[Casey Cheung]

Cool. I knew there was a way to make them smaller. My experience was in simply loading the software and running it. I always try that approach first.

For those using TCPMP, I tried installing the MPEG4 and MP3 CODEC for TCPMP, but it keeps telling me that the CODEC is not supported by the player. It says that for both CODEC's, and I'm using the 0.66 release. Can anyone help there? Now, since I'm at work, I installed the files from an email I sent my Treo and not using the normal installation method for .prc files. Could that be the issue?

Thanks!

Mike

Mike,

Yes, I had the same problem as you. Emailing my Treo the application does not work properly, as you will keep getting that same error message. What you need to do is a normal desktop hotsynch. I used my desktop Palm Install tool and manually dragged all 15 TCPMP files to my SD card location for hotsynching. Now the TCPMP player works without the error message.

By the way, you reaaaaaally want to install TCPMP to your SD card, because the entire file takes up a sizeable chunk of space. Having a good launcher, such as LauncherX or zLauncher will then be able to launch TCPMP from your SD card.

-Casey

[MikeK2]

Cool, I was hoping it would be something that simple.

Thanks, I'll try that tonight. Thanks also for answering my next question about running it from the SD card.

Mike

[tonylmiller]

I run TCPMP from my SD card without any special launcher. . .

[tonylmiller]

Using the FairUse Wizard, you basically need to adjust four settings. The rest seem to automatically adjust. My settings:

1. File size: 245 megs
2. Video: 320x176
3. Audio: 32 kb/s
4. Audio format: Ogg

Those settings work well for me.

I didn't have 320 x 176 as an option. . .

I think I used 320 x 192 or something like that.

[RandyGOP]

I tried using fairuse over the weekend, but for some reason it didn't recognize any data in the DVD drive, even though there was a DVD in it. Any idea why that would be?

[TheTreoGuy]

Using the FairUse Wizard, you basically need to adjust four settings. The rest seem to automatically adjust. My settings:

1. File size: 245 megs
2. Video: 320x176
3. Audio: 32 kb/s
4. Audio format: Ogg

Those settings work well for me.

Why choose ogg audio instead of MP3? Is it still stereo and does it sound as good?

[Casey Cheung]

Mike,

You're welcome. Actually, I only have one problem using TCPMP, and maybe others can comment.

I have downloaded movies ranging from 75 to 300 MB in size, and the Rewind and Forward slidebar works fine. Equally important, if I exit the program while watching a movie, the program knows to continue where I left off when I enter back into it again.

However, I also have one large 500 MB video file whereby the Rewind and Forward slidebar function does NOT work at all. Even worse, if I exit the program and re-enter again, the program will start the movie from the beginning again. This is extremely frustrating.

I find it weird that my one large 500 MB video has problems Rewinding and Forwarding, and remembering its place, but the smaller videos are just fine.

Any comments on this? Thanks, CC.

[Casey Cheung]

I tried using fairuse over the weekend, but for some reason it didn't recognize any data in the DVD drive, even though there was a DVD in it. Any idea why that would be?

I also had a problem using the FairUse video app. I did not find it intuitive to use, and could not figure out how to reduce my videos. Also, it kept giving me multiple smaller files for my video.

I finally gave up in disgust after wasting 2 days on this, and went over to Handango to purchase Pocket DVD Studio for $32. This program worked perfectly for me the first time, and it was easy with no instructions necessary. I went from feeling like a dummy with FairUse to feeling like a genius overnight with Pocket DVD Studio. Now I can very easily download movies, after the hard part is over.

I realize that *free* programs is a good thing, but spending hours in frustration is worse than spending money on a useful program that works.

Just my .02 cents. :-)))

[tonylmiller]

I also had a problem using the FairUse video app. I did not find it intuitive to use, and could not figure out how to reduce my videos. Also, it kept giving me multiple smaller files for my video.

I finally gave up in disgust after wasting 2 days on this, and went over to Handango to purchase Pocket DVD Studio for $32. This program worked perfectly for me the first time, and it was easy with no instructions necessary. I went from feeling like a dummy with FairUse to feeling like a genius overnight with Pocket DVD Studio. Now I can very easily download movies, after the hard part is over.

I realize that *free* programs is a good thing, but spending hours in frustration is worse than spending money on a useful program that works.

Just my .02 cents. :-)))

Gotta agree with that.

[heberman]

Why choose ogg audio instead of MP3? Is it still stereo and does it sound as good?

It is generally understood that Ogg has better quality and smaller file size than MP3, although I have not personally compared the two. Yes it is in stereo and it sounds great.

[heberman]

I realize that *free* programs is a good thing, but spending hours in frustration is worse than spending money on a useful program that works.

So true. That's why I paid for WinHand (relatively expensive) instead of using a free alternative. I couldn't get the other alternatives to work for me, and didn't want to waste any more time trying to get a working solution.

Regarding the movie player, I actually had problems with PocketDVD, so it was nice that FairUse worked fine for me.

[carljoerger]

Where do you adjust the video resolution (300x176)?

[MikeK2]

Mike,

Yes, I had the same problem as you. Emailing my Treo the application does not work properly, as you will keep getting that same error message. What you need to do is a normal desktop hotsynch. I used my desktop Palm Install tool and manually dragged all 15 TCPMP files to my SD card location for hotsynching. Now the TCPMP player works without the error message.

By the way, you reaaaaaally want to install TCPMP to your SD card, because the entire file takes up a sizeable chunk of space. Having a good launcher, such as LauncherX or zLauncher will then be able to launch TCPMP from your SD card.

-Casey

Yep, that did it. I installed it from my desktop at home, and it opened the movie without any trouble at all. I'll have to fiddle around with the file size and the resolution, the widescreen mode is a little hard to read on the Treo screen, but this look very cool. I had no trouble getting Fairuse to work right away.

This is my new favorite app. :-)

Mike

[Casey Cheung]

Mike,

Glad to know you got it working. For me, figuring out movies on my Treo was the last great challenge on the multi-media front. It was really frustrating trying to figure things out at first. Now it's sooooo easy after you've set up everything.

I've already downloaded and installed all 3 original Star Wars trilogy movies to my Treo 650 SD card. Star Wars is my favorite movie, and I can watch it over and over again with the same enjoyment as back in the 1970s.

For myself, I've determined that a 300 MB file is about the lowest quality setting for my Star Wars movies to still look pretty good on my Treo. The maximum quality setting will give me a large 500 MB file using my Pocket DVD Studio program, which looks very darn good, but takes up a lot of space. At a lower 200 MB setting, image quality noticeably suffers in too many portions of the movie with obvious blocks of pixelations. At the lower 200 MB setting, the light saber duels look really bad! Equally bad is the rays coming out of the X-Wing fighters...yuck!

I'm still experimenting to figure out what the optimum settings are. By the way, has anyone noticed that the credits at the end of the original Star Wars movie is way, way long?! Just the credits alone at the end of the movie added an extra 10-15 MB!! I am now re-burning the movie to delete the credits! For me an extra 10-15 MB is the equivalent of several MP3 songs at the 128 quality setting!

Question to the users of FairUse: Is it possible to make the frame rate faster than 15 frames per second? On my Pocket DVD Studio program, I can't seem to get it any faster than 15 fps...maybe this might be the maximum. I checked out an ad for TealMovies, and that app says it can support up to 60 frames per second. The image quality must be awesome at 60 fps, but I'm afraid the file size will be Godzilla proportions.

[webmistress]

Can someone post step-by-step instructions for this prog? The only tutorial I could find on the web is outdated. I tried this twice, but what I am left with is an .ogm file, how do I get that to an .asf or .avi to move to my treo? I would appreciate any help.

[EDIT] I redid it selecting .mp3 format for audio and all is swell. This was a very easy program to use!

[heberman]

Just load the ogm file onto your card. It should work.

[Casey Cheung]

Okay, I answered my own question about the faster frames per second possibility. Using my Pocket DVD Studio app, I found the option to choose 30 f.p.s. mode. I re-burned Star Wars at the highest maximum quality setting at 30 f.p.s. Afterwards, 2 different changes happened after the re-burn. 1) Viewing quality actually became worse for me! The movie would play for several seconds and then pause momentarily, and this would happen throughout the movie. 2) After the re-burn, the problem got solved in being able to press Forward and Rewind using the slidebar, and recontinuing the movie where it got left off. However, when I press the slidebar to Forward the movie, the sound gets screwed up and becomes off synched...so this is no good.

I'm going to re-burn the movie again, and use a different setting, such as 20 or 25 frames per second (instead of 30) to see if there's any improvement. Also, I have the choice of selecting either PSCAL or NTAL (Spelling?). I think these video settings are for either U.S. or Europe?? Which is the correct video setting to use?

Lastly, I have the following problem with the TCPMP program: Pressing the >> or << does absolutely nothing for rewinding or forwarding the movie. Pressing either of these always restarts the movie back at the beginning. Is this normal? The only thing that works is tapping on different points along the slider bar to rewind or forward.

Does the << or >> boxes work for you in TCPMP ??

Thanks, CC.

[naturefreak85#WN]

Get handbrake, it's an automated converter, pretty damn easy to use.

[bobr#WN]

Casey: North American video standard is NTSC. European is PAL.

[wareynolds]

Casey. you could try to overclock the player and see if thay helps with a highr frame rate. I would assume it would.