Database Users

[Q] so 720p/1080p video is a myth?

read too much in these forums, formatted too much on my comp.
i have got nothing but choppy video and sound delays. I dont buy into the tegra2 not being able to play 720p, that is complete crap.
but my concern is has anyone really been able to achieve some sweet 720p video? and if so can you let us know how you did so?
i have ALOT of converters so im ready to try once more before i begin to hate my life.
PS: I have absolutely no credible sources when i say this, but i believe a update of some sort will occur by this coming sunday (first week of march)

dudeimgeorge said:
read too much in these forums, formatted too much on my comp.
i have got nothing but choppy video and sound delays. I dont buy into the tegra2 not being able to play 720p, that is complete crap.
but my concern is has anyone really been able to achieve some sweet 720p video? and if so can you let us know how you did so?
i have ALOT of converters so im ready to try once more before i begin to hate my life.
PS: I have absolutely no credible sources when i say this, but i believe a update of some sort will occur by this coming sunday (first week of march)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click the link in my sig and scroll down to Video section.

Use Handbrake. Simple and works great.
Set Video kbps to 2200
Set Audio to 160 kbps and samplerate to 48
On audio I also moved DRC to 4.0
Movies look great. Just make sure it is saving to mp4 and not m4v.

dudeimgeorge said:
read too much in these forums, formatted too much on my comp.
i have got nothing but choppy video and sound delays. I dont buy into the tegra2 not being able to play 720p, that is complete crap.
but my concern is has anyone really been able to achieve some sweet 720p video? and if so can you let us know how you did so?
i have ALOT of converters so im ready to try once more before i begin to hate my life.
PS: I have absolutely no credible sources when i say this, but i believe a update of some sort will occur by this coming sunday (first week of march)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the people haven't even gotten their Xooms yet. It IS unfortunate that it doesn't come with 720p decoding build-in, but we know for a fact that Tegra2 can handle even 1080p.
So, like it or not, we'll just have to wait a bit. I'm sure they are working on proper harware-accelerated codecs. Even if Moto isn't, tons of private developers do.
We're early to the party, so grab a beer, sit down and wait for everyone to come =)

your my boy

dudeimgeorge said:
my concern is has anyone really been able to achieve some sweet 720p video? and if so can you let us know how you did so?
i have ALOT of converters so im ready to try once more before i begin to hate my life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just converted a 1080 trailer of Ice Age 4 to an MP4 file of 1920x800 res, 5000Kbps H264 video, and it plays fine.

I use Total Video Converter & it works great..!!

lacesout said:
Use Handbrake. Simple and works great.
Set Video kbps to 2200
Set Audio to 160 kbps and samplerate to 48
On audio I also moved DRC to 4.0
Movies look great. Just make sure it is saving to mp4 and not m4v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is 160 kbps for the audio going to sound that much better than 128? And is the DRC 4 going to be that different?

keitht said:
Click the link in my sig and scroll down to Video section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love you..

Ill have to give some fine tuning a chance with my videos. I just coverted a 720p copy of inception using handbrake. I used the apple preset as its listed to work with ipad so i figured it wouldnt be much difference. While the movie and audio do play as they are supposed to im not happy with the frame rate. Its by no means unwatchable. But it is not nearly as fluid as i would like and the irregularity in framerate isnt even consistent. It gets choppier(i use the term loosely) at different intervals almost like im watching a streaming video or playing on a computer whos resources are tapped out. its really annoying because i cant even really gauge the consistency of it becuase its an inconsistent problem.
Im gonna try the settings someone a few post up suggested and see if that works out better. But even if they do its really a shame as most brain dead people can use an ipad. But they expect your average consumer to be able to do all this just to play a frikkin video and still call this thing an ipad competitor?

dudeimgeorge said:
read too much in these forums, formatted too much on my comp.
i have got nothing but choppy video and sound delays. I dont buy into the tegra2 not being able to play 720p, that is complete crap.
but my concern is has anyone really been able to achieve some sweet 720p video? and if so can you let us know how you did so?
i have ALOT of converters so im ready to try once more before i begin to hate my life.
PS: I have absolutely no credible sources when i say this, but i believe a update of some sort will occur by this coming sunday (first week of march)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one ever said that Tegra 2 can't play 720p. People have said that it can't play 720p high profile, which is pretty much all 720P that one doesn't encode themselves. Basically not all hd video is created equal. Others have said that it can play 720p but is just lacking some codecs.

verusevo said:
Im gonna try the settings someone a few post up suggested and see if that works out better. But even if they do its really a shame as most brain dead people can use an ipad. But they expect your average consumer to be able to do all this just to play a frikkin video and still call this thing an ipad competitor?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apple wants all their customers to just buy stuff of iTunes, so if you do that, it's braindead, but if not, they're in the same boat as us. It only plays 720p baseline (I hear XMBC for it can do 720p high profile, but you have to jailbreak to install it) so it needs to be converted too. Handbreak with presets is what I've been doing for my iPhone 3G, 4, and now Dell Streak.
I've been researching this alot this weekend, and to summarize the issue with 720p/1020p video, the deal is with the various bitrates and profiles of h264 video in particular. NVIDIA Tegra 2 and Motorola only claim to support 720p and 1080p baseline profile. So, for conversion workarounds, there is a Handbrake preset - See Keitht's post. I don't consider this an acceptable solution of course. I keep hearing that Notion Ink Adam's can play 720p high profile after an update. It would be nice to have that player on the Xoom - follow this thread here for info on that. As for now, QQPlayer does the best for 720p high profile - my eyeball guess is that it's playing 10fps now... someone on the forums here did the 1.5ghz overclock and said it's "acceptable" but I don't feel like overclocking my xoom 50% myself
So, I think this will be addressed, eventually. There are WAY to many Tegra 2 devices coming out for someone NOT to invest the time into getting a good player for it - LG's slate, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Atrix, etc etc are all going to be Tegra 2 based.

The details in this thread definitely work, and work well. Yes it is going to take a while to convert things and yes that is a pain the ass to re-encode everything but the results ARE worth it.
THANKS

*SIGH* the trials and tribulations of the educated consumer.... why do they mock us so?!?

Great this definitely works. Just finished up a convert of Megamind 720p and it is smooth as silk.

Phylar said:
Apple wants all their customers to just buy stuff of iTunes, so if you do that, it's braindead, but if not, they're in the same boat as us. It only plays 720p baseline (I hear XMBC for it can do 720p high profile, but you have to jailbreak to install it) so it needs to be converted too. Handbreak with presets is what I've been doing for my iPhone 3G, 4, and now Dell Streak.
I've been researching this alot this weekend, and to summarize the issue with 720p/1020p video, the deal is with the various bitrates and profiles of h264 video in particular. NVIDIA Tegra 2 and Motorola only claim to support 720p and 1080p baseline profile. So, for conversion workarounds, there is a Handbrake preset - See Keitht's post. I don't consider this an acceptable solution of course. I keep hearing that Notion Ink Adam's can play 720p high profile after an update. It would be nice to have that player on the Xoom - follow this thread here for info on that. As for now, QQPlayer does the best for 720p high profile - my eyeball guess is that it's playing 10fps now... someone on the forums here did the 1.5ghz overclock and said it's "acceptable" but I don't feel like overclocking my xoom 50% myself
So, I think this will be addressed, eventually. There are WAY to many Tegra 2 devices coming out for someone NOT to invest the time into getting a good player for it - LG's slate, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Atrix, etc etc are all going to be Tegra 2 based.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny because I ordered a Notion Ink Adam before the Xoom came out and should ship next week. Since I got the Xoom, I do not want to open the box so I can sell it brand new unopened. Wish I could at least test the video.

So can anyone tell me does the "High Profile" mean like high compression because when I am doing re-encodes with the previous posted Handbrake settings I am seeing almost double the file output size of the original?

Nvious1 said:
So can anyone tell me does the "High Profile" mean like high compression because when I am doing re-encodes with the previous posted Handbrake settings I am seeing almost double the file output size of the original?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The profile setting indicates the quality of the video stream. There are lots of different profiles within the h.264/avc/mpeg-4 standards but the most common are (snaffled from wikipedia):
Baseline Profile (BP)
Primarily for low-cost applications that require additional data loss robustness, this profile is used in some videoconferencing and mobile applications. This profile includes all features that are supported in the Constrained Baseline Profile, plus three additional features that can be used for loss robustness (or for other purposes such as low-delay multi-point video stream compositing). The importance of this profile has faded somewhat since the definition of the Constrained Baseline Profile in 2009. All Constrained Baseline Profile bitstreams are also considered to be Baseline Profile bitstreams, as these two profiles share the same profile identifier code value.
Constrained Baseline Profile (CBP)
Primarily for low-cost applications, this profile is most typically used in videoconferencing and mobile applications. It corresponds to the subset of features that are in common between the Baseline, Main, and High Profiles described below.
Main Profile (MP)
This profile is used for standard-definition digital TV broadcasts that use the MPEG-4 format as defined in the DVB standard.[20] It is not, however, used for high-definition television broadcasts, as the importance of this profile faded when the High Profile was developed in 2004 for that application.
High Profile (HiP)
The primary profile for broadcast and disc storage applications, particularly for high-definition television applications (for example, this is the profile adopted by the Blu-ray Disc storage format and the DVB HDTV broadcast service).
You'll probably find a lot of movies available via "usual sources" are in high profile. On mobile devices these usually require some form of hardware acceleration to play due to the high bitrate. Not sure if there are many tablets that can play 1080p high profile natively. The Galaxy Tab is certainly one, but those devices with Tegra 2 chipsets do seem to have a hardware limitation with regards to playing high profile (and hence high bitrate) video. It'll be interesting to see how the Samsung 10.1 fares, as that happens to also have the Tegra 2 chipset. Samsung have always been good at hardware accelerating video, so it would be a backwards step for them to release a new device that can't play media that their previous device could.

paul so basically the xoom can only do 720 p baseline?
do apps like Rockplayer and Vplayer help? (without converting)

SS2006 said:
paul so basically the xoom can only do 720 p baseline?
do apps like Rockplayer and Vplayer help? (without converting)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure 720p baseline should be fine with any player. 1080p baseline should be fine. Probably main profile too. The problems arise with high profile HD material, which unfortunately is what a lot of stuff out there is encoded with. Then again, I guess most people aren't going to stuff HD movies on their tablets. The 4GB max file size on fat32 gets in the way as much as anything else .
As an aside. I've been using Plex server to transcode and stream movies (including bluray rips) from nas to tablet (running Plex player) with excellent results. But that's probably best left for another topic...

720P Playback horrible?

Hey guys,
So they boast about the 1080p playback on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, however I haven't had much luck with this. I tried putting on two different 720p video files on and both of them have sub-par playback.
One of them is an MP4 with h.264 and it plays okay on the default video (gallery) player but theres a bit of a stutter and doesn't play extremely well.
The other is an h.264 MKV and that doesn't even play audio in certain cases and the video doesn't play well at all under the default gallery application.
I tried three other media players - rock media player, Vplayer, and doubletwist and none of them play it any better. I find it sort of strange that it's having trouble handling these sorts of files. I can maybe understand the MKV file but the standard MP4 file is a little concerning

I find Vital Player performs better than the ones you have already mentioned. QQplayer is ok sometimes too and I've heard people talking about drobo player but I have not tried yet.

VitalPlayer played my mp4 a little better almost perfect with hardware decoding, however the mkv was still problematic :-/

Try:
MoboPlayer
and
MoboPlayer Codec for ARMV7VFP3
It bring in Tegra 2 Support not yet optimized but still pretty good.
Also if you have rooted your tab take your CPU off interactive (Default and horrible) and put it on Performance or OnDemand.

50-3 said:
Try:
MoboPlayer
and
MoboPlayer Codec for ARMV7VFP3
It bring in Tegra 2 Support not yet optimized but still pretty good.
Also if you have rooted your tab take your CPU off interactive (Default and horrible) and put it on Performance or OnDemand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a software flaw , it'tegra limitation to playback high profiles encoded files. Tegra allow hardware decoding of main profile Encode file only.

50-3 said:
Try:
MoboPlayer
and
MoboPlayer Codec for ARMV7VFP3
It bring in Tegra 2 Support not yet optimized but still pretty good.
Also if you have rooted your tab take your CPU off interactive (Default and horrible) and put it on Performance or OnDemand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, I haven't tried MoboPlayer yet but I will give it a go tonight. In regards to the cpu being on interactive. What?! Really? I was trying to find a reason to root and that might be one is to put it on OnDemand.
aefelix said:
It's not a software flaw , it'tegra limitation to playback high profiles encoded files. Tegra allow hardware decoding of main profile Encode file only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly do you mean by this? I'm having trouble understanding your last statement.

kentoe said:
What exactly do you mean by this? I'm having trouble understanding your last statement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he's saying that altering your CPU probably wont make much of a difference since it's the lack of GPU hardware decoding for high profile encoded videos that's likely causing any kind of stuttering. In short, it's not your CPU's fault or Honeycomb's fault, it's your GPU's fault.

RickBaller said:
I think he's saying that altering your CPU probably wont make much of a difference since it's the lack of GPU hardware decoding for high profile encoded videos that's likely causing any kind of stuttering. In short, it's not your CPU's fault or Honeycomb's fault, it's your GPU's fault.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, I find it odd though that when selecting hardware in certain players it does play better. But when selecting software in some players it plays better than other players hardware. It just seems like some sort of issue that isn't really making much sense.

Yeah, moboplayer wasn't any better either :-/

It is Tegra limitation and it is a problem for ALL Tegra 2 based tablets.
Go to any forum Xoom, Transformer, Adam Ink... i is general issue.
If one wants to play movies (and do other "super advanced stuff") one should have buy a previus generation tablet like Galaxy Tab 7" or Archos, etc.
Some of us still hope that retail GT 10.1 will come in with Exynos CPU instead of Tegra. If not it, than quite a lot of phones will be more powerfull than Tegra 2 tablet computers.
+ none of new tabs is divix certified like some of the old ones were :-(
I wonder how will TouchPad perform in that matter?
If GT 10.1 is indeed Tegra 2 based I am in trouble.
Watching movies (in bed) is quite important to me.
I will either wait for 10" HTC or Amazon tablet (gossip goes it will have Kal-El inside) or I'll just get iPad 2 (seems to be more capable in that regard than new Android tablets).

galtom said:
It is Tegra limitation and it is a problem for ALL Tegra 2 based tablets.
Go to any forum Xoom, Transformer, Adam Ink... i is general issue.
If one wants to play movies (and do other "super advanced stuff") one should have buy a previus generation tablet like Galaxy Tab 7" or Archos, etc.
Some of us still hope that retail GT 10.1 will come in with Exynos CPU instead of Tegra. If not it, than quite a lot of phones will be more powerfull than Tegra 2 tablet computers.
+ none of new tabs is divix certified like some of the old ones were :-(
I wonder how will TouchPad perform in that matter?
If GT 10.1 is indeed Tegra 2 based I am in trouble.
Watching movies (in bed) is quite important to me.
I will either wait for 10" HTC or Amazon tablet (gossip goes it will have Kal-El inside) or I'll just get iPad 2 (seems to be more capable in that regard than new Android tablets).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the ipad2 better at video playback?

If jailbroken - YES.
Its CPU (by Samsung) is more capable than Tegra 2 .

galtom said:
If jailbroken - YES.
Its CPU (by Samsung) is more capable than Tegra 2 .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the iPad2 and Asus Transformer which uses the Tegra 2. My iPad 2 is not jailbroken and it surpasses the Asus Transformer for video playback. My iPad2 plays High Profile 720p MP4 with the stock player, and with AVPlayerHD from the App Store, I can play High Profile 720p MKV and it will support embedded subtitles along with xvid/divx avi formats.
The Transformer chokes on anything High Profile. Sure you can use Moboplayer or Vital Player as they support subtitles, but they only support external subtitles and they still can't play High Profile.
Don't get me wrong here; I'm not an Apple fanboy at all. Just clearing up that iPad2 is the better video player period and does not need to be jailbroken to do so.

songmeesay said:
I have the iPad2 and Asus Transformer which uses the Tegra 2. My iPad 2 is not jailbroken and it surpasses the Asus Transformer for video playback. My iPad2 plays High Profile 720p MP4 with the stock player, and with AVPlayerHD from the App Store, I can play High Profile 720p MKV and it will support embedded along subtitles along with xvid/divx avi formats.
The Transformer chokes on anything High Profile. Sure you can use Moboplayer or Vital Player as they support subtitles, but they only support external subtitles and they still can't play High Profile.
Don't get me wrong here; I'm not an Apple fanboy at all. Just clearing up that iPad2 is the better video player period and does not need to be jailbroken to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is the Ipad with youtube playback? It really bothers me that the tegra 2 tablets can't play videos in "hq" mode without horrible stuttering. I'm hoping 3.1 fixes this.

Ah, YouTube is a different story. The YouTube videos that the iPad can play are excellent... if they aren't Flash! However, there are browsers like Skyfire in the app market that plays flash but I haven't tried it yet. From reading reviews, 3.1 does seem to address those issues. All in all for YouTube, the Asus has the upperhand especially if you watch YouTube on the stock browser.

songmeesay said:
Ah, YouTube is a different story. The YouTube videos that the iPad can play are excellent... if they aren't Flash! However, there are browsers like Skyfire in the app market that plays flash but I haven't tried it yet. From reading reviews, 3.1 does seem to address those issues. All in all for YouTube, the Asus has the upperhand especially if you watch YouTube on the stock browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried watching youtube videos on the transformer with the youtube application and it was pretty bad. That was a while ago, is it better now?
Sorry for the derail.

I'm having no problems with the couple videos I'm watching now through the YouTube app. The only problem I get with YouTube is, of course, the HD playback in the browser but again I believe the Xoom owners have reported 3.1 fixes that.

Video playback capabilities of these Tegra Honeycomb tablets is a bit frustrating! My SGSII plays video and handles in-browser flash better (as in much better). I guess I will be connecting my phone to my television when I want to watch 1080p video, rather than my tablet...

songmeesay said:
From reading reviews, 3.1 does seem to address those issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3.1 indeed helped with streaming performance (like YT) but mkv High Profile is still "no go"
NZtechfreak said:
Video playback capabilities of these Tegra Honeycomb tablets is a bit frustrating! My SGSII plays video and handles in-browser flash better (as in much better). I guess I will be connecting my phone to my television when I want to watch 1080p video, rather than my tablet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True... but in that case... why would I get a tablet?
Or (that will be the case for a lot of ppl.) if you can only afford one of those?
New (fully capable) smartphone or tablet (that can only do some of the thing phone can but has bigger screen). Which one?
Not, to mention... what is the point in creating device, a tablet COMPUTER that is beaten in functionality and performance by phone.
HEY!! Samsung, instead crappy 10.1v (or 10.1 if it is with Tegra) make Samsung Galaxy S II in XL size - that is all most of us needs right now (+ Honeycomb) - and we're sorted .

galtom said:
HEY!! Samsung, instead crappy 10.1v (or 10.1 if it is with Tegra) make Samsung Galaxy S II in XL size - that is all most of us needs right now (+ Honeycomb) - and we're sorted .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, but to be honest with all these reviews of the I/O versions and those boasting Tegra2, it seems the new official 10.1 will have it. I'm really back and forth about returning my Transformer to try a new 10.1 out. I mean I only plan to keep either one until the Tegra3 Kal-el tablets start rolling in (Asus and Amazon rumored to roll some out this year). Financially it'd be smarter to just stick with my Transformer, but I've always been about design and build and the Samsung sure looks like it has the Transformer beat. Trade off for build and form factor are the loss of the microSD expansion though, which means (according to the J&R pre-order pricing) I'd have to spend $599 for a 32GB Sammy vs. the $399 16GB Transformer+$35 16GB class 10 microSD card.

tips for playing back 720p mkv

I am having problems playing back 720p move on the device. They stutter with rock player and qqplayer. Any suggestions?

Transcode them to different profile - like mp4 or avi. Or still mkv but main or base profile (I suspect that your movies are in High Profile) that is not supported by Tegra 2. :-(
This problem showed up with release of Xoom and everyone with Tegra 2 tablet has the same problem. As all Honeycomb tablets on the market are essentially the same it is not possible to see if it would be OK on a different CPU/SOC. :-(

>Any suggestions?
Drag-drop.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922

galtom said:
Transcode them to different profile - like mp4 or avi. Or still mkv but main or base profile (I suspect that your movies are in High Profile) that is not supported by Tegra 2. :-(
This problem showed up with release of Xoom and everyone with Tegra 2 tablet has the same problem. As all Honeycomb tablets on the market are essentially the same it is not possible to see if it would be OK on a different CPU/SOC. :-(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's dissapointing. My epic 4g can play 720p mkv straight withou conversion. Is this a problem that can be fixed in the future or will they always need conversion?

Vplayer, maybe? Try the 7 day Trial version first, though it's just about 5 usd. It seems to have more coded emmbedded too.

fhurricane said:
That's dissapointing. My epic 4g can play 720p mkv straight withou conversion. Is this a problem that can be fixed in the future or will they always need conversion?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3.1 brought the update to be able to play certain high profile 720p movies in a mp4 container, which was a big step. I'm not sure how much further it'll get since it's a Tegra 2 limitation. This is why Boxee Box dropped the Tegra 2 chipset. We'll have to rely on the devs of market players to take advantage of the 3.1 release for high profile MKV support (not sure if any of the players are capable yet as I haven't been reading the Transformer or other tablet forums. There's at least a couple threads on 720p playback in each tablet forum). Hopefully they can also incorporate the lights out mode instead of having the whole home task bar on the bottom. These limitations are also another reason why a lot of us are very much looking forward to Kal-el.

songmeesay said:
3.1 brought the update to be able to play certain high profile 720p movies in a mp4 container, which was a big step. I'm not sure how much further it'll get since it's a Tegra 2 limitation. This is why Boxee Box dropped the Tegra 2 chipset. We'll have to rely on the devs of market players to take advantage of the 3.1 release for high profile MKV support (not sure if any of the players are capable yet as I haven't been reading the Transformer or other tablet forums. There's at least a couple threads on 720p playback in each tablet forum). Hopefully they can also incorporate the lights out mode instead of having the whole home task bar on the bottom. These limitations are also another reason why a lot of us are very much looking forward to Kal-el.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a official source for this limitation?

The limitation that every android Tegra 2 tablet owner is experiencing is official enough for me. When I said I'm not sure how much further it'll get, I was more talking along the lines of 1080p High Profile.

songmeesay said:
The limitation that every android Tegra 2 tablet owner is experiencing is official enough for me. When I said I'm not sure how much further it'll get, I was more talking along the lines of 1080p High Profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't think we'll ever see any 1080p high profile playback from Tegra 2 based devices.
I've watched many full length action movies in high profile 720p h264 on the XOOM under HC 3.1, and 720p playback is much improved, but still not perfect. The video will seem flawless for a while, and then when you come to a scene with a lot of heavy action, particularly where the camera pans across the scene, the video will sometimes fall totally to pieces. Slowdown, stuttering and skipped frames - a real mess. These occurrences are very brief and infrequent, but seriously annoying when they occur. For full length action films I've gone back to transcoding the video to baseline profile.
The Tegra 2 handles high profile 720p video only well enough for casual viewing in my opinion - TV shows, comedies that sort of thing.

Digital Man said:
I really don't think we'll ever see any 1080p high profile playback from Tegra 2 based devices.
I've watched many full length action movies in high profile 720p h264 on the XOOM under HC 3.1, and 720p playback is much improved, but still not perfect. The video will seem flawless for a while, and then when you come to a scene with a lot of heavy action, particularly where the camera pans across the scene, the video will sometimes fall totally to pieces. Slowdown, stuttering and skipped frames - a real mess. These occurrences are very brief and infrequent, but seriously annoying when they occur. For full length action films I've gone back to transcoding the video to baseline profile.
The Tegra 2 handles high profile 720p video only well enough for casual viewing in my opinion - TV shows, comedies that sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That input is greatly appreciated. It'll save me some time when I do my re-encodes.

e.mote said:
>Any suggestions?
Drag-drop.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this, still yielded an unplayable file.
edit: nvm, plays with stock player, but not rock player

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
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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
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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?
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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Guess you'll have to "blame" every single manufacturer out there who have a Honeycomb tablet out too, then.
OrionBG said:
tl;dr
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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.

Poor Video Playback

So, bought the Gtab on Friday, got a 32gb unlocked (Sweet). So, here is the problem that appears to be happening to almost everyone.
My video playback is Horrible, I've tried multiple codex's, and different Resolutions.
The videos so far i've tried.
3,343 Kbps 1280x720 at 29.970 fps, AVC ([email protected]) (CABAC / 4 Ref Frames) .MP4 Container, Very Choppy.
1,390 Kbps 640x272 23.976 fps MPEG-4 Visual (Xvid) Advanced [email protected]) (BVOP2) .avi Container Very Choppy
5,000 Kbps 1280x720 29.970 fps, VC-1 (WMV3) ([email protected]) .wmv Container Plays Flawlessly
Everything but the .wmv will play flawlessly on my Vibrant. Actually .wmv's are the only thing that i have found that won't play on my Vibrant.
I will test more configurations, but so far i'm not pleased with the video playback on the galaxy tablet.
I've tried other video players off the market, Moboplayer, mVideoplayer, haven't tried RockPlayer yet, but i had it on my vibrant and I felt the playback was not as good. Maybe i'll try it on Honeycomb.
So, I guess list your experiences so far, and suggestions. I will update as I go and find things.

Reserved... (Pending List of known formats)
Working Audio Codex's (So far):
AAC Low Complexity 2 Channel, Best
MP3 2 Channel
WMA 2 Channel
None Working Audio Codec:
AC-3 (Any Channel)
Working Video Codex:
AVC/H.264 Base Profile for 720p/1080p 3 Ref Frames, 0 B Frames
MPEG-4 Visual (Xvid) (Unknown limitations)
VC-1 (Unknown limitations)

Vplayer works great for me

Unfortunately, the fact that Samsung kept their hands out of Honeycomb has a downside. As far as I know, the Tab supports no more video types than stock Honeycomb. Which results in almost no good support at all. I've come to deal with it and you can, too.
The majority of my videos (720p and 1080p mkv) are converted and compressed while maintaining the quality by using this setup:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
Worth it.

tsunami1609 said:
Unfortunately, the fact that Samsung kept their hands out of Honeycomb has a downside. As far as I know, the Tab supports no more video types than stock Honeycomb. Which results in almost no good support at all. I've come to deal with it and you can, too.
The majority of my videos (720p and 1080p mkv) are converted and compressed while maintaining the quality by using this setup:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
Worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that this morning and tried it, i Converted 3 different files, and tried different settings, and they all run like crap. I guess i will try some other settings on it.

Who thinks Sammy should use Exynos in the tab? Tegra does not seem to be very friendly with respect to playback. I find it tough to believe that Tab looks so sluggish compared to GS2.

Just download a different movie player app. MoboPlayer works great, and it's free.

I downloaded Hall Pass 720 BRRip xvid and it looks amazing and works great...
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App

DroidHam said:
I downloaded Hall Pass 720 BRRip xvid and it looks amazing and works great...
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And its a .avi
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App

Whats wrong with just converting everything to hi-def MP4 on your desktop/laptop and dumping on your tablet? I mean the iPad does it with great success and gives the user the impression that it can play every video format??
The tab is a 10" screen, just about any video format 720p and above (hell even some 480p) will look just as good as 1080p on your 40-50" tv screen....or am I missing something???

kponti said:
Whats wrong with just converting everything to hi-def MP4 on your desktop/laptop and dumping on your tablet? I mean the iPad does it with great success and gives the user the impression that it can play every video format??
The tab is a 10" screen, just about any video format 720p and above (hell even some 480p) will look just as good as 1080p on your 40-50" tv screen....or am I missing something???
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What program and settings do you use, then?

Ok, I just purchased the 10.1. I use it alot to play back mp4 and m4v videos that have been encoded by Handbrake. What I've noticed on the 10.1 is that while they look excellent, when panning, the video pans with a jerky motion and is not smooth.
Any suggestions? I've looked around the forum but have not found anything definite. I've encoded the video at 720p.

From what i've read and researched, Tegra 2 only supports H.264 with Mainline Profile, Meaning 3 Reference Frames and no B frames, i've encoded several 720p Videos that way at 5Mbps and they play flawlessly.
While researching, i came across someone that came up with a Profile on Handbrake. That is what I've been using to encode my videos and so far, everything works great.
I will continue to do more Research.

Just a fyi, it does support High Profile, but with a max of 4 reference frames and 3 B frames.
Check the very first post here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
It also includes presets for High and Baseline.

buri73 said:
Background
As I understand it, Tegra 2 should playback up to High Profile 720p and Main Profile 1080p. However, with limitation on Honeycomb and/or lack of driver release by Nvidia, current crop of HC tablets do not playback anything above Baseline Profile smoothly. Future updates by Google/Nvidia should fix this issue, but it looks like we may have to reencode High/Main profile media for the time being.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even he says it, Tegra 2 currently doesn't support anything above Baseprofile because of driver limitations
But that thread is a Very good reference on how to encode video using handbrake, for Tegra 2 Devices.

He wrote that before the 3.1 update. He should really take that out.
buri73 said:
Update 5/28: Honeycomb 3.1 upgraded TF101 can playback 720p High Profile natively!
Verified with native player and Mobo(HW playback). Modified steps 3-3.1 to reflect HP settings, added HP preset and sample. Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Ahh I see it, right at the top, right now im testing it out, encoding a 720p video using his High Profile.

Metzenw said:
I found that this morning and tried it, i Converted 3 different files, and tried different settings, and they all run like crap. I guess i will try some other settings on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only converted mkv files, but for 720p ones I use 1280 max output width, 20 video quality, live video type, high h.264 profile, and veryfast encode speed. For 1080p I just change the profile from high to baseline. All of my videos (with the exception of Avatar.....Man that's a long movie) are cut by two thirds. I guess I should mention though that I have a Motorola Xoom til I can sell it and get a Tab
If that doesn't work, just contact the OP of that post. He's really good at giving prompt replies.

Thanks for the information guys, I really appreciate it!

I just got my tab today and I am bitterly disappointed in how poor it is in terms of formts supported. Non of my avi or mkv files play (and when I use a 3rd party app they lag like crazy).