DVD Catalyst 4 has profiles for the Kindle Fire, enabling you to quickly and easily convert your own movies for it. I prefer to obtain my video content in a physical medium, rather than depending on a company to provide access to them for me.
Anyway, in order to get your DVDs and whatever video files you might have to play on a Kindle Fire, just follow the steps in this guide:
What do you need:
* a Kindle Fire (of course).
* a USB cable to connect your Kindle Fire to your computer. The Kindle Fire does not ship with one, so you might have to pick one up from the store. Thankfully, the connection is the same as that used for most recent devices, so you can use the cable of a Playbook, Xoom, DroidX etc.
* a computer running 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), or download the free trial version by clicking here (link) Note: the trial version converts 25% of each item.
* a DVD, or your movies in a format like AVI, M2TS, MKV etc. (note, Digital Copies found with some DVD and Bluray combopacks can not be converted. The actual DVD can though). If you would like to convert Bluray movies with DVD Catalyst, have a look at the Bluray Guide here.
Starting the process:
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:
This will bring up a file-extraction utility. Just follow the steps by clicking next next finish. After this is finished, the folder where the files are extracted to will be opened:
Now Double-(left)click on the dc4.0.x file displayed in the folder to install the program.
If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, it might ask you if you are sure you want to install the software. In order to install DVD Catalyst 4, you need to click yes of course.
Just follow the steps to install the program. After the installation is complete, DVD Catalyst 4 will have put a cat-eye icon on your desktop, and of course the program will also be listed in your Start-menu.
Double-click it to start the program:
Use the “Video Player Device” dropdowns on the left to select the Kindle Fire:
For DVDs and similar-sized video content (avi’s) use the standard “Kindle Fire” profile, or, if you have a slower computer (single-core) use the Kindle Fire (fast) profile.
If you are converting HD content, such as HD MKV’s, use Kindle Fire HQ1 for slower (romance) movies, or HQ2 for fast (action) movies.
If you convert a mixture of both DVDs and HD, use Kindle Fire HQXT.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Kindle Fire does not like video files that are larger than 2GB in size.
Insert your DVD. For this guide I’m using Footloose, wide-screen edition (the original one). Once you insert the DVD, DVD Catalyst 4 will scan it for content:
If DVD Catalyst 4 brings up something about non-standard DVD protection
please have a look here for more information.
By default, DVD Catalyst removes black padding from video, however, if you want to make all your movies completely full-screen, have a look at this guide for more information. Personally, I recommend leaving all the other settings as they are.
Now just tap “Go” to start a conversion.
Depending on the speed of your computer, what you are actually converting, and what profile you have selected, this process can take a little while. DVD Catalyst 4 tries to convert your movies with the best possible quality, and while it is one of the fastest conversion tools you can find, it does quite a bit more than just copying the file from DVD over to your computer.
After the conversion is complete DVD Catalyst 4 will open the location of where it saved the file. Then just connect your Kindle Fire with the USB Cable, and copy the created video file over to the Video folder on the Kindle:
When done, you are ready to watch your own movie.
Unfortunately, Amazon prefers you watch their movies, rather than the ones you add yourself, so you will have to go to Apps > Gallery to find and play your movies.
A bit later this week, I’ll post a guide on how to stream your own movies to the Kindle Fire.
