Smartphone Video Playback

April 3, 2006

OK, so I use an Orange SPV C600 Smartphone (if you’re in the US, I think it’s called an Audiovox something-or-other), and I have to say that despite a couple of nuisance, user-interface things, I like it. A lot.

I’ve got the Juice Receiver configured to download all of favorite podcasts, and Windows Media Player set up to push them to my SPV via ActiveSync. Recently I subscribed to the On10 videocasts, figuring it’d be cool to watch these on the train when I’ve run out podcasts to listen to (I’ve got a 4.5 hour round-trip commute for work, so I need to be entertained).

So, Juice downloads the latest On10 episodes for me, and somewhere between Milton Kenyes and Euston, I fire up Media Player to watch them and since the QVGA screen on my SPV is sooooo clear, I pop it into full-screen mode to enjoy Laura and Tina to the max. I was so bummed out when all I can see is a postage-stamp size image with a huuuuuuuuuuge black border around it.

Much Googling later, I find that resolution settings are stored in the WMSyncCaps.xml file on the SPV, so I change the WMV height and width to 164×220, and try and write the file back to the phone. No joy – it’s a hidden, read-only, system file in ROM. So, I rename my copy to WMSyncCaps2.xml and write it down to the phone. Then I fire up MobileRegistryEditor so I can change the registry to point my copy of WMSyncCaps but find that Orange have locked the registry!

Now I have to wait for Orange tech support to respond to my query about relaxing the permissions on the registry…. All I want to do is change the fullscreen video resolution in Media Player! Why is this so difficult?

Posted in media, smartphone