Network question regarding Nook color

[McBain01]

I looked around a bit and didnt find anything, so i apologize in advance if this had been discussed previously.

I had a question regarding the nook color relating to wifi connections. I have a rooted Droid X running wireless tether and have been trying to get my dad's nook color to locate me when searching for wifi networks. I wanted to test it to see if possible because i want to possibly get a NC myself. I have yet to get it to work. I have changed multiple settings in the wireless tether app but no luck. I know it is working because i have had 2 different iphones and another droid x connected to it with no problems. His NC is not rooted if that makes a diff.

I really would like to get this to work and be able to use my droid x tether feature to be able to access the internet where no wifi signal exists. Again, i am toying with buying a NC myself and then rooting it and using for easy access to email, manage fantasy sports, browse the internet, watch movies, play games etc while traveling for work as opposed to bringing my large laptop. Im not ready to take the higher $ tablet plunge just yet and feel that this could be a good alternative if i can connect via tether. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[gadgetrants]

You're not imagining things, I have the same problem with my Droid.

The question is: do the other devices accept an adhoc wifi signal? I can get my PCs to see the Droid, but not the NC. However, I applied the adhoc fix (yeah, gotta be rooted) and voila my Droid wifi tether worked:

[FIX] AdHoc Wifi support on the NC! - xda-developers

However, I decided to hold off on the solution, as modifying the NC's wpa_supplicant seemed to make wifi less stable.

Of course, I may be wrong about this. In particular, I'm surprised that the iPhones and X are OK with adhoc wifi, without modding them. If you can figure out whether your X is broadcasting in infrastructure or adhoc mode, we'll have a better idea.

-Matt

 

[McBain01]

awesome, thanks for the info. Looks like ill be getting me a NC since the wireless tether works for others once the fix is applied. Thanks again

 

[gadgetrants]

It took me a few shots to get the NC set up the way I like (and now it's in my wife's hands...argh ) but I am super happy with it.

Last night I found the perfect settings for video conversion using Handbrake. As a test, I converted an HD copy of Harry Potter 6 (8GB) to a 1GB MP4. It took 2 hours (converted in realtime) and looks almost HD-quality on the NC. Really, it's turning into the perfect companion to the Droid. Now if I can only wait for that 16GB microSD card to arrive...

-Matt

 

[McBain01]

Good to hear. It seems most are very happy with it. It took me a while to get the nerve to root my X but couldnt be happier now that i have. I expect similar results here.

I just got the Daniusoft Video Converter Ultimate and am ripping some of my digital copy movies right now. Hopefully the results will be similar to Handbrake.

I plan to maybe pick up the NC next week and may hit you up for some help if you dont mind helping a noob out.

 

[gadgetrants]

Hit me, hit me.

"Ultimate"??? Sounds pricey!

-Matt

 

[McBain01]

got it for Christmas from my brother. Think it was around $60 or so. Should be able to get that out of it easy since it takes the DRM out of digital copies very easily

 

[gadgetrants]

Could you hook me up with your brother's email? That's one generous guy.

-Matt

 

[McBain01]

Ill see what i can do

 

[McBain01]

so what settings did you use on your video conversion. This one i have has a ton of settings. I assume you started with 1024x600. What tweaks did you make after that? Ill see if I can find similar settings and see how it turns out.

 

[gadgetrants]

Last night I found the perfect settings for video conversion using Handbrake. As a test, I converted an HD copy of Harry Potter 6 (8GB) to a 1GB MP4. It took 2 hours (converted in realtime) and looks almost HD-quality on the NC.

Hmmm....settings. One thing I can say for sure is to stay away from the full NC resolution. 1024x600 is too large, and I think most players will crash (go figure). So in Handbrake, I set the width at 720, and it adjusts the height to maintain the aspect ratio of the original video. I should also note that even though the MP4 is 720 pixels wide, the NC movie player automatically plays it at full screen, and with the bitrate I'm using (around 1000Kbps) it looks very, very clean.

Other settings are a bit tricky. I tried playing with various things, but conversion took forever. Then I used one of the Handbrake default settings (I think "Ipod Universal") and with just a few tweaks it worked great. Tweak 1 = set width to 720+maintain aspect ratio. Tweak 2 = output file size ->1GB (the original files were huge). I did a few other minor things with the audio.

The problem is that since it's a default, there are dozens of other settings that I don't really understand and probably shouldn't try to explain! I guess my best (but lame) advice is to first try out a few default profiles on your new conversion program, and see if you like how they look on the NC. I may also post a short tutorial on Handbrake, for those looking to do it on the cheap!

-Matt

 

[McBain01]

Cool thanks. I had tried some of the default settings when converting a few for the Droid. I just finished one with similar settings to what you outlined. Obviously its not on the nook yet, but it looks like the quality turned out really nice. Bit rate was about 1200 and the res is 768x576.

In other news, i picked up my NC a little earlier. Havent turned it on yet. My sd card will be here tomorrow and i should be ready to roll. Guess i have a lot of reading to do in preparation...