Database Users

Where are multi-format Video Players? Core? mVideoPlayer? BluMedialab Media Player?

Quite simply, I've wanted to play my downloaded itunes TV shows, which are in .m4v format. Searched high and low. I'm not a developer, just a savvy end user, but I was surprised at how few offerings exist for multi-format video players on Android.
Here's what I've found so far. What am I missing?
1. BluMedialab.com 's Media Player v 1.6 - costs approx $3.50 USD - claims to play .m4v files. I bought it, it doesn't. Uninstalled and got refund.
The player that plays more media on your DROID then other apps: from your SD Card or streaming from web.
SD card: WMA, MP3, MP4, M4V, (small!) WMV, MID, 3GP (some)
Streaming: WMV, M4V, MP4 (also non-progeressive!)
Has a built-in SDcard browser, video RSS reader and webbrowser with Google search.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They say their new TRIAL version is more advanced... So why they continue to sell any version at all is beyond me. But they do. This should be highly discouraged in my view. The moment it's clear an app doesn't perform as advertised, to sell it in the store is morally wrong, and I think such app developers should be economically punished by horrible reviews, and hammered with email til they take down their pay versions. It's ridiculous.
Here is their Trial Version Media Player v 2.2
FIXED crashing!. Please upgrade and update your reviews!
Plays media from your SD Card or streaming from web.
SD card: WMA, MP3, MP4, M4V, (small!) WMV, MID, 3GP(some)
Streaming: WMV, M4V, MP4 (also non-progeressive!)
Has a built-in SDcard browser, video RSS reader and browser with Google search.
Remembers your recents!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. Core Player is coming, so they say: from Aug 2009:
While Android works great for many apps.... its A/V system designed by PacketVideo is far from robust enough to add onto no less use. David Turner one of the lead Android Devs even noted last week that there are major changes coming this way with each SDK/NDK release as it relates to multimedia, quoting: "(and believe me the graphics and media frameworks are under extensive changes at the moment, and will keep doing so for quite a number of upcoming releases)".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AndroidForums and other sites announce that CorePlayer Mobile 2.0 is soon coming to Android OS!!!
And here is, according to that thread, a pic of a build:
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and here is another from sizzlecore.com:
3. mVideoPlayer for Android:
Some user comments from AndroLib.com :
Without a doubt the best app for the G1 no damn question.
by Brandon the 3/5/2010
I love srt support. Now it's my default video player. Five star well earn. Thank you, Nexus One
by Karan the 3/2/2010
Works great for mp4s I play on here.
by Izzy the 3/2/2010
I like the UI and the "watched" color coding. Please add an "any order defined" playlist function... No other video app is doing that - be the first!
by Hunter the 3/1/2010
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4. Everything Else....
I found this, Act 1 Video Player at hyperaware.com, and they say:
December 1, 2009 - There is a new version of the app called "Act 1 Video Player for And 1.5" which is intended for the Motorola Cliq and HTC Hero because they are currently stuck at Android 1.5. This version is equivalent to the old 1.13 version of the app and will receive no future upgrades, HOWEVER, you can feel confident purchasing this app because we will be issuing discounts to the latest version of the app when your phone's Android OS ugrades. When this happens, go ahead and purchase Act 1 Video Player then contact us with your Google Checkout order numbers for both "Act 1 Video Player" and "Act 1 Video Player for And 1.5". We will manually refund the difference in price between them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The comments from the Core Codec site explain why multi-format video players are not prevalent yet for Android. I have to say, really? After a whole year, and Google can't enrich their OS to play videos properly?
Someone please enlighten me. Where's that great app I am missing?

You forgot about the chinese app:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=642713

HDMI out through the native video player?

Is it possible?
subscribed to JetFlix, in the market. (Jetflicks! TV - Android app on AppBrain) It is a $3 app with a $10/month subscription. I watch it on my phone in my car at the lake during my lunch break. I know that probably sounds sad, but it is AWESOME. I'm a manager in the dang corporate world, and I forget that I am at work by the time I'm done with a movie and come on back to the office. It's my dirty little secret.
ANYWAY, there are some great shows available on this application, and I was thinking of replacing my Netflix subscription with it if I could just stream it to my TV at home. But is anything "streamable" to the tv? I read that only pictures and videos that were shot with the camera stream though the HDMI cable. If that is the case, what is the point? I keep all that stuff on a hard drive anyway.
So my question: can I hook up an HDMI cable and stream Jetflicks to my TV? The Jetflicks movies play on the native player. So I guess a more accurate question would be: Does the native internet browser display on the TV through the HDMI cable? If so, is there audio?
I have an HDMI cable. When I hook it up and press "play," nothing happens on the TV, except that it goes dark. Am I doing something wrong, or is it just impossible.
Waiting with baited breath for someone to break the news to me.
Later

If the program you are using actually lets you download and plays video from the native player it should work. Also when you plug the hdmi cable into your tv and your phone. You should see an icon on the top left of the notifications bar and it should say hdmi
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G

I dont have that icon. Is there an hdmi setting somewhere I need to change?

Probly should email the developer and ask them if it's supposed to work or not?

I might just do that. I guess I might have given too much background information. A simpler question would be:
1. Is the native video player on the evo supposed to work with the HDMI out?
2. If yes:
a. Is there a setting to enable that function?
b. How can you tell which player (native or otherwise) the system is using?

Yes the native video player will use the hdmi out. It is automatic when you plug the hdmi cable into the device and open the video player and hit play the video will be outputted to the HDMI and the evo's screen will show the player function but no video. On the latest EVO update OTA 1.47.651.1 they added an HDMI settings to Force 720p or 480p output but since I haven updated to that rom version yet (still waiting on Fresh 1.0). What I believe that new setting will do is if your video isn't quite fully 720p but over 480p you can now force your phone to upscale the video to 720p output.

Thanks, that makes sense. I'm also on Fresh 0.5.3, waiting for 1.0.
Right now I can't do sh*t. If I plug the HDMI in, the phone freezes.

Sprockethead said:
Thanks, that makes sense. I'm also on Fresh 0.5.3, waiting for 1.0.
Right now I can't do sh*t. If I plug the HDMI in, the phone freezes.
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Click to collapse
Your not using one of the FPS kernels are you? I think the first ones that were based on the hacked kernel with the broken camera break video playback using the stock player all together. at least it did for me when i tried it couldn't play any videos just got force closes and freezing.

P_Dub_S said:
Your not using one of the FPS kernels are you? I think the first ones that were based on the hacked kernel with the broken camera break video playback using the stock player all together. at least it did for me when i tried it couldn't play any videos just got force closes and freezing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am, lol. Why can't I get a build where everything works!!??
I'll work on it in a minute. Right now I'm trying to improve megaflops...

Im on fresh 0.53 and my HDMI works fine no freeze. Just plug it in and a notification on the top says HDMI. Here's a screenshot
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Video out from ARIA

Is there a Way to make my Aria say, display a video/movie on another screen? Like say a 7 inch LCD in the back seat of my Truck? I have no real reason to do this, other than because i possibly can, lol!
I have searched the forum, but I could not find any definitive answer as to the Aria itself.

I was wondering about this and found some micro usb -> rca plug adaptors and wondered if that would work

struff said:
I was wondering about this and found some micro usb -> rca plug adaptors and wondered if that would work
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That might work, but even with the adapter, wouldn't there need to be an app to make it happen? I don't know the first thing about writing programs, (I would like to learn) so i could not tell anyone how to even begin with that.

If you search online I believe a few HTC phones support audio and video out thought the micro usb port. I doubt that the aria does since it is a mid level device. If you look at the accessories page on the HTC site it does list a pair of usb "universal" headphones for the aria though.

HD 1080p Movie Stick 4gb with Remote - USB to HDTV Converter with HDMI Output - 4gb Internal Memory - Micro SD Card Slot
http://www.amazon.com/HD-1080p-Movi...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1280089963&sr=8-31
Product Description
HD Movie Stick is a really cool device. The size of a USB drive, it connects via HDMI to your TV and can play 1080p content flawlessly. Here's how it works: one end of the stick connects to your computer via USB - you transfer video, music, and photos to the device's 4gb internal storage (or up to 32GB Micro SD memory). The other end of the stick is the mini HDMI connector to display the content on your TV, with an included remote to navigate it all. The movie stick can also be plugged into the USB port of an external HDD and play directly to your TV.
This means NO DRIVERS ???
Specs:
Supported Video Formats: AVI, MPG, WMV, RM, RMVB, MKV, DAT, TS, VOB(1080p)
Supported Music Formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG
Supported Photo Format: JPG, BMP, PNG
Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
Internal Memory: 4gb
External memory: Micro SD slot supports up to 32gb.
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Interesting ...

Nexus player with custom ROM vs Amazon fire TV.

Please can any one tell me which is best.
I'm looking for compatible with kodi, all 4, ITV player, BBC iplayer, 5 on demand, now TV and marvel future fight from the play store.

Gave a quick look using lolirock rom not the stock rom, found that only marvel future fight is marked incompatible, but did not find "all 4" or "now tv" at all searching the play store, kodi works great (I've run 15 and now run 16 beta) and all the add-ons I've tried work fine.
I mostly use it with kodi to stream movies from my nas, I use a 1gb usb eth. adapter witch gets 20mbs download vs 10mbs with 10/100 usb eth. and 5 mbs for the 5ghz wireless.
As far as fire tv, I almost went that way (until I found the nexus for $40 the same $$ as the way weaker hardware in the fire stick) and my deal breaker apparently there or no 3rd party roms for fire, so if like me and you hate the nexus interface you can dump it for a stock android, myself I've never NOT gone 3rd party roms for my phone/tablet ect and not having that option is a deal killer 4 me..

Thank you for you info. Is it true that 1080p movies buffer with kodi ?

I haven't had any buffering issues at all with kodi, but I pre-encode all my movies to a very vanilla mid-quality files that are compatible with all my various devices (dish network hopper which has a dnla client built in, a couple samsung blue-rays, the nexus and a cheapo Chinese android stick).
It took my a long time and I ran though pretty much EVERY codec combo and finally settled on this, it takes anything in the dir an dumps it out to a mkv container, mpeg2/ac3 2000k bit rate which runs on all my devices, most people use h.264 but with the exact same settings using h.264 the vid pixelates like crazy where as mpeg2 is perfect..
(bat file in same dir as ffmpeg)
for %%a in ("F:\Vidtmp\in\*.*") do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -vcodec mpeg2video -b:v 2000000 -r 23.976 -f matroska -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -acodec ac3 -ab 128k -ar 44100 -ac 2 "F:\Vidtmp\OUT\%%~na.mkv"

Sounds great and way over my head , I just want to stream. Thank you for your help

Well steamin ain't easy, and when yo say "stream" are using local files that you've downloaded or online content? The online stuff is so unreliable (genesis is the best of not very good that I've found) personally I download my stuff into the "in" directory, click the a batch file and it transcodes everything in the dir. I'm up to 550 movies in my library, and have reached the end of the internet, can't find anything else I want to see..

I would like to stream online content at the moment I have total revolution Mk1 all addons work fine. Just the android firmware has not been updated in a year. I do want the android 3rd party app. UK now TV and wss.
The specs is.
Android 4.4 Kitkat
Kodi 15.2
Blu-Ray ISO and 4K video playback
4K video output up to 30 fps supported
2.4Ghz Wi-Fi
CPU: ARM CORTEX-A9 QUAD-CORE
GPU MALI-450 OCTO-CORE
DRAM 2GB DDR3
FLASH MEMORY 8 GB
MicroSD Slot – 32gb card max
Dimensions: 15 x 11.5 x 2.5
Weight: 200g

My generic android stick is specs almost exactly the same, my issue with it is ****e wifi speed, go to testmy.net and see what speed your wifi runs at..
this is the nexus 5ghz wifi
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nexus with 1gb usb eth..
These speeds are 5x to 10x faster than what I was getting from the built in wifi on my generic android tv stick..

Shield Experience 5.1 + Kodi 17 - HDMI passthrough

Dear xda Community,
I've got the Shield Android TV from 2015. Until prior firmware versions there was no problem, but with the newest update to the Shield Experience 5.1, I can't get the HDMI passthrough activated to my Yamaha AV-Receiver. Every other device functions as usual. Related to this I can’t find the explicit options in the system settings of Android TV anymore. In the past, there were special options for that.
Most time I watch 5.1 sources via Kodi with the actual version 17. Kodi is configured correct, as I can see. Passthrough and all AV-Receiver supported decoders are activated. I tested many options and ended in a reset of Kodi, which also didn't helped me out. Until now I also didn’t found any other helpful descritptions anywhere here on XDA. I also contacted the nVidia Support first. It didn't helped me either. I had a chat with them and they wanted to contact me within 72 hours. It's 12 days in the past now. Now hopefully you can help me out.
Greetings
Raenzen

Have you tried using SPMC instead? http://spmc.semperpax.com

it is there but if i told you how to find it that would spoil all the fun
hint hint Basic -expert settings mode

I do have the same Problem. And there is a topic in geforce forum. I just stay here if somebody finds a solution.

settings/system click on the cog at the bottom change from standard to expert click on audio move mouse to righthand panel SCROLL DOWN:fingers-crossed:

Haha - I'm in the pro/ expert settings of Kodi already. That would be to easy at all. As I told, everything should set upt correct in there. I'm also activated and controlled the developer options of Android TV. :-/
I'll give SPMC a try and will report back.

SPMC is working fine, so the problem will be with Kodi v17. Thanks for the tip and until it's fixed, SPMC will be my daily driver. I liked Kodi in v17 cause of the better look.
P.S.: Found a part of the problem in Kodi v17. The speaker configuration has to be set to 2.0 regardless of the real setting (5.0 for me). From now on Kodi converts everything in Dolby Digital and sends it to my receiver via passthrough and it's displayed nearly correct in the receiver. The sound is also much better now. For me it is no real passthrough at all. DTS lines and everything else will be converted in prior. Cause my receiver can handle every usual codec on it's own, I would like to do it so. I also activated all available codecs for my receiver in the passthrough settings of Kodi for sure. I'm glad at all that SPMC does the job right as it should.

Raenzen said:
SPMC is working fine, so the problem will be with Kodi v17. Thanks for the tip and until it's fixed, SPMC will be my daily driver. I liked Kodi in v17 cause of the better look.
P.S.: Found a part of the problem in Kodi v17. The speaker configuration has to be set to 2.0 regardless of the real setting (5.0 for me). From now on Kodi converts everything in Dolby Digital and sends it to my receiver via passthrough and it's displayed nearly correct in the receiver. The sound is also much better now. For me it is no real passthrough at all. DTS lines and everything else will be converted in prior. Cause my receiver can handle every usual codec on it's own, I would like to do it so. I also activated all available codecs for my receiver in the passthrough settings of Kodi for sure. I'm glad at all that SPMC does the job right as it should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go...
This was long discussed on Kodi's own forum....download the "****ty" of 17.1 RC1 version below from my drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5076OsZGx-_bWhDb2dXSklySUk/view?usp=sharing
File was originally from post 498 of the address below, but download link doesn't work anymore.
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=289735&page=34
I got all DD and DTS passthrough functionality once I installed it. I also was very frustrated when I lost those features going from 17RC4 to 17 final.
Let me know if it work for you as well!!

Raenzen said:
SPMC is working fine, so the problem will be with Kodi v17. Thanks for the tip and until it's fixed, SPMC will be my daily driver. I liked Kodi in v17 cause of the better look.
P.S.: Found a part of the problem in Kodi v17. The speaker configuration has to be set to 2.0 regardless of the real setting (5.0 for me). From now on Kodi converts everything in Dolby Digital and sends it to my receiver via passthrough and it's displayed nearly correct in the receiver. The sound is also much better now. For me it is no real passthrough at all. DTS lines and everything else will be converted in prior. Cause my receiver can handle every usual codec on it's own, I would like to do it so. I also activated all available codecs for my receiver in the passthrough settings of Kodi for sure. I'm glad at all that SPMC does the job right as it should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been pleased with spmc so far.
It fixes a few of the niggling android issues that Kodi has.

Just to inform everyone else interested. Kodi runs perfect for me again with the newest nightly. I've installed the actual version from the 11th of march and can't figure out any left problems.
You can grab the nightlies right here from there official site:
http://mirrors.kodi.tv/nightlies/android/arm/Krypton/
Happy to get full HDMI passthrough in combination with the new skin again!

It does not work for me with the latest nightly. I just still get pcm to my yamaha. What are your settings?

Funky-Fab-4Strings said:
It does not work for me with the latest nightly. I just still get pcm to my yamaha. What are your settings?
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Click to collapse
Here you've got my system settings in Kodi v17.1. They are in german, but the order is the same as in english for sure. This should be no problem at all. Just for info my Shield TV is connected to a Yamaha RX-V473. Not the youngest model anymore.
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Raenzen said:
Here you've got my system settings in Kodi v17.1. They are in german, but the order is the same as in english for sure. This should be no problem at all. Just for info my Shield TV is connected to a Yamaha RX-V473. Not the youngest model anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you updated to kodi 17.6, and if yes, do all the audio options including Dts-hd and Dolby True Hd remain there on the shield?