[Hanul]

I bought the new Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone for two reasons: it has a 2 megapixel camera and a slot for a Memory Stick Duo Pro up to 1GB. The screen size is 176x220 and other than its predecessor K700i you can view pictures and videos on it horizontally, which doesn't waste screen estate.

Hm, hm. Time for some calculations. The video player on the phone can play MPEG-4 and 3GPP movies. A typical 120 minutes movie is around 60-70MB in 3GPP in 176x144. So, I have enough room on the memory stick for not only one Star Wars movie, but ALL 5 of them, that are available on DVD. Plus the whole Lord of the Ring trilogy will fit on it, too. And I still have plenty of room for music etc.

Ok, here is how it's done: I use a Dual 2GHz PowerMac for the process. Put in the DVD, start Handbrake ("HandBrake is a GPL'd multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter", according to their homepage), resize and crop the picture to fit the mobile's screen. Wait 45 minutes for a 2 hour movie to be ripped to MPEG-4 from DVD directly (no, you don't have to decrypt it before). Start QuickTime Pro, export movie to 3G. Wait 20 minutes for the conversion. Copy movie to Memory Stick. Watch all Star Wars movies while waiting in line before the cinema.

Here is a snippet of Star Wars playing on the K750i (1MB), a few seconds of the opening sequence of Episode IV. The video of the video is quite blurry, but you get the idea. Of course there are a lot of block artifacts, because of the compression, but you can recognize the actor's faces, so it's ok. Hey, you watch it on a mobile just to refresh your memory, right?

[Apple Pro Underwear]

is it worth the effort? i prefer to just look at girls while waiting.

[zerostar]

Originally Posted by Hanul

Of course there are a lot of block artifacts, because of the compression, but you can recognize the actor's faces, so it's ok. Hey, you watch it on a mobile just to refresh your memory, right?

I would investigate your compression, I get superb quality movies with 3gp at the proper encoding, you notice almost no artifacts and the movie is crystal clear.

Perhaps it is going from mpeg-2 to mpeg-4 to 3gp that is hurting you?

[Hanul]

Well, the MPEG-4 movie is excellent. It must be the MPEG-4 to 3GP conversion. I use QT as encoder. I tried several settings, but all but the standard one failed to play on my phone.

[ghporter]

My question is how much image are you going to get on a cellphone screen? I firmly believe that some films MUST be seen on a big screen, at least the first time, and that a small TV screen detracts from the viewing of a LOT of movies. Now you're suggesting watching a series of movies filmed on an EPIC scale on a tiny screen. What's the point?

[brapper]

Originally Posted by ghporter

My question is how much image are you going to get on a cellphone screen? I firmly believe that some films MUST be seen on a big screen, at least the first time, and that a small TV screen detracts from the viewing of a LOT of movies. Now you're suggesting watching a series of movies filmed on an EPIC scale on a tiny screen. What's the point?

I think the point is that it's a geeky thing to try to do.

[ender2002]

because its teh h4xx0rz 1337 thang to do.

[Randman]

Better to do some shorts. Like the SW cartoons or the Simpsons. Shorter and sweeter (I have a Nokia 6630 with hot swoppable mmc cards, including a 256mb with a few vids on it).

[ghporter]

I think Randman has the better idea. Besides, animated shorts don't need nearly the resolution to be able to see what's going on.

Really guys, when I watch a movie, I want to roll in it! Anything else is just a picture book.

[Hanul]

My son sat through the whole Episode IV on the phone and he enjoyed it ;-). Ok, he is a child, a big Star Wars fan, running around the house with his Darth Vader mask...

Sure, there is a certain geekness factor, and I don't mind to watch movies on a tiny screen, when I commute to work. Hey, animated shorts is a good idea. Hmm... or Toy Story 1 and 2?

[TailsToo]

Sound like way too much work to get a movie onto your phone...

[Hanul]

Yes, the bad part is, that you can't do it with a batch job (Automator anyone?), because someone has to change the DVDs. For one movie it's a simple two-step process, which takes around an hour.

[macintologist]

You don't have to convert it to mpeg4 first!!

Use ffmpegx, it can convert directly from DVD to whatever you want, including 3gpp.