Thursday, December 30, 2010

Disney Mix Max Player - How to Add Movies and Videos

Adding music and pictures to the Disney Mix Max is pretty simple. Adding videos is another story. Through many trials and errors, I finally found out what works. Keep in mind, Disney wants you to pay for the videos you add to the player, so this may account for the difficulty in transferring ones you already own. Also, DVD's are not meant to be copied in any way. Don't despair, you can still add them to your player. It's hard, but keep with it, you will get it.
Let's start with DVD's. There is a wonderful program called Magic DVD Ripper that is the simplest way to add just about any DVD to your player. You have to purchase and download the program, so it will cost you. There are a few youtube videos out there that give away the username and password to register the program, but they may or may not work. To use this program, you simply load your DVD into your computer and open the program. Next to the Output file, there is a blank box and a small box with an icon on it. You have to click on the icon box and where it says WMV output profile, you need to choose Disney Mix Max as the option. This will convert your DVD to the format required by the device. When you first download the program, the Disney Mix Max option is not listed as an available output choice, you must pick it for the conversion to work properly. Then you just convert the DVD. It takes a really long time to perform the conversion. The longer your original DVD, the longer the conversion time. But, this is the simplest method and it really works in one step.

Now for the hard part. What about videos that aren't DVD's, or what if you don't want to buy the Magic DVD Ripper program. There is a way to send these to your player. It is long and involved, but it does get simpler to do the more you use it. You must follow these instructions EXACTLY. It will not work if you don't. This process involves 2 conversions to get your videos to play on the Mix Max. See my post on downloading and keeping youtube videos if you want to get a video from there to your Mix Max. I think that testing the process with a short youtube video is the best way to start. Ok, so you have your video. It's probably in the .flv or .avi format depending on where it came from. It's ok, it doesn't really matter what format the video starts in, you still have to convert it twice.
The first program you need is Prism Video File Converter. You can download it for free from a few different websites. There are other conversion programs that will work as well, but I recommend Prism. I have had no trouble with it, and I know it offers the .wmp format you need for the first conversion step.
The second program you need is Windows Media Encoder. This is not optional. The second conversion step requires you to convert your video to a .wmp9 format, and this is the only program I have found that will do this. You can download it from a few websites for free as well.
Now let's get started.

First Conversion
Step 1
Open Prism Video File Converter

Step 2
Add your video. You can either choose the "add" icon with the plus sign, or open your source file and "drag and drop" it into Prism.

Step3
Choose .wmp as the file you want to convert your video to and choose your destination folder.

Step 4
Click Convert. Prism does the rest for you. It will make a sound when the conversion is complete. Then you want to open the folder you stored your conversion in. Don't worry about playing your video at this point. However, I would keep this conversion step stored just in case you run into problems with the second conversion. You now have the first conversion stored, and can try again with the second conversion if it doesn't work on the first try.

Second Conversion

Step 1
Open Windows Media Encoder.
Choose "new session"
Then click on "convert a file" from the icon box that pops up.
Now you want to choose a source file - this is the file that you converted in the first step
You also want to choose a destination file. I would make a new folder to store this step in. You don't want both conversions stored in the same file.

Step 2
From the pop up box, choose "Pocket PC"
Then click the next box at the bottom.
Keep choosing next until it's not an option (3 or 4 times). Don't worry about what the pop up boxes say at this point. When next is no longer an option. Choose Finish.

Step 3
The converter will now start playing. From the toolbar, click Stop.
A pop up box will appear, choose Close.
Then from the toolbar choose Properties.

Step4
This must be followed EXACTLY. It really will work, just enter all the following values.
After you choose Properties, click on the tab that says Compression.
You then see in a white box "Pocket PC." To the right of this box, choose the "Edit" button.
You then see 2 tab options.

In the tab labeled "General"
Make sure both the "video" and "audio" boxes have check marks in front of them.
From the Audio drop down box, choose "Audio CBR 9.2"
From the Video drop down box, choose "Video CBR 9" (no other option, not 9.2 or anything else)

Now toggle to the tab labeled "259kbps"
Enter these values EXACTLY
Audio Format: 128 kbps, 48KHz Stereo CBR (do not choose 128kbps, 44KHz Stereo CBR)
Video Size: 220 x 176
Frame Rate: 30
Key Frame Interval: 2 (some say 5 is ok to choose, I used 2)
Video Bit Rate 384K (Make sure it says this EXACTLY -don't forget the capitol K)
Buffer Size: 5 sec
Video Smoothness: 0 (zero)
Decoder Complexity: Simple -this is a drop down box - choose simple

The total should now be: 521.02
If this doesn't match, recheck your values now.

Click OK

Step 5
Click Apply.
Wait a few seconds. It will say "Encoder Ready" at the bottom of the window now.
Click Start Encoding.
There will be a pop up box that says something like the existing file will be overwritten. Choose OK.
The Encoder will now do a 2 pass encoding. It will run your video twice.

Step 6
An Encoding Results box will pop up.
Choose Close.

You have now completed the second conversion. Don't try to play your video now. I never have gotten them to play on the computer in this format. Don't be discouraged if you do try to play it and it doesn't work.
Now you're ready to send your video to the Mix Max. Open your Removable Drive folder that your Mix Max is plugged in to with the USB cable. Open the file you stored your twice converted video in, and just "drag and drop" your video to the Mix Max folder. You should see a window pop up with the green status bar. Then your video appears in the Mix Max Removable Drive folder. Unplug your USB from your computer now. From the Mix Max main menu, choose the reel of film icon. You should see your video listed there. Scroll down to it and hit the center button on Mickey's face. Your video should play now. Make sure the earbuds are plugged in so you can hear the audio. If you get an error message that says "file not supported," the conversion didn't work. Don't despair, just delete the video from the Mix Max and try again. I recommend that if it didn't work on the Mix Max, you delete the second conversion file from your computer and try it again. Use the first conversion file that you stored from the Prism conversion step and follow the second conversion steps above. This is most likely where you ran into problems. You can start the whole process from the start as well. Double check that the file from the first conversion step is in .wmp format, and not any other (like .avi or mp4). This is really complicated, and trial and error is the way to get it right.
Enjoy your videos and movies on your Disney Mix Max Player.

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