Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Pinnacle's Mobile Media Converter
Posted by Jason Dunn in "SOFTWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Product Category: Video conversion/DVD ripping software
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]
Price: $27.99 USD
System Requirements: Windows XP SP1, Windows Vista
Pros:
Cons:
Summary:
Pinnacle's Mobile Media Converter is promoted as being a great solution for getting videos onto your iPod or PSP - but what about other devices? Can the non-iPod and non-PSP users out there make good use of this product?
Read on for the full review!
Options for the Non-iPod Nation
If you've got an iPod, there are dozens of programs out there for converting DVDs. If you have another device, like a Zune or a Zen Vision, your choices are more limited - especially if WMV is the only option available (as it was with the first generation Zune). In my case, the new second-generation Zune is my media player of choice - and now that it supports MPEG4, my options for DVD ripping are greatly expanded. In that light, I decided to take a look at Pinnacle Mobile Media Converter, a $29.99 USD package from the well-known video software company.
Install and First Use
The software install proceeded without a hitch: Pinnacle even made the serial number easy to remember by using five-digit blocks of numbers and letters. After the install, I fired it up and was presented with an extremely simple user interface. Clicking Browse, I selected my DVD drive and the software found the DVD and let me select the video file and the audio track. There's no ability to select chapters unfortunately. If you have an iPod, Sony PSP or other supported device and have it connected, the software can deposit the file directly onto it. I did not, so instead I opted to save the exported file to my desktop.
Supported devices include the Sony PSP, Apple iPod (h.264 and MPEG4), Creative Zen Vision:M, Creative Zen Vision, Archos Gmini 402, Archos AV/Gmini 500, and cell phones via 3GPP and MPEG4 profiles. There's no ability to specify a custom resolution or bit rate - you're limited to their profiles. Bit rate options range from 128 kbps for the 3GPP profile up to 1 mbps for the iPod MPEG4 profile. The list needs updating: there are no Zune profiles, no SanDisk Sansa profiles, and I suspect that the listing for the Zen Vision is really for the last-gen brick-like player rather than the svelte new player. The problem with software like this that doesn't allow for custom profiles is that the company has to ensure they update the profiles when new hardware hits the market - and Pinnacle isn't doing that.
When I was rooting around looking for profiles I could edit to create a Zune profile, I came across a readme file that references something called "Pinnacle Mobile Media Organizer" that seems to have more advanced profile features - software that seems to have existed at one point, but is no longer listed on the mobile media product page. This is bizarre because when Mobile Media Converter installs it creates a start menu item called "Upgrade to Pinnacle Mobile Media Organizer" - yet clicking on that takes my browser to an error page on pinnaclesys.com. Did anyone test this software before shipping it?
