Our wonderfully lucrative corporate culture can really kill the movie buff in you, as you’ll always be hard pressed to find the couple of hours to catch your favourite flicks. In fact, your much-loved VCDs and DVDs have probably gathered a thick layer of dust, much like the cinema freak in you. Now we know, you don’t have the time to sit back and watch a movie but you can certainly make use of all the hours you spend commuting. No, we aren’t suggesting a portable DVD player. Instead, why not catch a movie on your smartphone. In fact, we thought this is one of the tasks you can take up for your videophile girlfriend - you have two reasons for that - one, you know you will enjoy doing the project and two, she will be pleased. Besides, you need no special doo-hickeys - just an application called Smartmovie and you’re all set for some good ol’ entertainment on the move.

Smartmovies is an application that will allow you to play videos in the AVI format, which is known for its superior video and compression quality. Smartmovie consists of a convertor and a player – the former is meant for your PC and the latter for your smartphone. The Smartmovie player is available for almost all smartphones including Symbian (all editions), Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Pocket PC. So without further ado, here’s a quick guide to transforming your smartphone into a portable video player.

Step 1: Download the latest version of Smartmovie that is specific to your Smartphone from www.loneycatgames.com. Though the application can be freely downloaded, it is not free and you will need to purchase and register it later.

Step 2: On extracting the downloaded ZIP file you will find two folders. The Convertor folder contains the application for your PC, while the Player folder contains the software to be installed on your phone. There might be numerous folders within the Player folder, each containing the player for specific smartphone platforms. For instance if you have downloaded Smartmovie for Symbian, the Player folder would contain players for Series60, Series60 3rd edition, Series80, UIQ and so on.

Step 3: Install the convertor application on your PC and the right player on your smartphone.

Step 4: Run the convertor on your PC and a registration window welcomes you. If you have purchased the application then follow the registration procedure mentioned or else click 'Later' and the Convertor’s interface is displayed.

Step 5: Click on 'Open' and browse to the video that you would want to convert. Smartmovie supports most of the popular video formats such as MPEG, WMV, VOB etc; so you can virtually convert any video file of your choice. You are free to select as many files you would want to convert in a single session. Smartmovie can also integrate subtitles to the converted video file; this feature comes handy if you want to watch the movie in silent mode.

Step 6: After you load the video file to be converted, you can seek the video and select only a particular segment of the video you would want and discard the remaining. You would want to use this option if you want to select the best clips from a movie and make them into separate files. If you want the entire video to be converted then skip this step.

Step 7: Now comes the imperative part of optimizing your video. Under the 'Video Settings', select the 'Screen' size as that of your phone. To get the video quality as you desire, select the Bitrate accordingly. Higher bit rate results in better video quality but increases the file size. The same implies for the audio settings too. If you are not too sure of the settings, choose your phone from the ‘Optimize for’ menu box and let Smartmovie do the optimization for you. Once you have entered all your preferred settings, click on 'Convert' and the conversion will begin. Smartmovie does not require your intervention while conversion process so you can proceed to do your daily chores.

Step 8: By default, all the converted files can be found in the ‘SmartMovie converted files’ folder on the desktop unless specified. Now transfer the video from the PC to you smartphone via Bluetooth, IR or data cable.

Step 9: Now with the file on your smartphone, just click on the file and the video starts playing. There are numerous options available within the player to select from as per your viewing preferences.

You just finished your project. Now catch your favorite flick anytime, anywhere.

The cost of Smartmovie as per the platform is as follows: For Symbian € 23.99 (approx Rs 1,386), for SmartPhone (Windows Mobile) and Palm OS € 14.99 (approx Rs 866) and for Pocket PC €19.99 (approx Rs 1,155). The prices mentioned here are excluding taxes, which is approximately 16 percent of the cost of the application.

NOTE: If you haven’t registered the application then you will only be able to play videos for an hour’s duration, after which you will be prompted to buy the application in order to continue. Further, the free demo appears in grayscale at regular intervals with a red DEMO tag on the side.