Convert for Optimal Playback without BB

[Tuba]

I'd like to convert my video files for optimal playback using media manager and then just drag and drop the resulting file directly to my BB SD card.

Is it possible to convert for optimal playback in the media manager without copying the file directly to my BB (ex. if my BB is not currently attached to my computer)?

[Tuba]

Guess it's not possible

[phantomsphan]

From what I understand, Verizon changed how videos get encoded and what types can be played back on their devices.. so that's why you have to use the BB Manager and why the other methods people use on here and the other third party apps don't work for us. However, I have figured out a way to do it for Verizon devices just using one tool and not needing your device connected. Once I get some time and make some screenshots and figure out how to post images on here, I'll try to put up a guide.

[sunkast]

Originally Posted by phantomsphan

From what I understand, Verizon changed how videos get encoded and what types can be played back on their devices.. so that's why you have to use the BB Manager and why the other methods people use on here and the other third party apps don't work for us. However, I have figured out a way to do it for Verizon devices just using one tool and not needing your device connected. Once I get some time and make some screenshots and figure out how to post images on here, I'll try to put up a guide.

That doesn't make sense. Do yo have any proof of this?

Tuba: Check out the link below. It discusses using free software to convert videos.

Lecture 10: Getting Started with Videos on your BlackBerry | CrackBerry.com

[phantomsphan]

Originally Posted by sunkast

That doesn't make sense. Do yo have any proof of this?

Tuba: Check out the link below. It discusses using free software to convert videos.

Lecture 10: Getting Started with Videos on your BlackBerry | CrackBerry.com

Yes, actually if you read through the link you just provided, the author says it himself:

"Next we’ll have a look at SeaByrd Technologies BlackBerry Video Converter v1.1. This program boasts a lot of power in a small package and allows for you to make personal backups of pretty much any file you may have on your computer. A note to mention here is that this program will NOT work for Verizon 8830 devices as Verizon changed the type of video they use. They reccomend using the supplied Desktop Manager available on the Verizon site (I’m unaware of what file changes they have actually made). This encoder is based on the mencoder encoding engine, thus allowing many file types to be encoded."

I have yet to try any other third party 'blackberry video converter' programs that have worked with my Verizon 8330 and I would assume 8830, since the author mentions that device as well. That is why I have used a freeware program called avidemux to be able to convert the video properly on my Verizon device, without having to use BB Manager or having to have my device plugged in.

I hope that clears it up for you. Thanks.

[sunkast]

As long as it's free, couldn't hurt to try.

[phantomsphan]

OK, here is my attempt at a guide to convert video for playback on a Verizon 8830 or 8330 using a FREE third party tool, without needing to have your device connected or having to use the slow and clunky Roxio software. Its not a simple 'one button' converter, but it's really only 3-5 easy steps and the software is useful for a lot of other stuff too, other than just converting BB videos. Hopefully you'll learn a few things along the way and if anyone finds this useful, let me know and give me some feedback. This should also work fine for any other carrier's devices as well, not just Verizon. If you want to make sure, try this small sample. Anyway...

OK, first you need to download a program called Avidemux. The latest version is 2.5.5. Just install it with the default options. For my example I'm just going to be converting a standard divx/xvid AVI file you would download off the net. If you rip a DVD to a VOB, the process should be the same, just make sure you've ripped your DVD into one single VOB.

Once it's installed, run the program, hit Open and open the AVI file you want to convert. If it asks you to build a VBR table, or reindex or unpack.. just say Yes.

Once you do that the video will open and we can start. Set your settings like shown below:



Set it to MP4 first and then change the Audio and Video pull downs. Next we can go into the configurations...

Audio: By default the bitrate is set to 128. There isn't really any reason to change it.

Video: First click Configure, and set like shown:



Set for Constant Bitrate and bitrate of 700. I find this gives me the best results in the least amount of time. You can also use 2 pass if you like and the bitrate can up to 800, but to me its not worth it (little quality difference and larger file size).

Next click Filters, which brings up this screen:



If you have a widescreen video and want to keep it that way and don't care about the black bars and smaller picture.. then just double click MPlayer Resize.



Check off 'Round up to Nearest Multiple of 16' and leave it 'Lock Aspect Ratio', '1:1' and 'Bilinear' and then just slide the slider down until you get as close as you can to 320x240 (which you can see in this example is 320x176). Once you do that, you can hit OK and close.

Continued in the next post....

[phantomsphan]

If you want to see more on your screen, you can accomplish this by also cropping the video. If you want to do that, BEFORE you resize, hit Crop first. You will see a screen like this:



Just set left and right crop to 60 and hit ok. If you want to make it larger, you can.. but 60 works fine. Next you want to do the resize, and since it is cropped, you will now see that the dimensions are different:



As you can see, we are now able to get a file that is 320x224. You can click OK and Close.

Generally I like to use 50 for my crop, which shows more on the screen, but still stays truer to the widescreen image. Using 70 will give you a true 4:3 standard def. full 320x240 image.

Below is an example of what you can expect to see on your screen with the different cropping and resize choices. First is no change 320x176 image, next is 50 crop 320x208 image, then 60 crop 320x224 image and lastly a 70 crop full 320x240. It should help illustrate what you gain/lose by choosing fuller screen vs. full image and visa versa.



Now for the final step, converting and saving your file...

Just click the big save button, pick where you want to save it to and name it (including the .mp4 extension on the end.. don't forget this) and you are all set. Depending on how fast your machine is, it will be done when it's done... but I would say it's probably much faster than the BB Manager.

Anyway, try it.. see how it works.. if you have questions, ask.

Thanks.

[tx_dbs_tx]

Man that's a lot of BS you are going through to convert videos to play on you BB! I have been converting vidoes for mobile devices for years and there is a much easier way using excellent third party software. Verizon does NOT restrict video playback on the BB phones to my knowlege. You can simply use a third party conversion software to create the videos in either MP4 or 3GP format. Videos need to be in the proper resolution for your device (ex. 320X240 or 220X177 etc.) Then the frame rate can be set up to 29.97 fps but may sometimes play a bit choppy depending on your phones memory usage etc. Normally you should use 24fps for the best performance without choppy playback. The audio portion of the video can be just about any available within the conversion options. For now the BB curve/Pearl will only play the MP4 videos and 3GP videos. I haven't had any luck getting any of my BB's to play the WMV videos. I think the WMV 9 and older videos will work but I have not tried. But the newer WMV 10 and up will not play on the BB's. MP4's play very nicely so who cares about WMV videos. I will highly recommend anyone here at Crackberry.com to visit tomp4.com to get their video conversion software because it's very fast conversion and works great. It's easy to use as well with several conversion options to choose from. The video quality is great too. It will convert almost any video file you can come across and convert them to play back on your mobile device. I feel comfortable mentioning the above website because it was also recently advertised here at Crackberry.com. It's called A-Plus Video Convertor and it's available from their site tomp4.com.

[tx_dbs_tx]

After you have your video(s) converted using your conversion software of choice, you can then simply copy and paste the videos into you Blackberry/videos folder on your Blackberry Curve/Pearl/8830, etc. If you don't know how to do this then first go into your options on your BB phone and make sure you enable "mass storage" mode. Then connect your BB phone to your PC and browse your computer for the new drive discovered which is your BB device. Navigate to where you saved your converted video(s) and copy and paste them onto your BB's removable micro sd mem card which shows up in "my computer" as a removable drive with a drive letter assigned to it. When you find the associated drive letter for your device then open it and navigate to Blackberry/videos and paste your converted videos in there. After that you're done. You can safely unplug your BB device from the USB cable and open your multimedia player on your BB and you will see your converted videos/movies, etc. NOTE: you will need to disconnect your BB device from the usb cable and your computer before trying to find and play your newly added videos/movies since while the phone is in mass storage mode you can't view all files on your phone. This should be clear enough for those who have no clue how to do this.

[phantomsphan]

Originally Posted by tx_dbs_tx

Man that's a lot of BS you are going through to convert videos to play on you BB! I have been converting vidoes for mobile devices for years and there is a much easier way using excellent third party software. Verizon does NOT restrict video playback on the BB phones to my knowlege.

Yes they do.. that's why 'BlackBerry Video Converter v1.1' and other 3rd party apps don't work for Verizon devices, but either way... it's not that much 'BS' to go through to use a free program... rather than paying $40 for the software you are suggesting... that was the main point of the thread. If you want flash, you can spend $40 on a program (if it works for Verizon)... if you want a free, highly configurable, multi-use program... then you can try Avidemux.

Like I said, if anyone wants to use the guide, go ahead.. if it's useful, let me know.. if not, then I won't worry about it.

Thanks.

[tx_dbs_tx]

You are mis informed. Verizon phones DO NOT restrict video playback on any of their BB phones or any other for that matter. I convert videos frequently on my Verizon 8330 Curve with no problems. Please don't mislead others by stating it can't be done on Verizon phones.

[phantomsphan]

Originally Posted by tx_dbs_tx

Please don't mislead others by stating it can't be done on Verizon phones.

I'm not quite sure where you are coming from. No one said 'it can't be done'. The tool you are shilling may in fact work for Verizon devices.. that's fine. But to say that Verizon doesn't encode their video differently is wrong. Use your Verizon BB Manager to encode a file. Then use 'Blackberry Video Converter' to convert the same file. Use a codec tool like Gspot and look at the files... you'll see they are different and the one created by Blackberry Video Converter will not play on your device. If it does, then you must have something special going on with yours that myself and everyone else on the forums don't. That's the bottom line.. like I said, Verizon's BB Manager encodes videos differently than other BB Manager SW and other third party tools... that's a true statement. No one is misleading anyone.. I'm just trying to provide people with a free solution to creating videos, without using BB Manager and without having to pay for a 'slick' commercial product. In the process maybe they'll learn a little about how video's work and what codecs are, some technical information and etc... rather than being spoonfed all these one button converters that only have one use. AVIDemux is freeware, will convert many different formats into many different others (not just MP4), you can use it to edit video files, cut parts out.. join things together.. etc. Bottom line, I just thought I'd provide some help to someone who was looking for a way to convert videos without having to have his device plugged in or having to shell out any cash. That's what the poster wanted so that's what I provided. Sorry if you felt otherwise, but hopefully that clears it up for you.. thanks.

[tx_dbs_tx]

As for the BB 8830 which has no video camera this may have issues with video playback. But as for any other BB Curve/Pearl with 4.2+ OS, there are no problems converting and playing videos on them. Period. There is nothing wrong with your post or instructions, but the fact is that different video conversion softwares do have different encoding depending on the settings, codecs, etc. As for the original post, I don't know if there is a way to only convert the video without automatically transferring the video to the device. I have not tried that. I also have Roxio Easy Media Creator which has video conversion tools that definetely will convert without the need to transfer to the device. Blackberry Desktop Manager for Verizon Wireless is made by Roxio as well but I can't be for sure if you can convert without transferring. That's the original question at hand. I will play with it and see what I can find out and repost later.

[phantomsphan]

No you can't convert without having the device connected.. that is why I created the guide in the first place. Roxio won't do it. (Plus it's really bloated and slow).

As for the video stuff... hopefully this will straighten it out for you. This is a video created by Roxio, which plays fine on the Verizon Curve:

=== File Information ===
File Name: Test.mp4
File Size: 2,708,465 bytes
Duration: 0:26.041


=== Video Information ===
Video Codec: MPEG-4 Video
Frame Size: 320 x 180 (AR: 1.778)
FPS: 24.000
Video Bitrate: 192 kbps
Bits per Pixel: 0.139 bpp


=== Audio Information ===
Audio Codec: mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC
Sample Rate: 44100 Hz
Audio Bitrate: 128 kbps [2 channel(s)]
No. of audio streams: 1

This is a file created by Blackberry Video Converter, which does play on other carriers devices... but it does not work on Verizon devices:

=== File Information ===
File Name: Test-320x180-LAVC.avi
File Size: 1,100,044 bytes
Duration: 0:25.859


=== Video Information ===
Video Codec: FFmpeg/ffdshow ISO MPEG-4
Frame Size: 320 x 180 (AR: 1.778)
FPS: 23.976
Video Bitrate: 261 kbps
Bits per Pixel: 0.189 bpp


=== Audio Information ===
Audio Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
Audio Bitrate: 64 kbps [2 channel(s)] CBR
No. of audio streams: 1

So I will still stand by my statement (and that of others) that Verizon devices will not play certain types of video files that other carriers devices do.

If you don't believe me, download another carriers BB Manager and try to convert a video and play it on your device (or DL and install Blackberry Video Converter). Like I said, unless there is something special with your device... they will not play if they are in that format.