Notices

Guys, thought I would post this because I have read a couple of threads on people having trouble with media not playing on the N900.

What people don't realise is that just because it says .avi doesn't mean that it is going to work! .avi is just the container, not the codec, think that's right - it's early so forgive me if it's wrong

The best solution for this, that I know of, is to re-code the file that you are trying to play. If you can't download the codecs etc. So if people are more comfortable changing the media rather than the device then...I have found a fantastic piece of software for this, that is very very easy to use from here.

This software will allow you to make a new file with whatever *specs* you want, so my suggestion is, have a play around, see what works on the device (contanier, video codec, audio codec, resolution, bit rate etc etc) and re-code all your media to work on the device, then you don't have to worry about copying stuff over and it not playing. Plus if you are not happy installing codecs and/or they are not avaliable it's another solution.

Hope this helps some people out (its helped me out loads), unfortunately it only works for windows, and you can't run it from a windows emu (WINE I think its called) in linux

EDIT: BTW you can change one type of media to another with this software as well, so say real player files don't work you can stick it in here and change it to .avi

That's cool. I use handbrake for mac and it seems to work pretty well.

DVD->Mpeg-4 for playing on n900.

Took a quick look. Software looks a bit too good to be true. Especially for free.

Do you know if it will also handle pictures - ie resize my large 10mp photos to a size that is more sensible for viewing on a three inch screen?

You might try IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com) freeware for image resizing. Hope that helps.

I know, I thought that when I downloaded it the first time, but I have been using it for ages now, with no problems and no fees of any kind. It is great when you see all the different containers that it offers too, like PSP/PS3 and ogg.

I will have a look (once I get the device) what settings work the best (for the least size) and report it either here or on the wiki.

I think there is a way to make mini movies out of still images but I don't think there is much more than that when it comes to pictures.

Or there's this, which is also a GUI to mostly the same underlying tools, but it's hosted on maemo.org, designed to work with maemo devices, and is cross-platform.

I personally use and recommend XVID4PSP for video transcoding.
It's free and is available at www.winnydows.com. Better than SUPER imo.

It started out as a transcoder for Sony PSP and now supports nearly everything and is fully customizable. My friends all use it now. =P

personally super is way to complicated to understand for me....i use handbrake on linux and windows, being cross platform is so much easier for the user experience...i have the iPhone, encode and transfer over ftp over wifi and enjoy on the phone...dont need to bogged down my stupid itunes..

I suggest payware: MediaShow Espresso
Why? Because it is GPU-accelerated, conversion is EXTREMELY quick.

OTOH: The idea of the N900 is that no transcoding is necessary anymore, so we'd better invest our time in acquring the missing codecs. GStreamer, the base of the video player, is ver powerful and extensible. So if you have a movie that doesn't play: post codec info

I've been using Super for the best part of a year to convert files, and it's been fine.