Coverting Movies Already

[borgqueenx]

Alright, i want to start converting movies already for when my pandora comes in the mailbox.
Whats the best format to convert the movie to, and what settings should i use for the video?
my pc takes 90 minutes to convert one movie, and i want about 15 movies on my pandora so thats why i want to ask the pro's before i go do something stopid

 

[fischju2000]

You don't need to convert anything, unless you need to downconvert for space. The Pandora will be able to play every standard codec...15 movies at a standard 700mb each is just over 10GB. You'll lose quality no matter what you do, the originals will look best on Pandora.

 

[borgqueenx]

You don't need to convert anything, unless you need to downconvert for space. The Pandora will be able to play every standard codec...15 movies at a standard 700mb each is just over 10GB. You'll lose quality no matter what you do, the originals will look best on Pandora.

so my divx/xvid movies(.avi) with sometimes .srt subtitle files will work without changing anything?

 

[fischju2000]

You don't need to convert anything, unless you need to downconvert for space. The Pandora will be able to play every standard codec...15 movies at a standard 700mb each is just over 10GB. You'll lose quality no matter what you do, the originals will look best on Pandora.

so my divx/xvid movies(.avi) with sometimes .srt subtitle files will work without changing anything?

Indeed they will. I don't know how VLC in linux handles subtitles, but it's very easy in Windows. Mplayer shouldn't have a problem with that either.

 

[lulzfish]

You don't need to convert anything, unless you need to downconvert for space. The Pandora will be able to play every standard codec...15 movies at a standard 700mb each is just over 10GB. You'll lose quality no matter what you do, the originals will look best on Pandora.

so my divx/xvid movies(.avi) with sometimes .srt subtitle files will work without changing anything?

Indeed they will. I don't know how VLC in linux handles subtitles, but it's very easy in Windows. Mplayer shouldn't have a problem with that either.

I think VLC is about the same on all platforms, it should work fine.

 

[Kag]

I thought VLC hasn't been fully ported?

According to this
http://pandorawiki.org/Port_Requests

Unless it isn't updated.

 

[droneb]

hmm, but whats the expected best RATE?

sometimes fullwindow scales it up wrong and you end up with a visit to the house of the funny mirrors

 

[Kag]

you don't have to convert anything since there's MPlayer.
You might want to convert 720p high profile and above mkv (Might play i'm not sure), RMVB or WMV, only those have lower chance of playing properly.

 

[gruso]

One of the awesome things about Pandora will be not having to transcode. My GP2X and iPod have been nothing short of painful as media players. Those days are almost gone!

 

[-Tj-]

Hmm, I'm a bit curious about this, too. I have a lot of anime files that are larger than your average DVD source, and some even cause my fairly new laptop to stutter. At the very least, I'm sure 480p would be the ideal size, since anything over the screen's native res would be a waste.

 

[openthebox]

...

There are a few questions you need to ask yourself.
1) How often are you going to watch these same movies?
If only a couple of times, I would say don't waste your time to convert them.

2) Will you be connecting your Pandora to a TV for viewing?
If yes, then you shouldn't convert.
If no and you plan to watch it more than a few times (must be pron ), then you should consider downconvert to save space.

3) Do you plan to carry extra SDs?
If yes, then you don't need to convert them.

Just my 2cents.

 

[droneb]

XD, im saving to buy some SD cards, my next payment seems sooo far away ill have to look for another freelancer job

by the other way how many SD do you plan to carry? if talking on a single charge cicle you will only get to watch about 5 movies? 6?

for these last years im not into the movies very much but rather series, so it would be a waste of time for me to convert em.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I just want to know the best place to buy cheap 1GB flash drives so I can have a keyring of movies

 

[calc84maniac]

I just want to know the best place to buy cheap 1GB flash drives so I can have a keyring of movies

Flash drives (as USB devices) would cut down on the battery life significantly, right?

 

[tristan.clark]

I just want to know the best place to buy cheap 1GB flash drives so I can have a keyring of movies

Flash drives (as USB devices) would cut down on the battery life significantly, right?

Most USB devices will draw power (unless externally powered) and will reduce the battery life. Don't know by how much through.

You could always copy a movie from the Flash drive to an SDHC card in the Pandora and then watch the movie once you unmount the flash drive. That would save some power as you would not be running the flash drive for hours at a time. Probably not much more trouble than swapping SDHC cards around.

I tend to use flash drives a lot for transfering files between PC's or saving my work to a flash drive so that I can work on the current version on any machine. For me, and this will of course be different for others, I'll probably use flash drives with my Pandora and have a couple of 32gb cards in there to act as the 'hard drive'. Just my take, not suitable for everyone I know.

 

[midna25]

I just want to know the best place to buy cheap 1GB flash drives so I can have a keyring of movies

Flash drives (as USB devices) would cut down on the battery life significantly, right?

Most USB devices will draw power (unless externally powered) and will reduce the battery life. Don't know by how much through.

You could always copy a movie from the Flash drive to an SDHC card in the Pandora and then watch the movie once you unmount the flash drive. That would save some power as you would not be running the flash drive for hours at a time. Probably not much more trouble than swapping SDHC cards around.

I tend to use flash drives a lot for transfering files between PC's or saving my work to a flash drive so that I can work on the current version on any machine. For me, and this will of course be different for others, I'll probably use flash drives with my Pandora and have a couple of 32gb cards in there to act as the 'hard drive'. Just my take, not suitable for everyone I know.

The whole unit uses so little power that even any USB device severely zaps the battery life. Flash drives are not something that would help batter life.

 

[borgqueenx]

i will only use 2 sd cards. one of 16gb and one of 32gb.
I will keep about 10~15 movies on my pandora. So the pandora will work out fine for watching movies i guess

 

[tristan.clark]

I just want to know the best place to buy cheap 1GB flash drives so I can have a keyring of movies

Flash drives (as USB devices) would cut down on the battery life significantly, right?

Most USB devices will draw power (unless externally powered) and will reduce the battery life. Don't know by how much through.

You could always copy a movie from the Flash drive to an SDHC card in the Pandora and then watch the movie once you unmount the flash drive. That would save some power as you would not be running the flash drive for hours at a time. Probably not much more trouble than swapping SDHC cards around.

I tend to use flash drives a lot for transfering files between PC's or saving my work to a flash drive so that I can work on the current version on any machine. For me, and this will of course be different for others, I'll probably use flash drives with my Pandora and have a couple of 32gb cards in there to act as the 'hard drive'. Just my take, not suitable for everyone I know.

The whole unit uses so little power that even any USB device severely zaps the battery life. Flash drives are not something that would help batter life.

I NEVER claimed that a flash drive would help battery life. I did point out that you DO NOT have to have a flash drive running continuously if you choose to use one and could therefore minimize the negative effect on battery life that such devices have.

 

[lulzfish]

Confirmed: Adding devices actually reduces battery life, unless they are magical free energy devices.
The thing is, flash drives just hurt battery life more than SD cards do.

Incidentally, Newegg has cheap, probably shitty flash drives for about $7 @ 2GB, and SD cards for $6 @ 1 or maybe 2 GB. I didn't look too closely.
I wonder if anyone sells SD holders? Wasn't there someone in the community working on this?

 

[dflemstr]

Confirmed: Adding devices actually reduces battery life, unless they are magical free energy devices.

Thats...actually surprisingly accurate for once...