Database Users

Video playback problems

I have been experimenting with video playback on the Tytyn, but am becoming disillusioned with the results!
I use PocketDivX Encoder 0.3.60, to convert using 2 pass xvid and b frames, and TCPMP, and the results were truly stunning on my old Kjam.
Whatever I try with the new Tytyn, does not even come close to the performance I was getting on my old device.
Does any one have any suggestions or recommend a successful encoding method that actually works on the Tytyn. I would like to hear from anyone who has managed to get a playback quality the same as the Kjam/Wizard i.e smooth video without loss of lipsync or jerky framerate.
Thanks

search for TYTN + TCPMP on this forum... this has been discussed A LOT.

pergolesi said:
I have been experimenting with video playback on the Tytyn, but am becoming disillusioned with the results!
I use PocketDivX Encoder 0.3.60, to convert using 2 pass xvid and b frames, and TCPMP, and the results were truly stunning on my old Kjam.
Whatever I try with the new Tytyn, does not even come close to the performance I was getting on my old device.
Does any one have any suggestions or recommend a successful encoding method that actually works on the Tytyn. I would like to hear from anyone who has managed to get a playback quality the same as the Kjam/Wizard i.e smooth video without loss of lipsync or jerky framerate.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there & welcome to our videoplayback problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=354421#354421
It's not all bad, but I can't find any workaround for the meantime. Look out for The CorePlayer (The new TCPMP), hopefully when released, it will address these issues we have discovered. Meantime I am using 'ImToo_DVD 2 Ipod Converter' , which converts to high quality Mp4 format and plays back just fine for now and is definately on par with Divx/Xvid AVI encoding at 768kbps! It also converts a whole film in practically 20 mins plus compared to PocketDivx_Encoder or DVDx.

I have tried the Im too to ipod converter, and have had some very pleasing results.
Could you possibly let me know what settings you have checked/unchecked in TCPMP, for optimum playback of the resulting mp4 files?
Thank you very much, your help and advice is greatly appreciated.
Best regards
Pergolesi

yeah I had a good experience converting to mpeg4 except the filesize was much larger (almost twice the size as divx) is this the norm cause of divx compression?

MPEG4 Videos in TCPMP
Personally, I use the following settings for ImTOO DVD to iPod Converter:
Video Bit rate:512 or 768 (difference is negligable but size is better @ 512kbps)
Audio Bit Rate:64
Sample rate:22050
Channels:2
Video Size:320x240
Profile: iPod MPEG-4 Movie (*.mp4)
Zoom:Full (keep aspect ratio)
Split:Infinite (though it's nice to have a DVD encoded in the chapters it came in - TCPMP will play them in the correct order if saved as 'playlist')
**Do Check the Audio settings (under the Menu bar) as your DVD will probably have options for differnt Audio i.e English.
I know more settings are available, but this is a short-term fix for me (with acceptable results for me) until the new 'CorePlayer' is released.
In TCPMP the settings really don't make much of a difference either, but just make sure you have 'Video' set to 'Rawframebuffer' mode. I have found that all AVI and MP4 playback without major gripes, but the MP4 gets better results whilst benchmarking using 'ATI decoder'. Fat load of good that does you when it comes to playback though (back to rawframebuffer mode).
P.S. for smaller filesizes, just reduce the video bit rate like you would in AVI encoding.

MPEG4 Videos in TCPMP
Great info, I'm sure others will find this just as helpful as I have.
Thanks again.
Pergolesi

In TCMP what is the best setting, GDI or RAWFRAMEBUFFER?
Im asking this because on my tytn i can use both of them without problems.

ruirocha said:
In TCMP what is the best setting, GDI or RAWFRAMEBUFFER?
Im asking this because on my tytn i can use both of them without problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Rawframeuffer mode, but GDI will do also. Though benchmarking yields better results in Rawframebuffer mode for me.

I'm using TCPMP. I set ATI IMAGEON Decoder on.
When it start, the screen is not viewable.
But I press the action button, when the movie plays it is normal.
When I paused and resume, video play with low frame rate.
I goto Option, Speed, Select 100%, it's normal.

Best bitrate for videos on Hermes?

I am stating to convert some of the movies and to be played on my hermes on the go, but eventually I found out that the movies converted thru pocketdivxencoder eventually dropping out frames.
I want to know the best setting for converting video for Hermes...
Is it better to convert to WMV at a particular bitrate than converting to DiVX?
THanks a lot.

If you're gonna use the ATI Imageeon Decoder, video bitrates can go up to 1.2MBps, but you will sure get a lot of artifacts. if you intend to use Raw Frame Buffer, video bitrate can go up to 700KBps (audio 128KBps), but also remember that Pocket PCs can play higher bitrates without dropping frames when the video is wider, e.g. playing a 16:9 movie clip is somehow easier than playing a clip with 4:3 aspect ratio.
BTW If you want to stream the audio to your BT Headset while watching a clip, a video bitrate of 410KBps (audio 128KBps) is good, but you will have to use the ATI Decoder.
Cheers!

Rockman27 said:
I am stating to convert some of the movies and to be played on my hermes on the go, but eventually I found out that the movies converted thru pocketdivxencoder eventually dropping out frames.
I want to know the best setting for converting video for Hermes...
Is it better to convert to WMV at a particular bitrate than converting to DiVX?
THanks a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to use TCPMP player and download the ATI imageon fix cab (search for it), a few adjustments and your pocketdivx converted films will play perfectly.

i use sompy media encoder, its free and has a stting for pda screen size and sound that is realy good, just load the file and away you go.

Take a look HERE ive used plenty of videos encoded this way and works a treat.
In coreplayer (aka TCPMP) i use Directdraw as ATimageON produces artifacts until they allow a non-rgb filter to be used.

mrvanx said:
Take a look HERE ive used plenty of videos encoded this way and works a treat.
In coreplayer (aka TCPMP) i use Directdraw as ATimageON produces artifacts until they allow a non-rgb filter to be used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your guideline and I have got some satisfactory conversions.. but when I switch to DirectDraw in TCPMP, it gives me black screen no matter which type of video files I am playing.
When I switch back to ATI Imageon, sometimes it will work but sometimes I will get weird screens (the whole screen got messed up and "jumping around"). The only perfectly working selection for me is RAW or GDI.
Am I doing something wrong in the setting with the directdraw and atiimageon? Thanks again.

With bitrate size there is a law of diminishing returns. After a certain bitrate you will not notice the difference on the Hermes screen.
After years of encoding/transcoding. I have settled on these paramters as the other variable is trying to fit as much onto my MicroSD as possible.
Video DivX @ 350 kbps, high quality, 2 pass.
Audio AAC 64 kbps 44 KHz (SSR profile)
Using MP4 as the container.
The quality is pin sharp. Using higher bitrates for me yield no benefit when viewed on the phone. The filesize comes out at approx 170 meg for 1 hour.
When I get back I will upload some samples of stuff I've done and I don't mind watching on the phone, typically 4:3 like The Wire and of course the Simpsons.

Wam7 said:
With bitrate size there is a law of diminishing returns. After a certain bitrate you will not notice the difference on the Hermes screen.
After years of encoding/transcoding. I have settled on these paramters as the other variable is trying to fit as much onto my MicroSD as possible.
Video DivX @ 350 kbps, high quality, 2 pass.
Audio AAC 64 kbps 44 KHz (SSR profile)
Using MP4 as the container.
The quality is pin sharp. Using higher bitrates for me yield no benefit when viewed on the phone. The filesize comes out at approx 170 meg for 1 hour.
When I get back I will upload some samples of stuff I've done and I don't mind watching on the phone, typically 4:3 like The Wire and of course the Simpsons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What program do you use to do this encoding? I would like to try out your settings on a few movies i have been waiting to encode myself.

Globalrebel said:
What program do you use to do this encoding? I would like to try out your settings on a few movies i have been waiting to encode myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For a long while I was doing it manually with Virtual Dub Mod and demuxing audio etc but this can be arduous when doing a lot of stuff.
Nowadays I tend to use WinMenc .61 with the Mencoder binaries. It's not the best GUI in the world, in fact it's pretty plain and could do with updating but it gives the control I need, batch encoding, and is very fast.
I wiill link them all here when I eventually get home.
You could try PocketDivX encoder (and Lathe) which use Mencoder as well but were half the speed for me when it comes to the 2nd pass when I tested them. IIRC they don't give as much control either.

Alas no time to give links to binaries just yet but Google might help if you're in a rush. Here is a quick sample of Prison Break with the above settings.
http://www.wam77.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Prison.Break.S02E18.Clip.350kbps.mp4

Found a bit of time
Download Winmenc http://yawoogle.googlepages.com/winmenc.0.61.zip
Download MPlayer http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer/builds/mplayer-rtm-svn-23169.7z
Download Mencoder http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer/builds/mencoder-rtm-svn-23169.7z
Download PthreadGC2 ftp://sourceware.org/pub/pthreads-win32/dll-latest/lib/pthreadGC2.dll
Place all in the same folder. Run Winmenc.
If you want to try my options download this http://www.wam77.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Mp4_PocketPC_DivX350_AAC_320.240.ini
and then click on load profile and point it to the file. (There are others in the default profile dir that you can play with)
This will also do Xvid, DivX, X264, mpeg2 (in .avi container) with 2 pass options. If you want ultra sharpness you can try higher bitrates but I can not tell for most things. If you also want to keep the file size fairly small I have found 350 kbps to be a good trade off. Run a few tests at different bitrates and decide for yourself.

Awesome guide Wam.
Using your setttings I have been playing with the x264 codec. It's alot more demanding on the cpu. however it does produce very noticeable far superior results over divx. It also takes a good 2x more time to encode, but nvm that the end result which counts.
Getting x264 playing on hermes appears to be a slight headache for some.
TCPMP used to support it, now doesnt.
So you have 2 options CorePlayer or old beta version of TCPMP 72RC1.exe
IIRC I remeber reading the coreplayer is newer more effeciant by approx 10% than the tpcmp x264 beta decoder. I also had a bit of a headache getting the aac audio codec working.. maybe cos I have a wm2003 device. I clicked on and installed far to many differnt things to know how I fixed it .
Also apprently the ATI ImageOn boosts performance nicely for 264 files. but causes problems with divx xvid etc.. which are commonly used.
1) get new rom ak3.. 2)install atifix + If you set zoom to 100% - artifacts dissapear.
Nice thread here. - http://70.84.52.18/corecodec.com/forum/index.php?topic=3723.msg22042#msg22042 - srry if cross forum linking isnt allowed..
I have only a dell axim x5 - maybe 5 years old now, but it has a 400mhz intel xscale cpu which I guess is comparible to what the hermes samsung cpu can do. So my testing regarding performance maybe a bit off. I can confirm though x264 codec is the way forward. All the new devices use it for good reason.. ipods. playstaion portables, blueray. hd tv's.
A little more clarifcation needs to be done. to provide us all with the ultimate setup. one thing for sure. wams settings are great. and produce fantastic results. the software he reccomends - winmec is real nice and easy to use..
I also spent a fair bit of time with MEgui front end and, it has so many more options.. which could be a bonus but was just too confusing for me. Also winmec and Megui may have shifted the timing of frames off a tiny bit.. I'll need to check on a longer file to see if there was any syncing issues.
I'll be back soon with a definative guide.

Oh yeah x264 is definitely the way to go and the improvement are easily noticed for the same bitrate.
I did a few x264 but this was back before WM6 (AKU 3.3) and the ATI fixes and I could play smooth BUT without audio which wasn't much use.
I might give them a try again when I have more time to play but for the time being DivX is giving me good results... and is quick!
Oh I am using TCPMP 0.81. I would use Coreplayer 1.04 but until they fix the negative audio sync bug I am forced to use TCPMP.

Best Video Codec Compression

I HAVE CONVERTED *.RM VIDEOS WHICH ARE AROUND 40MB EACH I TRIED CONVERTING THEM TO WMV WITH MS-MPEG4 CODEC I ENDED UP WITH LYK 69MB BUT THE SOUND WAS OUT OF SYNC WITH THE VIDEO.
I Then Tried 3GPP + AAC ended up with 70mb but the sound stil out of sync i tried lots of formats but i couldnt get the sound to go with the video can someone help , by the way im using magic video converter.
I Tried TCMP,Mplayer,Pocket Player Coreplayer WMP N0 luck

I'm using "alltoavi" and it works great, not sure if there is support for real media, butyou could give it a go
http://alltoavi.sourceforge.net/

The best converter for me
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

there is also "pocketdivxencoder" , a must have for us because it has a number of templates to give the best results on any of our ppc/smartphones, and you can select your final screen size, crop, tweak color/contrast/luminosity, chose quality for sound and see an estimation of the file size you will get at the end.
very easy to use and good results, (even if manual use of virtualdub gave me better results sometimes in terms of quality).
you can dl it here : http://www.pocketdivxencoder.net/index.php?lang=EN

sompy movie encoder
Try using sompy movie encoder, its pretty good actually, ive converted 700 mb movies down to 128mb and they are pretty good quality, the sound syncs well with the video, and no glitches whatsoever
heres the link:
http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia-Graphics/Utilities/SOMPY-Movie-Encoder-22347.shtml
good luck

Thanks
but i can convert anyother format to avi and works fine . exept for rm and ram rmvb wen converted either the sound is ahead of the picture or the picture is ahead of the sound. when use the realplayer to play rm on my phone it plays alrite everything, is in sync but the problem is realplayer.exe is 4 QVGA ppc and i have QQVGA display so it shows quater of the screen. When use Mplayer itz fullscreen but the video is way ahead of the sound maybe it because of the Mplayer.exe 7mb is big it does n0t change even when i make cpu clock at 240mhz.

Smooth video viewing possible? (h2.64)

Heya folks, i am wondering if it is possible on TCPMP to view a hi res video smoothly, i first got the H2.64 format invalid error but shortly after fixed that with the TCPMP ffmpeg addon but now the video i want to watch doesnt run smoothly,
anyone have any ideas how to set it up and if so if they are willing to provide the presets
Cheers everyone
exemike
Sorry title error, i meant to say H.264 =)

OK
MAKE AN OVERCLOCK! TO 260MHZ With Batterystatus or Omapclockplus

i dont think that will work, i tried a h.264 video on my exe aswell and it was just as slow.
maybe i need to convert the video

exemike said:
maybe i need to convert the video
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what you should do.
I use a nice freeware conversion tool for WinXP called SUPER, which converts videos to a specific compression of AVI that's optimized for Pocket PC. Just select "AVI (for Pocket PC)" as the output container, and bob's your uncle. Works great: is formatted to fit the screen correctly, and goes into full screen mode flawlessly. You can even strip the audio tracks from strictly visual media (your p*rn, for example...)
Now, sure, you're going to lose some resolution, but you had to know that was going to happen anyways viewing it on a 320x240px screen, right?
Download SUPER

YES
Myrddin Wyllt said:
That's exactly what you should do.
I use a nice freeware conversion tool for WinXP called SUPER, which converts videos to a specific compression of AVI that's optimized for Pocket PC. Just select "AVI (for Pocket PC)" as the output container, and bob's your uncle. Works great: is formatted to fit the screen correctly, and goes into full screen mode flawlessly. You can even strip the audio tracks from strictly visual media (your p*rn, for example...)
Now, sure, you're going to lose some resolution, but you had to know that was going to happen anyways viewing it on a 320x240px screen, right?
Download SUPER
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep the super converter is SUUUUPER!!!! i use it too... and can recomend to you the AVI format our devices can view smothly without overclock a video at lest 230 mbps.

thank you very much guys, I really am enjoying this wizard very much and having it play videos just makes it so much better
now I just have to read the big book on how to upgrade to wm6
thanks again guys,
exemike

Youre welcome men
Be sure to read evrything!!!! and ask somuch more ok?
Its our pleassure to give you the needed info about what you will do.

hehe thanks q will bear that in mind and be sure that I will have lots of questions, after all like I said for a device growing in age it really is brilliant.

The Guide
Well people you have all read the threads so i thought i would translate everything to one simple guide.
First of all, this should hopefully work for most Htc's out there (from what i've read and understand anyway)
Second First of all
You should download the program (Freeware) TCPMP, which can be downloaded at the provided link.
http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/
Personally i downloaded the 0.72RC1 but any of the versions should work farely well.
Secondly you should take the time to download some of the additional plugins for the player, commonly for the program we will be using, the ffmpeg plugin i think is suggested but also the avc and aac video and audio codecs from another site i have provided.
Aditional Plugins
http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/
This is the AVC and AAC codecs, commonly used for H.264 videos, although the wizard struggles with really high quality videos sometimes may be worth overclocking to get the performance you want
http://www.box.net/public/gk97uv7x1o
Addons worth having for sure though
Next you will need to download a program, yes another magnificent piece of freeware known as Super
http://www.erightsoft.info/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe
When the installation is complete, run it, install it, and open it up, from there
When you run the program for the first time, one main menu will setup, the base of the program, now im sure on first sight its like lots of new buttons to press, well its not really that, all you need to do is set where you see (1) and the formats for the output container, just selec avi for Pocket pc, immediately, pocket pc res and settings are loaded.
The settings i am using for my MDA Vario (HTC Wizard) are 320:240 video scale, 4:3 aspect, 25fps, a bitrate of 128 and hi quality + 48k audio for the video options,
for audio i am using a frequency of 22050, 2 channel, 48kbps bitrate and default dvd language select.
further towards the bottom of super you will see what looks to be an input box, anywhere within the white area right click and select add media, add your video (any video you like) and hit ok, the file should input itself, and there should be a checkbox under the active colum, tick it and then further down the program hit encode, wallah, your video should encode perfectly for your wizard, heck you can try other presets to differ your performance.
Open the vid in TCPMP and it should happily play.
For youtube videos etc, there are altho online + downloadable programs to convert to different programs for youtube directly.
http://www.vixy.net/
This is the program with the installable converter, it is freeware but expires every so many months, but its always put back up for download again, dont know why they do that really but it is a good program.
Another program which is reliable online and has lots of options is
http://mediaconverter.org/
Hope this guide helps newcommers someone.
Thanks to Q and Myrd for the information =)

Sweet
I use Lathe 1.5, been using it for almost 2yrs
Works great

exemike said:
The settings i am using for my MDA Vario (HTC Wizard) are 320:240 video scale, 4:3 aspect, 25fps, a bitrate of 128 and hi quality + 48k audio for the video options,
for audio i am using a frequency of 22050, 2 channel, 48kbps bitrate and default dvd language select.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more thing would help me pretty much. Could you add which video (h.264 / h.263 / h.262 / xvid / mpeg4 / msmpeg4 / ...) and audio (mp3 / aac / wma / ...) codecs you're using?

Xvid / DivX etc video playback

Hi all,
Looking to use a HD2 to watch xvids / divx's while on the train. Realise this will (most probably) kill the battery etc. but in some situations (when there's a power source at destination!) it seems a good way to kill time to me.
Any recommendations on the best player for such? Previously I've heard good things about Coreplayer.. although it seems not to be so good on this platform? Alternatives?
Thanks in advance.

Basically, if you want support for as many formats as possible, Coreplayer and TCPMP are the way to go. Coreplayer pefroms fine on HD2, even without supporting the graphics card capabilities, merely because of the powerful processor. About the only real-life limitation I've encountered with it is lack of AC3 sound support. For AC3 you can use TCPMP. Its UI is ugly as hell (in fact it's so ugly that I personally prefer not to watch movies with AC3 sound at all) but it does the job.

if you go for coreplayer be sure to set it to GDI and smooth zoom in video settings to get the best possible result

strange one that because i would recommend raw frame buffer!
probably depends on what media you're using?

Both settings will work.... but that also depends on your content. Best practice for the HD2 (and in general) is to do benchmarks on that content with each video output setting (GDI Vs. Raw Framebuffer) to see what works best.

Just an extra footnote, I'd recommend searching for TCPMP version 0.71, as the later v0.72 (both RC versions) wouldn't even run for me!
I use TCPMP to watch films on train journeys, and can get a couple of films watched and use about 60% of the battery. So yeah, it's a drain, but not too bad.

SimonW500 said:
Hi all,
Looking to use a HD2 to watch xvids / divx's while on the train. Realise this will (most probably) kill the battery etc. but in some situations (when there's a power source at destination!) it seems a good way to kill time to me.
Any recommendations on the best player for such? Previously I've heard good things about Coreplayer.. although it seems not to be so good on this platform? Alternatives?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Divx Player Mobile
http://labs.divx.com/MobileCommunity

Hopefully this thread will work and not trying to hijack.... I've tried the included WMP and CorePlayer and cannot for the life of me get any video to playback on my HD2. I've tried stock xvid, wmv, etc. The closest i've come is sound but no video. What's the trick????

In CorePlayer, go to Menu - Tools - Preferences - Select Page - Video. Change Video output to GDI, Raw Framebuffer or DirectDraw (I'm not sure which setting will yield best results, but you need to disable Qtv, it doesn't work).

1.48 ROM?
Thanks for all the above advice!
I had Coreplayer working fine, playing two Xvids I had on the storage card well with either settings.
I've now upgraded to the 1.48 ROM however playback now seems to be stuttering badly (same two files). Might be just one of those things as I've messed around a little with install apps etc, so need to do a hard reset this evening and give it another try, however yup just want someone else to confirm this by saying they are having good success with playback via Coreplayer on 1.48 ROM..?
Cheers.

mr.vandalay said:
if you go for coreplayer be sure to set it to GDI and smooth zoom in video settings to get the best possible result
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re. the above - are these the only 'optimum' settings I need to go for? (withstanding the debate over GDI vs. raw etc). For smooth zoom should this be On or 50%? Anything else?