Homebrew How-to: Video playback with R4 for Nintendo DS
Last week we explained how to install and run some interesting homebrew applications on your Nintendo DS using the R4 revolution homebrew cart. This week we are going to run down another important feature of DS homebrew: video playback. It’s very easy!
At the moment, the only application that features video playback is called Moonshell. Fortunately, many homebrew carts such as the the R4 come with Moonshell as the standard media player, so once you get your R4 up and running Moonshell will be operational as well. Before we continue, however, you should know that video playback on the Nintendo DS is not great; videos suffer from frame-rate issues and short (although very rare) freezing times. Depending on your taste, this could be no problem or it could ruin the experience, so keep that in mind before proceeding. The problem is noticeable, but the feature is good enough to use, especially for short clips such as music videos or single TV show episodes.
Still with us? Good. First and foremost, Moonshell only runs video on DPG format, which isn’t very common. Worry not; follow these steps and you should be fine:
1. Download Moonshell’s Win Tools, which include a DPG encoder, here.
2. Open the Zip file and extract everything to your desktop. It will all be put inside a folder named ‘moonshell_dpgtools’.
3. Inside the folder, find the ‘dpgenc.exe’ file, run it, and select a language on the bottom left corner selection box. (ENG for English).
4. Click ‘select’ and find the video you wish to convert to DPG format.
5. Once you have selected the video, click ‘start’ and a ‘Save As…’ window will appear, allowing you to choose a name and location for the DPG video you will create. Once you specify the name and location of the video, click Save.
6. The video conversion process should begin. Once it’s done, your DPG video is ready. Send it to your MicroSD card, insert it on your R4, run Moonshell, and run the DPG file. Enjoy your video!
Depending on the original video’s size, the time to convert it to DPG format will vary. That’s all there is to it! Hopefully you are comfortable with the video’s frame rate.
We will be back soon with more instructions on how to run other homebrew software for your Nintendo DS. Also check our handy ‘how-to’ guide with step-by-step instructions on how to use your DS to make phone calls!
Screenshot Gallery:
April 19th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
i did that, but it didnt work…weird
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I did the same thing but it keeps saying cannot detect total play time??
May 8th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Same here! Can someone explain why is it like that. Is it a format problem?
May 11th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Please make sure that the video you’re trying to convert is of an appropriate format (.MPG, .MPEG, .AVI, or .WMV).
June 12th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
works great thanks for all the hard work. converted a 1 hour 30min avi in about 30 mins put it on the ds lite clicked multimedia, scrolled down to film title pressed play (A) button and away you go.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
does this work with m3 simply?
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Yeah, it works great with the m3 simply!
July 17th, 2007 at 3:33 am
30 minutes? it only took me 10 minutes to convert a one and a half our movie.
if it doesn’t work it’s most likely because of the way the video file was encoded.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Well, i tried it, it worked, except there is no video, only audio.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:47 am
I got mine to work..kind of….but it appears upside down and backwards.
July 31st, 2007 at 1:00 am
Mine keeps coming out as a audio fie :S
Can anyone help
July 31st, 2007 at 9:35 am
just an audio file :S
then it worked but it didnt play and some crap came up on moonshell blue background :l
August 8th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
wrx great thx a lot
September 11th, 2007 at 7:40 am
where do you get the file moonshell for the ds.. and where to place it on the ds
September 11th, 2007 at 7:43 am
another question does it compress the file? like how many vids can u put on a 1 gb mirco sd?
September 12th, 2007 at 8:06 am
OK I got this to work… but it inversed… like flipped
September 20th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Thanks again! Yesterday I had all but given up on my R4; tonight I’m running DSOrganize, games, songs, and a video!
September 21st, 2007 at 10:17 pm
the best thing to do, its fiddly but the playback is much better.
Update to net framework 1.1
Install Avisytnh .
and get a program called ‘BatchDPG’ it gives you the options or what framesize (for perfect DS screen fit its 256/192) framerates, audio output. all that stuff. works great.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:15 am
try the latest version of dpg tools i had similart troubles trying to cnvert flv files but when i got the newest version it was really easy
December 24th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
I downloaded the Moonshell’s DPG, which was given as a link in step one. I extracted the files and put it into a folder, but when I double clicked “dpgenc”, it said that it can’t dpgenclng. When I start the program it doesn’t have the drop down where I can select English, it’s just blank. The rest of it is geberish. What’s going on?
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Download a video converter like ffdshow so u can convert it i use to have the same problems like cannot detect total play time lol good luck ppl it should work now
March 1st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I tried this method but it did’nt work. all it said was “code not detect video size”. can someone please help me.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
What if an error message of ????? appears
April 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am
does it work with ezflash 5