ARCHOS POCKET MEDIA ASSISTANT PMA430TM - Manual (Page 22)

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In this example, the menu
option Move, would move the
file Anderson Draft from the
folder
/PMA430/Documents/text/pl
ain to the folder
/PMA430/Video. The menu
command always applies to the
highlighted item. Remember
that the source window is the
one with the highlighted item,
and the destination window is
the other one. You can close
and open the second window with the LEFT and RIGHT buttons or by using the Folders icon on
the menu bar.
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12 Creating MPEG4 Video Files with your Computer
How to create an MPEG4 video file
Please understand that video re-encoding is not always a simple one button process. Video
segments that come from your digital camcorder or which are freely available on the Internet are
encoded in many different ways. Your files are thus maybe not in a format the PMA430 can play
(see the section Playing Video Files from the Internet in the Video Application chapter for
more information). This is due to the relatively new nature of the ISO (International Standards
Organization) MPEG4 video format. Unlike its predecessors MPEG1 and MPEG2, there are a
number of levels in this format and thus not all MPEG4 video files will work on all MPEG4
players, and older MPEG1 and MPEG2 files must be re-encoded into this format. You can convert
these files using the software you received with your PMA430. You might find this process
initially complex, but once you have converted the first file, it will be a routine to convert other
files into a format that will play on your PMA430.
PC Tools
The PMA430 is delivered with two PC based programs that allow you to create MPEG4 Simple
Profile .AVI video files. They are the MP4 Translator and Virtual Dub™. The MP4 Translator
will call the Virtual Dub program and give it the correct parameters to encode your video from its
original format, .avi or .mpg (mpeg 1), and then encode it into an MPEG4 .AVI file. The file will
be scaled in order to be played back properly. You will also need an MP3 audio codec (available
freely on the Internet) in order to create the proper sound track for the movie.
12.1 Installing the PC Software
If your video file is not an MPEG4 Simple Profile .avi file of the proper size, you will need to re-
encode it using the following utilities. For the PMA430, you will need to create an AVI file that is
MPEG4 Simple Profile with a resolution up to 720 x 576 (depending on frame rate) and a sound
track that is stereo MP3 or WAV. A resolution of 320 x 240 is adequate for watching on the
internal LCD screen. However, videos that you intend to watch on an external TV, a resolution of
640 x 480 is recommended.
You will find an Installer to install MPEG Translator and Virtual Dub™ in the ARCHOS folder on
your PMA430. Please turn off any anti-virus software for the time of the installation and install the
programs in the following order.
MPEG 4 codec (Compression/Decompression)