DVD Catalyst 4 updated : v4.1.2.0

[dvdcatalyst]

I know it has only be a week or so since I released DVD Catalyst 4 v4.1.1.0, but after playing with the Kindle Fire for a bit, I came up with some custom settings to make the video playback experience on it so much better that I found it worthy of a new update. Of course there is a bit more than that as well.


Here are the release notes for 4.1.2.0 :



New:



* as mentioned already, something special for the Kindle Fire.


* Similar to what we came up with for the Kindle Fire, we also did it for the NOOKcolor. I know its a bit late, but since no-one else has done it, I figured it was time that I did.


* I added a watermark option, which will enable you to place a small text description at the bottom of your videos.


* I don’t know how I missed it before, but I added profiles for the Motorola Photon 4G profiles.



Fixed:


* There was an issue with the srt/mkv font selection, where, if you changed the font, it would not be remembered the next time you start DVD Catalyst.


* If you turned off “Minimal Upscaling”, it was possible that the screen resolution of the video file would exceed that of the selected screensize in “Modify”




Details:


*Watermark.


As you already know, every now and then, I convert a collection of movie trailers for certain devices and screen resolutions. I’ve noticed that there are some people that are using these converted trailers on their own websites and claim them as their own. While I don’t mind the use of these trailers for such a purpose, at least provide credit where credit is due.So, the trailers I share now will have a very small watermark at the bottom.












Rather than just keeping this option as a private option for my own use, I figured it would be useful to others as well, and added it as an option (not enabled by default) in Global Settings > Tweaks, and you can customize it to your own liking, so if you create your own sample videos for websites or public testing on forums for example, you can mark them as your own.




Kindle Fire:


So what is so special for the Kindle Fire in this update?


Just like with the Honeycomb tablets, instead of using physical buttons, the Kindle Fire has this permanent grey little bar at the bottom, that just sits there when you are watching videos. If you want to watch your movies in full-screen, this little menu bar actually results in adjusting the size of the video slightly smaller than the actual screen resolution of the Kindle Fire, leaving you with black borders on both sides of the movie:



(the sides are normally black, but for indication purposes, I made them grey)

With this update, we compensated for the grey bar on the Kindle Fire, enabling you to get your videos to play as full-screen as possible:

Looks a lot better this way, doesn’t it ?

I created a couple of sample trailers that will give you an idea of the difference. Just tap on them when you visit this page on your Kindle Fire, and they will stream.

Kindle Fire – Full Screen : http://www.tools4movies.com/trailers...1_kf_1024p.mp4

(this one was created using the custom screen setting for the Kindle Fire)

1024×600 : http://www.tools4movies.com/trailers...1_nt_1024p.mp4

(this one was created using the screen resolution of the Kindle Fire, which is what is used by conversion tools that claim to support the Kindle Fire).

DVD Catalyst 4 v4.1.2.0 has the special Kindle Fire screen resolution set in the profiles, so all you need to do to make your movies full-screen for the Kindle Fire, is enable the setting in Global Settings:

* Enable “Power User” at the bottom right.


* Tap on “Global Settings” on the top left.


* On the right, look for the “Borders” tab, and select it.


* Then enable the “completely remove from device” setting, the 4th one from the top.



After that, all your conversions will play in full-screen on your Kindle Fire.




NOOKcolor:


As I mentioned above, something similar was done for the NOOKcolor.


After testing the full-screen video playback of the Kindle Fire and NOOKtablet, I wanted to see how it would work on the NOOKcolor. Unfortunately, the NOOKcolor has a screen-size limitation of 854×480 for video playback, which happens to be a different aspect ratio than that of the actual screen, so regardless of what settings you use, it will always have borders.





So, with some fiddling and calculations, we came up with a custom screen resolution that would make the videos full-screen on the NOOKcolor:






Because this does cut off a bit of the video, we did not make this the default setting for the NOOKcolor profiles though. If you would like to make your videos full-screen for the NOOKcolor, you will have to make the change yourself.


First, the full-screen setting in Global Settings:





* Enable “Power User” at the bottom right.


* Tap on “Global Settings” on the top left.


* On the right, look for the “Borders” tab, and select it.


* Then enable the “completely remove from device” setting, the 4th one from the top.



Now, select one of the Barnes Noble NOOKcolor profiles:





and click on “Modify”





Then change the Player screensize to 816×480:





and that is it. Now all your conversions for the NOOKcolor will make a better use of the screen space available.





For more information about DVD Catalyst 4, have a look here:


http://www.tools4movies.com/2011/08/chapter-1-getting-started/




If you would like to know more about the process of making your movies full-screen, have a look here:


http://www.tools4movies.com/2011/08/chapter-10-black-bar-removal/




And for information on how to use DVD Catalyst 4 for your Bluray conversions, have a look at this guide:


http://www.tools4movies.com/2011/08/dvd-catalyst-4-1-bluray-guide/



If you are using a previous version of DVD Catalyst 4 already, and would like to update to the new 4.1.2.0 version, just click on the cat-eyes in the program, or use the link you received upon purchase.