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I am having problems playing back 720p move on the device. They stutter with rock player and qqplayer. Any suggestions?
Transcode them to different profile - like mp4 or avi. Or still mkv but main or base profile (I suspect that your movies are in High Profile) that is not supported by Tegra 2. :-(
This problem showed up with release of Xoom and everyone with Tegra 2 tablet has the same problem. As all Honeycomb tablets on the market are essentially the same it is not possible to see if it would be OK on a different CPU/SOC. :-(
>Any suggestions?
Drag-drop.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
galtom said:
Transcode them to different profile - like mp4 or avi. Or still mkv but main or base profile (I suspect that your movies are in High Profile) that is not supported by Tegra 2. :-(
This problem showed up with release of Xoom and everyone with Tegra 2 tablet has the same problem. As all Honeycomb tablets on the market are essentially the same it is not possible to see if it would be OK on a different CPU/SOC. :-(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's dissapointing. My epic 4g can play 720p mkv straight withou conversion. Is this a problem that can be fixed in the future or will they always need conversion?
Vplayer, maybe? Try the 7 day Trial version first, though it's just about 5 usd. It seems to have more coded emmbedded too.
fhurricane said:
That's dissapointing. My epic 4g can play 720p mkv straight withou conversion. Is this a problem that can be fixed in the future or will they always need conversion?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3.1 brought the update to be able to play certain high profile 720p movies in a mp4 container, which was a big step. I'm not sure how much further it'll get since it's a Tegra 2 limitation. This is why Boxee Box dropped the Tegra 2 chipset. We'll have to rely on the devs of market players to take advantage of the 3.1 release for high profile MKV support (not sure if any of the players are capable yet as I haven't been reading the Transformer or other tablet forums. There's at least a couple threads on 720p playback in each tablet forum). Hopefully they can also incorporate the lights out mode instead of having the whole home task bar on the bottom. These limitations are also another reason why a lot of us are very much looking forward to Kal-el.
songmeesay said:
3.1 brought the update to be able to play certain high profile 720p movies in a mp4 container, which was a big step. I'm not sure how much further it'll get since it's a Tegra 2 limitation. This is why Boxee Box dropped the Tegra 2 chipset. We'll have to rely on the devs of market players to take advantage of the 3.1 release for high profile MKV support (not sure if any of the players are capable yet as I haven't been reading the Transformer or other tablet forums. There's at least a couple threads on 720p playback in each tablet forum). Hopefully they can also incorporate the lights out mode instead of having the whole home task bar on the bottom. These limitations are also another reason why a lot of us are very much looking forward to Kal-el.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a official source for this limitation?
The limitation that every android Tegra 2 tablet owner is experiencing is official enough for me. When I said I'm not sure how much further it'll get, I was more talking along the lines of 1080p High Profile.
songmeesay said:
The limitation that every android Tegra 2 tablet owner is experiencing is official enough for me. When I said I'm not sure how much further it'll get, I was more talking along the lines of 1080p High Profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't think we'll ever see any 1080p high profile playback from Tegra 2 based devices.
I've watched many full length action movies in high profile 720p h264 on the XOOM under HC 3.1, and 720p playback is much improved, but still not perfect. The video will seem flawless for a while, and then when you come to a scene with a lot of heavy action, particularly where the camera pans across the scene, the video will sometimes fall totally to pieces. Slowdown, stuttering and skipped frames - a real mess. These occurrences are very brief and infrequent, but seriously annoying when they occur. For full length action films I've gone back to transcoding the video to baseline profile.
The Tegra 2 handles high profile 720p video only well enough for casual viewing in my opinion - TV shows, comedies that sort of thing.
Digital Man said:
I really don't think we'll ever see any 1080p high profile playback from Tegra 2 based devices.
I've watched many full length action movies in high profile 720p h264 on the XOOM under HC 3.1, and 720p playback is much improved, but still not perfect. The video will seem flawless for a while, and then when you come to a scene with a lot of heavy action, particularly where the camera pans across the scene, the video will sometimes fall totally to pieces. Slowdown, stuttering and skipped frames - a real mess. These occurrences are very brief and infrequent, but seriously annoying when they occur. For full length action films I've gone back to transcoding the video to baseline profile.
The Tegra 2 handles high profile 720p video only well enough for casual viewing in my opinion - TV shows, comedies that sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That input is greatly appreciated. It'll save me some time when I do my re-encodes.
e.mote said:
>Any suggestions?
Drag-drop.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this, still yielded an unplayable file.
edit: nvm, plays with stock player, but not rock player
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I really love my Tab for web-browsing and gaming, but you have to admit it sucks at video playing. MP4 and 3GP are crappy formats that are hardly used in RL und converting your whole video and movie collection isn't a real option.
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
In theory, the Tegra 2 has more than enough power to play 1080p files, right?
I already tried like 6 different media players but all of them weren't able to play 720p mkvs nice and even non-HD-avi-files felt a little slowed-down.
So can we hope for a hardware-accelerated media player that enables alle the joy of moving pictures for us? Will possibly acer itself help us out on this issue? What are Samsung and Motorola doing on their Gingerbread tablets to enable nice media playing?
Hoping for a better tomorrow
Cheers
pint
pintness said:
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sure about that?? my 101 throws a fit with 1080p mkv videos and both use the the firmware.
but i agree, i would love better video support on the iconia, since it runs circles around my archos when it comes to everything else.
pintness said:
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I really love my Tab for web-browsing and gaming, but you have to admit it sucks at video playing. MP4 and 3GP are crappy formats that are hardly used in RL und converting your whole video and movie collection isn't a real option.
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
In theory, the Tegra 2 has more than enough power to play 1080p files, right?
I already tried like 6 different media players but all of them weren't able to play 720p mkvs nice and even non-HD-avi-files felt a little slowed-down.
So can we hope for a hardware-accelerated media player that enables alle the joy of moving pictures for us? Will possibly acer itself help us out on this issue? What are Samsung and Motorola doing on their Gingerbread tablets to enable nice media playing?
Hoping for a better tomorrow
Cheers
pint
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried VPlayer? it costs like $4/ £2.30 but it can play practically all standards, not sure how it fares for 1080p tho.
I had it playing .avi and .mkv fine though.
Vplayer--
Video formats: divx/xvid, wmv, m4v, flv, rmvb, avi, mkv, mov, mp4, 3gp, ts, tp...
Streaming: http, rtsp, mms and m3u(apple http stream, m3u8)
I use UPnPlay (network streaming) along with MoboPlayer and it has played everything i have on my NAS very well.
Also I know Rockplayer gives you the option of hardware/software decoding so you may want to give that a try if you haven't already. There is a free version.
Both moboplayer and rock player are useless for my 720p and 1080p videos... total stutterfest, but that's a known thing for tegra devices on 3.0...
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
godashram said:
Both moboplayer and rock player are useless for my 720p and 1080p videos... total stutterfest, but that's a known thing for tegra devices on 3.0...
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... I use moboplayer, and every 720 did I've tried has been great! I haven't tried any 1080p vids though.
tested 1080 quality....the videos lag and the audio missing....
hope acer will figure it out....
Avatar & 10,000 B.C. in 1080P using UPnPlay & MoboPlayer streamed from my WD NAS, looks great. No lagging at all.
not another one of these threads..
edgie168 said:
not another one of these threads..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? You aren't being forced to read this thread.
lord_voldemort666 said:
Guess what? You aren't being forced to read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? It pushes down other, more quality threads.
Guess what? There's already something like 6 or 7 threads EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE already.
Guess what? People need to learn to use the search function.
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?
^ If you don't like it, report it to a mod and move on...
edgie168 said:
Guess what? It pushes down other, more quality threads.
Guess what? There's already something like 6 or 7 threads EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE already.
Guess what? People need to learn to use the search function.
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? You've just caused this thread to get bumped several times.
XP
I have been trying all the suggested encoders to get smooth playback for film material as 60/50hz works fine. I maybe more sensative to it than others as I tent to look for it on moving objects. But I got it to replace a media player too.
I tried the script posted in another thread with good results but the jump is still there.
Bought DVD Catalist 4 with same results.
Freemake with custom profile same again.
Handbreak I find too slow but I read it works but can't verify it.
Any Video Converter Pro with xoom profile WORKS - it has very little judder but having to strip the subtitles out of the MKV every time is a real pain ( Anyone know how to disable them ) and it's too expensive anyway.
Trying to edit DVD Catalist 4 profile now but no success yet
Oh and I tried Vplayer , Rockplayer , Moboplayer and any others I could find
Hope my two weeks at this helps somone else out.
@RaveOn911
With any problem, you need to find its parameters. Only a handful of people notice the "micro-stutter" deal, so it's either a user sensitivity issue, or a tablet-centric issue (which could be hardware or software, user-caused or device defect).
Ask somebody to watch a video clip on your tablet, and ask them if they see anything wrong with playback. Don't tell him beforehand about "micro-stutter", as you don't want to bias his observation.
If he notices the stutter, it's your tablet. If he doesn't, it's you.
If the first, then bring a video clip on a uSD card into a store and try it on other tablets (hopefully with same or similar make as yours). If it doesn't happen on other tabs, then replace your tab. If it happens on every other tab, then again it's you.
If you have heightened sensitivity, then there may be params that can alleviate the issue. The default interleave for MP4Box is 0.5s. You can reduce this interleave, eg
MP4Box -inter 250 -add infile.mp4 -new outfile.mp4
(or)
MP4Box -tight -add infile.mp4 -new outfile.mp4
MP4Box works on MP4 only. Given that MKVs can only play in software mode currently on Teg2 tabs, it's a fool's errand to play MKV and claim that they don't play smoothly. Avail of the native support.
Mobo Player plays my mkv and xvid/divx AVI's just fine. I'm no codec/encoding expert, but from what I've read it's worth re-encoding some of the files to a more manageable bitrate for both audio and video and maybe dump the 5.1 or AC3 audio. I haven't looked at every file I've played, but a couple that would choke on my Win7 Asus netbook, I re-encoded with Handbrake. They still look and sound great.
e.mote said:
Given that MKVs can only play in software mode currently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understood that that's the whole point the OP was trying to make: he wishes that someone makes a video player application that can handle MKVs via the hardware decoder. It's not a bad thing to wish for, either; it would provide better performance and hardware playback uses less battery, too.
The question remains: is it possible? As far as I know, the chip itself doesn't get relayed anything more than the actual video stream inside the file, regardless of the container, and thus an app should be able to do exactly that. But since I don't know anything about Android internals are applications given any such access?
My N900 phone uses regular GStreamer stack and thus you can demux anything you want and supply the video stream to the hardware decoder. As long as it's H.264 normal profile and not too high a resolution it'll play, regardless of the originating container.
There's nothing wrong with wishing, but until it happens, we have to use what we've got. For HC, for now that means MP4 for native support.
3.1 thus far has been worse than 2.x insofar as multimedia, probably because vendors have had 2.x for much longer, and were able to add enhanced support. A good case in point is the Samsung GalTab 7 vs the GalTab 10.1. The 7, released last year, can play MKV. The new 10.1 can't. Ditto for all the "my old phone can play MKV, why can't my tablet" complaints. It is what it is.
From all indications, HC was and is a rush job. It had to be pushed out the door because of competition from the iPad. I think the prospective buyer should understand that s/he is buying into a beta, and temper his expectations accordingly. Android has high potential, but now isn't then.
I've written a script that does fast remux/convert to MP4. A straight remux takes a few minutes, and it can process batch. It's a more productive route than wishing for a HW-accel player to come along.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
e.mote said:
It's a more productive route than wishing for a HW-accel player to come along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose that's a matter of viewpoint.
I took a look at the MediaPlayer class in Google's APIs and it seems to me that it should be fairly straightforward to demux the MKV file in software on-the-fly, create named pipe with mkfifo and feed the MediaPlayer class the raw video stream via that. Just throw a simple GUI on top of that and you have a rudimentary video player capable of playing MKV files with hardware accelerated video.
I'll try it out once I receive my tablet, was planning to learn Android programming anyways.
PS. Bah, doesn't allow me to post links yet :/
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.
Hey guys, after repeatedly spending a considerable amount of hours trying to find specifics on the Shield's HEVC/H265 capabilities, I remembered I'm an XDA member and decided to query your collective wisdom here.
Here's my situation, I'll be thankful for your help:
I'v got a growing library of video encoded with HEVC/H265, with max resolution of 3840x2160 @ 60fps.
My encodes are of varying complexity, the highest complexity so far being '[email protected]@Main' according to MediaInfo.
As I do a lot of encoding myself it is possible the encodes will get more complex and will move up to a higher tier and/or level.
My TV has HDMI 2.0 ports and supports 3840x2160 @ 60fps, no 3D.
What I'm looking for is a box that can smoothly play anything my TV can display, specifically video encoded in HEVC/H265. Basically something I can buy and don't have to replace until I also buy a better TV. All around the web I find great reviews about how the Shield has full HEVC/H265 support, but I seem to be unable to find what 'full support' really means here. Even NVIDIA's own whitepaper on the Tegra X1 is sorely lacking this information. There are competing products, most notably by Minix, that also tout full HEVC/H265 support. But in actual tests of use noticeable frame-drops occur with UHD videos and this is unacceptable to me. I've been unable to find reviews that test the playback of UHD video encoded in HEVC/H265 on the Shield thoroughly. The reviews I do find just report that UHD playback is smooth, and move on.
So, what I really need to know is what is the most demanding HEVC/H265(please report tier and level, plus resolution and framerate) you've played on the Shield, and how did it fare? Were there any frame drops, or stutters? Or is the Tegra X1 in the Shield really as good as I keep reading everywhere? How full is 'full support' really, that's what I'm trying to find out.
Hopefully your answers will help me decide whether the Shield really is the perfect companion to my TV, but will also help others with the same video-related questions.
UPDATE
I found a sample vid online. It's on this page and this is a direct link to the vid. It's demo vid for an UHD TV. If anyone could test this on a Shield connected to a UHD TV that supports 60fps, and report the results back here, I'd be very grateful! Basically, if this plays smoothly, I can throw practically any 'normal' HEVC/H265 vid at it.
I played a 1440p H.264 Hi10P 30Hz rip of Berserk with no (perceivable) issues. It did downsample to 1080p for my display, but up until now the only device I own that could play it was my gaming desktop. My work laptop and netbook would stutter with it. The Shield had no problems. Not sure about quality level, but at that resolution I imagine it was at least 5.
I have tested Big Buck Bunny at 4k hevc and done a TON of hevc main10p 1080p with absolutely no chance of getting close to issues. I'd be willing to bet that it would work perfectly. If I have time I'll test the sample, but the only thing that I could not manage to play was a 6K clip I found online, but that was a vram issue, not crunch power, so I'm willing to bet with 95% certainty that it'll be perfect for you.
kdb424 said:
I have tested Big Buck Bunny at 4k hevc and done a TON of hevc main10p 1080p with absolutely no chance of getting close to issues. I'd be willing to bet that it would work perfectly. If I have time I'll test the sample, but the only thing that I could not manage to play was a 6K clip I found online, but that was a vram issue, not crunch power, so I'm willing to bet with 95% certainty that it'll be perfect for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My TV can't handle 6K, so that's fine. It would be great if you could test the sample, then I'd truly be sure it can handle everything I could possibly throw at it with my current TV.
Your input so far is greatly appreciated
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talk
Tested the sample, plays absolutely flawlessly as expected.
kdb424 said:
Tested the sample, plays absolutely flawlessly as expected.
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Well, should you be an undercover employee of NVIDIA then you've certainly earned a bonus!
Ordering one now, thanks!
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Evil Alex said:
Well, should you be an undercover employee of NVIDIA then you've certainly earned a bonus!
Ordering one now, thanks!
Sent from my A0001 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=WXpuNFg4Ukg1T2drREZxa2tZS0xiN05PTnNNYVRB
Proof in case you didn't believe that I tried it. I don't work for Nvidia, though I do sell them where I work. Not because I'm told to, but they seriously impressed me and that's very hard to do.
I believed you, just ordered one. I've been looking for a good media player and the shield appears to be the only one truly good enough. Competitors say they can play UHD at 60fps, but reviews state that there are noticeable stutters. So that left the shield. Granted, it's more expensive, but I also have compatible NVIDIA cards in my PC and laptop so streaming games makes it worth it for me!
Many thanks!
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kdb424 said:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=WXpuNFg4Ukg1T2drREZxa2tZS0xiN05PTnNNYVRB
Proof in case you didn't believe that I tried it. I don't work for Nvidia, though I do sell them where I work. Not because I'm told to, but they seriously impressed me and that's very hard to do.
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Just noticed the monitor in your photo, it does not appear to be UHD. But I could be wrong, there are UHD monitors of that size. To be honest, I don't know whether downscaling is harder than rendering at full resolution.
Nevertheless, I'm pretty hopeful it'll work out fine. If not, I'll report back before the end of next week. The shield should be delivered by next Thursday. Can't wait!
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Evil Alex said:
Just noticed the monitor in your photo, it does not appear to be UHD. But I could be wrong, there are UHD monitors of that size. To be honest, I don't know whether downscaling is harder than rendering at full resolution.
Nevertheless, I'm pretty hopeful it'll work out fine. If not, I'll report back before the end of next week. The shield should be delivered by next Thursday. Can't wait!
Sent from my A0001 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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You are absolutely correct. It's a 1080p monitor. It's actually harder on the hardware to downscale as it's rendered at full resolution then it has to downscale after. It's known as supersampling. It's a better alternative to anti-aliasing. When the device plays a file, it plays at native res, then has to post process weather it's up or downscale, but playback is native. I can add post processing to see how far it'll stress if you'd like, but it's still so underutilized at 4k HEVC that it'll handle a lot more. There's native hardware decode for HEVC which is why it works as well as it does. I have played 24mb/s 1080p H.264 Hi10p files on here and it played near perfect. Sometimes it would go over 28mb/s and that's when it hit it's limit on h.264 hi10p, but that's with absolutely NO hardware decode as 10bit wasn't supported by hardware till HEVC (main10 vs hi10p).
Let me know how it goes for you. Glad to see there is someone else that plays some extreme media files other than myself.
Cool, thanks. You don't need to stress test it on my account. I don't have any h.264 hi10p encodes, I believe. And if so, no problem. I'm aiming to encode my entire archive to HEVC anyway
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I have my Shield TV connected to a Samsung UHD TV (60HU8550). I downloaded yesterday 4 different versions of the Martian. 3 were 4k (3840*1600, 24fps) and one was 1080p (H264) for comparison purposes. Out of the 3 4k ones:
- one H264 around 48Gb
- one H264 around 25Gb
- one H265 around 5Gb
Kodi on the shield TV played all files beautifully. Smooth, no lag, fast loading times, even when jumping through the movie. There was a noticeable difference between the 1080p and the 4K versions, and I am really excited of 4k rips to finally enjoy 4k content on my TV!! And I am also amazed about the H265 compression ratio / quality! I used to download many 1080p H264 movies weighting around 10Gb, and to find 4k ones for only 5Gb is really amazing. I used to have an MX2 linux box dedicated for Kodi, and bought the shield knowing that the MX2 would not decode H265. The Shield TV has been a wonderful experience so far...I would recommended it to anyone.
Thanks, I'm getting even more excited now. H265 can maintain the same quality at roughly a little over half the size. I'm a big fan, though encoding takes quite some time.
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Evil Alex said:
Thanks, I'm getting even more excited now. H265 can maintain the same quality at roughly a little over half the size. I'm a big fan, though encoding takes quite some time.
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I wasn't stressing it for you on the hi10p actually. That's my norm when it came to things before HEVC. I watch a lot of anime and colorbanding bugs the CRAP out of me, so I only do 10bit video, so I was thrilled for HEVC getting main10 and hardware decode. That being said, there is a massive drop in file size for the same quality, along with the hardware decode. One thing to watch out for though I found is sometimes HEVC performs worse (visually) depending on the content. I have the anime movie "Garden of Words) using what should be very similar encodes, one h.264 hi10p and one HEVC main10. The main10 doesn't have the same quality in some scenes and has more visual flaws. That's the only one that I have found an issue with, but the rain scenes just destroy HEVC for some reason. It's amazing to have, but I'm glad that h.264 hi10p plays amazingly for those rare occurrences. To quote the team that released that encode "There is a reason for not using HEVC encode: x265 performs very bad on scenes like rain-dropping or snowing, and this movie just have enough of those scenes." Yes, I do legally own the blu-ray of this media, their encode was just better than mine, but I digress.
kdb424 said:
I wasn't stressing it for you on the hi10p actually. That's my norm when it came to things before HEVC. I watch a lot of anime and colorbanding bugs the CRAP out of me, so I only do 10bit video, so I was thrilled for HEVC getting main10 and hardware decode. That being said, there is a massive drop in file size for the same quality, along with the hardware decode. One thing to watch out for though I found is sometimes HEVC performs worse (visually) depending on the content. I have the anime movie "Garden of Words) using what should be very similar encodes, one h.264 hi10p and one HEVC main10. The main10 doesn't have the same quality in some scenes and has more visual flaws. That's the only one that I have found an issue with, but the rain scenes just destroy HEVC for some reason. It's amazing to have, but I'm glad that h.264 hi10p plays amazingly for those rare occurrences. To quote the team that released that encode "There is a reason for not using HEVC encode: x265 performs very bad on scenes like rain-dropping or snowing, and this movie just have enough of those scenes." Yes, I do legally own the blu-ray of this media, their encode was just better than mine, but I digress.
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That is kind of odd, HEVC should be able to at least match AVC/H264, regardless of profile. However, as I encode myself, it is true that the open source HEVC encoder is still relatively new(x265). It's still under heavy development, but still a far cry from how optimised the open source AVC encoder is (x264). This translates to (far) longer encoding times, and fewer available options. Let me give you an example, I have a setting for AVC which I call 'Super Quality'. If I use it to encode a 1080p BluRay movie(90-120 minutes), that'll take around 8 hours. Since HEVC and AVC use similar command-line switches, I've also got a 'Super Quality' setting for HEVC that's virtually identical. If I use the HEVC 'Super Quality' setting to encode an episode of a given show(40-50 minutes), that takes around 24 hours! The system I use has an i7 which runs at 4Ghz, so it's not my system lacking power. So, for now, if you want the best control over your encode, as well as good speed, AVC is still the way to go.
I imagine rain scenes are hard because the HEVC encoding library can't handle them properly yet(or requires disproportionate amount of time), but that should change. It's probably a macro-block issue. If you watch a lot of anime(I don't, though I do have quite a bit of it) you'll love the more modern profiles HEVC has. It has profiles that support more than 10bits colours, for instance.
Evil Alex said:
That is kind of odd, HEVC should be able to at least match AVC/H264, regardless of profile. However, as I encode myself, it is true that the open source HEVC encoder is still relatively new(x265). It's still under heavy development, but still a far cry from how optimised the open source AVC encoder is (x264). This translates to (far) longer encoding times, and fewer available options. Let me give you an example, I have a setting for AVC which I call 'Super Quality'. If I use it to encode a 1080p BluRay movie(90-120 minutes), that'll take around 8 hours. Since HEVC and AVC use similar command-line switches, I've also got a 'Super Quality' setting for HEVC that's virtually identical. If I use the HEVC 'Super Quality' setting to encode an episode of a given show(40-50 minutes), that takes around 24 hours! The system I use has an i7 which runs at 4Ghz, so it's not my system lacking power. So, for now, if you want the best control over your encode, as well as good speed, AVC is still the way to go.
I imagine rain scenes are hard because the HEVC encoding library can't handle them properly yet(or requires disproportionate amount of time), but that should change. It's probably a macro-block issue. If you watch a lot of anime(I don't, though I do have quite a bit of it) you'll love the more modern profiles HEVC has. It has profiles that support more than 10bits colours, for instance.
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Completely agree. Most have switched to HEVC, and I am also, just wanted to let you know that there are some limitations to HEVC, and from my research you are most likely right on the nail. The macro-block code is in need of looking at when it comes to rain and whatnot, but even if that's the only downside, it excels massively and has hardware support. I've encoded an a 4.7GHz 8 core intel, all 16 threads, and I know how insane the encode times are. Well worth the time for archival purposes though, just have to do test encodes when I'm unsure if it's the right tool for the right job. When it's not, dang does it require some massive performance to play back hi10p files. Eh, tradeoffs
Evil Alex said:
I found a sample vid online. It's on this page and this is a direct link to the vid. It's demo vid for an UHD TV. If anyone could test this on a Shield connected to a UHD TV that supports 60fps, and report the results back here, I'd be very grateful! Basically, if this plays smoothly, I can throw practically any 'normal' HEVC/H265 vid at it.
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The sample played back perfectly on the shield to my sony xbr55x850b (4k TV).
I went through several chinese 4k boxes and the fire TV 2 before eventually forking out the extra cash for the Shield TV. It was the only box that could play everything I threw at it.
Hey guys, I'm checking in with my experience so far.
It's splendid! I've had the Shield for close to a week now, and it has been able to play everything so far. This challenges me to find its limits, and I'll report back should I have found them!
Thanks to all who were willing to help me before, you've helped me made a good purchase.
good choice!
The stock youtube app displays no items only a empty menu, so I have to download the latest ome from google play. My mojo is rooted.
However, the maximum quality of any video is only 720p, even if my mojo is set to 4k output to a 4k tv. Some of the videos I knew for a fact were 4k since I watched them on my shield tv.
I then thought this was the fault of stock rom, so I went all the way to flash the remix os 2 rom as well. But I could still only got 720p.
What is wrong with my unit? I thought madcatz mentioned 4k youtube.
minmao said:
The stock youtube app displays no items only a empty menu, so I have to download the latest ome from google play. My mojo is rooted.
However, the maximum quality of any video is only 720p, even if my mojo is set to 4k output to a 4k tv. Some of the videos I knew for a fact were 4k since I watched them on my shield tv.
I then thought this was the fault of stock rom, so I went all the way to flash the remix os 2 rom as well. But I could still only got 720p.
What is wrong with my unit? I thought madcatz mentioned 4k youtube.
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My guess it that it's YouTube, not MOJO. They will tailor their files to the target.
minmao said:
The stock youtube app displays no items only a empty menu, so I have to download the latest ome from google play. My mojo is rooted.
However, the maximum quality of any video is only 720p, even if my mojo is set to 4k output to a 4k tv. Some of the videos I knew for a fact were 4k since I watched them on my shield tv.
I then thought this was the fault of stock rom, so I went all the way to flash the remix os 2 rom as well. But I could still only got 720p.
What is wrong with my unit? I thought madcatz mentioned 4k youtube.
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I wonder if using the YouTube plugin from within Kodi might work with higher resolutions...
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Already tried Kodi, and 720p only.
Using firefox and keep it as desktop mode, I could get 4k but very unstable, and slow like a slideshow.
minmao said:
Already tried Kodi, and 720p only.
Using firefox and keep it as desktop mode, I could get 4k but very unstable, and slow like a slideshow.
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Are you sure your internet connection is up to 4K? If so, try another (faster) browser. Firefox on Android is monster heavy. Even Dolphin might be too much, maybe Boat?
kevinthefixer said:
Are you sure your internet connection is up to 4K? If so, try another (faster) browser. Firefox on Android is monster heavy. Even Dolphin might be too much, maybe Boat?
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kevinthefixer has a good point. I've been able to watch typically laggy school lectures in Adobe connect using Puffin browser. Using one of these lighter browsers may do the trick for you (worth a try anyways).
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Mine only 720 too and on Hudl 2 is 1080
kevinthefixer said:
Are you sure your internet connection is up to 4K? If so, try another (faster) browser. Firefox on Android is monster heavy. Even Dolphin might be too much, maybe Boat?
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I followed your suggestion and tried a few others browsers. However, it seems only Firefox and Chrome will get 1080p and 2160p from youtube's desktop sites - Firefox is very slow for 4k while chrome is giving me black screen no matter what resolution was chose.
For the other browsers, including Boat, the highest resolution is only 720 in desktop site.
At this stage, and after trying to play a 4K clip locally, I gave up. 4k on the mojo simply is not practical. I go back to my shield TV and the mojo will go the to TV in the basement.
720p is probably a pre-set from google itself. 1080p on mobile wouldn't even make sense for most users. google still allows to go to Desktop versions of its websites to stream better qualities.
Playing 4k on browser can be more difficult than localy in general. specially when playing anything else than AVC.
Mojo is VERY WELL capable of 4k locally. Im watching such contend nearly every time i start this little beast.
But it depends on the file itself. MP4 3840x2160 with AVC is a piece of cake, even beyond UHD its capable.
VP9 4k will not run fine at all. 1080p is fine but higher is tough.
Even HEVC at 1080p and a bit above is possible with Mojo.
Im using KODI btw.
The issue i have with Kodi and YT is a bit different. Sometimes the Plug-in, by that KODI itslef, stops and freezes the System. Same problem since day one on Mojo.
Conveniently, I've found a solution for you guys while solving a problem of my own with the YouTube app. That problem being the fact that I hate using my mouse to navigate. So upon finding out that there is a "lean back friendly" (ie: you can use the arrow keys to navigate) version of the YouTube app specific to Android TV, I installed it, it's much nicer to use than the mobile YouTube app for starters. And lastly but most importantly to you guys: you can enable 1080p.
You won't find it on the Play Store, at least I wasn't able to. I went to APK Mirror and got the latest version which I believe was from Dec 2015. I hope this helps everyone interested.