Using the Pocket DVD Wizard is easy.

 

There are many options,  but to get started quickly,  simply follow this simple guide.

 

Double click on the Pocket DVD Wizard icon on your desktop, or in your Start menu.

 

When you first start the software you will see a screen like this:

 

 

Put a DVD into your PC's DVD drive,  and wait until Windows asks you what you want to do with the DVD.  

 

When the DVD has loaded,  click the 'Select a DVD (browse)' button to continue.

 

The software will ask you to select a track from the DVD to convert.  Usually the track you are interested in  is the one with the longest playback time and will be pre-selected by the software for you.

 

 

Selecting an aspect ratio

 

After selecting the track,  you should be shown the following screen:

 

 

Playback of your DVD should start in the black area of the screenshot shown.

 

On this screen you need to select the format the video is playing in,  so the Pocket DVD Wizard can apply the appropriate aspect ratio to the output file,  and ensure there is no distortion in the output.

 

When you click the different options,  you will see the shape of the video change,  simply pick the shape which results in a preview with as little black on the screen as possible,  or look on the back of the DVD case to see which format the track is in.

 

When you have selected an aspect ratio,  click the 'Next Step' button.

 

 

 

Select a target platform

 

Next,  you will be asked which platform you would like to use.

 

 

Simply select your device from the list,  either Pocket PC,  Windows CE or Portable Media Center.  If you have installed additional Plug-Ins other devices may also be available,  such as the PSP or Palm OS handheld device.

 

 

Pan and scan or full screen?

 

If you have selected a widescreen format and a platform that does not have a widescreen display,  the next screen will ask you if you want to use pan and scan,  or retain the original format for the video output.

 

 

Most handheld devices are not yet widescreen,  so if you want to make the most of the available screen area,  and remove the black bars select pan and scan.  As a result,  some video will be lost from the edges of the source.

 

If you want to maintain the original video source,  simply select 'Use the current widescreen format' and the Pocket DVD Wizard will not alter the original source.

 

 

 

Select the target file size

 

If you have selected Pocket PC,  or Windows CE you will be asked to specify a target output size,  or quality level.

 

If this is your first conversion,  it is probably best to leave the settings alone,  but you can alter them to reduce the file size,  or increase the quality of the conversion as desired.

 

 

 

Select the ambient light level

 

The final screen allows you to select a standard conversion,  or increase the ambient light level

 

Most Pocket PCs have very low level back lights,  so increasing the ambient light can help when you play back the DVD later.

 

 

Select a conversion quality

 

You can select the quality of the conversion.   There are three options,  low,  medium and high.

 

 
Medium is the default,  recommended setting,  and will use approximately 1Gb of disk space when converting an average length DVD.  It will make a good job of most scenes.

 

The low settings is faster,  and will only use 500Mb when converting,  but quality may suffer such as loww of detail in shadows etc or pixelation.

 

The high setting is the opposite,  slower and using 2Gb for its temporary output,  but with higher quality results,  more detail in shadows,  and smoother rendering of detailed objects.

 

 

Select an output filename

 

Next,  you can select a filename for your output file.

 

 

 

Ready to go...

 

You will be given one final screen,  which allows you to use a drop down menu to specify a number of additional options such as shutting down the pc on completion,  or selecting even higher quality conversions,  but for now, wait until your DVD has started playing the content,  then click the 'Start DVD Backup' button.

 

 

The start button will be 'greyed' out until the preview window has reached the track you wish to convert.

 

 

Away we go...

 

Pocket DVD Wizard will now start the encoding process.

 

Simply sit back an wait,  the process will go through a number of stages,  and will finally give you the name of the output file.

 

Copy this file to your handheld device (or its memory card) to play it.

 

If you have a Pocket PC, Archos or Portable Media Center,  the output 'wmv' files will play directly on your device,  using Windows Media Player installed as standard.  You do not need to install any additional playback software to watch the video.

 

If you have a Windows CE device,  you will need a MPEG player.  We recommend the excellent Pocket TV player which can be obtained from http://www.pockettv.com/

 

If you have a Palm OS device you will need an external player to play the output AVI file.  Links to a number of suitable Palm OS players can be found at http://www.pocketdvdwizard.com/palm.html