Related
I can barely play any codecs on my tmobile tab. Is it suppose to play Divx or xvid out the box? or do different carriers' tabs have different video codecs?
Also is there a stock video player app installed or can you only play out of the Gallery app?
I've already tried rockplayer and vplayer, both have video and audio lag for divx 720i videos.
ANd if other carriers tabs have more codecs can i install thme in my tmo tab?
The Tab plays more video out of the box than any other Android (or Apple) device I've ever used, and I've used most.
Now if you're trying to play videos you've (ahem) gathered from around the net, you will certainly find some that won't play properly. "Found" videos can have a truly phenomenal combination of audio codecs, video codecs, and bitrates, any of which might prevent proper playback.
While you cannot directly add codecs to Android (as yet), there are third party video players that will handle just about anything.
Rockplayer is one of these third party players. While it will play nearly anything thrown at it, it's not hardware accelerated (doesn't use the GPU) so it is largely limited to lower bitrate, standard definition videos.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/rockplayer-universal/com.redirectin.rockplayer.android.unified
if you actually read all that I posted you will see that i have tried RockPlayer.
And trust me I know enough about video codec, bitrates, and depths (Visual Effects/Graphics Artist) to tell you that I'm trying basic Divx and Xvid codec at a decent to low Bitrate and they are not working on Stock Video player and will not run smooth enough on rockplayer do to lack of graphic acceleration.
ALso, No the Samsung tab is not the Leader of COdec in the ANdroid Tablet market. The ARchos tablets (70,101 etc) lead in stock codecs by far (I own both a samsung tab and a 101).
Thanks... I guess
The only codec that is accelerated is h.264 in any container. So, mp4 and mkv work fine even at 1080p resolution.
If you encode your movies in h.264 and set Rockplayer to use hardware decoding mode down low in the settings, you'll have no problem viewing it.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
synplex said:
ALso, No the Samsung tab is not the Leader of COdec in the ANdroid Tablet market. The ARchos tablets (70,101 etc) lead in stock codecs by far (I own both a samsung tab and a 101).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's true that the Archos can play a lot of video formats, but I don't put it in the same category as other top Android devices because it's so lacking in other areas.
Sorry I just perused your previous post, but I've truly had very few problems in playing video on the Tab, even with "found" videos.
In fully reading your post, my question to you would be, Why Divx? If you're encoding video specifically for use on the Tab, why not encode to h264?
I have the Sprint SGT, and I have zero problems with 720 mkv and avi files, regardless of who encoded them. The stock player renders them as smooth as silk. It also has a 5.1 mobile mode for AC3 audio tracks. And the control lock means I can wipe fingerprints off the screen off with my shirt without disturbing playback. My only complaint with the player is the lack of a skip button.
I have read other complaints from other SGT users about poor or stuttery playback, and I'm quite baffled. The only file that would play were 720p mov files. Other than that, I've had zero problems.
Rockplayer was awesome on the Evo, but its useless for me on the SGT. Its now useless for me on the Evo, but thats because I don't even bother watching videos on the Evo anymore.
Wait... I did encounter one problem. I downloaded the newest version of mkvmerge to split mkv files into <2GB parts, and those files will not play on the SGT. But I mostly watch TV and those files top out at 1.5 GB. But xvid avi is no problem. Dunno about divx for sure, I never really use it.
well i have problems with sound playing 1080p BRRip H264 AAC-.mp4 files i get no sound,does anyone know why?
Is this your own rip or did you... uh... find it laying around?
Thank you all for the replies.
Im using Divx and Xvid because those are the native file formats I'm downloading from a sever/email at work on to my SGT on the go. If I could I would convert to mp4 or h264. Is there a android video converter app that can do did?
Yes I heard that the Sprint SGT can play Divx and some MKV out the box (my friend has one), why is that? Different native video player? If so can I get it extracted for my Tmobile Tab?
ALso I never said Archos are on the top on android Tablet List, I was pointing out that they have Much more codecs out the box "Leaders in Codecs out-the-box"
Lastly Rockplayer is studding on me, giving me about 20-25fps when my video files are 30fps. Also audio sometimes lags on Divx and mkv files.
What is the latest version Rockplayer app out there or is there a better video app for SGT??
Have you tried VPlayer??? I prefer it over Rockplayer
synplex said:
Yes I heard that the Sprint SGT can play Divx and some MKV out the box (my friend has one), why is that? Different native video player? If so can I get it extracted for my Tmobile Tab?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting. I do have the Sprint Tab, perhaps that's why it plays almost everything I throw at it.
I'd never considered that different versions of the Tab would have such a major difference in codec support. I'd figured Samsung was responsible for paying the licensing fees for the various included codecs. Looking at the reality of these significant codec differences, it makes me wonder if the codec licensing fees aren't instead forced on the carriers themselves. That's the only reason I can fathom to explain the codec differences.
The Sprint ROM's are online here. My guess is that you could certainly pull the necessary files out of the Sprint rom and run them on your device. That said, I've absolutely no idea how the codecs are packaged and which files and libraries you'd need.
my tmo tab being a gsm device might not play nice with a sprint rom. And I have no idea how to take apart a rom or how to add codec to mine tab.
Anyone have any other options?
Also I have tried v player and same result as rock player
So far my tab has played all my video files with out a problem, (mostly .mkv animes) i have to use mkv sub extactor (from the market) to get subtitles to work. Rockplayer would go out of sync after 5mins of 720p .mkv
RockPlayer can play h.264 720p MKV videos using hardware acceleration as long as they don't have DTS audio (as many do when they are real BluRay rips). If you play TV rips they generally work since they are not using DTS. Dolby audio might work in HW mode as well, I am not sure.
You can play DTS audio though, but only in software mode . But the processor in the SGT cannot keep up with both DTS and h.264 in 720p. I think it might manage 480p with DTS though.
synplex said:
my tmo tab being a gsm device might not play nice with a sprint rom. And I have no idea how to take apart a rom or how to add codec to mine tab.
Anyone have any other options?
Also I have tried v player and same result as rock player
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I've read, most incompatibilities between GSM and CDMA versions of the Tab have to do with communications related apps, limitations that should have no impact on the video app.
I would think it's extremely likely that the Sprint video app and/or codecs would run flawlessly on other versions of the Tab. Ripping apps from ROM's and deodexing them is not my forte, but there are many in the developer forums who are very experienced in that sort of thing.
I use mVideoPlayer. It plays everything I throw at it.
Galaxy Tab
zozodouce said:
well i have problems with sound playing 1080p BRRip H264 AAC-.mp4 files i get no sound,does anyone know why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably because it's a 1080p H264 file and you're trying to play it on a device with a 1Ghz processor, and no hardware acceleration for video playback. It can't cope.
Geletis said:
From what I've read, most incompatibilities between GSM and CDMA versions of the Tab have to do with communications related apps, limitations that should have no impact on the video app.
I would think it's extremely likely that the Sprint video app and/or codecs would run flawlessly on other versions of the Tab. Ripping apps from ROM's and deodexing them is not my forte, but there are many in the developer forums who are very experienced in that sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
....Anyone?
Filgaliel said:
I use mVideoPlayer. It plays everything I throw at it.
Galaxy Tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you read the app detail for mVideoPlayer, it only play videos/codecs your phone/tablet can already play. It doesn't add anything or help at all. It's just a skin that takes up app space.
...thanks anyway
Hanson68 said:
Is this your own rip or did you... uh... find it laying around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
downloaded from the net.
Nvidia has released this to the developers as these are the last 2 files needed as discussed in IRC.
http://www.mediafire.com/?u8tr869k8ef706b
Enjoy!
P.S. These should be for Gingerbread.
EDIT: Being built into ROMs right now! (It works)
im assuming gojimis ginger vegan is the only one with this built in (correct me if I'm wrong, but he posted an update shortly after this came to light) cause I wanna see the difference between builds/other roms, and more importantly (for us non developers) what does this code do? where does it go? How it affect us? Whose git hub has it implemented if one wanted to compile a kernel.
tom62015 said:
im assuming gojimis ginger vegan is the only one with this built in (correct me if I'm wrong, but he posted an update shortly after this came to light) cause I wanna see the difference between builds/other roms, and more importantly (for us non developers) what does this code do? where does it go? How it affect us? Whose git hub has it implemented if one wanted to compile a kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GoJimi has not integrated this yet, but knows of it.
This code enables hardware encoding/decoding for video and audio. It allows us to use the Stagefright framework.
I believe it goes into the ROM (not sure where, I'm not a full dev).
It will speed up the ROMs significantly and we will no longer need RockPlayer (software decoding) to view almost any video.
I don't believe its kernel related, but I could be wrong. If it is, then Scepterr is working on it, GoJimi is working on it, pershoot will probably look at it soon enough, Bumble-Bee looked at it, but I don't know if he started playing with it, and I'm sure Rothnic will play with it soon enough.
Right now, all I know from the devs in IRC is that these two files successfully compile. Other than that, I haven't heard much.
Sweet! You have just answered a lot of my video performance issue questions.
TheJesus said:
GoJimi has not integrated this yet, but knows of it.
This code enables hardware encoding/decoding for video and audio. It allows us to use the Stagefright framework.
I believe it goes into the ROM (not sure where, I'm not a full dev).
It will speed up the ROMs significantly and we will no longer need RockPlayer (software decoding) to view almost any video.
I don't believe its kernel related, but I could be wrong. If it is, then Scepterr is working on it, GoJimi is working on it, pershoot will probably look at it soon enough, Bumble-Bee looked at it, but I don't know if he started playing with it, and I'm sure Rothnic will play with it soon enough.
Right now, all I know from the devs in IRC is that these two files successfully compile. Other than that, I haven't heard much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Following is the list of Multimedia capabilities/features supported by
stagefright MMF (multi media platform) in GB,
Player: MP4, 3GP, WEBM, MKV, MPEG-2 TS , OggS
Recorder - MP4/3GP
Streaming: HTTP, RTSP, HTTPLIVE(Apple)
Audio decoders : AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MP3, VORBIS
Video decoders: H264, VPx, MPEG4, H263
Audio encoder: AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC
Video Encode: H264, H263, m4v
woohoo...should be able to play my mkvs while the wife's driving during long road trips..YESSS
Also, if mpeg-2 ts streaming becomes a reality (since stagefright in gingerbread supports it), could also watch recorded TV using the "upnplay" dlna app
exciting!!
Netflix app????
not enough drm for that
will this enable h264 high profile videos to be played?
answer: no
Tegra 2 (T20/AP20H)Processor: Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore, up to 1 GHz
8-Core Nvidia GPU
Graphics: GeForce ULP (Ultra Low Power).[12] Double 3D graphics performance of Tegra 600 series (10%-30% faster than the PowerVR SGX540 and 25%-100% faster than the Snapdragon Adreno 205)
Lower Power DDR2 / DDR2 (DDR2-667, 166 MHz)
No NEON instruction sets from ARM
1080p H.264 Main Profile/VC-1/MPEG-4 video decode
1080p H.264 video encode
JPEG encode and decode
Dual-display support
Camera support (up to 12 megapixels)
Single-channel memory controller
Will this have any impact on the performance of games like Gun Bros?
Thanks!
MC
probably not, since stagefright framework is only related to the audio/video encode/decode acceleration blocks. games have more to do with the graphics accelerator. See this
viplob said:
Following is the list of Multimedia capabilities/features supported by
stagefright MMF (multi media platform) in GB,
Player: MP4, 3GP, WEBM, MKV, MPEG-2 TS , OggS
Recorder - MP4/3GP
Streaming: HTTP, RTSP, HTTPLIVE(Apple)
Audio decoders : AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MP3, VORBIS
Video decoders: H264, VPx, MPEG4, H263
Audio encoder: AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC
Video Encode: H264, H263, m4v
woohoo...should be able to play my mkvs while the wife's driving during long road trips..YESSS
Also, if mpeg-2 ts streaming becomes a reality (since stagefright in gingerbread supports it), could also watch recorded TV using the "upnplay" dlna app
exciting!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'd be safer to play mkvs while you drive.. let the wife hold the tablet or something.
Blades said:
It'd be safer to play mkvs while you drive.. let the wife hold the tablet or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROFL! agreed (glance to make sure my wife isn't looking over shoulder)
All of this fun joy is for gingerbread only, yes? Froyo being left out in the cold?
Sent from the awesome ZTab
foobaz123 said:
All of this fun joy is for gingerbread only, yes? Froyo being left out in the cold?
Sent from the awesome ZTab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could possibly convince Nvidia to send me the versions for Froyo, but at this point GB is close to stability, so no point supporting the older version.
As to video performance/playing, yes this will allow more videos to be played natively. I'm not positive which videos it allows, but if its in Stagefright, should be playable.
For game performance, no, it is only relative to video decoding, that has to do with OpenGL or w/e they use.
TheJesus said:
I could possibly convince Nvidia to send me the versions for Froyo, but at this point GB is close to stability, so no point supporting the older version.
As to video performance/playing, yes this will allow more videos to be played natively. I'm not positive which videos it allows, but if its in Stagefright, should be playable.
For game performance, no, it is only relative to video decoding, that has to do with OpenGL or w/e they use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except for those of us who still can't boot any gingerbread ROM... :-(
Sent from the awesome ZTab
foobaz123 said:
Except for those of us who still can't boot any gingerbread ROM... :-(
Sent from the awesome ZTab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never heard of any issues booting GB ROMs :/
Even the non-Bittrix CM7?
TheJesus said:
Never heard of any issues booting GB ROMs :/
Even the non-Bittrix CM7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give it a whirl later. The issue seems to center on partitioning differences between this generation of Zpad and the Grab. Oddly, it does have any issues with TnT lite or Vegan 5.1.1. Not sure why.
Sent from the awesome ZTab
So, to all of Awesome Dev's: any plans of folding this into builds? Or is it much more complex than I am thinking.
I have booted into Vegan-Ginger, but it didn't have hardware AVI decoding for me (1 particular test file, some Roms do it, some don't, its non-standard size), and that is a ROM killer (in my book only). Other than that, it was really slick.
One of my favourite things about the Tab 10.1 is video format support. My #1 use for the device is watching videos during my morning/afternoon commutes. I download some videos the night before, and drop them onto the SD card in the AM. The Tab was able to play all of the formats I threw at it in 720p no problem, in the stock video player.
The first thing I noticed when I turned on my TouchWiz-updated tablet this morning is that none of the videos on it work. They show up as thumbnails in the gallery and video player, but cannot be played. In Moboplayer, the 720p files struggle because it's now relying on software decoding.
Is anyone having different experiences, or have a work around? I really hope this is not an intended change, or I'm probably going to return it. Too bad as I otherwise really like the update!
The update broke 720p high profile support. 720p baseline still works fine and the difference in image quality is negligible imo.
I hope they fix it in the near future, but as it stands now you either take the improved browser in this TW update, or go back to stock 3.1 or one of the older TW leaks and get 720p high profile support.
That sucks! I am assuming it is a bug and they will fix it.
I apologize for the upcoming noobish question as I'm not particularly familiar with codec's, and don't know the different between baseline and high profiles. I'm assuming I can convert one to the other in one step with handbrake? And would the difference in size be substantial?
duraeas said:
That sucks! I am assuming it is a bug and they will fix it.
I apologize for the upcoming noobish question as I'm not particularly familiar with codec's, and don't know the different between baseline and high profiles. I'm assuming I can convert one to the other in one step with handbrake? And would the difference in size be substantial?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep use handbrake and the baseline profile attached to this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
Just queue up your files and walk away. I think the files might end up slightly larger but I'm not 100% sure, either way it isn't a big difference.
I'm also assuming it's a bug as high profile playback was a feature that was added in HC 3.1
DICE player is still able to play my 720p high profile (in a mkv container) smoothly.
sylvesterrr said:
DICE player is still able to play my 720p high profile (in a mkv container) smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting... I'll grab it and try when I get home. Do you know if it is designed for the Tegra 2 and using the GPU to decode the video (I'm assuming it is otherwise it should be stuttering)?
duraeas said:
Interesting... I'll grab it and try when I get home. Do you know if it is designed for the Tegra 2 and using the GPU to decode the video (I'm assuming it is otherwise it should be stuttering)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1181938
It states it uses hw acceleration on Tegra2 devices.
all the mp4 vids i had are still playing nicely on mobo player
Can anyone comment on DivX/AVI support?
I picked up my GT10.1 today, and since it supports DivX out of the box, gave some a try. I was disappointed that the picture broke up and pixelated repeatedly on every AVI I tried. So, I installed Mobo Player and tried it in software mode, but got exactly the same results (which surprised me somewhat).
I also have an Asus Transformer, and those AVIs play flawlessly on the TF using Mobo Player in software mode (since Asus didn't add hardware support for DivX).
I'm wondering if this is related somehow to this issue, since my GT10.1 came with Touchwiz.
Regards,
Dave
720p High Profile H264 is indeed broken. Verified in Mobo Player and System Media Player.
How do I know they are high profile? I made them, and because I only encode in high profile via handbrake.
Bummer because the Tegra2 handles 720p High Profile H264 wonderfully prior to this update.
I have 4 video players loaded because the built in video player couldn't play all of the videos that I have loaded. Ironically I have the exact opposite experience of the OP, it now plays all the formats I have loaded.
TabGuy said:
I have 4 video players loaded because the built in video player couldn't play all of the videos that I have loaded. Ironically I have the exact opposite experience of the OP, it now plays all the formats I have loaded.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell us which players you use? Do you need all of them? Does one work better (produce better quality) than the others? Thanks.
hoodoomagic said:
The update broke 720p high profile support. 720p baseline still works fine and the difference in image quality is negligible imo.
I hope they fix it in the near future, but as it stands now you either take the improved browser in this TW update, or go back to stock 3.1 or one of the older TW leaks and get 720p high profile support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is extremely disappointing news because one of the things I love about the SGT is the quality of its video playback. My friend has a Xoom and he was blown away when I showed him some hi-def videos I downloaded.
I have a lot of high-def videos I downloaded straight from Vimeo, and they play flawlessly on my SGT without any conversions whatsoever. The thought of having to use Handbrake -- or anything else -- to convert every video I own is not very appealing to me. I hope Samsung fixes this problem.
cameraz said:
Can you tell us which players you use? Do you need all of them? Does one work better (produce better quality) than the others? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have mVideoPlayer, which I like the best. I also have ES Video Player which comes with the ES File Explorer. And, I also have VPlayer.
VPlayer will play anything I throw at it. I've never had it not play a video. I only downloaded it because it's required by Remote Potato. Remote Potato lets me play Recorded TV from my Windows Media Center cable card tuner.
To be honest, this is sort of souring the update for me. I'll be testing when I get home to confirm there is no problem playing back lower resolution files. Still, I like to keep a few high-def movies on my Tab and don't want to convert them all. I hope this is a very temporary problem, not something that gets fixed for the 3.2 build.
I don't know if this is related, but when I was trying out the new Kies app on my PC with my tab connected over Wifi, it (Kies on the PC) offered to download new codecs when I first tried to transfer a video over to the Tab. My PC shouldn't have needed new codecs since all the video play on my PC.
sylvesterrr said:
DICE player is still able to play my 720p high profile (in a mkv container) smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
x2, just tried it out and it worked fine with my high profile 720p videos in mkv and m4v.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.dice
Just to add, the TW update apparently fixed ac3 audio playback.
my video players including the stock player play "high profile" m4v and mkv's perfectly
what a dumb thing to do Samsung..
BluesTele said:
my video players including the stock player play "high profile" m4v and mkv's perfectly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the stockplayer can't play this pixar short movie. At least, it doesn't on my Tab... Dice Player plays it smoothly.
Code:
Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47.95 (48000/1001) -> 24.00 (24/1)
Input #0, matroska, from 'for.the.birds.2000.720p.bluray.x264-sinners.mkv':
Metadata:
doctype : matroska
Duration: 00:03:25.24, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 640 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x688, PAR 1:1 DAR 80:43, 23.98 fps, 24 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 640 kb/s
I still get lagging playing some 720p MKV's in HC. Just wondering if the ICS hardware acceleration would improve on this and make it work smoother?
I have tried all players such as MOBO, MX, RockPlayer and Dice. Sometimes when I choose HW accelration it crashes the tablet.
yazyazoo said:
I still get lagging playing some 720p MKV's in HC. Just wondering if the ICS hardware acceleration would improve on this and make it work smoother?
I have tried all players such as MOBO, MX, RockPlayer and Dice. Sometimes when I choose HW accelration it crashes the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember this is a leaked Beta rom. Thou most things do work there will still be alot of tweaking done by acer before there final push.Also many apps are not totally updated to support ICS.
So we would hope hardware acceleration will improve but to say YES would be guessing.
hope this helps .
I've just tried it, but i have to say it's not smooth at all. Maybe later
(MX player, Lightspeed_4 ROM)
yazyazoo said:
I still get lagging playing some 720p MKV's in HC. Just wondering if the ICS hardware acceleration would improve on this and make it work smoother?
I have tried all players such as MOBO, MX, RockPlayer and Dice. Sometimes when I choose HW accelration it crashes the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should try convert mkv to mp4 and use MX for play.
die_for_rock_vn said:
You should try convert mkv to mp4 and use MX for play.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I rather not try to convert since all my movies for the home is on a server. I try to stream to the Iconia but it lags. I have tried it on SDcard and it still lags. These are 720p rips of BR usually 4-6gb in size.
HW Acceleration works, even on the leak. The problem is that it doesn't support Vorbis/Theora, which are mostly used in mkv files... So these videos are never going to play really smoothly, they might work or not depending on system load and whatnot.
As to some apps not being properly ported to ICS: True, but for MX video player it is officially supported and has been for a while.
yazyazoo said:
I rather not try to convert since all my movies for the home is on a server. I try to stream to the Iconia but it lags. I have tried it on SDcard and it still lags. These are 720p rips of BR usually 4-6gb in size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issues before. A500 can't play smoothly rips of BR because it is not fast enough to process. Converting video to mp4 or wmv with lower rip-level is the only solution. Sometime the converted larger than original file but... it's work.
I use DVD catalyst 4 to convert my DVDs to MP4 for my Iconia. There are presets for the Iconia. I personally like the HQXT preset. It gives good performance for both action and slow paced movies. My movie file size is normally 1.3 gig.
Its not only mkv that has problem with ICS, its every HD video 720p and above. Even streaming videos like NBA is lagging and ugly to watch. But I know this will fixed soon because v96 video playback is really smooth.
Try streaming again using a program like Emit or Qloud. Both will re-encode the files to a specified bitrate while streaming and you can leave them on your server. I haven't tried it over 3G/4G but it works great over wifi.
yes indeed, but you need a good CPU on your computer for that.
not my case..
and frankly, seeing some low-priced chines tab running 720p without any problem makes me a bit crazy..
tegra2 was a real success.. from sellers points
but at a technical POV, not sure it's soo great
Tegra 3 Does Not Support AC3 Audio
Despite what everyone has assumed, there apparently isn't any AC3 support at all in Tegra 3. In other words, HW accelerated audio in an MKV
isn't even possible. Basically, NVIDIA gave us high profile video with no audio!
NVIDIA Tegra 3 Audio Support Specifications:
Decode
AAC-LC
AAC+
eAAC+
MP3
MP3 VBR
WAV/PCM
AMR-NB
AMR-WB
BSAC
MPEG-2 Audio
Vorbis
WMA 9
WMA Lossless
WMA Pro
G.729a *
G.711 *
QCELP *
EVRC *
* Through third party
Encode
AAC LC
AAC+
eAAC+
PCM/WAV
AMR-NB
AMR-WB
Notice that there is no mention of AC3 support!
Here is the link if you wish to check the specs yourself: http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-3-processor.html
The TF Prime, TF300 and Toshiba excite are all handicapped when playing video containing AC3 audio, such as just about every MKV.
The tf300 cannot play an MKV with audio in the built-in audio player. The video plays silent.
MX Player cannot play an MKV with HW audio. You must select software audio or else the video plays silent.
Only Dice Player can play an MKV with sound.
But, I suspect that dice player simply defaults to its own software audio and is NOT using HW audio acceleration.
The Acer Iconia on the other hand, has licensed Dolby Audio on board, and I suspect, has added codecs supplied by Dolby. It is my guess that THIS is the
reason the Iconia can play MKV's correctly.
It can play an MKV with audio in the built in player.(ASUS tf300, TF Prime, and Toshiba excite cannot)
It can play an MKV with audio in MX Player WITH HARDWARE AUDIO SELECTED! (ASUS tf300, TF Prime, and Toshiba excite cannot)
It can play an MKV with audio in Dice Player. (ASUS tf300, TF Prime can also do this because Dice apparently supplies SW audio by default.
Take away message:
Only the Acer iconia a510 has AC3 support across the board and can universally play MKV AC3 audio.
All other Tegra 3 tablets are at the mercy of the 3rd party video players and their supplied software AC3 support.
Of course in the real world, this may or may not be important to you. It is certainly possible to play MKV video quite well in Dice player on all of these tablets. However, if 3rd party support for your chosen player fails, you must understand that the built in players in these tablets will play silent with most MKV files. Only the iconia a510 does not rely on a 3rd party player for MKV playback.
As a disclaimer, I own both a Transformer and an a510 so I have no personal bias toward either. I am quite fond of both, and both have their pros and cons.
Supersoulfly: Quoted from previous thread,
Perhaps someone knows, was AC3 a problem with Tegra 2 also?
I personally am using the BS Lite player to get my MKVs to work. If Nvidia dropped the ball on this I don't see any other solutions than outside software.
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Yes it was. In fact myself and I believe another member, emote were responsible for long threads showing how to split MKV files into two parts, remove the audio, convert to another format and put them back together. The objective was to avoid having to transcode the video. Tegra 3 is much better, because at least it can handle the high profile video well, and it has the software horsepower to do the AC3 decoding. Just seems that the problem really shouldn't exist at all at this point.
Course the next thing I would be curious to know, is if exynos or snapdragon processors support AC3. If they do, it might bias me toward them in the future.
The Transformer Infinity is rumored to have (or will have) multiple processor choices. I know I would be inclined to chose the processor that supports AC3 as well as high profile video, so that MKV files just play without all the software workarounds.
I'm not too interested in the infinity yet. Really would like to see how well the Tegra 3 (or snapdragon) runs at that high resolution first. That high resolution is new territory for Android and ICS, not sure how app friendly it will be either.
Just a random thought, but I would guess it has to do with licensing fees.
bigfry said:
Just a random thought, but I would guess it has to do with licensing fees.
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This makes sense. And Wikipedia shows that AC3 is just another term for Dolby Digital, which is why it was on the Iconia tab.
bigfry said:
Just a random thought, but I would guess it has to do with licensing fees.
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Of course it has to do with licensing fees.
But can you imagine buying a Blue Ray player or Reciever that can't decode Dolby soundtracks?
Dolby digital is a pretty common format.
And when you call the company to complain that your blue ray player or reciever won't play audio, they tell you to get an external decoder for the audio, our players just handle video?
If you question the importance of their decision, ask yourself:
Why did Acer think that it was so important to get Dolby audio onto the a510? Why did Acer pay the licensing fees that NVIDIA didn't? Because someone at Acer realized that the video player on the iconia can't play any videos. And the first thing the customer is going to do when he gets home is to dump the latest episode of his favorite TV show on his Acer tablet and see how it plays. And on the Acer a510 it actually does! So why was Acer able to think through what the customer wants, and NVIDIA unable?
Remember NVIDIA is not a small outfit. They make computer gaming chips that are designed to play and support just about everthing. To not support a codec that is present in just about every downloaded movie on the planet is strange. But remember this is the same company that designed a chip, the Tegra 2, that couldn't even play high profile video. I had to transcode every movie or TV show that I played on my galaxy tab 10.1 since the day I bought it.
Have you tried to play it on Dice player ?
I think you are misunderstanding. There isn't anything wrong with MKV playback on these tablets. Dice Player works well on both the TF300 and the a510.
The point is that, the absence of audio in some players, like the stock player in the TF300 or the HW audio option of MX Player has always been assumed to be due to a fault in the video player not using the HW audio decoding capability of the NVIDIA tegra 3.
I'm just pointing out that missing hardware audio - or missing audio altogether in some of these players is because there ISN'T any ability at all in the tegra chip to decode these soundtracks. If the programmer hasn't implemented a software decoding solution, you will get no audio.
Dice Player has a software solution, it decodes AC3 and you get sound.
MX Player has a software solution, you select it manually and you get sound.
The stock player depends on Tegra 3, therefore you get no sound in your video.
The a510 has a system-wide fix for the NVIDIA's lack of decoding capability. Acer paid dolby to implement the decoding that should have been native to our tablets, so any video player will work. Even the stock player.
I'm guessing nvidia didn't include dolby digital because it would be quite pricey to license it and they want to get as many companies to use their chips as possible
so they didn't include it but if companies themselves license dolby digital they probably provide hw decoding
Well about the audio AC3 , its does play Ac3 , about 2 days ago i saw a movie with ac3 audio and works fine, you only need to download the BSplayer lite and will play all formats ...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda app-developers app
mendez84 said:
Well about the audio AC3 , its does play Ac3 , about 2 days ago i saw a movie with ac3 audio and works fine, you only need to download the BSplayer lite and will play all formats ...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda app-developers app
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Yes, you can hear AC3 audio from this tablet. The thing is, it's being decoded via software, not the actual SoC. That is the OP's gripe. Hardware decoding requires much less work for the processor, which means better battery life. Plus, it would be much smoother and more consistent than software decoding.