Converting movies

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Converting movies

mattyboy2

84 posts

Master Geek

#37463 14-Jul-2009 00:25

Hi all

I have my entire DVD collection backed up to my HTPC in DivX format. Took me months of ripping.

Now i would like to try watch a movie on my iPhone 3GS (so that I can watch one in bed over my wireless connection).

So now I've setup my HTPC as a web server and can browse my movie collection through a web browser on the iPhone. So how do I convert my DivXs to a format that the iPhone can use? And is viewing such files possible via Safari on the iPhone?

As an alternative, how do I convert my DivXs into a format iTunes can use? I did a search here and there was a thread from last year recommending Videora, is this still the best software for the job?

Cheers

-Matt

Zippity

683 posts

Ultimate Geek

#235008 14-Jul-2009 08:23

try www.videohelp.com

they have all the answers

garvani

1873 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#235012 14-Jul-2009 08:47

I fully recommend SUPER. Its a free video convertor that does a far better job than most paid for software.. has an iphone/ipod profile for easy converting.. Is a little tricky to work your way through the site to actually download the software, the links are usually at the bottom of the page and you ahve to go through a couple of pages to get to the software.

Give this a go first, works really well.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#235018 14-Jul-2009 09:04

You could also give handbrake a go, it has support for converting between formats and has predefined profiles for ipods and other devices. It has queueing so you could just queue up all your conversions and leave it running each night (the queue is saved when you close the program). There's frontends for Linux (native GTK interface), Windows and MacOSX.

Se7ensyns

133 posts

Master Geek

#235030 14-Jul-2009 09:14

Does any of this sftware conver .3gp files from mobile phones. I have some really centimental footage from my wifes old samsung phone but I cant convert it to mpg or if I do it has no audio.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#235035 14-Jul-2009 09:18

Se7ensyns: Does any of this sftware conver .3gp files from mobile phones. I have some really centimental footage from my wifes old samsung phone but I cant convert it to mpg or if I do it has no audio.

Aparently Handbrake supports converting from this format (but not to it), but I've never tried it.

Dawg

233 posts

Master Geek

#235039 14-Jul-2009 09:23

Download.com has some free software for converting .3gp files - I just can't remember what it is called - Sorry - started with A

garvani

1873 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#235046 14-Jul-2009 09:33

Se7ensyns: Does any of this sftware conver .3gp files from mobile phones. I have some really centimental footage from my wifes old samsung phone but I cant convert it to mpg or if I do it has no audio.

Did you even look at the super website.. it says right there.. "Mobile phone 3GP converter Convert any supported input file to 3GP. Convert 3GP files to any other format."

Ive tried a LOT and i mean a lot of video converting software, handbrake is in that list. And to put it bluntly, super is the best of the lot, there isnt a video file i have tried that hasnt converted well.. Even my horrible indeo5 files from my 7 year old quickcam converted without codecs or anything, i seriously spent hours trying to get that to work before stumbling on super.

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dan

1134 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#235065 14-Jul-2009 10:29

I use AnyDVD Converter Professional, simple, never had any quality issues with the converted video, can use all the cores on the CPU for encoding.

mattyboy2

84 posts

Master Geek

#235068 14-Jul-2009 10:32

Thanks for the video conversion tips guys. I shall try Super and Handbrake.

I converted a movie last night using Videora, then imported it into iTunes, and it plays fine on my iPhone.

However I still want to be able to watch videos that aren't on the iPhone over my network.
I think I just have to dick around in IIS to see if I can get it to stream the mp4 to the iPhone.

Update: just found this Orb thing, looks promising. Will try it tonight.
http://www.orb.com/

gumboot

78 posts

Master Geek

#235074 14-Jul-2009 10:46

As another option try Any Video Converter http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

or the best one for just ipods/iphones I found is ipodme http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/ipodme/

This is no fuss and doesn't require to much knowledge on codecs etc.

djpaubes

394 posts

Ultimate Geek

#235145 14-Jul-2009 13:21

mattyboy2: Hi all

I have my entire DVD collection backed up to my HTPC in DivX format. Took me months of ripping.

Now i would like to try watch a movie on my iPhone 3GS (so that I can watch one in bed over my wireless connection).

So now I've setup my HTPC as a web server and can browse my movie collection through a web browser on the iPhone. So how do I convert my DivXs to a format that the iPhone can use? And is viewing such files possible via Safari on the iPhone?

As an alternative, how do I convert my DivXs into a format iTunes can use? I did a search here and there was a thread from last year recommending Videora, is this still the best software for the job?

Cheers

-Matt

I want to stream movies to my iphone too! I'm running tversity on my pc with my collection... whats the easiest way to hook into them? and or what have you used?

edit.. this might do it http://plugplayer.com/ app for iphone but its upnp

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plas

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#235149 14-Jul-2009 13:29

I use Badaboom for converting, nice and fast if you have a Nvidia GPU.

There are also a couple of apps in the store that stream from something like tversity but i cant remember their names.

Also note when using tversity to stream to an ipod/iphone you have to wait until it completely transcodes the video file(can take awhile). Unless they have figured out a workaround recently.

Zippity

683 posts

Ultimate Geek

#235181 14-Jul-2009 14:52

DVDFab6 will do all the converting that you want, but you have to pay for the programme.

mattyboy2

84 posts

Master Geek

#235541 15-Jul-2009 10:43

iPodME is great for encoding, much faster that Videora and no ads. Nice and simple to use.

I gave Orb a go last night and it works as advertised. You install their streaming software on your server and the Orb client on your iPhone. The free client only let me watch a couple of my movies, the pay version will let me watch all of them. It supposedly allows live streaming of TV but that didn't work and I didn't spend long on it.

However, having finally gotten it going, I've now realised I don't really want to watch movies on my tiny iPhone screen!

raab

262 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#235564 15-Jul-2009 11:22

I use handbrake for most conversions, however, for x264 -> h264 conversions which handbrake can't do on Windows I use Xvid4PSP http://www.winnydows.com/page.php?2 (yes it says PSP but it has an iPod Touch/iPhone profile)

Also, if you watch anime in mkv format MKVExtractGUI is good for extracting subs which you can then add back in to Xvid4PSP.