New Files Have White Video Screen on Tungsten E2

Greetings!

I'm reviving a flea-market Tungsten E2 as a PDA backup. After updating the OS from the CD, I hot-synced it with the full backup from an old m515 and most of the old apps work, and the video files nicely runs on the E2's "Media" app -- even plays the audio the m515 couldn't.

My mystery here is I'm trying to convert some more recent mov. files to install the E2 but they only appear as a white screen. This non-techie has been trying ffmpeg and image magic and other third-party apps to reproduce what ever long forgotten format those older movs used that do play but no dice.

Any hints would be much appreciated!

Jim in NYC

 

welcome to Brighthand Jim

at work with no Palm devices, so can't be specific, but you may be able to determine the format by looking at the video that does play, using a file manager to see the extension.of course, if it was converted to a .pdb by some utility, that won't help. I'll take a look tonight, though, and reply.

 

on my TX, Kinoma Player will play .3gp and .3g2 files, with sound. TCPMP plays the video, but not the audio (it may just be that I do not have the correct codec for those 2 formats). hope this helps some; post back if you have other questions

 

Welcome to Brighthand, Jim.

In addition to what Rick said, you can try converting your videos to another format, that is, replacing whatever video and audio codec they use with another your E2 with TCPMP can reproduce. For example, you can convert to an AVI file with xvid video codec and mp3 audio codec. These are both supported by TCPMP. There are several programs to do this conversion, for example PocketDivX Encoder, a somewhat old program but one that is tailored for Palm devices.

TCPMP can support newer codecs and containers, but the limiting factor can be the E2's raw processing power. If the video is too much for the hardware, then the image will stutter, the audio will get out of sync, etc. You can try converting your videos to a newer format with HandBrake and test several encoding options to see what works best with the E2.

Also, be sure to install all the codecs available for TCPMP. Check Hook's excellent Palm TX Help Links for Brighthand for the codecs and also take a look at the other links to apps and very helpful tips.

There are many threads here concerning video encoding for Palm devices. You may want to search around and see if you find how best to play videos on your E2.

 

Excellent post raspy!! I was hoping someone else would add to the thread, and you nailed it.

 

Thanks for swift reply! I'll keep you abreast my findings!