News :: 15MR: Crystal2Mobile v2.1b41 (Quick)

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Crystal2Mobile version 2.1 build 41 by Crystal Reality—an application to simplify the process of converting DVDs or videos to a format compatible to an assortment of phones.

As due to the fact that I do not have a phone which this application directly supports, I will only be reviewing the applications’ encoding ability as a quick review.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states: (Shortened)

“Crystal2Mobile is a bundle of C2M Player, the video player for the Symbian smartphones and C2M Producer, PC desktop tool, enabling convenient and fast DVD content conversion into mobile-friendly format.”

Quick Pros

• Wizard is simple to use and offers a lot of options
• Ability to load onto a compatible phone directly a plus
• Both direct DVD support as well as other video files
• Conversion rather quick and good quality

Quick Cons

• Phone support is rather limited
• Should have allowed for other common phone video sizes

Expansion

While I have used other video conversion applications for cell phones and other portable platforms, I was surprised by this one’s simplicity. The wizard-style interface it laid out very simply; It does not create too many steps, or over-clutter each page. It’s support for directly loading the video to a compatible phone is a plus as well, making sure you don’t have to play with messy third-party transfer applications. With not only DVD support but also many other video formats, it does cover most needs for video conversion.

As for the quality, I was delighted by the quality of the encoding and the application’s ability to stick almost smack-on with the target size you select without a pre-run or quality loss during heavy-movement scenes is a nice aspect as well.

The biggest downfall of this application is the lack of phone support; Granted, Symbian-based phones are gaining popularity, the list of phones is still rather short and limiting. With no support for selecting options/sizes which will support your specific phone, you are likely not to find an option that will work with your phone either.

Final Verdict

If you do happen to have a phone that this package supports and you have any desire to watch videos on your phone, this would be a great application for free. As for $29.95, I couldn’t say for sure, but it may be a bit steep for many. As for those who don’t have a phone which is supported by the application, you likely won’t have any use for the application.

Posted by BladedThoth on Friday, April 06, 2007