Database Users

Android / N1 Feature Dev

I'm curious about a couple of things. This is my first android phone. Was waiting for good hardware specs and the N1 was it for me. Preface this by saying I think this phone generally rocks right out of the package.
Coming from WM, I'm used to coming here and figuring out what I need to do to get my phone to do what I want it to do. But it seems like there's alot of things that no one's cracked yet and I don't understand why there's either not an app or a hack for some of these things. Here's a partial list:
- AVI support. WTF not? If I wanted to watch H264 I'd have bought an iPhone.
- Why is multi-touch capable but not implemented?
- Why is Google Docs read-only? Should that not be a basic function of a Google phone?
- Multi-color LED
- A decent media player for both video and music
- FM functionality
Can I expect more development now that the 2.1 SDK is out as a Google afterthought? Should I expect iPhone-esque OS updates from HTC in the future or am I going to end up poking around here for cooked ROMS?

jackstraw said:
- AVI support. WTF not? If I wanted to watch H264 I'd have bought an iPhone.
- Why is multi-touch capable but not implemented?
- Why is Google Docs read-only? Should that not be a basic function of a Google phone?
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These are all questions we'd all love answers to as well, unfortunately... If you haven't found it already, download Dolphin Browser. It has pinch-to-zoom multitouch guestures.
jackstraw said:
- Multi-color LED
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Technically the trackball is multi-color. So far the only colors any apps make it change are blue and white. That will certainly change with time.
jackstraw said:
- A decent media player for both video and music
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Check out Nemo
jackstraw said:
- FM functionality
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Who?? I don't know how much demand there actually is for that... and even if there was, I doubt there are a lot of phones out there that have it... though I certainly could be wrong... between music on my phone, Pandora, and other apps like StreamFurious, DroidLive, and Last.FM... I can't see a reason for really needing FM radio... but everyone's different I guess. I see asking for FM in a phone, like asking for a VHS player in a car... On the plus side, Android will be getting flash soon enough, and lots of FM stations stream their broadcast on the web.
jackstraw said:
Can I expect more development now that the 2.1 SDK is out as a Google afterthought? Should I expect iPhone-esque OS updates from HTC in the future or am I going to end up poking around here for cooked ROMS?
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Yes, and kind of. HTC is only the hardware manufacturer. The software is straight from Google, and will come from Google in the future, which is a good thing, cause they seem to update a lot more often than HTC (see Hero users still running Android 1.5, for instance...).
Things have, and will get better, I guarantee it.

Thanks Spyder. I've played around w/Dolphin...technically the double-click to zoom works pretty well for me in the default browser. It's just the principle
I may have given given HTC too much credit. I was thinking the FM was Rx *and* Tx, e.g., in the mysterioso car dock no one's seen yet, you could Tx songs or nav voice from the phone to a blank FM station and car speakers. Sounds like maybe it's just Rx though which does indeed make it pretty useless. That's why God invented Pandora etc.
I bought this phone fully aware of the Tao of beta-ness of Google and lack of support, but w/these hardware specs, when/if they release Android 2.x I shouldn't have any trouble upgrading right?

And I stand corrected (a little bit). Tonight I noticed that you can now edit Docs spreadsheets on the N1. Presentations and documents not so much. This was not the case a couple days ago so maybe new functionality is in the pipe.

You can use Gdocs to edit a Google text document, it's not perfect and I agree, Google should have their own mobile solution.
I've been able to edit spreadsheets for a while in the Chrome browser (came from Samsung Galaxy), never found myself doing it that often because it's so hard on a small(er) screen.
With regards to multi-touch, I heard Apple asked Google (still pals I reckon) to hold off on multi-touch for a little while because Apple's patent wasn't very strong :| No real proof of that, I think it was mentioned on twit.tv but I can't find the exact podcast.

jackstraw said:
- AVI support. WTF not? If I wanted to watch H264 I'd have bought an iPhone.
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AVI is an awful _awful_ container format. Note that .avi is a container and H264 is a codec, you can have H264 video in an AVI container. It's unlikely that anyone will spend the time adding AVI container support in opencore, but possible. BTW You can change container on a given piece of video without re-encoding.
jackstraw said:
- Why is multi-touch capable but not implemented?
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Multi-touch is implemented, if you're looking for the pinch-zoom gesture in the browser/gallery/maps and keyboard chording then I don't know what to tell you, Google themselves seem to be very cagey on the subject. (Multitouch != "pinch zoom") Still, pinch zoom is not so good with the dynamic reflow that the Android browser does, and I prefer "double click + reflow" to "pinch zoom without reflow" as I end up having to scroll over wide text areas on i[pods touches/phones]
jackstraw said:
- Why is Google Docs read-only? Should that not be a basic function of a Google phone?
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This isn't a "Google Phone" isn't just another Android device with Google as the retailer. Different departments have their own priorities and I guess mobile editing of the text portion of Docs isn't high enough on the list yet. Spreadsheets work fine (As you later mentioned).
jackstraw said:
- Multi-color LED
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Yep it was rushed out of the door, it'll most likely turn up in the first update.
jackstraw said:
- A decent media player for both video and music
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I like the new default music app (if has been changed a bit) And I use Meridian for video
jackstraw said:
- FM functionality
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Wasn't advertised and I'd guess is unlikely to ever work well without an internal antenna regardless of what's on the chip.
jackstraw said:
Can I expect more development now that the 2.1 SDK is out as a Google afterthought? Should I expect iPhone-esque OS updates from HTC in the future or am I going to end up poking around here for cooked ROMS?
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It's likely there will be a number of updates, and a number of cooked roms when the source is released.

Thanks everyone for the info/suggestions. Gotta invest some time in getting up to speed on the guts of Android, but I appreciate your feedback in the meantime.
Mobius - Point taken re. .avi and all the codecs it can hold. 99% of my video is in that container but I've just taken it for granted that I had my PC, WM6 and TVersity tweaked to "just do it". It's so common it seems like it'd be worth developing an app...maybe once you can officially throw it on the SD card instead of main memory. I'd pay a good chunk for that app. At the same time, I was essentially re-encoding the rez and format for alot of my WM video anyway to save space so I guess doing it here is the same difference.

jackstraw said:
I may have given given HTC too much credit. I was thinking the FM was Rx *and* Tx, e.g., in the mysterioso car dock no one's seen yet, you could Tx songs or nav voice from the phone to a blank FM station and car speakers. Sounds like maybe it's just Rx though which does indeed make it pretty useless. That's why God invented Pandora etc.
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OOOH! You're talking about something completely different than what I was imagining. Unfortunately there are absolutely zero details on the dock other than the screenshot of Google's store showing it. We don't know how it will transmit sound to your car. I'd personally rather have a 3.5mm jack than use FM, but I know not everyone has a 3.5mm jack in their car as well.
jackstraw said:
when/if they release Android 2.x I shouldn't have any trouble upgrading right?
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If you don't flash a custom ROM, you should be all good... but you will want to flash a custom ROM, believe me. Besides, you'll probably get whatever the next release of Android is via a custom ROM, sooner than you would get it OTA. Worst case scenario, if you flash a custom ROM, you can always flash back to the stock ROM, and be able to receive OTA updates without issue.

SpyderMS said:
Who?? I don't know how much demand there actually is for that... and even if there was, I doubt there are a lot of phones out there that have it... though I certainly could be wrong... between music on my phone, Pandora, and other apps like StreamFurious, DroidLive, and Last.FM... I can't see a reason for really needing FM radio... but everyone's different I guess. I see asking for FM in a phone, like asking for a VHS player in a car... On the plus side, Android will be getting flash soon enough, and lots of FM stations stream their broadcast on the web.
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FM transmission means wireless music playing in your car. That's the main reason for it. see the nokia N900.

Xvid + Divx + AC3 Support - Where is it ?

MOD EDIT - REPORTED FOUL LANGUAGE REMOVED
It would appear, ambiently, that other Android handsets have some forms of support for Divx + Xvid - I say ambiently as this is from perusing Engadet, Pocket Lint etc etc I have also seen various threads looking at porting WM tools and attempting to address what I consider to be a major shortfall of Android so far, at least where HTC handsets are concerned. I, like many many others, have a major collection of Films using Xvid and Divx, with many using AC3 as the Audio codec. The 'solution' so far has been for wise individuals to point out the blindingly obvious and to convert using Handbrake, Xilisoft etc Here's the thing - why should I have to ? To me, it's tantamount to saying 'Just re-encode all your MP3's - it took me ages to rip them from CD, get the metatags correct, album art etc - no way !! Also, MPEG4 is rubbish - I've never liked it.
As an open slate, from an Applications point of view (can't stand this crApple use of the term 'Apps') the Hero is very good - the music player is so so - acceptable I guess. As a gaming platform, it looks to be improving with underlying code and SDK support improving all the time - yet there is this gaping hole in its multimedia 'arsenal' - that of movie support. I can't be the only one who sees this as very important. Much discussion on here is the distraction of the 'technical' - I don't think that everyone wants geek Linux on a Mobile - that's not sexy to most other than uber uber geeks. What is is Multimedia prowess - excellent Music, Film and Gaming - with the applications stuff surely running second fiddle to this. So, I'd like to get some discussion going to see if people feel the same way or this kind of movie support is seen as superfluous. Also, if people know of (other than the exceptionally crap yxflash) any Vxid Divx and AC3 support tools, installable codecs or applications I'd love to hear from you.
Regards,
Simon

Dude,
You need to cut out all the swearing!
I have used yxflash too - useless, laggy, not worth the download time!But, I have just been reading about the HTC Desire which apparently comes with Divx support out of the box! So, hopefully one of the genius devs on here will be able to get this working on our Hero's soon

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous of Google to think this doesn't matter. This would have been an excellent feature to contrast with Apple. I was playing all sorts of codecs on winmo with the core media player years before android.

Firstly, it's a cellphone... it's not your ****ing TV or laptop.... you don't need all your mp3s and videos immediately ready on your phone. If you really HAVE to watch a video on the go you can easily convert it.
Ok, I know you didn't want to hear this.
Now, it's not Google's business to develop special apps. OEMs like HTC can include extra features by default and it's not so hard to make an app that uses ported native libraries.
Well, another thing: DivX is "dead". There's no DivX hardware decoder chip included in newer hardware, so even if someone makes an app it'll drain the battery or even worse, not run fast enough. Now, there's only limited space in a phone's hardware. You can't add all chips for all codecs. It's only natural that the manufacturers only choose the newest most advanced codec.

Quite clearly an idiot - most probably American
Woo - we spotted your 'attempts' at a windup - did you employ everything you learnt at kindergarten ? I mean - you're good - we've seen the classics:
Dismissal, condescension, 'superiority' - such insight, breathtaking
Just some suggestions that spring to mind, son: Cliffs, rope, 200 Paracetamol, guns - in fact anything that may cause you harm
It's food for thought

Limitations???

Hello-
I was hoping any and all users can giver their 2 cents here. What are the real world limitations of this device? I have done a fair amount of research and this phone seems to fit the bill, but wanted some feedback on it. I know I want an Android based smartphone, and I must stick with AT&T as it's what my company has and it's the ONLY provider in my rural part of Texas.
While the phone has been labeled "mid-spec" it still seems pretty impressive. I also know being tied to AT&T means I'm REALLY limited, and I do not want an iPhone. My wife has one, I've tried it... It completly DIED after 3 months. I know in other posts people have said iPhone still best bang for the buck for AT&T smartphone, but a smartphone that does not work as a phone, doesn't show the net as it really appears, and has updates that seemingly copy Android does not seem too "smart" to me. Yes, iTunes looks pretty, and I could play "Words w/ Friends," but seems like a lot of fluff.
I have found due to hardware Aria cannot run Google Earth, is there anything else it cannot do? I know there is debate about Gingerbread being compatible, but that seems a ways down the road. I'm really torn, as I like the size of this thing: it still looks like a phone and not a flat panel TV, but the car guy side of me thinks "no replacement for displacement" when it comes to a processor.
That would mean getting a Nexus One, but I worry about the trackball popping out like my sister-in-laws Blackberry, and the cost is hard to swallow. The Desire looks AWESOME but if I have read correctly it will not work on 3G for data, only voice, and it is expensive. Then there is the Samsung Captivate which is coming, but it seems HUGE, or does the camera add 10 lbs???. I'd like to limit the physical size to an iphone-esque size at most so it is pocketable. I also have read Samsung can be difficult to work with from a consumer standpoint with respect to updates, etc.
I also like the Sense UI as it seems elegantly simple and worked well while I messed with the phone in the store.
Overall, I want the most bang for the buck phone. A true "dream machine" would be an Aria sized phone, with the Desire specs, that does it all on 3G. What really would be the closest thing to such a device? I'm open to any ideas and suggestions, but again I CANNOT change providers; seriously, AT&T is the ONLY provider with coverage in my area.
Thanks in advance for any and all answers and help!!!

The phone does have some limitations (you have done your homework). If you want a great phone on att, this is a good choice. The galaxy s (coming soon to ATT) may be better if you must have a high end device.

I would say that if you are stuck with AT&T, the Aria may be your phone. I have a had HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Apple phones and HTC has been the most solid of all of them. I just came from an iPhone and I can honestly say it has better reception, call quality, and adaptability than my 3GS. Phones seem to be almost a matter of taste, some people will deal with the most ridiculous shortcomings if it has a feature they feel is the most important. That being said, I played with a lot of phones and found the Aria to be the best package for a smartphone on AT&T at this moment. That could change as soon as another high end phone hops on but for now, I'm very pleased. I will say this, the battery life takes some getting used to, but its right in the same area and any other smartphone. Also, the speaker phone is quiet but since I never use it, it doesn't even make my list for pros vs cons. Being that it is locked down to certain apps and such is annoying, but coming from an iPhone makes it seem like a walk in the park to get other apps and such on it. I would say read a little more of these forums to see what some complaints are and see if any of them make your list of important features. But otherwise, you have on recommendation here.

Some of the gripes I have with this phone include:
* The screen isn't quite adequate in size for reading ebooks, which I didn't expect I would do at the time of purchase.
* The speaker is pretty crappy. It's not very loud and it sounds irritating at volume - very tinny.
* It doesn't appear to support very many video file formats. In fact, the only format I've gotten to work with Act1 video player are the base h264 and h263 formats. To my understanding, it is up to the manufacturer to include any extra codecs, so you're SOL if you're planning on using this as a mobile media player.
* It doesn't come with live wallpapers or an option to sideload apps. You can enable both of these by rooting the phone (which is a pain in the ass, by the way), but I've found that the processor isn't up to the task of running some of the more complex live wallpapers (like the mario wallpaper). I'm hoping this will be less of a problem with Froyo and the JIT.
* It gets a little warm when you have the gps on in navigation, but not enough to scald your junk if you're keeping it on your lap. It's actually not that big of a deal, just makes me worry about damaging the battery.
* Typing is a bit hard in portrait mode. Some applications seem to crash in landscape mode, like 'better terminal emulator', but I suspect that's more of a problem with the program and not the Aria.
* The camera is a bit mediocre and doesn't include a flash, but to be fair, it's primarily a phone and not a camera (I have yet to see a phone's camera be on par with a midrange point & shoot).
* Sense UI can't be disabled/enabled as an option, like on the Evo 4g.
I was going to test Google Earth for you, but I can't seem to find it in the Market.
Anyway, in summary, it has a few shortcomings, it's a midrange phone after all, but I love it regardless. It's slips into my pocket comfortably and feels solid in the hand. The interface is nice and smooth (unless you have some crazy live wallpaper enabled). It doesn't bog down when you fill the screens with widgets, and the browser experience thus far has been great. All in all, it was definitely worth the $50 I paid for it from Amazon.com.
P.S. I was considering holding out for something higher spec'd to come along on AT&T, but who knows when that will happen? The Dell Aero was supposed to be out months ago. Likewise, we are actually supposed to have 3 HTC phones running Android to choose from right now, and yet we only have the Aria. The Samsung Captivate is supposed to be 'coming in the next few months,' but I've grown to distrust AT&T's timelines. A major part of why I got the Aria was because I was simply tired of waiting for ATT to get their act together.

I went to an AT&T Retail Store here in Corpus Christi, TX to look at it again and see what they could do for me deal wise because I'm mid-cycle in my contract. The Mgr. told me he is suppose to get the "sample" Captivate on Friday, and it's suppose to be on sale the 15th. I guess to go head-to-head with the X??? I'll wait til Friday to see if it true. He claims there is a lot to coming down the pike with Android OS as it's the "next big thing..." (Well, for AT&T I guess....) I've waitd this long, another couple of days won't kill me to see it, and help reduce buyer's remorse...

lonestarmotorcyclist said:
I went to an AT&T Retail Store here in Corpus Christi, TX to look at it again and see what they could do for me deal wise because I'm mid-cycle in my contract. The Mgr. told me he is suppose to get the "sample" Captivate on Friday, and it's suppose to be on sale the 15th. I guess to go head-to-head with the X??? I'll wait til Friday to see if it true. He claims there is a lot to coming down the pike with Android OS as it's the "next big thing..." (Well, for AT&T I guess....) I've waitd this long, another couple of days won't kill me to see it, and help reduce buyer's remorse...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck fighting the urge!

modest_mandroid said:
* It doesn't appear to support very many video file formats. In fact, the only format I've gotten to work with Act1 video player are the base h264 and h263 formats. To my understanding, it is up to the manufacturer to include any extra codecs, so you're SOL if you're planning on using this as a mobile media player.
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Click to collapse
Not exactly. Do a search on 'Rock Player'. It's a media player that's still in Beta, and it expands upon the selection of video codecs that are handled by the standard media libraries.
It plays DivX-encoded videos like a CHAMP.
EDIT: Actually, here's the forum for it: http://www.diffthink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
Regards,
Corporate Dog

* It doesn't appear to support very many video file formats. In fact, the only format I've gotten to work with Act1 video player are the base h264 and h263 formats. To my understanding, it is up to the manufacturer to include any extra codecs, so you're SOL if you're planning on using this as a mobile media player.
I was planning on using it as a media player... So, in simple English for my simple mind, what does this mean: that it can only use those two formats? Does it mean it's limited to what can be seen via the internet or does it mean I'm limited to the type of video formats I could directly load from my computer, or both???? Is there a way around these limitations because I want to be able to have infotainment in one device and do not want to drag around multiple devices. (Sorry if this seems like a dumb question but I am FAR from well versed in this field.)
Also, thanks again for the replies and info.. It is GREATLY appreciated!!!

Corporate Dog said:
Not exactly. Do a search on 'Rock Player'. It's a media player that's still in Beta, and it expands upon the selection of video codecs that are handled by the standard media libraries.
It plays DivX-encoded videos like a CHAMP.
EDIT: Actually, here's the forum for it: http://www.diffthink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
Regards,
Corporate Dog
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Thanks, I'll check it out when I get home, don't have any divx files to play here.
lonestarmotorcyclist said:
I was planning on using it as a media player... So, in simple English for my simple mind, what does this mean: that it can only use those two formats? Does it mean it's limited to what can be seen via the internet or does it mean I'm limited to the type of video formats I could directly load from my computer, or both???? Is there a way around these limitations because I want to be able to have infotainment in one device and do not want to drag around multiple devices. (Sorry if this seems like a dumb question but I am FAR from well versed in this field.)
Click to expand...
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To my understanding, there isn't any "CorePlayer" equivalent. I dunno if you're coming from a Windows Mobile world or not, but CorePlayer could run pretty much anything your desktop computer could.
What I meant by my comment was that the Aria appears to be limited to the .mp4 format for videos (I have not tested .flv). So, if you wanted to toss some movies onto the sd card and use the stock media player or Act1 video player (appears to be pretty popular in the market), then you're stuck re-encoding all your videos to h264 .mp4. The iPhone is limited in this way too, or so I hear.
But, from what I've seen with RockPlayer just now, it's seems to be very bare on options but looks like it can play a very wide range of formats. I just played some mp4 videos I had on my sd card and they run flawlessly. Hopefully this program is in active development and will turn into Android's CorePlayer.

Thanks for the info and links; you both cleared up the questions I had. I just want to cover every aspect so when my iFamily tells me I made a poor choice I can show them it does EVERYTHING I want it to and more, not what the manufacturer thinks I need it to do or should do...
I just am not seeing where you can go wrong with this thing compared to other devices.....

lonestarmotorcyclist said:
I just am not seeing where you can go wrong with this thing compared to other devices.....
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the small size can either be a huge plus or killing minus depending on your habits/needs
for me it s a definate plus

lonestarmotorcyclist said:
Thanks for the info and links; you both cleared up the questions I had. I just want to cover every aspect so when my iFamily tells me I made a poor choice I can show them it does EVERYTHING I want it to and more, not what the manufacturer thinks I need it to do or should do...
I just am not seeing where you can go wrong with this thing compared to other devices.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are buying the phone for yourself or are you replacing iphones for your family?

Corporate Dog said:
Not exactly. Do a search on 'Rock Player'. It's a media player that's still in Beta, and it expands upon the selection of video codecs that are handled by the standard media libraries.
It plays DivX-encoded videos like a CHAMP.
EDIT: Actually, here's the forum for it: http://www.diffthink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
Regards,
Corporate Dog
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using rock player on my Aria for a while, and I am hoping this is just cause it is still beta, but SD AVI files run like molasses. If there is more than one thing going on on screen the video lags and gets out of sync with the audio. You have to pause the video, wait for it to catch up and play it again.
This is my only gripe about this phone, but it may be the program, not the phone.

Whatever phone I get will be just for me. My in-laws got their 3Gs' about a yr ago and like most, thought they were the greatest thing sinced bread. So then my wife "needed" one. I've played with it and it is nice to be able to access the web, and have music right there, but.... there seemed something lacking. I like the concept, but I also like to tinker with stuff. I'll admit, I LOVED the Droid ad campaign of "Droid Does" and since my phone has died, I started looking to get something new. It just seems better in everyway I can think of, but I want to know all I can to properly inform those who will tell me I'm wrong when I get my new phone. (And there will be a lot, I know...)
I just don't see how they really can be compared. Everyone I know who has an iPhone loves them, but they use them for the web, Facebook, Words W/ Friends, and as an iPod. I think it's great there are 200K apps, but I don't know anyone that uses more than 1% of them and every "cutting edge feature" seems to be copied from Android. I guess there is also the fact that there are a truckload of docks and cases to "personalize" them, but I think I rather personalize the stuff that matters.
In reality, I want to blow their socks off with what it can do and know it inside and out as soon as I get it. (You know, the ones that were excited about folders and backgrounds on iPhones. Does that make me a bad person??? Or just honest???)

My wife has an Aria, I have a Nexus One. I'm REALLY surprised when I use her phone, it's actually smoother than my Nexus. Long lists scroll like butter, the launcher scrolls extremly smooth, apps list, etc... I've never seen the phone slow down, it's all very smooth.
She doesn't watch videos on it, but she will eventually load her iTunes music onto it, but hasn't yet. She loves the smaller size, but you're right that it is a tad touchier to type on.
She raves about how fast the browser is.. And how everything just opens, bam... And her GCal euphoria moment was pretty awesome too; suddenly she can see my entire calendar, add to my calendar, see when I'm in a meeting until 5...
She's really been looking for something to complain about moving from her iPhone and so far I don't think she's found anything.

Just an update on the video playback capabilities in RockPlayer - I tested it with a 320x240 mpeg, 700x500 divx, 640x480 .mp4 and a 720p mkv video. The mpeg and mp4 ran perfectly fine, the divx ran pretty slow (maybe 10fps) and the sound was constantly desychronizing, and the mkv was unwatchable. It didn't scale down to the Aria screen size, and it ran so slow that you could see the individual frames (like 2-4fps).
Considering the speed difference between the .mp4 and the divx, I'm assuming this is a lack of hardware acceleration issue with some codecs?

Did I overestimate the Tegra2?

So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?

MichaelWestin said:
So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?
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Click to collapse
The hardware is capable of it. You just need to stop buying devices that don't hardware accelerate mkv files. You need to look for something with divx certification. My epic4g plays ridiculously high bitrate 720P mkv files FLAWLESSLY, because Samsung went the extra mile and got hardware acceleration for avi and mkv files. The evo is a mess because its made by HTC and HTC doesn't give a crap about media capability. The evo stutters playing AVI files because it has to software decode them, which makes me laugh at my friend who owns it. That giant screen and it is useless for video. A tablet without divx certification is useless to me, which is one of the dozen or so reasons I will not be buying the Xoom.

Well if they do that for the new Tab, then the Xoom is going right back.. I have 90 days to find out

MichaelWestin said:
So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?
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Did you enable hardware decoding in the settings of RockPlayer?

parrotheadmjb said:
Did you enable hardware decoding in the settings of RockPlayer?
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That only works if the hardware supports hardware acceleration of the filetype, right? Does the Xoom support playing MKV and AVI files in the stock video player?

MichaelWestin said:
Well if they do that for the new Tab, then the Xoom is going right back.. I have 90 days to find out
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Thats what I am hoping for too. So far the entire line of Galaxy S phones and the Galaxy Tab was divx HD certified. I am hoping and praying that the delicious Galaxy Tab 10.1 with its giant 6860 mah battery has Divx HD certification as well. I can't imagine it wouldn't.

parrotheadmjb said:
Did you enable hardware decoding in the settings of RockPlayer?
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Software only. :-(

MichaelWestin said:
Software only. :-(
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Idk I turned on hardware decoding on RockPlayer in my Xoom and it started playing the 720P almost seamlessly, but no audio... weird

It is hardware decoding my mkv's though I am hitting an annoying bug where sound stops. going to home and back restores sound though.
The m4v I put on is being decoded in software and it can't quite handle it smoothly.
I will have to try a couple of my mp4 rips.

Yes they really should add more codecs to default Android. I bet they expected some 3rd party apps to arrive.

MichaelWestin said:
So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?
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A similar problem on the Tegra 2 Notion Ink adam was fixed with a software update or a custom rom.
When shipped, all the players etc, were choppy or desynced or had no audio - but running a custom rom fixed these problems. Additionally, shortly after shipping, Notion ink provided an update that fixed these problems on stock.
Its definetly a software issue - it will be fixed soon im sure.

OK Rockplayer can not handle my default mp4 rips well. They are nothing particularly special though I don't use ... I can't remember the term. "simple mode" I use the higher modes to allow for better quality for size.
Ah well, most of my newer stuff I rip to mkv's anyway (subtitle and alternative audio support).

setite said:
Yes they really should add more codecs to default Android. I bet they expected some 3rd party apps to arrive.
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CODECs cost money to license them. Google leaves this up to the OEM's to pay the bill.

This handbrake preset produces great videos for my evo...

warb said:
This handbrake preset produces great videos for my evo...
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I'm sorry, not to use a Steve jobsism, but if you have to convert videos for your tablet you have failed. I think it's ridiculous to have to do it for phones, which is why i bought the epic4g. To have to do it on a tablet is ridiculous, especially one with a dual core processor and an eight core gpu. The freaking iPad can play 720p mkv files now with xbmc ported over.

setite said:
Yes they really should add more codecs to default Android. I bet they expected some 3rd party apps to arrive.
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Strange as I am reading this a Xoom commercial came on the TV saying that the Xoom is "everything a tablet should be" and even showing a video playing on the device. I hope they are not serious about this issue.

+1 thanks for Costco return window

well I dont know what to say.. I tried two different formats (mp4 and mkv) 720p, and both worked just fine, all video and audio was perfect. These were top gear uk episodes. I'll try a dvd rip and see what happens now.

And.... any news in that regard?

If you own an iPad, how is this situation there?
I mean, can you just throw any video files and iPad will play it flawlessly?
I just want to know this comparison.
If VLC is available for Android, do you think this kind of issue will be solved?
I read this is caused by Google not investing on "codec" (licensing), neither does VLC.
If VLC can solve this, why Google does not want to use it
Sorry, if I got this all wrong. I am not an expert on video thing ...

My thoughts on the 10.1

RI've had my tab for a few weeks now and am generally happy with it.
The things I'm pleased with:
Battery life - can't fault it so far
Build quality
App compatability - generally no issues
Web browsing and music are good
Screen is fantastic
Things I'm unhappy with:
The omission of an actual sd card slot is an annoyance
Stock u.i laggy (using adw now)
Mac compatablity is lacking.Kies is ok for it but by no means fantastic
My biggest disappointment has been video compatability or lack of it. A lot of my videos are now digitally encoded, some are ok on the tab, others have horrendous breakup. I've done as much research as possible into re-encoding these to suitable format but no matter what program and settings I use I can't get them to run properly. I'm getting to the stage of moving down the Ipad route. I'd post screenshots but apparentlly can't for another 8 posts

Did you get the large update to touchwiz recently? I actually started using the stock video player now, as I don't have any problems with the playback. Unless you are enconding in some off the wall format, I would think you wouldn't have any problems.

No on the touchwiz update as yet. I have limited net access in that some things are blocked. Glorious Afghanistan I'm checking every now and then as I can bypass somethings but it's not showing any updates.
In regards to video encoding I've used settings recommended in these forums and also trialled the pavtube program as well as numerous others including handbrake. Pulling my hair out over it!

i agree with you with the Video Support, coming from the Galaxy s phone the Tab almost doesn't play anything without converting and stuff on my phone it just play everything without a need for any video player other than stock

gazwkd said:
RMy biggest disappointment has been video compatability or lack of it. A lot of my videos are now digitally encoded, some are ok on the tab, others have horrendous breakup. I've done as much research as possible into re-encoding these to suitable format but no matter what program and settings I use I can't get them to run properly. I'm getting to the stage of moving down the Ipad route. I'd post screenshots but apparentlly can't for another 8 posts
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I had the same issue as you - pretty much everything I tried to play on the GT would break up or have other issues. I was about to return the tablet when I tried transferring a video over WiFi rather than Kies for the Mac. To my surprised it played flawlessly.
So, I rather suspect that your problem is Kies performing some sort of erroneous conversion on the video as it is transferring the video across to the tablet.
I don't use Kies for the Mac anymore, and always transfer files via WiFi, and seldom have any playback issues now.
Regards,
Dave

If you transfer photos/movies from a MAC via the current version of kies then these get corrupted...

I'll try the wifi tip cheers. Although a friend has a 5 year old laptop that I tried the converted videos on and the same breakup occured through vlc. No probs with any of the encoded videos through vlc on my mac pro though.

Tried the wifi tip and works Shame it's a little on the slow side but it'll do till there's a better way
Kies is definately broken for the mac, it hasn't corrupted every video I transferred but enough to really annoy!
Cheers for the tip

The touchwiz update is almost perfect IMHO, I had lags with vanilla ui but since twz update, I enjoy my tab except for one thing:
My fingers literally hurt from overuse of gab10.1!
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App

The Tegra 2 is not capable to decoding most HD video. The video accelerator (seperate from the GPU) is simply too slow and can not decode most h.264 profiles other than profiles which are obsolete (baseline for example)
Sorry folks, its not a problem with the actual software, its the Tegra 2 which is simply too slow to decode much of todays HD video.

Agreed. As an owner of both a Captivate and Tab 10.1 I am less than impressed with the video performance of this Tab. My Cappy blows it away.
Now the only thing the Tab has over the Cappy is support for legacy DIVX codecs. With the latest update all of my DIVX movies work. But the Cappy still runs laps over the Tab. A shame really. One step forward, two steps back.

You have to understand that Tegra 2 is a very old chip despite tablets just being released due to honeycomb delays.
All future tablet chipsets like the Tegra 3 and others will be able to decode any HD content without performance issues.

gazwkd said:
My biggest disappointment has been video compatability or lack of it. A lot of my videos are now digitally encoded, some are ok on the tab, others have horrendous breakup. I've done as much research as possible into re-encoding these to suitable format but no matter what program and settings I use I can't get them to run properly. I'm getting to the stage of moving down the Ipad route. I'd post screenshots but apparentlly can't for another 8 posts
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Use Dice player, and u will see how all videos will played nice!

5thElement said:
You have to understand that Tegra 2 is a very old chip despite tablets just being released due to honeycomb delays.
All future tablet chipsets like the Tegra 3 and others will be able to decode any HD content without performance issues.
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I won't count on that. The chipset used in Captivate is even older than Tegra 2. It's all about the drivers and matuality of the OS. HoneyComb just don't have much video codec support to be hornest. Tegra 1 chip in my Zune player plays 720p video better than Tegra 2 in my Tab. And there are 3rd party player app that can use Tegra 2 hardware acceleration to play videos that stock player can't. This is all software limitations in stock HC. Even when Tegra 3 comes out, HC as is will have the same limitation unless Google gets its act together.

I use dice player now, and my tab plays anything I throw at it. 1080p MKVs and avi files play awesome, even supports the multiple audio tracks and subtitles. No complaints here.
I personally don't need any more power in the tablet, it does everything I want it to do flawlessly.