Nokia E90 FAQ's and Report.

[hydrashok]

I've got it down pat now (mostly).

1. To convert DeeVeeDees you own for your personal viewing pleasure in glorious 16:9 full-widescreen: SlySoft CloneDVD mobile | DVD to PSP, DVD to iVideo, DVD to ZEN

Great bit of SW. I downloaded it a few days back. The best thing is that it has a preset for the E90. So you needn't input any settings as far as input codec, output codec, output container, resolution, bit-rate, etc. are concerned. Its just a matter of slotting in the source material, selecting your screen-size preference (autosetting of resolution and cropping) & the file-size you're comfy with (autosetting of bitrate). It will add subtitles from the source if it has them (and if you want them).

The SW has a 21 day fully functional trial. I'm going to buy it for sure ($39, plus 20% discount till Aug 12th). A 2-hour movie came to 830MB at 836 kbps. No pixelation, nothing. Almost as good as the trailers I'd posted earlier. If you want quality similar to those trailers, you can do that also, but the size of the entire movie will be 1.5GB. Maybe after that 4GB microSDHC card comes out, I'll switch

2. To convert video files of home videos you happen to have lying around: SUPER © .

SUPER is super! It is freeware. It will convert nearly any format to any format. It is specifically meant for getting video onto mobiles (You can use this for any mobile phone, BTW).

I found that using the MP4 container and the MPEG-4 codec gives the best results (for me). Using the built-in RealPlayer gives way better results than the DivX player (I'd linked to it in an earlier post). Basically RealPlayer scales up smaller video files without jerking or loss of audio sync. DivX player causes a little pixelation and jerking when you view long video files in full screen.

Maybe future releases of DivX player will make things better. And CorePlayer (formerly known as TCPMP) is gearing up their release for Symbian S60 this month-end (already in advanced beta).

SUPER also gives pretty good results, file-size wise. But you need to choose:
- Output Codec
- Output container
- Video Bitrate
- Video Resolution
- Aspect Ratio
- Cropping
- Audio Codec
- Audio Bitrate
- Other misc settings (can be ignored).

A "Supered" 1 and a half hour file came to 753MB. If the aspect ratio of the source file is 16:9, lucky you, you can ask Super to not change the aspect ratio. Else it is a bit of trial and error if you don't want the black boxes when you play the file in the internal screen. I'm a total dunce on video so I really have no idea about calculating conversions etc. and most of the terminology also goes over my head. So trial-and-error with snippets of video is how I go.

[ankur]

Hi all,
I to have moved to an e90 a few weeks back, moved from a Treo650 so still getting used to the Nokia. I like it for the most part, the internet features are a big hit with me. I am a heavy email,chat and voip user and i am very happy to see all these running well. I am using bbconnect for email (still have some folder sync issues), IM+ for my messenger and Vonage as my voip provider (i already have vonage phone numbers). Other apps that i like and use are Putty and the Mobiola webcam, really good stuff.
Hydra, i also use the slysoft suite of products and i agree it makes life really easy for converting DVDs and the Super software is really super, i have converted many videos i had lying with me using it.

cheers.

[hydrashok]

Yeah, Ankur! Its the great usability of the internet that really got me hooked on this phone!

Here's another good video ripping utility WinMEnc: WinMEnc Free, like SUPER.

The good thing is, this one (WinMEnc) also rips from DVDs, unlike SUPER. And there's a really nice setting "Fit to width" and "Expand to Video Size" that crops the video to the required video-size (that you specify). The SW gets the cropping just right nearly all the time, unlike SUPER where you have to do some trial-and-error to get it right.

This SW is mostly just a GUI to control the excellent open-source MEncoder. But it does that job very well. Those who have a advanced knowledge of MEncoder's various magic words (I don't, heh, heh) will be able to do a lot of wonders with this SW.

Otherwise, I found the final results (quality-wise & size-wise) to be more or less the same between SUPER and WinMEnc.

[unknown]

What's the price of e90 now ? Is it dropped ?

[unknown]

Do you guys have any problem with mic & your internal screen getting scratch with your e90 ? E90 stock is recalled by nokia & it's not yet available :(

[V-16]

Originally Posted by unknown

Do you guys have any problem with mic & your internal screen getting scratch with your e90 ? E90 stock is recalled by nokia & it's not yet available :(

Ive hadno probs. The day i go tmy phone i fixed a screen saver on the top as well as the inside screen to help it frpm being scratched. I believe the new breed or lot of E-90s are having some problems so they are not available in the market.

[Mugen_Power]

i havent faced any problem so far.. You can always upgrade firmware..

[unknown]

Originally Posted by Mugen_Power

i havent faced any problem so far.. You can always upgrade firmware..

Yes but that problem is arrise due to defective hardware not by software , nokia has rectified the problem that cause the problem & they have develpoed a new case for it !

[hydrashok]

Originally Posted by unknown

Yes but that problem is arrise due to defective hardware not by software , nokia has rectified the problem that cause the problem & they have develpoed a new case for it !

Yep. The new case is the third version (!) -- with a bump under the keyboard (Mugen Power's E90 has it, from the pic he posted -- it is a v2.0 case), slightly longer hinge, slightly more recessed keyboard and (a rumoured) glass protection for the internal screen. But the new case also apparently (= according to rumour) has a slightly larger gap between the top and bottom units (dust can get into the KB and onto the screen), and less sturdy hinges.

Most of the defects (keyboard scratching screen, hissing noise in mic, creaks galore, loose camera module, uneven feet, and susceptibility of the internal screen to magnetic fields like the ones in belt-pouches) have been reported from Europe, where they mostly get the "Made in Finland" sets. So much for the "quality" of Made in Finland vis-a-vis "Made by Nokia".

Maybe I'm lucky, but mine rocks -- No issues even after medium to heavy use over the last month. None of the problems reported (like the ones listed above). With a screen-protector for the internal screen, this thing is like a tank. Maybe the first gen. models will even fetch a premium (rarity value heh, heh) later.

From the news on the symbian forums, Europe had gone mostly out-of-stock over the last month. Production is definitely being shifted to the 3rd gen case. No photos have appeared yet.

[hydrashok]

UPDATES:

I forgot to say, Fring is now available for the E90. I'm not gonna try it -- I don't particularly need mobile VOIP, and I have a very good IM client to take care of IM duty. Fring almost bricked my N70, so I've never had a very good opinion of it. But most of the other guys in the symbian forums are going gaga over the factthat it is now available for the E90.

CorePlayer is now selling (!) their beta version for Symbian S60, V3.x for $25. Yep, they are selling a beta version. It works reasonably well according to user reports as long as you don't want it to play movies in full-screen. According to them, if you ask it to "fit-to-width" a movie on the internal screen, it starts stuttering all over the place.

[netarchie]

My E90 battery has been behaving strangely for a couple of days now. When on charger the battery never stops charging, i mean it never shows full!! and when i start using it , it dies down in mostly in about 8- 12 hours,in not very heavy usage!!. Anybody faced such problem?

[speedy]

Originally Posted by netarchie

My E90 battery has been behaving strangely for a couple of days now. When on charger the battery never stops charging, i mean it never shows full!! and when i start using it , it dies down in mostly in about 8- 12 hours,in not very heavy usage!!. Anybody faced such problem?

no netarchie not faced such problems on my phone. i did face similar issues on my p990i though. you need to take it to the service centre. sometimes a point gets loose and it does not recieve the charge properly so it shows that it is chargeing but in actual it is not chargeing at all.

[unknown]

Originally Posted by hydrashok

Yep. The new case is the third version (!) -- with a bump under the keyboard (Mugen Power's E90 has it, from the pic he posted -- it is a v2.0 case), slightly longer hinge, slightly more recessed keyboard and (a rumoured) glass protection for the internal screen. But the new case also apparently (= according to rumour) has a slightly larger gap between the top and bottom units (dust can get into the KB and onto the screen), and less sturdy hinges.

Most of the defects (keyboard scratching screen, hissing noise in mic, creaks galore, loose camera module, uneven feet, and susceptibility of the internal screen to magnetic fields like the ones in belt-pouches) have been reported from Europe, where they mostly get the "Made in Finland" sets. So much for the "quality" of Made in Finland vis-a-vis "Made by Nokia".

Maybe I'm lucky, but mine rocks -- No issues even after medium to heavy use over the last month. None of the problems reported (like the ones listed above). With a screen-protector for the internal screen, this thing is like a tank. Maybe the first gen. models will even fetch a premium (rarity value heh, heh) later.

From the news on the symbian forums, Europe had gone mostly out-of-stock over the last month. Production is definitely being shifted to the 3rd gen case. No photos have appeared yet.

So you got any confirmation when new stock will be avaiable ?
Thanks for all the clarification .

[ankur]

I get my mobile VOIP fix the SIP way using the built in SIP client. My Vonage soft phone works perfectly .

[hydrashok]

Originally Posted by netarchie

... When on charger the battery never stops charging, i mean it never shows full!! and when i start using it , it dies down in mostly in about 8- 12 hours,in not very heavy usage!!. ...

Did you try taking the battery out, putting it back in again and then charging the phone?

If that doesn't work it could be a problem with the charger or with the charging mechanism in the phone.