Mobile Ministry Magazine: Video on BlackBerry

One of the biggest continuous discussions in tech land is how to conveniently fit videos on handhelds and smartphones.

In ministry, I have found that something as simple as a short comedy clip can be a great ice-breaker in small groups. Thus, getting video on my T5 truly made it a true multimedia device that was capable of really being a partner in what we do. A web search easily yielded different ways to get legitimately owned videos to play on PalmOS devices.

I like to get movie excerpts that underline my message. When you lack expensive multimedia equipment, you have to be creative; splitting up groups and having each group watch the clip in turn was a great method of facilitating discussion and participation.

For BlackBerry, it is seemingly a bit tougher. For one, the free staples that abound in the PalmOS world, staples I took for granted (like Coreplayer, the old TCPMP), are simply not available for BlackBerry. And, while there are freeware offerings that are dedicated to video encoding and transfer, every attempt I made was met with complete failure or substandard results. The annoying part was that I couldn't always figure out if it was a glitch in the software or user error (I should add that many BB users have reported usable results with freeware).

While forum-hopping in the BB web universe, I re-discovered a great tool that I had played around with when I was still entrenched in PalmOS. Makayama has been a front-runner in making media software for handhelds and smartphones, and that stable includes current BlackBerry models and the iPhone.

Here's to Media Studio for BlackBerry by Makayama. It promised to simplify the task, and to cut down on the time as well.

Okay, I thought. This definitely gonna be interesting...

Ordinarily, I found the DVD-to-BB process similar to the Palm method: it generally involved more than one computer download, and the user had to get the settings on each piece of software just right.

With MSB, I downloaded the desktop application to my PC.

That was it.

Okay.

Next, after starting the computer on my laptop, it led me through to the start-up screen.

Now, I am really going to try to make this sound as technical as I can. Two clicks and about 45 minutes later, I was watching a movie on my Curve with the built-in media player. It converted into six equal-length sections.

Wow.

Movie quality was excellent, and the sound was responsive. I played the finished product alongside the "real" version on my laptop, and could detect no lagging or jumping. At the end of every segment, you simply exit and start the next. I was quite pleased with how simple the whole process was.

MSB defaulted to encoding the movie in six parts. This is the optional "Safe Mode" that is new on version 1.3, and anyone who has done this on any sort of handheld knows why this is a great feature: it reduces the effect of conversion errors. of course, the movie can be encoded in one piece if the user so chooses.

The comparative ease was the biggest winner for me, and frankly, was borderline unbelievable, particularly when you take my prior experiences with this platform into account. It also seemed as close to guaranteed as one can possibly get with video on the BlackBerry, and I am big fan of guarantees.

MSB also offers to convert suitable YouTube and camcorder videos, and to compress up to eight feature films on a 1 GB memory card.

The service at Makayama is top-notch. They clearly take pride in their products, and were quick to answer all service questions promptly and effectively (big thanks to Vincent).

Currently, there is a special going on for purchases. Use special promotion code SPECIALOFFER during checkout. It is pertinent to note that there is also a free trial download available.

Visit the Makayama site for other software utilities for iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, and others.

This software was tested on a Blackberry 8320 on T-Mobile.