Gallery

TV on the move

Posted on 13 Jan 2009 at 12:20

Don't be put off. There are ways of converting DVR-MS files to make them more media-player friendly. The commercial packages Nero 9 and Pinnacle Mobile Media Converter will do the job with minimum fuss, as will the Shareware app MyTV ToGo. However, there's aslightly frightening free toolkit that can handle whole folders of DVR-MS files in asingle hit. Using a supplied Mencoder encoder, DVRMSToolbox will convert the files to XviD/DivX, WMV and H.264 file formats, and you can then drag the files over to your player of choice. You can also synchronise DVR-MS files with media players using Windows Media Player II. WMP will convert the file, but it doesn't always know where to put it.

Transcoding tips

The trick when transcoding any media file is to balance quality and file size to achieve a watchable programme that will fit within the confines of your media player. Experiment on a minute-long sample clip - you'll find some in thePublic\Recorded TV folder of your Windows Vista PC - and try first of all to output at high-quality settings at the native resolution of the screen on your device (often 320 x 240). If that file size, multiplied by the 60-minute length of an average programme, seems too large, reduce the quality settings to medium and check to see whether the output is watchable. If the file size is still too large, some applications will allow you to degrade the quality of the audio or switch from stereo sound to mono, or you can always take a drop in resolution and see how your media player scales it up. Only you can tell whether it's better to take four programmes at less than satisfactory quality or three programmes at high quality away on your trip.

In most cases, copying your converted file to your media player of choice using Windows Explorer works perfectly well, but the iPod and PSP can be a little tetchy. For iPod users, one option is to convert the programme to an iPod-friendly H.264 or MPEG4 format, add it to the iTunes video library, then get iTunes to handle thevideo downscale and transfer to your iPod. There's also a freeware application called iPodifier that can handle Media Center files, including DVR-MS. PSP owners, meanwhile, should download the free PSP Media Manager application. It's possible to copy and rename files according to Sony's systems manually, but letting Media Manager do the work takes the hassle out of the job. Just remember that you'll need to convert them to an MPEG4 format beforehand.

Back to "Take your TV everywhere"

Author: Stuart Andrews