If you like watching movies, you can take them with you and watch them on your N95. One easy way to do it is to convert your movies to a format that DivX Mobile will play. In this tutorial I use mencoder on Linux to convert a movie to XviD. XviD is an open source MPEG-4 video codec. The DivX player plays XviD files very well. I will also provide links to the Windows and Mac DivX Mobile bundles which include a special version of the DivX Converter for Mobile.
Please note: This guide was initially published back in 2008 and some of the software it references no longer exists. As such, we have asked Google to remove this from their search database, however the document will remain online for archival sake.
- First things first, let’s install DivX Mobile on the phone. You can download a copy from the DivX site (Update: software no longer available). Use the Symbian OS S60 3rd Edition link. If you aren’t familiar with installing applications on your N95, see my tutorials on Installing Applications on the N95 via USB or Installing Applications on the N95 via Bluetooth. I have also included a Mobile Code that you can use to install DivX Mobile directly over the air.
- Now that you have DivX Mobile installed, run it my choosing Menu -> Applications -> DivX Player.
- DivX Mobile comes with two demo videos. Select a video and choose Options -> Play to watch it.
- Watching movies this way is OK, but I’d rather watch it full screen and rotated 90 degrees. In order to do this properly, we first need to change the Default Mode settings from Rotate Left to Rotate Right, otherwise when we go full screen, the movie will be upside down. Choose Options -> Settings then select Default Mode and press the Center Button one to change the Default Mode to Rotate Right.
- Now select Back to go back to your movie list. Select Options -> Play to start the movie. While the movie is playing, select Options -> Fullscreen.
- At any time during playback you can seek forward and back using the left and right toggles. The longer you hold the toggle down, the further it seeks. One thing that I found counter-intuitive is the fact that the usual volume up and down buttons have no affect. Instead, the volume is controlled with the up and down toggles.
- So watching the demo movies over and over is probably rather boring. Instead, lets encode a movie that we have already ripped to the hard drive from a DVD that we legally purchased. The DivX people recommend a video bitrate of 300 kbps, an audio rate of 128 kbps, a frame size of 320×240, and a frame rate of 24 or 30 fps. The following mencoder command worked for me:
mencoder -srate 44100 INPUT.avi -vf scale=320:-3 -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=128 -xvidencopts bitrate=300 -ofps 24 -o OUTPUT.avi
- I used this command to convert The Bucket List which is approximately 1 hour and 37 minutes long. The output file is approximately 284 MB. With a file of this size, I strongly suggest using a USB connection to copy it to your phone. It would take far too long over Bluetooth.
Thanks buddy! You’re great! Great article! :D