Tutorial - Watching Movies on Treo 650

[Bernard]

Hi all.

I've seen a lot of questions on various Treo forums about playing movies on the Treo so I decided to learn how myself and share what I found with you.

After lots of searching, reading, downloading, and testing, I finally found a good combination of tools to make watching movies on the Treo650 work consistently (for me anyway). There are a lot of other tools to use, but the instructions below describe how I do it. Hopefully, this will help all of you as well. The basics: copy DVD to hard drive, convert movie, copy movie to SD card. Let's begin, shall we.

First, make sure you get the latest version of TCPMP for your Treo. I downloaded tcpmp.palmos.0.71a.zip from here - http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/.


Unzip and install tcpmp.prc on your Treo650. I also installed the following plugins: tcpmp_mpeg4_plugin.prc, tcpmp_mp3_plugin.prc, and tcpmp_mpeg1_plugin.prc.

Now you need to get your DVD movie to your hard drive. Use "DVD Shrink 3.2" to copy your personal DVD movies to your hard drive. Be sure to follow the instructions regarding sound selections so you won't have too many files. Shrink3.2 has lots of nice features. It even lets you indicate the start and stop points in the movie so you can save precious space. If you have problems using DVD Shrink, you can try DVD Fab. Fab doesn’t have all the bells & whistles, but it works.

- download and instructions for "dvd shrink" can be found at http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/

- you can download “dvd fab“ from here - http://www.riphelp.com/downloads/dvdfab_decrypter.html

Next, you want to convert the saved movie file (VOB's) to something the Treo can play. I purchased a program called Lathe for $3.95 (http://www.omniquiti.com/store_pde.html). When using Lathe, click the Preset tab then click the “More” button at the bottom right. Find the icon of the Treo650 (or 600) and click it. This will automatically set the output audio & video quality for use on the Treo650. You can still modify the settings if you want by going back to the Basic tab. If you used Shrink3.2 correctly, Lathe should only list one VOB file in the Open dialog window - that's the main movie file.


The conversion takes about 50 minutes for a 90 minute movie (depending on your computer processor).

Finally, copy the AVI file to a folder on your SD card via a card reader. I created a folder called MOVIES on my card. Insert the card into the Treo, launch TCPMP, open the AVI from the card and enjoy the movie!

To adjust volume of movie, open the movie via TCPMP, click the Pref button and slide the Preamp adjustment to the right to increase the volume. I've been able to get my movie sizes under 250M [edit: not 250K as I mentioned earlier].


Good luck!

[hoits2000]

Hey,

I converted Family Guy Season 2 DVD 2, and all the episodes came to be 3.1 GB. Each 20 minute episode was like 450 MB. How did you get a 1 1/2 hour movie to be less then 250?

Thanks

Eric

[tdawg69311]

I use PocketDivxEncoder to shrink my movies, it actually take a full size movie and physically shrink the size of the frame to something like 320x240 (example) and that will bring the file size down significantly.

half hour episodes (I've done simpsons and family guy) will take about 5 minutes for the conversion while a full movie will take about 15 minutes.

[Bernard]

Originally Posted by hoits2000

Hey,

I converted Family Guy Season 2 DVD 2, and all the episodes came to be 3.1 GB. Each 20 minute episode was like 450 MB. How did you get a 1 1/2 hour movie to be less then 250?

Thanks

Eric

The settings help determine your final file size. For instance, I delected all the 5.1 sounds (I figured that meant Dolby 5.1), and just went with the smaller English sound file. I also resized the dimensions to something a little closer to the Treo screen size. I think it's 320x240.

Hope that helps.
(Family Guy rules!)
Bernard

[hoits2000]

How big is the final product? I mean a episode of the simpsons?

Thanks

Eric

[hoits2000]

Originally Posted by Bernard

The settings help determine your final file size. For instance, I delected all the 5.1 sounds (I figured that meant Dolby 5.1), and just went with the smaller English sound file. I also resized the dimensions to something a little closer to the Treo screen size. I think it's 320x240.

Hope that helps.
(Family Guy rules!)
Bernard

Bernard

How did you resize the dimensions? Was that an option in the DVD Shrink or the Lathe program that changes the VOB into something the treo can read? Thanks

Eric

[Bernard]

DVDShrink allows you to choose the audio format. Lathe lets you choose the output dimensions. You can either do this manually, or select the Treo icon in the Preset options. Lathe is also the program that converts the VOB to an AVI file.

[hoits2000]

Hey Bernard, I did it this way.

I tried it with an episode of Family Guy. I used DVD Shrink to download an episode of Family Guy. It was like 450 MB just for that one episode. Then I used a program called AutoGK which is a divx conversion tool. I made the 22 minute long 450 episode from VOB into a 45MB AVI. It looks and runs great. I am trying to make it a little smaller, somewhere between 25 to 30. Ill let you know how it looks. Only problem with the program was it took the program an hour and 20 minutes.

When I tried to change a movie , it came up with an error about GOP. What ever that is.

Ill let you know if I can make the episode smaller, and if i end up making a Movie smaller too.

Oh ya, the AutoGK is free too! If anyone wants the link:

http://www.autogk.me.uk/

Thanks for your help so far

Eric

[hoits2000]

Originally Posted by Bernard

The settings help determine your final file size. For instance, I delected all the 5.1 sounds (I figured that meant Dolby 5.1), and just went with the smaller English sound file. I also resized the dimensions to something a little closer to the Treo screen size. I think it's 320x240.

Hope that helps.
(Family Guy rules!)
Bernard

Hey, question. When you 'resized the dimensions to the treo size, did u use the lathe to do that or dvd shrink, because i cant find that option on the DVD Shrink.

[Bernard]

DVDShrink allows you to modiy the audio settings.

Lathe lets you choose the output dimensions. You can either do this manually, or select the Treo icon in the Preset options. (Click the Preset tab, click the More button at the bottom right, click the Treo650 icon).