[dollars5]

NEW !! Updated and fixed the Bugs that caused rendering problems with new devices including 8300 and 8830!!!

We are pleased to announce the much awaited video playback with full screen support for mediaPlayer and multiPlay (video playback requires v4.2.1OS)



Visit the products page for mode details:
mediaPlayer: Dollars 5 Complete » mediaPlayer for Blackberry 8800 and 8100
multiPlay: Dollars 5 Complete » multiPlay Professional edition for Blackberry 8800 and 8100

Full features list:
• Highly optimized for Blackberry® 8800 and Blackberry® Pearl™ 8100 smartphones
• Plays a variety of music formats like AMR, Wave, MP3, MP4, AU, AAC
• Plays a variety of video formats like MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.263 (.avi, .3gp, .mp4, .mov)*
• Full Screen video playback*
• Multiple Playlist management
• Full background playback
• Auto pause of music while during phone calls
• Songs position seeking using the selectable player gauge
• Direct play by selecting a song from the now playlist
• Songs shuffle and repeat with a button click
• Volume control using keypad keys ‘Q’ and ‘P’; UI buttons
• Keypad Shortcuts for Play, Pause, Stop, Previous and Next functions
• Facility to Mute and Pause a playing song with the use of Mute key
• Search for media with facility to reuse recent searches
• Sort the playlist by file name
• File browser to list and select media files from device memory and card memory
• Create a library of all audio files available in the device
• Quick launch to last visited folder while browsing for faster file selections
• User friendly interface - customizable label, field colors, pointers for player gauge
• One-time payment – lifelong Free upgrades and bug fixes
• Premier customer support via e-mail and community forums

OTA Links:
mediaPlayer: http://www.dollars5.com/OTA/mediaPlayer.jad
multiPlay: http://www.dollars5.com/OTA/multiPlay.jad

[beprahst]

I tried to register and post of the Dollars5 forums but was unable to. I note the two supported avi video formats, but how can I tell what my egular Canon digital camera in video mode produces? I transferred one of it's native avi files and the mdeiaPlayer will not recognize it. i get the error: "Locator does not reference a valid mdeia file" (in full screen mode) and the error "unsupported content type - video/x-msvideo" (in the non-full screen mode). Do I need to do some conversion to get it to run?

[John Clark]

Look at the sticky in the 8100 forum on how to convert video files. Your 8700g won't hold much for video, however. Don't expect too much.

[dollars5]

I think we need to have a detailed explanation

- the AVI is just a container - any encoded video can have an avi as long as it is MPEG4-Part2 or H.263 encoded - any other encoding is currently not supported by BlackBerry atp. More detailed explanation is available from BlackBerry itself - BlackBerry Search Results

Also note this application is for Blackberry 8800 and 8100 pearl (with v4.2.1 OS) device other devices are not supported at present and v4.2.1 Os is a must for video playback.

There is no special encoding required - it will play all files that are played by bundled media player, the primary mediaPlayer advantage is that it offer full screen capability with no buttons to disturb when watching good video on your mobile, also now custom sizes like 260x240 videos can be watched without any resizing in their full resolution itself.

[beprahst]

Thanks...I found another thread that suggests video onthe 8700 is not going to happen. I used the Seabyrd video converter to supposedly get it to the correct format but it didn't work. I might give this from another thread one more shot (SUPER © .. Plus I wasn't expecting to be limite to only 11MB of space so they will be small clips anyhow. Thanks for the assist. let me know if you ever support the 8700 on 4.2.

[beprahst]

Oh, BTW...on the 8700 you lose th last line of thevideo player controls (open playlist, open file, and repeat) so the highlight/cursor disappears when it goes down there, but you can still select them without actually seeing them.

[illy]

the interface of this application really stinks

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by illy

the interface of this application really stinks

Well, that's productive and helpful! Dollars5 is really good about taking input from BBF members for his products. If there is something you don't like or if you have a suggestion, post it and he will try to use the info to make the product better.

[brooklynyte]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Well, that's productive and helpful! Dollars5 is really good about taking input from BBF members for his products. If there is something you don't like or if you have a suggestion, post it and he will try to use the info to make the product better.

LOL,

Thanks Dollars5, this is exactly what I needed to go along with my 2gb card!!!

[brooklynyte]

I had used the Seabyrd video converter to convert a movie and it plays fine in the BB media player, but when I try to play it in the Dollars5 media player it says Unsupported content type, any info on this?

I'm going to try to encode using my settings instead of the default settings and I'll post back with the results.

[rickthornton]

Originally Posted by brooklynyte

I had used the Seabyrd video converter to convert a movie and it plays fine in the BB media player, but when I try to play it in the Dollars5 media player it says Unsupported content type, any info on this?

I'm going to try to encode using my settings instead of the default settings and I'll post back with the results.

I have used the Seabyrd (v1.13) to convert several DVDs and they all play fine with Dollars5 media player. I used the default settings, medium resolution, full screen mode on Seabyrd. What I have found with this combination is that if the source is widescreen format, it will stay that way even if Dollars5 full screen mode. Overall this combination seems to work pretty well. Audio is properly synced, no skipping, etc. These I believe are more a function of the Seabyrd converter, but Dollars5 media player does it job here.

[rkkeller]

I must be missing something. All my videos look the exact same size as with the BB Media Player except the top and bottom borders are gone.

I expected full screen to make the videos fill the entire screen not just remove the borders and replace them with black.

[brooklynyte]

Hmm. wierd, I tried another file and it didnt work again, lemme try from dvd instead of from a divx movie.

[dollars5]

The point of full screen requires two detailed explanation:
1] Full screen in the sense of screen without any buttons - this gives users a better video experience with the video player. You will sure like it as many users were requesting for this feature - the reason as told by people who requested for this is that the buttons in the default BlackBerry media player actually reduced the video experience with their device. And when in beta they were literally satisfies with this and liked it a lot. (Mind you other mobile platforms like Palm Treo, Windows Mobile and Symbian offer such button-less full screen view). The effective display area with Blackberry media player on Pearl 8100 is 240(w)x180(h), in comparison the mediaPlayer offers the whole screen resolution of 240x260 as the effective display area. On 8800 it is 320(w)x160(h) for Blackberry media player and for Dollars 5 mediaPlayer it is 320x240 - the full display area.

2] With the default BlackBerry media player there was an inherent problem if the videos for some reason did not have a proper aspect ratio (4:3 = 240x180 or 320x240); which the Dollars 5 mediaPlayer was designed to address: we will consider some cases - which differentiates the Dollars 5 mediaPlayer from the BlackBerry bundled media player.
- case (a): larger media size and/or not in 4:3 aspect ratio (as the video might have been created for other mobile device and was shared by your friend to you) - Blackberry video player will try to fit the video for either width or height whichever is larger. Say a video which is of resolution 240x200- the default player will resize to fit to the height of 180 xxx8211; a sample video is http://dollars5.com/QA/roadkill.avi (1.5MB) which is of 240x192); Dollars 5 mediaPlayer will allow a video of upto a height of 240pixels
- case (b): minor change in pixels height/width when encoded for pearl or 8800: example: say to maintain aspect ratio the video was increased by 1pixels in height . The Blackberry media player will resize the video and render it. This problem is mainly due to the encoding software settings error and since Dollars 5 mediaPlayer will support larger display resolution xxx8211; the video will be played in its expected size. A sample of such video is located at http://dollars5.com/QA/sweety.avi

-case (c): the video is smaller or of exact aspect ratio supported or the width is more than 240 pixels (and 320 for 8800) xxx8211; both players will display it in the same manner xxx8211; resized/exactly fit to width and centered.

[dollars5]

Originally Posted by brooklynyte

Hmm. wierd, I tried another file and it didnt work again, lemme try from dvd instead of from a divx movie.

Seabyrd video converter works well to generate content for Blackberry devices. make sure you use compatible video formats as mentioned at BlackBerry Search Results

[dollars5]

Originally Posted by illy

the interface of this application really stinks

It would be very kind of you to let us know how and which aspect of the interface needs improvement.

The multiplay has a poor interface we agree that was due to the architecture that would work perfect on such an interface only - we are working on to improve it further.

But the stand-alone mediaPlayer was designed based on detailed suggestions and usability aspects from our users and many had apreciated it to be professional.

[brooklynyte]

Originally Posted by dollars5

Seabyrd video converter works well to generate content for Blackberry devices. make sure you use compatible video formats as mentioned at BlackBerry Search Results

Thanks for the response, I double checked to make sure they are supported file types, besides, the videos I have created play fine on the BB media player, but when I go into your media player and open the file from the eject icon looking button it says unsupported content type. It's starting to baffle me cause I can't figure out for the life of me why everyone else hasn't had a problem like this but I can't get around it. I'm going to try to reinstall the mediaplayer now and see what happens.

If you have any ideas I would appreciate it. Thanks for the great app even though I'm not able to use it you created something BB users definitely needed.

[dollars5]

Originally Posted by brooklynyte

Thanks for the response, I double checked to make sure they are supported file types, besides, the videos I have created play fine on the BB media player, but when I go into your media player and open the file from the eject icon looking button it says unsupported content type. It's starting to baffle me cause I can't figure out for the life of me why everyone else hasn't had a problem like this but I can't get around it. I'm going to try to reinstall the mediaplayer now and see what happens.

If you have any ideas I would appreciate it. Thanks for the great app even though I'm not able to use it you created something BB users definitely needed.

Hi brooklynyte,

If you could share on what media type you try to play - we can help with it (if you have no copyright problems with the video and wish to share a clip of that causes this problem that would really help us fix it faster- pls send that via PM to me)

We are always are eager to hear from you and improve upon.

[brooklynyte]

Originally Posted by dollars5

Hi brooklynyte,

If you could share on what media type you try to play - we can help with it (if you have no copyright problems with the video and wish to share a clip of that causes this problem that would really help us fix it faster- pls send that via PM to me)

We are always are eager to hear from you and improve upon.

Thank you and I appreciate it, when I get home from work later I will do just that. Your the best type of developer, the kind who listens to the community .
Even if it is only me with this weird problem .


Thanks alot and I'll get back to you later with a clip.

[dollars5]

Thanks for th words of appreciation brooklynyte. You can test with th following two videos http://dollars5.com/QA/roadkill.avi and http://dollars5.com/QA/sweety.avi to know the full potential of mediPlayer and serve as an example of what really full screen of mediaPlayer is. Feel free to test the same on BlackBerry media player to know the difference.

What type of encoding do you use o create media for your pearl - divX? or just plain MPEG4 videos?

Also do you have 4.2.1 OS o your Pearl? Kindly be informed that the video playback is supported only from 4.2.1 for thrid party developers.