While there are many reviews about netbooks after a few days of use, you hardly find any indication on how the person continues to use it. We all know that new toys are cool in the beginning, but how do new toys affect our habits after a certain period of time?

Over the years, I’ve used numerous devices for different purposes. My first true gadget was a 3com Palm Personal, which I later upgraded to a Pro, so I could use it with my cell phone (infrared) and use the internet on the go. I ten went on to a Handspring Visor Platinum. It was not until I got an iPaq 2210 PocketPC when I started getting into portable video and software development, and after a while, I was forced to get a few devices people requested support for. When I got a PSP, the iPaq was the first gadget that ended up in the drawer next to the Handspring. Due to the bigger screen, as well as the better video format, the PSP became my gadget of choice to watch movies on the go. Bulkier than the iPaq, but it made up for it with the bigger screen. When Apple came out with the first Video iPod (5G) I needed one to make DVD Catalyst work with it (I love this job) and opted for the 60GB model. Eventhough the iPod had a smaller screen, it replaced the PSP due to the storage size. It was great to carry around 1 device filled with more video content than I could watch in a week of non-stop viewing. 10 seasons of Friends, Southpark, Futurama etc, and still have lots of music on there to boot.Next came the Microsoft Zune 30. The first Zune. While it features a slightly bigger screen, it never managed to replace my iPod. The colors looked bad and washed out, and the Zune desktop software was (still is in my opinion) a resource hog and a pain to navigate. I picked it up, made it work with DVD Catalyst, and then it went straight to the gadget drawer.

After the Zune came the Apple iPod Touch. If you have used DVD Catalyst for a while, and followed the website(s) you know how much I love my iPod Touch. While it’s only the 8GB first model, it has replaced all my portable devices with it’s capabilities. It even replaced my computer for answering support questions at nights. Bigger screen, better video quality, and while not as much room as my 60GB iPod, it still has room enough to fit a season of 24 on it with room for a few apps.

Unfortunately, the one thing that caused me to look into a replacement for it is due to some “google labs” options I use in Gmail for providing support. While I type all support questions by hand, there are a few things that are always the same, so I use something called “canned responses” for those whenever needed. Reset DVD Catalyst to it’s defaults, and a thank you note for a PayPal purchase with the link (paypal doesn’t send these out by itself, so I have to do that manually). Unfortunately, for some reason, this did not work in gmail/safari on the iPod Touch, so for sending out those emails, I always had to go back to my computer to answer.

So, because of the Gmail issue, and because I wanted one since they came out, I picked up an Asus eeePC.

I wrote a few articles already on the eeePC, please refer to those for initial impressions, and impressions after a few weeks.

2 Months later.

The eeePC has settled in nicely into my life.

It has replaced my gadgets for the most part. It plays video’s in whatever format I have, and because it runs a full webbrowser (firefox) I have no issues using it for work-emails. During the day, it sits next to my development system, and I use it for emails and non-work stuff, such as checking certain websites for news (slashdot for example). During software testing, when my development system is basically in use, I use it for minor development stuff, and at nights, when I turn off my workstation, I close the screen of the eeePC to put it in standby, and have it close by when watching TV. Once in while I pick it up to check for support emails, or look something up about what’s on TV and such.

When I go somewhere, I usually take it with me, depending on where I have to go and what I have to do. It allows me to keep myself entertained, or do work (if an internet connection is available).

While it has a few games on it, the most used application on the eee is Firefox. It’s always open, and even when the netbook wakes up from standby, it responds fast.

Essential upgrades:

The only issues I have with the eeePC is the out-of-the-box performance and battery life.

I picked up the cheapest 8.9″ harddrive-version of the eeePCs, the 900HD, so it came with the smaller battery. I replaced that with one I picked up from eBay. The replacement battery ($60 or so) is quite big, and sticks out at the back, which is a bit annoying, but the increased batterylife is well worth it. With the defalt battery, it was not capable of playing 1 full movie. The battery ran out near the end of a 2hour movie. The new battery enables me to watch about 4 hours of videos.

The hard drive, while decent in size, was quite slow. The seagate 160gb I replaced with a 320GB 7200rpm Western Digital, and the whole system is a lot more responsive. Especially with Firefox getting bigger and bigger, and a virus scanner running in the background, the difference in speed is phenomenal.

The memory. The eee came with 1GB of memory, which is plenty for Windows XP, however, with the video card taking a share, as well as a few startup programs such as a virus scanner, you will notice a slowdown when you have a few programs running (or firefox with 10 tabs open) I expanded this to 2GB, and everything feels a lot smoother. Switching between running programs is a breeze.

The size:

The 8.9″ eeePC is just the right size for me. The screen is big enough to show me information I need and use without having to scroll, and the physical size of the device is just small enough to make it easy to pick up.

All in all, I’m quite satisfied with my $250 netbook, now if only it had a dual-core processor and a better video card. I hope they come out with a 9″ ION based netbook.

*Automatic Movie / Episode recognition. If this is enabled, DVD Catalyst will filter through the found DVD content after scanning, and if it thinks it’s a movie DVD, it will enable just the Movie track for conversion, and if it thinks it’s a TV episode DVD, it will enable only the individual episodes. While it works with most DVDs, due to the enormous amount of different ways DVDs are organized, it is not 100% full-proof. To enable tracks for conversion that are wrongfully disabled, just click on the track, and checkmark the “enable for conversion” option.

*Minimum playtime for DVD selections. Most of the users of DVD Catalyst use it to convert movies and TV episodes. Because of this, DVD Catalyst uses this option as a filter to eliminate most trailers and special features from appearing in the conversion queue. If you are converting an “Adult Swim” DVD, it is likely that episodes will not appear, due to the play length of shows like ATHF and Robot Chicken only being 5 minutes or so. Or, if you want to include special features and such with your converted files, change the value of this to something like 1 minute.

*De-interlace. This removes “jagged lines from videos during conversion, at a price of conversion speed. More info can be found here.

*DVD as VOBs. A very special option, intended originally for some The Teaching Company DVDs, but can be used for other functions as well. Rather then to convert a DVD on a “per track” basis, this will convert the individual files separately. This option works with unprotected DVDs only.

*Nicer subtitles. This tells DVD Catalyst to use a different way of accessing the DVD when converting, which is less compatible, but offers nicer looking subtitles.

My eeePC 900HD came equipped with a basic 3-cell battery, which, when I put it through it’s first movie, is not capable to play a 2 1/2 hour movie on a single charge. Because of this, I’ve been putting some thought on what affects batterylife during playback, and how the viewing experience can be enhanced.

*Brightness: One of the first, most logical things to keep in mind is the screen brightness. The brighter the screen is set, the more power it drains, and as a result, the battery drain is quite significant. Reducing the brightness will increase battery life significantly.

*Networking: a wireless networking connection takes power to establish and maintain a connection, and continiously puts strain on the battery as well. Turning it off while watching a movie will save battery life tremendously.

*Drive activity: the location of where you have the movie, or if there are programs running in the background. A harddrive or a cd/dvd drive all have moving parts, and when used for video playback they will be continuously be running to be able to run the movie. A Solid State disk, or even a flash card will reduce power useage due to the lack of moving parts.

The above is quite obvious, however, what many people do not realize is that the format of the video makes a huge impact as well.

H264/AVC Video is very processor-demanding. Some of the lower-end systems might even have issues playing video files in this format properly, and on all portable systems available at this time, the processor will need to run at full-speed to be able to keep a fluent playback. On portable devices, such as Apple’s iPod and iPhone devices, some newer Windows Mobile devices, and the upcoming Netbooks with Nvidia chips in them feature hardware acceleration for this video format, which reduces the strain on the processor enough to eliminate the need to run at full speed.

DIVX AVI is less processor demanding, but depending on the version used (DIVX5/DIVX6/DIVX7), there is a difference. DIVX6 and 7 include additional features to improve quality, which also increases processor demand. The DIVX codec options also include quality enhancement filters, such as “deblocking” and “deinterlace” which also put additional strain on the processor, keeping it running at full speed.

XVID AVI is a bit less straining on the processor than DIVX, but the Windows installer (Koepie’s version) does include various options for quality enhancement that are enabled by default.

MPEG1 MPEG2 is considerably less processor demanding than any of the other formats. Even very old computers (Pentium 1, 166Mhz) are capable  of playback of these files, but due to the bigger file size of these files, the hard drive speed comes in to play.

Windows Media WMV Depending on the format itself (VC1, WMV9, WMV8, WMV7) the processor requirements differ greatly. VC1 is used for HD video content, and while it offers great quality, the processor useage is quite high as well. WMV9, the non-HD variant of VC1 is less demanding on the processor, while maintaining a good quality. WMV8 uses less than WMV9, and WMV7 uses less than WMV8.

H263 3GP This format is specifically designed for Cellphones, and requires very little processor power, but results in terible quality on bigger screens.

The way the files are created plays a big difference in performance requirements. Due to its initial design for “portable” devices, DVD Catalyst does not use any real “advanced” options (cabac,quantisizers, degaus etc) for it’s normal conversions. While the “HQ” profiles do use some of them, the default profiles are optimized for sped and compatibility, resulting in faster conversions at good quality. For playback this also assists in battery-life. A basic rule that can be used is that the faster the conversion completes, the less battery-power it will use. This rule does not really apply to people who use the latest systems with the CoreI8 50Ghz 32-core processors, but for the average computer user it is a fairly safe indication.

Besides the compression format itself, the other difference between these is that to maintain the same quality the file-size is directly affected. The higher the processor requirement, the smaller the resulting file can be while maintaining the same visual quality. With the same screen size resolution settings, a H264/AVC video file can be about half the size of an XVID file of the same quality, and an MPEG2 file will be about 4x as big as an XVID file on the same visual quality.

While the file-size would theoretically be an additional battery drain, most video player applications actually “stream” the file from the harddrive. They continuously read from the file to direct it to the screen. So in most cases, it does not matter if the file is big or small, because the drive that actually contains the video file is still used during the whole time you are watching the movie. To eliminate this, a video player application would need to have a memorybuffer that would load a portion of the movie, and then stop accessing the drive until it hits a certain percentage in the buffer so it can load the new data again. In this case, the file size does make a difference, because the bigger the file, the more times the buffer needs to be filled. at a buffer of 64MB, if we have an MPEG2 movie of 4GB in size, or a 3GP movie of 120MB in size, the difference is considerably. The 3GP movie will only need to fill the buffer twice, once every hour if we are talking about a 2 hour movie, while the MPEG2 movie will have to fill the buffer 64 times, or about once every 2 minutes.

A few months ago I made the decision to donate my laptop to charity because I thought I could use my IPAQ 6315 for everything my laptop could do. It was almost a dream come true. The internet, Bluetooth, WiFi and general usefulness of 6315 (after ROM update of course) has been fantastic but with one notable exception: the inability to reliably convert DVD’s into a format that would work on my IPAQ. My dream of watching movies on my IPAQ was fading fast! I ran the gamut of different simple to use DVD to PPC programs (not specifying a particular program) but they shared a common theme: they did not work. Several I tried would crash or get tripped up by a slightly scratched disk and take most of the night to convert a 1.5 hour movie. While some other programs had a decent interface and seemed simple enough to use that did not dull the frustration I was feeling after waking up to find out the conversion failed for no apparent reason. I was beginning to regret my decision to get rid of my laptop and divorce myself of watching movies while I am gone on a trip, that is, until I tried PocketDVD 1.1!

Note, this review is for PocketDVD, the predecessor of DVD Catalyst

Over the past several years, many developers have released DVD ripping applications which allowed users to copy a DVD to their hard disk for playback directly on their PC, their iPod or Windows Mobile device.  While the legality of such software – especially in the United States – has been a subject of debate, the developers have continued to produce these applications with ever increasing performance and quality.

As part of this growth in DVD copying was and continues to be DVD Catalyst.  With the award winning 2.0 version currently available – and a new version on the horizon – DVD Catalyst has been one of the stronger applications in this genre.  The problem facing DVD Catalyst has been the same however for all of the applications:  complexity.  Simply put, there are dozens of variables that can go into the ripping of a DVD or the conversion of a video file to another format.  For new users, the overwhelming amount of features in DVD Catalyst 2 can seem a bit intimidating.

With this in mind and a goal of ease-of-use in mind, the makers of DVD Catalyst have released DVD Catalyst GT.  In a nutshell, it is the quickest and easiest DVD conversion software application I have had the opportunity to use to date.  Unlike it’s more sophisticated older sibling, DVD Catalyst GT makes conversion of a DVD or video file as simple as a few mouse clicks.  While it does have some small customization ability, the idea behind GT is to make it simple – literally for anyone to use.  This means that GT does not have many of the advanced editing features of DVD Catalyst but has all of the features that the majority of users will want and need.  For the professional, DVD Catalyst 2 is still the best choice.

In addition, GT also provides you the ability to crop a video to be viewed on different devices ranging from Windows Mobile devices to Sony’s PSP or an Apple iPod.  This is all done in a preview window, allowing you to see exactly how a file is going to look on your device before you convert it.  It is a nice touch to a well written and easy-to-use application that can make DVD ripping and file conversion simple, fun and rewarding for any level of user.

DVD Catalyst GT is installed on your desktop PC and requires approximately 20MB of hard disk space.  Since there is no Windows Mobile component to the installation, there is no space requirement on your device.  The only storage you will need on your device is for the output files created by GT.  After installation and GT is started, you are provided two options:  “I want to Convert a DVD” or “I want to Convert a File”.  As the names suggest, Convert a DVD is to be used to rip a DVD and make it into a file on your hard disk while Convert a File is designed to allow you to convert an existing video file on your hard disk to another format.  For example, you could convert an AVI file to WMV (note that in order to convert file to WMV, you will need the Windows Media Encoder which is a free download from http://www.windowsmedia.com)

Figure 1:  The DVD Catalyst GT Start Screen

To use the convert to DVD function you must first have the DVD in your computer’s DVD drive then select the convert a DVD option.  The main display of GT is split into two sections:  The preview pane on the left and the conversion settings in the right hand pane.  On the preview pane you will see the DVD playing, which is automatically started by GT.  It is on this pane that you select the type of device that you are going to be using to view the video file.  For example, you can choose a Windows Mobile 5 device, an Apple iPod or a Sony PSP and you will see how the video will look on that type of device.  The selection of the device is critical as the codec that GT will use will be based on your selection.  If you choose a Windows Mobile 5 device, GT will automatically use the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec so it can be played on your device.  The same is true for iPods or PSPs as it will put the video in the proprietary format of these devices.  This automatic step by GT takes the guesswork out of how to configure or which codec to use when converting a DVD.

Figure 2:  DVD Catalyst Configured for a Windows Mobile Device

Figure 3:  DVD Catalyst Configured for an Apple iPod

You will also note that there is a PocketPC DIVX output option as well instead of Windows Mobile 2003 or 5.0.  This will allow you to convert the file into a properly proportioned file for Windows Mobile devices using the DIVX codec which can then be played on your device with the TCPMP player.  The TCPMP player can be downloaded directly from the DVD Catalyst website at http://www.dvdcatalyst.com/support/downloads/.

Once the format is chosen on the left-hand pane, the file name, location, video and audio qualities can be adjusted on the right-hand pane.  By using the slide bars, you can choose how high you want the video or audio quality and can see in the information window above how big the file is going to be based on your settings.  So, for example, a 300Kbps file is going to be smaller than a 600Kbps file.  You will also note in the information window four options for cropping the video file.  By default GT will automatically crop the video viewing to fit your device.  However you can override this to make it full screen or have no cropping at all.  By doing this it is possible you will cut out some of the video edges so be sure to use the preview window to see exactly what you will get before doing a conversion.  Once the settings are to your liking click the Start Conversion button to have GT begin converting the DVD to a file on your PC.

Figure 4:  Auto Cropping of The Video File…

Figure 5:  Full Screen with no Borders on the Video File When the conversion process starts, DVD Catalyst GT will display a window showing you the file names being created and the progress being made on that conversion.  Most DVDs can be ripped in less than 1 hour depending on the codec being used.  If you are ripping to WMV then the conversion process can take up to 3 hours.  This is one reason the developer of GT has recommended the use of the TCPMP player and a DIVX output for Windows Mobile device users.  Once the DVD is converted, the outputted file can then be viewed on your PC or copied to your Windows Mobile device and played.  Moving a file to your Windows Mobile device can be done via a storage card reader on your PC or through Explorer in ActiveSync. You will also note that you can change the priority of your conversion process on the status window.  By changing the priority, you can instruct DVD Catalyst GT to have a normal priority, a lower processing priority or a high processing priority.  This will essentially instruct your PC how much processing power to put into the program, speeding up or slowing down the conversion process based on your choice.  It is usually best to leave it in Normal mode for conversion and the ability to use your PC while it is working in the background. Figure 6:  The Conversion Status Window Figure 7:  A Converted File on a Windows Mobile device In essence, DVD Catalyst GT is that simple!  With only a handful of mouse clicks you can convert a video or DVD for your favorite device, copy it to that device and view it.  There are no other adjustments or settings required and the output quality is fantastic.  It is clear that the developers at DVD Catalyst have hit the mark when it comes to simplicity but they have also hit on the application being feature rich and not stripped down in order to reach the simplicity goal.  As impressed as I was with DVD Catalyst (See my review at http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/dvdcat/dvdcat-3-0/default.asp) I’m even more so with GT because it opens up a whole new world for many Windows Mobile users who are new to video conversions. To be sure, DVD Catalyst GT is not for everyone.  For the serious video converter who wants to have the ability to tweak every aspect of the output file, you need to look at DVD Catalyst 2 as GT simply does not have the “knobs” to turn as it’s bigger sibling.  If you want to convert your DVDs and files but don’t have the desire to do all the custom tweaking, GT is definitely the right choice.  Make no mistake however; GT is not a crippled version of Catalyst 2.  They are intended for a different type of user and both meet their intended audience exceptionally well. Source link Tools4Movies Addition: DVD Catalyst GT is the predecessor of DVD Catalyst 3, and is no longer available.

Just as the idea of using your PDA to carry around your music library instead of taking a Discman has played its part in the wide spread adoption of portable mp3 players, the PDA, and most significantly Windows CE has had a tremendous role to play since the late 1990s’ in the idea of portable video.
When Microsoft issued Video Codec’ for the Pocket PC 2000 platform it was as something of a frivolity, but now in 2005 these features have played a key role in the hardware evolution and adoption of Windows Mobile. With the ever more powerful processors of the Pocket PC video playback quality is something of a no-brainer; but for a lot of us it begs the question…

Just how do I do that?

Many inexperienced users who just wanted to convert a video file for a specific purpose will have found the process difficult, drawn out and possibly even tiring. The fact of the matter is that unless you know what ‘bit rates’, ‘frame rates’, ‘colour spaces’, ‘aspect ratios’ and a further dictionaries worth of jargon are for – and then understand the consequences of changing those settings. Video may be something you have avoided or something you have disregarded altogether.

Functional video on any device

PocketDVD 1.1 is a host side application bundle designed specifically to allow you to very easily do two things.

• PocketDVD – Convert your DVD collection to a digital video file
• PocketVideo – Convert most existing video file formats into a compatible format

Both aim to make the process simple and deliver a video file that will play on any device with a supported player. PC or Handheld PC, Pocket PC or SmartPhone

The PocketDVD interface is well laid out and visually attractive. DVD drive information is at the top, video settings information is in the middle and useful links to the Manual, PocketDVD.ca website and Support section along the bottom.

Getting started is very simple. Just insert your DVD into the drive tray, wait a few seconds for Windows to recognise the disk has been inserted and click on the ‘Gather DVD Information’ button at the top of the interface.

PocketDVD now analyses your DVD disc, looking for the numbers of tracks and chapters, play lengths of each chapter and of the overall disc itself. For the technically minded this is where statistics on DVD region, TV broadcast standard, codec compression, colour space and more are gathered along with system specifications forming the bulk of the background maths required to convert the DVD.
The information gathering process itself takes approximately three to five seconds per track and upon completion returns you back to the main interface, adjusted to reflect your disc.

At this stage your computer is now ready to convert, or ‘rip’ the DVD on the default settings. Most people will want to tweak a few settings though, and if you are a new user or are unfamiliar with video you shouldn’t be put of doing this as wile the settings may seem complex, they are really very simple to use.

‘Select DVD Track’ simply allows you to select the entire DVD disc for conversion or a specific track (Tracks are what separate the movie from special features, rather than Chapter or Scenes which break up a movie into segments) on that disc.

Output Type is important if you are a Handheld PC user. As Microsoft Windows Media Player 1.2 for the Handheld PC lacks video support, the options for PPC 2000, 2002 and 2003 – representing Windows Media Video 7, 8 and 9 are of little use. The ‘MediaEXT’ or Media Extender option is specifically for use with high definition PC Media Centre devices, leaving PPC DIVX as the output of choice for any H/PC user.
DivX is a open source video codec designed to rival the Windows Media Video standard. Players are available both commercially and from the open source community for most platforms, including Handheld PC Pro and above H/PCs.
Your Windows desktop PC doesn’t natively support DivX files but if you wish to use DivX for PC playback this can be added through the installation of a free DivX codec pack.
It is not a requirement with PocketDVD that you have this installed, PocketDVD will still operate correctly, you will just lack the ability to watch them on the host PC.
Next in the Output Type settings is the Frame rate (Frames Per Second) and the number of compressor passes. Running a two-pass DVD conversion will make the video perform better but at the price of up to double the conversion time required for single pass.

The screen size is simply the resolution of your PDA’ screen. For most Handheld PC users this is HVGA at 640×240 pixels. By changing the resolution the proportions listed for the output video size (the second set of numbers) will change to match the input. So if you encode for a SmartPhone device, Pocket PC or Handheld PC the output video will be adjusted accordingly.

Video Quality may phase some at first, but it is actually quite simple. There are two methods to set the video quality. Firstly by clicking the blue box to reveal a slider, and specifying the bit rate.
Alternately if you know the size of your memory card, or know you only have a certain number of Megabytes free on the card. Clicking on the ‘Video Quality’ label changes the settings value from bit rate to file size. Now you are able to specify in MB the maximum size the output video can be. This is especially useful if you only have a small memory card, or have the need to carry a lot of movies with you say on a business trip or long-haul flight.

The last settings are for the Audio quality which, for most users. Accepting the default value will be adequate; although those seeking ultra high quality may wish to encode with a Stereo soundtrack rather than a down mixed mono score.

Once you have entered the settings for your device you can conveniently preview the DVD directly on the PC providing an approximation of what the video output will actually look like on your mobile device.

You may be surprised to hear that unlike most DVD software, your PC does not need to have any form of DVD decoder installed for it to be able to convert or preview the DVD disk. With Pocket DVD the applications functionality does not limit you to working with a single of the 6 hardware defined global DVD regions. You can insert any region-encoded disc into your PCs drive and PocketDVD will be able to work with it just as it can with your native disc format.

The final step in converting your first DVD is simply to click the ‘Convert DVD’ button to begin writing the DVD to the hard drive.

The conversion process is isolated from PocketDVD itself and displays a progressive readout in a Console window.
As the decoder runs the status information is displayed with an update being achieved once every tenth of a second until completion – at which time the session terminates. The conversion process is separate from the PocketDVD configuration window affording you the option to close it down or minimise to the system tray while the conversion happens in the background.

Figure 3: Elapsed time, Current Frame #, % of job, Input frame rate, Estimated Time Remaining, Estimated Output size and quantiziser field

Naturally the conversion time depends on the length of the DVD movie you are converting, the capabilities of your computer and on the settings you choose. Selecting lower frame rates, lower bit rates and running a single pass will greatly improve the conversion time but holds potentially adverse effects on the quality.

Tests with PocketDVD with a Pentium III 733MHz CPU give a DivX conversion time at around the length of the original movie. Moving up to a Pentium III 1100MHz (1.1GHz) the conversion time is almost down to ¾ of the play length. Windows Media conversions will take on average three to four times longer than DivX as the conversion is a two tier process; first to high quality DIVX and then down into WMV. These conversion times are intrinsically linked to the input settings that you specify, and for most people the ability to minimise the application into the background and forget about it will feature predominantly over any urgency for the completion of the process.

Figure 4: Standard format DVD playback

Once you are comfortable with the basics of PocketDVD it is well worth taking the video conversion to another level by exploring PocketDVDs advanced options.
The advanced settings have been built predominantly around improving functionality for widescreen devices, and with that PocketDVD truly excels, especially for HVGA Windows CE users.

Having used the ‘Gather DVD Information’ button on a disc, an ‘Advanced’ button will appear beneath it, pulling out an expanded settings area.
It is not required that you use preset the options in the advanced area, however spending a little time to familiarise yourself with them and how they work can really make the difference between a good looking movie and a great one. This is even more apparent on the Handheld PC for which much of the configuration enhancements in the 1.1 release were written.

Figure 5: PocketDVDs Advanced Settings

Firstly, two mainstays of the DVD phenomenon. The ability to select the soundtrack language and whether or not to use subtitles. PocketDVD supports both.
If you wish to watch video on your device in a very noisy environment, or your H/PC lacks a headphone socket then subtitles are a great way to compensate.
To enable the use of these or the other options on the advanced screen simply configure your desired setting and click on ‘Ignore’. The label will change to display ‘Use’, indicating that the setting has been flagged for inclusion on your DVD rip.

The next two groups allow you to specify which chapter to start and end at, as well as whether you want PocketDVD to break the DVD rip into smaller file chunks at the chapter (scene) markers.

Offset is a setting which Widescreen Handheld PC users will find incredibly useful, and a feature that makes PocketDVD stand out.
When you go to the cinema and view a widescreen picture, the image you are seeing is not the same as the widescreen you might find on your television set at home. Some motion pictures are filmed slightly wider than is normal, and often this will be passed on to the user in the DVD release.

Figure 6: Cinematic Widescreen example

It is obvious to see that this is exceedingly wasteful use of your screens precious real estate. What the Offset system allows you to accomplish is to completely eliminate the horizontal widescreen bars and maximise your screen size.
Using the sliders and the PocketDVD Preview facility you can configure the desired level of cropping on the PC before conversion, the offset value is distributed equally between cuts on each edge. For example in general on a HVGA PC by setting an offset of 74 pixels top/bottom you can eliminate the bars altogether removing the top 37 and bottom 37 pixels completly. This makes viewing DVD’s on the Handheld PC a true delight and something most Pocket PC users would be insanely jealous of.

Figure 7: The DVD offset feature removes the widescreen bars

Indeed if you really wanted to show off you could go the whole hog and clip the top and bottom slightly with a 90 top/bottom offset which will fill a HVGA screen entirely.

Figure 8: Ultra Full screen, widescreen video

In the 1.1 release a very useful profiles system has been added. This provides you with the freedom to use PocketDVD with multiple devices, or predefined configurations saving you from having to remember a multitude of settings and tweaks. The configurations are stored as settings files under the installation directory allowing you to back them up or redistribute them to peers. The benefits of which are obvious in the mobile device community where one person can calculate all the optimal values and publish the settings saving you time when getting to grips with a new device.

Screen Ratings – Optimisation for the Handheld PC

Lastly a very significant optimisation feature, exclusive to PocketDVD.ca software makes its debut in PocketDVD 1.1.
The PocketDVD Screen Rating system was developed during the beta process to allow for video frame rate optimisation specifically on the Handheld PC and older PDA devices.

A video is nothing more than a fast moving sequence of still pictures (frames). Depending on where you live you will either view 25 frames every second, or 29. The Screen Ratings system has been created for devices which are unable to output the full 25/29 frames which make up standard video.

As many PDA devices make use of older screen technologies, with slower draw rates and smaller CPUs, sending the full video stream to the device display causes an overload which can significantly depreciating the quality.
In the same light different PDA devices will have different sized screens – in the Handheld PC specification there are 5 standard screen resolutions. PocketDVD Screen Ratings are a numeric calculation of the optimal frame rate and screen size for any specific device. The optimal values for Screen Rating, along with discovering the optimal bit-rate for getting the highest quality out of your device can calculated using some free tools and sample videos. More information is available from the PocketDVD website.
Once you have the Screen Rating number. The integer is then input into the ‘Maximum Rating’ settings box on the bottom right of the advanced window.

When previewing back the output files on the Jornada 720 test device the stark improvement achieved from using the Screen Rating system (the rating is 1228800 or 640×240x8) is immediately apparent when striving to maximise the use of the 640×240 screen. Using video benchmarking tools on the 720 before optimisation can demonstrate only a 70% performance rating. By using the Screen Rating optimal for your device the value will be over 100%, matching your devices hardware capabilities precisely.
Screen Ratings are not designed for use by all users, users planning to play back on, for example a modern PC or Pocket PC (due to its much reduced screen size) will as a matter of course have the capability of displaying unconstrained videos.

If your Handheld PC is capable of supporting video and the idea of expanding the scope of your devices use appeals to you then PocketDVD is the way to go. Not only are you getting a multimedia software program with optimisations for the Handheld PC, but a set of tools one could easily equate to a video arsenal.

I do have one piece of advice to share when converting DVDs, gleaned from several red faced experience. Always preview before pushing the convert button!
Through no fault of PocketDVD, the DVD industry can occasionally be seen to have a little fun when compiling discs. Not all movies are to be found on the first track, and not every English language DVD has English defined as the first audio track. Trust me, the first time you insert the likes of Tom Cruise’s ‘Collateral’ hit go and find out half way on through a flight that you have the German soundtrack version – you’ll remember too.

PocketVideo 1.1

Anyone with an existing video library of ripped DVD’ or content saved from a Media Centre system will not need to invest in extra time or money over and above point and click to make use of their existing collection in a portable format. Through the PocketVideo application bundled free with PocketDVD and using similar the same configuration and settings files. PocketVideo allows for the conversion of video file formats including Microsoft AVI, DivX and Windows Media Video for use on your target device.

Figure 9: PocketVideo 1.1

When you look at PocketDVD and PocketVideo together as a suite, it is worth remembering that the application is not limited to just a Windows CE device, specific PDA or single file format. It has the ability to provide high-resolution desktop standard video support, including up scaling abilities along side the down scaling features for formatting video to a mobile device.

Having been closely involved in the development of PocketDVD, it is clear they have a clear understanding of the needs of their market, as a result their customer service and support has proven to be exemplary.
Support forums are provided to users, and community support is actively encouraged with facilities for users to share optimised settings information and PocketDVD profiles. E-Mail support is also available should you be really stuck.
A PDF manual for both PocketDVD and PocketVideo is provided with the package which is a little basic in some areas – forming more of a getting started guide, with much more in-depth information on specific aspects of the program currently being placed onto the website.

One well known draw back of commercial video editing and video conversion packages is that they often prove to be very unstable. Using PocketDVD I haven’t yet experienced a crash which has caused the application to fail, and aside from the occasional unprompted Windows Error Report; appearing when there is no sign of an application failure it has a flawless track record – provided you read the manual.
Failing to look through the software configuration section of the manual could catch a lot of people out, as the conversion process to Windows Media Video is such that some third party tools need to be sourced from Microsoft and DivX, these are free applications but users are faced with the extra download overhead before they will be able to produced video optimised for a portable device.

The aim of PocketDVD has been to simplify for the end user a sequence of processes, which have remained in the realm of the technically savvy computer user and video expert for far too long. The program is straightforward and logical for new users and contains features that will appeal to experienced video users. No matter you’re your level of expertise, once you have your optimal settings established PocketDVD is an excellent time saver, and for me that is what counts.

PocketDVD 1.1 including PocketVideo 1.1 costs $11.95 (£6.30, €9.00, ¥1260 est.) and is available as a web download with lifetime upgrades. With a fully functional, unrestricted 5 day trial avaialble from the PocketDVD.ca website for you to try out on the H/PC yourself.

The copyright of the DVD screen captures used in this review are of Avex Inc. (2003), Paramount Pictures (2002) and Disney Pixar (2003). No ownership is implied or inferred.

System Requirements:

Windows 98, 98SE, Millennium, 2000, XP, 2003
DVD-ROM Drive
24MB Hard disk space for installation 650MB for temping
Windows Media Encoder 9 / Windows Media Video Encoder 8 for WMV conversion
DivX 5 is recommended for performance and optimisation
Windows CE DivX video player

Handheld PC Professional or higher

Rating
Cost:
Usability:
Built-In helps:
Customer Service:
Overall:

Over the past two years, several developers have released DVD ripping applications which allowed users to copy a DVD to their hard disk for playback directly on their PC or laptop.  While the legality of such software – especially in the United States – has been a subject of debate, the developers have continued to produce these applications with ever increasing performance and quality.

DVD Catalyst installed on any Windows XP based system and requires approximately 40 megabytes of space.  Since there is no Windows Mobile component to the application – only the outputted files – there is no installation required on the mobile device itself.  When the application is started the DVD Catalyst start screen is displayed providing users with two options – Convert DVD and Convert Video (Figure 1).  For Windows Media conversion, Windows Media Encoder 9 is required as well.  This can be downloaded from the Windows Media website at http://www.windowsmedia.com.

Figure 1:  DVD Catalyst Main Screen

Essentially, the differences between the Convert DVD and Convert Video options are minimal and relate only to the difference in source material and location. However, in both modes, DVD Catalyst allows users to either select a minimal amount of input to create the video file or a high level of advanced settings.

When converting a DVD, the DVD must be in an attached DVD drive and cannot be playing with any other DVD player on the PC.  When the Convert DVD option is selected, DVD Catalyst’s primary display is shown (Figure 2).  The display includes the output options, a preview display, audio sample rates and video quality.  Automatically DVD Catalyst will select the first track of the DVD, the primary movie track.  All users need to do is select the Convert button and after selecting a name for the file, the application will begin creating the video file.  Essentially this is all that users need to do to convert a DVD to a file. This ease of use is what makes DVD Catalyst stand above many other similar applications.

Figure 2:  DVD Catalyst’s Conversion Screen

Whether converting a DVD or a file, users have a wide range of output formats and maximum screen sizes available to them within DVD Catalyst.  The variety of output formats include Windows Media Video 7, 8 and 9, DIVX, XVID, PSP and Apple iPod (Figure 3).  Once the format is selected, the output size can also be selected (Figure 4).  Users will find that videos can be formatted for Windows Mobile devices, Handheld PC devices, Smartphones, Apple’s iPods and PSP.

Figure 3:  The Output Format Menu

Figure 4:  The Maximum Screensize Menu

On DVD Catalyst’s conversion screen, users will note two slide bars to adjust the Video Quality and Audio Settings.  By adjusting these sliders, users can increase or decrease the video or audio quality of a converted file which greatly impacts the size of the created file (note that the estimated size of the file is at the top of the display in DVD Catalyst).  It is important to remember that while the quality of the audio and video is impacted by these adjustments it does not radically impact the video or audio as seen and heard on a mobile device.  This is due to the somewhat limited video and audio quality on the devices themselves.  Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! Recommends that users learn what is best for them by using a small file and working with the video and audio quality and see which is best for their particular device.

For users who want to more finely tune their output videos, DVD Catalyst offers a highly detailed advanced menu (Figure 5).  The controls and options on the advanced menu are for those who are true videophiles and for the casual user, most of these settings will have little impact.  It is important to note though that by changing the frame rate of the video, users can dramatically increase the video performance on devices with slower processors.

Figure 5:  DVD Catalyst’s Advanced Menu

Once all settings are made and the Convert button is clicked, DVD Catalyst begins converting the source file to the output type selected.  Before this process is started, users are prompted to select either a Fast-Mode or Normal conversion mode (Figure 6).  Essentially this setting allows users to determine amount of processing power of their PC that will be given to the application during the conversion process.  Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! Does recommend that users select the Fast-Mode setting and solely dedicate their PC to the conversion process.  This mode is considerably faster although using the normal mode will not impact quality.

Figure 6:  Fast-Mode option allows DVD Catalyst to Convert Files Faster

During the conversion process, DVD Catalyst provides a display with a progress bar to allow users to see where their file is in the process (Figure 7). Regardless of if Fast-Mode is used or not, the conversion process does take time but considerably less than previously reviewed applications.

Figure 7:  The Progress Screen

As with any video conversion application, the proof of how well it works is in the output file’s quality.  The quality of the end product out of DVD Catalyst is nothing short of impressive (Figure 8).

Figure 8:  640×480 WMV 9 Converted DVD

Overall there is little not to like about DVD Catalyst.  Building on the already successful PocketDVD application, the refinements in this newly branded version of the application make it stand well above similar applications.  Backed by responsive support, the application should be worry free for users even if an issue is encountered.  DVD Catalyst also includes a nice link to support pages on the DVD Catalyst website by clicking on the cat eyes of the main display (Figure 9).  This handy menu makes getting information quick and users can be sure it is the most up-to-date as it is based off of the website and not a static help file within the application.

Figure 9:  Help and Support Menu of DVD Catalyst

Source link

Tools4Movies Addition:

DVD Catalyst 1.0 is a VERY old version. A lot has changed.

With the recent acquisition of an Asus eeePC, I figured it’d be interesting to write something in regards on how to achieve reasonably fast conversions on performance-impaired computers. The information provided here applies to video conversion in general.

The Asus eeePC (900HD) has a 900Mhz Celeron processor. For conversions, Celeron processors (which have limited memory (cache) on the processor) are optimized for “Office” use, internet use, word processing and basic spreadsheets, and are not designed for processor-intensive tasks such as video conversion. While most systems that have a Celeron processor feature a speed measured in Ghz, the 900Mhz version used in the eeePC has a speed reminisent of computers of 8 years ago. While the technology used inside it’s core has significanly changed, it is not really capable of handling more demanding tasks.

So what affects conversion speed?

To be able to speed up conversions, we have to look at what conversion actually is. With video conversion, often called transcoding, we indicate the process of changing video from one format to another. DVDs come in a certain video format (MPEG2) while video files from the internet come in certain formats as well (AVI, DIVX, XVID, FLV, MPV etc) While there are devices that are capable of playback of all these different types of video content, many are not, and as of such, the various different video formats will have to be changed (converted) into a format that can play on a particular device. For most current devices (Apple’s iPod/iPhone, Sony’s PSP, Microsoft’s Zune), the format of choice is MPEG4, so DVDs (MPEG2) will need to be converted to MPEG4, DIVX needs to be converted to MPEG4, etc etc.

Besides the video format, many portable devices have certain limitations. Portable video players are designed to have an acceptable battery life (so you can watch one or two full movies on a single charge), and to achieve this, certain trade-offs have been made when thee devices were created. Many portable media players can only handle video files of a certain quality range, and only within certain screen size specifications. To make video files compatible with these players, besides converting content in the proper format, changes to the quality, as well as the screen size also have to be made.

Besides the actual conversion, things such as how the original video content is accessed, where the converted content is stored also play a major part in conversion speed.

How do we speed things up?

The main rule to keep in mind is that there is ALWAYS a trade-off. To achieve faster conversions, you WILL compromise quality.

Conversion format: Most devices accept more than just one video format. For example, all the Apple devices, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV. These can handle 2 formats of MPEG4. MPEG4 SP (Simple Profile) and MPEG4 AVC (Advanced Coding Profile, aka H264) MPEG4 AVC is used by Apple’s own iTunes video content, and offers the best possible quality (it’s the same format used for Bluray video) however, it is quite processor demanding. MPEG4-SP, the original MPEG4 format, is less processor demanding, and as a result, it is a lot faster on older systems. The iPhone (Fast) profile uses this format, and on the eeePC, this format converts at allmost 2x real-time speed (1 hour for a 2 hour movie) while the AVC format (iPhone Standard profile) converts at about 0.5x realtime, 4 hours for a 2 hour movie.

Scaling (screen size): If the video content that is converted has a bigger resolution that what the device supports, it will need to be scaled down to the lower device resolution. For DVD’s the original screen size is usually around 720×480. When this is converted to a Zune with a screen size of 320×240 for example, the video will be reduced in size to fit that screen size. To preserve as much quality as possible, during conversion additional calculations are made to scale down the video. For movies with a big screen size (bluray rip for example), that are being converted to a device with a smaller screensize (such as the Zune) it takes longer to go through the whole video picture to make it the proper size. The bigger the difference in size, the more processing power is needed to perform this task.

Picture quality: This connects to both the conversion format and the scaling mentioned above. The conversion format selected determines the way the video quality is adjusted. Some formats compare each video picture, and just store the differences with a certain (key-)frame, while other formats perform certain calculations to achieve the format conversion. Each format works differently, and the wy this works is too complicated for this particular article, and will be covered in another topic. The video quality setting (kbps) determines how much “data” can be used for the video during a certain time. This determines the resulting filesize, as well as how the picture looks. The higher the quality, the better the video will look when completed, however, higher quality also means that there will be more time spend during conversion to achieve the quality.

Drive speed: While not as important on slower computers, the drive speed does affect conversion speed. The conversion can only work as fast as it has information to work with, so if you are converting a DVD, and the drive is too slow, the conversion will be waiting for the DVD drive to deliver the information it needs to convert. In a similar manner, the drive where the created files are stored. When the conversion has converted a piece of the movie, it needs to store this, and if the location where the files are saved is too slow, the conversion is paused untill the data is saved to the drive.

A few tips for drives:

* Never set the output folder to a flash-drive/pendrive/SD/CF card. These drives do not have a consistent data rate, and you will experience severe slowdowns during conversion.Convertto your computers harddisk first, and when done, copy the files over to the drive. This is a lot faster.

* Never convert directly to the memory of your device. Most devices (PalmOS, Windows Mobile)use some form of sync-software to establish a connection to your device, and when you convert directly to your device, this sync-software will continiously be “assisting” in the data transfer. This will slow down conversions severely. Convert the files to your compute’s harddisk first, then transfer the completed files over.

* Never convert from an external drive to the same external drive.If you are using an external harddisk for your video files, converting to and from the same drive will result in “traffic” jams during conversion. Data is being read from, and send to the harddisk at the same time, causing the conversion to be quite slow.  Convert the files from your external harddisk, and save them to your computer first. When the conversion is finished, move them to your drive.

The above screenshot of DVD Catalyst 3 shows a conversion of “Navy Seals” (first 10 minutes of the movie only) with 4 different conversion settings. Conversions were done on an Asus eeePC 900HD (900Mhz Celeron), with an external USB2 Lite-On DVDdrive to the internal harddisk of the system.

iPhone (Standard) Profile : 480×320 resolution, AVC (h264) video format (500Kbps) 0.77x realtime (2 1/2 hours for a 2 hour movie)

iPhone (Fast) Profile : 480×320 resolution, MPEG4 SP video format (500Kbps) 1.83x realtime ( 1 1/4 hours for a 2 hour movie)

iPhone (HQ) Profile 720×320 resolution, AVC (h264) video format (700Kbps) 0.68x realtime (3 hours for a 2 hour movie)

iPhone (Small) Profile 288×192 resolution, AVC (h264) video format (180Kbps) 1.73x realtime (1 1/2 hours for a 2 hour movie)