why Android? - Vega General

Any news on a ubuntu port?. Still undecided about buying one of these yet, a few questions:
1. Is android generally smooth and quick
2. What it like playing video, how does rockplayer handle MKV wrapped movies in sodftplay mode. What movie playback like generally?
3. Does it output in 1080p via HDMI or just 720p.
4. Its cheap, its very cheap - why?, whats the general quality like?
5. Any AC3 encoding built in?

stoolzo said:
Any news on a ubuntu port?. Still undecided about buying one of these yet, a few questions:
1. Is android generally smooth and quick
2. What it like playing video, how does rockplayer handle MKV wrapped movies in sodftplay mode. What movie playback like generally?
3. Does it output in 1080p via HDMI or just 720p.
4. Its cheap, its very cheap - why?, whats the general quality like?
5. Any AC3 encoding built in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ubuntu: no idea, I'm not interested really, Ubuntu on 512MB... not so interesting
1: Froyo is so-so
2. H.264 baseline profile in an mp4 container is great. Rockplayer is (as always) terrible because its all done on the CPU and 1GHz ARM can't decode 720p or above. AOSP builds can't parse MKV at the moment regardless of underlying codec
3. 1080p for video played using the hardware decoder (not rockplayer) 1024x600 otherwise
4. The screen view angles are _awful_ and the touch sensor is janky for some people. Battery is good, bugger all storage without a big SD card.
5. No AC3 no DTS (no one is going to pay for the licence) hence they're not in AOSP

Have not had time to test any video other than some xvidclips so cant say much about that.
As for the screen, yeah the viewangle is quite bad, strangely is worse up and down than it is from left to right, and that is good as it makes reading books/webpages in portrait much easier.
And you cant do anything without a microSDcard, as the previous poster said.
As for froyo i think it is quite ok, compared to earlier releases, but seeing as i am a lover of Symbian^3 i think it needs better multitasking.
Other than that i think the buildquality is good, it doesnt feel too flimsy or cheap, and with the HDMIport and USBport that can use a USBstick as a 'harddrive', plus a custom ROM with android market i would say its a good deal. But thats me

Related

Core Video Player

Hewy peeps, ive got a core player and was wonder hwo to get a seamless picture when i play an AVI movie.. something like tango an cash or somthing.. it get pixelated in fast action screens.. is Divx any better or does it to the same thing
Tango and Cash? That's so random, lol.
The biggest issue is that Coreplayer does not support the hardware video acceleration afforded by the TP2, and Core has still not addressed this issue.
There are different ways to attack the issue. The best results will probably come from re-encoding your video to a resolution, bitrate, etc. that is more friendly to the TP2. The resolution of your videos is probably simply too much for the phone to handle. But personally, I can't be bothered to re-encode every video I want to watch on my phone. I like being able to watch the same file on my desktop and mobile device.
I've gotten Coreplayer to be somewhat tolerable by tweaking the settings. It seems that lots of people like the QTv video output (under Menu>Tools>Preferences>Video). It runs at a decent frame rate, but has what appears like "tearing", where it looks like one part of the screen is not in sync with the rest. This may or may not be what you call "pixelation", I'm not sure.
To me, the GDI output mode looks better, but seems to slow down the frame rate. I've been able to mitigate that somewhat by playing around with the buffer (also under Menu>Tools>Preferences). The framerate is not great, and once in a while the picture will freeze for a second or 2. But to me, its watchable overall.
c0nv1ct77 said:
Hewy peeps, ive got a core player and was wonder hwo to get a seamless picture when i play an AVI movie.. something like tango an cash or somthing.. it get pixelated in fast action screens.. is Divx any better or does it to the same thing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've honestly never used coreplayer for videos like that...I've always had great results using Divx (/Xvid/.avi) files with the player provided by the DivX group themselves...it's not the prettiest player, and it only does vids, but it's done very well even playing files that I haven't bothered to "mobile-optimize". I just rip my DVD's to a .avi file ~700MB in size, and just the amount of compression used to get it to that smaller size is enough for the DivX player to be able to handle it clearly and nearly stutter-free on my TP2.

[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
Click to expand...
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.

Handbrake: encoding 720p video that isnt jittery

Ive searched for various recommended settings and tried the ones from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
And, for the most part, the videos are fine but what gets me is in situations where the camera is panning there is a noticeable jitter to the movement. Its consistent. Its only happening on the TF. I can play the encoded MP4s/M4Vs in VLC on the laptop and no jitter.
Id really love to get rid of this, it kind of kills the experience of watching videos because I like to watch shows like Top Gear on it and they pan a lot like that, although it does impact other shows. Its just more noticeable because it only happens when the entire camera is panning around subjects in way that most of the image on the screen is moving.
Im playing in the gallery BTW.
Hi,
this is a well known problem with the google libaries for hardware decoding. Until we get a update, there are only two solutions:
Use software decoding. Apps like Rockplayer, Moboplayer... have this option.
Use a Flash-Player. There is no stuttering with the flash libaries.
Does software decoding drain more battery?
And upcoming HB3.2 is supposed to improve hardware decoding of video files ...
number16 said:
And upcoming HB3.2 is supposed to improve hardware decoding of video files ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope because I have not had good luck with rock/mobo and HD content. Right now playing with the stock gallery is the best option I have seen. I was just hoping maybe there is something I could do to drop the compression or quality (without sacrificing HD) to get rid of this odd jitter.
Its a shame too because its the only thing that lets down the media experience. I have had multiple people interrrupt me on the plane to ask about it the screen is that good (well, than and after seeing me snap my netbook in half and put it back together ). Heck, even ipad guys have complimented how things look on it (and their screen uses the same tech IIRC).
I builded a very simple html site in the last few days which has the jwplayer flash player. This is the best way to watch hd content with less than 29,xx fps without the stuttering. Maybe i will put it online later today.
If you want to hard telecine the material you can remove most of the judder.
It's an unfortunate side effect of the GPU decoding that we haven't yet pinned down.
sassafras
Is there any way to load MKV files with JWPlayer without naming them and their location in HTML? I'd prefer a browse option myself. Otherwise it's pretty useless to me.
I tried using Handbrake to encode to "Apple TV 2" preset. which is basically 720p in mp4 file type. It plays back very smoothly with rockplayer lite, mVideoplayer or moboplayer.
AnTrans said:
I tried using Handbrake to encode to "Apple TV 2" preset. which is basically 720p in mp4 file type. It plays back very smoothly with rockplayer lite, mVideoplayer or moboplayer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually a great preset for this device. It's mpeg4 AVC High profile at a reasonable quality.
Good choice if you don't know a lot about how Handbrake works.
sassafras
sassafras_ said:
That's actually a great preset for this device. It's mpeg4 AVC High profile at a reasonable quality.
Good choice if you don't know a lot about how Handbrake works.
sassafras
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually its not smooth at all, there's still a minor lag which is obvious to my eyes..so far even with the very latest 3.1 update (the one with the new tegra bootup logo), the lag is still there..i am hoping 3.2 would address this...it sucks that you cant really play 1080p or even 720p smoothly
mlbl said:
actually its not smooth at all, there's still a minor lag which is obvious to my eyes..so far even with the very latest 3.1 update (the one with the new tegra bootup logo), the lag is still there..i am hoping 3.2 would address this...it sucks that you cant really play 1080p or even 720p smoothly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're either doing it wrong (possible) or confusing judder for 'smoothness'. Files encoded at sane bitrates play back fine in 720p and are completely smooth. Unfortunately, as described by sontin earlier in this thread, there is some poor telecining going on in the hardware decoding and panning shots tend to create the effect of judder which can be somewhat distracting.
It's unfortunately probably a result of the lack of a NEON MPE core in the Tegra 2 chip that causes this.
But for the record, judder ≠ lack of smooth playback.
sassafras
sassafras_ said:
You're either doing it wrong (possible) or confusing judder for 'smoothness'. Files encoded at sane bitrates play back fine in 720p and are completely smooth. Unfortunately, as described by sontin earlier in this thread, there is some poor telecining going on in the hardware decoding and panning shots tend to create the effect of judder which can be somewhat distracting.
It's unfortunately probably a result of the lack of a NEON MPE core in the Tegra 2 chip that causes this.
But for the record, judder ≠ lack of smooth playback.
sassafras
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i guess you're right, its a judder then, but if that's the case, is there any way to solve it? i want a perfect playback like what i get on a pc
I do feel though that playback has improved considerably with the last update. I have downloaded some files that were encoded specifically for the Apple TV and other such devices. Basically mp4 with [email protected] encoding with bitrates around 3000 kbps and stereo AAC sound. Before this update, every now and again they would freeze for five seconds or so, especially in high action scenes. Now they seem much smoother. Judder is still there, but it's definitely watchable.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
sassafras_ said:
You're either doing it wrong (possible) or confusing judder for 'smoothness'. Files encoded at sane bitrates play back fine in 720p and are completely smooth. Unfortunately, as described by sontin earlier in this thread, there is some poor telecining going on in the hardware decoding and panning shots tend to create the effect of judder which can be somewhat distracting.
It's unfortunately probably a result of the lack of a NEON MPE core in the Tegra 2 chip that causes this.
But for the record, judder ≠ lack of smooth playback.
sassafras
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Nothing to do with telecine. It only occurs when there is audio in the file. Mux a video with no soundfile embedded and it plays buttery smooth. Something occurs when sound is added which causes a weird juddering effect. It's been suggested it's hardware acceleration not being enabled causing it but I'm not so sure. Jitter can happen when the audio framerate does not match up with the video framerate to the refresh rate of the display or somesuch (Not sure on the technicalities). It's why tools like ReClock are used on PC's.
I can only repeat what i said a few times: The only way to get nearly smooth playback with hardware decoding is using a flash player. There is no other solution.
And there is a positive sideeffect: Using the browser filesystem (file:///) makes video streaming over the network more useable than using a file manager app. Even over HTTP (thx to drivedav and co) it's much better.
sontin said:
I can only repeat what i said a few times: The only way to get nearly smooth playback with hardware decoding is using a flash player. There is no other solution.
And there is a positive sideeffect: Using the browser filesystem (file:///) makes video streaming over the network more useable than using a file manager app. Even over HTTP (thx to drivedav and co) it's much better.
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Click to collapse
yes, you're right. with jwplayer it works perfectly, smooth and no judder!
Interesting
for those of you that are interest!
This is what i have decided to do and its quite amazing results for its purpose!
Previously i had ben encoding mp4's with x264, @ 1280x544 or 600 whatever the video wanted to strech too, i was finding amazing quality even at fullscreen! I was amazinly happy with respectable file sizes
The dark knight 2.3gb
Saving private ryan 3.5gb
Quantam of solice 2.6 CB
However, after my huge success! I wanted to accomplish more! I need more videos on my transformer! I felt ripped off, i could not put more videos then what i had becuasw of the file sizes!
After some trial and error i found an amazing discovery but it comes with some sacrifice,
Let me talk about the file sizes first!
The dark knight 1.1gb
Saving private ryan 1.6gb
Quantam of solice 1.2gb
The hangover 880mb
Some of my movies are under 1 gb wow
I have 27 movies on my sdcard alone! Which is great!
Ok so this is how i managed such small files with mp4,x264. First off i started my encodes by dropping the resoltion from 1280 to 800 and then letting handbreak decide how to strech it
800x544 is what it normally looks like, the quality is set to 21! This is an inferior resolution for filesize with mp4! In some cases 60% filesize drop!!
This comes with a small drawback! I run my videos in the stock player anyways, so they will not be fullscreen movies! Myself i dont mind the bars on top and bottom!
If this bothers you, then this discovery is not for you!!
MKV FANS!!
STOP!! , before you start to lecture me, about mkv ,doing higher res, with 500mb encode's ! just stop!
I undersand, and know how as well , but its not supported properly right now ,and thats not what im discussing
I hope someone finds this useful
Thanks
I don't want to reencode anything. I just want it to play my existing MKV's without juddering. How do I use file:///??? to play my existing MKV's with the Flash player?
mlbl said:
yes, you're right. with jwplayer it works perfectly, smooth and no judder!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can you get jwplayer - I looked in the market place and found what I am quite sure was not the tool that you meant...

Tegra 2 missing NEON video decoding instructions - any solution to be expected?

the Iconia tablet (stock rom 3.2) has a most troubling issue: no (or no smooth) video playback of HD video files, mostly H.264 encoded mkv and mp4 files. Acer and Nvidia claim the device can run 720p and even 1080p in h264 base profile but the bitter reality is that even 90% of 720p video files don't play smoothy due to lack of proper hardware acceleration. this is really a huge disappointment as even most of today's discount phones can play 720p video and i got me a dual core device with a HD screen and a GPU from a dedicated graphics expert company but have to stick to SD video.
i found a statement in the Nvidia developer forum saying that Nvidia is working on this problem with some software partners which indicates that there might be a software solution to this sometime soon:
http://forums.developer.nvidia.com/...6/is-tegra-2-support-neon-intsruction-set-/p1
my question: is a software solution realistic or maybe just a waste of time? personally i doubt it, especially since the successor, Tegra 3, again includes NEON.
but maybe a custom rom like Thor could add enough horsepower to the device to enable at least smooth software decoding? anyone using this rom already noticed a performance gain?
i am looking forward to your comments.
Just install MX Video Player. Plays everything, perfectly smoothly.
FloatingFatMan said:
Just install MX Video Player. Plays everything, perfectly smoothly.
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Click to collapse
you think i would investigate in hardware related stuff and post here if there was a player that could handle all HD video? MX player clearly does not, nor does any other player (dice, mobo, rock, just to name a few of the better ones) handle high profile H.264 video on Tegra 2 devices. so 90% of the stuff available online is not working, means they wont play at all or have massive framerate and sound issues. go and check out the latest movie trailers available in 1080p mp4 or download an x.264 encoded mkv file of your favourite tv show and you can see for yourself.
if you insist on your statement, then please put up a video source so i can verify. i would really love to learn that you are right and i have just a broken device ;-)
uli68 said:
you think i would investigate in hardware related stuff and post here if there was a player that could handle all HD video? MX player clearly does not, nor does any other player (dice, mobo, rock, just to name a few of the better ones) handle high profile H.264 video on Tegra 2 devices. so 90% of the stuff available online is not working, means they wont play at all or have massive framerate and sound issues. go and check out the latest movie trailers available in 1080p mp4 or download an x.264 encoded mkv file of your favourite tv show and you can see for yourself.
if you insist on your statement, then please put up a video source so i can verify. i would really love to learn that you are right and i have just a broken device ;-)
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Click to collapse
Well if you're trying to play 1080p video on a device that only has a native resolution of 1280 x 800 as this statement indicates, then the joke is on you sir.
guys, please read my post carefully or even better inform yourself and stop posting such unhelpful comments.
kjy2010 said:
Well if you're trying to play 1080p video on a device that only has a native resolution of 1280 x 800 as this statement indicates, then the joke is on you sir.
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Click to collapse
it's Acer and Nvidea who claim that Tegra 2 can play and output 1080p video (base profile h264) through HDMI, not me. i've just fallen for their marketing, trying to play some of my favourite 720p tv shows on my so called "HD device"...
also, i don't get your point about the resolution. are you trying to say that a full HD display is mandatory in order to enjoy a 1080p video? or that its content will look better if video resolution would match the Iconia display resolution? sorry sir, i really think you are the funny guy here.
uli68 said:
guys, please read my post carefully or even better inform yourself and stop posting such unhelpful comments.
it's Acer and Nvidea who claim that Tegra 2 can play and output 1080p video (base profile h264) through HDMI, not me. i've just fallen for their marketing, trying to play some of my favourite 720p tv shows on my so called "HD device"...
also, i don't get your point about the resolution. are you trying to say that you need full HD display in order to enjoy a 1080p video? or that its content will look better if video resolution would match the display resolution? sorry sir, i really think you are the funny guy here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK I guess I'll just have to write you off as a n00btard if you think that playing a 1080p video on a 1280 x 800 screen will benefit you in any way, shape, or form roflol
kjy2010 said:
OK I guess I'll just have to write you off as a n00btard if you think that playing a 1080p video on a 1280 x 800 screen will benefit you in any way, shape, or form roflol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did not say i wanted to play 1080p on my device - you are clearly not able to read and most probably just a fanboy.
besides, i still don't get your point. i would chose 1080p over 720p if i had the choice. and you would stick to 720p or SD because you think there is no "benefit" in playing higher resolution content on smaller display? well, quantified the benefit would be at least 80 lines more content, don't you think?
there might be cases where a hard- or software scaler messes up while downscaling a video and picture quality degrades, but generally the higher the resolution the better the picture quality, regardless of display resolution.
now, back to topic please!
uli68 said:
i did not say i wanted to play 1080p on my device - you are clearly not able to read and most probably just a fanboy.
now, back to topic please!
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Click to collapse
+1.........................
uli68 said:
it's Acer and Nvidea who claim that Tegra 2 can play and output 1080p video (base profile h264) through HDMI, not me. i've just fallen for their marketing, trying to play some of my favourite 720p tv shows on my so called "HD device"...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Atleast I can play baseline and normal profile H.264 content at 1080p just fine. It's only high-profile that reverts to software and doesn't play well.
are you trying to say that a full HD display is mandatory in order to enjoy a 1080p video?
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The display itself is 720p, so trying to play 1080p content on a 720p display is kind of pointless. You won't see the extra resolution anyways. Though if you're playing through HDMI to a 1080p display then it makes sense.
---------- Post added at 01:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 AM ----------
uli68 said:
but generally the higher the resolution the better the picture quality, regardless of display resolution.
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Not entirely correct. Higher resolution doesn't equal better compression quality, so you can easily have 1080p video that looks like ass crap, and you can have SD video that looks better.
That said there are lots of reasons to choose 720p over 1080p on A500: 720p high-profile video generally looks much better than 1080p baseline-profile, high-profile fares a lot better in high-motion scenes, and high-profile takes less storage space than baseline-profile. And well, since you can't see the extra resolution anyways you're just wasting extra storage space on stuff you can't even see.
http://www.arm.com/community/partners/display_product/rw/ProductId/5770/
clearly states 1080p support via HDMI output.... is this what your after???
uli68 said:
my question: is a software solution realistic or maybe just a waste of time? personally i doubt it, especially since the successor, Tegra 3, again includes NEON.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A software solution will only boost applications that are specifically designed to utilize it, and the hardware simply isn't fast enough to decode 1080p high-profile in software at full speed, so no, no matter what NVIDIA is claiming they cannot do magic tricks here.
but maybe a custom rom like Thor could add enough horsepower to the device to enable at least smooth software decoding? anyone using this rom already noticed a performance gain?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thor or some other custom ROM can only increase clock speed, there is nothing else to be done about it. And you can increase clock speed even on the stock ROM anyways.
But as I mentioned I have absolutely no problem running 1080p baseline- or normal-profile content, or 720p content, because I am not using the stock player. Use one of the players from Android Market, they're a lot faster and smarter than the stock player.
Also an important note to you: the stock player reverts to SOFTWARE if audio is AC3 encoded. That is probably the issue you're seeing. The players from Android Market do AC3 in software, but send the video to the hardware, so that's why they don't lag with AC3 audio.
uli68 said:
i did not say i wanted to play 1080p on my device - you are clearly not able to read and most probably just a fanboy.
besides, i still don't get your point. i would chose 1080p over 720p if i had the choice. and you would stick to 720p or SD because you think there is no "benefit" in playing higher resolution content on smaller display? well, quantified the benefit would be at least 80 lines more content, don't you think?
there might be cases where a hard- or software scaler messes up while downscaling a video and picture quality degrades, but generally the higher the resolution the better the picture quality, regardless of display resolution.
now, back to topic please!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was on topic, if you can't understand that attempting to play 1080p Res videos on a 1280x800 display has no benefits whatsoever, then maybe you need one of These.
I honestly don't understand what is so friggin' tough about understanding the concept, and you clearly stated 1080p in your first post.
He's trying to playback through the HDMI port, muppet.
Here ya go, educate yourself.
" If the incoming source has more pixels than the display's native resolution, you will lose some visible detail and sharpness, though often what you're left with still looks great. If the incoming source has fewer pixels than the native resolution, you're not getting any extra sharpness from the television's pixels."
http://reviews.cnet.com/hdtv-resolution/
guys, and ladies, please, this thread is not about pro and contra of full hd content on smaller displays.
the question is:
is it likely that (at some point soon) there will be a workaround to overcome the issue of the missing NEON video instruction set on Tegra 2?
again, my goal is not to play 1080p content on my Iconia, just some 720p stuff, mostly TV shows encoded in H264 high profile mkv files. and no, they wont run using MX player or any other player currently available. and i guess that's also due to the missing NEON. please see the link provided in my first post.
uli68 said:
guys, and ladies, please, this thread is not about pro and contra of full hd content on smaller displays.
the question is:
is it likely that (at some point soon) there will be a workaround to overcome the issue of the missing NEON video instruction set on Tegra 2?
again, my goal is not to play 1080p content on my Iconia, just some 720p stuff, mostly TV shows encoded in H264 high profile mkv files. and no, they wont run using MX player or any other player currently available. and i guess that's also due to the missing NEON. please see the link provided in my first post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already answered your questions.
WereCatf said:
A software solution will only boost applications that are specifically designed to utilize it, and the hardware simply isn't fast enough to decode 1080p high-profile in software at full speed, so no, no matter what NVIDIA is claiming they cannot do magic tricks here.
Thor or some other custom ROM can only increase clock speed, there is nothing else to be done about it. And you can increase clock speed even on the stock ROM anyways.
But as I mentioned I have absolutely no problem running 1080p baseline- or normal-profile content, or 720p content, because I am not using the stock player. Use one of the players from Android Market, they're a lot faster and smarter than the stock player.
Also an important note to you: the stock player reverts to SOFTWARE if audio is AC3 encoded. That is probably the issue you're seeing. The players from Android Market do AC3 in software, but send the video to the hardware, so that's why they don't lag with AC3 audio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. well, in respect to 1080p content i don't have much hope either. but, and again, 720p content encoded in h264 high profile does NOT work for me. i have massive framerate issues and sound also drops off completely after a few seconds. i tested with google, rockplayer and mx player (all of the latest builds).
here's another example file for you and everyone else to check and report back:
The.Walking.Dead.S02E06.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-ORENJI.mkv
Who's the ignoramus?
kjy2010 said:
Here ya go, educate yourself.
" If the incoming source has more pixels than the display's native resolution, you will lose some visible detail and sharpness, though often what you're left with still looks great. If the incoming source has fewer pixels than the native resolution, you're not getting any extra sharpness from the television's pixels."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sir are an ignorant boor who is incapable of reading. You couldn't read the posts properly and you can't even read your quote properly.
A 1080p file has more visual information. For example, it's possible to see a small mole on somebodies face in 1080p that in 720p or lower has been smoothed out and is now invisible. Playing that 1080p file on a lower resolution device gives the possibility that the mole will be visible depending on how the hardware scaling is done and since most hardware scaling isn't going for compressed file size and won't be applying gaussian blurs etc... you WILL see that mole.
The new Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire have the same screen resolution, one streams videos at SD and the other at HD. Now even though the tablet isn't capable of HD the one that streams HD is noticably sharper and has more detail. Go look up the pictures if you want. Take your own advice and educate yourself before you berate people for their ignorance when it is you who are ignorant with poor reading comprehension.
jmc23 said:
A 1080p file has more visual information. For example, it's possible to see a small mole on somebodies face in 1080p that in 720p or lower has been smoothed out and is now invisible. Playing that 1080p file on a lower resolution device gives the possibility that the mole will be visible depending on how the hardware scaling is done and since most hardware scaling isn't going for compressed file size and won't be applying gaussian blurs etc... you WILL see that mole.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate, it doesn't work like that. It doesn't matter if the picture is scaled down before compression or after decompression, it's still scaled down. And no sane compression technology uses gaussian blur.
The new Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire have the same screen resolution, one streams videos at SD and the other at HD. Now even though the tablet isn't capable of HD the one that streams HD is noticably sharper and has more detail. Go look up the pictures if you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The difference is due to the fact that the HD video is compressed with better quality settings than the SD video. Besides, Kindle Fire IS 1024x600 pixels in size which means it is indeed almost 720p HD resolution meaning that HD content only needs to be scaled down by 120 lines whereas SD content has to be scaled UP instead: well, OF COURSE it will look like crap.
In other words you're comparing apples and oranges and you don't know what you're talking about either.
---------- Post added at 08:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:44 PM ----------
uli68 said:
here's another example file for you and everyone else to check and report back:
The.Walking.Dead.S02E06.PROPER.720p.HDTV.x264-ORENJI.mkv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried that file with Dice Player. It stutters for about 5 seconds, then settles down and works like a dream. In other words, working just fine on my tablet.
I had problems playing 720p mkv files as well, no matter which player I used. The stock 3.2 rom appears to be missing the framework for hardware decoding of these files. No such problems since installing various Thor roms though. They all play fine now. 1080p is probably too much though. I use mx player by the way.

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