Question before buying nexus 7 - Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I never owned a table before, have had multiple droid phones and latest is Galaxy Nexus.
I am a commuter where I am on the train 1.5 hours each to work. Currently I watch videos on my phone, it looks great on this phone (video quality and screen is superb ) but would be nice to have a bigger screen.
How is the battery life? Will I be able to watch say 4 hours of videos without having to charge it? Or will I need to make sure I bring my charger to work?
My biggest complaint about my phone is battery life is horrible, even with 4G turned off.
My other questions:
I have an issue playing mkv files on my galaxy nexus, I have tried using DICE player, and every once in a while, the video freezes, or it keeps repeating itself. I have no idea if it a software issue with DICE, a hardware issue, or something else, happens on almost every MKV file at least once or twice while watching the movie. How does the Nexus 7 playback mkv files? Any issues?
Is there any place I can see a Nexus 7 in person to see what it like? I hate to just buy it blindly online.

it should last 4 hrs of video
i have gnex as well, with dice player, no issue, it is stock unrooted tho, maybe other video player causes that mkv problem?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Regarding battery life, Google advertises something like 10 hours of video playback, and I'm inclined to believe them. Regarding mkv playback, I'm assuming that they're h.264 encodes? When playing them on your Galaxy Nexus, does Dice Player show a green [hw] in the upper left when you play it? It means that playback is being hardware accelerated, which greatly improves performance and efficiency. Every video that I've tried with the Nexus 7 has been hardware accelerated so far with Dice Player.

I use VPlayer on both my G.Nex & N7. Works with all files, no problems.
You can play with a N7 at Staples or Office Max or Office Depot.

tannor said:
I never owned a table before, have had multiple droid phones and latest is Galaxy Nexus.
I am a commuter where I am on the train 1.5 hours each to work. Currently I watch videos on my phone, it looks great on this phone (video quality and screen is superb ) but would be nice to have a bigger screen.
How is the battery life? Will I be able to watch say 4 hours of videos without having to charge it? Or will I need to make sure I bring my charger to work?
My biggest complaint about my phone is battery life is horrible, even with 4G turned off.
My other questions:
I have an issue playing mkv files on my galaxy nexus, I have tried using DICE player, and every once in a while, the video freezes, or it keeps repeating itself. I have no idea if it a software issue with DICE, a hardware issue, or something else, happens on almost every MKV file at least once or twice while watching the movie. How does the Nexus 7 playback mkv files? Any issues?
Is there any place I can see a Nexus 7 in person to see what it like? I hate to just buy it blindly online.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dice player perfectly plays 720p H264 .mkv files. I haven't tried 1080p, but I wouldn't be surprised if 1080p worked fine too [though you won't be gaining much, because the screen is only 720p].
Mx Player, my player of choice, however, often doesn't play the MKV files right [video plays fast, and then slow, and the cycle repeats.]
As far as battery life, I haven't really tested my battery. I always use my N7 on the charger.

thanks everyone for suggestions, I never heard of Vplayer will have to check it out.
So far DICE was the only one that I was able to find that would even play them/
What mostly happens, is I will be halfway through and then the screen would pause, I would unpause, and then it would start playing the same frames over and over again..only way to fix it, was to kill DICE, go into settings, apps, and clear all data and cache. But then when i start it over again have to find where I was watching.
Last night I finally upgraded from 4.0.3 to 4.1.1 and tried watching it today on the way in, I did notice it was using SW in the upper left hand and the lock was unlocked.
Only thing that happened today was while playing about maybe 30 minutes in, screen went total black, and then brought me back to the Home screen, from there I had to go into settings and clear data for DICE, or everytime I tried to it start it automatically closed it.
I think I will be buying Nexus 7 this week, any recommendations best play to purchase that has a good exchange policy in case I run into hardware issues like I keep reading about the screen popping off or something like that?

Related

Concerned about Xvid playback, how bad is it?

Hope someone can offer me some advice. Video playback is very high on my priorities. I currently have an Omnia which is pretty flawless playing back DIVX or XVID encoded files. I am not interested in playing back High Def content, only xvid/divx avi files that I download such as TV and DVD Rips.
How good is the Touch HD with Coreplayer, I am pretty worried from all that I read about HTC/Qualcomm drivers not working properly and this is a deal breaker for me. I don't know if the Touch Pro 2 is the same, I know it has the same processor.
I have been out of contract for a couple of months and was waiting to get an Iphone but I will have to encode all my xvid files in order for them to play, at least until Coreplayer for Iphone is released. I was happy with my Omnia but I seem to have endless problems with getting programs working as they should and of course there is no official support on this site.
If video playback is ok for these type of files I may go for either the Diamond 2/Touch Pro 2 or Touch HD as they all seem to be a similiar spec.
Booo, DivX on HD
One of the main reasons I bought my Touch HD was for playing Divx. I have a couple of old Dell Axims which have been great but the attraction with the Touch HD was it was a phone aswell, GPS, bluetooth for the car and I could watch films on the train to work in high res still.
Actually, it's a bit rubbish in my opinion. The screen is amazing but you cannot use TCPMP that well as it judders too much. So you have to resort to using the pretty limited Coreplayer (no AC3 support which is annoying when you only realise after you have boarded your train to work!). No easy way of fast forwarding as you cannot program all the soft touch buttons. No easy way of raising / lowering the volume either.
Oh yes and it still skips and judders in Coreplayer unless you are watching a boring movie about paint drying as it has no movement on the screen.
I bet you will get a ton of positive responses but this is what I think. If you are still tempted after my rant about the HD then I would suggest trying it.
of course if you are interested in buying it then it is an amazing DivX player and works flawlessly.
I will second Damians post, although Rubbish might be a little harsh...
Like you I was very excited to basically just drop a couple of TV shows on the Storage Card without any interaction and start playing them on my way to work but it didn't take long to realize that was merely a dream...
I consider myself being picky about quality and as of now the quality in such a setup is not watchable. At the moment I encode with Super and then transfer to Storage Card (got it setup fairly automatic with MobSync). I am holding on with hopes of better compatibility from CorePlayer (support for the chip), a better player or any other major breakthrough in the issue since I do think that for me there is no phone on the market that can beat the incredible screen... that I believe was made for watching media such as described.... sigh...
On a small note.... I had the Diamond2 to compare (benchmarked and simple visual comparison) side by side and though benchmarking exceeds the Touch HD (HD: 75-90% vs D2: 105-120%) as well as the visual appearence.... the screen really is a major difference that might be worth waiting for a better HD solution...
2 cents... signed and delivered...
//Nik
Thanks for the advice. I was hoping for something more positive re playback but you more or less just confirmed what I thought. I think I'm going to go for the new Iphone this summer if I need to convert files anyway.
I havn't found it too bad to be honest (and I'm another perfectionist). I was annoyed for weeks and spent ages scanning this forum and different options, but as it stands, on the newest stock rom (which only uses up 29% of ROM), using SDcard tune-up, and the best options in Coreplayer (turning sound to mono-join etc), I get no skips in films or TV shows. I'm perfectly happy with it, although I do make sure to check the videos play once I've dropped them on (and 8 out 10 of thousands of Divx/Xvid/Avis from loads of sources work on the box).
So 8/10 for me. I'll try to provide more info if you need.
There is a tool, called "HTC Touch HD Video Converter", just search the forum. Works very fast, esp. on two core machines. In my opinion, this is the best converter, every movie i've converted with this tool runs just gorgeous on my touch HD using the built-in player Album. No delays, no sound issues at all - just like it should be, smooth and the picture is brilliant.
I used different converters and I don't know what's so special about this one but it just works, other didn't (in my case). I was kinda disappointed with the touch HD, videos didn't run smoothly, I even wanted to buy the ipod touch, before I used this tool.
here we go
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
meddleuk said:
was waiting to get an Iphone but I will have to encode all my xvid files in order for them to play
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this information is'nt correct. You have tried out the free vxflash from Cydia store? You should be able to play divx, xvid, and flv files directly with iPhone with no conversion.
See http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=3895
smeddy said:
I havn't found it too bad to be honest (and I'm another perfectionist). I was annoyed for weeks and spent ages scanning this forum and different options, but as it stands, on the newest stock rom (which only uses up 29% of ROM), using SDcard tune-up, and the best options in Coreplayer (turning sound to mono-join etc), I get no skips in films or TV shows. I'm perfectly happy with it, although I do make sure to check the videos play once I've dropped them on (and 8 out 10 of thousands of Divx/Xvid/Avis from loads of sources work on the box).
So 8/10 for me. I'll try to provide more info if you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind sharing your config.xml located in Application Data/CorePlayer?
(...or specify your settings manually, but I think above would be easier)
I feel like I've tried all possible settings with no success. It would be greatly appreciated!
//Nik
I was also very excited when i finally got my Touch HD, espacially for watching TV series like you guys. 3 hours on the train is not bearable without some kind of entertainment . Well at first i also was very frustrated cause i am one of those people that instantly pick up jerky movement in a movie or when the sound lags just a few frames behind. Ever tried watching 4:3 content on a 16:9 tv, but stretched? Everytime i see something like that, i feel the urge to cry But there are many people that do not pick up such things.
Got a bit offtopic here, sorry. What i wanted to say is, i got accustomed to the slight jerky movement while watching something. The luxury of being able to pull out your phone, attach your headset and simply watch something while on the train, the bus or somewhere else, simply outweighs the not so fluent playback. As already mentioned the display is absolutely gorgeous. This is of course my oppinion. Using coreplayer on Topix 2.1.
Hey I've uploaded it (as a text file). For this, anything xvid, avi, divx, mpg etc. just seems to work (well, 9 out of 10 files, ranging from 174mb TV shows to 1gb movies).
Will be interested to know your thoughts or offer any further feedback,
Another thumbs up for Projections Video Encoding GUI - films I've converted are very smooth and audio and video are all in sync. A great app.
Try this program too. It'll help you find and open your video files with the HTC Album. Click on the link for more details.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=520604
Hi, I tried TCPMP and then Coreplayer to play standard resolution Divx files. With coreplayer I get very good results after increasing the buffer it uses for video and audio.
I'm using regular Divx or xvid movies, with MP3 audio. I'm using episodes from House M.D. for example, in high definition, and they look perfectly good. A movie like Terminator, with high movement, a lot of explosions, etc, is more difficult to handle. But overall I'm satisfied with what you get with the correct software and settings.
Unfortunately I have come to realize after trying several devices and hundreds of programs that Windows Mobile programming is still on it's infancy and 95% of the programmers cannot reach an aceptable level of ussability. I'm tired of big slow programs, that cannot display the simplest of 2D screen while in others you can pan or zoom a photo fast, or display video full screen at 20 - 25 fps. That shows you that the hardware is capable of fast processing and screen redraw, just most programs are too big and too slow.

720p over hdmi / mirroring - have you done it? Results/Comments

So I'm waiting for my hdmi cable to come from monoprice, and I'm getting kind of anxious. I was just curious if anybody converted 720p videos and played them on a large hdtv, and how it worked out. Was there smooth playback, was there an audio delay, is the quality what you expected? Also, how are games displayed? I saw a video of someone playing angry birds on the Evo but the frame rate was pretty bad.
I got my HDMI cable yesterday. I haven't tried converting any videos and playing them on my 46 inch HD TV, but I did stream a TWiT TV video on the Xoom and mirrored it on the TV. It looked really good. The sound synced up fine, but it carries the audio on the HDMI so I had to turn up the volume on my TV to hear it. I think I'll either have to route the audio out on my TV to my stereo or I'll have to send the headphone jack of the Xoom to my stereo.
Since the Xoom screen has a vertical resolution of 800 pixels and the HDMI out is running at 720, some of the top and bottom of the screen gets cut off. If you are playing a 720 video that shouldn't be an issue though.
I'll try playing Angry Birds on it and see how the frame rate looks. I didn't notice any degredation in the frame rate though while I was playing around with it yesterday.
After playing with it for an hour or so I was pretty happy with the way it looked. I'm waiting for Flash so I can see how Netflix mirrored to my TV looks. Now you've got me wondering though. I'm going to RIP a DVD and see how it looks mirrored to my TV from the Xoom.
mjbeam said:
I got my HDMI cable yesterday. I haven't tried converting any videos and playing them on my 46 inch HD TV, but I did stream a TWiT TV video on the Xoom and mirrored it on the TV. It looked really good. The sound synced up fine, but it carries the audio on the HDMI so I had to turn up the volume on my TV to hear it. I think I'll either have to route the audio out on my TV to my stereo or I'll have to send the headphone jack of the Xoom to my stereo.
Since the Xoom screen has a vertical resolution of 800 pixels and the HDMI out is running at 720, some of the top and bottom of the screen gets cut off. If you are playing a 720 video that shouldn't be an issue though.
I'll try playing Angry Birds on it and see how the frame rate looks. I didn't notice any degredation in the frame rate though while I was playing around with it yesterday.
After playing with it for an hour or so I was pretty happy with the way it looked. I'm waiting for Flash so I can see how Netflix mirrored to my TV looks. Now you've got me wondering though. I'm going to RIP a DVD and see how it looks mirrored to my TV from the Xoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Netflix doesn't use flash though so it won't do you any good unless you're using an app like Playon.
I used it last night. (no 720p source)
Mainly on the Youtube app and got some issues.
Now the cable I got was 15' from amazon, but who knows how good it is.
I'm connecting it to a 27" PC monitor that has been wonky with my cable box (I think its the cable box's issue)
But that said, it restarted my Xoom 3 times. Videos would play fine and then freeze, with the tap to restart message. Audio would be out of sync for awhile, and then catch up, or freeze. Im thinking it might be the app though, I don't have any other media on it to play though. When it was working, the quality was great (other than the HQ youtube) menus looked sharp, sound was perfect.
Ill try and move some 720p Community episodes over tonight and see how they look.
+1 for community.
Hopefully it is just the youtube app, it seems a lot of people either hit or miss with that. I don't know, since day one, I have had what I would consider a relatively low amount of force closes (maybe 1-2 per day) with random stuff here or there, but some people talk about it like they can't use it at all. The 1-2 is with several hours of various usage per day, and the force close is usually when trying to open an app, not even when I'm doing anything important. I never had any wiggling on the upper half of the Palm Pre from a release day launch, never had any issues with the Evo Maybe I'm just lucky.
I bet my Xoom explodes tonight.
converting a 720p movie on my xoom tonight and trying it out..
also youtube has massive problems to begin with soo, naturally the mirroring was horrible
MichaelWestin said:
So I'm waiting for my hdmi cable to come from monoprice, and I'm getting kind of anxious. I was just curious if anybody converted 720p videos and played them on a large hdtv, and how it worked out. Was there smooth playback, was there an audio delay, is the quality what you expected? Also, how are games displayed? I saw a video of someone playing angry birds on the Evo but the frame rate was pretty bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Despicable Me, 720p version, on my Xoom, plugged it in with the Micro HDMI to My 50" Samsung - looked great I thought. Mouthing I slightly off, but thats how it is on my Xoom to so no changes with that. I also played Mario Cart with the N64 App and the Wiimote hooked up. Worked great!
I have Avatar, Startrek & Transformers 2 on my device played them all via HDMI using the Rock Player app and it was perfect sound was in sync and no lag.
Played Nes & Snes and both were great too. Web browsing was also very solid.
Only one issue and that was the YouTube app. Its an app issue not tablet or HDMI... that app is unstable at best usually anyways and Google needs to update it.
Sent from my DROIDX
Inphinitizeit said:
Netflix doesn't use flash though so it won't do you any good unless you're using an app like Playon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Playon is the plan. Works great on my Samsung Epic that I rooted and installed Froyo on.
I made a video for this.
youtube.com/watch?v=2PzSJv3Pcsk
P.S. Oh and if you liked it please like, comment, and subscribe as I am in the process of trying to become a youtube partner so I can help off set the cost of buying all my gadgets, and hopefully eventually start giving the stuff I review away to my viewers. Thanks
Edit: Just wanted to say that the TV in the video is a 55" 1080p TV.
BBruin66 said:
I used it last night. (no 720p source)
Mainly on the Youtube app and got some issues.
Now the cable I got was 15' from amazon, but who knows how good it is.
I'm connecting it to a 27" PC monitor that has been wonky with my cable box (I think its the cable box's issue)
But that said, it restarted my Xoom 3 times. Videos would play fine and then freeze, with the tap to restart message. Audio would be out of sync for awhile, and then catch up, or freeze. Im thinking it might be the app though, I don't have any other media on it to play though. When it was working, the quality was great (other than the HQ youtube) menus looked sharp, sound was perfect.
Ill try and move some 720p Community episodes over tonight and see how they look.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem with the YouTube app when on wifi and no hdmi. I have not tried too much on wireless since I don't want to burn through my cap but the few I tried worked better. Regardless I am inclined to say it is the app and not the HDMI out.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Screw you tube for now it's loaded with glitches. I just uploaded a 720 p mad men episode flawless.. sound is a little crappy doubt but not unsynced
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

[Q] Video studdering / jerky when playing...

Hi all,
I've had my new Thrive for about a week, and have had no success in getting imported movie files to play without being slightly jerky, especially during scenes with some panning. I realize the Tegra chipset has to use baseline encoding, so I've used Handbrake with all the advanced settings off for H.264 / 720p with no luck. I tried decreasing quality / bitrate, even took a shot at an H.263 encode, same issue. Sadly enough, I've even downsized the video to 480p, and the issue is mostly gone, but it's stil there if you're looking for it. Having about given up with encoding, I tried some HD YouTube movie trailers and have noticed the same studdering / jerkyness when it plays back scenes with some panning.
I believe I have all the updates, it's the first thing I checked for when I got online.
Some posts that I have run across mention trying to disable the video enhancement capability, which I've done, but no change.
Just wondering if anyone else has seen this issue. (???)
Thanks for any input!
Yes I have the same problem. Even videos I take with the camera on it does the same thing. Every video regardless of quality or format jitters and plays very weird and not smooth.
CrisisDog said:
Hi all,
I've had my new Thrive for about a week, and have had no success in getting imported movie files to play without being slightly jerky, especially during scenes with some panning. I realize the Tegra chipset has to use baseline encoding, so I've used Handbrake with all the advanced settings off for H.264 / 720p with no luck. I tried decreasing quality / bitrate, even took a shot at an H.263 encode, same issue. Sadly enough, I've even downsized the video to 480p, and the issue is mostly gone, but it's stil there if you're looking for it. Having about given up with encoding, I tried some HD YouTube movie trailers and have noticed the same studdering / jerkyness when it plays back scenes with some panning.
I believe I have all the updates, it's the first thing I checked for when I got online.
Some posts that I have run across mention trying to disable the video enhancement capability, which I've done, but no change.
Just wondering if anyone else has seen this issue. (???)
Thanks for any input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I watch alot of videos on my Thrive and can say I encountered this once when I first got it when watching YouTube videos while mirroring on an led tv. However then I updated my Thrive and it went away and I never saw the problem again. So perhaps check is your updated or restart your Thrive?
I watch my videos from the SD card and am using a class 10 so perhaps if your watching movies from a lower class SD card you should transfer them to the onboard storage? I also stream anime from animehere.com and do not have any problems there either.
Edit:
I'm an idiot, I didnt see that you think you have all the updates, this is baffeling.
Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk
Yeah I also get that. The movie plays fine & the audio is in sync just when the camera starts to pan it seems like the screen is jerking or stuttering ever so slightly. I've tried AVS, Handbreak, DVD Catalyst & Xilisoft. Multiple times with multiple movies & profiles. Seems like this Tegra 2 might have been a bad choice for processors. The same 720p movies play just fine on my Evo 3D. Hopefully Nvidia comes out with a update that fixes this as I have read that all of the tablets with the Tegra in it suffer from the same problem. A huge FAIL on Nvidia's part IMO. Whats the sense of having a tablet with a 720p screen but you can't watch movies smoothly.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Yo, I'm not sure whether 720p works completely fine though but for any other res under that either VPlayer or Mobo seem to be able to play them relatively well.
Over the last month I've experimented with the Thrive and an Asus Transformer. Both have had the same jerky playback issues with my encoded videos, with the built in Honeycomb player. A resolution I've found for playing back my MP4 files is Dice Player, it seems to have gotten rid of the stuttering issue on both devices. YouTube is still a mixed bag, most low quality videos play fine, but the HD stuff will still have issues from time to time. I read somewhere that Dice Player has it's own system / codec files that bypass the built in files provided by Nvidia for the default Honeycomb player, I'm guessing that may be the issue...
CrisisDog said:
Over the last month I've experimented with the Thrive and an Asus Transformer. Both have had the same jerky playback issues with my encoded videos, with the built in Honeycomb player. A resolution I've found for playing back my MP4 files is Dice Player, it seems to have gotten rid of the stuttering issue on both devices. YouTube is still a mixed bag, most low quality videos play fine, but the HD stuff will still have issues from time to time. I read somewhere that Dice Player has it's own system / codec files that bypass the built in files provided by Nvidia for the default Honeycomb player, I'm guessing that may be the issue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried without the Video Enhancement thing? Seems that turning it off helps quite a bit.

[Q] Can Galaxy S4 handle 10-bit 720p video smootly ? ?

I watch a lot of animes, and many animes these days are encoded using 10-bit H.264 (Hi10P).
720p 10-bit is very laggy on my galaxy S3 when using MX player. Can someone test it on galaxy S4 and tell me if it handles ? Also, please use mx player which can be downloaded for free from google play
Also, keep in mind the S4 sold in my country is GT-I9500 which uses samsung exynos processor
Did you try with VLC ?? (I don't know if it runs better with VLC, just asking)
VLC uses the same decoding libs and the performance wouldn't be much better.
10bit can only be decoded in software right now so you simply need more CPU power (and the GS4 might have enough power).
I'm quite curious if 720p 10bit can be decoded myself.
I'm curious about this as well, apparently S4 uses the same GPU as iPhone 5 which plays 10 bit videos flawlessly with no lag at all. Can anyone confirm about this?
Im getting my S4 quadcore in about 2 hours and use mxplayer. Ill be happy to try it if no one has done it by then. Where can I d/l a video to test that is the right format/rate?
Sent from my rooted/rom'd HTC Evo 4g LTE
roninep said:
Im getting my S4 quadcore in about 2 hours and use mxplayer. Ill be happy to try it if no one has done it by then. Where can I d/l a video to test that is the right format/rate?
Sent from my rooted/rom'd HTC Evo 4g LTE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you are! Sorry if anime is not your liking . Thanks a bunch.
http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=download&tid=427698
Almost all 720p mkv files on nyaa.eu are 10-bit, you can try others if you want
I'm successfully watching 10-bit 1080 w/ .FLAC and .ASS subs in .MKV format using QQ Video Player. the video file is 1.6 gb and 23 minutes. it's a COALGIRLS video if you know what that is. the only thing I noticed is that it seems to be slightly out of sync.. it's not notable until right 12 minutes in because of how slight it is =/. the vid works fine in Media Player Classic, so Im hoping an app or fw update will correct this.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
soraxd said:
I'm successfully watching 10-bit 1080 w/ .FLAC and .ASS subs in .MKV format using QQ Video Player. the video file is 1.6 gb and 23 minutes. it's a COALGIRLS video if you know what that is. the only thing I noticed is that it seems to be slightly out of sync.. it's not notable until right 12 minutes in because of how slight it is =/. the vid works fine in Media Player Classic, so Im hoping an app or fw update will correct this.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good to know that, is it smooth? :laugh:
Can you check whether 720p is still out of sync
silversun92 said:
Here you are! Sorry if anime is not your liking . Thanks a bunch.
http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=download&tid=427698
Almost all 720p mkv files on nyaa.eu are 10-bit, you can try others if you want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to have taken so long. I tried to d/l it after I got the phone, but didnt realize it was a torrent. Then I saw it was 341mg and I
only had slow 3g. D/L it when I got home and just watched some of it.
I have never watched anime, so I will simply tell you that it seemed normal to me. Using MX player I had to switch it to software decoder, as the hardware decoder played the audio but there was a black screen. Switched it to software and everything played fine, and the a/v seemed synced. It seemed smooth, I saw no choppiness or halting issues. Screen was clear and bright and crisp. Audio was loud and clear.
I didnt do anything to the phone (stock) and only made the hardware to software change in MX. Otherwise it was straight outta the box.
Hope this helps you.
roninep said:
Sorry to have taken so long. I tried to d/l it after I got the phone, but didnt realize it was a torrent. Then I saw it was 341mg and I
only had slow 3g. D/L it when I got home and just watched some of it.
I have never watched anime, so I will simply tell you that it seemed normal to me. Using MX player I had to switch it to software decoder, as the hardware decoder played the audio but there was a black screen. Switched it to software and everything played fine, and the a/v seemed synced. It seemed smooth, I saw no choppiness or halting issues. Screen was clear and bright and crisp. Audio was loud and clear.
I didnt do anything to the phone (stock) and only made the hardware to software change in MX. Otherwise it was straight outta the box.
Hope this helps you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for you reply, sounds like a perfect player after all. I definitely have to buy a S4
btw, is MXPlayer better than the stock one ? AFAIK, Samsung and LG appear to be the only ones on the markets that have the best codec support in the stock player! Nexus 4 have serious lag when playing the file above but Optimus G drives it smoothly even though they have the same hardware support (benchmark was lower on Nexus 4 though).
Even Xperia Z has issues when dealing with 10-bit video, and I doubt that HTC One is capable of playing video files well as the codec supported is rather limited (according to GSMArena).
My point is, if galaxy s4 were to have CM10.1, I'm curious whether its ability to decode film still retains by using MXPlayer
silversun92 said:
Thanks a lot for you reply, sounds like a perfect player after all. I definitely have to buy a S4
btw, is MXPlayer better than the stock one ? AFAIK, Samsung and LG appear to be the only ones on the markets that have the best codec support in the stock player! Nexus 4 have serious lag when playing the file above but Optimus G drives it smoothly even though they have the same hardware support (benchmark was lower on Nexus 4 though).
Even Xperia Z has issues when dealing with 10-bit video, and I doubt that HTC One is capable of playing video files well as the codec supported is rather limited (according to GSMArena).
My point is, if galaxy s4 were to have CM10.1, I'm curious whether its ability to decode film still retains by using MXPlayer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried to play it with the stock player and it wouldnt play video only audio. Il try some other players and see wut happens.
roninep said:
I just tried to play it with the stock player and it wouldnt play video only audio. Il try some other players and see wut happens.
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Please test it with MX player. Don't forget that you need to use S/W instead of H/W to play 10-bit
MX player is not the fastest player to play 10-bit. Archos Video player can play much 10-bit faster.
However, mx player is best player I've tested when it comes to rendering subtitles. The other video players can only display subititles at the bottom, but mx players can display the subtitles that appear in middle or top of the screen that appear in many animes. Thats the reason why I'm asking people to test using mx player.
silversun92 said:
Here you are! Sorry if anime is not your liking . Thanks a bunch.
http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=download&tid=427698
Almost all 720p mkv files on nyaa.eu are 10-bit, you can try others if you want
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Click to collapse
You can also download 720p 10-bit animes from this website. The size of the animes is also much smaller, which good for people who don't have fast connection
http://web.hi10anime.com/
maroon1 said:
Please test it with MX player. Don't forget that you need to use S/W instead of H/W to play 10-bit
MX player is not the fastest player to play 10-bit. Archos Video player can play much 10-bit faster.
However, mx player is best player I've tested when it comes to rendering subtitles. The other video players can only display subititles at the bottom, but mx players can display the subtitles that appear in middle or top of the screen that appear in many animes. Thats the reason why I'm asking people to test using mx player.
You can also download 720p 10-bit animes from this website. The size of the animes is also much smaller, which good for people who don't have fast connection
http://web.hi10anime.com/
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Click to collapse
I did run it with MX Player first. If you go back a couple posts I used that first for silversun92. You are right and it ran very well. I did have to change it to S/W, but after that it worked without any problems. Silversun92 asked me about the stock player, so I tried that next and it didnt work. Sound did but video did not. Can anything correct that?
FWIW, I also ran it with BSPlayer (which I like and use). It seemed to run slightly jittery, but it automatically showed subtitles which MX didnt when I ran it. That might just be a setting issue though. Regardless, I think MX ran better than BS.
Is there anything else that you all need tested ?
anyone know how to get DTS video to work on S4? I have 1080p mkv videos with DTS audio, but it wont work at S4 video player.. there is no sound
@ben3003
DTS only works in H/W+ mode afaik. (Testing with MX Player) on S4 this is a ARMv7 Neon FFMPEG custom distribution example
I find that the experience for 720p 10bit playback is not yet satisfactory. But the device may be capable of more due to its unique hardware support (HEVC). I think we can expect improvements to playback in future.
As @maroon1 mentioned Archos Player is almost satisfactory experience with 720p hi10p playback (I believe this is software rendering) however it lacks the Styled subtitle support that I have grown to love MX Player for. I can get over this lol but would be nice to have in future.
So you guys disagree on the results....
So, @roninep you say that 720p 10-bit mkvs played smoothly with MX Player on your S4, but @sh4z you say it wasn't satisfactory? Would both of you mind posting a short ~5 minute video clip of your results for comparison please?
I'm debating on buying an S4, since I watch a lot of video on my phone. Currently I have to manually re-encode (with handbrake) all my videos and anime from 10-bit to 8-bit before I put them on my phone, so a phone that plays 10-bit and saves me this extra step would be great!
Thank you for confirming!!
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My first post on xda!
@CDB-Man
I made two videos to compare MX Player and Archos Player on GT-I9505 S4.
I pretty much agree with @maroon1, I think Archos is the smoothest so far out of the players I've tried. MX Player has better subtitle support so If it's not 10bit I would use that.
Same video is used no special optimizations default settings. Streaming over WiFi G. (Plenty of bandwidth for 720p) @roninep might have a GT-I9500... Haven't tested MX Player on that yet. Will give it a go tomorrow. Maybe its okay with that device.
MX Player
https://vimeo.com/67198798
Archos Player
https://vimeo.com/67198799
Apologies in advance these videos are a bit blurry at some points as they were taken by my Galaxy S GT-I9000. It doesn't know what to focus on lol. Anyway the frame rate I think is visible enough in each example (I think that's what is important right ?)
Some other 720p 10bit mkv Tests (In Reverse Order *worst first*)
1. Mobo Video Player constantly played intrusive ad's and crashed when attempting to playback,dumped that like a **** ...
2. VLC Does not play properly v.choppy got about 3 frames out of it (It's beta after all and may kill your kittens (lol wtf vlc thats the warning you get when running the first time )) audio came through okay.
3. QQ Player was worse than Mobo Player laggy video and out of sync audio, did not properly understand styled subtitles and output incorrectly.
4. VPlayer - Constantly playing catch-up (video; fast,slow,fast,slow)- Subtitles displaying correctly at beginning but then later disappeared
5. MoboPlayer (Audio playback no video on H/W) Software playback was good but artifacting (think twice compressed jpeg, probably just not proper 10bit support) faster than MX but archos is better(faster no artifacts), subs displayed correctly but not styled
Any others people have tried that are good let us know! its useful. Cheers :good:
Thank you @sh4z for posting the videos! And you're right, framerate was what I was wondering about! And coincidentally, I'm currently using an I9000, want to upgrade to the I9500. And yeah, I currently use MX Player for everything, including those animes I convert from 10 to 8 bit.
Before I forget and go on, @sh4z how did you get the fps to show in the topright corner on MX Player? I couldn't find it as a menu option in MX Player...
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So it seems that MX Player framerate is watchable, but when compared to Archos player, Archos is much more enjoyable. Hopefully MX Player's dev will be able to improve his codec! (with MX Player having much better .ass subtitle support)
It's good that you pointed out you tested on the I9505, I had forgotten about the different chipsets. From a few places I read around, I've heard rumours that perhaps the I9500 with its Exynos 5 Cortex A15 will perform much better than the I9505's Qualcomm Krait 300.
Just looking at their comparison on Wikipedia's page for the Krait CPU, it appears (at least on the surface) that the I9500's Exynos 5 should do better? Hope we find out later!
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Hopefully, we will soon get an android device + app combination that rivals the iPhone 5 in terms of playing 10 bit videos.
For reference: From what was said on Animesuki's forum thread "iPhone 5 and 10-bit MKVs" , there's a video that proves that iPhone 5 with "HD MKV Player" app can easily handle 10 bit videos.
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I had tested some of those other players on my I9000 too, and I agree that MoboPlayer probably performs best out of them, in terms of framerate. Like you said, it's too bad that it artifacts on colours and doesn't fully support .ass styling.
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From his signature, I'd caution a guess that @roninep has the North American I9505 like you do, so no Exynos core. If anyone else here has an I9500 would you mind testing this out please? Thanks in advance!
I tested on I9505 S4.
Was watching a 720p 10 bit anime video with MX Player and find it pretty smooth except scenes that has lots of movement, action where the video stutter a little (No problem though).
But do take note the CPU does heats up a little... Mine was at 55 degree C after a full episode.
psycovirus said:
I tested on I9505 S4.
Was watching a 720p 10 bit anime video with MX Player and find it pretty smooth except scenes that has lots of movement, action where the video stutter a little (No problem though).
But do take note the CPU does heats up a little... Mine was at 55 degree C after a full episode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@psycovirus thanks for testing! Would you say the performance was about the same or better than the video sh4z posted with MX Player on I9505?
And yeah, it's unfortunate but expected that the CPU would heat up since it's all software decoding.... I don't think any consumer hardware will get hardware accelerated h.264 hi10p, especially with the release of h.265 "HEVC".

[Q] Choppy video 4.4.2

Hi all, I've just bought a 32gb N10 after reading all about it here. It came with 4.2.2, the first thing I did was update it to 4.4.2.
Netflix, iPlayer and YouTube/vimeo all have choppy playback, especially noticeable when the camera pans around a scene. I've read that 4.4 can cause video issues, and never tried 4.2.2 or 4.3.
Anyone experiencing the same thing? Any workarounds? I've already tried clearing app cache and disk cache (via recovery)
sheyac said:
Hi all, I've just bought a 32gb N10 after reading all about it here. It came with 4.2.2, the first thing I did was update it to 4.4.2.
Netflix, iPlayer and YouTube/vimeo all have choppy playback, especially noticeable when the camera pans around a scene. I've read that 4.4 can cause video issues, and never tried 4.2.2 or 4.3.
Anyone experiencing the same thing? Any workarounds? I've already tried clearing app cache and disk cache (via recovery)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I watch video from the sources you mention except iPlayer and resolved any playback shutter I've experienced. I'm using rooted stock 4.4.2 and XPosed framework modules. For me the culprit turned out to be an often running background and app "FolderSync". Once I reduced the frequency of the sync the stuttering disappeared.
Here are some suggestions on figuring out the issues.
- at least temporarily disable background activity (eg. Onandroid backups definitely causes video stutter)
- first eliminate the network by copying a HD quality video onto the N10 and play it back from internal storage. If it shutters then get a player that supports ARM7 hardware decoding (eg. MX Player)
- if the test above proves that your N10 can handle the videos then you will need to focus on weak links in your network connection
For high bit rate videos (eg. 1080p my files), Wifi can be overwhelmed so I often use a USB Ethernet adapter.
With MX Player and it's ARM7 add-on I can play any video in my collection. With the the Ethernet adapter I can play Netflix's SuperHD quality while with WiFi lower quality steaming do occur. The. Nexus 10 is a very capable video player.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
3DSammy said:
I watch video from the sources you mention except iPlayer and resolved any playback shutter I've experienced. I'm using rooted stock 4.4.2 and XPosed framework modules. For me the culprit turned out to be an often running background and app "FolderSync". Once I reduced the frequency of the sync the stuttering disappeared.
Here are some suggestions on figuring out the issues.
- at least temporarily disable background activity (eg. Onandroid backups definitely causes video stutter)
- first eliminate the network by copying a HD quality video onto the N10 and play it back from internal storage. If it shutters then get a player that supports ARM7 hardware decoding (eg. MX Player)
- if the test above proves that your N10 can handle the videos then you will need to focus on weak links in your network connection
For high bit rate videos (eg. 1080p my files), Wifi can be overwhelmed so I often use a USB Ethernet adapter.
With MX Player and it's ARM7 add-on I can play any video in my collection. With the the Ethernet adapter I can play Netflix's SuperHD quality while with WiFi lower quality steaming do occur. The. Nexus 10 is a very capable video player.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input. I tried MX player with ARM HW decoder and it works! But for netflix etc it's all software. Did it used to be smooth on 4.3?
I disabled backups in the settings, does rooting let you disable any other backup stuff?
Do a stock flash. Do not upgrade from an earlier version.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
sheyac said:
Thanks for your input. I tried MX player with ARM HW decoder and it works! But for netflix etc it's all software. Did it used to be smooth on 4.3?
I disabled backups in the settings, does rooting let you disable any other backup stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't subscribe to Netflix until after I was using 4.4.2 and outside of occasional buffering I have not experienced video stuttering except for the background task issues I've described and fixed.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
sheyac said:
Thanks for your input. I tried MX player with ARM HW decoder and it works! But for netflix etc it's all software. Did it used to be smooth on 4.3?
I disabled backups in the settings, does rooting let you disable any other backup stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I only had a problem with playing videos when my memory was cluttered like other people already stated. Make sure there's no apps running in background! I can't tell about Netflix though, I don't use it hehe, but today my memory was being used a lot by background apps and when I tried to watch a video in MX it skipped many frames and lagged a lot, after killing all background apps the video ran without issues .
~Lord
So I used wugfresh to flash the factory image 4.4.2 and iPlayer seems better but Netflix still seems a bit choppy (especially when it's streaming in super HD).
I'm disappointed as I mainly bought this to watch Netflix and iPlayer. Are there any kernels or ROMs that provide a better video experience? Will flash 4.3 tomorrow and see how that performs.
When you flash stock and then first setup make sure you do NOT tick to restore from backup. It restores slowness.
I use my N10 for iPlayer every day and works fine but I prefer to use get-iPlayer on a Linux or Windows device to download and then watch on Android it is more consistent experience plus you get HD and I play using MX player just fine.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
I have installed 4.3 and netflix and iPlayer are now smoother (still a bit choppy but much better). I wonder if this is to do with the RAM allocation between 4.3 and 4.4. Hope 4.5 is better at videos than 4.3 and would be nice to get ART on it too.
sheyac said:
I have installed 4.3 and netflix and iPlayer are now smoother (still a bit choppy but much better). I wonder if this is to do with the RAM allocation between 4.3 and 4.4. Hope 4.5 is better at videos than 4.3 and would be nice to get ART on it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stuttering can vary by the service provider. Be careful on forming conclusions when you're dealing with remote Internet-based services. I find services like Hulu and iplayer (I don't use NetFlix) varies by the day. If were dumb enough to think that was due to the Android version I could easily make false conclusions. I have a Nexus 10, 7, 4 and 3 PCs and from that try to eliminate the variable service aspect from the Android version aspect.
Do look into get_iplayer, it is very good and in many ways superior to the iplayer App. What you can then do is accumulate media and then use an OTG USB storage device which then makes your need for large Android devices or ones with SD slots much less important.
http://www.infradead.org/get_iplayer/html/get_iplayer.html
My OTG storage which is tiny and I can plug it into the get_iplayer download server if I want a mass transfer faster than Wifi
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GMG2GEO/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Yes of course I have made sure that remote connections aren't the reason for choppyness. I compared using the same 50 Mbps connection using my laptop (1080p), an iPad 4, my nexus 10 and my Galaxy S4, at the same time of day sequentially. The nexus came out the choppiest (dropped frames) by far.Even on media downloaded then played back in the gallery app.
It just seems strange that google would release a (flagship) device with an inability to smoothly play 1080p video out of the box.
sheyac said:
Yes of course I have made sure that remote connections aren't the reason for choppyness. I compared using the same 50 Mbps connection using my laptop (1080p), an iPad 4, my nexus 10 and my Galaxy S4, at the same time of day sequentially. The nexus came out the choppiest (dropped frames) by far.Even on media downloaded then played back in the gallery app.
It just seems strange that google would release a (flagship) device with an inability to smoothly play 1080p video out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any 1080p media mine are 720p. Mine play fine. get_iplayer HD produces 1280x720 H264 25fps 2.3Mbit 1GB/hour files.
Did you literally take stock (without restoring from backup) install MX Player enable it to h/w+ and get choppiness?
I find the video performance of my N10 stunning, it is the fastest and clearest of all my devices. I use it for Hulu+ often at its streamed HD when offered, and usually off local media or streaming off NAS. To make my N10 choppy video I have to be doing typically 2 other things in the background at the same time, I think due to 1GB memory not really being enough.
There are N10 weaknesses, on mine if I load too many apps particularly more than a few Chrome tabs, it does a reboot, so I tend to use mine for big-screen media watching and I got a N7 and N4 alongside which allows more multitasking by multi devices, then my N10 is very stable and performing. For this reason I never would pay $500 for a N10 but got mine for $278 which I think given its stability and performance issues is fairer priced. My N4 which has 24% number of pixels of N10 and double the memory is far far more stable but not really a sit back and enjoy media device.
With MX player and HW decoding it was smooth - however I primarily got my N10 to stream Netflix and iPlayer, neither of which can you enable HW decoding. I will look into get_iplayer but my laptop is Windows for a start so it's a pain in the backside to install Ubuntu etc to download. It just seems like it's a workaround for a deficiency that shouldn't have existed in the first place!
Yesterday I watched a whole movie in Super HD on the N10 from Netflix on 4.3 and it was a lot lot smoother than 4.4.2. I'm not sure why it would be so different, as the OS was generally snappier in 4.4. The picture quality was great, albeit the colours were a bit washed out but i can live with that!
sheyac said:
... however I primarily got my N10 to stream Netflix and iPlayer, neither of which can you enable HW decoding....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a playstore YouTube alternative app called Viral and it has a HW acceleration setting. I'm not sure if it would actually make a difference for you but Viral could always be uninstalled.
See: Settings->Player controls->Hardware acceleration->allow get for video player. It's a check box.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
sheyac said:
I will look into get_iplayer but my laptop is Windows for a start so it's a pain in the backside to install Ubuntu etc to download.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RTFM http://www.infradead.org/get_iplayer/html/get_iplayer.html
Therefore, we have created a Windows installer for get_iplayer which will attempt to download and install the various requirements. This can be obtained from:
http://www.infradead.org/get_iplayer_win/get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm traveling very light but I need a Windoze machine I have an ancient Netbook which sucks are performance but it runs the get_iplayer and I USB cable to copy over. If I'm traveling light and don't need a Windoze machine I'll have accumulated mp4 to the limit of the internal N10 storage then spill over into the ridiculously cheap OTG USB storage.
Downloading ahead and then playing local content removes a host of issues. It isn't a workaround but an alternative with advantages. Issues with streaming are that the BBC servers / bandwidth can be choppy themselves sometimes plus the Nexus 10 screen is much better than the highest definition content that the App delivers, if you download it goes up in quality (if you set modes=best) and really makes the N10 better to view. So it's relevant to this thread.
What I do is as get_iplayer exists is I accumulate the mp4 and when online with good Wifi 'net access exhaust all the Hulu etc online-only content and then move to watch the BBC stuff. Plenty of situations like hotels crap Wifi service come to mind.

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