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> Review :: PocketDVD, Rating 5 out of 5
Slacker
post Feb 15 2005, 01:32 AM
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We get a lot of questions from people asking how to convert DVD's to a format that will fit on a mobile device like a SmartPhone. My standard answer is to use two seperate applications: one to rip the DVD and one to convert it to a mobile compatible format. But I recently had the opportunity to test out a product that claims to do all of that in one step, with very little effort at all. Having converted several movies to my phone I had my doubts about their claim. Could it really be easy to convert a full length DVD movie for use on my SmartPhone?

Here is what PocketDVD says:
QUOTE
PocketDVD - Watch Full DVDs on your Mobile Device

Turn your mobile device into a portable DVD player. PocketDVD allows you to convert video's such as DVD's, Home recordings, TV recordingsand more to your mobile device and watch it in the best possible quality supported by your device. PocketDVD files can be played back in the already installed Media Player on PocketPC devices, or you can install a DIVX player application to allow the same files to be used on different devices. Take your DVD's everywhere. With only two clicks, this PC software automatically converts the content of your DVD to a movie file that will fit on your storage card, and can be played on almost any device capable of video playback.

PocketDVD also offers Very High Quality conversion of DVD's for Windows MCE2005 Media Extender Playback.

About PocketDVD

PocketDVD consists of two applications that allow you to convert video content for playback on mobile devices such as Pocket PC's(PPC), Handheld PC's(HPC), Smartphones and Palm Devices. Both applications support output to either WindowsMedia or DIVX.

PocketDVD allows you to convert a DVD to a file. optimized for playback on your device. Unlike other applications, that force you to accept their quality settings, PocketDVD gives you total freedom with the quality settings. The only limits you will encounter is the performance of your device (or the size of your storage card).

PocketVideo offers the same options for conversion of video files such as AVI, MPEG and other video formats.


So the task is simple: put a DVD in my computer, run some process, and end up with that movie in a format compatible with my SmartPhone hopefully in a file size that is relatively small. Simple, right?

When you start up PocketDVD, make sure you have a DVD drive connected. If you don't you can expect to see this descriptive error message:



So after getting that message a few times I finally figured out the DVD player wasn't connected to my tablet PC. Ok, now that I am past the dumb mistakes portion of the test lets move on.



The application interface is clean. VERY clean. In fact you really only have to do a few things to get it started.

1) Select the DVD drive
2) Click the "Gather Required DVD Information" button
3) Select the DVD track you want to use (usually the one that is more than an hour long)
4) Set Output type and screensize choice
5) Set video and audio quality. Video quality can be specified as a bit rate or a maximum file size. VERY cool!
6) Give a destination location and file name
7) Click the "Convert DVD to Video File" button

After completing those simple mouse clicks you will see a window that looks like this:



Go grab a cup of coffee or cut your grass. The process takes about the same amount of time as actually watching the movie. But the results are worth it.

My test was to rip my copy of Underworld which is a 121 minute movie. The resultant AVI file was pretty large (600MB) but great quality. It also produced a WMV file that was more of a SmartPhone compatible 130MB , based on the max file size of 150MB I specified. Tweaking the settings before ripping the video will change the file size but also the aspect ratio and video quality. You can easily get videos down to a resasonable size.

PocketDVD has some advanced options as well, like support for multiple languages and subtitles. You can get to the advanced information by clicking the ADVANCED button before you start your rip. These advanced options really do set this product apart from the others. It will even rip all chapters of a DVD at once!



There are some things you need to do up front to be successful with this program. These things are discussed in the manual, but my being my typical know-it-all geek self I don't need no stupid instructions. So I spent the first three days with only 600MB movies. After the developer finally convinced me to RTFM I realized I needed two things: a DivX codec and Windows Media Encoder 9, both of which are free. You just have to download and install them. Once you have these two things your movie ripping process will yield two files instead of one. The first is a high quality video which is fairly large, can be used on the computer, and typically is in a AVI format. The second is the file that meets your rip restrictions you specified before you started the process. This file will be a WMV format file which works fine with Windows Mobile Media Player or Beta Player.

So we have been looking at a program to take a DVD and break it down to a file that is sized and encoded to play on a pocket device. That's really great, but what about all of the movies I already have on my computer? How can I get those on my SmartPhone? Well I am glad you asked! PocketDVD includes PocketVideo, which will take an existing video file and encode it to a codec and file size that will be compatible with a mobile device. So this program really tries to give you the maximum amount of capability in an all-in-one package.



So what do I think? I like the application. It's clean, easy to use and it works. Reading and following the manual make it work even better ;-). Compared to the two program method I have been using this is a dream. And if I were to compare this to other products I have looked at those others can't compare. This is a really well designed product that does exactly what it is supposed to. And at $11.95 even the most miserly can afford to pick this one up.

Buy it at Handango for $11.95


--------------------
Jim Cleek (Slacker)
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lakandula
post Feb 15 2005, 04:27 PM
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Hi Mr. Slacker,

Thank you for your excellent review of PocketDVD. I was about to start searching for a product like this. You save me lots of time and energy.

lak
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Slacker
post Feb 15 2005, 04:43 PM
Post #3


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Glad to hear it!


--------------------
Jim Cleek (Slacker)
Editor / Administrator
Mobile Gadget News

My Gadgets
iPhone 3GS
HTC TyTN II
HTC Wizard
HTC Touch Dual
Motorola MPX220
Motorola MPX200
HP Ipaq 5550
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snowywinterr
post Mar 23 2010, 12:58 AM
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Really useful for me, thanks.
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