New phone, new toys 
Just got a new Verizon RAZR V3M phone and being how I am I have to see what I can do with it. The is no Java on this so I’m pretty much stuck with BREW which means I’ll have to buy apps off of Verizon’s service. Bummer since there is a lot of good Java apps for this phone available. Verizon has done a lot of things to make the phone as non-customizable as possible, less for them to worry about with support (curse the world of idiots!). Even the GUI is pretty static, there are 3 options by default and the differences is that it almost changes the colors…you really need to look to see a difference.
MP3 support is there in a half-ass way and the only way to get audio on it for playback is to sync it through Windows Media Player (10 or higher) which will then convert them into wma’s…why waste our time with having to convert these things? Of course this means I’ve only been able to do that when running Windows, which is about 5 minutes every 3 months or so (I have to use my aging laptop or wife’s computer to put music on). Ringtones are even tougher to get on the phone, I’ve found the best way is to email it as an attachment from gmail. I’ve used wav and mid files, I think mp3 will work for ringtones also.
Videos was the fun part, since I mainly use Linux and didn’t want to rely on Windows apps like eRightSoft’s Super which did a great job converting videos into 3GP format which the phone uses, I’ve dug around, found and tested various ffmpeg options and think I’ve found the ideal combination.
audio sampling frequency = 8000
number of audio channels = 1
audio codec = amr_nb
video codec = h263
frame size = 176×144
frame rate = 14.985
video bitrate = 190k
audio bitrate = 32
force format = 3gp
[code] ffmpeg -i {input_file} -s 176×144 -r 14.985 -b 190k -acodec amr_nb -ac 1 -ar 8000 -ab 32 -f {output_name}.3gp[/code]
With this I’ve been able to record an episode of South Park from a 175M avi to a 32M 3gp which plays back very nicely on the RAZR. The final file can be made smaller by tweaking the video bitrate (-b), changing it to 140k results in a 25M at lower video quality. With a bitrate of 190k the quality is good enough to read text so you can play around with that setting depending on what you want.
Getting the video to the phone is the tough part because yet again Verizon limits you with this wanting you to get videos from them with their fees. Even though the phone connects to a PC with a standard USB cable it is not file system friendly and is tricky to do even with Windows. What I find that works good is I got a 1GB MicroSD card ($14 after shipping from NewEgg.com ;)) and formated the card with the phone. After that using a card reader you can find and add files there. Videos need to be put at the root of the card before any of the directories. Then they can be played from the “My FLIX” in the “Get PIX & FLIX” menu
, and at about 32MB for 22 minutes that’s a lot of South Park 
Hi! Thanks for this great guide, I was excited to find it after having bought a 2 gb card for my RAZR. I’m having problems encoding to a decent size though. For example a 23 minute simpsons episode was still HUGE after i converted it from the AVI
I guess I’ll just keep dicking around with the options (on SUPER)
Another problem I’m having with playing videos on the RAZR is it shuts down the video after around 20 or 25 seconds, like it just stops it. i can fast forward to any part of the episode i want but once i hit play it plays for only a short amount of time.
I realize this isnt a cellphone site, but i was just wondering if you can into any problems like that. anyways thanks for your time
I had the same problem with the phone crashing and rebooting after about 30 seconds…then I realized I was using ac3 instead of amr_nb for audio, once I used the right audio codec it worked great.
Not sure what your size problem could be, I’ve been ripping SG-1 episodes from DVD (44 minutes) and after converting them to 3gp they are around 55MB. He’s the ffmpeg command I’ve been using including the padding for the letterbox, I still have some tuning to do as it doesn’t seem to playback as smooth as I expect but is watchable.
ffmpeg -i infile.avi -vcodec h263 -s 176x112 -padtop 16 -padbottom 16 -r 14.985 -b 180k -acodec amr_nb -ac 1 -ar 8000 -ab 32 -f 3gp outfile.3gpok, I know how to convert into 3gp format and all and I’ve gotten files to play on my Razr even for more than 30 seconds. The thing I don’t like is while I’m watching it is if I get a text message it shuts it off and I have to restart the video all over again. Which sucks cause the fast forward is SLOW and if I’m 15 minutes into a video I DON’T want to have to restart it. Does anyone know anyway around this?
Can you just use a conversion program and format it to 3gp then put it onto windows media 10 and sync it over to your phone with the USB from the music kit?
Jenny: That drives me nuts too since the “fast forward” has a max speed of x2, I’d like to know if there is a hack available for this also!
J: When I tried sync’ing it with WM10 it did not recognize them as valid media. I don’t have the media kit so I don’t know how or of that would work.
hey i have a sprint version of the phone and i can get video files on to the sd card but i cant get them to play on my phone….when i go to my videos it just says that its opening the external memory for like a minute and then it just closes and im back to the beginning
This is cool. What I’m wondering though, is have you had any success getting your V3m to sync with any Linux-based PIM software, like Evolution or KAddressBook/KOrganizer, etc? I’ve heard of a few things, like moto4lin, a Motorola module for OpenSync, something called KitchenSync, and another application called multisync in gui mode. Unfortunately, what I’ve yet to find is a decent HOWTO that ties them to CDMA based Motorola phones in general, and the V3m in particular. I’m a relative Linux newbie, but I am fast gaining an appreciation for this OS. I’m currently running PCLinuxOS 2007 on a Compaq Evo laptop. I’d love to be able to synch my phone’s address book with KDE’s.
Thanks for the article. It is good to see that others are trying to get Linux and Motorola’s phones talking to each other.
does anyone know if you can get windows on a razr and if so how.and,does anyone know how to download tv shows to the razr.
what size memory card do i need to download good live tv or tv clip broadcast.
i know how to convert them, but what folder do i put the videos into on my SD card??
Thanks for your posting about video conversion for the Moto V3m! I’ve been using Super already for other conversions, so it wasn’t much of a leap to start using it for V3m videos. I’ve been playing with some slightly different settings in Super and they *appear* to work well . . .
Output Container: Sony Ericcson 3G2
Output Video CODEC: MPEG-4
Output Audio CODEC: AAC
Video Scale: 176:144
Aspect Ratio:
- Native aspect ratio (and default) is 11:9 for the video scale
- NTSC TV and SDTV is 4:3
- HDTV is 16:9
- Cinema varies (often converted to NTSC or HDTV for TV); may require some playing with the video file to determine its actual aspect ratio; some movies on DVD are in their original aspect ratio.
- Pick aspect ratio closest to that of video being converted; so far I’ve used NTSC and HDTV as I record both.
Frame Rate: 14.985
Video Bit Rate: 192 kbps
Options: Hi Quality; Top Quality; 3gp v4/v5 (use Other options to adjust audio level if needed)
Audio Sampling: 22050
Audio Channels: 2
Audio Bit Rate: 32 kbps
Still trying several long movies I’ve recorded in NTSC and HDTV using these — but they appear to work quite well! You’ll note the video frame and bit rates are the same — some changes in the audio — thanks for giving me a starting point with what you’ve been using!
For Alex (where to put the file on the SD card):
I made a very short video using the phone’s camera, transferred it from phone memory to the SD card from the phone’s menu for managing video files, and then looked at where the phone stashed it. Turns out videos go on the “root” of the SD card (not in a directory).
Several remarks based on questions posted . . .
Motorola Phone Tools can not only transfer videos onto the phone, it can convert from common formats. However, it makes them smaller than the screen width and using Super to do the conversion has been much more satisfactory! I upload the 3G2 file created by Super using MPT’s File Transfer.
The Verizon V3[c,m] needs to be “hacked” to enable the Multi-Media Studio feature in Moto Phone Tools — including file transfer through the USB cable. Out of the Box, the Verizon V3m has all this disabled, and Moto Phone Tools won’t even show the MMS icon. http://www.hacktherazr.com/ has instructions on how to hack the configuration settings Verizon put into the phone using several pieces of free software — but it’s not for the faint of heart (i.e. the software is not “error-proofed” to keep users from doing what they shouldn’t and if one makes mistakes in the “hack” it can “brick” the phone). I had no problems and the instructions there were fairly detailed. Be aware that uploading video to the SD card through the USB cable is S-L-O-W! Yes, it’s a PITA to remove the back and battery to get to the micro-SD card — so it’s a trade-off — PITA doing that or hacking the phone and using a slow USB transfer. I use the USB and live with the low transfer rate because of the leather case the phone is in — a Royal PITA to get it out of the case just to get to the battery. If you do pull the micro-SD card and transfer videos to it using a card reader, put the videos on the root of the card (not in a directory). That’s where the phone will put videos recorded using the internal camera if they’re moved from internal memory to the SD card.
Card Size:
I have a 1 GB card in mine — plenty big enough for four or five full-length movies (YMMV depending on how much other “stuff” like photos are also stored on the card)!
I don’t know about the Sprint V3[c,m] — the same site has a Sprint section which may help dealing with the Sprint versions of the phone.
I know how to solve the text message and movie shut off problrm. when u receive amessage it shuts it down and you have to do it again. if you go tosetting and tools and click airplane mode
it will disable all messages and calls
alex