Tutorial: Converting your DVD's to Palm Pre using Handbrake

Discussion in 'DVD to webOS' started by chris, Jun 10, 2009.

  1. chris Administrator

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    Tutorial: Converting your DVD's to Palm Pre using Handbrake

    With the multimedia capabilities of the Palm Pre, there is no doubt that many of our readers will want to convert their DVD's for use on the Palm Pre. This tutorial will guide you through the entire process using the free software, Handbrake, available for both PC and Mac. In the tutorial, we took our copy of Pixar's "A Bug's Life" and coverted the DVD for use on the Palm Pre. The processing time is dependant upon your computer's processor and the legnth of your DVD. "A Bug's Life" is 1 hour and 34 minutes. On a Mac Pro, the entire process took roughly 35 minutes from start to finish. Since the Palm Pre supports iTunes, we were able add the converted movie to iTunes and then sync with the Pre. Let's make movies!
    There are a number of software applications that will allow you to convert your DVD's into a playable format on your Palm Pre. Handbrake works great, it's free and you can download a copy for either Mac or PC. Grab a copy, install and get your DVD's ready!
    Step 1: Insert your DVD onto your computer and then launch Handbrake. On our Mac, we opened the source DVD BUGSLIFE and selected the 'VIDEO_TS' folder. Immediately it started to scan the DVD.
    [IMG]
    Step 2: There are various presets and you can tweak settings to your preference. For our conversion, we had the following presets:

    • Video Codec: H.264 (x264)
    • Framerate (FPS): Same as source
    • Average Bitrate: 960[IMG]
    Click on Picture settings and set the following presets:

    • Source: 720x480
    • Keep aspect ratio: On
    • Denoise: Off
    • Output: 496x368 (this is due to the fact that we selected Keep Aspect Ration On.l
    • Source: 720x480
    • Crop: Auto
    • Deblock: Off
    • Decomb: Off
    • Detelecine: No
      [IMG]
    [IMG]
    Step 3: Click on the Start icon to begin the encoding process.

    [IMG]
    Step 4: When the coversion is completed, Handbrake will inform you to "Put down the cocktail, your Handbrake queu is done.
    [IMG]
    Step 5: If you use iTunes, simply drag the resulting file into iTunes. Select the 'Movies' tab and select 'Sync movies'. I also selected the option to only bring my preferred movies and then checked BUGSLIFE. When the sync completes, eject the Palm Pre from your computer.
    [IMG]
    [IMG]
    Step 6: Select the Application Launcher and open up the Videos application. Select your movie and it will start playing immediately. You've now successfully converted your DVD movie for use on the Palm Pre. Enjoy your movies on your Palm Pre!



  2. .plaid Member

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    Hmm, well there is something fishy going on here. chris, I went ahead and did up a walkthrough as you and I discussed (posted here) but the H.264 codec didn't work on the Windows-converted version; FFmpeg was the only codec that folks could get to play.
  3. fr4nk1yn New Member

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    Something fishy indeed. I had to use ffmpeg but I also had to MPV.
    Tried it two more times. Maybe it's the MAC?!
  4. SmegInThePants New Member

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    Now I want to see a bugs life.
  5. DoTheDew911 New Member

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    Is it possible to get a full PC tutorial for those of us with computer down syndrome? Also, a full list of codecs/apps needed to be used would be nice. Another question: Handbrake works on Vista?
  6. .plaid Member

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    If you follow the link in my previous post you can read a walkthrough for converting files for the Pre using HandBrake+Vista. It's a bit touchy with Vista but I haven't had any problems.

    Best,
    .
  7. 2pre4us New Member

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    hi all! So I have a shiny new Pre about a week old, and having video issues. I am using Handbrake with the following settings.

    MPEG4 /mp4 or mainly m4v (which is the default for iTunes/Apple TV i believe) & H.264 and none of my many movies will play on the PRE. They work just fine in iTunes. The specs are around the 480-720 x 208-480 resolution, bitrates hover around 550-1900 and 24 frames.

    What am I missing here? I have ipod 5g & large file size UNchecked as well.

    I also tried to transcode to a smaller preset but Handbrake always encounters an error when i try to use an mpeg4 as the source file....

    Based on this thread, do i really have to start over and use the FFmpeg setting?
  8. escline New Member

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    I had encoded a video a few months ago without problems. I tried again this evening, and was having the same problems.

    To get it to work, I had to first select the "iPhone & iPod Touch" preset, and then change the settings to match this tutorial.

    This is running HandBrake ver 2009092801 on Windows 7, btw.

    Also, for quicker tests, use the Preview button in HandBrake, which will create a small sample file that you can first test.
  9. 2pre4us New Member

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    ahh, I didn't see a preview button. I tried after reading the part which said Handbrake switches its preset to default; and it worked. So i set it to iPhone/touch & H.264 & mv4 and was able to watch on the Pre just fine. I also tried FFmpeg via mp4/m4v as well, and it was noticeably more pixelated then H.264.

    I have an old 1st gen c2d (1.8) and Win7 64 bit/2GB and the rip took about 1 hour using the most recent Handbrake
  10. JDGAFFLIN New Member

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    Chris,

    Have you tested this method on the Pixi? If so, what where the results? Thanks in advance.
  11. fr4nk1yn New Member

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    Good question. Two of the many movies I encoded for the Pre will not play on the Pixi. I get a playback error.
    I'd say the reasons why I haven't looked further into it but nobody would care.

    Anybody confirm what works?
  12. chris Administrator

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    That's odd. I wonder why?

    Edit: I don't currently have a Palm Pixi, so unable to test. Sorry.:dft006:upset
  13. JDGAFFLIN New Member

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    ARGHHH!!!. (J/K..) I'm at work now. I'll give it a go when I get home. I think I'll have to make a few adjustments regarding the resolution. Hmmmm.. Time to go through your guide again.
  14. fr4nk1yn New Member

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    Your not only going to have to adjust the resolution but the bitrate at least on the video. The Pixi is not going to be able to handle higher bitrates.

    I'd give examples of what bitrates I had to use on my touch pro but...

    Good luck and report back so the info will help others.
  15. JDGAFFLIN New Member

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    Good look. It's obviously going to take some tweaking. Hmm..
  16. fr4nk1yn New Member

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    from experience, I may play some too, encode a small chapter and test. Make changes encode with the same chapter and try again. You really only need to encode a few seconds to see it it works and the quality.
    Also check for iTunes compatibilty if your into that. I am but..
  17. JDGAFFLIN New Member

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    I just got word that all I have to do is optimize for 320x400 and crop if desired.

    Sounds simple enough. I'll check it out later and give some results.
  18. fr4nk1yn New Member

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    Link? I personally don't like cropping. Here I go again, it tends to vertically strech the picture. With the pixi's screen not being 4:3. I'd go for 400x300 with no cropping. That will create a "letterbox" though.
    Any idea of the bitrate your going to start off with?
    With the smaller screen you can get away with less.
  19. collin112 New Member

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