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dvdcatalyst
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With numerous updates of the Android operating system, most of the original gripes people had have been addressed, however, the one major gripe that still remains is the default Android Gallery app. While the look has changed over the years, it still makes it hard to find the movie or TV episode you want to watch. It does not display filenames, and the screenshot it creates is a random thumbnail from somewhere at the beginning of the movie, making it impossible to figure out what it is unless you actually start playing the video.
The Market is filled with apps that show the videos you have on your tablet/phone in an easy-to-read list, some displaying small thumbnails to go with it, but there is nothing out there that would actually let you select your own images for your movies. Just imagine using movie posters or DVD covers to browse through your video collection.
Meet Movie Gallery:
Movie Gallery Features:
* displays the movies located on your SD-card in a new way.
* displays your own images for your movies.
* includes (MP4/M4V) video player with added functionality, including scale, zoom and stretch functions (make your movies full-screen).
* Tap screen to pause/continue, 1minute/5minute forward and back jump buttons to quickly skip to a point.
New in Movie Gallery 1.1:
* Replaced the flat 50ft interface-look with a 3D Cover Flow-like look. (thank you Neil)
* Added customizable background options. Includes the Blue Honeycomb image from 1.0, as well as black, white, blue and you can select your own background. You can set different backgrounds for the Gallery view and the Player view.
(the custom backgrounds used in some of these screenshots and the video are not included, but can be downloaded for free from Wickeds Wallpaper collection)
* Multi-Movie position remember. Watch part of a movie during your daily commute, watch a TV episode during lunch, and on the way home, continue your movie where you left of.
* Additional SD-card locations have been added to the scan-part. besides /sdcard/ Movie Gallery now looks for movies and images in /sdcard-ext/, /external/ and /removable/ if found on your android device.
Movie Gallery is available in the Android Market in 2 flavors:
Movie Gallery ($2) : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tools4movies.moviegallery
Movie Gallery Free: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tools4movies.moviegallery.free
(free vs paid)
Notes:
Movie Gallery does not include free movies or images. It works with video files you created yourself using something like DVD Catalyst or Handbrake.
The images for the movies you will have to obtain yourself (from IMDB or scan your own DVD covers) and place on your SD card. In order for them to be displayed in Movie Gallery, they have to be named the same (including capitalization) as the movie you want it to represent (MyMovie.mp4 + MyMovie.png).
Usage:
It should be pretty easy to figure out, however, here is a brief description of the controls:
Movie Gallery is divided into 3 sections.
1. Splash. When Movie Gallery starts, it briefly loads a splash-screen, and it will check to see if you have an SD card accessible. If it does not find one, it will close itself.
2. Gallery. When the Gallery display starts, it scans your SD card for movies and matching images. Depending on the amount of files you have, this can take a few seconds. In most cases, it shouldnt take longer than 1-2 seconds though. Once the Gallery has loaded, you can flick left and right to browse through your video collection. Tapping on an image will center it. Tapping on the
button will start playing the selected (centered) movie.3. Video Player. Movie Gallery uses the build-in video capabilities for video playback, and currently only supports MP4 and M4V files that are compatible with your Android device. Because of this, it also has the same restrictions on the video format. If the video files do not play using the build-in video player on your device, they will not play in Movie Gallery either. While some Android devices do play formats other than MP4/M4V, currently only those 2 formats are supported.
Jumps 5 minutes back into the video.
Jumps 1 minute back into the video.
Plays the movie (if you paused it)
Pauses the movie (if it is playing)
Jumps 1 minute ahead in the movie.
Jumps 5 minutes ahead in the movie.
Switches between video-playback modes.Video playback modes:
*Fit. This will play the movie as large as it can while not exceeding the screen size. Depending on the type of video, it will either fill the entire width of your screen, or the entire height of the screen.
*Original size. This will play the video at its original size, centered on screen.
*Zoom. This will try and make your movie as full-screen as possible. For a widescreen movie, it will make the movie full-height, resulting in a small portion of the sides of the video to not be visible.(Note, this currently doesnt function properly on Android 2.2, such as the Droid X).
*Stretch. This will make the video the same size as your screen, regardless of its aspect ratio. Your video might appear distorted, depending on the size.
F.A.Q:
Q: Where do I get movies?
A: Convert your own DVDs and video files using something like DVD Catalyst 4.
Q: Where do I get images?
A: Without any movie images/poster images, Movie Gallery will just show a basic placeholder image for the movie. The easiest way to obtain your images is to just visit IMDB and do a search for your movie. Then rightclick on the image you want and save it to your computer.
Q: Why dont I see images?
A: Movie Gallery currently only looks at .jpg and .png images. All other types are ignored.
A: Movie Gallery ignores certain folders to speedup loading time. Images and movies located in these folders will be ignored:
*folders with a dot at the beginning (hidden folders)
*the DCIM folder (which stores the pictures you take with your camera)
*the Music folder (ignoring album art for your songs)
*the Ringtones folder.
*the Pulse cache folder (if you have Pulse installed, this can contain a lot of images)
*the DoggCatcher folder (if you use DoggCatcher for podcasts, this folder can contain a lot of video podcasts)
A: Movie Gallery Free 1.1 displays only 10 movies.
A: Make sure that your image files have the same name as the movie. If your movie is called MySuperCoolMovie.mp4″ the image should be called MySuperCoolMovie.png or MySuperCoolMovie.jpg
The above image gives an indication of how your images should be named. They do not have to be in the same location though. You can create a Movie folder and an Image folder on your SD card for example.
Q: Why do my movies not show up?
A: Movie Gallery only looks for .mp4 and .m4v files. All other video file types are ignored.
A: Movie Gallery ignores certain folders to speedup loading time. Images and movies located in these folders will be ignored:
*folders with a dot at the beginning (hidden folders)
*the DCIM folder (which stores the recordings you make with your camera)
*the Music folder (ignoring album art for your songs)
*the Ringtones folder.
*the Pulse cache folder (if you have Pulse installed, this can contain a lot of images)
*the DoggCatcher folder (if you use DoggCatcher for podcasts, this folder can contain a lot of video podcasts)
A: Movie Gallery Free 1.1 displays only 10 movies.
Q: Slow loading/scrolling
A: The more movies and/or images you have on your SD card, the longer it takes to load.
A: The larger the images are in size, the longer it takes to resize them. For best results use images that are not higher than the height of the screen resolution of your device. For the Xoom (1280×800) this is 800, for most (An)droid phones (854×480 or 800×480) this is 480. Since the images are scaled down slightly a little less can speed it up even more.
Q: Landscape vs Portrait orientation.
A: Movie Gallery is landscape-optimized. While it works in portrait mode, on smaller-screen devices (Droid X, Nexus etc) not all the controls for the video player will be accessible.
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