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Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#1
I'm having the weirdest problem with Konttori's Media Converter: I encode my videos in 400x240 High Movie N800 format, but lately I can't get the screen aspect ratio right. If I select "Optimize for 770 full screen", left and right edges are clipped off in widescreen movies, but the aspect ratio is right. If I unselect that option (I prefer to see the whole screen and don't really mind letterbox watching), I get the whole image, but it's been stretched vertically, something I really really really hate.

I never got this before: previously converted videos without the optimize option were "properly" letterboxed, either vrtically (if in 4:3 format) or horizontally (if more than 16:9). I'm using 1.31, but got the same unwanted result in 1.30. I'd prefer not to have to revert to a previous version. N800 with latest firmware.

Anyone else got this? Is this a "feature" of the latest version of the media player? If so: fsck Nokia!!! (and please don't recommend Mplayer, it's fine for videos that won't play in the native media player, but the latest version is still way too buggy for casual use)
 
Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#2
I hate bumping threads, but if nobody else has this problem, there might be something wrong with my N800 software. Could it be that the firmware upgrade got botched somehow to produce this weird result in the media player's behaviour?
 
johsua's Avatar
Posts: 449 | Thanked: 18 times | Joined on Apr 2006 @ Eureka, CA
#3
I noticed this as well. If only there were a way to choose your aspect ratio using the media player. I know that you change it with mplayer, but I have not been to figure it out. For some reason the documentation for mplayer confuses me - as many man pages seem to do....

In a related question - is there an "easy" fix to sound-video synch issues? I have movies that have this issue (on my PC as well - so it's not the n800), and have searched around a bunch with no "easy" fix in sight.
 
Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#4
Originally Posted by johsua View Post
I noticed this as well. If only there were a way to choose your aspect ratio using the media player. I know that you change it with mplayer, but I have not been to figure it out. For some reason the documentation for mplayer confuses me - as many man pages seem to do....

In a related question - is there an "easy" fix to sound-video synch issues? I have movies that have this issue (on my PC as well - so it's not the n800), and have searched around a bunch with no "easy" fix in sight.
I don't get the aspect ratio problem in Mplayer (buggy it may be, but at least it does its job correctly), but I agree that media players should offer the option to the user to change screen aspects. The media player of my PMA430 lets me choose between 4:3, 16:9, fullscreen or maximum aspect; that's how it should be done (and yes: the PMA430 runs Linux too). There are many other things I can do with the PMA's media player: resume a video after closing down the player, jumping forward and back with the directional keys...

I occasionally get sound synching issues for which I haven't found a solution yet. Mplayer has an option to manually adjust sound synch, but that option does nothing: I can't change its value. Weird...
 
Posts: 1,038 | Thanked: 737 times | Joined on Nov 2005 @ Helsinki
#5
I'll have a look at media converter this week to check on the aspect ratio problems.
Problem is, I've added some code that I cannot share with you guys (like something to do with dvds) and setting the builds to discard stuff like that may take a while. I could apparently include any dvd related things as long as I do not include mencoder with the package. But I feel that that may be a bit too hard for people to do. What do you think? Should I drop mencoder from the installation and require people to get it themselves and through that allow support for something to do with dvds?

I am slowly beginning to feel that I must do that. Anyway, opinions?
 
Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#6
Originally Posted by konttori View Post
I'll have a look at media converter this week to check on the aspect ratio problems.
Cheers, mate! I have two versions of an encoded file (30 second previews of Casino Royale, the boring black-and-white trailer part) if you want them. They're each over 2MB though...

Problem is, I've added some code that I cannot share with you guys (like something to do with dvds) and setting the builds to discard stuff like that may take a while. I could apparently include any dvd related things as long as I do not include mencoder with the package. But I feel that that may be a bit too hard for people to do. What do you think? Should I drop mencoder from the installation and require people to get it themselves and through that allow support for something to do with dvds?

I am slowly beginning to feel that I must do that. Anyway, opinions?
If I understand you correctly, by dropping mencoder you could add the option to encode DVDs directly. Correct?

Personally, I'm not waiting for DVD functionality in Media Converter; I have FairUse Wizard to convert DVDs to Xvid and/orDivX and VirtualDub to edit almost any video file. Both are free tools and do their job nicely.

I'm slowly evolving to the point where all my movies exist as Divx files on the hard drive of a media server and physical DVDs are strictly backups. Still, most people will probably root for the easy option to be able to encode their DVDs directly...
 
Posts: 1,038 | Thanked: 737 times | Joined on Nov 2005 @ Helsinki
#7
@Karel:

You are correct. If I separate the component that does the work from the 'user interface' and do not provide them together, I am not liable. Anyway, we have such silly laws in finland that you can't create programs that decode 'strong' copy protection mechanisms in order to copy the content. Not that anyone has defined what that means, but I take it that it means dvd copy protection schemes as well.

Also, if I do it, I will probably have to remove all previous installers so that they cannot be mixed with the non-bundled version. Now, of course, someone else might do the bundling by themselves and even publish an installer. I might even send installer script to them for Inno setup program (one click to make an installer package for windows).
 

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