6 Free ways to encode video for your N95

For basic video converting and playback on N95 there is an application bundled with the Nokia PC Suite that can convert some video formats into the Real Player format. But, for some reason the 'high quality' option is greyed out for me, and it also does restrict you to using Real Player on your phone to watch your content which I have to tell you sucks, if you want to rewind or fast forward then forget it, this sucker only does Play and Stop. My recommendation is to forget Real Player and use Divx Mobile Player, and encode your video in the Divx format.

So here are some free tools that can do this for you - I've only commented on the ones I've used (I stopped trying out new ones once I found one that worked for me).

Avidmux (Not tested)
Dr DivX

This is an Open Source converter from DivX Labs. Works pretty well and is very easy to use - to convert DVD to N95, select the VOB files in your Video_TS folder on the disk in the correct sequence in one chunk and add them all to your project. On the Advanced tab, click to the Pre-Processing tab and change the aspect ratio to 4:3, and size to 320x240. Save your Encode settings so you don't have to go through this process again and hit Encode (after the analysis has finished). Then select your job, and click Resume.

Dr DivX - It does the job

Super

Super is the one everyone seems to recommend, particularly in Nokia forums. It's probably good if you know what you're doing, but if you don't you will find the array of options confusing. Also their website is highly annoying, forcing you to click through pages of waffle to reach the download. But if you're still interested, here's a blog post about encoding video on Super for an N95.

MediaEncoder (Another one I did not try yet)
Pocket DivX Encoder

I used to use Pocket Divx Encoder when I had an iMate Jam and it worked pretty well. Apparently you can select use the default PDA settings for N95, but when I tried this it looked like pink flickery garbage when I played it back on my phone.

HandBrake (Open Source)

I like HandBrake. It can rip directly from DVD into a format of your choice (but not DivX), unlike most of the others which expect your input file to be an existing mpg or avi file rather than a DVD. It's also pretty easy to use ... a lot of people are reporting success with Handbrake but when I encoded a DVD to Xvid, when I play it back in Media Player it works fine, but on Divx Mobile Player the video causes the application to bomb out every time. Your mileage may vary.

Handbrake - has Linux, Mac and WIndows versions

Bonus

I've also got a bonus 7th cheating way: DivX Converter. This is really the best solution if you don't care about messing with any baffling settings. It just gives you 3 options - small, medium or large screen, and a "GO" button that kicks off the process. Select small and press GO, 10 Minutes later it spits out the file and you can play it on your N95 using DivX Mobile Player. But here's the catch - and the reason this is a cheating method ... it's only free for 15 days, after that you have to pay. So this is great for a one time conversion utility, but not so great if this is something you will need to do from time to time.

But even if you don't use DivX Converter, I would still recommend you get DivX Mobile Player anyway. It's basically a free edition of SmartMovie with all the same options and features.

Conclusion
There are lots of converter programs to choose from - many more than I have listed here, but my recommendation goes to Dr DivX due to it working first time for me and being easy to operate without in -depth knowledge of codecs or video encoding.

One final thing to note is if you notice your audio is playing back slightly behind or ahead of your video in DivX Mobile Player, there is an option in the settings to configure the A/V sync gap in miliseconds. Making an adjustment here will allow the video to play perfectly on your N95.

ukstokes.com