I’ve been having some trouble with the SMC crashing on my PC, and needed an alternative. Since the Connect plays 3GP videos, I did some Googling and found a 3GP converter here: http://www.nurs.or.jp/~calcium/3gpp/.
I was able to transfer videos to my Connect using the following steps:
1) Download the converter from the above page. (The download link is in a green box. Click on the filename “3GP_Converter034.zip.” Don’t worry that the page is in Japanese. You’ll have the option to select your language when you install the converter.)
Unzip the file to whatever folder you want.
Run the setup utility.
Select your language from the bottom left dropdown.
From the configuration options, select the second option. (General 3GP2+AAC General Setting (w/o 3PP2 header)
Click Apply. The converter will now launch.
Select an output folder on your hard disk.
Select the following option from the dropdown menu: “QVGA High Quality 15fps Stereo”
Drag a video file to the window labeled “Drag&Drop” files here.
When processing is complete, go to your output folder (selected in step 7).
Rename the file making certain you change the file extension to .mp4.
Drag the file to the video folder of your Connect.
That’s it! It’s working for me, but of course YMMV.
Ok, here was my initial experience with this converter. I had a .VOB file that I wanted to convert which this actually did without any complaints HOWEVER it pulled the wrong audio. Instead of using the main audio, it used the audio with director commentary. I am sure there is a setting I can change in one of the INI files that would fix this but it would be nice if it were a setup option.
Secondly, the video quality on “Normal” was terrible, too compressed causing a lot of pixellation. I changed it to Excellent and it was better but not nearly as good as the video I converted with the Sansa Media Converter. That being said, I converted an AVI with the Sansa Media Converter and not the same .VOB file so I’m not sure what the quality would be like if I used this freeware to convert the same .AVI file. It might be the same as the Sansa software.
The Sansa Media Converter can NOT handle .VOB files. It “converted” it but when I loaded it on the Sansa… the sound was correct but the video was a joke. Garbled, small, unwatchable.
Overall this seems like a workable alternative if I can figure out how to grab the correct audio but definitely room for improvement. I am playing around with the Apex Free 3GP Video Converter next to see what kind of results I can get with that.
When creating the VOB, make sure to isolate only one audio source - using DVD decrypter or the like, I usually select only the 5.1 english channel, and leave commentary out of the rip (makes the files smaller anyway).
It doesnt work for me… i keep getting an Error- 2048 half way threw the file and doesnt complete it. Is this because the files im tryin to add to my sansa connect are downloaded off the internet or is there another reason this would happen. All i want to do is add a few small videos to my connect but i cannot figure out how to do it. If anyone knows whats goin on please let me know, thanks!
… to be more specific it says…" ConvertMovieToFile:NewMovieFromFile Error Dialog: An error has occured during the process. [Error:-2048]"
I followed your directions word for word and no luck at all. All i know about the files are that is says they are winamp media files, not sure how to find out what its saved as.
