DVD Encoding and Playing

[JWJr311]

I want to try to transfer a DVD to my SD card so I can watch it on my Treo 650. I have TCPMP to use as the player but how do I convert the DVD to a format that can be transferred to my SD card and played by TCPMP? I looked at another forum and tried the recommended free program "FairUse Wizzard." It took about 3 hours and I ended up with a 1hr 19 minute avi. file for a 2hr plus movie which failed to transfer to my SD card using quick install due to "unknown error" I even tried to play it on my computer to see what happened and I only got audio using windows media player. I received NO errors during the entire decoding/encoding process. Does anyone know of a program (preferably free or demo version to try) that will convert a DVD to a 250MB (or so) file that can be played by TCPMP?

[kdallen]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Many of us have also used the free Fair Use Wizard and TCPMP had success with both. Here's a link to a thread by one of the Mods that should walk you through it.

[MleB]

If you have (or have access to) a Mac, the freeware program Handbrake 0.7.1 works very well in my experience.

Try these settings:

15 fps
200 kbps video
242 target size
2 pass
96 kbps audio @44100
320 x 240 image size

The only real caveat here is that it will need the aac codec that came with earlier TCPMP but now doesn't (Apple got their knickers in a twist over that - preferring you to have to pay for it while using their products and website), but I'm sure its still 'out there' on the net somewhere.

I've tried the new Windows version of Handbrake (Mediafork) - and not had a lot of success with that. Could be because I'm using Vista or maybe its they've gotten more 'legal' with reading protected DVDs - I'm really not sure. Can't access the DVD at all.

If it s a Vista thing, I guess it'll get ironed out in time - and it may mean it could work for you if you're on XP. It seems the Windows version also has a selection of file formats to save to - so the aac issue above may be moot.

[Stillrockin]

. . . . . . . . for a 2hr plus movie which failed to transfer to my SD card using quick install due to "unknown error" I even tried to play it on my computer to see what happened and I only got audio using windows media player.

Even though it sounds as if you have other issues since it wouldn't play on your Windows media player, the best way to get the file on your SD card won't be through quick install. A card reader is certainly the best way to go when transferring large files to you SD card. Many here have had problems trying to use Quick install for larger files. Most computers have them built in now, but if yours doesn't, you can pick one up here in the ET store or any Walmart for that matter for cheap! You can use them for other transfers as well.

If your using a Windows PC, I know the article is quite long, but it breaks down every step from the files you need, to the settings you need to set the movie to, to getting it on your Treo. And I have yet to find a DVD that FairUse Wizard won't rip!

[JWJr311]

Thanks for the info. I copied the .avi file to my SD card using my card slot rather than Palm quick install and it worked perfectly!. Th only issue I have now is figuring out why only 79 minutes of the movie (out of 133min) was copied in the FairUse wizzard program in the alloted 250MB I chose for the file size. It used the 250MB but only gave me 79 minutes. Maybe a glitch (pause) in the DVD?? Thanks again for your help.

[MleB]

I knew FairUse Wizard and for whatever reason, just never gave it a go.

Today, I followed the link kdallen provided above, printed that off and installed FU.

Incidentally. as I am using Vista, I right-clicked the install file and put it into XP compatibility mode before installing. Ditto the program once installed as the program hasn't been updated recently.

Everything seemed to along fine until the actual rip process, where I got a dialog box stating "The DVD could not be converted. Unable to create a temp file'.

Rats!

A little further digging on the net has provided the solution it seems (my first DVD is ripping as I type here) and this is of particular note to fellow Vista users -

I got past that dialog box by first right clicking the FU.exe file and clicking 'Run as Administrator'. Apparently, one can get the same result by turning off UAC - but experience has shown that then Palm Desktop won't run on my machine, so 'Run as Administrator' it is!

Hope this addendum may help!

A LITTLE LATER: Success! FU leaves a little flotsam in the user-designated destination folder, but the rip seemed have worked well (I haven't run the entire movie yet) and runs nicely on my 680.

[Stillrockin]

The link that KD provided is indeed the first article that I posted, but it was later edited and presented here as a feature article. This article might be the better one to follow for any anyone attempting to rip a DVD for Treo viewing.

MleB, thanks for the very valuable info on FU and Vista compatibility.

[JWJr311]

Thank YOU!!! The "run as administrator" did the trick as I tried it on my Vista laptop and got the same error when I tried to rip it. I was able to use it on my older XP computer (with a different dvd than the one I first tried) and it worked perfectly on my 650 after transferring it to my sd card using my card slot rather than the Palm quick install. I am attempting to do a different one now from the beginning on my vista computer in the run as administrator mode but I'm pretty sure it will work OK. I started to rip the previously indexed file and it started without the error message I saw previously. Thanks to EVERYONE for your help!!