.KEYWORD pockettv
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE PocketTV: multimedia for the masses
.FEATURE
.SPOTLIGHT FIGALT pockettv-cover.gif
.SUMMARY If you’ve been looking for an easy way to play MPEG video files on your Pocket PC without the hassle of converting to the proprietary formats most media players require, then look no further than PocketTV. Gregory Lea reviews this fun application that lets you take your favorite movie trailers or your own home videos on the go.
.AUTHOR Gregory Lea
Are you the type that likes a little fun in your functionality where the PDA is concerned? If you’re like me, the potential for multimedia applications is the most intriguing feature of the newer Palm-sized PC and Pocket PC devices. If you’ve seen Casio’s Mobile Video Player or the ActiveSky player, then you know just how cool it is to view video on a Pocket PC.
However, while these applications work fine, they don’t play the most popular and most common video formats, such as MPEG. In fact they only play proprietary formats. If you want to watch an MPEG file, then the folks at MpegTV have an application called PocketTV that you might find of interest.
.H1 Free PocketTV
PocketTV is a wonderful little application that allows Windows CE users to watch MPEG files on their Palm-sized PCs or Pocket PCs. This program is simple to use, takes up little storage space, and is the right price…free! It’s so good, I wish I could recommend it for all Palm-sized PC users. Unfortunately, however, if you’re running a slower processor or have limited sound capabilities, you may not be very happy with the playback.
I recommend at least a 130 Mhz processor and a color screen to get the impact of the video, though a 16-color grayscale screen may work for you. Stereo makes the playback more impressive, but it’s not necessary if mono is all you have. But hey, if you don’t want to take my word for it, try it out. What have you got to lose? Did I mention it’s free?
.H1 Why choose?
Now to be honest, I’ve never tried the ActiveSky player, but I do regularly use Casio’s Mobile Video Player. I’m not about to compare products and try to suggest which program is best. Even so, there are reasons I use PocketTV, and none of them are related to the price. First, PocketTV plays MPEG files, which are more common than the proprietary .cmf and .sky formats.
Second, I don’t need to convert files to these formats. If I’m surfing with my Cassiopeia and I run across an MPEG file I want to keep, I can download it directly to my device. With the Mobile Video Player, I’d have to get online with my PC, download the file, and convert it prior to transferring it to the Casio.
Finally, the program only takes up 605KB of space on my Cassiopeia (size varies somewhat, depending on the version), so I can easily afford to carry it as well as Mobile Video Player. Having both only makes my Cassiopeia a more versatile multimedia player.
.H1 Getting the goods
To get PocketTV, I went to http://www.mpegtv.com and found the appropriate version of the program. When I selected the right one for my Cassiopeia, I was prompted to give them my email address. Within the day, I was sent a link that led to the download site. Once downloaded, the rest of the installation was relatively simple, but it wasn’t automatic. To complete the installation, I copied the file to the \Windows\Start Menu directory on the Casio so that the PocketTV icon would show up in the Start Menu. All in all, the installation is a bigger pain than it is with most programs, but it’s still pretty easy.
Using PocketTV is definitely easier than the installation. However, before I could run the program, I had to have something to play. There are tons of sites on the Internet with a wide range of MPEG video content. I didn’t have to look far for something to try since there are several samples on MpegTV’s Web site. I downloaded an MPEG file containing the trailer for the Star Wars trilogy and copied it to a \My Documents subdirectory, which is where it has to go. After starting PocketTV, the Open File menu came up, as shown in Figure A, and it listed the MPEG files in all of the \My Documents subdirectories.
.FIGPAIR A The Open File menu lists all your MPEG files.
I double-tapped on the Star Wars file to load it, and it started automatically, as you can see in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B A quick double-tap, and the Force was with me.
.H1 Customization
There are a handful of options that I found useful for tailoring PocketTV to my Cassiopeia. I played around with some of the settings to find what combination worked best for me. The list of options is shown in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C Tailor PocketTV to your specifications with the Options menu.
Of course I wanted Stereo audio since the Cassiopeia has the capability, but I had trouble telling the difference between High and Medium Quality sound so I selected Medium. The screen size has the greatest effect on playback quality, and I found that letting the program select the size generally worked out best. As I tried to increase the screen size, the playback became choppy pretty quickly. Cutting back on Audio Quality really didn’t help much, either. Other features include the ability to Loop, Play at Open, and show Status Bar.
.H1 Streaming media
Also included in PocketTV is the ability to stream MPEG video using a network connection to an FTP or HTTP server. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get this to work. According to the few instructions I found on MpegTV’s Web site, simply connect to the network, select Open URL under the File menu, and enter the URL of the MPEG file. It’s too bad I didn’t have better luck, because I think streaming capability on a handheld device is particularly intriguing.
.H1 Impracticalities
There are several, small impracticalities to running video on Palm-sized PCs or Pocket PCs. Some of these are based on the fact that even compressed video files tend to be rather large. Most devices don’t have a lot of storage space, and I’ve noticed that even my 64MB Compact Flash card gets quite crowded at times. Transferring data from the Internet can be tedious, as can the transfer from the computer to the device.
Of course there are many improvements of late that make these easier, but they aren’t all that common yet. Most people seem to be upgrading their Internet connection speeds. USB connections and Compact Flash readers speed up the data transfer process as well, and storage space problems would be solved with larger and faster Compact Flash cards or an IBM micro-drive. Any of these improvements make the use of video on Windows CE-powered PDAs much more practical.
.H1 Do it for the children
So the last thing I asked myself after loading and trying out the software was this: do I really need the ability to play video? Is it just a gimmick or a toy? Well, whether you want to have video capabilities in the palm of your hand is up to you, but for me, the answer is very clear.
Before I left on my first week long business trip after loading up PocketTV, I captured some home videos of my children in MPEG files and put them on my Casio. Normally, I look at pictures of my kids when I get a little homesick when I’m on the road, but instead I watched them on PocketTV. After that, I never doubted the usefulness of being able to carry around video on a PDA.
.H1 Conclusion
PocketTV allows nearly everyone who has a Windows CE-based PDA to experience mobile video. Whether or not everyone will find a need for it remains to be seen, but the people at MpegTV make it pretty easy to try and find out. The program itself works great, and considering the price (once again
