Smartphones such as the Nokia N97 Mini are the perfect platforms for watching films on, but getting your movies from your PC or a DVD disc to your handset itself can be a daunting task. Thankfully, it’s a lot easier than you may think. We’ve put together this handy guide to show you exactly what you’ll need to do to get your films from a disk or digital file onto your Nokia N97 Mini.
For a start, you’ll need to download some third-party software to rip your DVDs to your computer’s hard drive. This is because Windows doesn’t provide software to copy DVDs as standard – unlike CDs. It’s very tricky to find free software from manufacturers you’ll have heard of, so you’ll either have to pay, risk using little-known applications, or use trial versions.
Magic DVD Ripper is one option, costing $35 for the full version, but also available as a free trial package. That said, when paying it’s worth opting for a more comprehensive software package – such as Roxio Creator 2010 Pro – which also lets you burn CDs and DVDs, along with converting your DVDs into all manner of digital files, and at screen resolutions to suit any mobile device. At £42 (inc. VAT) from Amazon, it’s not a great deal more expensive, and offers a lot more functionality.
Once you’ve ripped your DVD into a digital file, or you already have existing movie collections on your laptop, it’s easy to turn it into the correct format for your Nokia N97 Mini using Nokia’s PC Suite.
Open the Nokia PC Suite, make sure your Nokia N97 Mini is connected in PC Suite mode, and click on the Transfer Videos icon. This will open the Nokia Video Manager application, a simple and intuitive piece of software for converting video files. Click on the arrow in the bottom right to continue.
You’ll then be asked to select a My Video Collection folder – this is a folder for your converted videos. It makes sense to store your movies here as well as on your phone, in case you make any changes, or you update your phone. Create a folder to put the films in, and place it somewhere easy to find, such as on your desktop.
You’ll then be asked to define the folder with your videos in. Select the folder you’ve copied your movie to, or an existing video folder on your PC, and click the OK button at the bottom.
Your PC will then scan this folder, along with the phone. If there are already videos on your Nokia N97 Mini, the software will ask you if you want to copy them to your PC – again it makes sense to do so in case anything happens to your phone.
It’s then just a simple case of clicking the video you want to convert, and pressing one of the icons at the bottom right of the software. Click Transfer to Phone and Copy to My Video Collection. It takes a fair while to convert files – especially if you’ve selected a lot of them – so it makes sense to start at the beginning of the day or when you go to bed, and leave your PC to convert the files as you get on with working or sleeping.
