Here are some notes concerning the recent return of my ZVue unit, complete with MPEG-4 video decoding.

For those that don't know, the Zue is a hand-held device with a small TV-like screen that plays videos that were stored on SD (Secure Digital) cards.  A recent update to the device allows it to play custom movies that have been stored on a card.

Converting video is a pretty tricky business.  I mean, it's fine if you know where the video is coming from and that it will convert, but it's a completely different thing when you've got a source you're just experimenting with.  I think sometimes people change the extension of these video files to reflect the codec that was used for encoding even though the wrapper format is something else entirely (such as avi).  As far as I know, there is no standard file extension for videos encoded with MPEG-4 compression, nor does the ZVue play back MPEG-4, but the specific brand of it, DivX.

I have not tried putting anything that I know is already DivX encoded onto the ZVue without re-encoding it using ZFlicks.  Maybe I'll try that later and see how it works.

The 256MB card that I got for Christmas (thanks, Dad) works fine with the ZVue.  I used the USB link and everything.  It has a ton of songs (in MP3 format) on it, the Handheld demo video, and two videos that I converted myself from video sources that I downloaded.

The one thing I couldn't find in the instructions about the ZVue USB operation is that you have to put it into USB mode via the menu.  It's the only USB device I own that needs to be in a mode before USB works.  Weird.

I was having a problem with the ZFlicks software not rendering video longer than 15 minutes.  I think it has something to do with the audio encoding.  I tried to convert an episode of Angel to the ZVue DivX format, but it only got about 15 minutes and some odd seconds into it.  Similarly, I tried to encode the first episode of Invader Zim, and it died within one second of the length of the Angel clip.  Strange, and requires more investigation.

I did manage to get an episode (my favorite, "Abducted") of Invader Zim encoded.  It runs flawlessly on the ZVue.  I encoded another video that worked well, too.

Anyone want to trade videos?  I have the entire run of Invader Zim, and am looking for suggestions on what episdoe I should do next.  I have already done "Plague of Babies", but haven't tested it, and "Room with a Moose" is running now.  Of course, with the superior processing power of the AMD64 chip, I am running these off in less than real time, which is very nice.

Should I put these online for download?  Sounds like a good idea. Remember to Right-Click and Save...

• Invader Zim - Abducted
• Invader Zim - Plague of Babies

If these files don't seem to exist then either they're not online yet (FTP says about 2 hours) or my bandwidth has suddenly been gronked by downloading ZVuers.  Keep in mind that even though these files are compressed, they're still about 23-25MB each.  I may not keep these files online long, since I don't want all of my site bandwidth blown on Irkin invaders.

Up next... Disney Feature Films, for use in the car.