If you’re wondering how to convert movies for your Nintendo DS then this guide is for you.

Unlike the PSP, which can play MP4 files natively using it’s media player, DS folks will have to use Moonshell, a homebrew multimedia player for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi.  To play movies on your Nintendo DS, you need to install Moonshell and convert the movie into DPG format.  With us so far?

But before we start, what is DPG?

DPG – Also known as nDs-mPeG, usually abbreviated DPG, is a special format of MPEG-1 video specifically for playback using the homebrew Moonshell program for the Nintendo DS. So, for watching video on Nintendo DS we have to convert video to DPG with a DPG Converter.

Do I need to pay for anything?  Nope 🙂  We’ll do things for free.

What you’ll need:

• Moonshell
• Moonshell’s tools (if you just want the converter)

To convert your movies to DPG, simply install Moonshell on your Nintendo DS  and/or Nintendo DSi and extract to your PC Moonshell’s tools.

Run the dpgenc.exe application, it’s the program that will do the actual DPG conversion for you.  Run it, set the language, choose the video you want to encode and click START.  Encoding should begin after that.  Once finished, just copy the video to your DS flash card, restart your DS, load moonshell, find the DPG video and press A.

Congratulations, you’re now playing movies on your Nintendo DS.

Select the video you want to convert, wait for the process to finish and copy the file to your SD card.  Simply right?

Well, not as simple as just popping an MP4 in your memory stick but at least it’s relatively easy.

Hope you enjoyed this guide on how to convert a movie to DPG to watch on your Nintendo DS.

Now that you have some movies for your favorite portable console, how about some Free DSi Games and Free Nintendo DS games?