We Got Served

One of the questions I’m often asked by readers is how they can get hold of some of the cool media features seen on the HP MediaSmart Server on a standard or self-build Windows Home Server. To date, only HP home servers benefit from automatic video conversion to mobile-friendly formats, but that’s all set to change with a new beta application called Mov2Phn which monitors a folder of your choice and converts any video files placed in that folder to a mobile friendly resolution.

At this point in time, only three Nokia phone profiles are supported as the application is in early beta – the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N95 and Nokia N97, but it’s easy to build new profiles for your device.

On his blog, developer Mathias Wennergren explains how:

Don’t worry it isn’t hard to add a new phone model. If you look in the Phones subfolder where you installed Mov2Phn you will see a set of .ini files with the names of the different models that are supported.

Copy one of those files, give it a good name, and edit them to match your phone. Here’s the Nokia N97 file as an example:

[INFO] Manufacturer=Nokia Model=N97 [AUTHOR] Name=Mathias Wennergren Email=********** [VIDEO] Resolution=640x360 Aspect=16:9 FrameRate=25 Bitrate=1200 Quality=7 ;1=Best, 30=Worst [AUDIO] SamplingFreq=44100 Bitrate=96000 Channels=2 [OUTPUT] Format=.mp4

For most phones you probably only need to play with the Resolution (width x height in pixels), the Aspect (16:9 or 4:3), and the Quality settings. 1 is the best quality and 30 is the worst quality. 7 as in the example gives excellent quality for the good screen that the Nokia N97 has (even so good so that it works fine on a 42 inch plasma). A quality value of 10 begins to get pixelated on the N97, but works well on smaller screens.

If you find this difficult I’m more than welcome to help you out, and if you create a new phone model then please send the .ini file to me, together with a short description of how you transfer the movie, and then play it on your phone.

Whilst the application runs as a service (requiring installation over Remote Desktop) rather than a standard WHS add-in, this sounds like a very worthy application for the WGS community to support with additional phone profiles. Please try out the application with your phone, and post the resulting .ini file at WGS Forums

I’d love to see this app develop into a full Windows Home Server add-in – in the meantime, join in the beta and send your ideas to Mathias.

More Info: Mov2Phn