OK, so I am still doing research into video encodings.

For the x51v (624mhz), what is the best encoding/program combo to play video? The Axim's have the graphic accelerator chip which is supposed to let them accelerate video playback, but this works only in WMP and not TCPMP, right?

So far I've been mostly unsuccessful on trying to find out what video formats WMP 10 supports besides WMV and MPEG-4 (but not XviD or DivX) -- or is that it?

My ad-hoc comparison using FairUse shows that H.264 is better than XviD by a little, but I'll bet WMP plays neither. I figure WMP's use of the 2700G chip means less CPU use to play a video and therefore longer battery life. I'm just guessing that TCPMP uses more CPU and therefore burns more battery.

OK, so there are a lot of choices. If I'd like to have a 512MB-size full-length movie at 640xwhatever resolution (depending on aspect ratio of movie) -- approx 475 kbit/sec video and 128 kbit/sec audio -- transcoded from DVD to be played from a microdrive on the Axim, what is the best choice of video codec, audio codec, and software that gives the best quality and battery life? Right now my best guess is H.264+OGG+TCPMP for the quality route, but how does WMV+WMA+WMP compare?

EDIT: also, with the modern PDAs does it matter if you pre-rotate the film 90 degrees, since they have a landscape toggle switch?

Gillius
Gillius's Programming
http://www.gillius.org/

I also have a x51v. I tried a regular DivX Movie 640x320 that was encoded for PC use.
Played it with TCPMP (it supports the VideoCard in the x51v).
Benchmarked the Video -> something around 210 % speed (57 fps).

Tried a video encoded to 320x240 30fps Mpeg 4 (DivX/xvid) 411 kbits, Audio MP3 80kbits.
Speed 531,48%
Framerate 159,44 fps.

You don't have to pre-rotate the video

I used to encode the 320x240 video Deset Pocket Videomaker (NO Freeware)

I use xvid and set it to 6. plz try it, I highly recommend. but encoding xvid is slower, comparing to divx fixed bitrate(3Xfps vs 9Xfps). but quality is noticeable better, even on the ppc screen.
btw, I think 512mb storage can hold a much higher bitrate movie. and 475 is not very good in quality.

475k/bit sec video + 128 kbit/sec audio = 603kbit/sec
which equals
36180 kbit/min or 35.33 mbit/min
2120 mbit/hour or 264 mbyte/hour
for two hours this totals 529MB, which is very close to what I am shooting for.

I compared XviD and H.264. H.264 took twice as long to encode for me but looked better (but not amazingly so -- I had to actually compare side by site but at side-by-side there is a significant difference).

The test clip was a 4minute bonus feature car chase from the film Bourne Identity. I thought all DVDs were encrypted though? I was able to read this retail purchased DVD without using any tools to decrypt it.

Gillius
Gillius's Programming
http://www.gillius.org/

Agentmax, can you explain a little bit on what the 2700G actually accelerates? I didn't think TCPMP had full support (although I did see signs of developers trying). With the way that it accelerates, does it accelerate all video -- essentially there is video display and video decode. Which does the 2700G aid, or both? Does TCPMP support the accelerator for both? If it aids in decoding, what formats does the 2700G accelerate? Also (sorry for all of the Qs), if MPEG-4 is at 531% speed and DivX at 200%, does that mean that battery life is better with MPEG-4?

Gillius
Gillius's Programming
http://www.gillius.org/

No, I can't. I only know that TCPMP supports the 2700G. In my opinion it's only for viewing, not for decoding. But write an e-mail to the author of the software for asking him.

I think the only difference was the resulution and the bitrate.
Sure, if you choose a lower bitrate/resolution you won't need as much CPU power as with a higher bitrate -> longer battery life

According to the Intel site it accelerates MPEG2, MPEG4, and "Windows Media Video" decoding only. I haven't heard anyone talk much about WMV. I also wonder about DivX vs MPEG-4 (aren't they basically the same algorithm?)

Gillius
Gillius's Programming
http://www.gillius.org/