More discoveries on the N86 - it really needs a FW update because of various events crashing and freezing the unit, but I *still* can't get it here in the UK, bought from Nokia online shop on release. Also I *still* can't find a product code from a successfully upgraded to v11 unit to emulate!
...but that's not this rant - it's video playback. Is there some good reason why (unprotected) m4v video (copied without any conversion from iTunes to a memory card) won't play on my N86 but play perfectly on the N96 (v30.033)? Is the N96 more advanced than I thought?
Tim
In case anyone else in interested in this, I looked at tech-spec of the 2 devices on Nokia's websites and it does indeed seem that the N96 is better equipped than the N86 in a wide range of video formats (though m4v isn't mentioned - and actually some of it's lost on me TBH in understanding for real world use) and a hardware accelerator to help as well. So I suppose it's off to find a converter, given that the Nokia Video Converter (even the Internet Tablet Converter) won't touch these Apple files. So I guess that's the answer - one up for the N96 over the N86.
Tim
Continuing my study on this one, it seems to me that the N96 is completely unique in this respect amongst Nokia phones. I've tried these files on the N96, N86, E71, E90, 5800XM and E66. None of them will play them except for the N96. I don't have an N95/8GB to try but my guess is that it won't either. I'm sure there are converters out there to change the files but it's interesting none the less.
Tim
...just in case anyone's interested/still following this/caring, having found no free options to sort this one out I can report that I have today invested in http://www.ojosoft.com/video-converters/total-video-converter.html which takes the DRM free .m4v video and converts it to mp4 so it can now be played on all those S60 phones. It cost �10 but I think it was worth it to get the iTunes files across to S60. The quality of the video is not as good as the original 30fps that it's coded into first off from iTunes but at 15fps it's OK. I think I'm making the most out of the options, but am happy to receive advice - in selecting "Mobile - Standard Quality - (MPEG4, 15fps, 176*144)". I did some testing with .3gp but the results were much worse.
I'm amazed that nobody else here is invested in iTunes and has not been arsed off by not being able to get their purchased content onto their phone.
Anyway, it seems that I have a (kind of) acceptable solution.
Tim
If I'm not mistaken, cant you just rename an unprotected file from .m4v to .mp4 and it will work?
srw985 wrote:If I'm not mistaken, cant you just rename an unprotected file from .m4v to .mp4 and it will work?
I did try that but didn't work.
The N96 has hardware-accelerated video decoding and it seems it is much more forgiving over the resolution/bitrate/profile.
The N86 is very sensitive to video format (as are other Nokia phones)
The resolution has to be a 'standard' resolution <= 640x480 (320x240 for h264)
The bitrate has to be <~1.5Mb (~800kb for h264)
The profile must be baseline if h264 or Simple profile if "MPEG-4 Part 2"
The audio must be AAC Low complexity
The container must be 3GP or MP4
As long as the limitations are adhered to there's no problem with M4V's as they are just renamed MP4's to make it clear it also contains a video stream rather than just audio (M4A)
The odds on finding a compliant video on the 'net' or video store is next to impossible. The iphone is also pretty fussy (not quite as bad as the N86) but because of it's market penetration/mindshare finding compatible videos is a little easier.
You shouldn't need to pay for a video encoder tho... There are loads of free ones out there. My favourite is Avidemux 😃
ziggyball wrote:You shouldn't need to pay for a video encoder tho... There are loads of free ones out there. My favourite is Avidemux 😃
Thanks for this - you're clearly much more of an expert in this area. Video encoding seems to be a complete minefield like audio used to be. Perhaps in time devices will all just play anything thrown at them, like they now do (pretty much) for audio. I'll take a look at the Avidemux and see if I get better results. TBH, although the videos get converted using the software I quoted above, when you sit the N96 playing an m4v next to a converted version on another S60 device, the video and audio are both clearer and crisper on the N96.
I guess the question is then, how much would it cost Nokia to put this same kit into all it's devices, as even the very latest handsets (N97 & E75 for example) *still* don't play (the video within) these files. Or maybe it's space? The N96 is fairly fat.
Tim