum.

There are several ways to view videos on your TX. Some people use a popular application called TCPMP (use google to find...might also be at palmgear.com) . I think I tried it a long time ago and stopped trying.

Personally, I have success using the Palm Media application on the TX. To use it, the source video has to be Imported into the Media application on the Palm Desktop. Once there, you can either Hotsync the video to your Palm, or find the folder on your desktop where it's located (I forget right now where it is), and copy it to your SD card with a card reader. This Palm Support article discusses how to use it:

http://tinyurl.com/2gnfnn

[#3]

The combination of the free TCPMP and a cheap USB card reader is the fastest (and IMHO) the easiest way to import a video to your TX. If you have a card reader built into your computer (or printer), then you just need to download TCPMP.

I have 4 DVD rips on my 2GB SD card right now, and if I had to wait for them to HotSync, convert, and install, it would take a day or two!

TCPMP likes to play the .avi or .mpg format of videos. If your videos are in that format, it's just a simple drag and drop them into the /DCIM folder. (Actually, TCPMP can find videos just about anywhere on the card).

There are programs available for purchase like Pocket DVD Studio for Palm that will do all the ripping and resizing for you! http://www.pqdvd.com/ (I love having movies easily available for those long waiting in line times we so often run into in our busy lives these days...)

WyreNut

[#4]

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WyreNut wrote:
The combination of the free TCPMP and a cheap USB card reader is the fastest (and IMHO) the easiest way to import a video to your TX. If you have a card reader built into your computer (or printer), then you just need to download TCPMP.

I have 4 DVD rips on my 2GB SD card right now, and if I had to wait for them to HotSync, convert, and install, it would take a day or two!

TCPMP likes to play the .avi or .mpg format of videos. If your videos are in that format, it's just a simple drag and drop them into the /DCIM folder. (Actually, TCPMP can find videos just about anywhere on the card).

There are programs available for purchase like Pocket DVD Studio for Palm that will do all the ripping and resizing for you! http://www.pqdvd.com/ (I love having movies easily available for those long waiting in line times we so often run into in our busy lives these days...)

WyreNut

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Alright...I just put TCPMP on the TX after apparently being the ONLY person I know of who uses Palm Media. And a funny thing happened. I played around with a short mpeg(1) file I had on my desktop...copied it to the card. It played very nicely in TCPMP. Then for grins, I opened Media and was surprised to find that it, too, played this native .mpg file clear as a bell. I had thought that Media would only play the .asf files which were the result of importing/conversion through the Palm Desktop Media app. So I look at the TX video support page and see that mpeg1 videos are supported on the TX (the suggestion being that they don't need to be run thru the desktop Media app to be rendered into .asf files).

Comparing and contrasting two different versions (.asf and mpeg1) of the same video, I found them to be essentially the same in clarity on the TX's small screen, on both players...basically pretty watchable. Using full screen mode makes them look much more pixelated. But the .asf file was maybe one-third the file size of the mpg file. Perhaps if the source video is ripped/encoded at a higher quality than mpeg1 (which I think is Video CD format) the resulting video looks nicer, but takes up much more space.

Also come to find out, that TCPMP will play those same .asf files.

[#5]

I have 4 DVD rips on my 2GB SD card right now, and if I had to wait for them to HotSync, convert, and install, it would take a day or two!

...

There are programs available for purchase like Pocket DVD Studio for Palm that will do all the ripping and resizing for you! http://www.pqdvd.com/ (I love having movies easily available for those long waiting in line times we so often run into in our busy lives these days...)

---

WyreNut, what do you use to rip DVDs?  Does Pocket DVD Studio for Palm actually rip DVD files or does it act as a real-time recorder?  From the glimpse I took of the web site it seems to suggest you click Play and the application just records the video.  But I guess it also lets you set whatever compression level you want?  Looks like an interesting app to explore.

[stepping up onto soapbox...]

I was under the impression that because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the motion picture industry, they pretty much shut down any software developers from selling anything that would allow users to circumvent their copy protection schemes.  We know there are ways (which work very well) around them, but users are essentially forced into criminalized status if we choose (nay, dare) to copy such protected digital content for our own backup purposes, or to be able to view content we have already paid for, when and where we like.

[stepping down from soapbox...]

[#6]

It supposedly works as a recorder. It makes files of any size and compression you wish, and does a great job of it! The movies are sharp and clear.

They have a demo download that will record only a few (5 I think) minutes of a DVD.

For other file conversions (FLV to Avi for example) I use SUPER from eRightsoft. This is another one of those amazing free programs that makes you wonder why they aren't selling it! Comes in handy for grabbing YouTube vids and putting them on a Palm...

WyreNut

[#7]

I'm convinced...I downloaded the trial of DVD Pocket Studio for Palm, did a few 5-minute clips, and was amazed at the ease with which this program takes DVDs and "poofs" them into nice little (well, relatively little) files for viewing with TCPMP. So I plunked down my $28 for the Palm-optimized version...handango.com is having a summer sale!

Doing this process on DVD content beats the snot out of ripping the DVDs with DVDShrink, converting them to mpeg-1 files, then importing them into Palm Desktop Media. Mind you, that process really does work and results in really nice-looking videos. But this works in probably a third of the time in one step, lets you deal with either original DVDs or other video files, and really lets you customize the video and audio quality of your resulting files without a lot of screen clutter. From what I can see, even a fairly low bitrate setting can give you a very watchable movie that takes up much less space. (I'm doing The Great Escape as I sit here...Spiderman is next, followed by Strange Brew, all for my trip to Kansas next week.)

The conversion process seems to take somewhere between one-third to one-half the time of the movie's duration. I haven't played with it enough to see, but I'm guessing the conversion times will depend on the resolution and bitrate settings you use.

[#8]

More on DVD Pocket Studio for Palm...

I have used this now to convert numerous DVD titles into .avi files for viewing on my TX and T5 using TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player).

This application has several terrific features...other similar apps might have them as well, but I don't know whether they are as easy to use as this:

• it provides a one-step conversion process from DVD into a nice, compact .avi file.  No more ripping DVD content into a collection of VOB files, then dealing with converting them to mpegs or something else, and importing them into Palm Desktop Media.
• Simple, uncomplicated user interface...put in your DVD.  When it begins to play the movie, you click Record, and that's pretty much it.  It stops recording when the movie is done, and depending on some of your settings, it can record in a fraction of the actual running time of the movie.
• it has on-screen selectable options such as resolution (screen size), audio and video bitrate and frame rate settings, and;
• it shows you the predicted file size of the converted video, depending on the conversion settings you have chosen.  This predicted file size is accurate, and perhaps slightly over-estimates the file size.

File size can vary dramatically depending on some of your settings, most notably the Resolution setting.  For large-screen devices like the TX or T5 (480x320), your best viewing and playback results are achieved when you select a Resolution setting as close to that screen size as possible.  Otherwise, if you pick a smaller resolution to get a smaller file size, the resolution on the device will look more "pixelized" because TCPMP is "magnifying" the image to fill up the screen.

Of course, if you view a smaller-resolution (e.g. 320x320) video using "portrait" orientation on a TX or T5, or on a device with a 320x320 screen size, the video image will appear sharper, but also much smaller.

Another setting you can play with is called 2-pass encoding.  This is not available on the main screen, but rather it is a simple check-box in the Options menu.  It produces a higher-quality, more accurate video output by actually scanning the DVD movie twice...the first time is very quick, then it goes through it a second time.  Doing this does not change the resulting file size, but it does take much longer.

To fine-tune the settings that work best on your device and your eyes, I suggest you simply record some 5-minute samples of a couple of DVDs you want to transfer, and change some of these settings to test the resulting videos on your device.

[#9]

Are you saying you have to play the whole 2 hour movie while it records and then it does the conversion? 

[#10]

Hi and welcome to the Palm community forum.

No, not necessarily. With DVD Pocket Studio, *depending on your settings* it will run through the film in "fast forward", like maybe half of its actual running time. But if you set it for "2-pass encoding", its actual time from start to finish is closer to the actual movie time. That's because it goes through the film twice for greater accuracy.