Now, before I start, YES I do realize that there are alternate methods and programs for doing this, some may be better than others, but this is what I use, and am demonstrating, so if you do not like it, you can post your own tutorial, please do not clutter mine with spam about other programs. Thank you.

*I originally wrote this tutorial for the Dell Axim line and posted it over at Aximsite.com, but when I stopped by and saw that you had no DVD to PDA tutorial (That i could find anyway) I thought I should share this, so I have adapted it to be used by you guys too. If any issues arise please post your problems and I will be glad to help you guys out*

***Due note, this tutorial is known to work with Betaplayer with a 640x480 screen but I do not have a 320x240 PDA in which to test it on, so if someone could please try it and report that would be helpful. Simply enter 320 rather than 640 for a width when prompted to do so in Part II of this tutorial.***

Please read the entire tutorial before starting as it helps to cover alot of questions along the way.


PART I
Alright, so you want to make movies for your PDA, first things come first, so you need to have the proper hardware.

DVD-Rom Drive or DVD-Writer
About 7 GB of free Hard Drive Space (Per Movie)
DVD Decrypter
AutoGordianKnot
BetaPlayer For your PDA
(Get the betaplayer.arm.cabs.UNSTABLE.0.50b.zip file)

Lets get down to business, first you need to install DVD Decrypter. The newest version out as of 3/28/05 is Ver. 3.5.4.0 . Open up the setup file and install to your desired directory. Once installed, open it up and you should be greeted with a screen that looks much like this.



At this point you should insert a dvd in which you would like to encode. Once you place it in your DVD drive, if the DVD has RCE Protection enabled then you will need to select from which area the DVD was purchased. In our case USA is fine. If you do not see this pop-up then do not worry, that just means your DVD had no protection enabled.



After selecting 'Ok' we are brought back to our main screen and see that there are many files in the right window.



However the files are scrambled and hard to sort through, so we want to go to the drop down menu of ‘Mode’. Then click on ‘IFO I’. You'll notice that the right window changed to look more like this.



Next go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Settings’. Then go to the ‘IFO Mode’ tab and make sure that the boxes
‘Stream Information’
‘Include PGC Number’
‘Include Angle Number’
all have a checkmark in them. If they do not then click in the box so one will appear. Then select ‘Ok’.



We are now brought back to our main screen. This is how most movies will look in DVDDecrypter. Nothing-unusual here. You may notice that the program automatically chooses the longest selection from the DVD. The other VTS/PGCs may contain such things as the Menu Screens, the FBI Warning, Trailers, Music Videos, Making Of Documentaries, Deleted Scenes, etc, however we will not be using those. To choose the Destination folder, click on the little Folder Icon (I'll set one up in advance), make sure you have enough hard drive space, up to 7GB for some movies. To select which folder you want the files to be made in click the folder icon and navigate through the folder tree to the desired location. It is recommended that you create a new folder for each movie that you rip.




Now we are ready to rip the video. Click on the large dvd to Hard drive icon.



Notice that the screen changes drastically. The progress bar will start to move as it completes the ripping of files. This process takes about 10 mins for most DVDs but the time can vary due to DVD-rom speed and computer specs.



Once it is completed you will get a small pop-up message that the process is done. Simply click 'ok' and if you have no more DVD you want to rip then you can go ahead and close the program.




PART II
Now onto part two of the process. You will need to download and install the latest release of Auto GordianKnot. The latest as of 3/28/05 is Ver. 2.01 . Once installed go ahead and open the program. You should see a screen that looks like this.



Since we got our source files from a DVD we will keep the 'DVD input' box checked. Then go to the 'Input Directory' box and click on the file icon next to it, and search for the folder where we placed the source files.



Once you find the folder and select it, click ok. Now go to the folder icon underneath it to make a name for the output file. This will be our final video, so name it appropriately.



Now moving on to our audio options we want to select our desired language, (in this case English) and leave it in 2 channel audio to keep the file small.



Now we want to determine our Output size. Since the Xvid codec works so well we do not need a large file size, and so a 700MB file would be much larger than needed. Select the middle circle 'Custom Size'. For a 640x480 VGA Screen PDA using an average movie I use 475MB for a file size, because
A. It delivers DVD quality video
B. It is small enough to fit 2 movies on a 1 GB card
However if you are encoding smaller files such as a Family Guy episode (22Mins, 30Secs), then I find a 90MB file delivers excellent quality.

For a 320x240 NON VGA Screen PDA you should be able to use 250MB for an average movie.

However, if you are limited by the size of your card, or you do not need to have to quality as high, feel free to set it as you wish, these values are mearly a recommendation. (Kind of like speed limits )



Now click the 'Advanced Options' button. A small menu will appear.

If you have a VGA SCREEN (640x480) then use this direction. IF you have any other 320x240 PDA then Skip to the next set of instructions.

Under the 'Resolution Settings' section we want to select 'Fixed Width' and enter 640. Do not worry about entering a height for the video, as it will automatically determine the right aspect ration as provided by our source files.



If you have a NON VGA PDA (320x240) Then use this set of directions.

Under the 'Resolution Settings' section we want to select 'Fixed Width' and enter 320. Do not worry about entering a height for the video, as it will automatically determine the right aspect ration as provided by our source files.



PART III
This section of directions is only for those of you who have a WIDESCREEN movie and want to ecode it into FULLSCREEN. You can skip this step if you wish to have your movie display in proper widescreen resolution.

Ok, if you do proceed with this, do note that it will stretch the screen size. While on the PDA it is noticable, it is not unbearable, and it gives you the entire screen space of movie. If you preview the encoded movie on your computer it may look to be extreme stretching, however it does not look bad once it is loaded into your PDA.

With that note aside, while in the main Auto Gordian Knot screen, press Ctrl and the F9 button. A new menu will appear. At the top is a check box and 3 resolutions. Check the 'Override input AR' box and click the ' 4:3 ' circle. Click 'OK' and then proceed with Part IV.



PART IV
We are now ready to add this job to our list of Jobs in Queue. Click the 'Add Job' button and you will see our pre-determined file path of the file to be created. Go ahead and repeat this process for any other videos you wish to encode. Once you are ready to encode click on the 'Start' button and the program will begin encoding.



Although it depends on the length, size, and quality of the video as well as the speed of your processor, it takes around 2- 2 1/2 hours to encode a video. I usually get about 3 or 4 movies in Queue when I go to bed so they can encode all night. As the program finishes one video, it will move onto the next. You can also check the 'Shutdown when done' box so that the computer will turn off your computer when finished.

Here are a few pictures of finished video. Due note that still pictures tend to bring the pixelations out more than the actual movie does though.


Family Guy; Encoded @ 90MB, 640x480



The Transporter; Encoded @ 475MB, 640x480

If you have any questions, please feel free to reply and I will assist you.
-Brad

Bradish

Thanks for the tutorial

I edited the last part of your message slightly BTW - per the site rules.


This is also another tutorial here:
http://www.ipaqhq.com/articles/articles/238

Regards

Rob