From my title line, you might think I hate PocketMVP. I don't. In some ways it's really great software. But in one critical (for me) way, on my Dell, it's intolerable. Often I can't watch a full two hour movie at one sitting. So I want to be able to return to the same spot, and resume my viewing at a later time. With PocketMVP this is practically impossible. Yes, you can (after crashing the machine a couple of times) finally get the scroll bar to the point in the movie where you left off, but then the sound is out of sync. In PocketMVP's favor, if I watch an entire movie beginning to end, there are never any sync issues. But I get sync issues EVERY time I try scrolling to a later time in the movie. Even Speedstep (overclocking software), which lets me run my 300mhz Axim at 398mhz (reliably), doesn't fix the problem, despite the fact that video is VERY smooth, with no dropped frames at a full 29.97 frames per second. ARRGH!
I have experimented with Divx (various versions), XVID, and the VP3 codec (which I REALLY want to use, because of decent picture quality at around a megabyte-per-minute). I get the same result with all codecs, so I suspect it's something within PocketMVP rather than codec related. I repeat, ARRGH!
So I'm returning to MPEG-1, and old reliable PocketTV. It works perfectly EVERY time. Frame rates are excellent (especially when overclocking), and it's much more versatile for tweaking the picture during playback. What I DON'T like is that, to get comparable picture quality, MPEG-1 must be run at a higher bitrate than MPEG-4 codecs (like Divx, XVID, and VP3). Higher bitrate means larger files, which means "only" one two hour movie on my 256MB Compact Flash card instead of two (YES, it is possible to get TWO feature films on a 256MB card with VP3 compression and mono sound. But if it won't play properly, what's the point?)
I totally agree and feel your pain. Even short 3 Minutes music videos have been causing problems when paused or tried to search with the place bar.. I have no idea what causes that, sometimes it would skip so many frames it would feel like weird looking slide show, even on my 400Mhz Ax.
Could you let me know more about re-encoding movies into Mpeg mode, probably from divx'ed .AVI into Pocket TV playable mpegs or any other format that I can use another player.
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To encode mpeg-1 files for PocketTV, I use the TMPGEnc program (it's free). I use a frame rate of 29.97fps (the NTSC frame rate) for video-based programs, and use inverse telecine to reconstruct 23.976 (the NTSC frame rate for film) for film-based programs. I use ONLY 240x176 (240x128 for Widesscreen films), as I would rather have the smoother motion of the full frame rate rather than full-screen (320x240) at half-frame rates (12 or 15fps).
You can use (as your source) ATI files (with any codec installed on your machine, including Divx, XVID, and VP3), WMV, and MPEG-1. You can also use MPEG-2 files, such as those captured with a capture card (like my ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro) by separating the audio and video with the (also free) DVD2AVI program.
For DVD rips, I use SmartRipper to de-encrypt the VOB files, then load them into DVD2AVI, go to "Save Project", which gives a separate video and audio file for TMPGEnc (as with the MPEG-2 captured files, only I have it set to decode the Dolby Digital stream, rather than just split the MPEG audio stream).
That's the "Reader's Digest" version, but this is a proven (for me) method that gets great results EVERY TIME!
I've managed to watch both matrix and matrix reloaded using pocketmvp with no playback issues. this is on a 300mhz axim using 220kbit video with 2 pass divx5 and 22khz 56kbit stereo mp3 audio (using 240x160 resolution as I agree, I'd rather have full framerate and I don't like the look of landscape for video as the viewing angle isn't as good in that orientation so I tend to notice a big difference in contrast between my two eyes and find it slightly annoying). Also, I have zero sync issues even when using the slider or using the 'jump to' feature for pocketmvp. the only problem I've had is pausing every few mins but turning off caching solved that problem.
My solution to audio sync issues was to stop using the Fraunhofer MP3 codec, and use the LAME one instead. It's a much richer codec and doesn't have the sync issues that the Fraunhofer does. (Even at high bitrates, Fraunhofer will desync, even if it's not immediately noticeable by the end of a movie, but lower bitrates get desynched almost immediately.)
Also, regarding PocketMVP in general: keep in mind, it's not even to version 1.0 yet... instead of complaining and giving up on it, how about going to their forums and voicing your likes, dislikes, suggestions and issues?
A-I used Lame, NOT the internal Fraunhofer codec. It made no differences to sync.
B-It's not up to me to make their product market-ready. And I have no intentions doing so. Life is short, and I don't live at the computer! There's no incentive to either, especially when there's a better alternative (in the form of PocketTV), and it's FREE! By the way, I can also use Lame with it, but that's another story!
Um Mike, ever thought of pausing PocketMVP and minimizing it. Next time you want to watch again, open PocketMVP and start playing it again. I would think this would solve your problem...
On the sound out-of-sync issue. I have no problems scrolling to a spot and starting my video. Sometimes the frame is freezed until the sound and video match-up, but after that everything runs fine. It must have to do with the way you encode. I follow the guide from PocketMatrix (DVD to PPC) with a few of my own alterations (Filter Mode = Precise Bicubic (A=-1.00), Encoding Bitrate = 160, and Audio Compression = MPEG Layer-3; 24kBits/s, 22,050hz Mono). I get awesome video with good sound at a size ratio of 81 MB per hour of video. I know it's not the fastest way to reencode video, but all the software's free and I can't beat the quality per MB!
There's nothing wrong with the way I encode. I've encoded in many ways, with many programs (VirtualDub, Vidomi, TMPGEnc...and yes you CAN produce avi files with it, dvdx, and many others).
I have tried a variety of resolutions, frame rates, and codecs. I have spent hours, MANY hours experimenting...hours which I doubtless would love to have back at the end of my life! ENOUGH already! "Minimize it, then re-open it, and wait for video and audio to catch up, blah, blah, blah, BLAH!" Enjoy the p.o.s. program so much? Have at it, buddy! As for me, I'll be using PocketTV. It's trouble free, completely un-fussy about things like bitrates, frame rates, and resolutions. Install it, play your file, and it works. Move the slider, and it continues to work...just like it ought to. Why would I CHOOSE to suffer when there's an alternative???
you gotta skew the audio back i'm tellin ya. then you can turn the drop tol all the way up and its smoooth sailing. i agree with the pause minimizing thing. i've come back to a move in the same spot like 2 days later.
me neither. I've had vdub pop up a warning a few times saying the audio and video could be out of sync by x milliseconds and that if i want to fix it i'd have to demux the audio as wave and then remux the audio and video ,but this has only happened on a couple source files i've come across.
everything I've done with vdub using lame or the standard mp3 codec has played fine. (22khz 56kbit stereo)
My videos "play fine" too, if you play them beginning to end. But if interrupted, or if using the slider to find a point in a file, then All the Kings' horses, and All the Kings' men can't put audio and video in sync again!
I tried the "trick" of minimizing, then resuming play last night to see if it fixed the sync problems. It didn't. More damn time wasted!
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