That's it...I'm ready for movies!!

hmm i see.

i'm curious if theres any other video codecs that could be used royalty free, etc etc.

like highly lossy codecs would be suitable
kind of like ogg vorbis for music
 
...until I got to the fine print.

"For legal reasons this software may not be used by citizens of the U.S.A. and Malaysia to convert copyprotected DVDs. Makayama Software supports Fair Use."

OK, "fair use." They don't want to get sued, that's fine. This still sounds like a great resource to convert content from a DVD to the SD card, when I get a newer Mac, I'll check it out (providing they support the Mac.)

Also, they don't seem to mention what player this new wondefulness will play these. Probably their own proprietary player?

Still looking for ways to "switch" codecs on the computer side before sending the "new" codec-ed file to either Kinoma or MMPlayer or whatever.

It's weird. That file I posted earlier shrunk by almost half in Kinoma (25MB's to 13MB's), but another file I converted later shrunk less (25MB's to 19MB's.) Again, I think there's an answer to this on the computer side.

Kinoma seems to have listened to us and now supports DivX. Maybe I'll plunk down hard-earned scratch and try this DivX thing "sight unseen."

Leaping before looking.
POL9A

P.S. Happy 100 replies everybody!!
POL
 
I know nothing of codecs (?) and the like, but would like to know, will we ever be able to get full length movies for our palm tt? I mean with an sd card of 250 or 512 mb will it be possible?

I guess battery life could be a problem? But aside from that with it plugged into my charger in the car, could I look forward to movies on my tt?

pdc
 
yes...it should be possible. i watch different mpeg tv series episodes (ie West Wing) on my T|T...a 1 hr episode usually get to about 200mb once Kinoma Producer has converted it.

as for full length movies, i normally get them as avi (divx codecs/dvdripped) which i havent successfully converted with the Producer. mpg converter, if there is any>

i guess the sum of it is...if you get any movie/video as mpg or mov or any known codec of Producer, your set...
 
What's their point again?

sleuth255: You said if I got a "codec" related error message from QuickTime then I could search for them and I guess install them and all will be well with the Universe. But so far when I've converted thingys, the only error message I got on a particular "Simpsons" episode is that "QuickTime is missing some software that is not available online and blah blah blah."

I just attributed the problem to that particular "S" episode, because the other ones converted kinda nice-like.

But with the whole highly-lossy, royalty-free codec thing, just what do they do anyways? Will they allow me to compress my conversions into more bite-sized bittys? Then I'll get more on the card, right?

Or is it something else entirely and I'm just way off-track?

Living & Learning,
POL9A
 
Ok, Here I go Dredging up this thread again...

I have D/l'ed kinoma player and producer, finally found the correct directory for the kinoma clips to be stored on the SD card, and purchased a sd card reader (an hour to sync a 5 minute video clip is just plain silly...)

It all seems to work really well, BUT:

1: after d/ling various Simps*ns episodes and watching them on my pc with no issues, I have yet to have Kinoma sucessfully convert a single episode (I have tried eight so far... still trying... going to give up soon...)

2: When converting and watching some more "mainstream" video content (Two Towers, Hulk, and Daredevil trailers), I find that the finished kinoma video on the TT is "chunky" meaing that it looks like a 160x160 movie that has been stretched to 320x320, with the expected loss of clarity. This seems to happen sporadically throughout the video clip, but some parts are noticeably clearer, as if kinoma switches from 160x160 to 320x320 and back throughout the clip... anyone else seen this?
 
I agree man Pocket DVD looks very nice. I never got anytime to download it but it looks cool. Yes it would nice to show off to friends most of my friends. They are just amazed that I can tap the screen ! Going and looking at it right now.
 
Here's an example - this is a screen shot of the DareDevil Trailer disclaimer that appears at the end of the clip. It's not entirely clear, but the text is blurry in the middle, and clear at beginning and end. It's as if Kinoma will revert back and forth from 160x160 - very annoying...
 
I want to try Kinoma for Divx(mpeg4) files but I'm afraid it might be propietory, i.e, the mpeg4 must be done by Kinoma Producer. I think I'm too optimistic about being able to get high quality video on a Palm format. Maybe the processor are not powerful enough yet.
 
I was unable to figure out Kinoma Producer and it only had a two day trial period. I wrote them, got extension on trial, figured it out and find it quite easy to operate. Have not used anything else, so nothing to compare to. Don't know the price, but when something works and I can figure it out, I will buy it.

pdc
 
If you mean "DVD quality" then processor speed is the least of your worries. Screen size, battery life and movies-on-SD card size are also concerns.

If you mean "watchable", then movies on your PDA boils down to a personal series of compromises that you'll need to be willing to make and live with.

I'm happy with my conversion settings because I have a ton of content that I can watch in an airport, on a train or hush a restless child with. If I wanted higher quality, I might invest in one of those portable DVD players and whip that out on the plane or train. I like movies on my PDA (Zodiac2) because it's yet another thing that my PDA can do, it's kind of geeky (geeky chicks dig it), the screen size of the Z2 is nice and wide and with the Z2's dual SD slots, I can (and do) have one slot dedicated to my 1GB SD card full of video content and still have the other slot for my 512MB card full of other stuff (games and such.)

What Kinoma and others are trying to do is to approximate the settings that we customers will accept, and to charge what they feel is appropriate for their work. Some people (like me in earlier days) are happy with the simplicity of the conversion process and can accept the outcome at that price point. What I like now, in large measure to the comments posted on this thread by wonderfully geeky individuals like myself, is the ability to customize my settings (with the huge library of open-source shareware out there, even for Mac's) and do the work myself, thereby saving that money while creating video that I'm happy watching and showing to geeky chicks.

It's a personal preference, to be sure. I only hope that everyone gets the chance to experience it in this lifetime.

Drama King.
POL9A
 
After converting Dodgeball from it's DVD size of 4.7Gb to about 500MB using Nero Recode, I would say the resolution is probably about 320x240. It's still watchable on my 19 LCD if I don't blow it up. I would be happy if I can get that resolution on my Garmin Ique which has 320x480. I think I will just throw away $20 and try Kinoma verison 3 EX since it boast so much about the ability to play mpeg4 file. I will give you guys an update.
 
Yes the pocket DVD converter looks good for those who aren't into all the ins and outs of encoding for MMPlayer. Just as a note for those readin the thread, pocket DVD is a converter, not a new movie player software for the palm. It just creates movies for MMPlayer to play back. I haven't ever tried it..
Anyways, I got POL's file downloaded and converted, and got some very nice results. I just hope that they will play ok on a TT as I didn't have a TT to test on. My t3 gave 40fps benchmark and its a 12fps video so I'd hope the TT could cope. If not i can just re-encode it with b-frames and then the TT should definately be able to play it...
I only got a 30 second file to pride of lions due to mailbox size restrictions, but hopefully he'll be able to put it on his web space soon so you can all test it out. Note the purpose of this specific clip was to make a high quality/small file size video for the TT/T2. It will play perfectly on the T3, but if I encoded it especially for the T3 then you would get even better results (i.e. better sound, more fps.) As its an Anime video, it has limited fps anyway (only 18fps ish, arranged into 25fps!). The frame arrangement was strange, as in every 4 frames, one frame was shown twice. So it went like ABBCDEEFGHHIJKKL (where two identical letters equal two identical frames....
 
Hate to keep coming on here and saying "I'm learning," without posting any real NEWS OR IDEAS, but this thread's great.

I too noticed POL's remark about not being able to save to a file with Kinoma. Answer to IIIC Ruled: 4-5MB clip I shaved down to 1MB flat, using 4:1 compression and 320x320. I don't use the landscape size as it nearly doubles the file size on the SD Card.

I'm considering TealMovie (never had it) because at least they have a brightness/contrast control; Kinoma doesn't do squat with "image fixing," and the slap-happy "bundled one" doesn't as POL says, "store it anywhere;" it's on the handheld but you don't have a record of it. The new one for sale does I believe allow you to put it in a file like the older version.

MMPlayer I haven't even looked at but since my few "movie clips" are already DONE with Kinoma, I think I'll hold off on "Scarface" and a 4,000 GIG SD Card to watch it on . . . I can wait til I get home to do my Pacino impression!!

What on Earth is Mazingo? How much do they want?

My God -- you know -- in 6 months the movie software will be so much better it'll be like that standup comic who jokes about being 40+ and says "No - we actually had to DIAL the phone, and WAIT FOR THE "9" to come back around . . . . I'm NOT CRAZY!!!
 
Wow Kinoma does DivX now eh :)
I haven't been looking for stuff to play with on the T for a while now.
Mostly Linux on the iPAQ these days. The T is still small enough to carry in my pant pocket though and I do, just for a PDA.

Well even if Kinoma doesn't "do squat with image fixing", you could easily just use tmpgenc, or virtual dub, both free tools, to prepare your video for conversion.
 
Good luck with that, aquaholik. I know you don't have MMPlayer, but it'd still be great to hear the pros/cons of Kinoma 3, even without the comparison with MMPlayer.

At ease.
POL9A
 
I've looked at all sorts of freeware PC sites, have seen virtual dub (links for that EVERYWHERE) but haven't seen or heard of tmpgenc. AMended - never mind - it was easy to find.

WHAT I NEED IS slight RGC Color Correction and Brightness Contrast. Cropping would be great but that's talking $$$, I believe. "Adding a little RED" and lowering Brightness, raising Contrast, would be awesome. I notice from their site it converts AVI to MPEG; Kinoma uses AVI just fine (and will also convert MPEG, but files are larger).

Before I hit "GO" on this thing, I'd like to know
1. Exactly what it does in a paragraph or less (or what it won't)
2. If there are any nag screens for adware/spyware (it states "free" right on the zip version, so you know there's a "$$$" version they'll want you to get)

Thanks so much for your informative post - hope you're reading and can give me quick "shout."
 
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