Full screen video - iplayer files - XPERIA X1 General

Hi
I have searched around a bit & not found an answer to this, although others have reported the same issue (with different files).
I want to view iplayer (BBC) videos in full screen, but played through Windows Media they are reduced to about 3/4 of the screen & slightly choppy. I can cope with the choppy (although I don't see why it is) but I want to scale up the video to fit the screen, otherwise what is the point of this resolution.
Are there any options ?
This is the same behaviour on stock 6.1 OS & a cooked 6.5 OS.

Yeh i've got the same issue.
I mean what's all this about - i don't understand why the quality is so bad on the iplayer mobile website; surely the iplayer applications on the iphone, some nokias phones etc are of good quality?
I haven't actually done anything to my the rom on my xperia and i only got it a couple of weeks ago, but i'm looking to possibly flashing 6.5 to the device in the future providing i find a good version of it(as i have no clue where to start) . As well as this i've only just been able to get onto the iplayer mobile website as my xperia wasn't recognised as a supported device by the website and it turns out the user agent in opera was blank for some reason
with my current setup, iplayer appears really small when streaming is first started and when put into fullscreen mode only fills about 3/4 of the screen with a border of black as well as the picture being really badly pixelated. There's got to be some better alternative to this, maybe a third party app perhaps which can do better quality. I hope the bbc improve on this at some point because this is a real disapointment
have you got a fix on this at all?
(i know and it's proper jarring when people don't reply to your threads)

The bbc have to get a stream which will connect over slow speeds to mobiles with small screens. Whereas the X1 has one of the biggest screens (in terms of pixels) on the market. This is why it looks crap on the X1.
Instead of streaming you could try "sideloading" and download the mobile version of the file from the iPlayer website first and copying it across to the phone.
Or use the iPlayer Downloader which will get the iPhone version as an MP4 for you to copy across.

Related

Windows Media won't go full screen

On all my other XDAs I could view videos in complete full mode.
I have tried all I can to find out how my exec will play a movie in full and it won't.
It just blacks out the rest of the screen and plays a tiny little video in letterbox shape.
This is so so so annoying and i would love to find out if anyone can help.
I haven't seen anything on here about it - search returns nil.
Is anyone able to play Full Screen????
Help me.
Use a freeware player like TCPMP. WMP doesn't support full-screen playback, its a problem with the OS itself.
So this is a bug isolated to WM5/WMP10 only? WMP9 doesn't have any problems on WM 2003.
This problem is request and know in i-mate web... Looking for solutions.
Worked on wm9
Yeah I agree, on my old XDA ii and XDA iis it worked fine. must be a wm10 or wmb5 thing.
With that in mind, is there a way to put windows media 9 on my pda?
Also on another subject, i just did the latest upgrade ofrom from o2's site and my phone keeps crashing and has the following errors:
* when I go back to the today screen, the last window is still showing on the icon left hand side of the screen, therefore stopping me from selecting things.
* My e-mail accounts keep disapearing although the name of them still shows in the selection option in the today screen. This used to happen all the time before the upgrade and now it is worse. Usually deletes the account after a soft reset or crash. annoying thing is you can't name a new account with the previous name as it is still stored in the memory somewhere but you can't find it in the e-mail program.
* when i did my upgrade, I copied everything across from the pda (drag and drop) so that I could re-insert the message files to keep my sms's, although it just copied empty folders. Are all the files locked or restricted or did I need to perform the drag and drop by files and not folders?
I seem to have a love and hate relationship with my pda. Although, the best thing about wmb5 is the memory, no more lost data when your battery dies. They are getting closer to laptop functionality and I can't wait to see what the next version has to offer.
* and finally, it is slower than ever.
Hi all
Any updates or new ifo on why wm10 doesnt play recorded videos in full screen?
thanks
Hi all
Any updates or new ifo on why wm10 doesnt play recorded videos in full screen?
thanks
Windows Media player full screen
Hi,
Samething is missing.
I have a Xda Universal and a Xda Atom.
Last Rom in both.
Running ORB (www.orb.com) on home PC.
Xda Universal connect via Wifi steam via orb cannot get full screen.
Xda Atom same connection same programs install via Wifi I can get full screen in Windows Media Player. Both systems WM5.
Why can´t I see full screen in Universal?
Regards
JoseF
I don't know how it say it nicely (but I mean no disrespect) but the point needs to be made: Trying to use WMP for video playback is so worthless (compared to using TCPMP) that it is rediculous to spend time and effort in regards to the video play back in WMP not being full screen. If you're not the kind of person who would be willing to try the free TCPMP (soon to be BetaPlayer or pay version CorePlayer) then there's no reason to be on these forums.
Hi . I usually use TCPMP
The point is that it you can see in full screen in WMP in WM5
The question is why you can see in the Atom but not in the Universal
If you see the topic is
"Windows Media won't go full screen"
The question is not using TCPMP
JoseF
Agree with JoseF.
Sometimes you just need wmp10 to do the job, like wmv streaming. I'm not sure TCPMP support that.
But of course wmp10 can go full screen if the original video size is bigger than 640x480.
I find that WMP gives better sound quality (and slightly more volume) than TCPMP when listening through headphones.
Good as TCPMP is, if WMP would play videos properly I would uninstall TCPMP and use the space for something else instead. Is anyone looking at a hack to get WMP working properly?
Rowan
jerome923 said:
Agree with JoseF.
But of course wmp10 can go full screen if the original video size is bigger than 640x480.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In other words WMP is working fine with videos over 640x480 - thats good news - will try it later.
Matt

BBCi Player

Hi peeps,
I've been wondering why the lack of posts [i know there has been an older iplayer thread] for the 'now working' BBCi Player on the Xperia?
Anyway, the BBCi Player now works in Opera flawlessly over Wifi with default browser settings.
Try it.
this has already been discussed in detail
that must make you very angry, my apologese
It doesn't work on my Opera, which is the default installation. Streaming Media is still launched instead of the video playing in the browser.
at45 said:
It doesn't work on my Opera, which is the default installation. Streaming Media is still launched instead of the video playing in the browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, the quality is really ****, it opens streaming media and the video is very low res in a tiny box in the middle of the screen. Any ideas?
jkr284 said:
...it opens streaming media and the video is very low res in a tiny box in the middle of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine doesn't even do that. Streaming Media fails to connect to anything.
Mine opens up streaming media which works over O2's gprs (which breaks their T&Cs and blows the unlimited (200mb ) download limit, but won't connect over wifi.
All I get is "server or data time out; tap play to reconnect".
I've using jack's ROM, has anyone got any other experience using other ROMs?
ITV Player
Has anyone tried the ITV player yet, its like copy of BBCiplayer, but the clips you download not stream and some you have to pay for.
I only got this working today, I'd managed to uninstall the default Opera and the Beta is not supported by iplayer.
The video isn't great, but it works and is watchable. As it's not officially supported yet, I'm hoping the quality will improve soon.
I suprised at the lack of interest too though!
The X1 is semi-supported. They announced it in the blogs, but not on the actual site.
The quality of the files is pretty poor, but then I've had my phone buffer up a few times when watching a few shows, so thats only going to get worse when they up the quality.
@Mark, I'm sure the ITV version uses Silverlight, WM11 and DRM (unless you are on about a special mobile version) which didn't work last time I tried, but then there is nothing on ITV that I would want to watch.
compared my x1 against the iphone using iplayer, watched top gear on both and the iphone blew my x1 out if the weeds! why? is the file the same on both as the quality on the iphone very very good and very smooth.
The files are completly different between the iPhone/iTouch and the X1/N96
iPhone: H.264 483 x 272 400 kbps
X1: H.264 320 x 176 128 kbps
Unfortunatly the iPhone version only works (streamed) on the iPhone, due to a small bug which the beeb spotted and exploited.
What was this bug?
Have a read of this: http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/IPhone_H.264_version
bbciplayer is not even worth watching at that quality on the x1, i think its time for me to swap my x1 for an iphone, iphone seems to get much better software support.
Been wasting another day testing the iPlayer stuff.
Ideally I would love to get the iPhone version streamed into CorePlayer, but I'm still no closer.
However some test results:
X1 streamed version - plays in HTC Streamed Media - 320 x 176 128 kbps, very poor quality. Fine for spoken word programmes, any action is a big no no.
Portable Download - plays in Windows Media Player - 320 x 176 475 kbps, quality is better, but res is still small. Also requires a DRM license to be downloaded to the phone. File itself can only be downloaded from the PC as the iPlayer site keeps redirecting me to the mobile version.
MP4 iPlayer Downloader - plays in CorePlayer - 483 x 272 400 kbps, quality is the best available. At present this must be downloaded on the PC first. Have tried getting the Ruby files to run on the mobile but with no luck. Should be possible for someone to port this into a WM app to download the file straight to the phone, however even on my PC a 10 mins Doctor Who Confidential took 2.5 minutes, so expect times of at least 10 minutes for a normal 30 min show if straight to mobile.
Can anyone get 5 live as one of the radio stations on Xperia?
I get all the other stations but not the one I want - 5 live.
Please help..
There is a chance it won't work whilst the Football is on due to licensing issues, although they normally play a message instead of stopping the stream from working.
artesea said:
There is a chance it won't work whilst the Football is on due to licensing issues, although they normally play a message instead of stopping the stream from working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only is it worked on my Diamond only a week ago. I just brought the xperia and it doesn't work on it.
Thanks for replying!
Just loaded the iPlayer page, both Five Live and Five Live Extra are missing due to the football. I have the streams bookmarked in CorePlayer and they announce that they can't broadcast the current show.
Will be the same on all phones and even your PC.

Smartphones noob planning to buy HD concerned about video playback

Hello,
i'm really noob to smartphones... my last phone being a very old Nokia (5 or 6 years old) which can just call and send sms^^
I am now considering buying a HTC touch HD and what i am looking for is mostly:
a) big screen for reading comics
b) big screen and video quality for watching movies
c) gps
d) decent phone (call and sms)
My biggest concern, reading many topics on the subject, is the quality of video playback and the need to convert video files.
Is there some smartphones (with of course the appropriate viewer programs) which can manage any video (divx, xvid...) with good results? (without the need of converting video files)
Or it's the same situation for any phones on the market?
The HD can manage xvid files with core player? I think i read somewhere they need to be converted too but i'd like to make sure.
Thanks a lot for any calrifications on the issue
I watched a divx movie using the core player sometime back. but now I tend to watch the bbc catchup programmes which are in wmv.
I dont know about reading comics on the screen but of the few time times that I have read my ebooks on it, I found that I had to constantly zoom in and out.
for the gps is quick ok. I use Quick GPS to get a lock on my position and then use one of Google Maps, Garmin XT, Live Maps and they do just fine.
I don't have much to say about the call and sms except maybe that it does the job well.
It's quite easy: video playback requires processing power and a driver system which allows to make proper use of it. In addition, it also depends on the formats, which require more or less processing power. I believe you will encounter the same difficulties on all the other smartphones at this moment. The TG01 looks promising, but it then still depends on the format of the video file.
Maybe it's just too early for the kind of video playback you are used to due to the Web 2.0 and the x86 processing power. Next year, the situation might look better on the mobile market.
i have had no probs in video playback in fullscreen, i think it works well.

is it normal for iplayer to be blurry???

I just got me a hd2, and really want BBC iplayer to be better... I have changed the opera config so I allows it to play, but most programs are blurry and low qaulity. I have played the same tv program(top gear) through YouTube and the quality is great.. is this the same for everyone??? is it low quality due to iplayer thinking its the HD not HD2 and sending lower grade files??? I also saw in properties its 300x175, is it just a case of waiting for the BBC to upgrade it for the hd2??? any info or help would be great thanks.
bumpty... is there nobody who watches iplayer????
its been 12 hours since you posted the topic does it really need a bump already?
have you tried the myplayer application instead?
mine is blurry as well. would be great if someone can point out what settings are needed to make it download media with higher resolutions
I have tried myplayer and it's also 300x175, not exactly great, especially compared to what it looks like on the Iphone.
Anyone got this working with higher resolution on the HD2?
It's fairly blurry, yes. The standard iPlayer resolution for mobile devices is something like 320x176. The HD2 almost certainly isn't powerful enough to play back iPlayer material intended to be played on desktop PCs. You may find that downloading the "mobile" wmv file using a desktop PC gives slightly better quality - the resolution is the same, but the bit-rate is probably higher. The best option is probably to use the myplayer application - it offers .mov downloads on some (not all) programmes which are 480x270 resolution, and with a much higher bit-rate. That should look as good as the iPhone does, at least. Note that download quality and streaming quality are very different using myplayer.
Richy99 said:
its been 12 hours since you posted the topic does it really need a bump already?
have you tried the myplayer application instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes.
was there a need for you to reply, especially as u don't know anything about it..?
any way, thx to the peeps for the info.. looks like we will have to wait for BBC to upgrade for hd2 just strange that YouTube qaulity is so much better!
beyondthought said:
any way, thx to the peeps for the info.. looks like we will have to wait for BBC to upgrade for hd2 just strange that YouTube qaulity is so much better!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll have a long wait. Phones like the Touch Pro2 and Touch Diamond2 still aren't officially supported despite having been out since last April. If you expect to get better playback quality out of iPlayer on any mobile device than you can get using myplayer's download facility (which gives much better quality than streaming) then you'll have an even longer wait.
It's probably partly a rights management thing. YouTube tends to play rather fast and loose with copyright violations: stuff gets put up there and then, if someone feels that it violates their copyright, they ask YouTube to take it down. iPlayer, on the other hand, has to be much more careful: anything you download and play is supposed to expire and become unplayable within 7 days, and anything you download and don't play expires within 30 days. Enforcing this sets some limits on the video formats that iPlayer can use.
You also have to consider the iPhone's smaller resolution and physical screen size will make iPlayer content look sharper even if the HD2 was running exactly the same video, especially if you're running it in full screen on the HTC. It's one of the few drawbacks of the HD2's 480x800 display.
its better quality over wifi
I found a way to play iplayer videos on the HD2 with the same quality like being found on the Iphone (actually looks better because of the big screen), it's an off-line solution though and requires a PC.
Go here and download the application:
http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/
Run the application (no install needed) and open the iplayer site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
Search for the desired show and paste the link to the programme ID field of the application.
Click Download and browse to the folder you want the file to be saved to, hit Save and the video will be saved as a .mov file with H.264 video and mp3 audio(no DRM).
To be able to play it on the HD2 simple rename the file extension from .mov to mp4, save it to your HD2 microSD card and enjoy the DRM free video in its 480x272 glory with either the HTC Video player or WMP.
Keep in mind you need to be in the UK to access the streams or at least use a server in the UK (like UKiVPN or something similar).
razorblader said:
I found a way to play iplayer videos on the HD2 with the same quality like being found on the Iphone (actually looks better because of the big screen), it's an off-line solution though and requires a PC.
Go here and download the application:
http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's doing exactly the same thing as myplayer, I think - although I've never tried renaming the .mov downloads from myplayer to give them a .mp4 file extension. I'll have to give that a try.
Probably but with this solution you can download pretty much every video, not just the ones offered for download by the myplayer application.
In addition, myplayer doesn't display streamed content in 480x270, at least it doesn't for me.
Shasarak said:
renaming the .mov downloads from myplayer to give them a .mp4 file extension. I'll have to give that a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a bit of a crude hack but it works. One could extract the streams from the .mov file with e.g. Yamb and remux them as .mp4 to do it properly.
razorblader said:
I have tried myplayer and it's also 300x175, not exactly great, especially compared to what it looks like on the Iphone.
Anyone got this working with higher resolution on the HD2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi - going slightly OT here but.. - could you explain how you managed to get the iPayer feeds to work via myPlayer and Coreplayer on the HD2? I just can't get it to work - latest version everything (ROM 1.48, myPlayer 6th Dec, CorePlayer v1.3.6).
In fact I can't get Coreplayer to view any RSTS feeds??
(thanks)
SimonW500 said:
Hi - going slightly OT here but.. - could you explain how you managed to get the iPayer feeds to work via myPlayer and Coreplayer on the HD2? I just can't get it to work - latest version everything (ROM 1.48, myPlayer 6th Dec, CorePlayer v1.3.6).
In fact I can't get Coreplayer to view any RSTS feeds??
(thanks)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange, I am using Coreplayer with mostly standard settings, Video is set to GDI with smooth zoom always on, works without a hitch.
Do you get an error message, does CP start at all? Have you checked if the path to CP has been set properly in the Myplayer application?
If you haven't try streaming via the myplayer server and see if that makes a difference.
razorblader said:
That's strange, I am using Coreplayer with mostly standard settings, Video is set to GDI with smooth zoom always on, works without a hitch.
Do you get an error message, does CP start at all? Have you checked if the path to CP has been set properly in the Myplayer application?
If you haven't try streaming via the myplayer server and see if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Through some trial & error this evening (ie. some time to kill on a train!) I solved the problem: you need to go into CorePlayer > Menu > Tools > Settings > Select Page > Network (obvious so far!) > then UNTICK "Prefer UDP streaming" = bingo.. BBC iPlayer links now work (as do RTSP streams in general)!
Now - this takes us back to the original question which I'm suspecting will be harder if not impossible to solve, at least in the short term - the poor quality of the blocky feed!
Glad to hear you got it to work. The 'prefer UDP streaming' selected doesn't really cause any trouble in my case, so go figure.
I read that Myplayer selects the lower quality stream available as it was intended to be used with older/less powerful phones in the first place.
The Wifi setting doesn't really make a difference in quality in my case.
Would be great, if the higher quality stream could be selected from within the application.
razorblader said:
Probably but with this solution you can download pretty much every video, not just the ones offered for download by the myplayer application.
In addition, myplayer doesn't display streamed content in 480x270, at least it doesn't for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't stream 480x270 content using iplayer-downloader either. The 480x270 stuff is for downloads only, regardless of method.
As for "pretty much every video" if you read the small-print for iplayer-downloader you'll see this:
It won’t download every programme that’s on the iPlayer website, because they’re not always available. Sometimes, this is by design (as in the case of expensive US series like Heroes); sometimes it’s due to omission or transient problems. In addition, it can’t currently download the embedded videos that are not part of the main iPlayer offering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm fairly sure it's doing exactly the same thing - impersonating an iPhone.
The two complement each other - myplayer lets you get hold of the download directly onto your phone over wifi (or, in principle, over 3G, although you'd use up your data allowance pretty fast that way!) while iplayer-downloader lets you download over your domestic ADSL connection and copy to the phone - both are potentially useful.
Oh and the renaming trick does work for stuff downloaded using myplayer as well. Thanks for that tip: playback in HTCAlbum is hugely much better than in TCPMP and noticeably better than in Coreplayer.

MK809II On Demand TV

Hi All,
I realise there is already a huge thread about the MK809II but I wanted to focus specifically on streaming media to it as I had hoped this would be its main use for me.
The first thing I installed was the iPlayer app. I have been quite disappointed with this as the streaming quality is very poor despite setting the app to use the highest quality available and my TV only being 720p to start. The iPlayer website generally works well when using firefox with the Desktop By Default add on. When available I can play the HD streams without any problem and even SD streams are better quality than the app.
4oD was my second installation. This has frustrated me even more. By default this will not play to HDMI out. My MK809II came rooted so I was able to hide the HDMI out from the app as described (I would've posted a link but I'm not allowed! Its easily found by googling). Now the app allows me to start playing a show but sits continually on a black screen with a buffering icon. I have tried instead to download a show, although there aren't many available, this does seem to download a significant proportion of the show but I always get the message 'Download failed'. Over the last couple of days despite not watching anything the app has downloaded over 2Gb of data! I have read that it will also fail to work if the device is rooted, I haven't had a specific warning about this but again tried another app to hide the fact that its rooted and restarted 4oD but the same black screen appears.
So I thought I could get round this by using the web site as I had with iPlayer, this allows me to log in ad browse around but I encounter the same black screen and buffering icon.
I haven't attempted SkyGO yet, I'm not feeling confident of getting anywhere with that if I can get 4oD to work! Nor have I tried ITV or Channel5.
For myself and others as anyone got a setup that works better than this or used other streaming services? Maybe decent quality out the iPlayer app - or anything out of 4oD?

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