DVD Catalyst 3 issue

[titans]

So I used the DVD Catalyst 3 program to put a couple movies on my droid, and made sure the screen size was okay. The movies play in almost full screen, with maybe 3/10 cm from each side. However, the left side (maybe the right too) is cut off a little, I can tell because I am watching a movie with some text at the bottom, and it cuts off the first letter or two on the left. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[dvdcatalyst]

DVD to Verizon Droid | Tools4Movies, the official home of DVD Catalyst

Many people ask about full-screen video. There are a few options for this.
1. Handbrake defaults to stretch the video to make it full-screen without loss of actual video. While this works, wit does this by changing the aspect ratio. Movies that normally would not fill the screen, will be stretched in one way, resulting in tall & skinny people, or short and stubby people. To get this behavior in DVD Catalyst, in Global Se3ttings > Conversion, change the crop setting to “Fullscreen Stretch” It will remove black borders from the actual video, and then stretch the video to fill the screen completely.
2. DVD Catalyst defaults to black bar removal from the file. Many DVDs have black padding added to top and bottom to play properly on older (non-wide) TV sets. DVD Catalyst removes the padding, and then scales the video to fit within the selected screen size. It keeps the aspect ratio (people look normal) in tact, however, in most cases you still end up with black borders when viewing the video. You can use the Zoom function in the video player application to make the video full-screen though.
3. DVD Catalyst Full-screen. In Global Settings > Conversion, change the “remove black bars from file” to “remove black bars from device” This will result in DVD Catalyst removing the black padding, and then cut off parts of the sides of the movie to make it full-screen. This is the same as what was used in the past to make full-screen movies on TV.
4. Best of Both. This is a little trick used for the iPhone HQ format. This format uses 720×320 as a screensize, eventhough the device itself has less than that. By using this method, your movie will end up with the full-height of your Droid screen, but also wider (in most cases) than the Droids screen width. (for the droid, pick 1280×480 in DVD Catalyst’s screen size setting) This setting needs to be used with the “Remove black bars from file” black bar removal option. You really do not want to enable “Full-screen stretch” or “Remove black bars from device” for this!
By using this trick, videos will end up with resolutions of 720×480, 900×480, 1024×480 etc.
The idea behind this trick is to give you the best (1 : 1) pixel ratio when you watch a movie full-screen using the Zoom function of the player (thus losing the sides of the movie), but, if you want to watch the full movie width, you just zoom out in the player. Especially for movies like Star Wars, which are wider than other wide-screen movies, this is a great benefit.
More info on black bar removal can be found here (with screenshots)

 

[dvdcatalyst]

If you (or anyone else) has specific questions regarding DVD Catalyst, please email me directly. My response time is very quick (always within 24 hours, but usually instant)
While I do watch these forums and try to help where I can, I do not check them all the time.

 

[jigsawkilr]

With DVD Catalyst do you need to have the movie on the hard drive or will it convert it directly from the disk? I want to use it however I would like to know what im doing before I spend the money.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

With DVD Catalyst do you need to have the movie on the hard drive or will it convert it directly from the disk? I want to use it however I would like to know what im doing before I spend the money.

It rips directly from the DVD. It also converts ISO's and DVDs you might already have ripped to your harddrive using other software. And of course all common video files as well (avi, mkv, mpg etc)

 

[kbrede]

With DVD Catalyst do you need to have the movie on the hard drive or will it convert it directly from the disk? I want to use it however I would like to know what im doing before I spend the money.

I just purchased and used it last night. I noticed it does have an "import from DVD drive" option, however, I did not use it. Whether or not it can handle DRM on protected DVDs, I don't know. I'm going to mess with importing from DVD tonight.
Kent

 

[jigsawkilr]

i will give it a try tonight. Hopefully I can figure it out

 

[dvdcatalyst]

I noticed it does have an "import from DVD drive" option, however, I did not use it. Whether or not it can handle DRM on protected DVDs, I don't know. I'm going to mess with importing from DVD tonight.
Kent

The "Scan for DVD" button is there for people who turn off the "automatic DVD scan" option in Global Settings.
While some DVDs are a bit tricky, DVD Catalyst can handle standard DVDs on the fly (directly from DVD, no other software needed).

 

[dvdcatalyst]

i will give it a try tonight. Hopefully I can figure it out

DVD Catalyst has a LOT of options to play with. If you are new to this, I suggest to use the following steps:

1. Download and install the trial version from the tools4movies.com website. It converts 20% of each item (DVD, movie, video file etc)

2. Select Verizon > Droid from the dropdowns on the left (if you have a dual/quad core computer, or a lot of patience, pick the HQ one)

3. insert a DVD, make sure no other software is accessing the DVD. Usually a DVD player program starts playing when you insert a DVD)

4. Click Go

5. Get coffee/tea/beer

6. transfer video to the Droid.

 

[jigsawkilr]

OK, you make that sound way to easy for a newbie like me. I guess seeing is believing. So the free trial will only let you do 20% of a movie? I will try that and see how hard it is then if it goes well I will buy it. Can't wait till later tonight when I have plenty of time. I am guessing that it will take awhile for the conversion to take place.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

OK, you make that sound way to easy for a newbie like me. I guess seeing is believing. So the free trial will only let you do 20% of a movie? I will try that and see how hard it is then if it goes well I will buy it. Can't wait till later tonight when I have plenty of time. I am guessing that it will take awhile for the conversion to take place.

Yes, the trial converts 20%. Similar apps use a 5-minute limit, but I dont believe that is enough to give an idea on how things work, and what you end up with. It barely gets you through the opening credits. The 20% basically gives you about 20-30 minutes of video for a movie.

The conversion speed depends greatly on your computer. The more powerfull it is, the faster the conversion. Doing a conversion on a Netbook might take quite a while, but on a recent multi-core system, it will go a lot faster.
When you download the trial, also download the (free) boosterpack. It speeds things up a bit more.

 

[jigsawkilr]

where does dvd catalyst save the movie once it is converted

 

[dvdcatalyst]

where does dvd catalyst save the movie once it is converted

by default in your Videos/My Videos folder on your computer. At the bottom left it shows this location. You can use the browse button there to select a different location.
In addition, DVD Catalyst opens the folder for you after the conversion is completed.

 

[jigsawkilr]

OK, Catalyst didn't work either. I did it by the instructions and it says "sorry can not play video". Ok, what did I do wrong?

 

[dvdcatalyst]

1. does the file play on your computer? It should play in Quicktime or VLC
2. when you transfer a file to your Droid, Windows might say it is done, but in a lot of cases it is still transferring the file. (Background transfer) so try transfering the file again, and wait a few minutes before unplugging.
3. Not sure if it applies to the Droid, but some devices can not handle long filenames or special characters in the filename. Try renaming the file to something like test or something along those lines.