I think it's about time for us to clear a few things up concerning video playback on the X1.
The X1 can play most codecs using Coreplayer Mobile.
However, to optimize video's for the X1 and windows media player, a converter such as SUPER can be used.
Please note that optimizing your X1 is advised. See this thread for more information.
Now what I would like to find out is what settings work best for the X1 to playback video with a few different preset configurations.
What we need to know is the optimal:
Resolution
Framerate
Video Codec
Video Bitrate
Audio Codec
Audio Bitrate
Audio Sampling Frequency
Container
And any other/better tools to use.
To be able to better compare results I've uploaded the Crysis Warhead HD Trailer. You can download it here.
Please use this trailer to compare and post your settings in this thread.
This thread will be updated with new information as it arises. The second post contains an example of settings I used and will be updated with user posted settings that work well.
--- Important information ---
* CorePlayer is not hardware accelerated. This means that CorePlayer is more likely to play your video's choppy. The built-in media player, however, does have hardware acceleration. To get the best video performance, at this moment the built-in media player is your best choice.
* The h.264 codec is supported by the built-in media player and currently has the best compression vs quality ratio.
--- Downloads ---
Coreplayer Mobile
SUPER
--- Source file ---
Setting: HD Quality - 63.4MB @ 0hrs, 1min, 32sec.
Resolution: 1280 x 720
Framerate: 30
Video Codec: WMV9
Video Bitrate: 6090 kb/s
Audio Codec: WMA9
Audio Sampling Freq.: 44100
Audio Bitrate:: 96 kb/s
Container: WMV
Download example here: Source file
--- Settings --- Here the optimal settings will be provided as they become available.
Configuration: Low Quality - 4.7MB @ 1min, 31sec. (+- 280MB for 1.5hrs of movie)
Resolution: 400x240
Framerate: 25
Video Codec: h.264
Video Bitrate: 192 kb/s
Audio Codec: AAC
Audio Sampling Freq.: 22050
Audio Bitrate:: 64 kb/s
Container: mp4
Download example here: Low Quality
Configuration: Medium Quality - 5.9MB @ 1min, 31sec. (+- 350MB for 1.5hrs of movie)
Resolution: 400x240
Framerate: 25
Video Codec: h.264
Video Bitrate: 384 kb/s
Audio Codec: AAC
Audio Sampling Freq.: 44100
Audio Bitrate:: 96 kb/s
Container: mp4
Download example here: Medium Quality
Configuration: High Quality - 10.4MB @ 1min, 31sec. (+- 620MB for 1.5hrs of movie)
Resolution: 608x368
Framerate: 30
Video Codec: h.264
Video Bitrate: 768
Audio Codec: AAC
Audio Sampling Freq.: 44100
Audio Bitrate:: 96 kb/s
Container: mp4
Download example here: High Quality
Configuration: Highest Quality - 16.8MB @ 1min, 31sec. (+- 1000MB for 1.5hrs of movie)
Resolution: 800x480
Framerate: 30
Video Codec: h.264
Video Bitrate: 1294 kb/s
Audio Codec: AAC
Audio Sampling Freq.: 44100
Audio Bitrate:: 128 kb/s
Container: mp4
Download example here: Highest Quality
---
When posting settings, supply the same information as I do here.
Good you have come up with this.. once we all share I think we can reach to as what best converter settings we can use for X1... After reading lot of material... I use these settings which gives me full screen decent/smooth run movies.. had no problems at all... but don't know if they are the best settings... check it out :
Xvid MPEG-4 Codec, 569 Target bitrate, 23.976 fps, Screen Size 640x384, Sound Mp3 128 to 160 kbit/s. Encoder used : TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress. ( The best converter with total cut/edit features )
Let me know the results.
Nero Recode 3
AVC in MP4, 400x240, ~400kbps
HE-AAC, ~80kbps,
Runs excellent in the Mediapanel and did quite good (but worse) in the Coreplayer 1.2.5, when I still had it installed. Switched to the Panel completely for playing back my mp4 rips.
Uh, theres a template. Well then, again:
Resolution 400x240
Codec AVC/h.264
Framerate 25 or as source if lower
Video Bitrate ~400kbps
Audio Sampling as source
Audio Bitrate HE-AAC, ~80kbps
I have tried so many diff combination but still haven't found one optimal to use with the x1. This thread will be great for me to do more testing. I usually super or aimersoft. Please chime in if you use those above software to encode video.
I'm at work right now so can't be 100% sure, but as I remember (it's discussed in threads in the main SE X1 forum section) for the highest quality you can get on x1, encode the files for Baseline 1.3 h264, 800x450 max resolution, 30fps, and play them on wm media player or the media panel.
Videos will not run well at anything near that resolution on core player or tcpmp, they don't use the hardware acceleration that's available to media player and the media panel, although tcpmp and coreplayer will handle many more codecs.
Thanks for the additions people, I've uploaded a better video file to test with. It's HD by default so you can actually see the difference between high quality encoded and low/medium.
For those who post configurations, please (please!) stick to the template, I will try and reproduce the settings so I can judge them and add them to the topic.
I would like more information on the hardware acceleration topic as well;
1) Why isn't coreplayer hardware accelerated?
2) Can it be changed so it is?
3) Are there any other/better video players out there?
Because the driver specifications are not available and the hardware cant be accessed by third party programmers
CorePlayer team said in their forum they got hold of Qualcomm and are working to provide hardware acceleration for any MSM7xxx chipset having the graphics hardware in one of the next builds of the player
Better regarding what aspect?
Thanks for your reply. I'd like to see what CorePlayer can do if they manage to get the hardware acceleration working.
Better regarding smooth playback and codec support. Perhaps there's a way to add codecs to the Winmo media player?
EDIT: Updated with new configurations, all based on h.264 (for best compression/quality ratio)
EDIT2: Added another setting, tested for quality and uploaded all examples for your viewing pleasure.
EDIT3: Tested the movies on my X1. From low to high the quality is visibly better every time, so that's a good thing. On the highest quality setting proposed above, the graphics were stunning, however, it ran choppy, it looked like my X1 couldn't keep up with that high bitrate & resolution. I'd like more opinions, who else will test them!? (Tested with windows mobile media player).
Who can help me test the highest settings?
Angelusz said:
EDIT3: Tested the movies on my X1. From low to high the quality is visibly better every time, so that's a good thing. On the highest quality setting proposed above, the graphics were stunning, however, it ran choppy, it looked like my X1 couldn't keep up with that high bitrate & resolution. I'd like more opinions, who else will test them!? (Tested with windows mobile media player).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at my post (#31) here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=460294&page=4
especially this:
Jabe said:
2.) this one is the important one. Do not change screen resolution. Original file was 624x352 and when I set it to 800x like you suggested the playback was somewhat jerky when people were moving. So I set it to "no cnahge" and gained 2 things:
- output quality was far superior (i don't know about that if you choose smaller resolution, like converting HD to 800x)
- the conversion is much faster. before it took 1h10min, now it takes 45min. in other words, encoding speed went from 0.7x to 1.0x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think we are talking about the same thing. I've noticed that increasing resolution does cause some problems. I use Media Panel for playing my videos.
I do use the Mediapanel as well, it might be imagination but I found it to be the best player regarding playback performance.
Upscaling a smaller source file in image size will worsen the quality massively. Think about how a codec works: upscaling means making the image look "soft" or "washed out". These soft or washed out images are then used by the codec to predict differencies and/or movements between the frames and then this data is used to render the subsequent frames. Since the whole image (being washed out) figuratively looks "all the same" (its just a soup of different unspecific colours) the codec has hardcore problems predicting movements between the single frames. Thus the prediction is bad, based on an already bad image, multiplies the bad effect onto every subsequent frame.
Display Driver Assist - Does it improve video ?
This is an interesting thread, please let me add my experience of converting and watching video on my Xperia.
Firstly this program DVD Catalyst won the top award for converting DVD to almost any format to any resolution, any bitrate.
Here is the URL : http://www.pocketdvd.ca/products/dvd catalyst 3.html
Here is the URL for SmartPhone Awards list for all the best in catagory software for video coversion for Pocket PC 2008.
http://www.smartphonemag.com/cms/awards/2008/winners_ppc_apps#CatDVD_Converters
If you download the trial of DVD Catalyst you can have 15 days of free fully functional DVD conversions, thats enough to convert almost anybodies collection. I do intend to buy this when I get round to it.
I experimineted with different formats and resolutions and here were my conclusions.
Format - Sony Media Panel seems to like the 3gp format best ( subjective )
Resolution - I use the maximum 800 X 480
Bitrate - 750 kbps though 500 is still very good.
Audio 128 kbps Stereo
All these options can easily be changed in the converter, you can set your PC Processor prioirty to high ( recommended) or highest if you not doing anything else and a complete 2 hour DVD, with high prioirty for processor will be converted and ready for copying to your X1 in about 35 - 40 mins.
Also I found my Xperia settings had an impact on video playback quality, none more so than Glyph cache, which I now have at 128kb.
I am currently experimenting with the " Display driver preloader " you can find on the thread by ell82...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=462346
In it he uses this file, libgles_cl.dll, copied into the windows directory, to add hardware acceleration to some 3D games. This as close as we have come so far in adding hardware acceleration across the board to all programs on the X1, obviously this needs some testing and benchmarking, something this thread is very good at.
This file does not replace any windows files, you can add it to WINDOWS folder and remove it at will, it doesn't hurt, over right or harm anything.
Im using it on and off, id like to see some hard data on it, it may not be the magic bullet we have all been waiting for, but it could be a move in the right direction.
View attachment 139876
Mark A Cilenti said:
Format - Sony Media Panel seems to like the 3gp format best ( subjective )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3GP is not a format, its only a container. The content, video wise, is either SP, ASP or AVC video (mostly, accepts a wide range of codecs though) and audio is AMR or AAC. In fact you don't follow the standard at all, your files are NOT 3GP COMPILANT. Since 3GP is just a simplified version of the MP4 container anyway, of which the latter is more versatile regarding possible content and resolution restrictions, I would definitely abandon 3GP and go for MP4. Of course with AVC video and a flavor of AAC audio.
Maybe noob question (I haven't got an sdhcmicro card so cannot test myself):
On my hx2790 tcpmp (ver 0.72, last version) always worked a treat on default 700-1500mb divx and xvids. You loaded lots of movies on a 8gb card and opened them with tcpmp. Some movies required AC3 sound and there was a plug in for that too. The movies played back 100% flawlessly.
Can we not just do this in the X1?
gold333 said:
Can we not just do this in the X1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, not yet.
700mb dvd rips run fine in coreplayer, but for fast scenes it lags like hell
Here's what I do:
Open PocketDivXEncoder
Select the 'HD TV' option
Resize to 400xABC (maintain aspect ratio)
Video quality = 70
Audio = max
Coreplayer runs it flawlessly and looks great, even fast scenes.
Watched the first season of both Burn Notice and Merlin with no issues in action packed scenes
totally agreed with coreplayer ! really better than movie player in the XMB Panel !!!! you can find my thread here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3093597#post3093597
Don't know why it is so slow with the XMB Panel & so better in core player !
Core Player : reverserd enginered the chipset.... really difficult thing & to be really/fully optimized but it works better than the std XMB movie player !!!! (written by who ? sony developers or htc ? or together ?, they should buy corecodec ! )
dadeadman said:
700mb dvd rips run fine in coreplayer, but for fast scenes it lags like hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But tcpmp 0.72 doesn't? Tcpmp was the ultimate micro footprint everything player for mobile devices.
I've got some h264 encoded mp4 files on my mem card, and Album won't list them to allow me to play them.
Anyone got any ideas why? I also can't play them in WMP [blank screen] or Coreplayer [extremely stuttery playback].
The mp4 encoded mp4 files are fine.
This is the ffmpeg of the h264 file:
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'Nightwatch.mp4':
Duration: 01:49:39.76, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1148 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x400, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16
Actually, if I open it into Album through File Manager, I still can't see and picture.
Hmmm... very irritating!
The fact that you can't play them might have something to do with it... Do they work on your PC?
Yeah, they play absolutely fine.
It's so weird. It must be something to do with the encoding. But I'm not sure what.
Iirc there's a couple of levels of h264 encoding... I'll look into that.
re-encode them in a lower res is what I would do
don't think the cpu have enough juice to play video
fluently in the full res
I get the same Problem.
The Files (Simpsons) are encoded in:
Video: x264 96kbps 240x176
Audio: AAC Stereo 44.1kHz 96kbps
So 1 single Simpson movie is about 30MBytes large. They play very fine with Corplayer - in the Benchmark i get 140% of the original speed.
I think the decoder is just missing for HTC Album. Is there any chance to add one? Till then i watch with Coreplayer.
Hi All,
I started using Handbrake to encode movies lately. Using the default settings, playback is Ok on the Nexus S albeit I think the default bit-rate is a tad too high as playback is slightly choppy.
If you use Handbrake [1], what settings did you tweak to adjust the frame rate for DVD encoding?
[1] http://handbrake.fr/
WWW.mirovideoconverter.com does a good job but can only do one at a time. You would want the nexus one preset.
As for handbrake, video bitrate should be 1500-2000, framerate same as source, two pass encoding not Turbo first pass. In audio, downmix to stereo, 48k sample rate (if master is DVD or blueray), 160+ bitrate. Advanced, uncheck cabac. Settings on top (I forgot the name), no resizing in anamorphic, auto crop, and deinterlacing slow. As for preset, I didn't use one I think. Cabac must be off or it requires more CPU to decode and causes studdering on smaller CPU devices. 48khz sampling rate for audio is important for DVD or blue ray masters or you'll lose audio/video sync the longer the video is. After encoding, rename the file extension to mp4.
This is from memory so the words might not be exact.
http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/?from=app
Extremely simple and easy to use Video converter handling almost any video format known to man.
It even has a built in android preset for making videos work with android devices.
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For anyone who is curious, this is my custom general purpose android preset (Based of the 800x480 Android Preset)
Under the advanced config settings:
1. Framesize: Custom 720x400 (For 16x9 content) 640x480 (for 4x3 content)
2. Choose Video Codec as H.264
3. Custom bitrate as 700 kbps (or 1400 kbps for higher quality but bigger filesize)
4. Leave everything else as default.
Audio:
128k AAC Stereo audio
Thanks for this. I've been using Freemake for quite sometime. Always works great.
Is this preset android video player ready? I'm all for software players like MX player or Mobo player on android, but I'm EXTREMELY curious why a standard mp4 file I d/l from the internet cannot be played by the default android (gallery / video??) player.
I want to know what the video spec the tegra2 can play at hardware level, maximum video dimensions, bit rate etc.... Anyone know?
veer01_42 said:
http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/?from=app
Extremely simple and easy to use Video converter handling almost any video format known to man.
It even has a built in android preset for making videos work with android devices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For anyone who is curious, this is my custom general purpose android preset (Based of the 800x480 Android Preset)
Under the advanced config settings:
1. Framesize: Custom 720x400 (For 16x9 content) 640x480 (for 4x3 content)
2. Choose Video Codec as H.264
3. Custom bitrate as 700 kbps (or 1400 kbps for higher quality but bigger filesize)
4. Leave everything else as default.
Audio:
128k AAC Stereo audio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nexgenasian said:
I want to know what the video spec the tegra2 can play at hardware level, maximum video dimensions, bit rate etc.... Anyone know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Max. 720p H.264 high-profile and 1080p baseline-profile do play with HW acceleration. There was some limit on bitrate, but it's so high that you shouldn't need to worry about that.