Pocket-DVD Studio for Pocket PC (version 1.2.3)

16 JUN 2004
Pocket-DVD Studio for Pocket PC (version 1.2.3)
Watching movies on my Pocket PC has not really been practical until now. It required a lot of work such as converting the movie to fit the screen on my Pocket PC, ensuring that the file size is small enough to fit onto a storage card and making sure that the audio is in synchronization with the video. Today, I will be reviewing the latest version of Pocket-DVD Studio for Pocket PC from PQDVD that manages to combine all these processes into a single program. By making it easier to do these things, you’ll be on your way to putting movies onto your Pocket PC in no time at all.
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Installation
Installing the program was very similar to the usual Pocket PC programs. Just double-click the setup file and follow the on-screen directions. It will install software on both your computer and the Pocket PC. The software on the computer will allow you to prepare and encode the movie files. The Pocket PC software will then enable you to view the movies. A registration code is entered into the program on the computer to register the software.

Preparing and Converting the Movie
This software encodes its movies into the Xvid format. The Xvid format is known for its high quality encoding and small file sizes. The first step in preparing the movie is telling the program what drive your DVD is located in. After that, it will automatically load up and set most of the settings for you. Then you just choose where you want to start recording by using the slider at the bottom. There is a preview image that shows at what point you are in the movie. Then the slider at the top right allows you to choose the quality that you wish to encode the movie in. Just click ‘start’ and the program begins encoding. It’s as simple as that!
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Experimenting with the Details
I chose the movie Kill Bill just because I had it handy and it has a lot of fast-paced fighting. Since I have limited space on my storage card, I chose to encode a five minute clip of the movie. First, I set the quality setting to the lowest setting which would allow me to fit the whole movie in about 100MB. I transferred the movie clip onto my Pocket PC and played the clip with the Pocket-DVD player. The clip was barely viewable because there were a lot of “blocky” frames. Next, I set the slider to the highest quality setting. When I re-watched the movie clip, I was amazed at the quality. It looked almost just like the DVD except just shrunken down to fit the screen. Although I ripped the clip from the wide screen version of the movie, the black parts at the top and bottom of the movie were not annoying and did not take up too much space. I think most people will encode it at the highest quality anyway unless you absolutely want to fit the movie in about 150-200MB. The highest quality setting will make the entire movie just under 300MB. Noteworthy is also that not only do you have several resolution settings to choose from but there are also six cropping modes, making this program fully customizable with clear and legible subtitles.
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Conclusion
I was very impressed with this software. It was extremely easy to use and the results worked as expected. This software makes it possible for those with Pocket PC’s to watch movies on long trips or even watch a clip of a movie when you have nothing else to do. You can even use it to show off the capabilities of the Pocket PC. At the price of approximately USD30, this program is bit more expensive than the usual Pocket PC software, but it’s worth the investment if you plan on doing a lot of movie watching on a smaller screen. There is a trial version that lets you encode 5-10 minutes if you want to watch a movie clip on your Pocket PC. More info here: www.pqdvd.com Reviewed by Ronald Ko (ronald@DigitalReviews.net)
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