Now, before I start, YES I do realize that there are alternate methods and programs for doing this, some may be better than others, each has its pro’s and con’s just as this method does, however this is what I use, and am demonstrating, so if you do not like it, you can post your own tutorial, but please do not clutter mine with spam about other programs. I DO NOT care which other programs you use or work for you, So don’t talk about them. Thank you very much.
***Due note, this tutorial is known to work with the X50v 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. Likewise, I do not have a x51 (hint hint anyone?) So I can only demonstrate what works for the X50v. It assumably should be the same for the x51, however there is the possibility of minor differences.***
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 software/hardware.
DVD-Rom Drive or DVD-Writer, If it reads a DVD Disc then it will work.
About 7 GB of free Hard Drive Space (Per Movie)
DVD Decrypter This program is simply used to take the DVD footage and audio straight from the DVD and drop it on your harddrive in its raw form (which can be quite large in some instances).
Please note, the distribution of DVD Decrypter was shutdown due to legal issues, So this link was working as of 11/10/06 but that may be subject to change To find the link scroll down about halfway through the page and it is the second link under the “Descrambling / Ripping tools” title. It is titled
"DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0"
AutoGordianKnot This is the brains of the operation. This program will take our raw DVD footage and format it into a filetype in a manageable size which TCPMP can.
The Core Pocket Media Player Formerly known as BetaPlayer,
Picard Beta has created this PDA program which we will need to use because Windows media player doesn't play this filetype (Xvid).
Lets get down to business, first you need to install
DVD Decrypter. The newest version out as of 2/13/06 is Ver. 3.5.4.0 (This will remain the latest update for good because work on the program has been terminated). 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 the DVD movie that 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.
In the options window you will notice that the 'File Splitting' drop down menu is highlighted. If you have your HardDrive(s) formatted in the NTFS system then select 'None'. However if your Harddrive(s) are formatted in the FAT32 System then select 1GB. If you do not know which filesystem you are using, then go to my computer and open up the harddrive icon that you will be using for the video storage, and in the little folder details box (usually on the bottom left side of the window) it will say 'File System: (either NTFS or FAT32)' Then complete this step accordingly.
Then select ‘Ok’ in the settings menu.
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.
PART I And One-half
Many of you have had a lot of problems choosing the right audio track once you are onto PART II in Auto GordianKnot. To settle this click on the ‘Stream Processing’ tab which is indicated by the red arrow.
Once you have switched to the ‘Stream Processing’ tab, check the ‘Enable Stream Processing’ box which is right below the ‘Stream Processing’ tab. Once you do this, the contents of the tab will become un-grayed as well as become clickable.
At this point we will go ahead and uncheck all of the undesired elements in our movie. In my case, I only wish to have the Video (naturally) and the English audio track. So, we will carefully take a look at each track and see what it holds for us. First we see the video track, which we will want, so we leave that checked. Next is the 6 channel English audio track, this is what we will want for sound because it is guaranteed to be the right audio track. As we continue to go down the list, we see that there are Spanish and French tracks as well as additional 2 channel English audio tracks. Now one of the additional 2 channel English audio tracks is the actual movie as well, and we could guess that it would be the first one which would seem logical, however it is fairly hit and miss with that method. You can easily end up with a directors commentary or something equally unwanted. Often times it is mixed around and since we have no further way of telling, I will go on the safe side to safe myself 3 hours later if I had chose the wrong 2 channel track and choose the 6 channel English audio track for our video. If you are feeling adventurous then go ahead and choose the 2 channel English track, but just know that there are other things like the directors commentary that you might choose by accident.
Anyway, while we are deselecting tracks we might as well go ahead and deselect all of the subtitle tracks. That is, unless you are wanting subtitles in your video, then keep your desired subtitle track selected. Thus brings us to the end of audio selecting change. Go ahead and click the ‘Input’ tab to get back to our normal screen.
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 2/13/06 is Ver. 2.26 STABLE . Once installed go ahead and open the program. You should see a screen that looks simular to this. (I will try to update my pictures within a few weeks.)
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 the 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 110MB file delivers excellent quality.
Now click the 'Advanced Options' button. A small menu will appear.
If you have a X50v 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 320x240 PDA (Any Dell PDA besides the X50v) 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 Axim 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 the Axim.
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 @ 110MB, 640x480
The Transporter; Encoded @ 475MB, 640x480
If you have any questions, please feel free to reply and I will assist you.
-Brad
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) So now that we have a great media player, you I suggest that you get a Flash Card Reader. You can find these in every computer store and even most Superstores such as Walmart, Fred Meyer ect... Now this is not an absolute requirement, but I really suggest it, because sending a video to the X50v through Active Sync is going to take you hours. It is horribly slow. But if you find a Flash Memory Card Reader (Many come with multiple slots for both CF cards and SD cards) the process takes only a minute or two.
