DVD->Palm : Full guide

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

DVD->Palm guide

Hi everyone. As I had promised before, I wrote a simple guide for converting
full quality movies off DVD to be watched on your Palm handheld.
If you want to encode .avi or mpeg videos - you better take a look at
my previous guide . By the way, this guide is MUCH MORE
SIMPLE than the previous one. There is not really much to read. Only many
pictures so you can see and verify what to do. If advanced/additional
explanation is needed for somebody - I will provide links to my previous
guide or to other place, where specific subject is explained in details.
For those of you who want to see how it looks like - I did a couple of
screenshots:
My Zire71 playing Shrek2:
[img]
..
Cople of stills of my T3 playing The Matrix:
http://junglemike.pisem.net/dvd_guide_00.jpg[/img]

As before, this guide uses only FREE software, known to be best in it's
field (Gordian Knot/ VirtualDubMod/BeSweet.). So no need to spend money for
something you can get for free (and maybe achieve better results ) Only the
actual player for palm - Mmplayer is not free, but you can try the demo. If
you know any free mpeg-4 player for palm - please tell me.


-= CAUTION: You can copy a content of DVD only if you purchased it
yourself, and you are doing the copy for yourself only. Otherwise it is
illegal=-
OK let us begin.

1) -=Download the software.=-
Even if your computer is empty -you will need to install just 2 things:
*)Gordian knot rip pack 0.28.8 Download it
Here .
*)Gordian knot codec pack 1.7 . Download it
Here .
{Instead Gordian Knot i'll short to GK}
And you need to install one of Mmplayer versions for your palm.
After i moved to T3 I'm using ver 0.2.12,
Here . Before that I
used 0.2.6, Here and
0.2.8. , Here . If
there is a new version, you can check http://www.mmplayer.com/
There is some new beta version of GK , but it is known to cause troubles.
After downloading the files, install them in any order you want. You
actually need the whole Rip Pack , and only Xvid. 1.01 from Codec pack
but you can install other things too. It won't harm you. But do NOT install
l Divx. this version contains ads and some spyware (Gator or smth). And we
won't need Divx anyway. Rest of soft is Ok.

2) -=Ripping the DVD=-
After opening GordianKnot - you should see this window:
[img]
Go to "ripping" tab and press "Dvd Decripter" icon. By the way, you have
already some explanation already there. When opened DVD descriptor - it
should automatically recognize your DVD and show you a list of files at
right, something like this:
This[/URL] page with lot
of examples. At last press on disk-like icon and wait some 5-25 minutes
till files are copied to your hard drive.

3) -= DVD2AVIreparing the vobs =-
When decripter has finished it's work go back to GK and click on DVD2AVI
icon.
Go to File->Open, and choose first .vob file you created. Than It will
automatically detect all rest files and will add them to the list. [If it
doesn't, use 'add' button]
[img]
Make sure they are in the right order. Go to Audio->Output method ->set
'Demux all tracks'.
All rest settings should be Ok at default. {There is a small chance that
your movie was 'shot on film' and was 24 frames per second telecined to 30
frames per second. If so, select Video->Field operation ->Force Film. (This
will take the movie back to its original state of 24fps.) Most chances you
won't need this. I didn't have to use it even once. Anyway, you can go to
Option->Preview and see the picture by yourself, so you'll know whether you
have chosen everything correctly. Finally, go to File->Save project and give
it any name you want. This will also take some 10-20 minutes or so.

4) -=Bitrate and File size=-
After DVD2avi has finished, open up GK, and hit on "Open" button at left
bottom and then choose the project file that dvd2avi has created (it has
..d2v extension). This will open some additional window with preview of
content of your DVD in random place. DO NOT close this window now.
. Than, at the
right, choose your desired filesize in "total file size" selection. This is
the final size that your movie will be, including audiu and video parts. Don
't try to put 2 hours of video on 64mb card. Try not to go lower than 1mb
per 1 minute, ( 2mb per 1 min is already pretty good q-ty)
For example, my "Cube" dvd is 1hour30min10sec, I've chosen 32kbps for audio
bitrate, and I want the result movie file to be 140mb. (I could specify a
lower size of course, it is just a free space on the card I have now)
[img]

5) -=Resolution & Crop=-
When finished in 'bitrate' go to 'Resolution' tab. Most chances settings
are chosen automatically (pal/ ntsc .) If not, choose the right settings at
the top corresponding to you DVD, which includes 'input resolution' and
'aspct ratio'. If you don't want what these options mean and what to
choose - no problem, just take a look at the preview window
My previous guide[/URL] . Let's make it as easy as possible.
Considering you want full-screen ,
a) for 320x320 screen: drag the slider left until "WIDTH" will be 320
pixels. Height is chosen automatically.
b) For 480x320 screen, drag the slider left until width reaches 480 AND
until height reaches 320
c) Fro 160x160 screen (Zire31/ Treo600) drag left till "width" will be 160.
For example, these are the settings that I used for my T3 in "Cube" DVD:

[img]
Than go back to the preview window and click File->Save and Encode. You
should see this window:
http://junglemike.pisem.net/dvd_guide_9.jpg[/img]

6) -=Audio settings=-
Click on 'select' button, it will automatically go to the folder where all
the files are located. If you've done everything right until now - you
should see one or

more audio files to choose.
[img]
[ These are the original .AC3 tracks from your DVD] In my case there is only
one English audio track. If you don't know what file represents a desired
language - you can just listen them in Winamp or other audio-media player to
find out. OK, now you need to choose a bitrate (it better be same you chose
from the beginning , otherwise your file will be larger/smaller than you
wanted). First, do NEVER use 'average bitrate' aka VBR/ABR - this is
causing problems when playing on PC and will FOR SURE cause problems when
played on palm. If you want stereo (I use only mono, but this is matter of
taste : better audio quality & mono -=OR=- lower quality & stereo) than
select 4th option 'constant bitrate'. Try not to use bitrates larger than
64, unless you have very fast device (T3/TC/ Z72) and very large card
(256/512..). These are bitrates you can choose:
http://junglemike.pisem.net/dvd_guide_12.jpg[/img]
Also, check "downsample to 44khz" to avoid problems with Mmplayer.

7) -=Video codec setup (Xvid)=-
In the same window look at the 'frame server' option. If it says 'not
available' - than go to 'select' and choose a file that you saved previously
(should have .avs extension). Than go to Xvid tab. Click on 'First Pass'
button. You'll see this:
[img]
Click on the top right button "..." and in the following window make the
settings match this:
My previous guide[/URL]. Click OK, than press "advanced options"
button.
[img]

The default settings should be OK, setting VHQ mode to 4 will result in
much slower encoding and _slightly_ better quality, so it's your choice.
Other options are also well explained in prev. guide. Than click OK - OK.
And press "Second Pass" button. Don't change here any settings ( you should
see a video size that GK generated automatically) and just click OK
. Since Palm is not too
powerful device, compared to Desktop (P3+) - in most cases it will NOT be
able to play back full framerate (24 - 25 fps) [fps = frames per second] So
wee need to reduce it by 2 - to use half framerate. Even if you have fast
device, like T3/ TC/ Z72 - I would recommend to use half framerate. But it
is also a matter of choice and those devices can support full frame rate
(mostly). I have a T3 now and I'm still using half frmerate. For slower
palms (TE/Z71.. ) Full framerate is theoretically possible, but you will
probably need overclock, and use very low audio bitrate to work it out. It
also depends on picture aspect ratio and many other facts. Anyway, if you
want full framerate - just DON'T do the following step:
To set half frame rate, go to directory where all files are lying, in my
case it is N:\Cube\Video_ts. And find the file with .avs extension (when
you pressed on "save and encode" ). If you don't' remember what name you gave
it, don't worry - there should be only one file with .avs extension, it also
very small (1k or so). This file should be opened in Notepad, if it doesn'
- open Notepad manually, select File->Open->All files and open the .avs
file. It should look like this:

You need to add the following line to the end of the file - as a last line:
SelectEven()
Don't use '#' sign - otherwise it will be considered as comment. Than save
the file by going to File->Save, and close the notepad.

9) -=Finishing=-
Go back to GK, go to "Encoder" tab, and press on the "Start encoding"
button. GK can remember jobs, so if you want - you can set up more than one
movie for encoding (most steps will remain the same.). Time to concede a
movie depends on: 1) movie length 2)computer speed 3)chosen frame rate.
But give it some 2. 10 hours. Remember, High-quality requires a lot of
time. GK is a program for producing top quality DVD backups. Don't believe
in some 30-min solutions. There is no magic. Good quality DOES require some
time. A good thing to do - is to leave encoding over night. GK will run
with low priority on your pc, which means it shouldn't disturb you doing
other work on the computer, like watching movies :-). After encoding is
finished - you should see an .avi file ready with the size that you
specified at the beginning. Before moving it to SD card - take one minute
and just open the file in media player - make sure it is ok, i.e audio
matches the video (in sync). If , for some reason, it doesn't play right on
PC - no way it will play right on Palm. If you have card reader, you know
what to do :-) If you don't - you can use a simple trick: rename the .avi
file to .pdb, then synchronize it to card in your install tool (or quick
install). When finished, rename it back to .avi using any file manager
(filez / mcfile / zlauncher.). But without card reader it can take a LONG
time - maybe more than actually watching the whole movie :-) . If you are
using program called TotalCommader - there is very fast and good solution to
transfer files to your palm and/or card in a fast and useful way. If
somebody wants - I can tell more about it. If your palm is playing video
too slow - you might want to overclock it (increase processor speed). To
read about this, see very last part "Appendix" in the end of
[URL=http://discussion.brighthand.com/palmhandhelds/showthread.php?s=&thread
id=64511]

previous guide[/URL] .

P.s: Please give me some feedback if there are any problems/errors in the
guide.
I'm not making DVDrips too often (I mostly convert Avi's) so there could be
anything that I missed. :-)