So Creative Labs were being bitches and asking me for more money than I had bought my Vision:M for in order to repair it. That’s stupid on so many levels I don’t even care to think about it. I was tempted to go and buy the Archos 404 out of spite, since for $199 I get a player with an even larger screen than the M, and it look smore durable too. But the budget geek in me won out, and decided to do with my DS what I’d been planning to do in the first place, turn it into a video player.
All you gotta go is download Moonshell v1.71 and batchdpg v1.0, and you’re good to go.
Moonshell is the homebrew media player you’ll have to install on your DS flashcart or M3 DS simply in order to play videos, audio, etc. and batchdpg converts batches of your video files into a format (dpg) that moonshell can read. Here’s a link to the best settings for batchdpg so your videos come out the way you want them to.
A caveat, the videos are converted, so there’s no way they’ll look as good on the creative or even an iPod, but they’ll do if you’re on a budget. The audio is painfully weak however, and when converting videos thru batchdpg I’d suggested you check the “normalize” checkbox and invest in a cheap pair of cans (big ass headphones, as long as you can hear the dialogue, you’re fine) or in ear headphones. My genius in-ear headphones (SRP 600 pesos) allowed me to watch Entourage while on a shuttle to makati just barely. I tested the sounds with my Sennheiser cans and it was much better, but I don’t want to be wearing those things on me all the time.
Anyone who has a DS and wants to get a bit of extended functionality on their machines should definitely try this out, since it’s a free way to videos on your DS.
