Showsqueeze for PDA

[nparker13]

Hey,

currently i am using a garmin (palm os) ique 3600. I want to be able to watch shows on my pda. I was looking at a pocketpc device with vga res like the asus, dell, and hp. Does anyone use btv shows on their pda (any type). What programs do you use to view/convert? What formats do you use?

-nate

PS is there a thread that says how to get divx into the 3.5 showsqueeze or is it not possible?

[Matt_W]

I use Showsqueeze all the time to copy to my HP Ipaq 4155 for viewing on trains/planes. Have been using ShowSqueeze to convert to the 'WMV - Ipaq High' resolution which is very good quality on the Ipaq. I just drag and drop the show from the PC onto the SD card with USB card reader. I have a 256MB SD card and at that resolution it holds 2 hours of video - I will be getting the 512MB card soon.

[kramsauer]

Palms will not display WMV.

[magic]

pocket encoder (freeware)
http://divx.ppccool.com/
mmplayer (trialware)
http://www.mmplayer.com

[that_kid]

I've been using snapstream for some years for my pda media. I used to capture directly to wmv but now I have a hardware card so I now show squeeze and what or stream my shows to my pocket pc's

[unixphreak]

I have been using snapstream with the Ipaq High settings as well. I use a Dell Axim and have a 1GB SD Card(paid about $50 from buy.com after rebates). I use snapstream to record the shows, then squeeze it down at night. In the morning I drag the files over to the SD card in a USB2 card reader (takes way to long through the PDA) Takes 3 - 5 minutes in the USB2 reader. An hour show is about 80-90 MB (good quality). I have found that using a higher res compression makes for choppy video.

I have found that using this, I do not need to spend the money yet for a portable media center. I am however interested in a GoVideo PVP-4040.

[nparker13]

Can you show squeeze an mpeg file to a smaller mpeg?

[Zogg]

You can re-encode an mpeg file to a smaller file, but for the same work and usually less space for the end file, you can encode to DivX, Xvid, or WMV and have better quality.

Just depends on what player you can get for the Palm OS. I have a PocketPC so I don't know what's available on the Palm front.

Z

[nparker13]

no, in btv w/ showsqueeze

[Zogg]

Oh, sorry, no you can't do it within showsqueeze. However, you can download VirtualdubMPEG and a free MPEG2 codec and do it offline. A bit of reading on the online tutorials and it's pretty easy to do. The same technique works for converting to other codecs like DivX, too.

Z

[boskeroo]

This is my main use for Snapstream. I record movies, tv, etc....then run showsqueeze for a custom WMV setting (slightly higher data rate than the pocket pc high setting) for my Dell Axim 5 for viewing on planes, while waiting in car, etc.) I get roughly 3 movies onto a 1gig CF card. Pocket PC 2003 or mobile 2003 makes a huge difference over the older operating systems. It was enough that I gave up on all the hassles with Divx and

1) Action movies even at very high data rates don't work that well mostly because the screen's too small and the image blurs some at high speed.
so special effects extravaganzas generally aren't worth the effort. And honestly, at my age, I get a bit of a headache from the rapid movement on so small a screen.

2) dialogue heavy movies tend to work best. Sitcoms, Sopranos reruns, etc. short documentaries work really well. It's hard to stare at a screen that small that closely for extended periods of time.

3) animated things like the Simpsons work really well. Maybe because the color pallette is more limited and the fewer frames

4) subtitles are surprisingly readable and are good for plane flights when the outside noise level can frustrate even isolation earphones like the Etymotics. I thought foreign movies wouldn't work on PDA, but they actually do pretty well.

5) this is much better alternative than those dedicated DVD players I see advertised everywhere or even separate items like the hard drive based multimedia players (most don't do WMV) . I've been a little surprised that Pocket PC's movie capabilities haven't been promoted better.

[PaulF]

Originally Posted by kramsauer

Palms will not display WMV.

They do now with the new Palm T/X. http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/imag...s/applause.gif Just drop the WMV on QuickLoad and it converts it somehow. I wonder if there is a way to have BTV do the convert automatically.

[kramsauer]

Originally Posted by PaulF

They do now with the new Palm T/X. http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/imag...s/applause.gif Just drop the WMV on QuickLoad and it converts it somehow. I wonder if there is a way to have BTV do the convert automatically.

Not without a lengthy conversion. Treo 650s do this as well, though it's so painful I'd rather take the original MPG and use AutoGK to make a Divx which actually does play on a palm, unlike a WMV.

[DonK]

FYI: BTV4 will include divx recompression.