Database Users

Video playback on LEO

Will there be issues on video playback like all other HTC devices ?
Will leo be able to play a not converted divx ?

firiel said:
Will there be issues on video playback like all other HTC devices ?
Will leo be able to play a not converted divx ?
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Click to collapse
I think it's able to play till 480p res. videos even no exist video acceleration or drivers... It's powered by brute cpu force with snapdragon to process vid. codecs IMO...

firiel said:
Will there be issues on video playback like all other HTC devices ?
Will leo be able to play a not converted divx ?
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Click to collapse
I'm not gonna worry about that. For Touch HD, I used Total Video Converter, I used Iphone H264 MP4 best settings and play in Windows Media Player, even in Touch HD it is smooth and stunning at full 800 X 480, only that scrolling through time frames or during video startup is sluggish. And for HD2, I believe the loading time will be shortened.
Playing high quality videos have been non issue with these HTC devices, you just need to do it right.

precsmo said:
Playing high quality videos have been non issue with these HTC devices, you just need to do it right.
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If you don't mind wasting time on conversion, that is.

From HTC website: Video supported formats: .wmv, .asf, .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v, .avi
Can't speak to quality because the phone isn't out. ;-)

Reason4444 said:
I think it's able to play till 480p res. videos even no exist video acceleration or drivers... It's powered by brute cpu force with snapdragon to process vid. codecs IMO...
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Which means that when a device from another manufacturer like samsung or acer grabs the snapdragon we will cry with the results, right ?
And dont have me even mention tegra

rebecker said:
From HTC website: Video supported formats: .wmv, .asf, .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v, .avi
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Touch Diamond2 specs also mention .avi, but it's a half-truth. I use a Topaz ROM on my Touch HD and can't view regular DivX/XVid videos with anything built-in. Maybe the FullScreen Player from HTC Album (or Windows Media Player) here can play .avis with some weird codecs, but it's absolutely irrelevant to real-life scenarios.

vangrieg said:
Touch Diamond2 specs also mention .avi, but it's a half-truth. I use a Topaz ROM on my Touch HD and can't view regular DivX/XVid videos with anything built-in. Maybe the FullScreen Player from HTC Album (or Windows Media Player) here can play .avis with some weird codecs, but it's absolutely irrelevant to real-life scenarios.
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I've gone back to the stock rom on my hd, after an unfortunate incident with some muggers. But Coreplayer (ver 1.3.2) seems very adept at handling any native divx/xvid files

AshHD said:
I've gone back to the stock rom on my hd, after an unfortunate incident with some muggers. But Coreplayer (ver 1.3.2) seems very adept at handling any native divx/xvid files
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Then we probably have very different HDs because mine reminds me of the era of 200MHz HTC devices. Playback of unconverted is jerky with visibly very low FPS, dynamic scenes are more like slideshows than films, even with 700MB rips, 1.4GB ones are even worse. This is not to mention that CorePlayer doesn't support AC3 audio which means that half of the movies I have are mute. If this is called being "very adept at handling" then I don't know what isn't.
Stock ROMs are exactly the same in terms of video performance, the reason why I mentioned Topaz ROM is simply because that device boasts .avi support, which it is in fact lacking. That said, ".avi support" is pretty much a meaningless phrase since .avi is just a wrapper, there could be a full zoo of codecs inside.

firiel said:
Which means that when a device from another manufacturer like samsung or acer grabs the snapdragon we will cry with the results, right ?
And dont have me even mention tegra
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Click to collapse
In what way do you imagine that these devices will be superior to the HD2 when it comes to video playback? If the HD2 can play back video at full screen resolution (800x480) with no dropped frames at all and support any wrapper or codec you might want, how much better can any other device really get? That (most likely) is what the HD2 running Coreplayer will deliver.
The only time there's likely to be an issue is if you expect to play back a high-definition (e.g. 1280x720) video downscaled to the screen resolution in real time. But, even if it's only for reasons of storage space, you'd probably want to downscale any clips like that to 800x480 resolution anyway.
It's possible that other devices (the ones that can use GPU acceleration when playing xvid and divx stuff) will offer better battery-life during video playback, I guess, but I doubt it'll be that big a margin.

Shasarak, it's not clear how the downscaling will work performance-wise without GPU support, and CorePlayer doesn't support AC3 sound. Not that I need to listen to AC3 on a phone, but I certainly have movies with it. So at this moment CorePlayer is definitely a mediocre solution as far as I'm concerned.

Shasharak,
Am not arguing that the device hopefully might be able to play, by CPU power 480p, but what about HTC not delivering for once again, what our money worth.
If u search for comparisons of omnia and any htc 528 based model, you will see great differences on video playback. This is unacceptable from me.
And what about gaming or 3d accelerated apps. We are getting to a new age of handheld devices, that should be (MUST BE) able to deliver video, web, audio and entertainment. And should do it with all their power.

vangrieg said:
Shasarak, it's not clear how the downscaling will work performance-wise without GPU support, and CorePlayer doesn't support AC3 sound. Not that I need to listen to AC3 on a phone, but I certainly have movies with it. So at this moment CorePlayer is definitely a mediocre solution as far as I'm concerned.
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Well, as I say, I don't imagine anyone will want to downscale video on it anyway - HD video won't look any worse if it's downscaled off-line, and it will take up far less space on the memory card than the original HD file.
Coreplayer not supporting AC3 is a problem, I'll grant you. It's possible that Coreplayer version 2 will support it. If not, then you'll have to see if you can get TCPMP running on the Leo - I expect there will be a version that does.

firiel said:
Shasharak,
Am not arguing that the device hopefully might be able to play, by CPU power 480p, but what about HTC not delivering for once again, what our money worth.
If u search for comparisons of omnia and any htc 528 based model, you will see great differences on video playback. This is unacceptable from me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but that's the point: you won't see those differences on the HD2. I own a Touch Pro2, so I understand how annoyed you are. But the difference with the HD2 is that the CPU is so powerful that it should be able to play back anything with a resolution of 800x480 or less without dropping any frames using the CPU alone - why would you care if it's using the CPU or the GPU if you can't see any difference in the playback? The Snapdragon CPU is nearly three times as powerful as the one in the TP2. Even without GPU acceleration it'll still work just fine.
firiel said:
And what about gaming or 3d accelerated apps. We are getting to a new age of handheld devices, that should be (MUST BE) able to deliver video, web, audio and entertainment. And should do it with all their power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, we know from existing benchmarks that the Leo will deliver hardware-accelerated OpenGL ES, so that's a good start. On some 3D benchmarks it's more than 20 times as fast as a TP2. (I doubt there will be any 3D-accelerated apps for Windows Mobile, anyway - otherwise people who own cheaper, slower WinMo phones will buy them and then complain they can't run them. WinMo apps tend to be written for low-end hardware.) Web should be fine - especially once we have a version of FlashPlayer 10.1 which will be in beta before the end of the year. I wouldn't worry.

Shasarak said:
Well, as I say, I don't imagine anyone will want to downscale video on it anyway - HD video won't look any worse if it's downscaled off-line, and it will take up far less space on the memory card than the original HD file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I, on the other hand, can't imagine why anyone would want to convert any videos to watch on the phone. I have a notebook with a 60GB SSD and some 1.16GHz processor - it's blazing fast for Office/internet use but it'll take forever to convert any videos. I also store files like videos on a network drive, so using the more powerful desktop is still slow. And I need to watch videos only occasionally - when going on a trip I can copy a movie or two to take with me on a plane. So space isn't a problem really while ability to watch unconverted video is.
In any case, there was a question you asked about how another device may be more powerful in video playback - I guess with proper driver support they can be, and there are use cases when this is important.

vangrieg said:
I, on the other hand, can't imagine why anyone would want to convert any videos to watch on the phone. I have a notebook with a 60GB SSD and some 1.16GHz processor - it's blazing fast for Office/internet use but it'll take forever to convert any videos. I also store files like videos on a network drive, so using the more powerful desktop is still slow. And I need to watch videos only occasionally - when going on a trip I can copy a movie or two to take with me on a plane. So space isn't a problem really while ability to watch unconverted video is.
In any case, there was a question you asked about how another device may be more powerful in video playback - I guess with proper driver support they can be, and there are use cases when this is important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a TP2 owner with a slow desktop PC I feel your pain, I really do. I'm simply pointing out that the HD2 won't suffer from this problem to anywhere near the extent that current-generation HTC phones do. My best guess is that no video clip that runs at 800x480 or lower will require conversion; it's only ones in higher resolutions that will. And the chances are that even your netbook wouldn't be able to play a 720p video smoothly, so what use is it to store the videos in hi-def format in the first place? You might as well download a lower-res version.
If you end having to convert something very occasionally then just leave it running on your desktop PC overnight - it's not that big a deal.
The key difference, here, is that a TP2 can't even get close to playing a 624x351 xvid clip without conversion, while the HD2 will play it perfectly. It'll play anything other than high definition clips perfectly without conversion - so there is exactly one use-case where GPU acceleration is relevant, and it's not an important one.

Shasarak said:
I'm simply pointing out that the HD2 won't suffer from this problem to anywhere near the extent that current-generation HTC phones do.
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This is most certainly true. I still bought HD even though I knew about these problems, but it's still an annoyance. HD2 will be better for sure.
Shasarak said:
And the chances are that even your netbook wouldn't be able to play a 720p video smoothly,
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Click to collapse
It's not a netbook, it's a "real" notebook, Thinkpad X300, but anyway - I don't watch movies on my computers - I use a network media server and a network player, they are streamed to my TV. So my phone is the only computer-like device that needs to be able to play videos, actually.
Shasarak said:
so what use is it to store the videos in hi-def format in the first place? You might as well download a lower-res version.
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Click to collapse
In fact, I try to avoid downloading HD videos whenever I can as I don't care for viewing them in high resolutions even though I have a large Full HD TV. The problem is only that low-res versions aren't always available, and increasingly so. It's not my preference but rather an unfortunate trend.

So you think that the snapdragon "RAW" is enough. Enough for what ? There are no limits for what to expect.
Should HTC, continue to ignore what GPU means, we should not. once again accept it It was like 2 years ago when I complained about my TC performance, without getting any answer. And now Samsung, on their first winmo device (omnia), has really better results, using the same processor. There will be tons of snapdragon devices, or even tegra powered (hopefully) soon enough.

If Qualcomm refuses to give the guys who write CorePlayer access to their intellectual property, that isn't altogether HTC's fault. Any software actually written by HTC does use GPU acceleration - there's a limit to the extent that they can be held responsible for the deficiencies of third party software.
firiel said:
So you think that the snapdragon "RAW" is enough. Enough for what ? There are no limits for what to expect.
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I set down very precise limits in my prediction: CPU-only video decoding will (IMO) be adequate for all videos with a resolution of 800x480 or lower. Any video with higher resolution may require transcoding - but it obviously couldn't look any better than an 800x480 video if it's being played back on an 800x480 screen.

firiel said:
Should HTC, continue to ignore what GPU means, we should not. once again accept it
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And how exactly should we "not accept it"? I am also pissed off at HTC, but I don't think we can do anything except buying something else, but there are also reasons not to (all of them very individual).
Shasarak said:
If Qualcomm refuses to give the guys who write CorePlayer access to their intellectual property, that isn't altogether HTC's fault.
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Click to collapse
True, with a BUT: they (HTC) could enable their software to play real-life video formats. Samsung's Touch Player does that. And a smaller "but": they could also provide generic driver that would provide DirectX/OpenGL interfaces for Qualcomm's quirky technologies. Both options would cost them money I guess, so they chose not to.

Can it play video files in 800 x 480 resolution with CorePlayer?

I have an older HTC HD and it cannot play 800 x 480 video files smoothly so I usually have to reencode it to a resolution of 480 x 272 to have smooth playback with coreplayer with about 105% average speed on the benchmark results.
My question is, if I buy the HTC HD2 with its more powerful Snapdragon 1GHz processor, would coreplayer be able to play .avi or .mkv files with 800 x 420 resolution smoothly with over 100% average speed on the benchmark results?
Player smooth video with good bitrate and high resolution is very important to me because I do a lot of movie watching with my older HTC HD.

Hey, yes it can!
I have done some Benchmarking. You can see it here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=616058

Always
Try a version of Coreplayer optimized for Snapdragon from Toshiba TG1 ...
Works flawlessly for me in GDI render .

It's impossible to answer this - it depends so strongly on which video you're talking about. If you've got an mp4 file with a bit-rate of 2000kb/s encoded using CABAC then CorePlayer will have significant problems with it. Lower bit-rates (and avoiding CABAC) may well be fine.
This is slightly odd question, in a way: where are you getting your 800x420 videos from? I've never seen a downloadable video at that resolution (except for some samples on these fora). If the answer is that you are making them yourself by transcoding an existing file to change the resolution, then this begs the question: why on Earth would you want to transcode it into a format that you need CorePlayer to play? If you're transcoding then it would make more sense to transcode it into a format that can be played easily using Pocket Media Player or the HTCAlbum player - both of which do a much better job than CorePlayer on the (admittedly narrow) range of formats and codecs that they support.
Coreplayer does a very good job on the sort of lower-resolution AVI encoded with xvid that people normally use to distribute SD TV or DVD rips. So, between them, you pretty much cover the bases: stuff with a resolution of >800x480 that is transcoded should be converted into something you can play in HTCAlbum, while anything with lower resolution will probably play quite nicely in CorePlayer.

Yes, 800x480 avis should play fine on Coreplayer, tested with a few HD trailers down-res to 800x480 and they play fine. But of course, don't expect to play 800x480 mp4s with high bitrates in Coreplayer, it doesn't bode well. MKVs wise it might not work from the limited testing i've done in that area.
@Shasarak, some videos for some strange reason prefer to be transcoded into some formats. For example, on my setup, mkvs with vorbis/dts audio, when transcoded into mp4, they tend to go OOS. However when transcoded into divx/xvid, they work fine...Not sure exactly why, but that might be a reason.
Also, HTC Video player doesn't allow any form of playlist or folder based playback. Some people might prefer this to watching a movie, exit, click another video, rinse and repeat.

or
I also primarily upgraded to the HD2 for movie watching. Love it.
Plays 700meg avi's in any format via coreplayer. Usually around 180% so heaps of head room.
Screen is also a massive improvement and battery life is better. Eg the hd would only play 2 movies before flat however the hd2 is only at 50% battery after two full length movies.
At this stage after 2 months I have no reason to look for a new phone.

Where, where?
Azitrox said:
Try a version of Coreplayer optimized for Snapdragon from Toshiba TG1 ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can I get it?

DinoZ1 said:
Where can I get it?
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It's not all that imo.
Tested it with some re-encodes I made, and whilst it does play them smoothly (especially compared to the retail 1.36 version), the quality needs to be dropped slightly to do so, whereas HTC Album plays it smooth and at max quality.

Azitrox said:
Try a version of Coreplayer optimized for Snapdragon from Toshiba TG1 ...
Works flawlessly for me in GDI render .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DinoZ1 said:
Where can I get it?
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You can't, or at least not legally - it's illegally pirated.

Shasarak said:
You can't, or at least not legally - it's illegally pirated.
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It is legal to me as I bought a full licence

DinoZ1 said:
It is legal to me as I bought a full licence
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Doesn't matter.....you still won't get any assistance on where to find it here.

DinoZ1 said:
It is legal to me as I bought a full licence
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I'm afraid it isn't and you didn't.
You may well have a licence for the commercial version of CorePlayer. You do NOT, however, have a licence for the hardware-accelerated version, unless you actually own a Toshiba TG01. The two products are not the same, and are covered by different licences. (And even if you do own a TG01, you still don't have a licence to take the application off there and install it on another phone.)

Shasarak said:
You can't, or at least not legally - it's illegally pirated.
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Yes , is `very` pirated , but for benchmark purpose ONLY I try it on my HD2 . Again , it`s amaizing !!

core player do not play mkv-files.
on my device i have sound but no picture.

Shasarak said:
It's impossible to answer this - it depends so strongly on which video you're talking about. If you've got an mp4 file with a bit-rate of 2000kb/s encoded using CABAC then CorePlayer will have significant problems with it. Lower bit-rates (and avoiding CABAC) may well be fine.
This is slightly odd question, in a way: where are you getting your 800x420 videos from? I've never seen a downloadable video at that resolution (except for some samples on these fora). If the answer is that you are making them yourself by transcoding an existing file to change the resolution, then this begs the question: why on Earth would you want to transcode it into a format that you need CorePlayer to play? If you're transcoding then it would make more sense to transcode it into a format that can be played easily using Pocket Media Player or the HTCAlbum player - both of which do a much better job than CorePlayer on the (admittedly narrow) range of formats and codecs that they support.
Coreplayer does a very good job on the sort of lower-resolution AVI encoded with xvid that people normally use to distribute SD TV or DVD rips. So, between them, you pretty much cover the bases: stuff with a resolution of >800x480 that is transcoded should be converted into something you can play in HTCAlbum, while anything with lower resolution will probably play quite nicely in CorePlayer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have found that any videos I play in Media Play or Album player play back with the video and audio out of Sync. I therefore use CorePlayer as it allows me to change the sync to compensate.
It is strange as the video files play in perfect sync on my PC but not on the HD2.
Anyone have any ideas why this would be?????

Xvid/Dvix Play back with stock rom?

We all know Divx/Xvid is capable with the TouchWiz, but is it the TouchWiz that allows playback or is there an underlying app that will allow Divx/Xvid to play?
Most of us are considering rooting and either loading the International Rom if its better or running some kind of stock rom to rid TouchWiz unless of course its not as laggy as reports have said.
I'm really digging on the idea of being able to play Divx/Xvid.

The T-Mobile Vibrant plays all the same videos the international versions do, no change to the video player at all. I've been watching 720p MKVs and various divx/xvid files on mine without issue!

I think the OP is asking if it plays those files without touchwiz being present or active?

yes you can disable the touchwiz and still have video playback in all formats...

Yeah thats what I was interested in. If we mod would it change the ability to play movies.

Have any if you try the divx video yet? It won't play on my vibrant for some reason. I was able to play 720p mkv,mp4 but not divx.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I didn't even know it had mkv/divx/xvid playback, this makes me happy lol..

I hope it does. All mose all my Vids are Xvids and Divx files. Just ordered mine so I couldnt' even tell.

do you just play the 4gig mkv or do you compress it somehow? I want to put some more videos on but dont know what size to compress them to/what program is best for my vibrant's resolution.

talltexan said:
do you just play the 4gig mkv or do you compress it somehow? I want to put some more videos on but dont know what size to compress them to/what program is best for my vibrant's resolution.
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There isn't a file size limit persay, but it seems the Vibrant will reject any videos with resolutions higher than 1280x720. E.M. Total Video Converter HD seems to be best so far in terms of quality and conversion success rates, but if you're looking for freeware, Handbrake works very well. Set the profile to iPhone, and make sure the video resolution is 800x480 or less.

kizer said:
We all know Divx/Xvid is capable with the TouchWiz, but is it the TouchWiz that allows playback or is there an underlying app that will allow Divx/Xvid to play?
Most of us are considering rooting and either loading the International Rom if its better or running some kind of stock rom to rid TouchWiz unless of course its not as laggy as reports have said.
I'm really digging on the idea of being able to play Divx/Xvid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The international rom should be able to play the xvid/mkv video but if you flash on some other Rom (e.g. AOSP Froyo, etc) then it will lose the ability to play them unless someone figure out how to port the ability into the other Rom.

My vibrant wont divx, but play 720mkv perfectly. Yxplayer play divx but very choppy.

Didn't engadget somehow play a 1080p video on the Galaxy S when they compared it with the iphone? or do you mean the divx can;t be more then 720p?
And as for the rom thing...The video should be hardware decoded..so as long as the drivers are portable it would be possible on any galaxy s regardless the rom..or at least that is my guess...

gTen said:
Didn't engadget somehow play a 1080p video on the Galaxy S when they compared it with the iphone? or do you mean the divx can;t be more then 720p?
And as for the rom thing...The video should be hardware decoded..so as long as the drivers are portable it would be possible on any galaxy s regardless the rom..or at least that is my guess...
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Why the hell would they put specific hardware decoders in the phone for divx support? I would assume they just included the codec support with the stock rom. I seriously doubt that you can throw any rom in there and immediately playback divx video.
I'm not sure what you mean by asking if engadget played a 1080p movie on the galaxy S. Do you mean that they used a 1080p video and the phone auto-scaled it down to 800x480?

richse said:
Why the hell would they put specific hardware decoders in the phone for divx support? I would assume they just included the codec support with the stock rom. I seriously doubt that you can throw any rom in there and immediately playback divx video.
I'm not sure what you mean by asking if engadget played a 1080p movie on the galaxy S. Do you mean that they used a 1080p video and the phone auto-scaled it down to 800x480?
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I remember reading it has the video decoder built into the Hummingbird GPU..but I don't remember where...let me see if I can find the source.
Edit: never mind the 1080p..I went searching for that article and they modified it since I read it to say they did it via youtube 1080p setting on the app >.>..but they dont even know if it was 1080p or 720p either..sigh

gTen said:
I remember reading it has the video decoder built into the Hummingbird GPU..but I don't remember where...let me see if I can find the source.
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I went searching and found a review that states "Dedicated Graphics Hardware With Divx decoding" as a pro for getting the phone. I think they combined two things here (the Power VR gpu and the software support for divx). I see how it could be read to imply that the divx support is hardware based, but an earlier part of the article indicates that the divx codec support is built into the video player software.
Here's the article: http://pocketnow.com/hardware-1/samsung-galaxy-s-gt-i9000-review
This is really a situation for Occam's razor. Would they go to all the expense of adding hardware divx support to the cpu design or would they just use already existing software solutions that cost almost nothing to implement? The press release from last year revealing the hummingbird doesn't have any mention of it. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/newsView.do?news_id=1030

richse said:
I went searching and found a review that states "Dedicated Graphics Hardware With Divx decoding" as a pro for getting the phone. I think they combined two things here (the Power VR gpu and the software support for divx). I see how it could be read to imply that the divx support is hardware based, but an earlier part of the article indicates that the divx codec support is built into the video player software.
Here's the article: http://pocketnow.com/hardware-1/samsung-galaxy-s-gt-i9000-review
This is really a situation for Occam's razor. Would they go to all the expense of adding hardware divx support to the cpu design or would they just use already existing software solutions that cost almost nothing to implement? The press release from last year revealing the hummingbird doesn't have any mention of it. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/newsView.do?news_id=1030
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Here you go I found it:
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-1ghz-hummingbird-mobile-cpu-takes-on-snapdragon-2750348/
They do mention it..the ARM® NEON™ multi-media extension is it
Edit: Hardware video decoding is good because it saves battery life and more efficient over software decode...I'm researching the ARM NEON now..on their site it says it can decode ANY video but is not specific on all formats..only lists MPEG-4, H.264, On2 VP6/7/8, Real, AVS..... but the ... means there are more they are not stating

gTen said:
Here you go I found it:
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-1ghz-hummingbird-mobile-cpu-takes-on-snapdragon-2750348/
They do mention it..the ARM® NEON™ multi-media extension is it
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Click to collapse
All I see is it says NEON does "video decoding" and I can't find a single mention of divx in the article or in the NEON link they provide. Every video card or gpu I have owned has had some hardware to decode and encode video but none have natively supported divx.

richse said:
All I see is it says NEON does "video decoding" and I can't find a single mention of divx in the article or in the NEON link they provide. Every video card or gpu I have owned has had some hardware to decode and encode video but none have natively supported divx.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The article was to show that it does have hardware decode in general...
I can't say for sure about divx/xvid..I don't even have the phone yet to test if it is the case or not...their site does state ANY format
NEON enhances many multimedia user experiences:
Watch any video in any format
Edit and enhance captured videos - video stabilization
Anti-aliased rendering and compositing
Game processing
Process multi-megapixel photos quickly
Voice recognition
Powerful multichannel hi-fi audio processing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That said Divx Decode was part of the ATI hardware decoder..at least in the 4XXX series
As for samsung''s reason to do this...we have to remember that the Hummingbird was meant to be scalable so they can use it for tablets..thus having it natively support the large array of formats is key.

Just got the Vibrant and noticed that it would not play some AVI files (simple TV show low res). had to DL rock player to play those files.Also had an mp4 play in stock video player but would not play the sound and in Rock player tried to play the sound but was garbled.
So not sure what the full support is and wondering if we just need to get a nice media player.

[Q] Chances for better hardware-accelerated media playing?

Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I really love my Tab for web-browsing and gaming, but you have to admit it sucks at video playing. MP4 and 3GP are crappy formats that are hardly used in RL und converting your whole video and movie collection isn't a real option.
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
In theory, the Tegra 2 has more than enough power to play 1080p files, right?
I already tried like 6 different media players but all of them weren't able to play 720p mkvs nice and even non-HD-avi-files felt a little slowed-down.
So can we hope for a hardware-accelerated media player that enables alle the joy of moving pictures for us? Will possibly acer itself help us out on this issue? What are Samsung and Motorola doing on their Gingerbread tablets to enable nice media playing?
Hoping for a better tomorrow
Cheers
pint

pintness said:
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sure about that?? my 101 throws a fit with 1080p mkv videos and both use the the firmware.
but i agree, i would love better video support on the iconia, since it runs circles around my archos when it comes to everything else.

pintness said:
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I really love my Tab for web-browsing and gaming, but you have to admit it sucks at video playing. MP4 and 3GP are crappy formats that are hardly used in RL und converting your whole video and movie collection isn't a real option.
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
In theory, the Tegra 2 has more than enough power to play 1080p files, right?
I already tried like 6 different media players but all of them weren't able to play 720p mkvs nice and even non-HD-avi-files felt a little slowed-down.
So can we hope for a hardware-accelerated media player that enables alle the joy of moving pictures for us? Will possibly acer itself help us out on this issue? What are Samsung and Motorola doing on their Gingerbread tablets to enable nice media playing?
Hoping for a better tomorrow
Cheers
pint
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried VPlayer? it costs like $4/ £2.30 but it can play practically all standards, not sure how it fares for 1080p tho.
I had it playing .avi and .mkv fine though.
Vplayer--
Video formats: divx/xvid, wmv, m4v, flv, rmvb, avi, mkv, mov, mp4, 3gp, ts, tp...
Streaming: http, rtsp, mms and m3u(apple http stream, m3u8)

I use UPnPlay (network streaming) along with MoboPlayer and it has played everything i have on my NAS very well.

Also I know Rockplayer gives you the option of hardware/software decoding so you may want to give that a try if you haven't already. There is a free version.

Both moboplayer and rock player are useless for my 720p and 1080p videos... total stutterfest, but that's a known thing for tegra devices on 3.0...
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

godashram said:
Both moboplayer and rock player are useless for my 720p and 1080p videos... total stutterfest, but that's a known thing for tegra devices on 3.0...
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... I use moboplayer, and every 720 did I've tried has been great! I haven't tried any 1080p vids though.

tested 1080 quality....the videos lag and the audio missing....
hope acer will figure it out....

Avatar & 10,000 B.C. in 1080P using UPnPlay & MoboPlayer streamed from my WD NAS, looks great. No lagging at all.

not another one of these threads..

edgie168 said:
not another one of these threads..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? You aren't being forced to read this thread.

lord_voldemort666 said:
Guess what? You aren't being forced to read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? It pushes down other, more quality threads.
Guess what? There's already something like 6 or 7 threads EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE already.
Guess what? People need to learn to use the search function.
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?

^ If you don't like it, report it to a mod and move on...

edgie168 said:
Guess what? It pushes down other, more quality threads.
Guess what? There's already something like 6 or 7 threads EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE already.
Guess what? People need to learn to use the search function.
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? You've just caused this thread to get bumped several times.
XP

I have been trying all the suggested encoders to get smooth playback for film material as 60/50hz works fine. I maybe more sensative to it than others as I tent to look for it on moving objects. But I got it to replace a media player too.
I tried the script posted in another thread with good results but the jump is still there.
Bought DVD Catalist 4 with same results.
Freemake with custom profile same again.
Handbreak I find too slow but I read it works but can't verify it.
Any Video Converter Pro with xoom profile WORKS - it has very little judder but having to strip the subtitles out of the MKV every time is a real pain ( Anyone know how to disable them ) and it's too expensive anyway.
Trying to edit DVD Catalist 4 profile now but no success yet
Oh and I tried Vplayer , Rockplayer , Moboplayer and any others I could find
Hope my two weeks at this helps somone else out.

@RaveOn911
With any problem, you need to find its parameters. Only a handful of people notice the "micro-stutter" deal, so it's either a user sensitivity issue, or a tablet-centric issue (which could be hardware or software, user-caused or device defect).
Ask somebody to watch a video clip on your tablet, and ask them if they see anything wrong with playback. Don't tell him beforehand about "micro-stutter", as you don't want to bias his observation.
If he notices the stutter, it's your tablet. If he doesn't, it's you.
If the first, then bring a video clip on a uSD card into a store and try it on other tablets (hopefully with same or similar make as yours). If it doesn't happen on other tabs, then replace your tab. If it happens on every other tab, then again it's you.
If you have heightened sensitivity, then there may be params that can alleviate the issue. The default interleave for MP4Box is 0.5s. You can reduce this interleave, eg
MP4Box -inter 250 -add infile.mp4 -new outfile.mp4
(or)
MP4Box -tight -add infile.mp4 -new outfile.mp4
MP4Box works on MP4 only. Given that MKVs can only play in software mode currently on Teg2 tabs, it's a fool's errand to play MKV and claim that they don't play smoothly. Avail of the native support.

Mobo Player plays my mkv and xvid/divx AVI's just fine. I'm no codec/encoding expert, but from what I've read it's worth re-encoding some of the files to a more manageable bitrate for both audio and video and maybe dump the 5.1 or AC3 audio. I haven't looked at every file I've played, but a couple that would choke on my Win7 Asus netbook, I re-encoded with Handbrake. They still look and sound great.

e.mote said:
Given that MKVs can only play in software mode currently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understood that that's the whole point the OP was trying to make: he wishes that someone makes a video player application that can handle MKVs via the hardware decoder. It's not a bad thing to wish for, either; it would provide better performance and hardware playback uses less battery, too.
The question remains: is it possible? As far as I know, the chip itself doesn't get relayed anything more than the actual video stream inside the file, regardless of the container, and thus an app should be able to do exactly that. But since I don't know anything about Android internals are applications given any such access?
My N900 phone uses regular GStreamer stack and thus you can demux anything you want and supply the video stream to the hardware decoder. As long as it's H.264 normal profile and not too high a resolution it'll play, regardless of the originating container.

There's nothing wrong with wishing, but until it happens, we have to use what we've got. For HC, for now that means MP4 for native support.
3.1 thus far has been worse than 2.x insofar as multimedia, probably because vendors have had 2.x for much longer, and were able to add enhanced support. A good case in point is the Samsung GalTab 7 vs the GalTab 10.1. The 7, released last year, can play MKV. The new 10.1 can't. Ditto for all the "my old phone can play MKV, why can't my tablet" complaints. It is what it is.
From all indications, HC was and is a rush job. It had to be pushed out the door because of competition from the iPad. I think the prospective buyer should understand that s/he is buying into a beta, and temper his expectations accordingly. Android has high potential, but now isn't then.
I've written a script that does fast remux/convert to MP4. A straight remux takes a few minutes, and it can process batch. It's a more productive route than wishing for a HW-accel player to come along.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922

e.mote said:
It's a more productive route than wishing for a HW-accel player to come along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose that's a matter of viewpoint.
I took a look at the MediaPlayer class in Google's APIs and it seems to me that it should be fairly straightforward to demux the MKV file in software on-the-fly, create named pipe with mkfifo and feed the MediaPlayer class the raw video stream via that. Just throw a simple GUI on top of that and you have a rudimentary video player capable of playing MKV files with hardware accelerated video.
I'll try it out once I receive my tablet, was planning to learn Android programming anyways.
PS. Bah, doesn't allow me to post links yet :/

Lagfree playing of .mkv 720p/1080p source

Hi folks,
Is there any posibility of a lagfree playing of those videos ?
It sucks watching Videos with less than 20fps...

3.1 is supposed to improve playback... just no idea if it will improve 720/1080p playback
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

I use Handbrake and imported these setting I found on the net.
https://sites.google.com/site/theiveryinc/a500files
That Google site is mine.
Converts all my 720p.mkv files perfectly, the only issue is the files are big, 2-4 GB, but the quality is outstanding. They even play on 'Movies' which darkens the navigation bar.

i was looking for something like this so many times before, but I never found a stable movie app. On my Samsung Galaxy S II however, it's no problem at all. And that's a freaking phone man! But it's no wonder the hole system is so fast. It makes my newly aquired Iconia looking really sluggish and outdated :-( I don't know if I gonna keep this tablet or gonna look my movies on a 4.3" screen...

I asked Acer customer support whether they're ever going to support additional formats and they replied that they won't ever add support for MKV and can't comment on the rest. So official support for MKV is out the window.

Mkv isn't a video format, it's a container. It's just that most mkv's don't contain only baseline h.264, which is the only supported video format currently. The most benefit would come from adding support for main or high profile h.264

themono said:
Mkv isn't a video format, it's a container.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, it still doesn't help at all if the video player application or framework don't support the container format. I personally love MKV, it's handy to slap in two different audio tracks and subtitles in English, Finnish and the hearing-impaired version, plus any metadata about the movie itself. No need to hassle with several files then.
The most benefit would come from adding support for main or high profile h.264
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I tried transcoding a 1080p movie to 720p in constant quality mode, both in baseline and high profile modes, and while the quality was the same the high profile one used a lot less storage space. With storage space being rather scarse on mobile devices....
Well, we can only hope. But I don't know if the DSP is beefy enough to decode high profile or if it can be re-programmed to support it. Some DSPs are hardcoded and can't be used for anything other than what they already do when shipped. I don't know anything about Tegra 2 internals so I don't know what to expect.

godashram said:
3.1 is supposed to improve playback... just no idea if it will improve 720/1080p playback
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use 3.1 atm, but there is no mentionable ddifference to 3.0.1

The nVIDIA Tegra 2 250 is fully able to hardware decode:
H.264
VC-1 AP
MPEG2
MPEG-4
DivX 4/5
XviD HT
H.263
Theora
VP8
WMV
Sorenson Spark
Real Video
VP6
and encode:
H.264
MPEG4
H.263
VP8
And this is for 1080p both enc/dec
Why ACER can't (won't) support them is beyond me! Even my Single Core 7" Samsung Galaxy TAB can play all 1080p videos I have thrown at it!
And here is the full spec of the Tegra 2 250 Link!

Is it maybe because of that, that I play these videos from my USB-HDD?

dgcxsk said:
Is it maybe because of that, that I play these videos from my USB-HDD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can always copy one of them to the TAB and see if there is any change ( I doubt it)

Using a OLD 60gb usb hdd (literally 8 years old)
And it does not seem to matter - even with the low speed of an old external drive I have no issues playing video from it.
.Mkv -- Regardless of where it is stored is not going to work on the Iconia right now - i don't think there is anything anyone can do or change to fix that right now - the system will not?/can not? use the hardware decoder on mkv files - and software decoding, even for a low bit rate video file is always going to suck.
Hopefully 3.1 will improve our video performance - but I find it a very simple matter to just transcode a video file if the only source I have handy is mkv. Plenty of great and free tools that make the process pretty darn easy. I watch a lot of movies/TV on my a500 - and get a great experience as long as I don't throw .mkv files at it.

WereCatf said:
Indeed. I tried transcoding a 1080p movie to 720p in constant quality mode, both in baseline and high profile modes, and while the quality was the same the high profile one used a lot less storage space. With storage space being rather scarse on mobile devices....
Well, we can only hope. But I don't know if the DSP is beefy enough to decode high profile or if it can be re-programmed to support it. Some DSPs are hardcoded and can't be used for anything other than what they already do when shipped. I don't know anything about Tegra 2 internals so I don't know what to expect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is tegra2 will support h.264 high profile up to 720p @ 20mbps, but only baseline profile for 1080p.
With regard to the container format vs video format thing, I'm under the impression that container format support can be added by an app - so even if Acer never support mkv in the default player, if they do add hardware high profile h.264, then other apps should be able to play an mkv that contains high profile h.264 with hardware acceleration.

entropy.of.avarice said:
Hopefully 3.1 will improve our video performance - but I find it a very simple matter to just transcode a video file if the only source I have handy is mkv. Plenty of great and free tools that make the process pretty darn easy. I watch a lot of movies/TV on my a500 - and get a great experience as long as I don't throw .mkv files at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From playing around with PRIMEE, mkv containers are split appropriately and if the video format is supported hardware decoding works. The problem is that there is no support for AC3 therefore majority of compatible MKVs will play very well but have no sound.
Unfortunately once software encoding is enabled we are back to the same stuttery playback issues.
I personally don't believe it's Acers' job to add playback compatibility, I personally believe it should be built into Honeycomb as a baseline. Honeycomb is a tablet OS and as such should be expected to play popular video and audio. codecs. Saying that, if manufacturers did add additional codec support it would be a solid competitive edge.

Use mobo player.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

patterson12123 said:
Use mobo player.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read any of the thread, running moboplayer doesn't help, as I mentioned above as soon as you enable software decoding HD MKVs start to get choppy.

hellcat82 said:
From playing around with PRIMEE, mkv containers are split appropriately and if the video format is supported hardware decoding works. The problem is that there is no support for AC3 therefore majority of compatible MKVs will play very well but have no sound.
Unfortunately once software encoding is enabled we are back to the same stuttery playback issues.
I personally don't believe it's Acers' job to add playback compatibility, I personally believe it should be built into Honeycomb as a baseline. Honeycomb is a tablet OS and as such should be expected to play popular video and audio. codecs. Saying that, if manufacturers did add additional codec support it would be a solid competitive edge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, that's good to know, so with a baseline h.264 payload an MKV will play fine on stock?
I think it probably IS Acer's job to add codec support, frankly. At the end of the day we're talking about hardware acceleration, and Android provides the software framework for that to work, and it's up to the hardware vendor to make it work with their specific hardware.
Frankly I think Nvidia should be doing it though - it'd do wonders for Tegra 2 sales if they offered up code to support hardware acceleration for their platform on Android.

I guess you didn't really do your research on video playback on Honeycomb tablets, did you?
You can not blame Acer for poor HD playback when, frankly, this is a Google/nVidia issue. Currently no 10" Honeycomb tablet can playback high profile encoded HD vides--smoothly, if at all--without reconverting said movies.
There may or may not be a *real* fix in the future (quad core Tegras are right around the corner, so...), only time will tell.
OrionBG said:
The nVIDIA Tegra 2 250 is fully able to hardware decode:
H.264
VC-1 AP
MPEG2
MPEG-4
DivX 4/5
XviD HT
H.263
Theora
VP8
WMV
Sorenson Spark
Real Video
VP6
and encode:
H.264
MPEG4
H.263
VP8
And this is for 1080p both enc/dec
Why ACER can't (won't) support them is beyond me! Even my Single Core 7" Samsung Galaxy TAB can play all 1080p videos I have thrown at it!
And here is the full spec of the Tegra 2 250 Link!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

edgie168 said:
I guess you didn't really do your research on video playback on Honeycomb tablets, did you?
You can not blame Acer for poor HD playback when, frankly, this is a Google/nVidia issue. Currently no 10" Honeycomb tablet can playback high profile encoded HD vides--smoothly, if at all--without reconverting said movies.
There may or may not be a *real* fix in the future (quad core Tegras are right around the corner, so...), only time will tell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought an ACER device so I'll blame them! Problem here is that the Tegra 2 chip is capable to decode and encode the formats at 1080p without problems! The fact that Google still hasn't taken advantage of this feature doesn't mean that ACER couldn't!! To back my words here is an example:
Samsung! The Galaxy S and Galaxy TAB (7") they have much superior video codec support! I'm playing 1080p movies just perfectly on the Galaxy TAB. Samsung have invested in codec support and optimized it for the platform (both Hardware and Software) The Hummingbird CPU is Single Core! So why can't ACER do it? Maybe because they never did something like this before? Maybe because the have done only the hardware till now and they don't have the programmers that can pull this of? Ones the managers at ACER understand that selling thees devices without enhancing the base that Google provides won't cut it, I think we will have a very good device (not that it isn't good now but...)

OrionBG said:
I bought an ACER device so I'll blame them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess you'll have to "blame" every single manufacturer out there who have a Honeycomb tablet out too, then.
OrionBG said:
tl;dr
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Click to collapse
So does the Samsung 10.1 play 1080p videos smoothly?
From what I've been reading.. no. Frankly, watching a 1080p on a 10" tablet is pointless (which is what I'm assuming you're crying about). If 720p isn't "good enough" on a 10" tablet, well, then, time to buy a 17" laptop.