technophobe_gal

Just to let you know, after a bit of testing, the settings I am now using for Handbrake are 244kbps and 25 frames a second, that got the hour and a half film I was testing the settings on down to 248.9MB, the quality looks good to my eyes on the A80* screen, and I have good eyesight! I find that the screen is a good size for 4:3 viewing, but maybe a little small for widesreen with the black bars at the top and bottom. I'll probably get some stick for this, but I'm a big fan of 'Friends' and have put a few of the episodes from the first series on, they look great as they are natively 4:3 so fill the screen! I can see me never being bored on a bus or train journey again!

I also got an email back saying there would be no update available. Now I have mastered getting smaller (but still good quality) MPEG-4 video files onto my A805 though this doesn't bother me as much as it did before, when I wanted to be able to use WMV.

Yay, I've finally got a DVD onto my A805! I've been trying for days! I didn't download anything else, I used Handbrake and the MPEG-4 setting instead of H.264, I specified a maximum 500MB file and 25 frames per second. The film is just over 1 and a half hours long, it's really good quality so I'm now seeing how small I get can the file before the quality decreases. Thanks everyone for your help.

I haven't downloaded the packs yet as I've been trying Handbrakes other H.264 option to see if this works, it's taking it's time though. I'm not sure what codecs are, how would I know which one I need to make it work?

I'll probably download the full one then, thanks for replying!

I've been having the same problem with Handbrake, I've used the H.264 Baseline 1.3 and the H.264 (ipod) setting and neither worked. Image converter told me that they weren't supported and manually putting them into the Walkman Video folder didn't work either, the player refused to play them. I will install the K-Lite and DivX codecs (although I'm not sure what this means?) and see if it works, I've noticed with the K-Lite one that there are different versions, basic, standard and full, any idea if just the standard one includes what I need? Also, is the DivX codec a free download I wasn't sure looking at the site? Thanks in advance. Edit: Just noticed a basic K-Lite codec also.

I sincerely hope they release a new firmware update, it would be great to be able to use Windows Media files on my A805, and to be able to drag and drop, much quicker than connecting through Sonic Stage. However, Sony Customer Support told me today that they won't be releasing a new firmware update.

Sorry, double post.

Thanks for replying, would changing the settings mean the quality is poor? I did change them to what other people were suggesting when using the other programs that I downloaded, but I wasn't really sure what was for what, and what it would do to the video. If that makes sense? I used PSP Video 9, which made the file the same size as using image converter. I used DVD Shrink with the intention of using Handbrake afterwards, however, Handbrake didn't want to accept and change the file. It said that encoding had started, but then it said it had finished straight afterwards. I didn't use the Xilisoft trial as it would only have done 5 minutes and I wouldn't really have been able to tell file size. There are far too many settings which you can change on the programs which I don't understand at all, so I didn't want to spend an hour for it to encode and then it be rubbish to watch because it wasn't good enough quality or framerate or whatever.

Sorry to reply to my own thread... I've phoned Sony Customer Services to see what they said about the file sizes, apparently 'that's just what happens' when you convert to mp4! I really wish I'd have known this before I bought only a 2GB player. As my name says, I really don't know much about the technicalities of technology so thought mp4 would be the same size as WMV. They also said there would be no firmware update to make the A800 series like the A810 series. So now I'm stuck with having either 2 an hour and a half videos and a few songs, or just songs (which my ipod mini that works perfectly fine would do!) I was really hoping to be able to have more videos than that, to keep me going whilst travelling.

Hi, I'm sorry if I'm going over old ground here... I might sound like I know what I'm talking about by using various words/terms, but I really don't! I've been reading various posts on how to get from DVD to my lovely new A805, so for the past 2 days I've been downloading various programs (DVD Shrink, PSP Video 9, Handbrake, Xilisoft Trial) and I don't seem to be having much luck, so I've conceeded that I probably need to ask for help, I would prefer to use free programs if at all possible! I already had DVD Decrypter on my computer, which I had used before with Windows Media Encoder to make WMV files for my PDA, same resolution as for the Sony, this worked perfectly and it made an hour and a half film into a 163MB file. Using Image Coverter 3 and PSP Video 9 to make an mp4 file from this makes the same film 560MB this is something I wasn't expecting as I don't understand how it can make it a bigger file, it can't make it any better quality can it?! Is there any way I can make a smaller file by using different programs, etc? With me only having the 2GB player it's a bit disappointing that the files are so big. Had I have known that they would be so large in mp4 format I might have reconsidered my purchase! I know Sony have bought out the new players which now allow Windows Media, I've read differing views as to whether they will bring out a new firmware for the Atrac Devices to allow this. Basically, I would be ever so grateful if someone could give me an idiots guide, as simple as possible, how to make smaller file mp4's to play on the A805. I don't really understand the different settings on the programs and what they mean as to the quality or such like. Thanks in advance!