If you want to put movies on your new NOOKtablet, just follow the steps in this guide.
Why?
The NOOKtablet has Netflix and Hulu+, so if you are a subscriber to any of these services, you have an easy way of accessing a lot of video content. But, besides the subscription, these services only offer videos through streaming, so you need to have a wireless connection in order to be able to watch a TV show or a movie. In addition, these services don’t always offer new movies when they are released.
If you convert your own movies, such as the ones you have on DVD, you get the movies you want and you can watch them anywhere you want, without having to worry about a wireless internet connection.
What do you need?
* Of course you need a NOOKtablet, or just about any other Android or Apple device.
* Movies or TV shows on DVD, or video files like MKV/MP4/AVI, as long as these video files are not “protected” video files (for DVDs this doesn’t matter). Video files you purchased/rented through services like iTunes/Amazon/Google Video, or ones you get for free with some DVDs and Blurays (so-called “Digital Copies”) are protected video files and these will not work.
If you would like to convert Bluray movies with DVD Catalyst, convert a few DVDs first by following this guide to get a feel for it, and then have a look at the Bluray Guide here.
* A computer with a DVD drive, running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
* DVD Catalyst 4 (build 4.1.1.0 or higher)
DVD Catalyst 4 is the software program that makes the process of putting DVDs and movies on just about any Android device on the planet as easy as possible. You can purchase DVD Catalyst 4 by clicking here (link) for only $10, or download the free trial version by clicking here (link) Note: the trial version converts 25% of each item.
Important:
The NOOKtablet only has 1GB of space available for your own content, which in most cases is just enough for 1 movie. If you want to use your NOOKtablet for movie-playback on the go, its best to invest in a memorycard (MicroSD-type) of a couple of GB so you can store more than one movie on it.
There are some tricks you can use to store more than one movie on the NOOKtablet, which I will address at the end of this guide.
Getting Started:
Download DVD Catalyst 4 on your computer using the links above. If you purchased DVD Catalyst 4 you should have received a download link by email pretty much within minutes. If not, check your spam/junk mail filter and see if it ended up in there. If you used the eCheck payment method, unfortunately due to the communication that is performed between PayPal and your bank, it can take a few days before the payment is cleared. As soon as the transaction is cleared, you will automatically receive the download link.
After downloading either the trial or the retail version of DVD Catalyst 4, look for the downloaded file on your computer. Usually your computer downloads files to your Documents folder or your Downloads folder, but some people store their downloads on their Desktop.
After you find the downloaded file, right-click on it, and select Extract All:
The download is in ZIP-format, which is a file-type that has been standard in Windows since Windows XP was released over 10 years ago. If you installed another other program on your computer that support ZIP, such as WinZIP or WinRAR, and never actually purchased it you might encounter a message about the software being expired and that you need to purchase it. If you run into this, simply uninstall that program, or download the free 7-zip program to replace it. You can download 7-Zip from here.
If you installed 7-Zip, the right-click menu will have 7-Zip mentioned in it. Select that, then select “Extract here”:
You should have a file that looks like this (the numbering might be different by the time you read this, since DVD Catalyst 4 gets updated with new features quite often)
Double-(left)-click on that to start the installer:
NOTE: At the last screen, uncheck the 2 checkmarks. The Getting Started checkmark will take you to a more generic guide, and since you are following this guide, there is no need for that.
Before you start DVD Catalyst, make sure there is no DVD in the drive. While it doesn’t make much of a difference, it is easier to start DVD Catalyst first for your first conversion.
Find the shortcut for DVD Catalyst 4 on your desktop:
and double-(left)-click on it to start the program:
It will show a splash screen for a few seconds (might take a little longer if you are using an older computer), after which it will start the program:
On the left side you will see “Video Player device”:
Using the dropdowns there, select the NOOKtablet.
The first dropdown select the brand/device group:
After selecting the brand/type of device (Barnes Noble in this case), use the second dropdown to select the device profile for your NOOKtablet:
There are a couple of different options available for you to choose from.
NOOKtablet: if you are converting DVDs or similar-quality video files such as AVI’s, this will produce good-looking video files at a reasonable file-size.
NOOKtablet (fast): similar to the NOOKtablet profile, but this uses an older, lower quality video format, which converts faster on older computers.
NOOKtablet HQ: This will create video files that are nearly identical in quality to the DVD itself, but the files are a bit larger in size (less movies)
NOOKtablet HQXT: Similar in quality to HQ, but a smaller file-size. It does convert a little slower.
For most people, the “NOOKtablet” profile is the best choice.
And that is it for the setup.
Important note:
As mentioned earlier in this guide, the NOOKtablet doesn’t have that much room for movies. Using the NOOKtablet profile you can fit 1 full movie on it, but for more movies, you basically need to pick up a memorycard for your NOOKtablet. There are a few tricks you can use to make your movies a bit smaller so you can store more movies on it, which I will explain near the bottom of the guide.
First conversion:
With DVD Catalyst 4 open, insert your DVD.
For this guide, I picked “Lilo & Stitch”, an older Disney movie.
After you insert the DVD, DVD Catalyst 4 will scan it for contents:
It will look for all the video content on the DVD, including the movie, tv episodes, trailers, special features etc. After it obtained this information, it will ignore the short clips (smaller than 10 minutes, which is adjustable) such as trailers and most special features, and display the videos that it found:
In this case, it found the movie, as well as a special feature that was longer than 10 minutes. I am usually too lazy to do it, but if you want you can turn off the videos that you do not want by selecting it, and then removing the checkmark for “enable for conversion”:
If you want to enable subtitles for the video, or if you would like to change the audio language (if available) you can do this as well. Just tap on the movie, and if language options are available, you can select what you want to use:
Important:
Unless you are using a memorycard for your NOOKcolor, make sure that the file-size of the video file doesn’t get larger than about 900MB. The NOOKtablet only has 1GB of space for your own files.
Before you start the conversion, look at the file-size DVD Catalyst 4 estimates:
If this is larger than 900 or so, look near the bottom of this guide on how to make it smaller.
Now all you need to do is (left-) click on the Go button:
and DVD Catalyst will start the conversion process:
This can take a while. DVD Catalyst 4 is one of the fastest conversion tools available, however, the time it takes depends greatly on the performance of your computer.
After the conversion is complete DVD Catalyst 4 will open the location of where it saved the file:
Don’t close this window. Move it to the side a bit.
Now connect your NOOKtablet to your computer with the USB cable, unlock it so you get to see the USB Mode message on the NOOKtablet screen.
Open “My Computer” and look for your NOOKtablet:
If you have a memorycard for your NOOKtablet, you will see a “removable disk” (not greyed out) as well:
Double (left-) click on “MyNOOK”, or, if you are using the memorycard for your movies, click on “Removable Disk”:
Double (left-) click on “My Files”:
and then double (left-)click on “Videos”:
Now just drag (leftclick and hold) your movie from the other window over to the videos one (let go of the mouse button):
After this is done, rightclick on your “MyNOOK” and select “eject”. If you use the memorycard, do the same for “Removable Disk”:
then disconnect your NOOKtablet from your computer.
Movie playback on the NOOKtablet:
There are a couple of different options to watch your movies on the NOOKtablet.
1. The “My Media” app located in your Applications.
Press the n button on your NOOKtablet, then tap on “apps” and you will find “My Media” there. Just open the app, and it will display your movie among wallpapers and images. Not the easiest way to find your movie, but it works.
2. The Library.
Press the n button on your NOOKtablet and then tap on “library”. At the top left, you will see “my stuff”. Tap on that, and in the little dropdown menu, select “my files”. It will display the “My Files” folder below.If you are using a memorycard for your movies, you will see “Memory Card” greyed out. tap on that to switch to the memory card. Then tap on the “My Files” folder. In there look for the “Videos” folder, and tap on that, and you will find your movie. Now just tap on the movie and it will play.
3. The MovieGallery app, which can be found in the NOOK Appstore.
More information about MovieGallery can be found here:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2011/08/moviegallery-3/
More movies on the NOOKtablet:
This is the section where I will explain the tricks you can use to put more movies on the NOOKtablet without the need for a memorycard.
After you start DVD Catalyst 4, and you insert the DVD, it displays the movie file-size:
To make that smaller, click on the “Modify” button underneath the profile selection dropdowns:
A few options will appear next to it:
To reduce the filesize, just lower the video quality setting:
At 1000, the filesize of the movie would end up around 720MB
At 800, the same movie ends up around 590MB
Using 800 for the video quality you still get a good looking video,
but it will not look as good as if it was done at 1000.
You can go even lower, such as 300, which will make the movie around 273MB
but while the quality difference between 1000 and 800 isn’t really that much, with less than 1/3 of the quality setting, you can tell the difference:
(the edges of the castle, as well as fast movement)
If you really want to reduce the filesize while still ending up with a movie that is of a good enough quality to watch, the best way is to reduce the screen size of the video file along with the video quality setting. To do this the easiest, just pick a different device profile.
The device profiles in DVD Catalyst are optimized to provide a good quality at a reasonable file-size, so by selecting a smaller device that has the same format as that of the NOOKtablet, you can shave off quite a bit.
The Apple iPod Touch profile is a perfect one to save some space:
Using the NOOKtablet profile (at 1000 video quality) the video would be around 720MB,
With the iPod Touch profile, the same movie is only 400MB:
The video screensize will be a bit smaller, but the NOOKtablet will fit the video to match the screen width or height of the actual screen. And, its better to have a great-looking smaller video than a poor-looking high-resolution video.
To go even lower, use the Apple iPod Classic profile:
which uses 300 for the video quality, which will make the movie 273MB in size.
Of course you will notice a quality difference between the 1000 for the normal settings, and 300 for the iPod Classic settings, but you can almost fit 4 movies on the NOOKtablet without the need for a memory card, vs 1 using the normal settings. Of course, using a memory card is the better choice though.
Lastly, if you just want to watch movies at home, you can set up streaming. You turn your computer into a memorycard, and play your movies from there.
To learn how to set that up, have a look at this guide:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2011/11/kindle-fire-video-streaming-guide-part-2/
(the guide is written for the Kindle Fire, but will work perfectly for the NOOKtablet as well).
