[apw100]

I bought the software, and its great! Clear, full screen(including controls) video and fast encoding! By far the best solution for BB video, at least until they make a decent media player

[litfoo]

Hi,

I have been using the dos-based mencoder program and converting some vids i have downloaded from You Tube (using the Video Downloaded plug-in) from Firefox

but once I have converted them onto the BB, the lip-sync appears to be out by a couple of secs

Has anyone else experienced this? does it also appear with the BlackBerry Video Creator? Has anyone converted some youtube vids using this BlackBerry Video Creator?

Any help, greatly appreciated

litfoo

[sanfrancisco]

Originally Posted by litfoo

Hi,

I have been using the dos-based mencoder program and converting some vids i have downloaded from You Tube (using the Video Downloaded plug-in) from Firefox

but once I have converted them onto the BB, the lip-sync appears to be out by a couple of secs

Has anyone else experienced this? does it also appear with the BlackBerry Video Creator? Has anyone converted some youtube vids using this BlackBerry Video Creator?

Any help, greatly appreciated

litfoo

Believe me when I say this, it is NOT the converter, it is YouTube. Has been known for the past year by many of us that downloaded YouTube videos have a lag or delay between audio and video. In other words, things are not in sync. Also discussed on the Net. -- Click Me

If you watch carefully, many times you can see the lag even online when playing videos on YouTube.

Some say it is intentional by YouTube to discourage downloads.

If it bugs you, you can rip the sound and dub it back in to where the two are synchronized. That's what I do on my more important videos [important to me].

[sanfrancisco]

One thing about BlackBerry Video Creator, near as I can tell, it does NOT convert multiple files contained on a DVD into a single movie. This is an issue because a single DVD contains three to four "VOB" files that make up the entire movie. [see pic in my earlier post in this thread].

When you play a DVD the DVD has instructions to tell the movie to seamlessly play each of these "chapters," meaning you do not see the DVD playing each file, one following another.

For the Pearl what this means is that if you want to convert all the files from a single DVD into one movie file for the BB, BVC cannot do this. You have to convert each of the DVD files that are the movie, so to speak, or use my workaround below.

That workaround is to use a GREAT program that I have been using for about 18 months. It's called Clone DVD Mobile. It basically converts your DVD's into mobile formats.

I have been using it to convert my DVD's into avi format to play on my PDA [that I used to use as a PDA, long ago].

Anyway, what I do is convert my DVD's into a single AVI file. Typically about 600MB in size [for decent playback quality].

What I did today was to take one of my old DVD conversions [made with Clone DVD Mobile and to use BVC to convert it to play on the Pearl. It did the job PERFECT and plays on the Pearl just fine.

Scarface is the movie I converted. Some of you know, that is a long movie. I had set the quality on "high" in Clone DVD Mobile for the conversion, so that avi file was 1.1GB. BVC converted it for the Pearl and reduced the file to 380MB. That's not bad for a 1.1gb movie.

Here is the movie playing. The quality is great, but my movie demo is crap. So don't criticize on that basis. Also, it was a letterbox movie, so that is why it is not playing full screen on the Pearl:

http://www.heartinsanfrancisco.com/scarfacedemo.avi

Here is the Clone DVD site. Get the software if you want, or not, I'm just giving you some tips and a workaround on that little $15 program's limitations.

By the way, I was in the process of trying to convert DVD's for the Pearl using Clone DVD Mobile, but the two times I tired it, the conversions did not work. Since that time BVC came along, so I used it. If anyone wants to try Clone DVD Mobile for Pearl conversions, please feel free to do so and report back in this thread. It is a great program and I am sure it can convert the files for the Pearl, but I don't have time to find the answer. Maybe we ought to e-mail SlySoft, the program's creator.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/clonedvd-mobile.html

[desjr7359]

I use Xilisoft Ipod to DVD Converter, and from there I use Mencoder from DOS to convert. I'm extremely pleased with the final result. I am converting to 240X180 at 128kpbs sound. Not sure on the framerate though.

[Foxman]

Sanfran,
Thank you for sharing your tips, learned from the schoo of hard (video) knocks. We all know how frustrating it can be to sort out the details necessary to get video working, so thanks again for sharing - this helps all of us. I will try that $15 program.

Now a question: Is it possible to download flv video files from Youtube/Google?

[sanfrancisco]

Originally Posted by Foxman

Now a question: Is it possible to download flv video files from Youtube/Google?

Yes, but that is covered in other threads.

[sanfrancisco]

Originally Posted by desjr7359

I use Xilisoft Ipod to DVD Converter, and from there I use Mencoder from DOS to convert. I'm extremely pleased with the final result. I am converting to 240X180 at 128kpbs sound. Not sure on the framerate though.

My whole point is that for $15 I avoid having to use DOS, as this program makes it one-click, which for me is worth $15.

Another demo my "set it and forget it" conversions:

http://www.heartinsanfrancisco.com/MadonnaVogue_BB.avi

[azn10sdude]

sanfrancisco, been following your excellent work. what i have found is that BBVC will sometimes work converting a DVD directly, but is not reliable.

i have clonedvd mobile. what "personality" do you use when you are converting to avi?

for anyone else reading, if you convert DVD's, the most reliable way to get the pearl to work is to convert each of the typically 5 vobs individually. the larger the filesize, the more likely it seems that the pearl will choke on it. i have tried vobmerge and other "vob combining" programs, and they do not produce reliable results when you run the files thru mencoder or BBVC.

it seems that converting the dvd to avi and THEN running it thru BBVC or mencoder seems to produce the most reliable result (IF you demand the result be a single file)

[sanfrancisco]

Originally Posted by azn10sdude

sanfrancisco, been following your excellent work. what i have found is that BBVC will sometimes work converting a DVD directly, but is not reliable.

i have clonedvd mobile. what "personality" do you use when you are converting to avi?

for anyone else reading, if you convert DVD's, the most reliable way to get the pearl to work is to convert each of the typically 5 vobs individually. the larger the filesize, the more likely it seems that the pearl will choke on it. i have tried vobmerge and other "vob combining" programs, and they do not produce reliable results when you run the files thru mencoder or BBVC.

it seems that converting the dvd to avi and THEN running it thru BBVC or mencoder seems to produce the most reliable result (IF you demand the result be a single file)

I convert using CloneDVDMobile's setting for "Windows Mobile Smartphone" Contrary to what the name implies, it creates an AVI file, NOT WMV.

After that I use BBVC to create the DVD movie for the Pearl.

[azn10sdude]

re: converting DVD's to BB8100 video -

san fran, i find that the BBVC still has the low volume issue. have you found a way around this?

right now, i am finding that running it thru clonedvdmobile, then either mencoder or BBVC is the best option, but BBVC still has the low volume issue.

mencoder, when properly configured, works well-it's trying to figure out how to use the thing that is frustrating

i am going to post my mencoder script later. works well in combo with clonedvd mobile AND fixes low volume issue

[sanfrancisco]

Not sure what you mean by "low volume" issue.

Like I said, I converted the movie Scarface from DVD to AVI using Mobile Clone DVD. I opted to make the settings for highest quality.

That resulted in a 1.1 gigabyte file.

Then converted with BBVC.

That made it into a 380 MB file for the Pearl.

It has played perfectly on the Pearl and all the controls work as they should [volume, pause, stop, fast forward/rewind].

So not sure what you mean by low volume, are you referring to the audio? If so, then that may be something with the audio level of the original recording. All my DVD conversions and other video have excellent volume.

The only time volume has been low is when, for example, some FLV file from YouTube was low to begin with.

Also, what settings are you using in Clone DVD? I know there is one point in the setup/settings menu for each conversion where it asks about audio. I have never fooled with those, but is there some setting for audio level?

Run a test. Play the original video and see how the volume is. If loud or normal, fine.

Then convert using MobileClone-DVD. Check the volume after that by playing the converted file. If loud or normal, fine.

Then convert using BBVC. Play that on your desktop PC [using any of the free video players such as Classic Media Player]. If loud or normal, fine.

Then transfer to the Pearl and play. Volume trouble, then we know it's the Pearl's settings.

The above procedure will help in figuring out where the problem is.

Originally Posted by azn10sdude

re: converting DVD's to BB8100 video -

san fran, i find that the BBVC still has the low volume issue. have you found a way around this?

right now, i am finding that running it thru clonedvdmobile, then either mencoder or BBVC is the best option, but BBVC still has the low volume issue.

mencoder, when properly configured, works well-it's trying to figure out how to use the thing that is frustrating

i am going to post my mencoder script later. works well in combo with clonedvd mobile AND fixes low volume issue

[sanfrancisco]

Got a message from a Member telling me that the Madonna "Vogue" BB video sample I posted is defective in that it only plays in black and white.

I am so sorry guys, but uh......., that's Madonna's problem, not mine. It's a black and white video.

Update, I also removed some of the larger files off my server.

But, here are some additional samples. And these are to load directly on to your Pearl.

http://www.heartinsanfrancisco.com/cocaineericclaptonBB.avi

http://www.heartinsanfrancisco.com/B52'sFutureGenerationBB.avi

http://www.heartinsanfrancisco.com/c...midnightBB.avi

[sanfrancisco]

Another sample for you to show the capability of that little $15 program.

Took one of my Seinfeld shows that was already in AVI format [to play on my Pocket PC]. It was 49 MB.

Sorry guys... deleted.

[sanfrancisco]

Sorry guys... deleted this.