How to play video on Desire?

[julianb]

Hi everyone,
I looked into this forum and in Google but with no success so far...
Yesterday I bought HTC Desire and can not understand how to play the supported video formats- mp4, wmv and 3gp on the device. I am not trying to stream these files from Internet- I have them already downloaded on my PC. I want to copy them onto my Desire and somehow play them. I have several questions:
1. Do I need to resize the video files- do they require specific resolution in order to be played?
2. Do I need to copy these videos to a specific folder on the device? Or I can just create new folder through my PC and dump them there.
3. How the hell can I actually play the movies once they get onto the device? I can not see an application which launches movies. There is a music player but not a movie player. Do I need to download a widget or an application which runs movies? If yes- please recommend a good one.

Sorry for the load of questions but this is my first smart phone and don't know anything really.

Thanks a lot for the help.

 

[Sypher]

1. No. I personally reduce mp4's down to a max of 1gb per hour. I doubt you would notice much quality difference with anything over this.

2. I just drag and drop into the Video folder. Just create a new folder if it isn't there already.

3. Took me a minute to find this. Go into photos, you'll find your videos here.

 

[julianb]

Thank you for the help, Sypher. I just did what you suggested and surprise-surprise- it worked.
Could you please share what software you use to deal with the video (compressing, editing and settings). I just tried Cowon's Jet Audio but once I upload the edited video it plays incredibly coppy on the Desire with audio and video out of sync.

Thanks a lot again.

 

[Zarch]

Look at handbrake.

Choose the iPhone settings, but then change the resolution to 800x480 (desire native) or similar aspect ratio using 800 as the key.....then change the bitrate to between 750-1000kbps.

I've re-encoded HD rips at these settings and they look great.

 

[julianb]

Thanks a lot, Zarch. Will look into it right now.

Cheers.

 

[Sypher]

I use a program called Handbrake it has presets including iPhone which is good start. You can easily tweek and save your own presets though depending on what you think looks best.

 

[Willie Heckerslyke]

I see Handbrake mentioned a LOT...but no one ever hardly mentions a prog I found out about when I had the Sammy Omnia i8910HD recomended by one of the regs on their forum called Format Factory....it's free too and best of all - really fast - with all the pre-defined formats too....I found it better than HB and have used it ever since. Awesome prog...

 

[Si_boy]

Thanks guys.
Have had the HTC Desire for two days and have spent an evening trying to find out how to play music videos. All sorted now, works beautifully. Now for a bigger memory card.......

 

[riverboat2001]

I see Handbrake mentioned a LOT...but no one ever hardly mentions a prog I found out about when I had the Sammy Omnia i8910HD recomended by one of the regs on their forum called Format Factory....it's free too and best of all - really fast - with all the pre-defined formats too....I found it better than HB and have used it ever since. Awesome prog...

Hiya, can you suggest the settings for the format Factory...
350mb xvid to play on Desire

At least until we get standard divx/xvid support

 

[Desire D]

I use Handbrake as well, excellent programs for converting videos to handheld format

Quick question, is there a way to get a shortcut to the videos folder on the home screen? I can't seem to do it with Astro Manager etc.

Thanks.

 

[SurfXombie]

Handbreak

See Nexus One guides
here
or
here


I tried other free ones but it does the best job. Some even accentuate the audio/video sync problem.

 

[AnthonyS]

Try 'MixZing' from the market, it is a movie / music player and it is quite good. There is a free 'ad-supported' version but I have only ever seen one or two adds and its at the bottom of the main screen, tiny.

 

[boznian]

Thanks a lot, Zarch. Will look into it right now.

Cheers.

You could alternately download the vplayer which plays most formats perfectly. The only one i find it struggles with is the .FLV files which it plays really slow. Go to market place or dowload using a torrent client. Hope this helps, it save all that damn converting!