Tips for finding and downloading video films to a portable media player
25 January 2006
As far as music and podcasts are concerned, we can be pretty sure that every portable device can play them, because they tend to come in MP3 format. The same goes for photos, as we can be sure that all portable media players can display JPG pictures. But when we want to watch video on mobile devices, it’s suddenly pure rocket science. There are plenty of videos, TV programs and films available to download and watch, but the problem is to find the right type of video that plays on your portable media player. This guide will help you find and download videos for your portable media player.
Watching videos on a computer is easy because it can run as many software programs as required to play all different video formats known to mankind. If a particular player software program is missing from your computer, you can simply download and install it. Things get more complicated with a portable media player, because typically you can’t download and install new software on the device.
That’s why you have to carefully check the product manual for video formats your portable player can display, so you can download the right type of videos and movies. Another method would be to learn about video technologies and video conversion software tools, but this time we won’t discuss that.
If you own a portable media player, like Archos, Cowon iAudio, Creative Zen Vision, iRiver, Philips, Samsung, or Toshiba, this guide will help you to find, download and copy videos to your player. Apple iPod video player owners can rely on the iTunes Music Store for finding videos. However, some films in the store are unavailable for some countries so you may want to learn how to find and download videos by yourself, even if you own the iPod video device.
Videos available as WMV, AVI and Divx (AVI) play directly on many popular portable media players. Not every video will play on every device, but you should be looking for these video formats when you want to find films or programs to watch, unless your product manual says something else. For example, the video iPod prefers MOV and M4V video formats.
In order to make the video download process easier, let’s split it into two steps:
1. Finding videos on the Internet and downloading them to a computer.
2. Copying or syncing videos to your portable device.
This method lets you access video material from several sources, the dedicated software manages the download, tracks what you already have and helps you download further material when you find something worth watching.
First, let’s find and download videos using the OMN, Videora and Zencast services. If you want to use Google or Yahoo video search, or other video search engines, you can skip to Step 2.
Step 1
OMN (Open Media Network) www.omn.org
Go to the OMN home page and download the free software, which will become your handy program guide and download manager. This is a nice and easy to use application that lets you browse and search for videos, podcasts, MP3 music, video blogs and TV programs. Once you’ve found something worth watching - and if it’s in the right video format for your portable device - click the download button and it (slowly) begins to download in the background while you can do something else.
We wanted to change the OMN download folder in ‘Sync Settings’ to the same folder where our other videos are located on the hard disk, so that the Windows Media Player would find the new material and sync it with the portable device, but for some reason the software didn’t allow us to do so. In any case, the OMN sync folder can be defined for the Windows Media Player (see Step 2).
Videora www.videora.com
When you have downloaded the Videora software (the free trial version worked fine for us) from the product’s home page and have installed it on your computer, you’ll notice that it consists of two separate applications: Videora and BitComet. The Videora application is used for searching video clips and once you find an interesting item, the BitComet application will download it for you.
Technically, the BitComet download application is an elegant piece of technology; it even survived a five minute total blackout in our Internet connection. Videora/BitComet uses Bit Torrent technology for downloading, and you should only search videos available as Bit Torrent downloads. When you download something, save it in the video folder where Windows Media Player is looking for videos.
Videora is really a tool for technically savvy users who know their way around the Internet and don’t mind the confusing use of two separate applications.
Zencast www.zencast.com
Many people know Creative Labs for its Creative MuVo, Zen Micro MP3 players and Zen Vision portable media players. The company has created Zencast software to provide an easy way to download MP3 music, podcasts and digital video to Creative Zen devices. The software is still being finalized (it’s in beta) and the functionality maybe limited, but it works fine. We found Zencast an easy to use application for finding and downloading videos and podcasts.
Once you have downloaded and installed the software, you can browse a few pre-set channels for downloadable material. When you want to see additional items and you click ‘More at Zencast.com’, the Microsoft Internet Explorer software is launched and you are directed to Zencast.com where more material is available. Small icons indicate if a download is a podcast, music or a video film.
Zencast comes with its own sync function, but it only recognizes Creative Zen Vision and Zen Vision:M devices and allows copying files just to those two products. Everything else in Zencast is generic and not technically tied to any particular device.
Step 2.
By now, you should have discovered videos and downloaded them on your computer’s hard disk. The next step is to copy them to your portable device’s hard disk.
If you have the video iPod, you can use iTunes for the task and if you own a Creative Zen Vision, you should use Zencast to sync the device.
For owners of Archos, Cowon iAudio, iRiver, Philips, Samsung, or Toshiba players, an easy technique to copy videos, podcasts, music and photos to the device is to use the Windows Media Player 10. A list of compatible products can be found here.
Start Windows Media Player, plug in your player to the USB port and click ‘Sync’ tab on the Windows Media Player title bar. When the software has detected and recognized your portable device, you can click the ‘Set up Sync’ button on the upper left side of the window.
- Create Windows Media Player playlists that define what you copy to a portable device.
Create a Playlist that includes items from the ‘My Documents/Zencast’ folder (that’s the default folder for Zencast downloads). If you are using the OMN service, create a playlist to include files in the ‘My Documents/My Deliveries/kdx’ folder (the default for OMN).
Don’t be discouraged if you happen to download something that your portable player can’t recognize. It happens. Make note of the video formats that work for your player and the ones that don’t. Also, keep an eye on your product manufacturer’s newsletters for software updates for your portable media player – maybe they have improved the product’s video capabilities.
Which films did we download and watch? Well, once we have watched the movie Star Wreck, which is a comedy in the spirit of Spock and Kirk, we’ll check out Comedy Central and by then, there will be many new video blog posts to watch as well.
Related stories:
Talk shows are back, but beware, they are hiding in podcasts
How to copy songs from a CD to a portable MP3 player
Guide to MP3 players and portable media players: free download
Product reviews:
dvd to ipod 27.05.2010 06:42 www.dvdtoipod.us/
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