fatboyslim007
06-27-2007, 08:06 PM
Hello, I got a Samsung m610 a while back, I have spent a considerable amount of time looking at how to do various things such as custom ringtones, getting youtube videos to play on it, transferring pictures from an old memory card to a new one, and other things. While researching how to do these things I did not find a place that had all of this information in one spot. I am making this guide so that people do not have to spend so much time to complete these seemingly simple tasks. One more thing: I do not have a data plan, so I wanted to do all this without using PCS Vision, all of the tutorials below use just the memory card to transfer data and do not use PCS Vision. Lets get started...
Before I start with the guide I'm going to tell you the things that I used to make this all work. I just used the free trial of Allok Video 3GP converter available from www.download.com (search for "Allok 3gp" and it will be near the top of the list). I don't know if the trial expires, but I do know that it will only convert the first 5 minutes, which works just fine unless you plan to have anything longer. You must also have a microSD card and a memory card reader so you can transfer data from the microSD card to your computer.
Also something you need to do is configure your m610 to save all pictures/videos to the memory card, and not the phone itself. Camera button>Settings and Info>Auto Save to>Memory Card. Also you will need the phone to create a Media folder for you. Menu>Memory Card if you do not already have a Media folder it will ask if you want to make one now, hit yes.
Another thing to note is that I got the software update for my m610 before I started any of this, so I do not know if these steps will work on the previous version. Settings>Others>Update Phone Software. I have read that some people cannot get this update, I do not know why, it worked fine for me.
Custom Ringtones:
This seems to be one that many people are interested in. I found a way to use any music you already have and to get it on the phone without having to use internet on the phone. So in other words I found a way to get these without incurring any data charges. The steps below might look long and tedious, but once you know how it goes it shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes to complete them all.
Step 1:
On your m610 go to the camcorder and take video (I would imagine that both the long video option and the video mail option would work, but I chose the long video option). Take a video and make it less than 30 seconds. Now take a picture, I know that seems pointless, but you need to. The picture and video will be erased later, so don't worry about having a random picture/video stuck on your phone. Turn off your m610 and remove the battery cover, remove the battery, and take out the microSD memory card.
Step 2:
Plug the microSD card into your memory card reader (I don't know if other memory card readers have an actual microSD slot, but mine didn't so I used the adapter that came with my memory card. The microSD card slides into the back of the adapter, essentially turning it into a regular SD memory card, then I plugged that into my memory card reader). Bring up the contents of the memory card on your computer. There should be a folder called DCIM, if there is not, than you did not configure your m610 to save pictures/videos to your memory card, do that and then start over on these steps.
Open the DCIM folder and there should be another folder called 100SSMED, open it.
Scroll down to the very bottom and you should see that second to last is the video you just took. If the very bottom file is not created by the phone (aka it's the ringtone you're going to make) than the phone will get confused and will not see anything that is on the memory card. It will have a file extension of .3g2. You will probably notice that the all the pictures/videos seem to use the same method of naming, it is this: SSPX than the number of the picture or video. For example SSPX0251 would be the 251 picture/video that you have taken with your phone. This is important, you need to know what the video you just took is called. Minimize the folder, it is time to convert the music that you want to use as your ringtone.
Step 3:
I used Adobe Audition for this because I just really like the software, but any audio editing program that allows you to edit the start/end times of your song should work fine. Something else that I like to do is make the song snippet fade out at the end, it is not required to make this work, I just think it sounds better. If you found a free audio editing program that does these things please post its name and where to get it in the comments for others to see. Use your audio editing program and choose a section of a song that you want to use as your ringtone, make 100% sure that it is under 30 seconds (29 seconds works just fine). Save this section of the song as a new file, preferably in mp3 format (I don't know for sure what other formats that the Allok converter can convert, but mp3 files work fine).
Step 4:
Open the Allok Video to 3gp converter. In the upper left hand corner click the Add button, navigate to your shortened mp3 file, and click Open. Back on the main screen where it says profile choose the 3G2 profile from the drop down list. For resolution choose 320x240 VGA, for audio quality choose 128 kbps, for channels you can choose either stereo or mono (the m610 only does not have stereo speakers, but in my opinion stereo sounds better), set the frame rate to 14.985, and finally set the sample rate at 32000 Hz. Note where you put the output folder and then click convert. It should not take very long. Find that file and make sure that is is less than 512 KB, if it is more it will not work. If it is more you need to either lessen the audio quality or select mono instead of stereo and convert the file again.
Step 5:
Remember back when I said you need to know the name of the video you took? This is where that comes into play, so if you forgot it, check it again. OK, you memorized the name of that video, go to the ringtone-to-be and rename it to the exact same name as the video (Make sure the letters are capitalized and you leave the .3g2 file extension when you rename it). Go to the 100SSMED folder and delete that video. Then copy the properly renamed ringtone-to-be into the 100SSMED folder. Now in that folder you should have the picture you took at the very bottom of the list (when you paste the ringtone into the folder it will place it at the bottom, just hit the back button and open the folder again and it will be placed according to how you named it) second to last should be the ringtone you just made. If that is not true than you probably named the ringtone wrong, go back and make sure you named the ringtone correctly.
Step 6:
Remove the microSD card from your computer, plug it back into the m610, put the battery and battery cover back in and turn on your phone. Camera Button>My Albums>Memory Card. There should be the picture you took and the ringtone you made. The ringtone will look like a little white box with a gray X in the middle of it. At this time you may now delete the picture you took. Exit My Albums. Settings>Sounds>Ringer Type. You can choose how you want to use your ringtone. Lets say you want it to be Voice calls with Caller ID. Voice Calls>With Caller ID>My Videos>In Memory card> Choose the video in the upper left hand corner with the white box with an X in it and click Assign.
Congratulations!!! You now have a custom ringtone and it didn't cost you for any data usage. To test it you can call your m610 with another phone, or you can go to the contacts menu, choose any contact and hit OK, go down to Default Ringer and hit play. The ringtone you made will now play and repeat.
This is the end of Part 1. There is a character limit of 10,000 characters. This guide is 14,238 characters.
Before I start with the guide I'm going to tell you the things that I used to make this all work. I just used the free trial of Allok Video 3GP converter available from www.download.com (search for "Allok 3gp" and it will be near the top of the list). I don't know if the trial expires, but I do know that it will only convert the first 5 minutes, which works just fine unless you plan to have anything longer. You must also have a microSD card and a memory card reader so you can transfer data from the microSD card to your computer.
Also something you need to do is configure your m610 to save all pictures/videos to the memory card, and not the phone itself. Camera button>Settings and Info>Auto Save to>Memory Card. Also you will need the phone to create a Media folder for you. Menu>Memory Card if you do not already have a Media folder it will ask if you want to make one now, hit yes.
Another thing to note is that I got the software update for my m610 before I started any of this, so I do not know if these steps will work on the previous version. Settings>Others>Update Phone Software. I have read that some people cannot get this update, I do not know why, it worked fine for me.
Custom Ringtones:
This seems to be one that many people are interested in. I found a way to use any music you already have and to get it on the phone without having to use internet on the phone. So in other words I found a way to get these without incurring any data charges. The steps below might look long and tedious, but once you know how it goes it shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes to complete them all.
Step 1:
On your m610 go to the camcorder and take video (I would imagine that both the long video option and the video mail option would work, but I chose the long video option). Take a video and make it less than 30 seconds. Now take a picture, I know that seems pointless, but you need to. The picture and video will be erased later, so don't worry about having a random picture/video stuck on your phone. Turn off your m610 and remove the battery cover, remove the battery, and take out the microSD memory card.
Step 2:
Plug the microSD card into your memory card reader (I don't know if other memory card readers have an actual microSD slot, but mine didn't so I used the adapter that came with my memory card. The microSD card slides into the back of the adapter, essentially turning it into a regular SD memory card, then I plugged that into my memory card reader). Bring up the contents of the memory card on your computer. There should be a folder called DCIM, if there is not, than you did not configure your m610 to save pictures/videos to your memory card, do that and then start over on these steps.
Open the DCIM folder and there should be another folder called 100SSMED, open it.
Scroll down to the very bottom and you should see that second to last is the video you just took. If the very bottom file is not created by the phone (aka it's the ringtone you're going to make) than the phone will get confused and will not see anything that is on the memory card. It will have a file extension of .3g2. You will probably notice that the all the pictures/videos seem to use the same method of naming, it is this: SSPX than the number of the picture or video. For example SSPX0251 would be the 251 picture/video that you have taken with your phone. This is important, you need to know what the video you just took is called. Minimize the folder, it is time to convert the music that you want to use as your ringtone.
Step 3:
I used Adobe Audition for this because I just really like the software, but any audio editing program that allows you to edit the start/end times of your song should work fine. Something else that I like to do is make the song snippet fade out at the end, it is not required to make this work, I just think it sounds better. If you found a free audio editing program that does these things please post its name and where to get it in the comments for others to see. Use your audio editing program and choose a section of a song that you want to use as your ringtone, make 100% sure that it is under 30 seconds (29 seconds works just fine). Save this section of the song as a new file, preferably in mp3 format (I don't know for sure what other formats that the Allok converter can convert, but mp3 files work fine).
Step 4:
Open the Allok Video to 3gp converter. In the upper left hand corner click the Add button, navigate to your shortened mp3 file, and click Open. Back on the main screen where it says profile choose the 3G2 profile from the drop down list. For resolution choose 320x240 VGA, for audio quality choose 128 kbps, for channels you can choose either stereo or mono (the m610 only does not have stereo speakers, but in my opinion stereo sounds better), set the frame rate to 14.985, and finally set the sample rate at 32000 Hz. Note where you put the output folder and then click convert. It should not take very long. Find that file and make sure that is is less than 512 KB, if it is more it will not work. If it is more you need to either lessen the audio quality or select mono instead of stereo and convert the file again.
Step 5:
Remember back when I said you need to know the name of the video you took? This is where that comes into play, so if you forgot it, check it again. OK, you memorized the name of that video, go to the ringtone-to-be and rename it to the exact same name as the video (Make sure the letters are capitalized and you leave the .3g2 file extension when you rename it). Go to the 100SSMED folder and delete that video. Then copy the properly renamed ringtone-to-be into the 100SSMED folder. Now in that folder you should have the picture you took at the very bottom of the list (when you paste the ringtone into the folder it will place it at the bottom, just hit the back button and open the folder again and it will be placed according to how you named it) second to last should be the ringtone you just made. If that is not true than you probably named the ringtone wrong, go back and make sure you named the ringtone correctly.
Step 6:
Remove the microSD card from your computer, plug it back into the m610, put the battery and battery cover back in and turn on your phone. Camera Button>My Albums>Memory Card. There should be the picture you took and the ringtone you made. The ringtone will look like a little white box with a gray X in the middle of it. At this time you may now delete the picture you took. Exit My Albums. Settings>Sounds>Ringer Type. You can choose how you want to use your ringtone. Lets say you want it to be Voice calls with Caller ID. Voice Calls>With Caller ID>My Videos>In Memory card> Choose the video in the upper left hand corner with the white box with an X in it and click Assign.
Congratulations!!! You now have a custom ringtone and it didn't cost you for any data usage. To test it you can call your m610 with another phone, or you can go to the contacts menu, choose any contact and hit OK, go down to Default Ringer and hit play. The ringtone you made will now play and repeat.
This is the end of Part 1. There is a character limit of 10,000 characters. This guide is 14,238 characters.