HOW TO:Video encoding for the 8100 Mac edition
 

So i have been toying with video encoding for the 8100 and wanted to write up a tutorial for mac users. I have successfully done it using freeware. The videos play but i have a few playback problems. As this thread grows with new input from all of you i will edit this post with updates. This is the method i have used and the videos play fine, but the catch is the phone freezes while its playing. If anyone know why that is it would be very helpful to know a fix.


This method will convert existing files you have on on your computer (.mov .mp4 .avi .dv .mpg .vob .3gp .asf .wmv .flv .m4v). to the proper format for the 8100

1. Download iSquint software (free) from here iSquint - iPod Video Made Easy.

2. Open iSquint and choose advanced from the right side of the window.

3. Change the width to 240 and the height to 180. Change the Bitrate to 400 and framerate to 15. Close the advanced tab

4. Drag your file(s) (isquint suppports batch encoding) into the window

5. Choose where you want to save the file and click "Start"

6. Drag the finished file to the "videos" folder on your 8100's memory card.

Like i said above. The video plays fine but you can't operate the menu or controls. If anyone knows a fix or different encoding method please post it.

You can use Handbrake to convert DVD's into mpegs then convert those using iSquint into something the 8100 can play. I haven't been able to get Handbrake to encode DVD's directly to the 8100 format so if anyone knows how post it here and i will add it to the instructions.

Great write up. Do you think this would work for the 8703e? Just curious.

Again, seriously cool that you took the time to write this up. (y)

yeah thanks for that. i haven't tried it, but good posts like this are always welcome. now if they would just release pocketmac before i end up typing in my contacts by hand. =)

Thanks for the thanks guys. I wish i could figure out why the controls don't work though. Anybody out there know why?

why can't you convert a dvd from handbrake directly into something the 8100 can play? it will convert dvds into h.263 format which is compatible and also .avi format. Plus you can resize the image into whatever resolution you want. This would seem like the correct way to do it if you actually have the dvds you want to put on the 8100.

I'm not sure why. I have tried multiple settings and can't get them to work. Perhaps im just missing the right combination of settings I'm also fairly certain handbrake only does h.264, but i could be wrong

I tried this today too! i used Popcorn 2 (already owned) and the mpeg format. THe video played well and looked amazing. i had the same problem with the control. it does not lock up but it is really really slow. Adventually it responded. I will try it again with a small video file. First file was 75+ MB

I just read that lowering the frame rate to 15 or less should fix the control problem

I just tried rencoding a video with the frame rate set to 15. The controls respond but extremely slowly. After a few minutes everything starts to work ok but at first it doesn't respond to a button push for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Its almost as if the video needs to load before it will let you change anything but it still plays regardless of its "loaded"

I got okay quality using QuickTime Pro and Export the file to Quicktime ->H263 I've had the same lag problem with controls.

works perfect
 

thanks for the awesome write up for isquint. It works perfectly,but its amazing how slow it takes for the buttons to work when video is playing (IE menu)

Thanks again for the thanks. My first sticky!! Anyway i hope we can get our heads together and figure out why the controls are soooo slooow.

has anyone messed w/ getting mencoder to compile w/ all the right options to get it to work w/ the same commands as the dos/linux one (basically im just looking for the compile options to get mencoder to work right)

well got it working by omiting the acodec= part but left the bitrate in. Dont have my pearl yet so cant try out the files if anyone w/ a mac would be willing to help would be greatful


DOH!!! forgot that i didnt have LAME installed on this machine all works now

So you did get it to work? If you still need someone to try it out i could but i'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do.

i was just trying to get mencoder to work. since its free, works well and is multiplatform. be nice for the same script/command to work in all of my enviroments (linux servers-arm, x86, and ppc based) i dont have a pearl to try the resulting file on but it should work (that was the part i was talking about if someone could repeat the commands and try it on their device)

for widescreen(1.78:1) i use "mencoder -vf scale=240:135 <input.file> -o <output.file> -of avi -ofps 15 -ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=230:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64"

I have the encoded file at ltconceptsDOTnet/bsg_test.avi

(if you want to know what the file is of its just the opening credits of BattleStar Galactica 21sec long)

I just tried out the above video and it works perfectly! I hope it wasn't just because it was a short clip though. I wish there was a more user friendly way to do it though. Using terminal might scare some people off. (including me sort of)

my phone seems to have issues keeping the video and audio synced together when encoding using the OP's method. Also, I am too experiencing the lag issues with the controls. Has anyone been sucessful encoding using StarKnight83's method utilizing mencoder? I would be interested in hearing on how to do this in more detail.

also, is everyone else seeing that extra "copy" of the file in the videos folder when you drag and drop? I am also seeing this DS.store file as well in my videos folder. I think this has something to do with a PC-formatted drive and copying files onto it from a mac. Anyway to get rid of it?

the DS.store file is something that either finder or filesystem uses to keep indexed info (AFAIK) or something like that. I come from a *nix background (got sick of windows) so I have no problems openning up the terminal and typing to my hearts content. Anyways just delete the file it wont mess w/ anything

I have been using compressor to encode the videos for the pearl and have been having good luck with it so far. There is only a 5 second delay using the controls now, although forward and rewind still has a bit of a delay. When you encode, be sure to find out what the framerate is of the source file before choosing a export framerate. Make sure it is something easily divisible by the source framerate, otherwise, you will end up w/ dropped frames and playback issues. Most of the tv episode rips I have been encoding are at 23.98 FPS, so I've been encoding them at 11.99 FPS, and it still looks great. For an action movie, I'd probably go with something else, but it works well for the lower-motion shows.

Hi,

Need a little help... Im a new Mac user... purchased an iMac recently...

Anyways... when using my PC and mencoder I was able to convert the files successfully and they worked very well on the Pearl (quality of picture and audio was great and menu commands worked)

I am trying to use mencoder on the Mac but need some directions or instructions on where to run the command from?

On the PC I extracted the zip file into a directory and placed the file I wanted to convert into that same directory... open the command prompt -> CD to that directory and ran the command from there... I didnt need to install the MPlayer

What or how am I suppose to do this on the Mac? I have the dmg file on my desktop... I ended up installing the MPlayer in my troubleshooting but dont even know if I needed to install it to convert the files.

I hope im not all over the place with this and I can get a little help.

I do have iSquint (which by the way v1.5 is out) but the only issue is the files converted in iSquint and played on the Pearl causes the command to react very slow (dont see this issue when using mencoder)... not to mention with iSquint you can only convert into a mp4 instead of an avi file.

Thanks in advance.

can you pls tell me what settings you are using to export i cant find the correct combo either the picture is to small and the image is bad or i get to have a good picture size and good quality and then the phone just blinks red and shuts off ?? do you know what setting to use to export in mpeg-4 basic format? sorry thanks for the help

only works for 10 minutes then freezes
 

I followed the instructions from the OP re: encoding with isprint. This works but I'm guessing you guys who have tried it with short clips. I tried to watch 3 different episodes of Entourage using the prescribed method.

First, audio and video were out of sync. This actually doesn't bother me much since the screen is so small. What DOES bother me is that the pearl freezes up completely after about 10 minutes. It happens every single time -- with different files.

Anyone else experience this? Is there a fix??

I'm so frustrated by this.

I echo j.paychecks post above. I have been using mencoder on a PC for the last couple of days to encode some movies for the perl following all the tips on the 8100 video sticky. Works awesome. However, I would love to use my powermac to encode, figuring it will be much quicker. However i have tried to compile mencoder on OSX several time to no avail. If there is anyone out there who can post a "how to" for compiling mencoder on OSX for a beginner, that would be awesome. Hopefully someone out there can help a fellow mac user out!

what are your error messages when you try to compile mplayer and w/ what options are you using. (also make sure that you have lame installed before trying to compile mplayer - you need it for the mp3 compat.)

I've been using instructions I found elsewhere on the web.

And below is the error I get when I try to compile. Any help is appreciated.

:~/mplayer user$ ./configure

Detected operating system: Darwin
Detected host architecture: ppc
Checking for cc version ... 3.3, ok
Checking for host cc ... cc
Checking for cross compilation ... yes
Checking for CPU type ... 970 altivec
Checking for GCC & CPU optimization abilities ... 970
Checking for assembler support of -pipe option ... no
Checking for GCC altivec support ... none
Checking for MPlayer binary name ... mplayer
Checking for extra headers ... none
Checking for extra libs ... none
Checking for -lposix ... no
Checking for -lm ... no
Checking for langinfo ... no
Checking for language ... using en (man pages: en)
Checking for enable sighandler ... yes
Checking for runtime cpudetection ... no
Checking for restrict keyword ... none
Checking for __builtin_expect ... no
Checking for kstat ... no
Checking for posix4 ... no
Checking for lrintf ... no
Checking for round ... no
Checking for nanosleep ... no
Checking for socklib ... no
Checking for inet_pton() ... no (trying inet_aton next)
Checking for inet_aton() ... no (network support disabled)
Checking for inttypes.h (required) ... no
Checking for bitypes.h (inttypes.h predecessor) ...
Error: Cannot find header either inttypes.h or bitypes.h (see DOCS/HTML/en/faq.html).

Check "configure.log" if you do not understand why it failed.

I tried your "isquint" settings, but it just did not work with me. When trying to play the video my Pearl says error reading file. do you use, optimized for ipod or optimized for TV?
and do you use H.264 encoding?

^^^ keep optimized for iPod checked and the pearl does not support h.264, only h.263.

I had the same problem w/ iSquint. I would get errors when trying to playback on the pearl if the videos were more than the typical 22 min tv show. I use compressor and it works well for me.

Can someone please tell me what "compressor" is and where do I find it.

Thanks!

compressor is a program packaged with Final Cut Pro. you will need to get final cut pro as I doubt you will find it otherwise.

I have found that if you lower the bitrate and keep it under 200 the controls seem much more responsive. Just my $.02.:smile:

There is also a great program called mpeg streamclip google for it.

Hey guys,

Just wrote up a howto on my blog how I encode files. Looking for some feedback. Let me know how it works for you guys.

the8thsign.com/2006/11/22/encode-video-for-the-blackberry-pearl-8100-mac-edition/


Thanks Starknight83 for the idea and command line.


ps. Sorry about the none linkage, need to have 10 or more posts.

nice, i'm going to try this out tonight!

the windows guys are encoding at 230 for video and 64 for audio and converting to an avi just putting that out there...

So if i'm only using Panther, I'm ass-out?:-(


~bill

nice write up. trying it now will post feedback soon

Ok guys, there was a permission problem with mencoder when i uploaded it. Its fixed now. You can either redownload the file or "chmod +x mencoder" to fix it yourself.

Also since I'm using Automator, this will only work with 10.4.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry7130e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I did a bit of encoding for my previous phone with FFmpegX with no problems. You could give that one a try too and see if it performs better for you.

Did someone try using quicktime pro. Someone posted (can't remember who) that he successfuly converted a DVD (MI 3) with quicktime. I have tried a few times with different encoding specs but it did not work.
Any idea?

Works Great!
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadedhalo Hey guys, Just wrote up a howto on my blog how I encode files. Looking for some feedback. Let me know how it works for you guys. the8thsign.com/2006/11/22/encode-video-for-the-blackberry-pearl-8100-mac-edition/ Thanks Starknight83 for the idea and command line. ps. Sorry about the none linkage, need to have 10 or more posts.

Hello everyone. Thanks for this great forum. Anyways, i followed the instructions on the8thsign website and it worked great. I should mention that I'm using the bb pearl and imac with OS X v.10.4.8. I've never used Terminal before but with some trial and error, the command line worked for me. Some hints for noobies (like me) using the Automator way:

1. After downloading the Automator Workflow, save the file into
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder/
If this file path does not exist on your hard drive then you must create it. ie. Go to: MacHD
click: yourusername ex. James
click: Library
After this, I didn't have a folder called "Workflows", so I created one.
From there, I created another folder called "Applications", and then yet another one called "Finder". This must be done in a sequence such that opening Workflows, leads to Applications, which then leads to Finder. I know, info overkill, but every little bit helps.

2. "Unzip" the Automator Workflow file into Finder. In this case, I just drag and dropped the Automator file into the Finder folder I had just created.

3. Download the Universal Build of mencoder (from the 8thsign link), and download it onto your desktop.

4. Open up Terminal (I used Spotlight to locate it), and type in the code.
ie. “cd Desktop”, enter, “sudo cp mencoder /usr/bin”. Hit enter again.

5. Enter your password (this is your mac admin password that you set when you got your mac ;)

6. Right click (ctrl+click) any movie file (seems like only .avi files work) and you should see the "Encode for Blackberry" under Automator.

7. Your new .avi-bb file will be created under the same folder you had your origianl avi file in.

8. Drag and drop .avi-bb files onto your blackberry movies folder and enjoy!

Oh, I should mention that the files created are much smaller. For example, my files were cut down from approx 260MB to 50MB. Fits much nicer on 1GB media card. Oh, and so far I have no problems with controls! Everything works great and movies, shows, etc. show up amazingly.

Now, can someone tell me how to compress images from IPhoto to download onto my pearl without losing too much image quality. It takes an awful long time to open up photos. Thanks.

Could you please tell me what settings you are using in Popcorn 2 b/c I'm trying to do the same thing but the video is choppy and looks like crap and sometimes the sound isn't synced with the video. And please be specific as possible. Thanks.

this sucks
 

I dont understand what my phones problem is but it will play 30MB and below movies but as soon as i dump a good ole fashioned 350+MB movie on there it gives that great "Playing Error".. I dont know. Might be the fact that i upgraded to the new .....67 firmware... Any ideas?

can the movie be longer than 20 minutes...... i'm downloading "Borat" and i'm just wondering if it'll play on my pearl. i'm using handbrake with the settings mentioned for isquint...hope it works!

THE best solution for video encoding
 

I just tried this and it is so easy and the results were fantastic.

it's called: BBPEncoder

This programmer made it

It's drag and drop easy. Everything you need is in one place.

I love it!(y)

Wow this worked awesome with my Curve. Thank you!

Is it possible to drag several files into it instead of waiting for one file to finish converting, before dragging another one. I'd like to just drag a bunch in there and forget about it til later.

Just wanted to thank getthething, as it works great. I don't have problems with the audio and video sync. Also, just for FYI, I have the curve, and the only thing you have to change is the width (obviously) which is 320 px.

Big thumbs up to BBPEncoder! works just as advertised... for free!