Database Users

Video recording at 320x240 on the S200

Hi ! Is there a way to record video at 320x240 with the Prophet ? (my unit is the S200). Possibly by using software or something ? (normally the max resolution for video recording on the S200 is 176x144, which is kind of strange considering that S100 and other HTC/Qtek even older models are capable of recording at 320x240 resolution)
Many thanks.

anybody ?

Coolcamera can switch resolution up to 640x480.
Unfortunately the framerate drops to 10fps @320 and 4fps @640 what is not so great.
I am wondering also why other devices are so much better with video..maybe therer is a different solution out there using also the Intel graphicsprozessor onboard.
If anybody has a better solution i am interested in it also.

there was a bug once
before i upgraded ROM it showed 320x240 video resolution option but did record in the small (140x80 or sth). After upgrading I thought they would fix it but instead they just removed the option!!

are new's about de SW to use a 320x240 video resolution ??

use CoolCamera, you can use 320x240 but the framerate will probably be low. I found that framerate depends especially on SD card speed. So the SD card is the bottleneck. If you use hi-speed SD card framerate should be accetable. Good ligting is also very important

slingplayer performance

I am sure anyone who has had experience of it will agree slingplayer is one of the best applications for a pocket pc.
However on the Ameo, which is the variant I have, its performance is a lot to be desired. Whether I use it on the wifi or HSDPA it seems to be jerky all the time (not a very good user experience). The stats say the 300kb/s to 400kb/s is being achieved but the frame rate doesn’t go much above 10 (is it the darn video driver again?). The settings i use are:
Enable slingstream optimization
High action
video resolution : 320 by 240
audio : mono low
Managed to borrow a dell Axim X51 (qVGA screen, 412Mhz version) the other day, and tested its slingplayer performance and frankly was amazed at the difference. It was managing 30 frames per second and was super smooth whether portrait or landscape (same slingplayer settings by the way).
Ameo has the same processor as the Dell only faster, different graphics chip though.
Is it because Dell has a proper video driver or the fact that it is only a qVGA resolution i.e. 4 times less area to display. You will note that best performing devices as far as SPB graphics benchmark are qVGA.
I have read on threads people being pretty happy with slingplayer performance but that’s a subjective statement.
Could people who have used slingplayer on any variant of the athena, i.e. advantage X7500, X7501, dopod 1000 etc. state the frame rate and the bandwidth they are achieving (either cellular or wifi connection) so we can narrow down the problem.
1) Lack of proper ATI driver on all or some of the athena variants.
2) VGA screen taxing the processor too much (shouldn't be as the slingplayer application is still trying to display qVGA resolution, assuming 4 pixels displaying the same image is less strenuous on the processor than displaying 4 distinct images)
3) Some other reason such as splingplayer not optimized for the ATI chip?
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated

I tried this last night and I am getting 10-15fps whether connected to my wi-fi network or via 3G and my vid is jerky as well. Disappointing but hopefully will get better... I am using the default settings (slingstream optimization and medium action).
EDIT: FWIW, the Axim x51v is VGA 640x480...
EDIT2: My bandwidth is 200-300kbps whether connected to wi-fi or 3G.

assuming you guys are using win media player to play the videos, you are probably running into the same issues I had trying to stream from ORB to my ameo, the fix was to use the windows mobile 5 (windows media video 9) codecs for windows media player ! simply unpack the attached files and copy into your windows folder then reboot.
apperntly there is an issue with the Windows media video 10 codecs supplied with win mobile 6 !

ice_coffee said:
assuming you guys are using win media player to play the videos, you are probably running into the same issues I had trying to stream from ORB to my ameo, the fix was to use the windows mobile 5 (windows media video 9) codecs for windows media player ! simply unpack the attached files and copy into your windows folder then reboot.
apperntly there is an issue with the Windows media video 10 codecs supplied with win mobile 6 !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The slingplayer mobile application is self contained (no WMP involved) and plays live streaming video only...

same problem here

billu said:
1) Lack of proper ATI driver on all or some of the athena variants.
2) VGA screen taxing the processor too much (shouldn't be as the slingplayer application is still trying to display qVGA resolution, assuming 4 pixels displaying the same image is less strenuous on the processor than displaying 4 distinct images)
3) Some other reason such as splingplayer not optimized for the ATI chip?
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason is that SlingMobile is using DirectDraw. The DDraw API on WM is slooooow. Thats the reason players like PocketTV or TCPMP went out of their way to code driver support for GPUs
The X7501 def has the ATI Imageon drivers there (I pointed this out on another thread), but it doesnt matter much. DDRaw+ATI=slow. DDRaw+Intel 2700=not TOO bad (hence the X51V working)
Basically, every PPC ever made from the Axim X51V forward should have had the Intel 2700. That they didnt has crippled the platform when it comes to video. The Imageon has potential, but ATI seems very hard to work with and getting it optimized is NOT easy.
The Marvell may save this situation if devs can start to take full advantage of WMMX2. Early reports show that with straight DDRaw, the Marvell proc alone is STILL not up to Intel 2700 standards, but Id bet that with direct WMMX2 enhanced code, it would be.

you can increase the buffer, but you have to do it in the registry, once you change it you cant go back into settings and change anything without changing the buffer back to 4 seconds
hklm\software\sling media\slingplayer\player
precharge duration = 10000
the 10000 in milliseconds

Thanks for the comments.
So it seems that the only hope is if an update of the slingplayer software decides to use the ATI Imageon driver.
Just to clear something up, the Dell I used was a X51 (320 by 240) and NOT a X51V (which is 640 by 480)
Is it possible to get the slingplayer to use the ATI driver using a registry tweak??

I would assume if they had developed ATI support they'd expose it. It may be possible that there is some undocumented dedicated support for the Imageon, but I havent seen anything.

I have just got my slingbox this week and I liked the idea of been able to watch my sky+ recordings, but playback via 3g is watchable but only about 15 fps , there is no improvement using wifi? However my cctv camera works smooth and looks great- possibly becouse its a black and white camera?
As a previous poster said orb works very good playing back full size divx from my home pc via either wmp or tcpmp without problems over 3g? but orb requires the pc to be on all the time, which is why I got the slingbox.
I just hope someone with more skill and knowlage than myself can sort a solution

Sling has released a new version of their mobile player that uses GDI instead of DirectDraw. Has anyone tried this on their Athena to see if it improves performance?

citivolus said:
Sling has released a new version of their mobile player that uses GDI instead of DirectDraw. Has anyone tried this on their Athena to see if it improves performance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried GDI but the frame rate dropped off significantly.
There are 3 major problems with SlingPlayer on the Athena. As said before, it does not use the ATI video driver. But also the maximum supported resolution is only 320x240 and the maximum bit rate is only 600kbs. So it's never going to look as good as TCPMP for example.
The best setting to change to make SlingPlayer watchable is to specifically set the video bit rate to 600kbs. Unless this is done, the SlingPlayer never seems to use more than 300kbs and the result is very poor video. With 600kbs bit rate and 320x240 resolution, I get about 15fps on average. If I drop the resolution to 224x176 I get nearly 30fps.

My Slingbox video stream is 77kbs
I hope any body can help me with this issue.
I have my slingbox set in NY,USA, and I'm now in Bahrain my internet provider speed is 2mbs download/ 512 kbs, and the internet provider in NY is verizon at 6mbs/ 760kbs upload.
However, every time I start my sling box on my laptop (Dell D610), the video optimization start at 600-700 kbs and end up in 2 min in 77 kbs and stop there.
I don't know, if this is something has to do with the setup or what exactly...?
Can any body help me with that??
Thanks

Are you saying you have a problem using your slingbox on your Athena or your laptop? If your laptop then you are posting in the wrong place!

anyone figure out the optimal settings for our athena's to get buffering/playback more manageable?

Video Capture Encoder

Hi,
I developed and app for win.mob.6 for video capture live streaming using direct show filter. WMV9 encoder has very low performance of framerate no more 4 fps with lower res.
I am testing the app on HTC touch dual. I tried to enum all filters availables, but I found only WMV9 Encoder. The original app cam coder can create 3gp file with h263+amr-nb. I'd like to know how is possibile this !!! no h263 filter encoder are available.
I am looking for an htc WM5/6 model that can capture video frames encoded to 15 fps with a mid res 170x140.
help please.
thanks

Hi fala70,
I am sorry but I couldnt quite understand what it is your current status.
Have you developed the application and it is working or you would like to do it now?
What do you mean 'original' application. Are you based on an open source example or something?
Nice subject though!

This issue has been discussed quite a number of times (I asked the same thing a few months ago) but no resolution as come out so far. I think HTC does not allow its "private" encoders to be "enumerated".

My status it that I want understand if is possible to use an other codec encoder different from WMV9. WmV9 is too slow.
HTC-Master said:
Hi fala70,
I am sorry but I couldnt quite understand what it is your current status.
Have you developed the application and it is working or you would like to do it now?
What do you mean 'original' application. Are you based on an open source example or something?
Nice subject though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

WMP & Coreplayer on X1

Hi,
Got my Xperia X1 the other day, I have got Coreplayer Mobile as well as the WMP on the phone. I have copied the videos I took with my Nokia N95 to the memory card Ive got in the Xperia.
However when it comes to playing them WMP will play them but it stutters alot with the sound being ahead of the video. In coreplayer there is no video only sound.
Any of you guys got any suggestions to get the video playing smoothly. The videos are .mp4.
Thanks

Try to set in Videosettings QTv Display, here I get a picture and it works ok, not the promissed 30 fps but arount 20 fps with a HDTV Movie.

sthoeft said:
Try to set in Videosettings QTv Display, here I get a picture and it works ok, not the promissed 30 fps but arount 20 fps with a HDTV Movie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that. I changed to the DirectDraw option and it plays the James Bond Trailer no problem but the videos from my Nokia N95 still stutter alot

madzo2008 said:
I tried that. I changed to the DirectDraw option and it plays the James Bond Trailer no problem but the videos from my Nokia N95 still stutter alot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then I don't have any more ideas. Perhaps it'll help trying TCMP instead of Coreplayer?!

Found this on Coreplayers website:
CE/Windows Mobile/PocketPC/Smartphone
---------------------------------------------------------
- Does not support the Qualcomm MSM7200 QTv chipset (we only support the MSM7500)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is anyone running Coreplayer? Is there anything better?

I've tried to find a resolution/bitrate which gives me smooth video without stuttering and dropouts. I've tested on CorePlayer with DivX and native mp4 codecs.
With a resolution of 400x240, 25fps, 1100kBit/s I get a picture without dropouts and a benchmark around 105%.
If I go higher in resolution I start getting dropouts.
I've set the CorePlayer to Microdrive mode and doubled the size of the buffer to increase the speed when reading from the memory card.
I've tried to copy the clip to the phone memory, but with the above settings I see no difference.
My conclusion is that if you want a smooth picture, don't go above the mentioned resolution. It won't give you that crisp picture, but I get more annoyed when the film is stuttering than getting a HD resolution on a 3" display.
I have no problem seeing mp4 on the CorePlayer though. But if I uncheck the "TyTN II driver mode" in QTv Display settings, I get only sound, no picture, despite the MSM7200 chipset . Don't know if the Nokia's format differs from the one I have used (Cucusoft Ultimate DVD).
Is there anyone else who manages getting a higher picture quality without any dropped frames?

Got this from the Coreplayer forums:
'We are on the verge of the v1.3 bug fix release that addresses many of the current issues including those diamond users running WM 6.1...... however it does not address the QTV issues since there is nothing we can control there other then to express our dismay to both HTC and Qualcomm for not opening up the GPU.
Hey... we've been here before.... lets hope for a more open solution soon enough.'
I wonder what SE's position is on this? Apparently it's meant to have a decent GPU but what's the use if we can't use it? I know one or two people here have contacts with SE - anybody wish to find out?

Praying for hardware supported video playback...

but they said that X1 uses ATI GPU not Qualcomm!
Another lies from SE?

Hey guys, i know this is abit off topic, but has any of you guys had the problem were you install core player, then play a video, and then you exit and go back into it and you the the message "cannot validate the serial number/user ID"? i have uninstalled and reinstalled heaps of times, tried different serial numbers, but it happens all the time use it once, and then the message comes up when you go back into it.

andyboo said:
Hey guys, i know this is abit off topic, but has any of you guys had the problem were you install core player, then play a video, and then you exit and go back into it and you the the message "cannot validate the serial number/user ID"? i have uninstalled and reinstalled heaps of times, tried different serial numbers, but it happens all the time use it once, and then the message comes up when you go back into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you have multiple serial numbers?
Surely it's one Serial per IMEI?

im running coreplayer latest version, and i'm playing divX files direct from my coputr, no downsample full reselution, and with 30fps usibg qtv, it's awsome!

smaberg said:
im running coreplayer latest version, and i'm playing divX files direct from my coputr, no downsample full reselution, and with 30fps usibg qtv, it's awsome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for real ? 640x480 24FPS at 800kbs is really laggy for me when playing in CorePlayer using QTV Video Output.

nap007 said:
but they said that X1 uses ATI GPU not Qualcomm!
Another lies from SE?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ATI graphics chip is a part of the qualcomm chipset.

fards said:
The ATI graphics chip is a part of the qualcomm chipset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says who, I haven't seen any info about it, any links please.
Of course the qualcomm chip has indeed 3D hardware acceleration but I don't know if it is ATI.

unbelieveable how unprofessional are they! 1st the RAM debate, and now this; not to mention that bad launching and availability.

It is rather disappointing. Even the fish panel is hardly super smooth, leading me to wonder if even that uses the GPU acceleration.
I really do hope SE allow and encourage developers to tap the GPU of the X1 otherwise its little better than all the other WM phones.
I have hope that someone with a reputation like SE will see the sense supporting the developers. The "write something for the panel" is not good enough. The radio is a panel and as the panel is like the home screen, anything on it is turned off when I navigate away from it including the radio.
I really do hope they do not turn out to be as bad as networks like T-Mobile which can't be bothered to support HTC rebranded phones even if its got their name stuck on them.

after using it for 3 days it is now clear that the panels just use low res screenshots and no live data. They dont even update them, i live in germany and when accessing panels the screenshot says New York etc until it finally updates.
So for the panels just being low res screenshots (that must be only some KBs per panel) the performance is horrible and laggy. Cant believe they use any form of hardware acceleration for that either.

toxical said:
for real ? 640x480 24FPS at 800kbs is really laggy for me when playing in CorePlayer using QTV Video Output.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the video is encoded in H.264 it's going to be lagging full on. Half of the frame will get dropped. Playing 720x400 24FPS at 1Mbps encoded with XviD on the other hand is smooth and not a single frame is dropped. I've tested this with TP.

Does anyone know how to change the default streaming video player to Coreplayer?
It's very annoying when browsing and the Streaming Player kicks in rather than Coreplayer. I've associated 3gp, mpeg4, etc. with CP but doesn't seem to make any difference.

Video Quality

Playing back videos that are stored on my sd card, as well as youtube videos, are not clear at all. They aren't even close to how clear they appear on my ipod touch. Is that because the file source resolution does not match the HD2's resolution? Even when videos are played in original resolution, they still are grainy and pixelated.

You will find all videos related stuff here, Simple search can do a trick

Has anyone seen a chart that would be similar to this one for the Sony Ericsson:
http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=8491877&postcount=24
I'd like to set up the optimum settings in my SUPER conversion software. If you have setting in SUPER that you are using and really like, could you please share? Thanks.

For Youtube, if you're using the Youtube client you should set the quality to the best.

Use Core player, I get very good results. Plays all of my divx/xvid movies without conversion. Better Quality than any ipod i have seen. Just search for best settings to use!

Has anyone test driven the "Kinoma Player"? It is supposed to be very good and works with Leo. I don't know, just trying to find out some information about the quality of this product.

original_ganjaman said:
Use Core player, I get very good results. Plays all of my divx/xvid movies without conversion. Better Quality than any ipod i have seen. Just search for best settings to use!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For purchasing core player to use with the HD2, do you download the WM Pocket PC version, or the WM Smartphone version?
I believe these are the ideal settings once it's downloaded (correct?):
Menu/Tools/Settings/Select Page/Video and set :
1-Video output to DirectDraw (not GDI)
2-Smooth Zoom to ON

mojohio said:
For purchasing core player to use with the HD2, do you download the WM Pocket PC version, or the WM Smartphone version?
I believe these are the ideal settings once it's downloaded (correct?):
Menu/Tools/Settings/Select Page/Video and set :
1-Video output to DirectDraw (not GDI)
2-Smooth Zoom to ON
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wm pocket pc version is the one you want, the smartphone version is for non-touch screen devices.
Those settings are fine. GDI works also.

bahardman said:
Has anyone test driven the "Kinoma Player"? It is supposed to be very good and works with Leo. I don't know, just trying to find out some information about the quality of this product.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm biased, of course, but Kinoma Play is a pretty great app.
The product page is a good representation of what it can do: http://kinoma.com/play/
You can see it in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfYZ-bC20eM
Plus, there's 30-day money-back guarantee in case you're not delighted.
-- Charles Wiltgen