After the huge success of portable MP3 players, it was only ever going to be a matter of time until mobile video took off in the same way. As portable movie players become more and more popular, the temptation to buy one of these sleek, spanking new devices becomes almost unbearable! But wait! As the proud owner of a Pocket PC, you probably already have the hardware necessary to enjoy video on-the-hop. All you need now is a piece of reliable, free software to convert and optimise your movie files for mobile use. PocketDivXEncoder is that piece of software.

The installation procedure for this application was a breeze, mainly because there wasn’t one! It was refreshing to see that a simple program didn’t need to touch the registry in order to run, let alone force us to restart the computer (as all Nokia’s apps do). So as soon as you download the program, you’re ready to go. The program itself was pretty easy to use, with controls and settings which should be familiar to anyone who’s even come close to thinking about video compression in the last five years. For those who haven’t, all you really need to do is tell the program which device you’ll be using and it’ll do all the work for you.

Experts will likely balk at the lack of fine-tuning tools available in PocketDivXEncoder but its ‘advanced options’ dialogue allows for greater control over such features as 2-Pass Encoding, XviD Compression, audio Live Effect and more. A really impressive little feature is the live clip resizing tool which allows you to preview your video while changing its dimensions - handy if you’re working with a device which doesn’t have native support from PocketDivXEncoder.

The most important factor in video conversion and compression tools is the quality of the end product. It’s no good reducing a movie to 4MB and rendering it completely unwatchable in the process. PocketDivXEncoder performed admirably when converting our (fairly high quality) test video, achieving good video compression without losing much detail. Small changes we did notice was a slight alteration to colour and brightness balance on the picture and an almost imperceptible shift in audio-video sync. These issues reflect the fact that this is not a professional level tool but then again they’re almost impossible to spot without really hunting for them.

Working with PocketDivXEncoder is on the whole a pleasing, simple and rewarding experience. That a free application can offer such reliable performance and high quality – at levels often missing from other, highly priced software – says a lot about what a good freeware program should look like. If you’re looking to convert video to fit your PDA, all you need is PocketDivXEncoder.

Download PocketDivXEncoder 0.3.96 Beta in Softonic

Portable video is fast becoming the most popular secondary use for Pocket PCs, so making sure you have the right media player is now a priority for many PPC device owners. The Core Pocket Media Player is an open-source video and audio player compatible with all the most popular codecs and multimedia file types.

TCPMP is easy to use, very stable and loaded with a variety of features. The program’s main screen is reminiscent of similar programs on your desktop computer, with options to change aspect ratio, zoom and volume as well as more advanced controls such as video speed (10% - 200%), video driver, audio preamp and more.

One issue with playing video files on a Pocket PC, irrespective of which program you use to play them, is that there will be some lag or jumps from time to time. While some of the top end Pocket PCs now have processors and system memory that should be able to cope with playing quality video, the fact remains that the majority of devices, while technically capable of playing video, are not really designed for that purpose. Compare the playback quality on your Pocket PC with a purpose built portable media player and you’ll see the difference. TCPMP’s settings are therefore an essential feature of the program, allowing you to play around with different levels of quality and performance to help you guarantee the best possible multimedia experience.

In all, The Core Pocket Media Player is a free, open source multimedia player which I’d recommend to anyone who wants to watch video on their Pocket PC. That said, if portable video is your heart’s desire, it would definitely be worth investing in a device built specifically for video playback which will provide much better overall quality.

Download TCPMP 0.72 RC1 in Softonic