Database Users

Playing Divx/Xvid and Mkvs on Tmo Tab

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).
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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?
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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?
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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
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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?
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Click to collapse
downloaded from the net.

Native support for XVID and MKV files??

Is there current support or plans to support XVID and MKV files natively? Ive tried the "Rock Player" and its not very reliable.

mobo player plays avi's very well no jerkiness at all. it plays mkv's pretty well also. as far as natively, i have no clue...

Crimton said:
mobo player plays avi's very well no jerkiness at all. it plays mkv's pretty well also. as far as natively, i have no clue...
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Click to collapse
I thought it was established that high profile H264 MKVs (pretty much 90% of what's floating out there) didn't play well on the TF101 because of the Tegra 2's shortcomings?

logic88 said:
I thought it was established that high profile H264 MKVs (pretty much 90% of what's floating out there) didn't play well on the TF101 because of the Tegra 2's shortcomings?
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In 3.1 some of them play but with limited frame rate.

I was hoping for the same thing all the 720p files I have don't work,
It doesn't even see them as a video file,
Bit gutted that I have to convert them,
Strangely the Archos 101 plays all of them fine without any issues,
So not sure what the issue is or if it is codec related as the arches does have a archos cinema plugin installed..

I tried moboplayer and rockplayer at first. And i managed to play MKV's smoothly, but only when started from the gallery. When I open the same mkv directly from moboplayer or rockplayer the movie didn't play smooth at all. So I tried mVideoPlayer. After i installed mVideoPlayer my mkv's play smooth anyway I open them. The best part is that the stockplayer plays MKV's as well (but dosn't have support for subtitles).
But the main problem is that most mkv's have 5.1 sound, this is not supported, you can convert the soundtrack with mkvavi2mp4 or convert the whole movie with handbrake (takes a lot longer).

Does this tablet do MKV natively?

I watch a lot of anime and that would be the primary function of this tablet for me. I was wondering if this tablet could handle the 720p/1080p mkv files encoded in h624. and also if they support subtitles.
here is a test file for current 10.1 owners.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9ZQAFZIZ

I got lots of anime 720P MKV files. They won't play on any Tegra 2 tablet I've had, including this one.

There video player apps in the Market that will play MKV.. but they don't usually support hardware acceleration so it'll prolly be very choppy :/
There's not a tablet out in existence im aware of that can play MKV with hardware accel.. sigh.

Galaxy Tab 7" can, and I suspect the HTC Flyer could too.
Regards,
Dave

First thing I do with all my anime mkv is to convert them to mp4 with the subs burned in, with Handbrake. I prefer this because it takes the guess work out of not knowing if this device will play such and such mkv, and everything handles mp4 nowadays moreso than mkv. Even Archos devices that are the king of media codecs and formats have problems with some mkv files even, because as a container an mkv file could contain a myriad combo of codecs.

LordLugard said:
First thing I do with all my anime mkv is to convert them to mp4 with the subs burned in, with Handbrake. I prefer this because it takes the guess work out of not knowing if this device will play such and such mkv, and everything handles mp4 nowadays moreso than mkv. Even Archos devices that are the king of media codecs and formats have problems with some mkv files even, because as a container an mkv file could contain a myriad combo of codecs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I'm just using handbrake to convert all my movies to mp4 so there is no worry. Handbrake will let you queue up items so you can basically just let it run.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

When the TouchWiz update comes out expect this tablet to get a lot more media friendly.

Mine would appear to play mkv files no problem, although I can't control them, fast forward or jump to a certain point, which means I wouldn't want to rely on it.
(Stock player and Vplayer on 3.1)
**EDIT ** Actually, the sound is not in sync...

th0r615 said:
When the TouchWiz update comes out expect this tablet to get a lot more media friendly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't bet on it. tergra 2 can't handle the throughput of most high profile hd. it can handle some but it's very picky. it also chokes on ac3 and has a hard time with aac multichannel sound. i have some multichanel files that'll play and some won't.
tegra 2 is no media powerhouse. imho the archos 101 is still the best for all the files it can play, but it's quality is lackluster... and the screen sucks.

It doesn't do it natively, but MoboPlayer is a great app (free) for it. It will handle 720p MKV no problem.

it can handle some 720p mkv. its very hard to make a general statement for files higher than main profile and 2 channel sound.
tegra is limited on media playback. check all the other tegra 2 forums. this is the reason boxee box dropped tegra 2.
don't get me wrong, I love the tablet, but there are some limitations to expect with media playback. it's not even as goog as the gt7".

madsquabbles said:
it can handle some 720p mkv. its very hard to make a general statement for files higher than main profile and 2 channel sound.
tegra is limited on media playback. check all the other tegra 2 forums. this is the reason boxee box dropped tegra 2.
don't get me wrong, I love the tablet, but there are some limitations to expect with media playback. it's not even as goog as the gt7".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
Tegra 2 has awful performance in alot of areas. Video playback and portrait view basically slow it to a crawl.

xManMythLegend said:
This.
Tegra 2 has awful performance in alot of areas. Video playback and portrait view basically slow it to a crawl.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hardly think portrait view slowing down has to do with the hardware. More likely HC.

I use my tab for MKV's all the time. RockPlayer Lite handles it like a champ. Perfect audio and all. Scrubbing works fine too. Just select software decoding mode when playing the videos

I found a program caled XenonMKV which rips the mp4 out of the mkv container and converts the audio to aac. It's a much faster process since there is no video re-encoding involved and it works 'ok'. It still skips a bit but it at least kind of works smoothly most of the time.
EDIT: tried RockPlayer Lite Software & Hardware and it was still stuttery from time to time. (3500kbps 720p mkv and mp4 from XenonMKV)
I think if you had a Max bitrate of about 3mbps or less and it wasn't AC3 it could do it.

slal said:
It doesn't do it natively, but MoboPlayer is a great app (free) for it. It will handle 720p MKV no problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you actually test this ?
I'm very concerned about video support in honeycomb tablets, and in galaxy tab in particular. I don't understand why, but it seems this feature has been left behind in every honeycomb tablet, whereas SGS and SGS 2 handle 720p mkv with hardware acceleration very well in stock video player. I just don't understand what the manufacturers are doing.

I can't even transfer that large of a file on my tab. It hangs and stops at the end. Weird.

Handbrake is free and works like a champ to convert any file. I'm using it on the @pple tv2 settings with some minor tweaks
Sent from my Galaxy Tab 10.1 using Tapatalk

Just watched an mkv last night thanks to vplayer. No problems

im.thatoneguy said:
I think if you had a Max bitrate of about 3mbps or less and it wasn't AC3 it could do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this. also, if the movie is quite slow (not much of on screen action, etc) i had good results at around 5mbps too and mp3 audio.

Best video player I have used! MX Player

Just a heads up - noticed a app I had not seen on the market before, MX player. Codec pack with specific support for the Tegra chipset, and so far it has done a *great* job with a few different formats I have thrown at it. Have not tried 720 or 1080 yet, but I think this one is worth checking out.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/mx-videoplayer/com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad
or just search MX player on the market.

Which formats have you tried?

Looks great!
I tried a couple of videos (mostly divx) and everything looks good.
You'll need to install two packages:
MX VideoPlayer
MX VideoPlayer Codec (ARMv7)
Nice interface, no scarring/blurring. I was looking for a good video player (to go with my shiny 32GB SDHC) -- much appreciated.

officetally said:
Which formats have you tried?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far, avi, mkv, wmv, mov, flv and all seem fine.
Downloading a 720 and 1080 sample in mkv now for testing, will report back.
[update] 720 was great - smooth and nice.
1080 was a nightmare, dropping frames like mad.

I'm going to try this one:
http://bit.ly/pixarhdtrailer (via demo-world.eu)
update: this particular trailer is not supported by HW decoder.
Not an issue for me; hopefully someone can test a HW decoder-supported 1080p format file.

entropy.of.avarice said:
So far, avi, mkv, wmv, mov, flv and all seem fine.
Downloading a 720 and 1080 sample in mkv now for testing, will report back.
[update] 720 was great - smooth and nice.
1080 was a nightmare, dropping frames like mad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume the sample files you downloaded are H.264 and then you need to know if they're baseline-, main- or high-profile. Just saying 1080p drops frames like mad is not enough. Then again, even the stock player plays 1080p just fine if it's baseline-profile, so I'd say whatever you were playing wasn't baseline. And well, Tegra2 simply does not have the beef to play non-baseline 1080p, it's simply too demanding.

Just like Moboplayer it doesn't show the subtitles in my .mkv file nor does it scale the anamorphic aspect ...

AC3 support?
Hi,
imho both this MX and MoboPlayer are on par, very useful where MoboPlayer is ad-free!
Still haven't found a solution for playing AC3-audio-encoded MKV/AVI files. Either no sound at all or stutter when soft-decoding ...
Marcher

lol @ ad supported
I'm rooted and running ad-free android, had no idea this player used any kids of ads, never see any of them lol
Subtitles work just fine. They are supported.

WereCatf said:
I assume the sample files you downloaded are H.264 and then you need to know if they're baseline-, main- or high-profile. Just saying 1080p drops frames like mad is not enough. Then again, even the stock player plays 1080p just fine if it's baseline-profile, so I'd say whatever you were playing wasn't baseline. And well, Tegra2 simply does not have the beef to play non-baseline 1080p, it's simply too demanding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much, WereCatf! I am actually a little behind the times when it comes to HD video formats and how they work, that helped make some sense of it. So I am assuming if i have non-baseline 1080p I can just convert it for the Iconia?

entropy.of.avarice said:
Thanks so much, WereCatf! I am actually a little behind the times when it comes to HD video formats and how they work, that helped make some sense of it. So I am assuming if i have non-baseline 1080p I can just convert it for the Iconia?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Handbrake works fine for transcoding things. I'm just in the middle of our guild raid in WoW, but I can post Handbrake settings for both 720p high-profile and 1080p baseline-profile in two or two-and-a-half hours.
But do keep in mind that if you're just watching the video on your tablet, not on a big screen via HDMI, then there's no point in watching 1080p at all because the tablet screen is only 720p resolution. You'll save storage space if you transcode to high-profile 720p in that case.

WereCatf said:
Yeah, Handbrake works fine for transcoding things. I'm just in the middle of our guild raid in WoW, but I can post Handbrake settings for both 720p high-profile and 1080p baseline-profile in two or two-and-a-half hours.
But do keep in mind that if you're just watching the video on your tablet, not on a big screen via HDMI, then there's no point in watching 1080p at all because the tablet screen is only 720p resolution. You'll save storage space if you transcode to high-profile 720p in that case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet! Would be most grateful for that, I travel with my a500 often and hook into displays via video out, would be most grateful for those profiles.
Thank you for your help!

entropy.of.avarice said:
Sweet! Would be most grateful for that, I travel with my a500 often and hook into displays via video out, would be most grateful for those profiles.
Thank you for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a separate thread for that: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1184002

Video and audio still out of sync when I play my 720p mkv files. I'll stick with mobo since its ad free.

Great find to the OP. I just played an h264 sample 720p mp4 in hardware decode mode with MX player, and while it dropped very few frames, Rock Player absolutely refused to play it.

kjy2010 said:
Great find to the OP. I just played an h264 sample 720p mp4 in hardware decode mode with MX player, and while it dropped very few frames, Rock Player absolutely refused to play it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Have really been enjoying this player, Rock Player and mobo player have choked at so many files I've thrown at it - while Mx player seems to have no issues with them.
Thanks to Werecatf - i have used Mx player to output 1080 via HDMI out via this player with very few dropped frames - everything looks great.
To those of you annoyed by the ads - assuming you are rooted - just install a ad-blocker. From the market, "ad free android" works fantastic for me, free package, I have not seen a single ad since I installed.

onelane said:
Video and audio still out of sync when I play my 720p mkv files. I'll stick with mobo since its ad free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange - played quite a few 720p files without this problem. Sorry to hear it. Does mobo player work without these sync issues? All i get from moboplayer is force closes and erratic behaviour - no idea why.

entropy.of.avarice said:
Thanks! Have really been enjoying this player, Rock Player and mobo player have choked at so many files I've thrown at it - while Mx player seems to have no issues with them.
Thanks to Werecatf - i have used Mx player to output 1080 via HDMI out via this player with very few dropped frames - everything looks great.
To those of you annoyed by the ads - assuming you are rooted - just install a ad-blocker. From the market, "ad free android" works fantastic for me, free package, I have not seen a single ad since I installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got two clickety clicks, one for the player, and one for adfree!

mrvanes said:
Just like Moboplayer it doesn't show the subtitles in my .mkv file ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for subtitle I just burn in when I encode using the handbrake...
works just fine.

Moboplayer works great for me. I like mxplayer, but mobo has a nicer UI, IMHO.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

Can it really play 720p video?

Xoom USA Wi-Fi version.
Installed rooted stock 3.2.1.
Kernel Rogue 1.4.3 Rana.
My problem is I got it MAINLY for watching videos, and I can't seem to get it to play 720p videos smoothly.
Tried playing 720p directly, tried re-encoding from 1080p and 720p using Xilisoft Video Converter (chose Motorola Xoom H.264 profile), tried re-encoding from 1080p and 720p using Handbrake and recommended user-presets.xml containing Xoom video settings etc.
It does play 1280x720p with hardware decoding, but, depending on the video, it stutters for an instant now and then.
Comparing to playing a file on the PC, or laptop, or DVD player, or blu-ray player, or my WD HD Live media player, it's NOT as smooth, i.e. I do notice those "stops" and they drive me nuts.
Should I wait for ICS or change some settings or simply sell the tablet?
Thanks.

This has been addressed a few times already but I will try to give an answer. Yes the Xoom can play 720p videos. The most important factors being what format and which player you use. I personally use Dice player which plays all my 720p videos with no conversion needed however if you must convert, DVD Catalyst does a stellar job. I have played 720p movies files in .mkv and .avi format on Dice player ranging in size from 2GB to 4GB with no issue. The only setting change I made in Dice was to have the stock player handle .mp4. I have used the stock player to play 720p .mp4 files with no issue. Use the search function to find the threads explaining how others are doing it.

Thanks, I'll try again.
Tried RockPlayer, MoboPlayer, VitalPlayer so far - same
And I did use the setting for 720p recommended by others.
http://dev.tonic1394.com/2011/04/video-playback-on-motorola-xoom/
The stuttering was still there...

Try Dice Player. What video size/format are you trying to play?

1280x720 X.264
I'll try the Dice Player, thanks.

ali4ek said:
Xoom USA Wi-Fi version.
Installed rooted stock 3.2.1.
Kernel Rogue 1.4.3 Rana.
My problem is I got it MAINLY for watching videos, and I can't seem to get it to play 720p videos smoothly.
Tried playing 720p directly, tried re-encoding from 1080p and 720p using Xilisoft Video Converter (chose Motorola Xoom H.264 profile), tried re-encoding from 1080p and 720p using Handbrake and recommended user-presets.xml containing Xoom video settings etc.
It does play 1280x720p with hardware decoding, but, depending on the video, it stutters for an instant now and then.
Comparing to playing a file on the PC, or laptop, or DVD player, or blu-ray player, or my WD HD Live media player, it's NOT as smooth, i.e. I do notice those "stops" and they drive me nuts.
Should I wait for ICS or change some settings or simply sell the tablet?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could also experiment with the ICS alpha build--it's very stable on nightly version 17--and plays videos very well. Read the Team Eos nightly thread in development for more information.

Yes, I thought I wasn't going to sell until at least seeing how it worked on the final ICS for Xoom...not sure I'm willing to play around with the nightlies though, but thanks for pointing that out

BSPlayer, the older version (check the thread in the XOOM App section for the APKs), works great too. Especially since it doesn't try to sell you the program every few seconds while watching videos.
For best results with any player, make sure to use baseline profile when x264 encoding. No B-Frames or weighted P-frames.

What's really funny I encoded The Guard in 1080p to 720p, due to wider screen the end result (keeping the ratio) is like 1280 by 514 or so.
So I used these settings:
http://www.notionaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php/4291-Tegra-2-Friendly-Handbrake-Settings
Also attached a Word doc in case the URL goes bad
So B-frames are there, I repeated the profile one for one.
Guess what? perfectly smooth playing, using MX Video Player 1.5a.
No trial, free, just ad based, but I have Adfree for Android running, so I don't see any ads whatsoever.