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N97 Video Conversion

16 replies · 27,722 views · Started 05 July 2009

Of all the things my 9300 could do well, video playback with SmartMovie was one of the best because I could render widescreen video and playback with a high frame rate at good quality.

My first experiences with the N97 were lackluster to say the least.

So, I downloaded the Symbian 60 version of SmartMovie player and it's PC-based converter for evaluation before buying. I was quite disappointed in the quality and size (about half a screen) compared to what I had on my 9300.

THEN last night I took a look at Ovi Suite. It has video conversion built-into it!

Of course, Nokia has a long way to go in figuring out how to make an intuitive PC interface, so at first glance you think that the only way to get video to the N97 is to allow it to sync all content (music and video).

Turns out, all that you have to do is drag and drop it into the "Gallery" tab and then drag and drop it into the little N97 active area at the top of the screen.

It took a long while (15 minutes), but I was able to successfully convert two high-quality 45 minute-long videos with stereo sound and deposit them into my N97.

Playback on the N97 is very good and is (drum roll please....) FULL SCREEN without aspect ratio distortion. Sound is equally as good.

I have to say that I am impressed. 😊

Granted, the file sizes are much bigger than those produced by SmartMovie, but then what's the use of having GBs of memory if you don't use it?

I use Xvid4PSP set to convert for the 5800 with a filesize limit of 1Gb. The videos are outstanding!

I got the Any Video Converter, free, and used the settings shown on the similar thread on the MY SYmbian forum, top draw stuff, and each movie is approx 500mb.

[email protected] wrote:What settings are you using please.

I'll do my best to cover all the settings that I configured:

Format: MP4 Nokia 5800 (Makes the video have a width of 640 pixels and keeps the framerate at ~30fps)

Denoise/Sharpen: Disabled

Brightness/Contrast: Disabled

Video encoding: Settings are based on "Xvid HQ Extreme" with the following changes...
Encoding Mode: 2-Pass Size
Size: 1024 (Mb)
Motion Search: 6 - Ultra High
VHQ mode: 4 - Wide Search
Chroma Motion Estimation: Ticked
B-frames: 0
Closed GOP: Ticked

Audio encoding: AAC-LC ABR 128k

Hope this helps.

Thanks zxon.
Will give those settings a try later.
I've been using AnyVideoConverter up to now so it will be interesting to compare the qualities.

It worked a treat... thanks zxon. 😊

I do have to say that, IMHO, failing eyesight and tin ear, I cannot tell the difference between Xvid4PSP and Any Video Converter in the finished product.

One thing I have noticed however, is that if I select to start a video using the built-in Videos & TV application, the video starts in a reduced screen size and I have to use Options > Change aspect ratio > Zoom to generate full screen.

On the other hand, if I use File mgr. to start the same video it automatically opens in glorious full screen.

I downloaded Any Video Converter, free, from here:-

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

The settings I fumbled with are as follows:-

General
Item name Auto

Video Options
Profile Mobile Phone MPEG-4 Movie (*.mp4)
Video Codec mpeg4
Video size 640x480
Video Bitrate 768
Video Framerate Auto

Audio Options
Audio Codec aac
Audio Bitrate 96
Sample Rate 44100
Audio Channel 2
Disable Audio No
A/V Sync Basic

I would reiterate that I am only a novice at this and would appreciate any help on settings as I am stumbling in the dark using trial and error.

The reason I use Any Video Converter is that it has a YouTube download facility.

Apart from having to navigate to the Videos folder using File Manager, it may be the better way to watch and maintain your videos.

I have been using RealPlayer (video files are "associated" with it in File Manager) to get to my videos.

A feature that I wish were in RealPlayer is the ability to RENAME a Video.

The default naming when you record a video is based upon the date/time so it is tough to figure out which video is which until you rename them to something sensible.

[email protected] wrote:It worked a treat... thanks zxon. 😊

I do have to say that, IMHO, failing eyesight and tin ear, I cannot tell the difference between Xvid4PSP and Any Video Converter in the finished product.

One thing I have noticed however, is that if I select to start a video using the built-in Videos & TV application, the video starts in a reduced screen size and I have to use Options > Change aspect ratio > Zoom to generate full screen.

On the other hand, if I use File mgr. to start the same video it automatically opens in glorious full screen.

I downloaded Any Video Converter, free, from here:-

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

The settings I fumbled with are as follows:-

General
Item name Auto

Video Options
Profile Mobile Phone MPEG-4 Movie (*.mp4)
Video Codec mpeg4
Video size 640x480
Video Bitrate 768
Video Framerate Auto

Audio Options
Audio Codec aac
Audio Bitrate 96
Sample Rate 44100
Audio Channel 2
Disable Audio No
A/V Sync Basic

I would reiterate that I am only a novice at this and would appreciate any help on settings as I am stumbling in the dark using trial and error.

The reason I use Any Video Converter is that it has a YouTube download facility.

Does the job perfectly in my book.

Glad I could help. I've not had a problem with videos not playing in full screen. Sometimes I need to change it to zoom, but thats because there're black borders in the video.

With my Mac, I used Handbrake, a free downlaod. This I used to compress any DVD down to manageable file size, and it also had the ability to rip through the copyright protection on protected DVD's.

With my Windows XP laptop, I've downloaded an XP copy of Handbrake. So fat this has worked perfectly, and has compressed full length feature films down to around 700mb. Picture quality and sound are superb.

However, this version will not rip through the copyrighting. A lot of the dvd's I get here in Saudi are copies anyway, but very good quality, and Handbrake converts them really well.

Never got into using SmartMovie as it was only Windows based.

I have downloaded Any Video Converter and it seems nice and easy to use. My question being new to converting DVD video is which files do I convert as there are lots of VOB files with various numbers in the title. If I want a complete copy of a film do I need all of the VOB files?

Thanks

zxon wrote:I'll do my best to cover all the settings that I configured:

Format: MP4 Nokia 5800 (Makes the video have a width of 640 pixels and keeps the framerate at ~30fps)

Denoise/Sharpen: Disabled

Brightness/Contrast: Disabled

Video encoding: Settings are based on "Xvid HQ Extreme" with the following changes...
Encoding Mode: 2-Pass Size
Size: 1024 (Mb)
Motion Search: 6 - Ultra High
VHQ mode: 4 - Wide Search
Chroma Motion Estimation: Ticked
B-frames: 0
Closed GOP: Ticked

Audio encoding: AAC-LC ABR 128k

Hope this helps.

Thought I'd give this a go, but I can't see a setting for Nokia 5800... just 5700. I have the latest versions of everything. Is it me?? 😉

hi,
i am using "Super video converter" quite a long time for different mobile handsets. This software is really totally FREE and can convert almost from any format into any other format.
Audio as well as video.
The quality is outstanding. On the web page it says, it can do what many other software, you have to pay for, not can do. And this statement is true.
greetings from Chengdu

i am using leawo flv converter,which can can convert flv to all kinds of video and audio formats including MP4 for your ipod etc

I still have great success with Ovi Suite, but I wanted to add a product review:

MobileDVD_S60_3_0_v_2_10.sisx

Has horrible playback--low resolution, jerky and very annoying.