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TheKompany Releases DivX Software For Zaurus
An anonymous reader writes: "InfoSync has an article on DivX for the Zaurus. Finally, you can watch movies on the go!" Between this and theKompany's ogg player, the Zaurus looks cool. It's a little chunkier perhaps, but another reader points out that Archos is now taking pre-orders for its do-everything Jukebox Multimedia device, which might be another option for those seeking a portable anything box.
lord
Of course, you can only see TRAILERS for movies with this thing because of the size (regardless of being in DiVX compression). Any what kind of FPS and resolution do these things have?
Just because I have linux installed on my toilet and can run movies does NOT make it newsworthy!!!
HAABA HAABA HOO!
here
Link to OpenDivX for Zaurus
i never did get why a divx player wasnt ported from any other linux project. i don't know much about the Zaurus, but it should be able to handle a standard X app, shouldn't it? If not, it uses java, right? Wouldn't it be technically possible to write a divx player in java? Either way, we shouldn't be charging for this shit. Just look to DCDivX for an example of an embedded dreamcast player.
Kazaa for PDAs?
Only problem is HD size.. if a DIVX movie is huge, seems like you can't fit very much on one small PDA...
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
Ummm...let's not forget that it has a builtin compact flash and SD slot in that footprint, shall we? How big do the other guys get when you add the special sleeves and adapters to do that? Not to mention the integrated keyboard.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
I saw bourne-identity listed in the playlist on the picture. Has this movie been released on DVD yet?
It seems like everyone in the world, particularly the US and Japan, is looking towards more and more sensory overload for happiness. I mean, seriously, do we need a cell phone, PDA, pager, and a DivX player all vying for our attention every moment of our day? Will this make us any happier, or will it push us further into becoming the attention-less, cynical pricks we silently feel ourselves becoming?
All these stimuli are really going to do a number on us in the long run, mark my words. I fear for two generations from now, who will grow up in a world of stimulation we can't even currently dream of.
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Anyone who names thier company The Kompany should be dragged out into the street and shot.
This is just the thing for a small portable sales demo tool. It has one of the best screens.
Get a free ipod.
Let's see - the Zaurus offers 32megs of storage. Extend that to 256 if you buy an expensive CF card. That's nothing compared to the 700 megs of a typical DivX movie.
Now, if you really want to watch movies on your Zaurus during a flight, you'll have to export nfs shares from your laptop, and have the zaurus connect to it (everything on top of 802.11b, that's cooler that way).
Apart from watching pr0n during a meeting/flight, what is the point ?
mmmhhhh, just checked out the
specs a bit and this thing
features a ridiculous 1.5"
237 x 234 pixels screen....
that thing should have a
800x600 minimum resolution
screen taking up the whole
back, so it could be used
as a portable picture book
as well...
chees 1.5", my digicam has a
bigger one....
n/t = no text.
No to troll, but isn't theKompany offering commercial closed-source solutions as well? Every fucker goes and support their OSS movement, like you, the luser (Linux user, not offending). I'm sure they have been funding the OSS movement big time, just their funding is internal only...
Ha, what you expect though, a luser will always be a Linux user...
I've noticed that theKompany's got the best Zaurus software, but they don't offer demos on anything. Does anybody know why? Particularly on a device like the Z, where there is effectively no commercial competition, I'd like to be able to evaluate their software before I buy it. After all, it could stink, who would know? Not saying it does, just saying that unlike in the Palm world, for instance, theKompany doesn't have 10 competitors breathing down its neck and making sure the quality stays high.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
What better use could a device like this provide than streaming video over it's 802.11b connection? Not sure why I would want they but it sounds like a good idea.
Anyone have expierience with battery time using a 802.11b connection for something like that? I keep getting more and more reasons I want one of those SL-5500 things. I would probably only use it for each of those reasons once though...
What's the killer "keep using it" app for these?
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
I want to see a picture of a dancing chicken on that.
Here is a Mplayer-Zaurus Howto
Never learn by your mistakes, if you do you may never dare to try again
"One second. Friends is almost over."
=-Jippy
being playing divx on my ipaq for ages..
:)
take a look at BBPlay.
Open source divx player
Works fine for me and should work on the zaurus (same cpu)
If the colour LCD screens are now good enough to handle "movies", these PDAs would make a handy portable TV receiver too. That would also open up a whole new market segment for these currently "geeky" gadgets: the consumers.
PDA-with-TV&Tivo-in-your-pocket?
What pieces are still missing until that can happen?
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
theKompany [sic] has released a program for the Zaurus, a DivX player called tkcVideo.
The program supports video in:
And audio in:
It seems to be proprietary, it costs $14.95, and there is no demo available.
IMHO, I don't think yet another piece of proprietary software like this is newsworthy. Maybe if it were open source...
You can look at it here
mpeg_encoding_howto
Enjoy
Benjamin Meyer
Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
And if you say it enough, you might even start to believe it!
The problem with you guys in Canada is not that we don't care about you, but a lot of the time we forget you aren't just part of the US. You are so much like us that you have Canadian cultural laws in order to keep from just being the US. We have to wait until we hear the word "aboot" and then we know if someone is Canadian on TV... but we have no other way of even knowing. And we don't even have to dial a country code to call someone in Canada.
So stop crying already... you get all the benefits of being the USA without any of the crappy stuff, like having everyone hate you and being right in the middle of everyone's business, and stuff like that.
Battery life has to improve drastically (currently about 2 hours in developer's model)
Standard apps (calendar/address book) need to be as good as the standard ones available on Palm
Without those basics, the 'Wow' applications make neat demos, but won't win market share.
Subscribers can see articles in the future? So what? Everyone gets to see them in the future.
the only people that should use the word we are people with multiple personalities and tape worms.
maybe you are just cynical, but i enjoy seeing new products, even if i wouldnt get one.
because guess what, this leads closer and closer to all in one devices that i will want
url: http://kirk.math.twsu.edu/family/james/mplayer.htm l
While consumer-level services that use Linux on the backend are well established, with examples such as Google and Amazon, consumer products are just now showing their colors.
Everyone loves their TiVo, a device that makes TV worth watching, and the Zaurus has reached a critical mass where there is enough mindshare to facilitate the development of tons of great custom software for the Linux based PDA. So what will we see next? I think that it would be nice to see the Zaurus technology used in a mobile phone.
For many, PDAs are great, but for most, PDAs take a backseat to their mobile phone. Why not cut the chase and combine the two?
So typical of you arrogant Capitalistic American Pigs. You're all so full of yourselves all the time. You all think that the US is the most important or most advanced country on the planet.
This is why you deserved everything you got dealt last sept.
Interesting idea: combine open 802.11b network with local hard drive full of multimedia content connected to it.
Imagine having a spare hour to kill waiting for class. You walk on over to the nearest dorm, boot up your slick PDA / laptop and check the ether for some movies to keep you busy. Seems like it would have some potential.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
>So, a company releases a proprietary DivX player
-Yes... tckPlayer is propriatary
>for a proprietary window system
-Nope... The windowing system and toolkit are GPL. For an entirely GPLed enviroment that will still run standard Zaurus apps (minus Java for now, sorry) see Opie which is the UI for OpenZaurus. We're building a player for all these formats as I type this.
>running on hardware that's mostly used in Japan
-Nope again. The Zaurus 5500 is a US/EU product.
Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
No you are not, you are beating it to the GoatSe guy. Why can't you trolls be honest about it?
Well said. Canada could be a really nice neighbor if we could all just get along
The window system is also released under the GPL, but it is still proprietary, in that its development is currently driven by a commercial company.
Nope again. The Zaurus 5500 is a US/EU product.
The Linux-based Zaurus line is primarily used in Asia; US and European usage is miniscule.
My point remains: the release of a proprietary app for a proprietary handheld is of little interest to me or other people in the open source community.
Of course, the usual KDE and Zaurus zealots will also mod this message down to oblivion. Go ahead, live out your little power trips. I have lots of karma.
They even have RealVideo version 1 and mjpeg. Who even uses realvideo version 1, unless you encode it with ffmpeg?
I think this is more than a conincidence. I also heard the author of ffmpeg got an email that the many error codes in tkcVideo are very similiar to ffmpeg...
and there is no WAY they could have written those codecs by themselves in the short amount of time. No fuckin way...
yeah a 1,5 inch screen is very small, but it gives you over 5 houres of battery life for video playback and 10 houres if you only use the player for playing back mp3s and navigating.
Such screen is enough for navigating through files, then for watching the DivX video you use the integrated tv-output to watch on your big-screen TV, or you use a pair of video-glasses from olympus.
DivX on PDAs is not a new thing, and you can't use the whole PDA screens to display video. The video resolution on those PDAs also Yaurus is limited to 320x240 pixels, the Archos MultiMedia will support maybe even full resolution at full framerate!! (for now it's only 352x288 resolution Mpeg4 simple profile, but DivXNetworks are developping a firmware upgrade for the thing to playback DivX at full resolution using this Texxas INstruments DSC25 processor which is inside the Archos MultiMedia.)
Also the Archos MultiMedia will be able to record DivX video in real-time to CIF resolution using a tv-in connection or the camera module (with mp3 audio)!! (camera which can be used as still digital camera with 1,3 Megapixels with 2x digital zoom and flash)
At first I thought "what a complete waste. Cool, but useless." Then I realized, it has a very good practical use. It would be ideal for viewing training videos. The test equipment I work with is pretty complex. It'd be nice to have a small display that you could easily move around while you're watching. If your computer (laptop or desktop) is on your desk, and your equipment is in a lab, this would be much easier to move around. Just a thought before everyone says "stupid idea." (makes you wonder... posting a message saying "lame" or doing something cool but preceived as lame. I wonder which is actually useless.)
Who needs the PDA, Cell phone etc when there is slashdot???
-- Many men would appreciate a woman's mind more if they could fondle it
oh yeah, this Archos MultiMedia can store over 100 houres of video at low bitrate, or 50 houres of video at high bitrate meaning approx 800kbit/S, and this high quality video being 25 700mb movies in FULL RESOLUTION.. also if you want you can upgrade you can upgrade with a 40gb or even 60gb or larger harddrive (when they will be available in the adequate laptop pc drive size that fits in the Archos MultiMedia)
Also it has firewire anbd USB2 connection to your PC.
Damn I think the Archos MultiMedia is amayzing, I hope slashdot are writing about it as it deserves to be written about..
Does anyone know of a USB hard drive that can interface with the Zaurus?
It would be REALLY cool if I could put my DivX movies on my Archos 20 gig USB drive and connect it to the Zaurus, via USB, which would act as the DivX player. I could have a collection of 20 movies or so to watch on the airplane without having to lug around a whole laptop!
If this hasn't already been done I can see a valid business plan for building one, I just wish I had the time/funding to play around with the idea myself!
That sounds about as useful as a Swiss army knife that has a screwdriver, tweezers, scissors, etc. but -- oops -- doesn't have a knife blade.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
FOOBAZ
Note this is the latest version, not a mirror of the ancient one at ProjectMayo. Oh, and this one even has OGG support, and a nice graphic EQ (which only works with MP3s for the moment.
It's FREE with SOURCE, but I'd highly recommend you DONATE for continued development of the project.
As for all the stupid "but it won't play a 700MB DivX movie" comments, well no shit! Considering most PDAs have screen res.'s of 320x240 and crap audio capabilities, what's the point in playing a DVD-quality encoded movie? You have to RE-ENCODE IT!
Advisable settings for re-encoding for PocketPC (and probably other PDAs) - using VirtualDub:
Resize to 320x240 (bicubic) and decimate the framerate by 2 (so if your source was 30FPS it'll now be 15FPS). By all means try at 25FPS though, it may work, but if not and you want to keep the framerate then make the video smaller, eg. 160x120
Sharpen moderately (to counteract the softening effect of the resize)
Use 2-pass encoding, and aim for around 192-256KBPS bit-rate.
Encode audio using a decent MP3 codec NOT the default DivX codec (well certainly not DivX 4's audio codec, as it used WMA and will eat the PPC's CPU). Personally I'd just go for 16 bit mono 22KHz at 24kbps, but if you want stereo then experiment a bit to see what works best.
Remember when you're encoding that you're trading off one thing for another, ie. video size vs. video FPS vs. video bitrate vs. audio stereo/mono vs. audio bitrate, so experiment until you find a combination that works for you.
Personally I've got a high-quality 2hr movie onto a 256MB CF card no problems, at 320x240 25fps with audio, so it's definitely possible.
PocketDivX kicks ass!
I think this is more than a conincidence. I also heard the author of ffmpeg got an email that the many error codes in tkcVideo are very similiar to ffmpeg...
Ok, yes, you're probably right, it probably does use ffmpeg. What's the big deal? As you point out, ffmpeg is LGPL'ed, which allows proprietary applications to link to it. Any modifications they make to ffmpeg would have to be released, but I'm betting they had to make zero, zilch, none. A Zaurus is just a fairly typical ARM Linux system. As long as they're using a standard shared library version of ffmpeg, supply a copy of the LGPL somewhere, and give credits to ffmpeg in the about box and a pointer to where the LGPL is, they are in the clear. That's not really asking a lot. If they do this, they don't even have to provide ffmpeg source. At least, this is how I and quite a few people read the LGPL.
The LGPL is quite a different beast to the GPL, and that's by design.
Technically sure it is possible to write a divx player in Java. But what you would expect? 3-5 fps? I'm afraid no one is willing to use it even it is free.
I just got it yesterday to try out. It's pretty sweet. The sound could be a lot better though (but then I have loads of servers running on my SL-5000).
It doesn't like secure digital cards and I couldn't even install the software to the SD card, I had to install it to RAM to get it to work.
Certainly worth $15.
Do you know anything about Java 2D? Java 3D?
What you Anti-Java people know is "Java is slow."
When did you last visited Sun's site and learned about the latest improvements in JIT compilers etc?
Do you have a Zaurus and tested Java on Zaurus?
Stop showing degree of your idiocy and spreading Java FUD.
Idiot.
Dear Bill, do you have a
Does anybody have any details of the levels of performance (frame rate, etc.) of this player on the Zaurus? I've seen DivX players for other PDAs that play at 6fps, which means you only get to see 1/4 of a film!
sorry, I am not anti-java. just consider a right tool for a right job.
.NET.
if you played DivX movie on low-end machine before, you will understand why I consider about the speed.
what's hell with those java evangelists nowadays? it will only make more ppl switch to M$
okay, I go agree that thing coded in Java must faster than coded in the all other languages(with some optimization, a better JIT, bah bah bah...). plz forgive a little idiot like me.