Thread: Transfer videos to your portable player

LAUNCH YOUR WEB BROWSER, type pocketdivxencoder into the Address bar at the top and press Enter to access the Pocket Div X Encoder web page. Click the Download link at the top of the screen, followed by Mirror I under 'Testing version (0.3.96- 2007.05.04)', which is the first version to work with Windows vista (if there is a more recent version when you visit, use that instead). Internet Explorer users will need to click the yellow information bar that appears and select Download File. Save the file (PocketDivXEncoder _ 0.3.96.exe) to the Windows Desktop.

WHEN THE PROGRAM LAUNCHES, you'll be asked to select a target device from the list - don't worry if your portable player isn't listed, just choose the closest match. Your choice will determine the size the video will be converted to for playback - for example, pick PDA and the screen resolution will be set to 320x240 pixels, which is also the right size for many mobile media players. Check your media player or device specifications to see what size video it displays - you can change the default settings later if none of the options match.


CLICK THE BROWSE BUTTON under the heading' 1_ File to encode'. Locate and select the video file and click Open. The converted file will be automatically placed in the same folder as the original- click the Browse button under '2 - Output file' box to choose a new location or to rename it. The Output options shows the size the file will be - click the Resize button if you need to change the dimensions to match your device, or adjust the audio and video quality sliders to get the best balance between video quality and file size.


TO SEE WHAT THE converted file will look like, click Preview. After the file has been encoded, you'll see a preview of how it will appear. lf running Windows Vista, the screen may go blank and you'll be told the screen has changed to Windows Vista Basic, which is normal. Close the preview at any time, and make adjustments to the brightness, saturation, contrast and sound levels by using the sliders. Edit the movie by clicking Cut clip and following the instructions. For further tweaking click Advanced Options.



KEEP PREVIEWING THE VIDEO; once you're happy with it, click Encode Now, then sit back and wait for the movie to be converted and created. It may take some time. If you're not planning to use the PC while it encodes, click the Process Priority dropdown menu and select High or Highest to speed things up. Alternatively, to convert a selection of movies, you can set up each one in turn, then click the 'Add to the list' button after each one to create a list. Once all the movies are ready to convert, click the Encode all button.


Check the converted files by playing them using the 'Play -. an encoded file' button. If the audio soundtrack doesn't synchronise with the video, click 'CorrectAudioNideo synchronisation', select the file and Pocket DivX Encoder will automatically fix the problem. Once complete, all that's left to do is transfer the movie to your media player or device. Many media players come with their own programs for doing this, or you can use Windows Media Player II - add the converted video to the library, then switch to the Sync tab to transfer them.

If you have a Palm OS or Windows Mobile free TCPMP media player program. Although it is no longer in development, it should work fine on the latest machines. Download the Activesync version if your portable device uses Windows Mobile or the Palm OS version for Palm OS PDAs. Install the downloaded software in the usual manner for your device.

TO RUN TCPMP on Windows Mobile devices, tap the Start menu and select Programs, then tap TCPMP. Select File, followed by Open File, to locate and then open a converted video. By default, it will start playing in portrait view. To alter this, tap the icon between the stop button and volume control: this will rotate the video and show it in all its glory in landscape format. Just turn the device on its side to watch the video.


Tap the screen to access the playback controls or to open the File and Options menus. Select File, followed by Playlist, to create a list of videos to watch in order. The Options menu offers the ability to watch the contents of the playlist in a random order (select Shuffle). From here you can also adjust the video's aspect ratio and speed, plus various video and audio settings. Choose Zoom to crop into the movie, or Orientation to determine which way the screen rotates when you switch to landscape format.