As usual, the 'final frontier' of getting the latest and greatest Android flavor fully functional on our 'old' phones is videos and video recording. That it works at all is amazing, and is thanks to the equally amazing devs who continue to support the OG Droid incredible. Now, I'm not a dev and don't pretend to be, I just like to experiment. The purpose of this thread is to document the current state of things, and to share what works and what doesn't work. I'm using Pons CM10, but Pons AOKP, Albinoman AOSP, and Evervolv should all provide a similar experience as far as video stuff is concerned.
First, the state of 'stock':
- Video recording does actually work. The camera preview is wonky, but it does record real video footage. This ain't no 720p though, frame rate is maybe 6 fps - that's pretty jerky if you ask me. Audio is steady.
- Video playback is very bad. While the stock video player seems to handle audio OK, the video stutters badly, sometimes pausing on one frame for several seconds.
- YouTube playback is smooth and seamless if the phone is in landscape mode, the video is full screen, and you don't touch it. Anything that causes the screen to display anything other than the video being played will cause it to flicker and sometimes pause.
- Netflix does not work at all.
Next, the state of 'free' apps from the market:
- Videocam Illusions can record smoother video than the stock camcorder, but only because it allows you to lower the quality and uses its own software encoding. At the resolution of the stock camcorder (640x480), the frame rate is similar. Audio quality can be increased with little or no impact on video quality.
- MX Player, by default, plays slow and stuttering video just like the stock player. With hardware decoding enabled, video files play quite nicely (provided they were recorded on something other than a dinc running JB!). Audio sometimes goes silent for a second or two.
- Camera ICS allows increasing the video bitrate (and has less problems with wonky preview) but records videos just like the stock camcorder.
- lgCamera and DoubleShot allow much more control over video recording quality. However, the only settings that work are H.264 encoding, 15fps, 640x480. Which, of course, yields similar results to the stock camcorder - about 6 fps at best. Audio quality on these apps can be tweaked nicely.
My questions for those who know about such things:
Would it be possible to get the stock video player to use hardware accelleration?
Would it be possible to enable other video encoders in the ROM, at least for experimental purposes?
Sorry to break it to you man but the dInc is a bit behind the times. From what I understand the lack of updated hardware drivers from the manufacture is what's limiting it to be further more compatible with the latest AOSP. The glory days of the dInc were CM7, past that it went down hill IMO.
m52 power! said:
Sorry to break it to you man but the dInc is a bit behind the times. From what I understand the lack of updated hardware drivers from the manufacture is what's limiting it to be further more compatible with the latest AOSP. The glory days of the dInc were CM7, past that it went down hill IMO.
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I'm fully aware that the Dinc is ancient by cell phone standards - that's why I have one. The way I see it, I could:
1. Pay $500 for the latest and greatest phone.
2. Get back on a Verizon contract and pay $1200/year for the latest and greatest phone.
3. Buy a used Dinc for $80 and deal with a few issues like this
Which choice is the right one for me is obvious, though it's definitely not the right choice for everyone.
FWIW, video recording via the stock camcorder has been broken since about 10-29 (two days after I posted the OP). There have been rumors of a possible fix in the works from Evervolv, but I think they're mostly focused on the increasingly difficult task of bringing the latest version of Android to what used to be top-of-the-line phones.
I dont know.. Although video recording doesnt work, CM10 is absolutely amazing and stable on Dinc(at least pon's roms are).
123421342 said:
I dont know.. Although video recording doesnt work, CM10 is absolutely amazing and stable on Dinc(at least pon's roms are).
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I'll second that. The camera situation is getting better slowly, as bugs are being ironed out upstream and the devs try out various fixes. For me, the benefits of jb outweigh the downsides, though I definitely did appreciate the consistency of cm7.2. Perhaps you should stick with that for now?
I've had to switch back to cm7.2 recently. Flickering YouTube really started to get to me. Really miss the UI, though. Anyone find a fix or at least a way to alleviate the flickering?
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda app-developers app
flicker isn't that bad on my phone using tiny's cm10
zenihilist said:
I've had to switch back to cm7.2 recently. Flickering YouTube really started to get to me. Really miss the UI, though. Anyone find a fix or at least a way to alleviate the flickering?
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
While it doesn't have the cm customization I posted an evervolv android 4.2 build and people said it doesn't have YouTube flickering. Its a really early build so it has issues so don't flash unless you want to help report bugs.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
tiny4579 said:
While it doesn't have the cm customization I posted an evervolv android 4.2 build and people said it doesn't have YouTube flickering. Its a really early build so it has issues so don't flash unless you want to help report bugs.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Indeed the flickering in YouTube seems to be gone in your 4.2 build - that's a pleasant surprise! Video stuff in other places is pretty much unchanged; MX Player plays videos smoothly if hardware decoding is enabled, the stock video player stutters badly, trying to record videos FC's the camera, and VideoCam Illusions can still record medium-low quality videos.
The 4.2 ROM is awesome, Tiny. Thanks so much! I don't see the flicker anywhere anymore (currents, chrome, etc). Aside from the odd fc that I'm unable to reproduce, this may be more smooth than 4.1, cm10. Also, videos recorded in in gingerbread ROMs play fine for me on the stock player.
Sent from my Droid Incredible using xda premium
Related
Anyone notice the crappy video recording on the evo with froyo? Must be the playback or encoding cause I took some recording today out side and play them back and it suck. Was little choppy on the play back and seem little to wavey. Not 720p quality for sure, is there a fix or a rom that has this fix.
It's fine when played back on the pc. I noticed the same thing on the phone
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I'm using the latest nightly of CM6, and I find my Video recording improved. It doesn't seem really laggy like it did before, and the playback seemed better.
http://qik.com/video/10523036
I recently did some testing. I encoded 2 of the exact same videos at h264 AVC .mp4 video files. Both at 2,000kbps video bitrate. The hd2 was at 800x480 with a 5:3 pan and scan at 23.97fps. I do realize that the reduced resolution is easier on the hardware but doesn't use much more cpu. I will do another test at a more universal resolution like say 720x480 for both devices to test again. The atrix was at 960x540 with a 16:9 pan and scan at 23.97fps. I then played back both videos on both devices in Vital Player Pro in software decoding. I set the clock to 750Mhz on the atrix and it was unable to playback smoothly. I had to increase to roughly 800Mhz to barely playback smoothly. For flawless playback, I needed 900Mhz+ on the atrix. With the hd2 on the other hand I first set the clock to 576Mhz and it was very choppy. So i increased it until it could playback smoothly. I raised it to 652Mhz and was able to playback flawlessly. I'm losing a lot of respect for the atrix with it not being able to decode without raising the cpu way up. It's a dual core but it's likely the OS and the application can't utilize the additional thread. This however shows that when running on one thread, the HTC HD2's cpu is much more powerful while software decoding video under vital player. I suppose once the roms and kernel's get more perfected, I suppose the Atrix will perform better. The down side is that's not going to happen for some time.
Your thoughts would be highly appreciated.
ATRIX @ EternityProject kernel, android 2.3.4, stock
- Maximum Available frequency @ 1210Mhz
HTC HD2 @ Rafpigna's 2.0, android 2.3.3, stock
- Maximum Available frequency @ 1536Mhz
Wrong section..
Sent from my CM7 Atrix+ 4G using the XDA Premium App
sure someone cancel and close this thread please. Or just move it to GENERAL.
1chris89 said:
I recently did some testing. I encoded 2 of the exact same videos at h264 AVC .mp4 video files. Both at 2,000kbps video bitrate. The hd2 was at 800x480 with a 5:3 pan and scan at 23.97fps. I do realize that the reduced resolution is easier on the hardware but doesn't use much more cpu. I will do another test at a more universal resolution like say 720x480 for both devices to test again. The atrix was at 960x540 with a 16:9 pan and scan at 23.97fps. I then played back both videos on both devices in Vital Player Pro in software decoding. I set the clock to 750Mhz on the atrix and it was unable to playback smoothly. I had to increase to roughly 800Mhz to barely playback smoothly. For flawless playback, I needed 900Mhz+ on the atrix. With the hd2 on the other hand I first set the clock to 576Mhz and it was very choppy. So i increased it until it could playback smoothly. I raised it to 652Mhz and was able to playback flawlessly. I'm losing a lot of respect for the atrix with it not being able to decode without raising the cpu way up. It's a dual core but it's likely the OS and the application can't utilize the additional thread. This however shows that when running on one thread, the HTC HD2's cpu is much more powerful while software decoding video under vital player. I suppose once the roms and kernel's get more perfected, I suppose the Atrix will perform better. The down side is that's not going to happen for some time.
Your thoughts would be highly appreciated.
ATRIX @ EternityProject kernel, android 2.3.4, stock
- Maximum Available frequency @ 1210Mhz
HTC HD2 @ Rafpigna's 2.0, android 2.3.3, stock
- Maximum Available frequency @ 1536Mhz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool story bro
HD2 wins
Yeah,
I have an atrix and an HD2 with nexus s rom on it. I found the HD2 better in anyways than the atrix, the hd2 is very very smoot compared to the atrix.........
maybe motorola did not a good job in software optimization.....
I have last official rom
It requires more power because your running it at a higher resolution...
I have both the phones
Sent from my unlocked rooted and 2.3.4 Atrix using tapatalk
installed cm7 and eternityproject kernel for 1100mhz. Same result. Couldn't maintain stable playback until 912Mhz. I'll reconvert the video into a universal 720x480 one at a 16:9 pan and scan and the other at a 5:3 pan and scan. I may even do a universal standard video to just compare the two devices.
you need to take into account the fact that the atrix is also driving a larger screen regardless of the video resolution. this is like comparing an orange to a fork.
1chris89 said:
installed cm7 and eternityproject kernel for 1100mhz. Same result. Couldn't maintain stable playback until 912Mhz. I'll reconvert the video into a universal 720x480 one at a 16:9 pan and scan and the other at a 5:3 pan and scan. I may even do a universal standard video to just compare the two devices.
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Click to collapse
Since when could you run cm7 with kholks kernel?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
neer2005 said:
Since when could you run cm7 with kholks kernel?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
One cannot use Kholk's Kernel and CM7 together. This is correct.
He seems slightly like he is trolling as well.
This comparison really matters because most people under clock their phones when watching videos, amirite?
---
- adb push iPad2post.apk to /forum/thread
TheBassman369 said:
This comparison really matters because most people under clock their phones when watching videos, amirite?
---
- adb push iPad2post.apk to /forum/thread
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Click to collapse
No no, his point is valid. If the other device can play the same video at 652mhz and our at 912mhz, ours drains more battery while doing the same thing.
He still hasn't actually proven this anyways.
diedemus said:
you need to take into account the fact that the atrix is also driving a larger screen regardless of the video resolution. this is like comparing an orange to a fork.
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i loled
.
nexxusty said:
One cannot use Kholk's Kernel and CM7 together. This is correct.
He seems slightly like he is trolling as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 troll.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
I'd like to point that the player used in op's test is not mentioned. As i posted in the best video player thread, i tried all video players mentioned in there and NONE was able to play correctly 2-3 test videos i tried, except for one, dice player. Plays 720p FLAWLESSLY! No choppiness, no out of sync, nothing. I am realy amazed! Please do try it and report back. It's a paid app, but has a 3day trial version. The player you use makes a huge difference. As if developers don't yet know how to take full advantage of tegra's capabilities in playing videos? Anyway, my new player, DICE!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Op said he used vital player pro.
Mx video player performs pretty well on everything I've thrown at it so far and its free
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
diedemus said:
Op said he used vital player pro.
Mx video player performs pretty well on everything I've thrown at it so far and its free
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
Hmm you're right i missed that, guess too eager to reply. But i insist on testing with dice. Mx is no match trust me plus it pixelizes a bit my videos and ruins the quality.
Wow i just tried vital and it reaaly struggles to keep sync, hopeless to say the least.
diedemus said:
you need to take into account the fact that the atrix is also driving a larger screen regardless of the video resolution. this is like comparing an orange to a fork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well fork the orange and see what kind of pulp you get (maybe a new ROM?)
Vital player pro is by far the best player I have used. It plays almost every format. Unlike other players. Anyway, using hardware decode on both devices you can run the bare minimum frequency and run flawlessly. However under software decode it uses raw cpu power and not the gpu ie (adreno on the hd2 and the nvidia tegra 2 on the atrix). I encoded a fresh new movie using AVC h264 mp4 video at a 2,000kbps video bitrate, 720x480 with an auto aspect ratio letterbox at 23.97fps, AAC audio at 48,000khz and 128kbps. I ran the tests of both devices and the results were very interesting! The htc hd2 was able to software decode with no problem at an astounding 537Mhz! Anything lower resulted in terrible audio sync issues and stuttering. I then ran the test on the atrix with very interesting results as well! The atrix was unable to decode stutter free at anything below 912Mhz!!! I suppose it comes down to the cpu not being designed to efficiently decode video in single threaded applications or software decode in general. However in combination with the devastating gpu power, all hell breaks lose and it would blow the doors of an hd2 in a balls to the wall full hardware comparison. However the atrix performs poorly in a single threaded application using software decoding. The hd2 is a beast when it comes to software decoding with it's beastly single thread. Just for your information both devices are able to decode the video in hardware mode at there minimum allowable frequencies perfectly. What I honestly suspect being the culprit is the fact that the kernel has not been perfected and it still highly based off of motoral's kernel with minor modifications. Once a fresh kernel is built from scratch and perfected for at least 6 months of release builds, then we will see the atrix outperforming the hd2 under this type of test. I believe Motorola intended people to rely on hardware decoding which is ideal since the cpu power doesn't really matter.
Hope you guy's like the tests.
Later
Atrix on a honeycomb blur rom w/ faux123 kernel (atrix cm7 rom had no effect on this test)
HD2 on a cm7 rom with rafpigna's 2.0 kernel
This includes video playback with all videoplayers.
I have to be honest and say I haven't seen any strange blockiness or banding in video playback in the chinese ICS leak.
Also "Screen Adjuster" from android market allows me to dim the screen a lot lower without the strange artifacts...
Anyone else noticing this?
i still got black blocks while watching videos.
EdgaBimbam said:
i still got black blocks while watching videos.
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Did you use MX Video Player?
qazzi76 said:
Did you use MX Video Player?
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Same thing when using HW acceleration.
Using SW decoding however improves things.
EdgaBimbam said:
i still got black blocks while watching videos.
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Click to collapse
No banding issues here either. Are you talking YouTube or your personal ripped movies.
I can't remember what software I used but most of my movies are 1gb+. Most are only 800*400(sgs2 Res) but play without black blocks.
Think I used handbrake or something. But xda app banding is completely gone as far as I can tell
Sent from my GT-I9220 using xda premium
Banding issues have been fixed with this release BUT I'm still getting issues with black clipping/crushing, as are quite a few other members. It happens outside the OS too on the battery charge animation so it's not an OS issue.
jezza333 said:
Banding issues have been fixed with this release BUT I'm still getting issues with black clipping/crushing, as are quite a few other members. It happens outside the OS too on the battery charge animation so it's not an OS issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, this so weird - I see what you mean about the battery charging animation as that still happens on my note too but in the OS I have observed great improvement.
Colour rendering is greatly improved on the chinese leak, the gallery has almost no issue compared to all the GB roms I tried, there is very slight issues in dark shadows but this is only when zoomed in compared to hitting you in the face in th GB roms.
Video playback is hard to tell as the stock player is broken, the youtube app though is awesome and a huge improvement over the GB version which had HQ that didnt even look like 360P now the HD mode looks like 720P at least and this looks great on the note. There is hardly any banding here and black levels are pretty good with hardly any of the effects shown in other roms.
There is still a hint of these issues but you do have to look pretty hard to find them now where they used to be so obviouse it took away from the video viewing experiance.
For regular video playback I use MX player, this is rendering better then it did on other Roms downloading a youtube video will playback the same in mx player as it does in the yt app. Before I had to dl yt videos or watch them in a webpage with flash to get proper hd quality.
Here is a good video to show this watch in the youtube app, the pure black skies do show some artifacting when looked from close up but these are just dark blacks and some very dark greys compared to some purples and reds that came up on my GB roms. Outside of the few black blotches all other colours don't show any real signs of banding.
You can then download this with tube mate in 720P and see how it looks in MX player or whatever you are using.
Hopefully by the the time the official update to ICS comes(March) it will be greatly improved.
cant watch supernatural on it ... as it has lots of dark scenes .. looks crap on chinese rom as well ... Super Amoled HD sux for videos and this is a hardware limitation .... RGB will fix it ...
Had the european leak. But the browser crashed all the time. And when calling someone, i had to use the speaker. So changed back to gingerbread
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
Hey guys,
I'm gonna keep it short. My dad has a galaxy s and he's too fond of watching videos. Unfortunately, on every ROM I've tried, video playback isn't smooth at all. One of the reason I guess is the second core and hardware decoding issues whatever, but there should be a solution.. which I am not able to. I feel really bad for him, help me out?
He bought my a Galaxy Nexus and uses the i9000 himself and I really wanna help him out.
Videos play great for me on CM9 Noghtlies with stock kernel
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
+1 stock kernel also works fine for me.
what video format you tried ?
anyway galaxy s is only single core. cmiiw
hi guys.
hi TigerCourage and thank you. i was wondering about Video Playback and HD recording on ICS!!!
* i am now value pack 2.3.6 JVU and i am afraid to move ICS specially some guys told me to get back 2.3.3 an i don't understand why?
no problem with any sort of video on any ics rom that I have tried so far
thanks guys
**do i need lagfix in ICS ???
i'm om Aokp every video running smooth
btw dont try to play 1080p on the device it's not gonna work with H/W decoding it will lag as hell
thank you
why, you couldn't make "lagfix"
arzbhatia said:
Hey guys,
I'm gonna keep it short. My dad has a galaxy s and he's too fond of watching videos. Unfortunately, on every ROM I've tried, video playback isn't smooth at all. One of the reason I guess is the second core and hardware decoding issues whatever, but there should be a solution.. which I am not able to. I feel really bad for him, help me out?
He bought my a Galaxy Nexus and uses the i9000 himself and I really wanna help him out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MXPlayer works pretty good with the Galaxy S ICS Roms.
vasumit said:
MXPlayer works pretty good with the Galaxy S ICS Roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use XXJVU is working good with watching videos
samhawk said:
thank you
why, you couldn't make "lagfix"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no lag fix this problem with codec not capable to play 1080p that why its lag
btw what the point of playing 1080p on 480*800 screen
Confused by the OP's question: do videos not play at all? Or are there certain codecs/bitrates that are posing a problem?
To be perfectly clear: the term "lagfix" is essentially a filesystem change from RFS to EXT4 and is only applicable for Samsung ROMs that use RFS. All AOSP-like ROMs like CyanogenMod are using proper file systems (ext4 and yaffs2) to begin with so there is no "lag" to "fix." Consider the lagfix term deprecated
720p videos in wmv format do not support h/w decoding, therefore they are very slow. With mp4 or mkv it's all fine though.
Do give dice player a shot...
Playback of 720p mkv's is fine for me on both Slim ICS 3.6 and the latest CM nightly with MXplayer/BSplayer.
But TV OUT is really bad though. 720p lags so much I only get about 2-3 fps. And lower res videos show a lot of screen tearing on the tv during scenes with a lot of movement.
bufferpl said:
720p videos in wmv format do not support h/w decoding, therefore they are very slow. With mp4 or mkv it's all fine though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for this, happens to me too...
I just converted the videos -.- couldnt take it anymore.
Hey guys I'm not sure if you've noticed but with the latest YouTube app update with the new ui, it seems the video quality is streaming in HD but at 720p. I can definitely tell just by watching a video, it's quite jaggy then reversing to the older app it's back to how it should be.
Does anyone else have this problem? I really like the new ui and it's features especially how you are scrolling around, click a video and when you finish and go back it's exactly where you were scrolling to. Unlike the old version where when you finish and go back it's suddenly way up on the list and you've lost where you're up to!
Koguchi9 said:
Hey guys I'm not sure if you've noticed but with the latest YouTube app update with the new ui, it seems the video quality is streaming in HD but at 720p. I can definitely tell just by watching a video, it's quite jaggy then reversing to the older app it's back to how it should be.
Does anyone else have this problem? I really like the new ui and it's features especially how you are scrolling around, click a video and when you finish and go back it's exactly where you were scrolling to. Unlike the old version where when you finish and go back it's suddenly way up on the list and you've lost where you're up to!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you're not the only one. I love the new YouTube app in that you're able to search for new videos while the current video is playing, but the video (even fullscreen) looks like ****e!!..particularly on the Nexus 10 with such an awesome display resolution.
I don't know what the deal is, but you're not alone.
nalf38 said:
Well, you're not the only one. I love the new YouTube app in that you're able to search for new videos while the current video is playing, but the video (even fullscreen) looks like ****e!!..particularly on the Nexus 10 with such an awesome display resolution.
I don't know what the deal is, but you're not alone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering we have 4K video on YouTube, this is a disgrace. We should be able to stream EVERY quality, not only standard, 720P or 1080P.