Have you been wondering how to convert movies to a playable format for you Nintendo DS?
The wondering stops now!

We’ll convert our movies so we can play them in Moonshell. Don’t know how to install Moonshell? Read this post first. It explains how to install Moonshell.

To play movies in Moonshell, you’ll have to convert the movies to a DPG file.
I found a great converter called BatchDPG. This converter will help us very much later on!

Before we want to use BatchDPG we need to install a few things:

• AviSynth
• Microsoft dot net Framework
• ffdshow

After installing all those files, you can download and install BatchDPG (download).

Open to application, and if you installed all the components above it shouldn’t give an error.

Given above is the main screen you should see after installing BatchDPG.

In the input section choose a file you want to convert, you can also add a subtitle file.

In the output section you can choose the directory where to save your dpg file (the output field)

If you want, you can change the setting in the video and audio section. But it is set to a good format by default anyway.

To add your movie file to the queue press the button add at the bottom.

You can now either choose to add another file through the input section or start converting the movie to a dpg file.

Press run and it should start converting the list of movies you added.

This might take a while depending on the speed of your computer and the length of the movie.

The only thing left to do after converting is to copy the dpg files to your memory card.
Start up Moonshell and select your movie files.

Have fun!

Moonshell is a homebrew application which you can run on your Nintendo DS. It is compatible with a large variety of adapters.
Since I have the M3DS Real adapter this entry might not follow the correct steps if you use a different card.

But since Moonshell supports many different cards, I assume it’s all the same.

1. Connect your card to your computer
2. Create a backup of your whole card to your computer (Moonshell might empty your card)
3. Download Moonshell (version 1.71)

The zip-file contains a folder, and in that folder is the file: setup.exe. Run this file.

You should get a screen like this:

Select the drive you want to install Moonshell on, it should indicate your card as a removable.
Click OK.

So on the next screen you’ll a lot of options. Maybe to much, but it’s quiet simple actually; Uncheck ALL the roms to the right, you don’t need all of them I suppose.

Look at this list again and find your card. If it’s not there (or you’re not sure), just try to pick the same product name and the type of memory card you have (SD works on micro-sd too).
Btw: I choose a Micro-SD version which was not marked as M3DS Real, but it works.

You can change the other settings, but I didn’t bother trying.

Hit setup!

Give it a minute or so, get some coffee~

It should say it is installed on your card, yay!
Btw: Check your memory card if all the contents are still on there. If not: copy your backup back to your card. If you did not backup: I told you so.

Let’s put some media on your memory card.
I created a media folder containing a music, video and image folder.

Put some mp3’s into the music folder and some jpg’s into the images folder. Read more about movies in this entry.

Disconnect your card and put it back into your Nintendo DS.

Boot it up and run the .nds file Moonshell setup has stored for you. (Mine was called: MoonShell_R4TF_M3Simply-R4DS (MicroSD Card).nds)
If you use M3DS Real, running homebrew can be done by choosing the data option in the startup menu.

Don’t let the boot up of Moonshell scare you. You’ll look like a pro hacker from a movie though.

In the top half of your screen you’ll see the folder structure of your card.

Go to the media folder you created (or what ever you called it). You can navigate using the arrow keys and open files using A and B to close a file or move back one folder.

Play with Moonlight a bit, it’s a nice tool.
Cool feature is that you can close the lid while playing an mp3. But it seems to restart once you open the lid again.

Stay tuned for a insight view on how to get movies on your DS and play them using Moonlight.

This post will explain how to get an M3 Real adapter ready for use.

You can run homebrew programs, view media, activate cheats, play DS games and play GBA games with this adapter on your DS. Of course having homebrew capabilities opens a world of possibilities for your Nintendo DS!

I’ll explain how to get things running:

1. What do you need?

• A Nintendo DS (Lite) duh
• M3DS Real Adapter
• A micro-sd card (any will do)
• A computer
• A T-Flash / Micro-sd cardreader (USB will do)

Having a Nintendo DS is quite obvious. I bought the silver DS Lite, and cost me €149 (that’s about $235 USD).
Next thing we need is a M3DS Real Adapter (you can get any other type of adapter, but this post explains about this adapter). I bought the M3 Real + Rumble Ram Pack version, displayed below.

Included in the package: M3DS Real Adapter, Rumble / Ram pack and a USB T-Flash cardreader.
If you already have a T-Flash cardreader, buying it wont be necessary. BTW: My cardreader broke, so I bought a new one in an electronics store for just €8 and it was an all-in-one reader.

The micro-sd card is required to put your files on, this card is not included in the M3DS Real package. So I bought a 4GB micro-sd card, these are not very expensive.

Yeah, I assume you have a computer.

If you didn’t get the M3DS Real package with a T-Flash cardreader you should buy one. There are many different options, but I chose a simple all-in-one usb device. Cheap and works perfectly.

2. Setting up your Micro-sd card

So the next step is getting some files installed on your micro-sd card so the M3 Adapter will work.

First: download the software (v 3.9 with English fonts)

I’ve combined the system software with the English fonts available on this webpage. So I’ll save you some work.

Extract the zip-archive and you’ll get a SYSTEM folder. You’ll need this folder later.

Connect your micro-sd card your computer, I used the USB connector and inserted the card in there. If you use windows xp it will install automatically.

Go to My Computer and open your newly found Removable drive. You’ll get a blank screen.

Do you still have the SYSTEM folder on your screen? Copy the folder (not the just contents, but the whole folder) and paste it to the root of your micro-sd card.

You should have E:\SYSTEM\ on your card now (E is the drive letter of the micro-sd card, this can be a different letter).

3. What to do now?

Now that you have the software on your micro-sd card it’s time to add some stuff to do for your Nintendo DS.
First time most people want to do is run Nintendo DS roms. This is fairly easy.

Go to the root of your micro-sd card again.

Create a folder called NDS. It should look like this: E:\NDS\.

You can paste any .nds files you’d like in this folder. There are a lot of resources to get .nds roms from, but it’s up to you to look for them.

Now that you have a rom ready in the NDS folder we can disconnect the micro-sd card from your computer.

Insert the micro-sd card into the M3DS Real Adapter (the one to the right in the image) and insert the M3DS Real Adapter in your Nintendo DS in SLOT-1.
Also insert the Rumble/Ram pack into SLOT-2.

Turn on your Nintendo DS and M3DS Real should load and land on this screen:

This means success!

Tap on the icon in the top left corner and double tap your rom.

Press start and it should load up the game (and create a new save game file).

4. What else is there to do

I’ll get back to that in other entries. This was just a basic explanation on how to get your M3DS Real started and running your first rom.
Check the other entries for more amazing stuff to do with your Nintendo DS.