Related
? Video Playback format: H.263, MPEG4, & WMV
? 5~8 fps @ VGA decoding for H.263 & MPEG4
? Min. 30 fps @ QVGA decoding for H.263 & MPEG4
? Combined Bit Rate: 64Kbps (playback)
? Video scaling up to full VGA display
This info was taken directly from the Service manual Mike Channon so kindly provided us with. Thanks again.
However, if this info is anything to go buy, we are in serious trouble. Can anyone see something between the lines that I'm missing here?
Apparently WMP supports the Imageon Hardware, right? But at what fps for VGA encoded vids? 5 ~ 8 fps?
Are they nuts!! Or am I?? No wonder the Athena can't handle VGA vids. thus re-emphasizing the absolute need for the hardware decoder (Imageon), to help or even better, take over the processing/decoding of the vids.
This is not good news!
Combined bit rate of 64 kbps!! OK that does it, they are nuts! Should have trusted my instincts from the beginning. If a device can only record with a limited bitrate and resolution for video, that's indicative of its decoding abilities too.
Like I said QVGA resolution of 320x240 or even slightly higher @ 480x320 will return satisfactory results, but anything above that will strain the Athena's resources.
And yes, whilst using TCPMP or even WMP10 are able to cope with more than what the service manual states, it doesn't look like it's supposed to.
Lastly, I think encoding AMR Audio and MPEG4 H.263 (ASP - NOT H.264 AVC) might yield better performance in higher resolution videos, as this is supposedly supported by the Imageon hardware decoder.
I'm seriously NOT impressed. Its about time that HTC the world leaders in PPC manufacturing started thinking about making devices with a dedicated 3D/Video accelerator to completely alleviate the strain of the main CPU when it comes to 3D Graphics rendering (whether for TomTom or Games) or Video playback.
The soon to be released HTC Kaiser is a step in the right direction with its Qualcomm 7200 dual-processor (one for phone and one exclusively for applications), but it's still not good enough.
The o2 Flame had the right idea with its Nvidia 3D Mobile CPU and 520 MHz CPU, but apparently it doesn't work as well as expected.
The Dell x51v still outperforms the Athena by an embarrassingly large margin for video playback and their 2700 3D processor still outperforms every other PDA ever made!! If only they had a Phone application to boot, I'd have one of them.
I get it now, the Athena and these new devices coming out every five minutes are very good, but being an all-in-one solution was never the goal of the manufacturers now was it?
It's always been about the money and always will be.
I'd love to get a group of developers, programers and hardware gurus together (with specialist knowledge) and improve on the Athena, because I think it is the best base model PPC to take things to another level, but even if I had the cash....the likes of HTC would bury us in a second and release something that would blow our efforts so far out of the water before we could manufacture the prototype.LoL
At least it would kick start these greedy companies to start giving us end users what is already available, but combine it into one device...as opposed to giving us snippets of new technology one device after another.
Just my 2 cents worth.
I still think that the biggest disappointment is that ATI won't tell "us" how to use the hardware decoder...
The figures in the service manual could just be a result of HTC not testing the video support fully...
And after all: Its main purpose is not to be a device for playing video. That's just a bonus...
the joke is that although the athena can be made to play decent xvids after lots of tweaking , my 2 year old PSP blows it away for reliabilty
(lip synch comes to mind) and the picture quality matches and often betters it esp at the higher PMP and AVC resolutions.
I Think THE only true Way forward is the UMPC route I.e. Shift type device. Sadly it appears the idiots have dropped VOICE and GPRS from this machine
spacecat said:
the joke is that although the athena can be made to play decent xvids after lots of tweaking , my 2 year old PSP blows it away for reliabilty
(lip synch comes to mind) and the picture quality matches and often betters it esp at the higher PMP and AVC resolutions.
I Think THE only true Way forward is the UMPC route I.e. Shift type device. Sadly it appears the idiots have dropped VOICE and GPRS from this machine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with you totally on this spacecat. The PSP's 16million pixel screen is the nuts and it's hard to find any pixelation in movie playback even at QVGA encoded vids.
@ wgary. I hear you, but its not only business users they should aim these devices at. Internet and e-mail is now so commonplace as well as mobile phone technology, that they should be aiming at a wider audience.
It wouldn't surprise me if Sony made more sales with the PSP than HTC with their last 5 devices! Why? because Sony tries to give people what they want, whilst WM devices give us what we need. Just wish these tech giants would learn from each other and bring us true 'Ultimate' devices based on all these meta-technologies.
Blow the retail cost to the consumer. People will always buy what they want and there will always be those who can afford it and those that can't just at the minute. I'm happy enough to fall into the latter category as long as the tech develops into this area.
mackaby007 said:
Agree with you totally on this spacecat. The PSP's 16million pixel screen is the nuts and it's hard to find any pixelation in movie playback even at QVGA encoded vids.
@ wgary. I hear you, but its not only business users they should aim these devices at. Internet and e-mail is now so commonplace as well as mobile phone technology, that they should be aiming at a wider audience.
It wouldn't surprise me if Sony made more sales with the PSP than HTC with their last 5 devices! Why? because Sony tries to give people what they want, whilst WM devices give us what we need. Just wish these tech giants would learn from each other and bring us true 'Ultimate' devices based on all these meta-technologies.
Blow the retail cost to the consumer. People will always buy what they want and there will always be those who can afford it and those that can't just at the minute. I'm happy enough to fall into the latter category as long as the tech develops into this area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i wanted a cheaper PS3...sony never gave me that
Mackaby007,
I find it difficult to comprehend your disappointment.
You're getting too technical into this. Just enjoy watching the excellent movie quality of this device instead of counting the fps, would you? This is not a home theatre system for goodness sake. Also, the service manual may be just talking about the minimum critieria, rather than the actual performance, which could differ from unit to unit, just like some unit is able to overclock better than the others but officially set at a lower rate.
Look at the video that you posted. It is absolutely amazing. It is still not good enough, I think you're being too picky. Look at the 90% full, not 10% empty in this glass!
eaglesteve said:
Mackaby007,
I find it difficult to comprehend your disappointment.
You're getting too technical into this. Just enjoy watching the excellent movie quality of this device instead of counting the fps, would you? This is not a home theatre system for goodness sake. Also, the service manual may be just talking about the minimum critieria, rather than the actual performance, which could differ from unit to unit, just like some unit is able to overclock better than the others but officially set at a lower rate.
Look at the video that you posted. It is absolutely amazing. It is still not good enough, I think you're being too picky. Look at the 90% full, not 10% empty in this glass!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for around £650 for what is basically a phone with extras expectations are justifiably HIGH!
you would think the machine could at least run movies at its OWN full resolution wouldnt you? I love my Athena in many ways but it still has some unjustifable issues, especially as it has a ATI chip that should be able to run movies decently an without lip synch errors
It shouldnt be such HARD work
I still blame ATI for most of our video problems.
However, I am now (after mackaboy helped me out) more satisfied with my Athena as a video device than I am with my Archos AV420 (which is a dedicated video-playing device). The screen on the Athena is bigger, and it supports more formats.
For me, size and shape of the screen and the fact that it is part of a all encompassing device, is far far more important than whether of not it drop a frame. In most cases, the source of my download is already very far from perfect, so it makes no sense to think about frame drop. I could not tell if there is any frame drop in most cases, as they look so perfect to me already. Being too concerned with that would only kill your enjoyment If I am after real good quality video and sound, I would'nt be watching it on this device. I'll be using my home theatre system and treat my senses with real subwolfer, AC-3 sound effect, and real high definition pictures. This is not to say that I accept any quality movies on the device. I'm saying that it is more than adequate already.
eaglesteve said:
For me, size and shape of the screen and the fact that it is part of a all encompassing device, is far far more important than whether of not it drop a frame. In most cases, the source of my download is already very far from perfect, so it makes no sense to think about frame drop. I could not tell if there is any frame drop in most cases, as they look so perfect to me already. Being too concerned with that would only kill your enjoyment If I am after real good quality video and sound, I would'nt be watching it on this device. I'll be using my home theatre system and treat my senses with real subwolfer, AC-3 sound effect, and real high definition pictures. This is not to say that I accept any quality movies on the device. I'm saying that it is more than adequate already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as I said my psp can blow it away for quality and reliabilty and it costs
only 100 pounds and is over 2 years old. its not good enough
OK guys let's not get into an argument, we are all just expressing our opinions and in some cases, venting as I didn't get what was advertised on the box and I paid heavily to have this unit. Thanks spacecat, you summed it up perfectly.
Moskus, your right too. It is down to the ATI chip, but the Hermes got fixed through the AKU 3.5 ROM etc with some tweaks, I think we'll get there in the end.
@eaglesteve. Whilst I respect your right to express your views and sometimes agree with them too, I simply disagree with you on this. Spacecat really hit the nail on the head in his post about cost of device vs incapability to play vis at its own resolution.
Let's not get it twisted either, just because these devices were aimed at mostly business people on the move etc.....the software certainly isn't.
Personally, my Athena is my personal all-in-one Mobile-communication/GPS entertainment System. That is why I bought it, because the specs and HTC's own write up advertised it as such. As it's not performing to expectation (only in this video department), I am disappointed eaglesteve. It is a main part of why I bought it and relates to what I do for a living. Not being picky mate.
Anyway, no offense taken. Just want to clarify why I'm always on about video playback. I'm hoping to hear back from Betaboy about what is really needed from ATI/AMD so maybe us paying customers can put a petition together or use whatever resources we have as a community to put pressure on either HTC or ATI/AMD to give us the needed info so Corecodec or another developer can solve this once and for all.
As Moskus always says, it is down to the Imageon Chip.
Peace my friends.
I don't really understand what all the fuss is about re video playback on the Athena. I have a very large collection of divx and xvid movies and TV series, mostly downloaded from torrents. I simply download them, copy to the microdrive, and watch them (using tcpmp) with no problems. The picture is crystal clear, no stuttering, and I have no problems with the audio lagging.
I can't tell you about framerates or benchmarks as I've never needed to tweak TCPMP, it always looks fine.
So there is at least one satisfied customer re videos on the Athena - me!
Each to their I guess, but I'm plodding on.
Pantaloonie said:
I don't really understand what all the fuss is about re video playback on the Athena. I have a very large collection of divx and xvid movies and TV series, mostly downloaded from torrents. I simply download them, copy to the microdrive, and watch them (using tcpmp) with no problems. The picture is crystal clear, no stuttering, and I have no problems with the audio lagging.
I can't tell you about framerates or benchmarks as I've never needed to tweak TCPMP, it always looks fine.
So there is at least one satisfied customer re videos on the Athena - me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy for you Some of us are perfectionists though, and I've seen 640x480 VGA encoded vids from High def sources and believe me its as good to look at as High Def on a top end PC screen. The detail you see changes your viewing pleasure...it's like the difference between DVD's and Ultra High def in a mobile screen.
All those who have not experienced this quality wouldn't really appreciate what I'm talking about.
Nothing in life is perfect, but striving for perfection and falling short of it is still better than accepting what we already have.
Isn't that how progress works? It certainly does for me and I've never been displeased with my results after I've giving it my best.
If you're happy with what you have, then really, that is great and you are a lucky man/woman, but I always like to push the boat out that little bit more.
Can't remember who just posted to this effect about prefering the Athena to their dedicated Archos, but that is very pleasing to hear and quite encouraging.
P.S. I had perfect HQ vids on a 200 MHz Omap based WM5 QVGA device with no issues at all! Why is it so unreasonable for me to want the same from a 624 MHz CPU with a Video accelerator on a VGA screen? hmmm?
mackaby007,
You are like an ungrateful mad scientist Just kidding, but I am with you on this and I do understand what you are saying. Let me try to keep it short and sweet.
You also made an excellent point that a lot people might have missed. We can't all be experts and our development cycles are different. Some of us set higher expectations and achieve greater goals which is the reason why there are not too many Bill Gates in the world.
Nonetheless, I would like to see better picture too because this device was more expensive than my PS3 which I enjoy watching BD-DVD movies on a 70'' 1080P TV.
yep i agree my universal was far superior for playing vids and the keyboard was better but ths device is amazing and untill the htc x9500 is released im happy in general. seams strange to take a step back instead of forward for improvements but its all down to money and marketing the upcoming shift and x9500 are basicly the same device under the hood just a different exterior shell but they disable the voice on the shift and enable it on the x9500 just so they can sell the same device twice but repackaged.
spzero said:
yep i agree my universal was far superior for playing vids and the keyboard was better but ths device is amazing and untill the htc x9500 is released im happy in general. seams strange to take a step back instead of forward for improvements but its all down to money and marketing the upcoming shift and x9500 are basicly the same device under the hood just a different exterior shell but they disable the voice on the shift and enable it on the x9500 just so they can sell the same device twice but repackaged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting....never heard of the x9500.
lpsi2000 said:
mackaby007,
You are like an ungrateful mad scientist Just kidding, but I am with you on this and I do understand what you are saying. Let me try to keep it short and sweet.
You also made an excellent point that a lot people might have missed. We can't all be experts and our development cycles are different. Some of us set higher expectations and achieve greater goals which is the reason why there are not too many Bill Gates in the world.
Nonetheless, I would like to see better picture too because this device was more expensive than my PS3 which I enjoy watching BD-DVD movies on a 70'' 1080P TV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said and it was short and to the point.
basically it comes down to bang for buck.
A £650 machine that is outclassed by a 2 year old machine at £100 does not offer bang for buck in terms of Video playback.
I really enjoy my Ameo esp the big screen for HSDPA surfing, streaming my live TV and videos from my home PC via Orb, reading books via pdf,music, etc etc
but you would think if it has a 640x480 screen and they promote this fact bigstyle then it should be able to display video at this resolution
I would be very interested in a shift type device as long as it also has Phone functionality, .............................
hmmm will it suppport 800x600 resolution video ..oh dear
spzero said:
yep i agree my universal was far superior for playing vids and the keyboard was better but ths device is amazing and untill the htc x9500 is released im happy in general. seams strange to take a step back instead of forward for improvements but its all down to money and marketing the upcoming shift and x9500 are basicly the same device under the hood just a different exterior shell but they disable the voice on the shift and enable it on the x9500 just so they can sell the same device twice but repackaged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi spzero,
So you mean that shift and shangrila are slightly different machine? There are conflicting news on this it seems. Some says they are the same, some say they are different. Do you have a link to your source of info please?
Thanks and cheers.
How do we delete duplicate post (by mistake)?
What troubles me these days is that a lot of new phones have such poor video recording capabilities. My years old Nokia 6233 can film VGA @ 15FPS. This was, for it's time quite amazing. Soon the Nokia N series followed with VGA @ 30FPS.
Last week Apple introduced the Iphone 3G S. One of it's key features is the capability to record video at VGA 30FPS. This was a biggy for everyone, but I thought: WTF! What's so amazing about this?
Both HTC Android phones can now also film. This however is in very poor quality. I checked spec's from various different phones and noticed both the G1 and Magic have relatively the same spec's as Iphone's, Nokia N series etc. I got me wondering... Why is the video recording quality so poor? Is this a software issue, or is the hardware simply just not capable enough? This last thing would really surprise me when I compare the Android phones with my years old, 2 megapixel, Nokia 6233.
I'm in the market to buy a new phone. I want Android, but I also want a decent video recording capability. My question: Will the HTC G1 or Magic ever get VGA @ 30FPS recording, or is it simply not possible?
This needs to be moved to the general section. This is NOT a development question.
A lot of those phones may have a dedicated built-in video processor that can keep up with the intense amount of processing required for video processing.
dont respond to the posting until it gets moves, people need to fing learn where to post.
I think my question actually is a development question since I'm wondering wetter this is hardware capability issues or software/programming. What better place to ask then the place were people make the software and (hopefully) have knowledge of the hardware there programming on?
Hmmm, i wonder what the Dream applications and games section is for..? Oh, for things like this that doesn't involve ROM building and/or hacks possibly. Move the thread please
post moved
please post in the correct threads or your post may well end in the trash!
To finally answer your question:
There's different types of VGA @ 30 FPS. There's the "Hey, this is actually a movie" kind, and the "Hmm, what was that ? Why is it ghosting?" kind.
The camera in the G1 (and the iPhone 2G and 3G, not 3GS) is closer to the second kind. You could shoot 30 frames per second @ VGA resolution, but it would look like crap.
So if this is important to you, get another phone.
there should be a way you could do at least sharp non ghosted [email protected] or [email protected], i have no idea how open the camera is on this phone though. it would be nice to get it less shakey at a cost to resolution. like most webcams
Found this on youtube - 2 parts. He reviewed the keyboard as well. Looks very well rounded. I'll be getting one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxth_Sxfps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEQqXi-3NpU
Ya, I've been waiting for his 2nd video. It's one of the more comprehensive reviews of this awesome device.
popophobia said:
Found this on youtube - 2 parts. He reviewed the keyboard as well. Looks very well rounded. I'll be getting one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxth_Sxfps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEQqXi-3NpU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing! Finally a decent review on youtube! It helps making the decision to wait it out a little bit longer. I hope he's right on the price part too!
popophobia said:
Found this on youtube - 2 parts. He reviewed the keyboard as well. Looks very well rounded. I'll be getting one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxth_Sxfps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEQqXi-3NpU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting how he calls it "very intuitive" when there have been people saying its sooo confusing because its not like the Ipad
Outstanding overview, thanks for the link. Except now, of course, I'm even more anxious to get one.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
wynand32 said:
Outstanding overview, thanks for the link. Except now, of course, I'm even more anxious to get one.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, same here bud
great review, thanks for posting - now I really can't wait until the keyboard arrives
czm said:
great review, thanks for posting - now I really can't wait until the keyboard arrives
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was the first time I've seen the device with the keyboard attached being used. I can definitively say that I will be buying the dock... If it ever arrives on US soil. With me not having a laptop it should prove useful.
He just posted a new video about the Polaris software.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGSfL6XjcN8
Just watched some of the first video. Shame it's so quiet. I wish google would normalise all the audio on videos uploaded to youtube. Just wanted to comment on a few things he said:
-The @Vibe app is for music and streaming radio, not for games, in the UK. Might be different for other countries.
-It's not lightweight. Lighter than other devices but its still not light.
-You get bad stuttery 1080p mkv's if theyre not encoded properly.
-That green screen camera thing is fixed in the latest firmware.
-The refresh rate of the video recording is bad. So is the fps of any video you record. Hopefully it will get fixed. It's meant to do up to 1080p @30fps.
-The playback and quality of the video streaming via Splashtop is ridiculously good as he says. I was surprised.
-He's also right about needing to have several apps to play various files. Feels odd to switch between them to play different formats but its not a problem.
Nice to see the dock in action. Cant wait to get mine.
stuntdouble said:
Shame it's so quiet. I wish google would normalise all the audio on videos uploaded to youtube.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an offtopic note: normalising wouldn't help in most cases (one high peek in the whole video will make the sound very quiet even normalised). Making sound louder would in most cases require compression and limiting which is not always wanted and can't be done properly by a machine only (if you want to know more - read about loudness war and audio mastering on Wikipedia). Normalising could also be very bad for videos recorded in silence - you would hear every background noise that was recorded very loudly.
Splashtop looks very interesting. It's a shame it's only for Macs and Windows (I would like to use it on Ubuntu).
Great detailed review. Just watched both part 1 and 2 and has reassured me that this is definitely the tablet I want. All of the negatives that I read on Engadget or Techradar can't remember which it was seem to be non existent in the video as they said it lags quite noticeably behind touch which it didn't really show and looks like it's going to be a great tablet with lots of future potential. Can't wait to save up and get one which looks to be at around the time stock will be back in with all the delays lol
stuntdouble said:
Just watched some of the first video. Shame it's so quiet. I wish google would normalise all the audio on videos uploaded to youtube. Just wanted to comment on a few things he said:
-The @Vibe app is for music and streaming radio, not for games, in the UK. Might be different for other countries.
-It's not lightweight. Lighter than other devices but its still not light.
-You get bad stuttery 1080p mkv's if theyre not encoded properly.
-That green screen camera thing is fixed in the latest firmware.
-The refresh rate of the video recording is bad. So is the fps of any video you record. Hopefully it will get fixed. It's meant to do up to 1080p @30fps.
-The playback and quality of the video streaming via Splashtop is ridiculously good as he says. I was surprised.
-He's also right about needing to have several apps to play various files. Feels odd to switch between them to play different formats but its not a problem.
Nice to see the dock in action. Cant wait to get mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Sorry, I should have adjust the volume of the video before I uploaded it, thanks for pointing that out.
@Vibe is like an entertainment center, it has Books, games, and Musics, at least that's how it is in Taiwan, not sure about other country.
and you are right, the video recording is really slow and hopefully it gets fixed soon.
Thanks for pointing out the firmware update, I've yet to update mine, will do and see if anything else is different.
Best,
andyxover
So I have defiantly noticed poor video quality I've tried a 720p video h.264 lord of the rings encode quality looks decent but gets so pixilatee all the time no matter what video player I use, also tried normal 480p no lag or pixilation, but quality looks sorta poor. And the grid touch is very noticiable.
Am I the only one? Or are there others seeing this... I love this tablet so much over other android and for the price its awesome. But no ips display messes with me lol.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
I have noticed the quality isn't as good as say my Iphone 3GS, Macbook Pro ( non ips screen).Apparantly it uses an AUO panel which aren't too bad; they're used in some Samsung panels but aren't as good as the one sony/samsung make.
Maybe someone with some technical knowledge here could answer it better.I am just agreeing with you. The a500 is a 6bit panel, bit disappointed in that, I was expecting 8bit.
The screen is the only disappointment I have
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
I have to agree with the screen issues. Video looks completely washed out. I tested streaming through my wife's iPad and my Acer. Needless to say, for $450, it's not worth it.
I've done the whole "the screen is not so bad" thing with the gTablet but that was a much cheaper investment. This thing is $50 from the Samsung 10.1, the Toshiba Regaza 10.1 inch, and an iPad 2.
I abhor the Apple iOS but I'm hoping they open things up a bit in June. I think I'll take this Acer back next week and just wait until then all these new June tablets are released. I don't think Acer can release an update to improve the quality of the screen ala Toshiba's Resolution + tech in their tablet.
Word of advice...take micro and SD cards with video on them to the store with you so you can test these things out. Maybe a flash drive too. I spent hours looking at videos and researching to make sure this tablet would be a nice purchase. Even after owning the tablet a full day, I was happy...until I played some video with it. I'm not talking high def content. I tried watching wrestling and some soccer videos on there but the quality saddens me. Why not stick a better screen on and charge me more?
Although I see what you do when I look at mine... the pictures I look at are almost as good as my Epic SuperAMOLED phone and I thought my phone was great... so, if the pictures are great/really good and the video not so much... I think tweaking will be done to deliver better quality... this thing was rushed out and so was honeycomb... I'll give it time because I know it can only get better... besides if all you're doing is video then maybe you just need a dvd player or an archos 70 250gig I heard those screens are nice... good luck.
I wish it was that easy. I blog on my tablet which is why I was leaning towards the Asus. I game on there and that's a mixed bag on here. I do like the cameras and the flash on here.
I'd just like a tablet to do everything well. Perhaps they can fix the video quality. I'm just wondering if we'll ever get that. I've heard from 3 people on this forum that Acer's customer support sucks. They've tried to charge them each time they've called.
Hopefully we'll get some answers soon. I'm trying to hold onto it until after Google's I/O conference next week which could shed some light on any problems Honeycomb may be causing.
Just glad I kept my receipt had for about 1 week and few days but will wait and see, hopefully they will shed some light.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
The main reason I bought a tablet in the first place was because I'm a producer and I wanted something I could easily tote around as a digital portfolio for pitches -MacBook Pro isn't quite as sexy in a meeting now that the tabs are on the market. The iPad has been extremely popular with commercial agencies, but I wanted something with an HDMI output w/o having to purchase an adapter (an additional $39) and a full size USB port w/o having to purchase a camera "kit" (an additional $29) -yep, I'm cheap like that.
Anyway, imagine how upset I was when I tried to play an mp4 on the A500 and got an error message stating that the video could not be played on "this device".
Here's what I found (search via google -can't post links yet):
"3 Surprising Things About Video On Android Tablets"
And from the Android Developer's site:
"Android Supported Media Formats"
What worked for me:
• Download the latest version of 'Handbrake'
• Go to 'Preferences'>'General' and under 'Output files:' uncheck 'Use iPod /iTunes friendly (.m4v) file extension for MP4'. Close the preferences window.
• Output Settings: Normal (Default) this is the 'Baseline Profile'
• Format: MP4 file this is the container
• Video Codec: H.264 (x264)
• Under 'Quality:', 'Constant quality:' should be selected with an RF Value of 19-20 for SD and 21-22 for HD
• Go to the 'Advanced' tab and under 'Encoding'/'Maximum B-Frames:' select '0' from the dropdown menu
• Leave all other settings as they are (incl. Audio; AAC is fine) for your first attempt
Feel free to play around with the settings as you will, but don't expect a whole lot of freedom.
Hope that helps!
goalweiser said:
I wish it was that easy. I blog on my tablet which is why I was leaning towards the Asus. I game on there and that's a mixed bag on here. I do like the cameras and the flash on here.
I'd just like a tablet to do everything well. Perhaps they can fix the video quality. I'm just wondering if we'll ever get that. I've heard from 3 people on this forum that Acer's customer support sucks. They've tried to charge them each time they've called.
Hopefully we'll get some answers soon. I'm trying to hold onto it until after Google's I/O conference next week which could shed some light on any problems Honeycomb may be causing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say just take it back now. If things improve you can always buy it again as it's actually in stock.
Here's what I wrote on the whirlpool forums
So anyway, I've been testing out the screen, comparing it with my macbook pro(non ips screen) with the exact same video.I found that my macbook featured better blacks and less pixelation.One thing I noticed is the blacks on the iconia were too bright.So I checked in settings and I had the brightness on auto.
I turned it all the way down ( turned off auto brightness in settings) and tried the videos again, playing both in sync and let me say there was a huge difference now.Blacks appeared much better, and all that pixelation ( which was highlighted more with the brightness on higher) was gone! It is on par with my macbook!
The image is still fairly bright as well, it doesn't look all dark now that the brightness is turned down which is great!.
Give it a ago.
I have a sports publication and we do interviews with athletes and coaches. My writers currently use handheld video cameras such as the Flip or Kodak lines to do these videos and then we upload them to our system. Obviously the quality isn't great but we still get nice clean videos that our customers enjoy. Is anyone here able to compare the quality of the video from this camera to something along the lines of what we are using?
Also what are the options currently for live streaming? I assume since most Android apps can be used I could continue using USteam for live video? Again I understand this camera isn't going to replace a high end camcorder but if we can get decent quality I think it would be a good purchase for me.
With the camera still being rather new I'm having trouble finding many sample pics and videos so any links to those would be greatly appreciated and what I would really like to find is some sample streaming videos. Thanks!
scmobileman said:
I have a sports publication and we do interviews with athletes and coaches. My writers currently use handheld video cameras such as the Flip or Kodak lines to do these videos and then we upload them to our system. Obviously the quality isn't great but we still get nice clean videos that our customers enjoy. Is anyone here able to compare the quality of the video from this camera to something along the lines of what we are using?
Also what are the options currently for live streaming? I assume since most Android apps can be used I could continue using USteam for live video? Again I understand this camera isn't going to replace a high end camcorder but if we can get decent quality I think it would be a good purchase for me.
With the camera still being rather new I'm having trouble finding many sample pics and videos so any links to those would be greatly appreciated and what I would really like to find is some sample streaming videos. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's quite capable of shooting short videos but being built as a camera may not be easy to hand hold if you are primarily going to use it for video capture since there is no proper hand grip.
The picture and video quality are very acceptable but it's not a cheap device.
If your writers have smart phones they can just link the Galaxy Camera to the Hot Spot of the smart phone without having to add a data plan to the camera for uploading or streaming the video?
You should go try out one at your local dealer and see for yourself if it suits your needs.
scmobileman said:
I have a sports publication and we do interviews with athletes and coaches. My writers currently use handheld video cameras such as the Flip or Kodak lines to do these videos and then we upload them to our system. Obviously the quality isn't great but we still get nice clean videos that our customers enjoy. Is anyone here able to compare the quality of the video from this camera to something along the lines of what we are using?
Also what are the options currently for live streaming? I assume since most Android apps can be used I could continue using USteam for live video? Again I understand this camera isn't going to replace a high end camcorder but if we can get decent quality I think it would be a good purchase for me.
With the camera still being rather new I'm having trouble finding many sample pics and videos so any links to those would be greatly appreciated and what I would really like to find is some sample streaming videos. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android apps work just as well as on an SGS3, zooming apparently doesn't work in some 3rd party apps, but a review mentioned it's being worked on. It won't replace any pricier camcorders or SLR's, but if you get it at a fair discount from its usual over £400 price tag, it's an ok find. If you want good video and Wi-Fi check out Sony's NEX series.
You could always use Youtube for live streaming as well as UStream or similar. The camera has optical image stabilization which is quite good from what I've seen, it compensates nicely even at maximum zoom.
This video might be shot thru a window, looks a bit like that, but still a nice example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7jOJt7rqM
There are some images from an xda member at http://s628.beta.photobucket.com/user/DC-IT/library/Samsung Galaxy Camera Images