How to Encode Videos for your Nokia Nseries
The only kind of videos that will play on a Nokia Nseries phone–and a lot of other Nokia phones for that matter–need to be encoded into a 3GP format. The exact specifications will vary on the device, but generally they share a lot of the same characteristics. The bulk of this description will focus on making the movies play on a Nokia N93. The specs should be similar for most Series 60 3rd Edition handsets, though.
The program I use to convert my videos is a program called ffpmegx. The installation process for this program is a little complicated because it uses several open-source components to do the job. However, once you get it set up, it is relatively easy to use. Simply drag the video file onto the ffmpegx window, change some settings, and click Encode.
The following two screenshots should show you exactly what you need to set in ffmpegx to get a high-quality video that looks and sounds great:
These settings are appropriate for the N73, N93, N80ie, E70, and some others. Depending on the model of Nokia you have or the input file, you might have to tweak them a bit. Here’s a list from Forum Nokia on what the different phones support.
Using the settings pictured above, a 40-45 minute television program (without commercials) compresses down to about 190mb, which is quite a big file. On the other hand, it is fairly high quality audio and video–suitable for display on a non-HDTV. I plugged my Nokia N93 into my TV this afternoon and looked at the results of one of these encoding sessions. It looked pretty good. It looks wonderful on the Nokia N93 screen.
