From Internet Tablet Talk

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Media Converter 2.1 Installation of Media Converter 2.2 Converting Videos Using Media Converter 2.3 Copying Videos to the 770 3 Other Methods of Converting Videos for the Internet Tablets 3.1 Media Converter 3.2 tablet-encode 3.3 Handbrake and media converters 3.4 DVD Catalyst 3.5 PocketDivXEncoder 3.6 Simple mencoder wrappers 3.7 TinyAVI

Introduction

Although the video player that comes preinstalled on the 770 can play a number of popular video formats, it is limited in the resolutions and bitrates that it supports and it is often necessary to reformat a video file in order to watch it on the 770. This article also has information on video formats for the N800 and N810. Please ignore the constant use of Nokia 770 in the titles of the sections below. The info applies to the N800 and N810 also, except when discussing specific screen resolutions.

Also, for more information see this link: http://maemo.org/community/wiki/videoencoding/

Media Converter

The quickest and easiest way to get started converting videos for use on the 770 or N800 is to download and install Media Converter by Urho Konttori onto your desktop computer. Media Converter will run on any platform that supports Java, including Windows XP, MacOSX, and Linux.

Installation of Media Converter

1. Download Media Converter for your platform:
   • Download for Windows
   • Download for MacOSX or Linux (See the comments for instructions on installing and running under Linux)
2. If Java (JRE) isn't installed download and install it from java.com.
3. On Windows, run the setup file and media converter will be added to your programs under start menu.
4. On OSX, download intel / PPC version, move app to programs or just double click on the app.
5. On Linux, Unzip the Media Converter archive and open the folder you unzipped to.
6. Double-click the .jar file to start Media Converter. Alternatively, run java mediaconverter.jar from a command prompt.

http://www.helsinki.fi/~konttori/MediaConverterLatest.png

Converting Videos Using Media Converter

1. Add the files to be converted to the queue (you can multiselect and drag 'n drop).
2. Choose a resolution and bitrate for the converted files (any values should work, lower resolutions allow smoother video and higher resolutions have more detail).
3. Click "convert" and wait for your files to be processed.
4. Your converted files will be placed in a sub directory of the source file directory or to a specified directory.
5. 400x240 is the ideal resolution to N800 users as well as Mplayer users
6. 352x288 is the best one for 770 for general video and 288x208 is the best for action video

Copying Videos to the 770

Once your videos are converted, you must copy them to the 770 to watch them. Plug the 770 into a USB port on your computer using the provided cable. The flash card in the 770 will appear as a USB Mass Storage device, and you can copy your video files onto it. Make sure that you have enough space on your flash card, full length movies can be 200MB or larger.

A much faster method is to buy a very cheap ($15) USB card reader and transfer the video to the card this way, then put the card into the 770. This will allow USB 2.0 transfer speeds.

Other Methods of Converting Videos for the Internet Tablets

Media Converter

TBC

tablet-encode

tablet-encode - this powerful command-line application guarantees to convert your videos to formats which will play on your Internet Tablet. By using a system of presets, you can choose the trade-off between size and quality. Runs on Linux, Mac OS X, Unix and Windows PCs. Linux/Unix users can also have a GUI.

Handbrake and media converters

Using Handbrake and another media converter makes it simple to transcode DVDs. A full DVD comes at about 150 MB when it's done converting, depending on bitrate. See http://geekpenguin.blogspot.com/2007/09/dvds-on-it.html for more details.</i>

DVD Catalyst

DVD Catalyst is a commercially available package allowing simple conversion of videos and DVD's for handheld devices. It is not free ($17.95/£11.00 from pocketgear.com), but it does have an emphasis on ease of use and provides one-step conversion of DVDs, which is not currently available from Media Converter.

PocketDivXEncoder

This is a windows gui which uses mencoder, find it at PocketDivXEncoder.net

Simple mencoder wrappers

Media Converter is a simplified front-end to mencoder, but you can use mencoder directly if you want greater control over the encoding parameters or if you want to automate the process. Details on the parameters to use for the 770 are available on the Maemo Wiki, and an introduction to mencoder in general can be found at the mplayer site.

If you're a command-line/shell-script fiend, then the following might be useful: a script wrapper round mencoder with a 2-pass process which will also rip files is here. Speculatrix

TinyAVI

TinyAVI is a advanced front-end to mencoder, which features multiple target profiles (including N8x0 high-resolution and medium-resolution), and SMP support (multiple files can be converted in parallel, useful for multi-core and multi-CPU machines). The home page is here, and the forum thread is here, including a screenshot of the program.

TinyAVI consists of two programs: one command-line script and a Gtk-based GUI which integrates with GNOME/KDE. You can choose any of them, since they both provide roughly the same functionality, and use same Python library for the core functionality.