donnieo
03-17-2007, 00:59
I have an X5L and recently picked up a U3 since I wanted something I could slip in my pocket and also use while exercising more easily. I thought that the video specs were the same, however my videos which work on the X5L do not work on the U3. I finally broke down and installed the jetaudio software to do the conversions, and saw that there are separate choices for the X5 and U3 models.
My hope was to use other tools to do the conversions, so I'm still trying to figure out compatible settings for the U3.
On a related note, one of the issues I'm having is for 16:9 videos. If I use 160 x 90 pixels, the U3 does not center the video vertically (just displays it at the top of the screen with a large black area underneath. Iriverter seemed to compensate by filling in the top and bottom to maintain the aspect ratio of the original while still creating a full screen output video. For some reason seeing the video all the way at the top of the screen like that is bothersome to me, even if the quality may technically be better (since no bits are wasted on the black bars).
Lastly, I'm using a macbook and cannot get Iriverter to work. Seems to be a problem with lame not being part of the compiled mencoder. I ran it on a windows machine using the X5 setting and the videos will not play on my U3 anyway. If I knew what the differences were though, maybe I could tweak it.
Perhaps I should just pick up that D2 I've been drooling over. Somehow though fumbling with a touchscreen using sweaty exercise hands doesn't seem like a great idea to me :), but it looks like a sweet unit. I've always admired the G3 as well, however I wanted flac support.
My hope was to use other tools to do the conversions, so I'm still trying to figure out compatible settings for the U3.
On a related note, one of the issues I'm having is for 16:9 videos. If I use 160 x 90 pixels, the U3 does not center the video vertically (just displays it at the top of the screen with a large black area underneath. Iriverter seemed to compensate by filling in the top and bottom to maintain the aspect ratio of the original while still creating a full screen output video. For some reason seeing the video all the way at the top of the screen like that is bothersome to me, even if the quality may technically be better (since no bits are wasted on the black bars).
Lastly, I'm using a macbook and cannot get Iriverter to work. Seems to be a problem with lame not being part of the compiled mencoder. I ran it on a windows machine using the X5 setting and the videos will not play on my U3 anyway. If I knew what the differences were though, maybe I could tweak it.
Perhaps I should just pick up that D2 I've been drooling over. Somehow though fumbling with a touchscreen using sweaty exercise hands doesn't seem like a great idea to me :), but it looks like a sweet unit. I've always admired the G3 as well, however I wanted flac support.