Help How are you watching movies?

rjoudrey said:

Yep! Says conversions completed, opens up file manager at the output folder and nothing is there.

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Sorry, I was walking the dogs.

It appears the conversion crashed on your video file. While most work fine, if your m4v file has TruHD audio or E-AC3 audio, it doesn't work with the current version.

I have a Beta version that does support these formats, which might be better for your needs, but without knowing more about your video file, all I can do is guess and offer some suggestions. If you can PM me a mediainfo from the video file, I might be able to provide a solution.

64Bit doesn't make a difference, unless you are using a recent AMD system that has problems with x264.

Tried dvdcat... 10 hrs to convert????? I've got a decent high midrange rig.am I doing something wrong?

Zykhan said:

Tried dvdcat... 10 hrs to convert????? I've got a decent high midrange rig.am I doing something wrong?

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a link is displayed when the conversion is running "slow conversions" please tap on that, and it has all the info you need.

Likely either something is accessing the drive/file at the same time, or you are converting from/to a slower medium (network drive/flash memory or something like that)

dvdcatalyst said:

1500 is what I use for my Droid X for high-quality, which uses a resolution of 854x480. For 720p, you want to go at least to 2000.

The settings in the HD article on my website produce great results.

If you want to shave off some size of the files, I would suggest to lower the resolution a bit instead. The video player would upscale the video to fit on screen (I've been watching some of my Droid X videos on it, and they look great). Its better to have a great looking lower-resolution video file that is upscaled on the Xoom than to use a higher-resolution file encoded at a lower quality setting. On the site I also have an article about the quality difference between different profiles (halfway down the Android section) and while written for the Droid X, it should give you an idea on how to keep your filesizes down. The article contains streaming samples.

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Thanks the 2250 video bitrate resulted in a pretty nice video...

Is there a 2GB limit on filesize to copy to the Xoom? It's going to be tough to get some of the longer movies down to under 2GB and still have a nice enough bitrate.

SuperW2 said:

Thanks the 2250 video bitrate resulted in a pretty nice video...

Is there a 2GB limit on filesize to copy to the Xoom? It's going to be tough to get some of the longer movies down to under 2GB and still have a nice enough bitrate.

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for the Xoom, the 2GB limit doesn't apply.

I was getting a lot of questions about non-playable files for other Android devices, so I implemented the warning message for it. I haven't been higher than 2.6GB on my xoom though.

The warning can be turned off in Global Settings > Advanced

Right now, I am using a combo of Fremake, Handbrake, and AnyDVD. Still working on getting the best quality with the smallest file size. Freemake seems to be VERY fast for DVDs and Quality seems pretty good. Is there a demo for DVDCat? I would not mind trying it out before I buy. What about the beta? If I purchased a copy, would I be entitled to run the beta?

DVD cat,,,, will your software convert video files to other formats also? or does it just rip form discs? i have a bunch of different movies (.avi,. mp4 that play terrible on the xoom etc..) that i would like to convert for more xoom friendly (and use more of the screen) and as mentioned handbrake just isn't doing it no matter the setting (and it is slow).

DVD Catalyst works great for me.

I must say I have what I hope isn't a pipe dream. I have many .iso files on a NAS on my home network. I am able to view them all via ES Explorer app (don't know if I got that right). Amazing! Anyway. I can view the .jpg cover art but can't read the .iso on the Xoom. It would be AMAZING if I could stream them. Will VLC player work in some capacity? Anyone know?

It would MAKE MY DAY!

Proph said:

DVD cat,,,, will your software convert video files to other formats also? or does it just rip form discs? i have a bunch of different movies (.avi,. mp4 that play terrible on the xoom etc..) that i would like to convert for more xoom friendly (and use more of the screen) and as mentioned handbrake just isn't doing it no matter the setting (and it is slow).

Click to expand...

Yes, it can convert avi, iso, mkv etc, but not DRM-protected videos (iTunes/Amazon/Digital Copies). Just drag your files or a folder of your files onto the program, and you'll see how easy it is.

RickInHouston said:

DVD Catalyst works great for me.

I must say I have what I hope isn't a pipe dream. I have many .iso files on a NAS on my home network. I am able to view them all via ES Explorer app (don't know if I got that right). Amazing! Anyway. I can view the .jpg cover art but can't read the .iso on the Xoom. It would be AMAZING if I could stream them. Will VLC player work in some capacity? Anyone know?

It would MAKE MY DAY!

Click to expand...

streaming iso's is a pipedream. VLC might be able to stream it, but I don't think that there is a player yet that would be able to connect to the stream. Maybe Tversity or Orb, but you would have to mount your iso's using virtualcd/daemon tools. Since you are already using dvdcat, if you map your NAS share to a drive letter, just drag your iso's onto dvdcat.

Thanks, DVD Catalyst-

Will there be a way, on the horizon, to stream video from a NAS? I'm thinking of storing my .iso files in a second format that DVD Catalyst is creating for me. Will that be my savior? I would rather not store them on the device itself. I guess when the SD card functionality comes I can store them there...

RickInHouston said:

Thanks, DVD Catalyst-

Will there be a way, on the horizon, to stream video from a NAS? I'm thinking of storing my .iso files in a second format that DVD Catalyst is creating for me. Will that be my savior? I would rather not store them on the device itself. I guess when the SD card functionality comes I can store them there...

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You are welcome,

The streaming on the NAS is possible, but it depends on the capabilities of your NAS. If you look in this thread for my (free) MP4 Streaming Server application, and have a look at the article linked to it (or just visit the link on my website) you will find that streaming MP4 files is actually pretty easy. the server app just creates a webserver on your computer, and links to your MP4 files. When you visit the website on your Xoom, and the files have the quicktime faststart atom enabled, they will stream.
For the streaming samples on my website, I just use properly formatted mp4 files with the faststart enabled, and run them from an Apache webserver.
So if your NAS is capable of running an actual website (many do these days, or can be modded to do it) you should be able to just enable folder-browsing (with a .htaccess file or something like that) for a folder containing your MP4 video files (I have a nookcolor folder setup like that, filled with streaming-enabled movie trailers, works on the xoom as well).

You can even use DropBox to stream them.

SamuriHL said:

I haven't been able to test HDMI yet as I've not gotten a cable for it. I probably will at some point. Very odd though.

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Yes, it is very unusual behavior. On all other devices, including ANdroid, bars like that are usually an overlay, which fades, but on the Xoom, it stays there and just hides the button images. Probably by design to eliminate the need of physical buttons, but a simple overlay would have done the trick as well.

I'm using the HDMI cable from my Droid X for testing the TV out.

dvdcatalyst said:

Yes, it is very unusual behavior. On all other devices, including ANdroid, bars like that are usually an overlay, which fades, but on the Xoom, it stays there and just hides the button images. Probably by design to eliminate the need of physical buttons, but a simple overlay would have done the trick as well.

I'm using the HDMI cable from my Droid X for testing the TV out.

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Well, there's hope that it's just one of many bugs that need to get fixed. Maybe it'll get fixed at some point. They have much bigger fish to fry at this point I'm afraid.

I only have an original Droid for now. Waiting for a Bionic. As such I never bothered to get a cable that'd work with these devices. I'll probably grab a couple on monoprice soon.

DVD Catalyst-

Here's Lime Technology's official website for unraid.

Technology

Do you think I would be able to stream from this storage device?

RickInHouston said:

DVD Catalyst-

Here's Lime Technology's official website for unraid.

Technology

Do you think I would be able to stream from this storage device?

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Yes

I skimmed through the info on the site.
The "unraid" part is pretty cool, but the main portion I found on one of their product pages. I picked the lowest one, MD1510.

The MD-1510 includes Lime Technology's unRAID Server. Built upon the latest linux kernel, unRAID Server is a combination of outstanding Open Source software packages and proprietary applications.​

unRAID Server boots from an internally mounted 2GB USB Flash device; the hard drives are only used to store user data. All configuration data is also kept on the Flash device.​

Click to expand...

Based on that, it probably already comes with a web-server on it, which might have to be enabled in its configuration settings, or it will likely be available for it on either their own website or floating around in the modding community. Either way, running a webserver on it is basically what you would need.

With the webserver on it, basically just put your video files in a location on the drive that is accessible by the webserver, and then all you need to do to be able to access your movies is open a browser, and visit the website's link on it like this: http://yournasIP/yourvideofolder

If you type in my full website name and put /nook behind it, you will see what it will look like.

In order for files to stream (and this works for Android as well as iDevices and MP4-capable Blackberries) they have to be in the proper playable format.
The secret to the file actually streaming (aka progressive download) or for the file to download completely before it starts to play is a flag called "quicktimefaststart" that needs to be enabled in the video file.

If you use DVD Catalyst, you can enable the setting in Global Settings > Conversion, which will trigger dvdcat to enable it after the conversion is completed, or you can use my free mp4 server to do it, which has an option for enabling streaming on files you already have. Because the files are physically modified when this is done (unlike edittng metadata in iTunes), you can use the mp4 server to enable it, and then transfer the files over to your webserver.

If you want to try, it might be easier to pull a few sample trailers from my site that have streaming enabled. Since you know those work, using those for testing will eliminate a lot of headaches


and of course sized properrly for the device you want to use. The NOOKcolor will only accept 854x480 or less for a resolution, so if you intend to stream to anything else than the Xoom, keep in mind that you either have to create multiple copies of the same movie, or use the max settings of the most limited device.

So I just tried this software to convert some company training videos. I ended up with a video that was more like a slideshow. It seemed to have removed about 9 out of 10 frames. Here is the info on the original file so hoping that someone can tell me what I did wrong.

Length 00:25:22
Frame width 480
Frame height 360
Data rate 1559kbps
Total Bitrate 1665Kbps
Frame rate 24 frames /sec.

Audio
Bit rate 96kbps
Channels 2(stereo)
Audio sample rate 44 kHz

For an output, I tried the preset for xoom HQ1 and then just tried the xoom setting. Both gave me the same result. The frames changed about once every second.

Any thoughts on how I could make this work. I would love to get my company video's on here.

tjreishus said:

So I just tried this software to convert some company training videos. I ended up with a video that was more like a slideshow. It seemed to have removed about 9 out of 10 frames. Here is the info on the original file so hoping that someone can tell me what I did wrong.

Length 00:25:22
Frame width 480
Frame height 360
Data rate 1559kbps
Total Bitrate 1665Kbps
Frame rate 24 frames /sec.

Audio
Bit rate 96kbps
Channels 2(stereo)
Audio sample rate 44 kHz

For an output, I tried the preset for xoom HQ1 and then just tried the xoom setting. Both gave me the same result. The frames changed about once every second.

Any thoughts on how I could make this work. I would love to get my company video's on here.

Click to expand...

What format is your company file in?

could you do a "mediaInfo" on the original file with full details?

MediaInfo - Download

tjreishus said:

So I just tried this software to convert some company training videos. I ended up with a video that was more like a slideshow. It seemed to have removed about 9 out of 10 frames. Here is the info on the original file so hoping that someone can tell me what I did wrong.

Length 00:25:22
Frame width 480
Frame height 360
Data rate 1559kbps
Total Bitrate 1665Kbps
Frame rate 24 frames /sec.

Audio
Bit rate 96kbps
Channels 2(stereo)
Audio sample rate 44 kHz

For an output, I tried the preset for xoom HQ1 and then just tried the xoom setting. Both gave me the same result. The frames changed about once every second.

Any thoughts on how I could make this work. I would love to get my company video's on here.

Click to expand...

Look at these setting:

720p video on the Xoom? check! 1080p video on the Xoom? check! | Tools4Movies - Home of DVD Catalyst

The original file is WMV. I tried the media info, but I'm not sure what you need from it.

tjreishus said:

The original file is WMV. I tried the media info, but I'm not sure what you need from it.

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WMV is a bit tricky, because of its custom format.
The current official version has some complications with it, but I do have a beta version that supports additional formats and works better with wmv files.

To try the beta (which I updated yesterday to include the new xoom settings) enable "Power User, then go into Global Settings> Version Info, and tap the beta button (works for both retail and trial versions). For the most part, its identical to the official version, however, it has an updated conversion engine.

I'll try converting it with these settings and the beta version now.

So I can download cataclyst free to put movies on the xoom and if I'm happy with it I can upgrade to get rid of borders, improve sound, and up video quality?

So is there a way to lower the quality. The original file is only 164mb. I would like to keep it no larger than that, but when I set it to the suggested settings, it ends up being 650mb. I have a lot of company videos to put on there so I don't think that size is going to work. Any other suggestions on settings?

Unfortunately, that didn't work. The video played at about 1/4 speed while the audio played at normal speed. It just might be that these videos just wont convert. I did, however, get a DVD to convert just fine.

UNBELIEVABLE! I provided the video I was having problems with to DVDcatalyst and in a short amount of time he put together a new build that supports this. It works perfectly now. I have never been as impressed with the customer service of a company as I am with this one. NICE JOB and thank you.