720p playback movies? (h.264, .mkv files)

[Guest bugrino_doente]

Is it possible in SF? and DLNA?

[Guest daniel_owen_uk]

720p matroska, I would say, not a chance.

However, that's not really the whole story, matroska is the container, h264 is the codec, but what profile etc?

Answer will 99% sure be no anyway.

[Guest clonmult]

720p seems unlikely at the moment, at least with the stock OS build.

Tried a file (mp4) that I had converted for the PSP, that played fine. But regular divx files were hopeless, either with rockplayer or yxplayer.

But then I'm new to this android platform, so may have a few more things to try before I can comment further.

[Guest David Horvath]

Is it possible in SF? and DLNA?

DLNA is possible: http://www.bianor.com/ims/

[Guest bugrino_doente]

SF has MSM7227 SOC with Adreno 200 - 3D GPU embedded.

Even in the future with Froyo and JIT, wont be possible?

Edited September 30, 2010 by bugrino_doente

[Guest clonmult]

SF has MSM7227 SOC with Adreno 200 - 3D GPU embedded.

Even in the future with Froyo and JIT, wont be possible?

Depends on the capabilities of the GPU.

I'd doubt that even with a lot of optimisation the CPU could handle 720p decoding on its own.

Similarly, I've got a 1.6 gig Atom laptop. The CPU on its own can't really cope with 720p video. But throw in an app that can leverage the NVidia ION gpu, and it can easily even handle 1080p.

So if the Adreno can support the decoding of video streams, it may be possible at some point in the future with suitable drivers.

[Guest daniel_owen_uk]

H.264 Baseline Profile Up to 30fps@WVGA (800x480), 2Mbps

So no where near 720p, fairly low bitrate, and no High Profile (which is probably what the scene releases we are talking about are encoded in :lol:.

That's before we get into the complication of processing power muxing the matroska in the first place

http://developer.qualcomm.com/dev/chips/ms...-chipset-family (linkage)

Interesting that the divx spec isn't all that bad.

Edited September 30, 2010 by daniel_owen_uk

[Guest sanfran1]

http://developer.qualcomm.com/dev/chips/ms...-chipset-family (linkage)

Hmm on the website it says that it can play

MPEG-4 Simple Profile Up to 30fps@WVGA (800x480), 2Mbps

but I'm trying to play a 23fps 640x272 994 kbps file and it's not playing smoothly at all. Same with another 25fps 720x304 1064 kbps file. Both these files are mpeg4 video with mp3 audio with .avi file container.

Any ideas as to why it's not playing the movies as it should?

I'm using RockPlayer.

Edit: I'm currently using the de-orangeated r4 ROM, but had the same issue with Stock.

Edited October 17, 2010 by sanfran1

[Guest AndyHibberd]

I noticed if I play the avi files I downloaded such as House it plays them and is good quality but then jitters a bit and goes out of screen or gets caught on itself and lags out.

Perhaps there is an isolation method so ONLY the media player runs? I'm guessing other programs are jumping on the processor and it has to share the power in the background?

Anyway I just use Super Converter to halve the picture size and bitrate and find the quality is still very watchable.

Andy

[Guest Oskaar]

but I'm trying to play a 23fps 640x272 994 kbps file and it's not playing smoothly at all. Same with another 25fps 720x304 1064 kbps file. Both these files are mpeg4 video with mp3 audio with .avi file container.

Any ideas as to why it's not playing the movies as it should?

Not sure about the SF, but I've got an Acer Liquid, and the only way to get hardware accelerated video to work is by transcoding to;

Containter: *.mp4

Video codec: MPEG-4 (Seems to work with h264 as well, but not as smooth)

Audio codec: AAC (Stereo)

I'm using the software "Handbrake" to do this, works like a charm :)

Hope this helps!

[Guest sanfran1]

Not sure about the SF, but I've got an Acer Liquid, and the only way to get hardware accelerated video to work is by transcoding to;

Containter: *.mp4

Video codec: MPEG-4 (Seems to work with h264 as well, but not as smooth)

Audio codec: AAC (Stereo)

I'm using the software "Handbrake" to do this, works like a charm :)

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortuantely it decreased playback smoothness. However, I would have thought the device should be able to play the original file in the first place, considering the manufacturers website (linked in previous post).

Your post did bring the hardware acceleration to mind. Maybe it's always disabled, hence the bad video performance. I noticed that one of the features of the MCR rom is 'Hardware acceleration enabled'.

Could anyone with that rom test out a similar video file and tell us how it plays? Also is there another way to enable hardware acceleration without having to flash another rom?

[Guest AndyHibberd]

This hardware acceleration is def a mixed bag. I've just turned mine off on custom r4 and gonna see how videos play.

I turned hardware accel off on touchpal keyboard and it got smoother. Generally UI seems as good maybe better now it's off too.

Could be placebo tho?

Would like some actual proof that it is effective.

Also some videos are MUCH smoother when played in system mode (Rockplayer option). Unwatchable using other method.

[Guest sanfran1]

Yeah I tried SystemMode but I keep getting the message, "This file cannot be played with System Player".

Confused as this is a pretty standard video file...

[Guest oh!dougal]

Yeah I tried SystemMode but I keep getting the message, "This file cannot be played with System Player".

Confused as this is a pretty standard video file...

Rockplayer info http://rockplayer.freecoder.org/instruction_en.html

RockPlayer support two playback mode: Normal Mode and System Mode. The Normal Mode means RockPlayer will use the playback engine coming with the player, which supports almost all video formats with good enough performance. System Mode means RockPlayer will invoke the playback engine built-in Android system, which support very limit formats but may take advantage of hardware acceleration, which means saving battery. By default, RockPlayer use Normal Mode for playback. You may long press on the file in file list view, touch "Choose playback mode" in popup menu to switch the mode. You may also change the default mode in settings.

[Guest dadashi]

Apparently the new nokia N8 can play 720p, it can actuallyshoot films at 1050 and even has an HDMI-TVout for watching films on an LCD. It even has USB plug for Host-Client support for attaching HDDs or flash memory!! And strangest of all it only has a slow 680Mhz CPU!!! BUT, it runs symbion and only has 640x360 display which generally ruins a good thing :) that's nokia for you...

Edited October 18, 2010 by dadashi

[Guest cmberry20]

Has anyone got standard AVI files to play smoothly on the SF?

I've been trying to use RockPlayer

If i try to watch a TV episode (175MB avi) on the phone it stutters badly & audio is completely out of sync. However, if i convert it to a MP4 file it plays fine. Why is this?

[Guest jsplace]

Um... Guys...

a. Please remember that this is a Phone!

b. It cost you £99 (or less)

c. Stick to trying to play Mobile formats on your Mobile device and you should encounter far less problems!

:) :) :) :D :D

[Guest clonmult]

Apparently the new nokia N8 can play 720p, it can actuallyshoot films at 1050 and even has an HDMI-TVout for watching films on an LCD. It even has USB plug for Host-Client support for attaching HDDs or flash memory!! And strangest of all it only has a slow 680Mhz CPU!!! BUT, it runs symbion and only has 640x360 display which generally ruins a good thing :) that's nokia for you...

My next phone will be an N8 - the Blade is only a stopgap.

I'd like to know what is wrong with Symbian? It manages power better than most other mobile operating systems, the N8 has better codec support out of the box than virtually anything else out there. The camera is second to none, connectivity is equally beating everything else on the market.

The only thing lacking with the N8 is that it has the standard "old fashioned" symbian theme. Everything else on it works perfectly.

And a 680mHz CPU is more than adequate if the GPU is leveraged - which it is in the N8.

[Guest AndyHibberd]

Has anyone got standard AVI files to play smoothly on the SF?

I've been trying to use RockPlayer

If i try to watch a TV episode (175MB avi) on the phone it stutters badly & audio is completely out of sync. However, if i convert it to a MP4 file it plays fine. Why is this?

MP4 is system supported whereas avi requires special codecs. In other words it has to work harder on avis.

I tried converting to MP4 and still found some lag, it was just under 320p quality.

Will attempt more conversions.

[Guest sanfran1]

Hmm on the website it says that it can play

MPEG-4 Simple Profile Up to 30fps@WVGA (800x480), 2Mbps

but I'm trying to play a 23fps 640x272 994 kbps file and it's not playing smoothly at all. Same with another 25fps 720x304 1064 kbps file. Both these files are mpeg4 video with mp3 audio with .avi file container.

Any ideas as to why it's not playing the movies as it should?

I'm using RockPlayer.

Edit: I'm currently using the de-orangeated r4 ROM, but had the same issue with Stock.

I just flashed the Jellyfish RLS2 ROM and these files work perfectly! Playback is really smooth now, no file convertion / encoding necessary ;) :( ;)

[Guest Phoenix Silver]

rock player play them as it

[Guest ejhollin]

H.264 Baseline Profile Up to 30fps@WVGA (800x480), 2Mbps

So no where near 720p, fairly low bitrate, and no High Profile (which is probably what the scene releases we are talking about are encoded in :unsure:.

That's before we get into the complication of processing power muxing the matroska in the first place

http://developer.qualcomm.com/dev/chips/ms...-chipset-family (linkage)

Interesting that the divx spec isn't all that bad.

What's also interesting from that page is the video encoding power of the chipset:

MPEG-4 Simple Profile Up to 30fps @WVGA (800x480), 1.5Mbps

H.263 Profile 0 Up to 30fps @WVGA (800x480), 1.5Mbps

H.264 Baseline Profile Up to 15fps @WVGA (800x480), 1.5Mbps

So hopefully the video camera can potentially record a lot better than is currently possible

[Guest Shrikey]

Ive been very disappointed in the video playback of the SF. My old Dell Axim x50v PDA from October 2004 with a 624MHz processor handles any SD divx/xvid i play on it perfectly. Thats over 6 years old! I thought we'd have flying phones by now :unsure:

[Guest Azurren]

Ive been very disappointed in the video playback of the SF. My old Dell Axim x50v PDA from October 2004 with a 624MHz processor handles any SD divx/xvid i play on it perfectly. Thats over 6 years old! I thought we'd have flying phones by now :unsure:

We do.. Its called a Nexus S or one of those dual core 2011 releases

[Guest wiffeltje]

Ive been very disappointed in the video playback of the SF. My old Dell Axim x50v PDA from October 2004 with a 624MHz processor handles any SD divx/xvid i play on it perfectly. Thats over 6 years old! I thought we'd have flying phones by now :unsure:

That's not really a fair comparison.

Your old Dell Axim x50v PDA has an Intel 2700G 3D MMA co-processor that decodes your divx/xvid video files. The processor has nothing to do with that.

The SF has an Adreno 200 GPU that decodes H.264 video and AAC audio quite fine. Also here the processor doesn't play much of a role.

So, the real comparison is between divx/xvid (Microsoft MPEG4, MP3) on your Dell Axim and MP4 (H.264, AAC) on the SF.

I do understand that all of us want to stay with 1 standard for our video files and don't like to re-encode our files all the time. But that's actually not a problem of the SF. It's a problem of choice between the multiple standards and which hardware accelerator to choose for the phone. In the 'phone world' the H.264 and AAC combination is used a lot more then divx/xvid. So, I do understand that choice for the SF.

Personally, I don't have any problems with video on my SF as long as they are encoded correctly for the Adreno 200: MP4 container with H.264 video and AAC audio.

Edited January 1, 2011 by wiffeltje