SmartMovie Q&A

SmartMovie Questions and Answers

What is SmartMovie?

SmartMovie is primarily a video player for mobile devices. Additionally, there’s a powerful PC converter utility included with the product, which allows you to create video files for playback on your mobile device. Together, these two programs are a complete solution to your video creation and playback on your mobile device.

Where can I buy SmartMovie?

To find the internet shop where you can purchase a license for the software, open the Register menu in the player and there you’ll find the web address of the internet shop from where you have downloaded the trial version. You can also purchase directly from developer.

When using the Converter, sometimes the image is grayed, and “Demo” is written in the picture. How do I remove these demo limitations?

In order to remove these demo features from SmartMovie PC converter, you must first have a valid license for the player on your mobile device.

After you bought and entered the license key for the SmartMovie player installed on the device, you can unlock the PC converter. You should follow this procedure.

Why is it that some videos cannot be played on my PC and some other videos can be played?

Video and audio in movies may be encoded in different formats (using different codecs). The most common reason that some movies are not loaded into the converter or other PC players is that the particular codec for this type of video or audio is not present. You may have to download a codec (or codec pack) and install the DirectShow codecs on your PC. You may read more about codecs here:

http://www.lonelycatgames.com/mobile/smartmovie/faq_codecs.html.

Some films are not loaded into the PC converter. What’s wrong?

Here is the same answer as for the previous question. The SmartMovie converter uses DirectShow codecs for playing and converting movies, and thus depends on codecs, which are installed on the user’s PC. In general, movies that can be played in any PC video player should be loaded into the SmartMovie converter, however there may be cases when the converter opens files which cannot be opened by other video players, or conversely the PC player is able to open a file, but the converter cannot open the file.

What kind of compression is used for creating audio and video?

Audio is compressed using mp3 layer 3 compression.

Video is compressed by the codec which you select in the Converter. There may be many codecs present, so be sure that you select one that can be played on your device. Please visit the developer’s web site to download codecs for your specific device, and to compress video using a compatible video format.

The compressed video clip is stored in the standard AVI format.

How can I configure a video codec?

A video codec can be selected and configured using the Configure button in the Video settings area of the Converter window. After pressing this button, a dialog screen pops up, in which you can select the preferred codec, and adjust the parameters.

Note that, because codecs are actually 3^rd party applications, there’re several ways how they can be configured. Some codecs provide its own configuration dialogs, in this case the Options button in the Codec configuration is available, and brings up the codec options dialog screen. The options available by the settings you have selected are beyond the scope of this help. But basically, the most interesting setting to look for is the bi rate, which affects the quality and size of the resulting clip.

Some codecs do not provide their own configuration dialogs, but allow adjusting of the bit-rate in the Converter main window.

Can I convert QuickTime MOV and RealMedia RM files?

Yes, if you have appropriate codecs installed. You may download and install codec from following location: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm (QuickTime) and http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm (RealMedia). This will allow you to open MOV and RM files in SmartMovie Converter.

Why is it that sometimes the Bitrate option in Video settings is grayed out?

As described in the answer above, some codecs have their own parameter settings and the Converter has no direct way to control the bitrate, than by displaying the codec’s options dialog. If this is the case, it is also not possible to determine the proposed size of the converted clip.

What is the optimal compression ratio for video?

For video, compression depends on the size of the screen. If you multiply the destination resolution of the video, you get the number of image pixels; then you can roughly use the following table:

- - less than 20.000: 64kbps compression

- - 20.000 – 30.000: 80 kbps

- - more than 30.000: 112kbps

It is not recommended to use a too high bit rate for video, because the processor of the device will not be powerful enough to decode video in real-time and thus frames will be skipped, and the quality will suffer instead of being improved. So use the video bitrate settings wisely.

What is optimal compression ratio for audio?

For audio, typically 16KHz in 16kbps is fine to understand conversations in a movie. For music clips, you may want to increase the bitrate possibly to 32kbps or more. Note that if you use stereo sound, the bit rate will still be the same as with mono sound, but the sound quality will be lower because two channels need to be encoded. So if your device doesn’t play stereo sound, or you’re satisfied with mono sound, you should use mono sound. Furthermore, there’s no point to use a higher frequency than your device supports, because it will be scaled back to the frequency which can be played on your device. For example, Series60 phone plays audio at 16KHz.

Can I use stereo sound?

You may compress audio in stereo quality (if the source clip contains stereo sound). But there’re a few things to keep in mind:

some devices are not capable to play stereo sound, even when the headphones are plugged in; in this case stereo clip will be converted to mono on your device
stereo sound requires more CPU processing, so the video framerate (speed) may be lower when you use stereo sound quality
using the same bitrate, stereo audio may be of a lower quality than the same audio in mono, because with the same amount of data two channels must be encoded instead of one

Generally, if you can live without stereo sound, you shouldn’t use it (on today’s mobile devices) and select mono conversion in the Converter. You’ll save more CPU power for smoother video playback.

What does the ‘reduce frames’ checkbox means in the converter screen?

When you check this option, the video will be converted into half of the frame rate as the original. For example, if the source clip has 25 fps (frames per second), the converted clip will have 12.5 fps. It is strongly recommended to use this setting, because mobile device doesn’t have enough processing power to play back video in high frame rates. Also, you’ll increase overall video quality if the frame rate is lower. Usually, the half frame rate (10-15 fps) is sufficient enough for watching video on your mobile device.

Why changing some options, such as audio frequency, portrait/landscape mode, mono/stereo does not affect the size of the converted AVI file?

The mentioned settings do not affect the size of the resulting converted AVI file, but they affect the quality of the video clip. The option that affects the file size is the bit rate – how many bits are needed per second to compress video and audio, regardless of the screen size or the audio frequency. So if you increase the screen size (by selecting landscape mode) while keeping the same bit rate, the quality of the video will be lower because more screen pixels need to be compressed using the same amount of information.

Where are my converted videos stored?

Converted videos are placed into a folder. You may change the location of the folder in the Options menu in the converter. By default, the folder is placed on your desktop with the name SmartMovie converted files. To open the folder with converted clips, press the Files button in the converter.

Can I setup Converter to convert multiple files?

Yes. When you clisk Open button, a file browser appears where you can select multiple files. All selected files will be added into Files listbox in top-left part of Converter’s windows. You may also include additional files by clicking Add files button above the listbox.

During conversion, all the source files will be converted, each into separate file.

Can I also split one source file into multiple segments?

Yes. Open a file (or click a file in File list), then click Split button. Additional entry in the listbox will be added after selected file, and each entry will cover one half of selected file segment.

How can I define time segment in file to be converted?

You may see and adjust the time range of file which will be converted in the Time trackbar at the bottom of Converter’s window. The bar represents entire video length, and filled part in the bar represents selected time range, that will be converted.

You may adjust the range in two ways:

- Choose time, and click Set start or Set end buttons to setup start/end time.

- Hold down Shift key while dragging the slider on the time bar to set start or end time (the one which is closer to the slider).

If you choose Sticky segments in the Preferences, then adjusting time of one segment will automatically adjust neighbor time in adjacent segment of the same file.

How do I add subtitles to the converted video? And how and where are they stored?

Subtitles are converted along with the movie if they are loaded into the converter before the conversion begins. There’re two ways how the converter stores subtitles.

Either it creates a SUB file with the converted subtitles, with the same filename as the AVI file, or it will be stored it in the destination directory. You’ll have to upload both the AVI and the SUB file into the mobile device in order to have subtitles.

The other way how the converter can store subtitles is that it encodes them directly into the AVI file. When you use this option, you only have to upload one file into the mobile device. This way is easier to use, but remember that only the SmartMovie player will be able to display the subtitles encoded this way.

What is done with subtitles during conversion?

Subtitles are loaded from various formats: SUB, TXT and SRT. The resulting converted format is always SUB. The SmartMovie player on device can only handle the SUB format of subtitles.

During the conversion, the converter cuts subtitles to defined segments, changes frame rate, and writes subtitles either as a SUB file or directly into the AVI file.

In the converter, I have another small subtitle in the picture. The subtitles are so small that they are unreadable. What should I do?

If the source video doesn’t contain subtitles, but you still see small subtitles in the converter encoded directly into the video picture, this is a result of a third-party DirectShow filter installed on your PC. Typically such filter automatically loads subtitles with the same name as the source video file, and the converter has no control over this action. To disable this, you should locate the plug-in filter and disable automatic loading of subtitles (usually such filter will have small icon in the notify area of the taskbar, so you can try to find it there and click on its properties). If this doesn’t help, other way is to rename the subtitles so they do not have the same name as the loaded video file.

The converter keeps on crashing. What’s reason?

Because DirectShow is an open architecture for third-party developers, you may have installed various DirectShow filters (codecs) of various qualities. The SmartMovie converter has no control over the codecs that are installed on your PC. If you encounter crashes during the playback or the conversion process, it is strongly recommended to uninstall all codec packs you have (e.g. FfDShow, Nimo codec pack, DivX and similar), and install one mature codec pack. Try to download the latest version of codec pack, so that it’s likely that more bugs in the codecs are fixed. We recommend installing the FFDShow codec pack.

The converter utility crashed, displaying a dialog with debugging information. What should I do?

You may choose the Save As option in the dialog, and send us the crash report file to this address: smartmovie@lonelycatgames.com. This may help us to understand the problem, and either assist you how to solve the problem (e.g. suggestion which codec causes the problem), or improve SmartMovie.

Why is choosing a good codec pack so important?

With bad codecs, you may encounter many problems, such as crashes, corruption of the image, etc. You also may not be able to convert the movie with the wrong codec due to these problems. Installing quality codecs are required to decompress your video and audio to make sure they work properly with the SmartMovie converter.

I have a wide (16:9) video, and the device screen is not used properly. Can the video on left and right be cropped, so that it’s higher and better utilizing screen?

Yes. There’re 3 buttons left to video preview window, which control cropping. The first option No makes video fit into mobile screen without cutting sides. Medium cropping reduces the empty space at the top/bottom (or left/right) to half, and Full cropping makes full use of mobile screen, with possible cutting of video in sides.

Note that this option has the best usage for the landscape view (where screen is wider than taller), because in the portrait mode too much of the video on the left and the right is cropped out.

How do I transfer the converted video to my mobile device?

There’re several ways:

A) If you have an Infrared port or Bluetooth software installed, you may find the file in the Windows Explorer, right-click with the mouse and select the “Send To... ” option, then choose the destination, usually named “Bluetooth” or “Nearby computer”. After the transfer, the file will appear in phone as a message which you can click on.

B) You may use memory card reader/writer to write the video file onto the memory card. By the way this is the fastest way.

C) Use the software which came with your phone (e.g. PC Suite) or third-party software to upload the file onto your device.

The volume in the clip is extremely low. What can I do to make it louder?

Some video clips have a very low volume level and are not utilizing the entire range of audio volume. Some clips have even audio reaching at maximum 10% of the available volume. To compensate this, use the Volume Boost settings in the Converter window. Here you can adjust the boost applied to the volume during preview and conversion. Note that if you make the boost too high (which depends on the overall volume of the audio source), the converted audio may be noisy. Since the converter doesn’t analyze the volume in the source clip, you should experiment to find out which boost is optimal. You may test it in the preview mode, listening to your speakers to determine if the volume is acceptable, and the sound is not too noisy or corrupted.