One of the most powerful (and less known) features of DVD Catalyst 3 is the capability to queue up multiple devices. While extremely handy if you own a collection of different types of video players, we often receive questions in regards of creating one video file that would play on multiple devices.
In a lot of cases it’s possible to create 1 file that can play on a lot of different devices, however there are a few things you should think of before you consider going this route.
* To make files work, you will have to optimize your conversion profile to the maximum settings of the device with the most limitations. This could be a smaller screen resolution, a lower video quality or framerate or even the audio quality.
* To improve quality on the more powerful devices you want to use for playback of the video file, you will have to use the maximum quality the most limited device can handle. This could result in over-sized video files, leaving less room for additional videos.
However, if you have one file that can play on all your devices, you save storage space, leaving room for expansion of your file-collection.
How to determine what settings to use?
To figure out what settings to use for a file that can play on multiple devices, it takes a bit of research to get the settings right.
First off, the conversion format needs to be playable by the device. If you are using any Apple products, you are basically stuck with MP4. If you have a Blackberry, most can play MP4, but the older ones use AVI, some Windows Mobile devices can play WMV and MP4. So in short, look up the specifications of each of your devices, and make note of the video formats it can handle. With the above information, if we would want a video file that plays on an Apple iPad, a Blackberry Storm and a HTC HD2, we would pick the MP4 as the file format.
Secondly, the screen size. Some devices are restricted in what maximum screen resolution it will play. Some devices are even more restricted in that the files have to be a certain exact screen size. So, from each devices specifications look up the screen resolution or, if specified, the maximum supported resolution (whichever is higher) of the device (note: some specifications list limitations to the video recording. this is not the same as video playback) Compare these, and basically pick the lowest of the bunch.
Lastly, Quality. This is a bit of trial and error. Basically pick the highest quality the weakest device can handle, so that it would look good on bigger screens as well.
* The quickest and easiest way to figure out what works and what not is to create a clip using the profile for each of your devices, and then try the created files on all your devices. If you create a file using the Droid profile, and another using the iPod Classic profile, try the iPod file on the Droid, and the Droid file on the iPod, and see what works.
* If one or more of your collection of devices is limiting the settings too much, consider leaving that one out of the profile. If you are creating video files for an XBOX 360, an Apple TV and an iPod Video 5G, you might want to consider creating a separate file for the iPod, because it would be too much of a quality loss on the HD-TV-connected devices to play the iPod compatible files.
* If a device is not capable of playback of a file format that is supported by the others, you can see if there is a video player application for your particular device that would make the format work, or, dont take that one into account, and create separate video files for that one.
