Nook Color: Can't Play sideloaded m4v videos

[Rebo]

Originally Posted by btn

Thanks bbz_ghost, exodus1999 and baki no kami,

After a bunch of tries I was able to convert a mp4. As was stated the latest version of handbrake did not work, I needed to use the beta. Also I needed to reboot the nook.

Need to ask a dumb question. How do you reboot the nook? I tried holding the power down for 5 seconds, release and then hold the power down again for 2 seconds as some have instructed. But the nook comes back on immediately after I pushed the power the 2nd time so I don't even have a chance to hold it for 2 seconds. I am not sure if I am doing the rebooting correctly.

[bbz_Ghost]

Originally Posted by Rebo

Need to ask a dumb question. How do you reboot the nook? I tried holding the power down for 5 seconds, release and then hold the power down again for 2 seconds as some have instructed. But the nook comes back on immediately after I pushed the power the 2nd time so I don't even have a chance to hold it for 2 seconds. I am not sure if I am doing the rebooting correctly.

I could be wrong on that but it's the technique that I've seen mentioned most of all - the User's Guide says hold it ~3 seconds, choose Power off on the option that appears onscreen and then wait for it to power off.

I believe it's rebooted by holding the power for 15 seconds or more, then you get the power off option. Damn, I swear, I wish I had a Nook Color right now.

It'll probably be February before I can manage to get one... crap. CRAP!

As for a sticky, I'm working on the guide which should hopefully be the better candidate for such a topic depending on how things work out. If it does, great, if not, no big deal I suppose. As long as someone out there is able to start making great looking videos (with audio, of course) for their Nook Color, it's worth the effort.

Originally Posted by French

Anyway, if my original movie is only 720 x 480...how are you bumping UP the resolution?

I'm not - I did mention that the clips I had made (aside from the Harry Potter one) came from HD file sources, movie trailers in 720p format (they're originally about 1280x544 resolution). The only way to get files to "max out" at the 848 pixel wide limit - again, it's a math thing even though the Nook Color supports up to 854 pixels wide - is if your source material is larger than that in terms of resolution.

Native DVD format resolution is 720x480 max (NTSC in North America, PAL in other parts of the world is 720x576 iirc.

So the best you'll get from converting an actual DVD to an mp4 or m4v file (same basic thing as far as playback is concerned) is 720 pixels wide, and the height will be determined by the aspect ratio of the source material. There's no way to "upscale" videos during the conversion process - that would create a lot of artifacting and is generally regarded as a very bad thing to do.

The Harry Potter clip came directly from my retail Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire DVD ripped to my hard drive, hence it's 720 pixels wide natively and the aspect ration brings in the height at 304 pixels.

Let the device itself do the upscaling as necessary which is what happens when you play a 720 pixel wide clip and it plays full screen anyway.

[nyrath]

Originally Posted by Rebo

Need to ask a dumb question. How do you reboot the nook? I tried holding the power down for 5 seconds, release and then hold the power down again for 2 seconds as some have instructed. But the nook comes back on immediately after I pushed the power the 2nd time so I don't even have a chance to hold it for 2 seconds. I am not sure if I am doing the rebooting correctly.

I had trouble with that as well. I'm not sure, but I think the key point is to minimize the time between the 5 second hold and the 2 second hold.

That is: hold for 5 seconds, release for a tiny fraction of a second as you immediately start the hold for 2 seconds.

You know you have rebooted when the screen goes black and you get a message about the Nook starting up. If the nook comes back immediately it has NOT rebooted.

[French]

Originally Posted by bbz_Ghost

I'm not - I did mention that the clips I had made (aside from the Harry Potter one) came from HD file sources, movie trailers in 720p format (they're originally about 1280x544 resolution). The only way to get files to "max out" at the 848 pixel wide limit - again, it's a math thing even though the Nook Color supports up to 854 pixels wide - is if your source material is larger than that in terms of resolution.

Native DVD format resolution is 720x480 max (NTSC in North America, PAL in other parts of the world is 720x576 iirc.

So the best you'll get from converting an actual DVD to an mp4 or m4v file (same basic thing as far as playback is concerned) is 720 pixels wide, and the height will be determined by the aspect ratio of the source material. There's no way to "upscale" videos during the conversion process - that would create a lot of artifacting and is generally regarded as a very bad thing to do.

The Harry Potter clip came directly from my retail Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire DVD ripped to my hard drive, hence it's 720 pixels wide natively and the aspect ration brings in the height at 304 pixels.

Let the device itself do the upscaling as necessary which is what happens when you play a 720 pixel wide clip and it plays full screen anyway.

Just to be sure on your last sentence...the player should be filling the screen? Because mine definitely doesn't for the movies I converted last night (but previous ones are fine)

[steffner]

I have a question for you guys. Have any of you been able to burn a copy of LOTR and have it play on the NC. I've tried 3 different programs (Handbrake and WinXDVD and a third which I can't remember the name of). Handbrake will not even recognize the disc and the other 2 will copy the movie but when I move it over to the NC it says that the file is unplayable. I've tried about every MP4 resolution including some of the recommendations from this thread with no luck. I do know that the disc has some sort of .exe file that it wants to install to play the files but other than that, I'm at a loss. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks

Stephen.

[Rebo]

Originally Posted by bbz_Ghost

As for a sticky, I'm working on the guide which should hopefully be the better candidate for such a topic depending on how things work out. If it does, great, if not, no big deal I suppose. As long as someone out there is able to start making great looking videos (with audio, of course) for their Nook Color, it's worth the effort.

What happened to the guide that you made for the NC? The thread appeared for one afternoon and then I couldn't find it anymore. The instructions you gave for converting DVD for view on the NC was great. A lot of my co-workers are so impressed that they are going off to get the NC themselves. The video clip that I made from the DVD is obviously inferior to the HD qualify video clip that you made for the "Green lantern" and "Megamind". I have a couple of Blu-ray DVDs but I don't think DVDdecrytor works for them. I'll have to do more research in this area to see how this can be done.

Thanks again

[Souzou]

Great thread, very helpful.

But has anyone else had difficulty changing the width or height in Handbrake? No matter what I try, the picture tab is completely greyed out, even the Anamorphic line. It won't let me edit or change any features. The other tabs work fine.

[Amafan]

I used the Deluxe edition of Cucusoft used the native iPad settings to convert some material to H.264 MP4. All the videos worked great on the NC.

[French]

Originally Posted by Amafan

I used the Deluxe edition of Cucusoft used the native iPad settings to convert some material to H.264 MP4. All the videos worked great on the NC.

I have this as well, but must say that Handbrake is MUCH faster!

[AbsentSpoon]

Okay So now Im going to ask a Noob question.
If I want to edit a DVD to play on my NC do I have to first burn the DVD to my computer using DVD decrypter or another program and then edit in Handbrake? I cant get Handbrake to access the VOB files that are on the DVD to edit..

[SCION]

Just found this on a B&N forum. Person says there's a one-click conversion process with the NOOKcolor as a device choice. It's Windows based, but I know many Mac folks use Windows on their machine.

My husband downloaded a program called DVD Catalyst (I think it was around $10) that rips DVD's for a variety of devices. He's been using it for months to put movies on his Droid X, and it just added a setting for Nook Color to automatically optimize video files for us. It has worked PERFECTLY and now I just need a bigger microSD card so I can carry around more of my favorite movies and shows!

http://www.tools4movies.com/

[rams]

Wow, this is exactly what I've been having problems with! I'm trying to sideload .flv videos that I have downloaded from YouTube. What video format did you start out with?Any suggestions on the .flv?

[rams]

OK bbz_Ghost, you obviously have forgotten more than I'll ever know about video formatting, encoding, etc. In a work, awesome. Everything you have posted makes sense, I've tried them, and they all work flawlessly. Now I want to create my own videos starting out with something simple like a youtube video downloaded using YouTube Downloader. It seems the default extension is .flv (whatever that is...). No matter what I try I can't seem to get Handshake to spit out anything that works on my rooted NC. Any suggestions?

[boswd]

Originally Posted by rams

OK bbz_Ghost, you obviously have forgotten more than I'll ever know about video formatting, encoding, etc. In a work, awesome. Everything you have posted makes sense, I've tried them, and they all work flawlessly. Now I want to create my own videos starting out with something simple like a youtube video downloaded using YouTube Downloader. It seems the default extension is .flv (whatever that is...). No matter what I try I can't seem to get Handshake to spit out anything that works on my rooted NC. Any suggestions?

he had a great thread on how to do the video but the mods closed it for who knows what reason.

[rams]

Got it! Using .flv file and the default HandBrake video settings (720x400), changed audio settings to 48 Khz/128kbps and it worked fine. Still couldn't have done it without you guys. Thanks!