Movie player for mobiles

Hi, I'd like to implement a movie player targetted to
series 60 nokia phones. The problem is that I'm not
sure where to start. I have little idea about symbian
os programming, have been reading some docs but
find it a little hard to grasp.
My questions involving this are:
1) Is there any existing project (open source) which
is already doing this? So instead of reinventing the
wheel one can collaborate?
2) Which is the best resource (book or web) to start
with symbian gui programming?
3) I don't have many experience with multimedia...
so given that the target of this application is a mobile,
what do you think is the best format to work with?
(in terms of compresion and easyness to program)
AVI, mpeg?

Thanks in advance for your help.
ac.-

---

› See More: Movie player for mobiles

"ac" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| Hi, I'd like to implement a movie player targetted to
| series 60 nokia phones. The problem is that I'm not
| sure where to start. I have little idea about symbian
| os programming, have been reading some docs but
| find it a little hard to grasp.
| My questions involving this are:
| 1) Is there any existing project (open source) which
| is already doing this? So instead of reinventing the
| wheel one can collaborate?
| 2) Which is the best resource (book or web) to start
| with symbian gui programming?
| 3) I don't have many experience with multimedia...
| so given that the target of this application is a mobile,
| what do you think is the best format to work with?
| (in terms of compresion and easyness to program)
| AVI, mpeg?
|
| Thanks in advance for your help.
| ac.-
|
I dunno much bout this, but the 9210 (series 80) has a movie player and
also supports realplayer..

> | Hi, I'd like to implement a movie player targetted to
> | series 60 nokia phones. The problem is that I'm not
> | sure where to start. I have little idea about symbian
> | os programming, have been reading some docs but
> | find it a little hard to grasp.
> | My questions involving this are:
> | 1) Is there any existing project (open source) which
> | is already doing this? So instead of reinventing the
> | wheel one can collaborate?
> | 2) Which is the best resource (book or web) to start
> | with symbian gui programming?
> | 3) I don't have many experience with multimedia...
> | so given that the target of this application is a mobile,
> | what do you think is the best format to work with?
> | (in terms of compresion and easyness to program)
> | AVI, mpeg?
> |
> | Thanks in advance for your help.
> | ac.-
> |
> I dunno much bout this, but the 9210 (series 80) has a movie player and
> also supports realplayer..

Thanks, but I'd like to know how to write a movie player from scratch.
I've been looking for some source code example, but found absolutely
nothing :-(

Regards.
ac.-

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 13:55:29 +0200, "ac" <[email protected]> wrote:

[snip]

>> I dunno much bout this, but the 9210 (series 80) has a movie player and
>> also supports realplayer..
>
>Thanks, but I'd like to know how to write a movie player from scratch.
>I've been looking for some source code example, but found absolutely
>nothing :-(

My guess would be that a cell phone does not have the computing power
to create a decent software movie player. (Unless they've got some
programmable dsp chips that I'm not aware of.)

> >Thanks, but I'd like to know how to write a movie player from scratch.
> >I've been looking for some source code example, but found absolutely
> >nothing :-(
>
> My guess would be that a cell phone does not have the computing power
> to create a decent software movie player. (Unless they've got some
> programmable dsp chips that I'm not aware of.)

But they already exist... look at RealPlayer for instance.

Regards,
David.-

"tuned by RÄZO" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "ac" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> | Hi, I'd like to implement a movie player targetted to
> | series 60 nokia phones. The problem is that I'm not
> | sure where to start. I have little idea about symbian
> | os programming, have been reading some docs but
> | find it a little hard to grasp.

You should find all the answers to the questions you raised, plus lots of
great people willing to help you out on discussion.epoc.c++ /
discussion.epoc.java - both of these newsgroups are hosted on
publicnews.symbiandevnet.com These newsgroups are full of dedicated Symbian
developers, whereas this group tends to be more for phone users.

Also check out www.newlc.com, which is a great Symbian programming resource,
and www.forum.nokia.com for Nokia-specific help. Don't expect to pick up
Symbian coding in a few hours - it's quite a deep topic and can be
frustrating at first due to it's design - but there is a large community of
developers out there who are willing to offer advice to beginners and some
good books exist so with some hard work and perseverence, you'll be building
Symbian apps before too long.

My advice would be to start off with something considerably simpler than a
video player - an application which displays still images would seem like a
good starting point. Don't try to accomplish too much while you're still
learning the basics of Symbian or you might get disheartened.

Best of luck!

--
Sy/\/apZ

Hi,

> You should find all the answers to the questions you raised, plus lots of
> great people willing to help you out on discussion.epoc.c++ /
> discussion.epoc.java - both of these newsgroups are hosted on
> publicnews.symbiandevnet.com These newsgroups are full of dedicated
Symbian
> developers, whereas this group tends to be more for phone users.

Thanks for those links, specially the newsgroups. I was looking for
symbian groups in usenet with no luck...

> Also check out www.newlc.com, which is a great Symbian programming
resource,
> and www.forum.nokia.com for Nokia-specific help. Don't expect to pick up
> Symbian coding in a few hours - it's quite a deep topic and can be
> frustrating at first due to it's design - but there is a large community
of
> developers out there who are willing to offer advice to beginners and some
> good books exist so with some hard work and perseverence, you'll be
building
> Symbian apps before too long.

Yes, I know. I've been reading docs for some days but it's quite difficult
to
grasp... I find it somewhat overdesigned... I mean, why do I need to have
4 different objects to manage a simple control? Too many objects...
What books do you recommend me? Because I've seen not very good
comments in amazon for the symbian books, except one which is no
longer printed...

> My advice would be to start off with something considerably simpler than a
> video player - an application which displays still images would seem like
a
> good starting point. Don't try to accomplish too much while you're still
> learning the basics of Symbian or you might get disheartened.

OK, thanks a lot for your advice.
ac.-

"ac" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| > >Thanks, but I'd like to know how to write a movie player from scratch.
| > >I've been looking for some source code example, but found absolutely
| > >nothing :-(
| >
| > My guess would be that a cell phone does not have the computing power
| > to create a decent software movie player. (Unless they've got some
| > programmable dsp chips that I'm not aware of.)
|
| But they already exist... look at RealPlayer for instance.
|
| Regards,
| David.-
|

yupz...but i think the 9210 uses a AMD 486 chip?

well....if u need a betatester in the future for ur product, me and my 9210
are available :-)

"ac" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| Hi,
|
| > You should find all the answers to the questions you raised, plus lots
of
| > great people willing to help you out on discussion.epoc.c++ /
| > discussion.epoc.java - both of these newsgroups are hosted on
| > publicnews.symbiandevnet.com These newsgroups are full of dedicated
| Symbian
| > developers, whereas this group tends to be more for phone users.
|
| Thanks for those links, specially the newsgroups. I was looking for
| symbian groups in usenet with no luck...
|
| > Also check out www.newlc.com, which is a great Symbian programming
| resource,
| > and www.forum.nokia.com for Nokia-specific help. Don't expect to pick
up
| > Symbian coding in a few hours - it's quite a deep topic and can be
| > frustrating at first due to it's design - but there is a large community
| of
| > developers out there who are willing to offer advice to beginners and
some
| > good books exist so with some hard work and perseverence, you'll be
| building
| > Symbian apps before too long.
|
| Yes, I know. I've been reading docs for some days but it's quite difficult
| to
| grasp... I find it somewhat overdesigned... I mean, why do I need to have
| 4 different objects to manage a simple control? Too many objects...
| What books do you recommend me? Because I've seen not very good
| comments in amazon for the symbian books, except one which is no
| longer printed...
|
| > My advice would be to start off with something considerably simpler than
a
| > video player - an application which displays still images would seem
like
| a
| > good starting point. Don't try to accomplish too much while you're
still
| > learning the basics of Symbian or you might get disheartened.
|
| OK, thanks a lot for your advice.
| ac.-
|
|
|

"ac" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Yes, I know. I've been reading docs for some days but it's quite difficult
> to
> grasp... I find it somewhat overdesigned... I mean, why do I need to have
> 4 different objects to manage a simple control? Too many objects...

I agree... overdesigned is exactly the word. However, a lot of thought has
gone into it and it's possible to create some great stuff for Symbian
devices so it's worth it in the end.

> What books do you recommend me? Because I've seen not very good
> comments in amazon for the symbian books, except one which is no
> longer printed...

'Professional Symbian Programming: Mobile Solutions on the EPOC Platform'
(Tasker, et al) seems to be the one most people recommend, although it's a
little out of date now. You would be better asking on the symbian
newsgroups because I haven't read any Symbian books :-( I've learned
everything I know from the newsgroups, the SDK docs (which are quite poor)
and being fortunate enough to have a full-time job which meant I got to
write Symbian stuff for my company. I'm not an expert and I should probably
read a good book myself to cover the basics more completely. If you find a
good one, post about it.

> OK, thanks a lot for your advice.

No problem. Developers should always help eachother out :-)

--
Sy/\/apZ

> I agree... overdesigned is exactly the word. However, a lot of thought
has
> gone into it and it's possible to create some great stuff for Symbian
> devices so it's worth it in the end.

Yes, I suppose.. but the problem I find is that there isn't too much docs to
start with... in my case, I have some background in Windows and Unix,
and in general (specially in windows) the API is quite well documented and
there're lots of examples to look at. But seeing some symbian examples
is not enough...I mean, its source code is similar to MFC (which I hate)
and for doing simple things you have to write lots of lines of code...

> > What books do you recommend me? Because I've seen not very good
> > comments in amazon for the symbian books, except one which is no
> > longer printed...
>
> 'Professional Symbian Programming: Mobile Solutions on the EPOC Platform'
> (Tasker, et al) seems to be the one most people recommend, although it's a
> little out of date now. You would be better asking on the symbian
> newsgroups because I haven't read any Symbian books :-( I've learned

Yes, that's the one I was talking about above... that book is out of print
(according to amazon at least)

> everything I know from the newsgroups, the SDK docs (which are quite poor)
> and being fortunate enough to have a full-time job which meant I got to
> write Symbian stuff for my company. I'm not an expert and I should
probably
> read a good book myself to cover the basics more completely. If you find
a
> good one, post about it.

Please, tell me, how did you started? Do you have any mentor? Or just
researching on your own from looking at SDK, examples, etc?

> > OK, thanks a lot for your advice.
>
> No problem. Developers should always help eachother out :-)

Anyway, thanks for your pointers :-)

Regards,
ac.-

"ac" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Yes, that's the one I was talking about above... that book is out of print
> (according to amazon at least)

Hmmm... maybe if you're lucky you could get it 2nd hand, or perhaps there is
a newer edition? As I say, best to ask on the newsgroups I recommended -
there are often threads about books on there.

> Please, tell me, how did you started? Do you have any mentor? Or just
> researching on your own from looking at SDK, examples, etc?

Well, I was thrown in at the deep end, really... I came from a C programming
background and knew only a little C++ from my compsci degree. I started a
new job and the first project was to write an arcade game for Series60
platform. I had to pick up Symbian and C++ quickly!! Mostly I just learned
from the example code in the Symbian 6.1 SDK, but the newsgroups were quite
helpful at times and there were a couple of people here at work with some
Symbian experience to help out from time to time. As I say, I'm not an
expert by any means, but I've learned a lot. It helps to get paid to do it
full-time and to have the pressure of people expecting results :-)

The newsgroups are probably the best single resource - better than a book
because you can ask questions and get explanations. There are a few real
experts on there who are happy to help.

--
Sy/\/apZ

> > Yes, that's the one I was talking about above... that book is out of
print
> > (according to amazon at least)
>
> Hmmm... maybe if you're lucky you could get it 2nd hand, or perhaps there
is
> a newer edition? As I say, best to ask on the newsgroups I recommended -
> there are often threads about books on there.

No, there's no newer edition unfortunately. Regarding the ng, I'm already
using it :-)

> > Please, tell me, how did you started? Do you have any mentor? Or just
> > researching on your own from looking at SDK, examples, etc?
>
> Well, I was thrown in at the deep end, really... I came from a C
programming
> background and knew only a little C++ from my compsci degree. I started a
> new job and the first project was to write an arcade game for Series60
> platform. I had to pick up Symbian and C++ quickly!! Mostly I just
learned
> from the example code in the Symbian 6.1 SDK, but the newsgroups were
quite
> helpful at times and there were a couple of people here at work with some
> Symbian experience to help out from time to time. As I say, I'm not an
> expert by any means, but I've learned a lot. It helps to get paid to do
it
> full-time and to have the pressure of people expecting results :-)

Good you have some people to help you. Even though I have c++ background,
I feel a little overwhelmed at times... don't know, as you said, maybe it'll
be
a matter of time...

Good luck!
ac.-