Video for PDAs and Smartphones
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Intro
These pages are dedicated to providing useful information on watching, encoding, and processing video and multimedia on PDAs, smartphones, and any handheld computers.
The past few years have seen an incredible increase in
processing power for handheld devices--400MHz ARM processors 
are
common at the high end--and memory capacity—1 GB will become common at the high
end. Additionally, the popularity of
coding standards such as MPEG4 has allowed even higher compression of good
quality video.
Because of this, I predict that in a few years watching video on a handheld device—whether it is a cellphone or PDA—will be as common place as using an electronic organizer is today. However, at the state we are in today, it is not quite that simple. All the pieces—fast PDAs, software, and algorithms—have come together but it is still difficult to get it to all work together.
With this in mind, I have started these pages as a repository of information for video on handheld devices. [I aim to cover all the common handheld and PDA platforms as well as include tips on video encoding.] Initially, I am generating the content myself, but my goal is to provide a central location to host information from others who have useful tips to share. Someday this will be automated, but for now, please email me at: zucker@stanfordalumni.org if you have any information to share.
With that, please read on for information:
Platforms:
Other Devices – these aren’t PDAs, but they are cool and indicative of a new wave of devices. Here are some dedicated personal video devices.
Archos – announced an 80GB harddrive unit
HandHeld Entertainment’s ZVUE for only $99!
Lyra A/V Jukebox from RCA
Video Encoding
Encoding video for a handheld is essentially the same regardless of the platform. You just need to know the screen size and format of the device you are encoding for and encode for that format. I like DivX, MPEG-1, or MPEG-4.
You also need to get digital video content to encode. There are a number of websites with free and
subscription content. I list some
below. You can also use a video capture
card to grab TV from your PC, or use a digital camcorder to capture your own
video. My favorite is ripping movie data
from a DVD. Afterall,
watching a
To get data from a DVD, start by ripping it to your hard drive. My favorite tool for this is DVDShrink. Next, use one of the tools below to convert to .avi or .mpg format.
Sample Content
Dr.
Z’s Sample Content (DivX
video ; mp3 audio)
MPEG samples from PocketTV (mpeg1)
Content Links from MMPlayer
Encoding Tools
FlaskMPEG (a little unstable; like VirtualDub, allows selection of DivX as output; VOB as input) according to docs, not a DVD ripper. This is my favorite.
DVDShrink – really good tool for ripping DVDs to hard drive. Allows reducing length of clip selected.
VirtualDub – goes from MPEG to resized/recoded DivX/MPEG4 (need a DVD2MPEG program with this)
DVD-to-MPEG/DVD-to-AVI – commercial
tools, and seem to work pretty well.
Doom9’s very
useful list (including GordianKnot)
AC3Tool - AC3=>WAV=>MP3
Some random scripts – I haven’t had a chance to try yet, but the docs talk about going from dvd to divx and to vcd. Has flags to specify encoding for Zaurus’s Mediaplayer.
Other PDA Platforms
Palm
Kinoma
– nice tool, but uses it’s own proprietary
format. Player is free, but there is a
charge for the encoder.
MMPlayer – from the docs it sounds really good. Is it based on mplayer?
Developed by Almacom.
PocketPC/Smartphone
PocketTV – the best player for PocketPC
and Smartphone and it’s free. But alas, it is only MPEG1 format.
PocketTV’s encoding guide – oriented toward MPEG1