Video-A-Go-Go

Creating Multimedia Content for Handheld Devices

A big question -----WHY?

• NTSC video (the stuff we watch now) is not far removed from 320x240 resolution
• Programming that is not resolution dependent is perfectly appropriate
• Streaming delivery + Cell Phone + Sensible Wireless Network Plan = A new viewer experience

A Quick Update on the State of the Art

Palm has introduced two new models:

Tungsten C

• 320x320 Color Display
• 400 Mhz Xscale Processor
• Monophonic Audio Record and Playback
• Built in 802.11b wireless networking
• MMC/SD Card support with SDIO

Zire 71

• 320x320 Color Display
• 144 mhz OMAP processor
• Stereo Playback
• Built in Camera supports up to 640x480 resolution
• MMC/SD Card support with SDIO

Many of Sony's Models include MP3 playback. The current top of the heap is the NZ90:

• Still Image and Video Capture - 1600x1200 resolution stills, 320x240/160x120 Mpeg-4 Video
• "Communications Slot" aka Compact Flash slot for 802.11b card
• 480x320 display
• mpeg-1, mpeg-4, mp3 playback
• $799 retail price!

Meanwhile......over at the Microsoft Ranch.....

The biggest news for the Pocket PC platform is.....that they have standardised.......

Dell now has 10 % -17% of the Handheld Computer market. They have only been shipping since November.

Several companies now shipping PocketPC/Phone Combo units.

What About Cell Phones?

Nokia ships several phones with streaming media support

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/3650

http://www.realnetworks.com/mobile/player/nokia60/install3650.html

.....and the Nokia N-Gage....

http://www.n-gage.com/n-gage/home.html

Sony-Ericsson are shipping the a few models as well....notably the P800

Design Issues

• 320x240 Display is typical for a PocketPC Device.
• Audio Support is assumed for PocketPC but not Palm
• Low CPU useage
• Small Deliverables
• Greatly Simplified User Input

Media Players for Palm

Many have come and gone....

http://www.genericmedia.com

Kinoma Player

• Good news -- supports both Windows and Mac for Encoding
• Bad news -- you have to re-encode your content -- no native file support
• Sort of good news......streaming support coming

http://www.kinoma.com

RealOne for Palm (Only plays back Real and mp3 audio content on SD cards)

http://www.realnetworks.com/mobile/index.html

Players For Pocket PC

Windows Media Player

http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/software/mediaplayer.asp

RealOne Player for Pocket PC (Only Plays Back RealMedia Content)

http://www.realnetworks.com/mobile/index.html

Pocket Divx player (Hasn't been updated in a while)

http://www.projectmayo.com/projects/detail.php?projectId=9

Pocket MVP (Newer Player with updated Divx support, On2, Ogg-Vorbis, mpeg-1, mp3)

http://home.adelphia.net/~mdukette/downloads.html

Flash ActiveX Player for PocketPC

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/download/

Content Creation Tools

Macromedia PocketPC Flash Development Kit -- for both the Mac and PC. Includes a bunch of widgets, sample code and more.

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashplayer/pocketpc/devkit/

StandAlone Flash Player for PocketPC -- Lets you create stand alone flash executables for the PocketPC......for the low, low price of $499.00!

Media Cleaner Pro is great if you are doing a lot of video compression. It's easy to set up batch options for optimising content for handhelds, and includes Kinoma Producer support.

http://www.discreet.com/products/cleaner/

Kinoma's Main Site for Kinoma Producer -- if you don't own cleaner, and want to make movies and QTVR files for your Palm, this is the way to go.

http://www.kinoma.com

Divx's Commercial Site (where to get Divx compression tools, players). They finally have Mac OS support!

The free version will do the job, but the "Pro" version includes important features such as scaling, better bandwidth management etc. However.....be warned that the "Pro" version installs adware unless you buy it.

http://www.divx.com

Resources

Pocket PC Flash -- site devoted to developing Flash for PocketPC Devices. Make sure to visit the examples section for some very cool downloads.

http://www.pocketpcflash.net/home.htm

RealNetwork's Site on Creating Mobile Media

http://www.realnetworks.com/mobile/create/index.html