Pocket-DVD Studio v1.1

[Scott Logsdon]

A DVD holds some 5 gigabytes of information which is enough information for your favorite movie to be crystal clear on big-screen monitor. But what if we wanted to watch our DVDs on a Pocket PC screen? There isn't a DVD player for Pocket PCs. But thanks to software like DVD-Pocket PC Studio, you can watch your movies on your Pocket PC as well!

[jlp]

This review is quite complete and accurate.

However I'd like to see (and most probably many other readers too) a more head to head comparison of the 2 solutions mentionned and other ones like freeware Pocket DivX encoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) including tables indicating: features, file type input (DVD, VOB, MPEG, QT/MOV, AVI, etc.) file type output (DivX, XviD, WMA, etc.) processing speed from DVD insertion to PPC readable file output, resulting file size, the type of DVD media the app could not process (related to some copy protection scheme?? related to studio (WB, Universal, Sony, etc.)??), if the process is click and forget or takes different steps (ripping then encoding/reencoding, etc.), 1 or multi-pass encoding, etc.

I think those questions are quite important to release info about.

Any chance of seeing this, especially since you've tested both the first apps, summerizing the results and adding those of Pocket DivX encoder shouldn't be that much more work?!

Tempted??!!

[Scott Logsdon]

Thanks for the reply, jlp...

Let me look into that!

[Pony99CA]

Originally posted by jlp
However I'd like to see (and most probably many other readers too) a more head to head comparison of the 2 solutions mentionned and other ones like freeware Pocket DivX encoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) including tables indicating: features, file type input (DVD, VOB, MPEG, QT/MOV, AVI, etc.) file type output (DivX, XviD, WMA, etc.) processing speed from DVD insertion to PPC readable file output, resulting file size, the type of DVD media the app could not process (related to some copy protection scheme?? related to studio (WB, Universal, Sony, etc.)??), if the process is click and forget or takes different steps (ripping then encoding/reencoding, etc.), 1 or multi-pass encoding, etc.

I think those questions are quite important to release info about.

Any chance of seeing this, especially since you've tested both the first apps, summerizing the results and adding those of Pocket DivX encoder shouldn't be that much more work?!
That's a great idea. However, let's be clear about two things.

First, I think it will be a lot more work. Reviewing a program on its own is a lot of work, but trying to prepare a comprehensive comparison with similar software would be much more work.

Second, these wouldn't really be reviews, they'd be comparisons, and the two typically have different goals. A review is meant to delve into a program and give you a feel for how it works and whether it's "good" or not. A comparison typically won't cover each program as deeply; if it does, the article will be much longer than the combined length of each independent review because of the tables you'd like.

The difference is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's something to be aware of.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't do comparisons; as I said, it's a great idea. In fact, I would love to see comparisons of Pocket Informant, Agenda Fusion and other PIM software, for example -- I just wouldn't want to have to write one. :)

Just remember that we are volunteering our time and may not be able to devote such a large portion of it to what you're asking for.

Steve

[jlp]

OK Steve I understand you.

My purpose was to point out that people like me see that 3 or more solutions exist to do something (read a movie from a DVD on their PPC) and wonder which of these will do what they want and find the one that does it best.

Life is made of many compromises, these apps don't all do the same things fast and clean, so we need comparisons to find the one that compromises best.

I know you know that, and this is why I stress the need for a mean to evaluate the solutions globally.

Now it's up to you to decide if you want to invest the time and efforts into it.

What about a summary to tell us which solution you feel is more powerful and adequate after you test Pocket DivX encoder?!

[SunTzuWarrior]

I was sold on Pocket DVD Studio until I saw the pictures. I think that may be my biggest concern. It's nice that it's simple to use but DVD to PPC final video output just seemed so much better based on the pictures you have. I'd hate to buy both. Maybe I'll try the demo and see what results I get.