I have been trying to copy my owned movies for personal playback on my Hx4700....... ........ I have tried DVD Studio & DVD Wizard without success.

I get error messages or it processes for about 3 hours then frezes the computer. This is proving very frustrating.

How can I do this?

David.

I use the method in the tutorial on this site - HERE and I have no issues (I have done 20+ movies).

Regards

Rob

  

I reccomend you try pocketdivxencoder

I dont know about DVD Studio or DVD Wizard. But i use PocketDVD Studio (made specifically for PPC). It 'rips' and converts DVD movies into an AVI format for viewing on my PPC (2215) using either BetaPlayer or Pocket MVP.
A 2 hour movie normally i'd use between 250mb-300mb for good, if not, acceptable quality to view on my PPC. A 22minute TV show episode (also ripped from DVD- like "Friends") I would normally use between 45-55mb. I use 320x240 standard conversion-- it does take more memory space than the other preset 'size/crops'- but having 2 1GB cf cards, no worries at all (hoping to get 2 gb or 4gb hitachi micro hd for christmas). The conversion takes a little bit more than the actual feature length (a 22 minute show will take at least 30minutes for the final version , unlike other DVD converters to PPC programs, that it can take overnight to convert a movie to view on WM Player.
Some swear by the other programs, and some prefer more detailed conversino (using 2 or 3 different programs)- But i'm satisfied w/ this little software.

Also, i'm using a 2.4 p4 Sony Vaio to convert the movies--so if you have a slower CPU unit--perhaps that's causing the cpu to freeze on you???

Goodluck

E.

I have tried & tried with a variety of software and still not completed a whole movie back-up to play on my 4700. I don't know what else to do. It must be something wron with my computer I guess as others seem to manage it.

Those that are achieving success please share your DVD ripping techniques.





D.

What are the problems you are encountering?

Regards

Rob

  

I used the tutorial and it worked fine. The program told me the .avi would be approx 300mb, but it came out around 500. Is it usually that far off? How much quality is lost making the file smaller? Also this is a great site, I just got my first PPC and this is a great resource so far!!!

Welcome to the site

I would check your settings - how long was the movie?

Regards

Rob

  

2hr 22min (Star Wars Episode II). Looks and sounds great though!

Based on your last post, I think perhaps you should double check your settings for your DVD to PPC software.

***I just reread your post after i've posted this, sorry, I missed the fact that you mentioned your PC is freezing on you... so i guess it is not the settings, and perhaps there's an issue w/ your PC.
But in anycase, below is my stepbystep w/ PocketDVD Studio.

Assuming you have PocketDVD Studio's proram, this is my normal procedure of how i convert DVDs to AVI for viewing on my PPC.

1) I insert the desired DVD in my PC's DVD/CD player- I let it auto start (or open w/ approriate DVD software- i use PowerDVD. Once it gets into the main menu of the actual movie, I press stop and minimize the window.

2) I then start Pocket DVD Studio.
*Then press the Settings tab-->Advance input settings- choose appropriate 'interlacing' option-or otherwise, i just leave it as is.
* Under Settings Tab---> Advance Output Settings
Audio- 128kbit bitrate/Cd Quality
44khz sampling
Video- 24fps framerate
*Under "Miscellaneous"- I set it to "split" at 350mb- hence i try not to go over 350mb per movie (I can go for a higher capacity for better quality, but i am quite happy w/ the out put at halfway the full quality) . Anyways, This feature may have something to do w/ your movie not completing the recording of the whole movie- but I'll get to that later.
* I then set to the movie to be stored in a specific, easy to find folder for converted movie (i.e. PocketPc Movies)

3) I then press "OPEN" DVD and the program should be able to open up the movie and gives you the 'chapter' selection- or the 'longest' program to be recorded. I choose 320x240 resolution (77k pixel). The movie quality is set to no more than 350 mb (or less) just about halfway to a full quality. (see the bar adjustments for 'Movie Quality and Size' ) For the Crop option- i choose the full screen (the rightmost section of the selection).

Then I press "START" and away it goes.

Going back to the "Miscellaneous" Settings. If your "movie quality/Size is set at , per se, 500mb for a very good quality (This is after you've made all the proper settings and have Pressed "open DVD" ) but your "Miscellaneous setting under Advance settnig is set to split at per se, 300mb.. the recordnig will stop when it reaches 300mb- then resumes again a couple of minutes later to continue the rest of the recording w/ the remaining 200mb of the movie feature (it will create a seperate folder for the 'second part' of the movie). Make sure that you do not "check" 'shutdown comp when recording is done'- that had given me a problem before..but only once, and i leave that click box unchecked. Besides, I never really split my movies- so i choose 350mb or only once did i go for 500mb. Unless you have a high capacity card to store your movie..then go for the higher quality setting. I'm about to invest on a 4GB Hitachi MD or 2GB MicroDrive. Currently using 2 1gb CF cards for my movies, maps, music...



I've recently converted Bourne Supremacy and I, Robot-- no hitches!!!

Good Luck
E




-

Just when I think I am getting there... I have tried all your suggestions and they are much appreciated, but I still cannot copy a whole movie.

I have copied all but a 20 minutes of one movie with Pocket DVD Wizard but ever since then it has frozen my computer at about 60%.

Using DVD Shrink & DivXencoder I have managed to part copy several films but not a whole one. For some reason it copies only about a half to 2 thirde of the films.

I am confused now. Why does it work a bit ? I would be more sure that it was just not gonna work if it did nothing, but it does encode some of the film.

Pocket DVD Studio comes up with a variety of errors usually after about an hour of encoding.

I am going away with a long flight next week I really wanted to have a movie or two to watch enroute.

Any more suggestions?



PS. This is a great forum even if I cannot get the damn thing to work!

David.

I'm new to this also, I thought my computer was frozen too, until I looked at the avi file in win explorer, and noticed that every time I refreshed the screen, the file size got bigger. I thought it froze at 100% but it was still building the file. Are you sure it's frozen? (I'm using dvd shrink and pocket divx encoder)

I would just start the file encoding and go to bed - unless there is something wrong with your PC, you will have a movie in the morning - PocketDivxEncoder often looks as though it has stopped but it hasn't.

Regards

Rob

  

Could be you have insufficient resources on your PC, which will cause it to freeze. Before you start, try shutting down all applications that run in the background (one of my pet peeves is the way most software you install on a PC these days assumes you want it running all the time, so it loads itself in the Startup folder), most of them have icons in your taskbar in the lower right corner. What OS are you using and how much RAM and hard disk space do you have available?

Cntrl-Alt-Del will also show you a list of all running processes.

Thanks,

I am running Windows XP Home on a computer with an AMD Athelon 2000 with 512 MB of Ram. I am told the graphics card is pretty good to ? Should be OK I thought.

I have shut down all the programs in the task bar that are not required and left over night and I thought I had got it, but on playing the movie which looked great, it finished 20 minutes before the end. So almost there.

Why would it stop at 20 mins before the end?

Tried again with another movie. This time it ripped the whole movie but it is rotated 90 degrees & was too large a file. Only encoded down to 1.8G??

So still trying

D.