How to: Converting your favorite movies for your Nokia smartphone (updated)

May 5, 2007 by Dario Soltani

(I’ve added a Super (freeware) guide to this page! This solves the problem with freezing image and only audio playback after 30-40 min.

Basic guide

So you want to watch those favorite movies on your smartphone huh? Well guess what? Nokia recently released their Video Manager application, built for converting movies for your Nokia smartphone device. The application is pretty easy to use and converts all common video formats like avi, mov, mpeg and wmv (including DivX, XVid, Quicktime and Mpeg-2 codecs) to mp4 (H.264). It’s compatible with all devices that support playback of mp4-files. Thats pretty much the N71, N73, N75, N76, N80, N91, N92, N93 and all S60 3rd Edition devices such as the N95.

Step 1. Install Nokia Video Manager First thing you need to do is to make sure you’ve downloaded and installed Nokia PC Suite 6.83 or newer. You’ll find that here.
Now download and install Nokia Video Manager which you’ll find here.
Step 2. Video quality First thing you want to do is to adjust video quality. You’ll find these settings in the Tools menu - Settings.You can choose between three different settings, low, medium and high quality. Medium quality should be sufficient if you plan to watch the movie using your device’s screen. The high quality setting should work fine if you plan to use TV-out.Medium quality details: Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 352×288px Audio: AAC 48000Hz stereo 157Kbps
Step 3. Find your movie files Now that you’ve selected the video quality you prefer, it’s time to find the video file(s) you need to convert. Click on the folder icon in the settings window.Select proper folder to scan for movie files (avoid selecting root units as this will cause the application to search that entire drive for movie files, resulting in slower computer performance and in my case, way to many movie files to handle).Don’t forget to set the “my collections folder”. This is where the final converted file is saved.
Step 4. Converting movie To start scanning your computer for video files, press the Start Scan button or Edit menu - Start Scan. Pretty soon you’ll see what movies you can convert.Select the movie you wish to convert by clicking on it.Click on the Convert to My Collection Folder button or File menu, Convert and copy to PC. Alright! All you need to do now is to wait for the encoding to finish and then upload the file to your phone.A 700Mb DivX movie file became about 200Mb in MP4 format, the encoding takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes but the speed depends on your computer. Enjoy!

Advanced guide

After receiving reports on image freezing after 30-40 minutes of playback (audio still works) with movies encoded by Nokia Video Manager, I found a solution using Super, a freeware movie encoder.

Step 1. Download Super here at Erightsoft (you’ll find it at the bottom of that page). The download size is 25 MBytes, and comes with all windows compiled versions of ffmpeg, MEncoder, mplayer, x264, mppenc, fmpeg2theora and the libavcodec library (compiled inside ffmpeg and MEncoder).
Step 2. Install software by running the SUPERsetup.exe file and following the instructions on the screen.
Step 3. Start Super.
Step 4. Set your settings according to this screenshot if you want H.264/AAC encoding, or you could try…
Step 5. …these for DivX Player for Mobile (H.264/MP3 encoding settings). Output container: avi Output video codec: MPEG-4 (you can also select DivX or XviD) Output audio codec: MP3 Encoder: FFMPEG Video Video scale size: 320Ã—240 Aspect: 4:3 Frame/sec: 15 (you may change to higher frame/sec, e.g. 25, for better video quality) Bitrate kbps: 336 (you can use higher bit rate, but the video may skip when played on DivX) Audio Sampling freq: 22050 Channels: 2 Bitrate kbps: 56 Click Encode (Active Files) button to start encoding. When SUPER asks for FourCC, select XviD.OK. Now you have your video in DivX format. Transfer it to your phone and enjoy itâ€¦. Compatible device: S60 1st, 2nd, 3rd Edition, Nokia Nseries, Nokia Eseries.
Step 6. Drag-and-drop the source file into the Super window.
Step 7. Check the Active radio button in the file list.
Step 8. Click Encode (Active Files) button.
Step 9. Wait for the file to finish encoding. The output file is set by default to your C:\. Good luck!

I encoded a 350Mb (42:16 minutes) xvid/avi file using above settings, it resulted in a 119Mb 3GP/H.264(MP4)/AAC file. The encoding took hmm…not sure really, about one hour? Quality is great! And the movie no longer freezes. Big thanks to ddsdude for his assistance!

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Comments

18 Responses to “How to: Converting your favorite movies for your Nokia smartphone (updated)”

hiro nakamura on May 3rd, 2007 7:27 pm

I only get the sound of the avi file…no movie for me…
anyone has the same problem?
Aldo on May 3rd, 2007 11:18 pm

Hi.. I tried video manager to convert tv series (xvid) with high quality setting to my N95. after minute 36 till finish I only get the sound and no video. Is this a common problem? Do you have any solutions for this?

Thank you
Dario on May 3rd, 2007 11:24 pm

What kind of movie are you using hiro? File or disc? If so, what file format and codec? DivX? Xvid?
hiro nakamura on May 3rd, 2007 11:26 pm

it’s a avi i download from emule, don’t know exactly the properties
Dario on May 3rd, 2007 11:48 pm

Aldo, we’re trying to work on a solution… Hang on.
Dario on May 4th, 2007 12:58 am

I get the same problem when encoding a movie to “high quality” using Nokia video manager and Smart Movie.

The problem occurs in playback both on PC and on N95, somewhere after 32-33 minutes…

I’m thinking this could be a codec problem? Continuing researching into this…
Aldo on May 4th, 2007 9:08 am

Thanks Dario, Just for info, I tried to encode TV series (42 minutes & 350 MB avi/xvid file) with “medium quality” settings and the result is same : no video between minutes 36-42 (end).

Looking forward to hear from you.

Thanks
Dario on May 4th, 2007 10:57 am

This problem seemed harder than I thought! Lets take this discussion to the forum.
I’ve started a thread at:
http://www.simplysymbian.com/?page_id=55&forumaction=showposts&forum=17&thread=6&start=0
Dario on May 5th, 2007 11:53 am

Problem solved anyone?
hiro nakamura on May 5th, 2007 6:29 pm

I use the divx mobile player to play the converted file and it worked for me ( I used a avi file ) and also a rmvb file but that one clitched showing every 5-6 sec a black frame… but the avi works fine and not stopping. i’ll keep u informed
Dario on May 5th, 2007 8:05 pm

okay great hiro.
Aldo on May 9th, 2007 2:23 pm

Problem solved. Is there any difference in quality between playing using real player and divx mobile player on N95?

Thanks Dario!!
Dario on May 9th, 2007 2:45 pm

Some people have had problems with divx mobile player. The image has been blinking black.

Quality however does not depend on your player, it depends on how you’ve encoded your movie.
snoyt on May 10th, 2007 3:06 pm

Hi,

It is possible to encode 640×480 (optimal resolution for the tv-out) with bitrates upto 1400 kbps for the N95 en most of the N-series of Nokia. You should encode in mp4 at 1400 kbps and aac (128, 48 kHz) instead of H264/AVC. Then there is no stutter or sounddrop and the quality becomes really awesome.

Snoyt
Dario on May 11th, 2007 2:25 am

Hi Snoyt. Thanks for the info! I’ll check it out!
Asim A. G on May 23rd, 2007 1:54 pm

You can visit http://asimag.wordpress.com to convert videos using quicktime pro
Dario on May 23rd, 2007 4:26 pm

Hey Asim, I didnt find anything about quicktime on that page…?
Asim A. G. on May 30th, 2007 7:39 pm

Hi Dario, Here is the exact link: http://asimag.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/converting-transfering-videos-to-n95-or-n73/