How can I play PC video on my Nokia cellphone?

I once saw someone show a short movie clip they'd downloaded onto their Nokia mobile and ever since have been trying to figure out how to do that on my own phone. Nokia's not much help, though, but since I saw you have some other stuff about cellphones, I thought you might have a clue?

Dave's Answer:

[I do have a clue, luckily, and that clue is called Nokia Smartphone Hacks, a cool book full of slick tricks like this from Michael Yuan. With the permission of the publisher, I'm reproducing Hack #71: Play PC Video Clips on the Phone. --DT]

Watching video on your mobile phone is cool! Once considered the killer application for broadband wireless networks (e.g., 3G networks), mobile video holds great promise for a whole new mobile lifestyle, with the mobile phone as your entertainment center. If you have a Nokia phone, you can probably watch a lot of video on your device today. Most recent Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 phones, regardless of whether they have cameras, support playback of 3gpp-format video files. The default video player on Nokia Series 60 phones is the Symbian version of RealPlayer.

TIP: An undocumented feature in RealPlayer on Series 60 phones is that you can use the navigation keys (a.k.a. joystick) to fast forward or rewind the movie. Up is fast forward and Down is rewind. You cannot do this with the Nokia video player on Series 40 phones.

Most existing video files are not in the 3gpp format. They need to be resized and re-encoded for mobile phone video players.

Use QuickTime Pro

If you are using a Windows or Mac OS X computer, QuickTime Pro is the best editing tool for video content. You can open any video file and save it as a 3gpp file. Figure 11-12 shows the conversion process.

Figure 11-12. Converting a PC/Mac movie file to 3gpp format for phone playback in QuickTime Pro

Clicking the Options button, you can bring up the dialog box for 3gpp movie export. Figure 11-13 shows the video options. You can choose the video size for Series 40 (128 x 96 pixels) or Series 60 (172 x 144 pixels) phones. The data rate setting is used to limit the size of the final video file. The low data rate gives you smaller files but also lower video quality (e.g., skipped frames and mosaic effects).

Figure 11-13. The 3gpp video export options in QuickTime Pro

Figure 11-14 shows the audio options of the exported 3gpp movie. Most Nokia phones can only play mono audio via the phone speaker or headset. If that is the case for your phone, make sure you export the movie audio as "mono" to save space.

Figure 11-14. The 3gpp audio export options in QuickTime Pro

For each video file, you have to search for the best compromise of data rates. Table 11-1 lists the data rate settings I typically use. I found them able to produce movies that are of reasonable quality and yet are still small enough to fit into a typical MMC card.

Table 11-1. Example settings for exported 3gpp movies

Device	Video rate	Audio rate	File size for a two-hour movie
Series 40	24 kbps	12 kbps	32 MB
Series 60	48 kbps	12 kbps	54 MB

TIP: Feature-length movie files are much larger than the 4MB size limit imposed by the phone memory. To transfer movie files to the device via Bluetooth, you need to configure the device message Inbox to save received messages in the MMC card [Hack#21].

The 3gpp standard provides mechanisms for content providers to limit how the user uses the 3gpp movie on the phone (a.k.a. DRM protection controls). For instance, you can forbid the user to forward the movie from the phone, or limit the number of times the movie can be played on the phone. Figure 11-15 shows such options supported by QuickTime Pro.

Figure 11-15. The 3gpp advanced options in QuickTime Pro

Use FFmpeg

If you use Linux or prefer a free cross-platform command-line tool, the open source FFmpeg program is best. You can specify the video size, frame rate, data rate, and other configuration options on the command line.

$ ffmpeg -i movie.avi -s 172x144 -r 10 \
    -ac 1 -b 48 -ab 12 movie.3gp

The preceding command converts the movie.avi file to a 3gpp file. The video is resized to 172 x 144 to match the Series 60 screen. The frame rate is 10 fps. The audio track is set to be mono (-ac 1). The data rates are 48 kbps for video and 12 kbps for audio.

Categorized: iPhone and Cell Phone Help (Article 6401, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: cellphone wallpaper, nokia, nokia cellphone, nokia smartphone hacks, oreilly media
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Comments

I have just bought a used Nokia 6600 cellphone. There are some X-rated videos on the Real Player that I would like to delete but can't figure out the process. Any ideas?? Thanks, Randy

Posted by: Randy Kendall at September 30, 2007 12:56 AM

Hey umm can quicktime do that because i dont want to buy quicktime pro

Posted by: Jason at July 21, 2009 4:10 PM

I been on somewhat of a rampage lately, writing positive reviews with an occassional constructive criticism to people who have helped make my day easier, more enjoyable, etc. The information from the Nokia Smartphone Hacks that you found to answer the inquirers question above about "How to Play Video on a Mobile" was very informative but better than that.....it was simple English. A lot of people attempt to explain things only to provide details that then need their own description like Wikipedia sometimes or for example I recently wanted to independently study computers but was unable to find anything at the library that began with the basics of the machines to first understand the system before knowing how to use it plus the majority of writers use abbreviations (MMC-Multimedia Card) after giving you the meaning one time early in their content expecting you to remember each one perfectly as you progress through several pages of text in this form of composition. You can call what appeals to me a For Dummies version but I call it reasonable education because I recall being taught History or the conception of ideas in school prior to being taught the material plus it would be nice whenever a book, magazine or whatever other author writes HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)-, among all these other accronyms like WWW, I/O, URL, PC, MP3, ROM, CDRW, CDR, DVD or the rest of the less frequently used more complicated IEEE kinds, -that they occassionally remind you what each means again, avoid using shortened terminology all together, etc. My favorite is a three or four page article in the newspaper that quotes someone like this (the funny part to me is in capitals)- "was a dinosaur who was unable to mate" SAID RONALD PORPALLE, DIRECTOR OF EXTINCTION LIMITED CORPORATION, -and then later in the piece they switch to TOLD PORPALLE after they mentioned maybe twenty different sources this way I find myself needing to take retention notes just to read what is supposed to be a everyday publication to entertain or report of interest discoveries to everyone in the public. I plan to also send a letter of appreciation to the editor of the text you used in the reply.

Posted by: JASON LIN at September 23, 2010 2:23 AM

Hey please help.I cant watch videos via youtube.My phone is nokia6600.When i try to watch the videos it says unable to connect.What should i do?

Posted by: Sebin at September 16, 2011 5:28 AM

I use nokia 6600 and i can't watch youtube or any online video, it will display unable to connect, if i disable proxy in my real one player settings, it'll show UNABLE TO PLAY SOUND OR VIDEO, TRY PLAYING PARTIALLY, and then it'll start loading, sometimes it'l start playing without sound and some times it will show unable to play or it will load forever. Please help me out, tell me what to do.

Posted by: Edidiong Toby at November 29, 2011 3:33 AM

please when ever i want to watch film online,with my nokia (symbiam) it says unable to connect.what should i do?

Posted by: josh at December 22, 2011 6:25 AM

I cant watch videos.My phone is nokia6600.When i try to watch the some videos it says file format not supported.What should i do?

Posted by: tafe at December 30, 2011 6:20 AM

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