Database Develop

Movie/TV Quality and other things?

Hello,
I'm just about to receive my XDA2i and i was wondering a few things if possible?
- What would you say is more stable WM at the moment 5 or 6?
- What settings do i use to decode a movie to play on the XDA?
- what is the playback quality like?
- I have purchased a 4G SD card ultra 2...how does it work on the XDA if people have had experience it with it.
thanks for your time guys

- no WM5 nor WM6 for alpine XDA2i
- tcpmp
- normal if not too high resolution
- slow as usual, except if plugged directly into PC.

not sure if the sd card would work if it's hcsd flavour
and 320_240 res is what the lcd can give so one can encode using that to save space of the clip

a crazy problem about the kaiser's video playing

hello all!
i just got a kaiser from HK for a few days
maybe many ppl have the senses about the kaiser's poor video playing
bro mikeeey said that
mikeeey said:
have you tried setting your video driver to GDI? i would think that would solve the problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so it does! the video is much better
and after that i found a crazy problem is :
my kaiser plays a video while the keyboard is pulled out , the quality is worse than that while the keyboard is not pulled out,the same video file,the same player and the same setting~
how incredible !
its not just my personal feeling, i made a benchmark ,the result told me while the keyboard is pulled out the video's average speed is 20% or more lower than that while the keyboard isnt pulled out
any bro have the same problem?
and forgive my broken English,just want to share that with all u greatest guys

woohyuksheng said:
hello all!
i just got a kaiser from HK for a few days
maybe many ppl have the senses about the kaiser's poor video playing
bro mikeeey said that
so it does! the video is much better
and after that i found a crazy problem is :
my kaiser plays a video while the keyboard is pulled out , the quality is worse than that while the keyboard is not pulled out,the same video file,the same player and the same setting~
how incredible !
its not just my personal feeling, i made a benchmark ,the result told me while the keyboard is pulled out the video's average speed is 20% or more lower than that while the keyboard isnt pulled out
any bro have the same problem?
and forgive my broken English,just want to share that with all u greatest guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
glad i could help! the qualcomm 7200 chip uses GDI. remember that for future purposes, whether it be gaming or video or anything.
its funny i dont have one of these but could help anyway. i sure wish AT&T would release the thing soon enough!
hey wait, did you say when the keyboard is out it still has problems? or was that fixed too?

Ok and how do I tell Windows media player to use GDI?

You cant (I dont know), but you can use TCPMP (just another free Media Player).

gogol said:
You cant (I dont know), but you can use TCPMP (just another free Media Player).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what kind of idiot makes a phone with wm6 but cant play any video with the included videoplayer wmp? smart move. Why didnt they include a videoplayer that works?

I'm using the Core Player and I tried "GDI" vs "Raw Frame Buffer" and the benchmark tells me;
GDI=Ave Speed of 135%
RawFrameBuffer=Ave Speed of 168%
Guess I'll stick with Raw, it plays my Divx vids perfectly, but I encode mine at 320x240 just for small gear like this and iPods. They look very sharp and clear at these modest rates.
I also tried RawFrameBuffer with the Keyboard Open=163%

glad to see u all greatest guys replied my thread!
and many thanks to awesome bro mikeeey & RemE! you rock!
i just tested & compared RawFrameBuffer with GDI
the average speeds r following:
RawFrameBuffer (with keyboard opened):125.11%
RawFrameBuffer (with keyboard closed):122.87%
GDI (with keyboard opened):75.90% 囧
GDI (with keyboard closed):110.29%
the result above tells:
the quality (GDI) is satisfied, and the RawFrameBuffer is better than GDI~~
my crazy problem in floor 1 seems just appearing in GDI video output
and thank all u greatest guys again!

what are you guys benchmarking with?

There is a built-in benchmark tool in TCPMP and Core Player

when in portrait mode, the video will be 240x180 if it is 4:3.
When in landscape it is 320x240
Maybe because it is pushing more pixels in landscape?
Mind you, in portrait surely it is having to do a rescale, but the figures would suggest that drawing the pixels chews more CPU than manipulating them.
This would seem to hold true for a system without a GPU.

RemE said:
There is a built-in benchmark tool in TCPMP and Core Player
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aha! i shall run some of my own to add to the collective benchmark pool
ive already thrown some extreme divx's at it and i can say that the cpu is the bottleneck, not rastering the output - as it stutters on visually complex scenes (scenes that require a fair whack of cpu to decode)
source vid meta (according to windows):
664x268 - duration: 02:19:08
audio: 112kbps mp3
video: 98kbps xvid - sample size 12bit - 23fps
TCPMP Version 0.72RC1 Benchmark Results
Average Speed 109.82%
Video Frames 5130
Audio Samples 10317847
Amount of Data 41481 KB
Bench. Time 3:14.827
Bench. Frame Rate 26.33
Bench. Sample Rate 52960
Bench. Data Rate 1.7 Mbit/s
Original Time 3:33.963
Original Frame Rate 23.97
Original Sample Rate 48000
Original Data Rate 1.5 Mbit/s
URL \Storage Card\SpiderMan 3.avi
Size 838916096
Platform PocketPC
OS Version 5.02
OEM Info Kaiser
Clock speed 385 Mhz
Video output Raw FrameBuffer 240x320 16bits Lookup
Video zoom 332x134 -> 132x320
Audio output Wave Output 48000Hz 16Bits 2Ch.

AVI and MPG

Playing these with The core media player the one off here. Its absoultley terriable playing them, lags and freezes everywhere then evetually after a bit crash up. I have closed all other programmes down and still its rubbish.
Any solutions as this device is maent to have good hardware speeds.

How 's about camera ? is it working well in low light ?

you should prob state what res those avi mpg's are as there would be a lot of difference between 640_480 ones vs. 800_600 ones
if they are 640_480 ones then maybe the missing qualcomm driver still haunts

I guess resolution might matter to as it plays smaller vidieos well but on the imate universal it plays them very well even if they are full avi's or mpg.
I guess this is another device rushed again.

im using coreplayer v1.2.5 build 4506 on qtv at high quality with a 700 meg avi file res 512x288 and its running like butter, its a huge huge leap from the touch cruise! Im very pleased with the diamonds performance.
Edit, I just did coreplayers Benchmark on this vid and got:
Average Speed: 130.09%
Video Frames: 1976
Audio Samples: 3844971
Amount Of Data: 5116KB
Bench Time: 01:00.756
Bench Frame Rate: 32.524
Bench Sample Rate: 63285
Bench Data Rate 689 kbit/s
Original Time: 1:19.040
Original Framerate: 25.00
Original Sample Rate: 48000
Original Data Rate: 530 kbit/s
I have no idea wether they are good or not but to me the playback is perfect!

Would you or someone else mind doing an apples to apples benchmark using Coreplayer? I'm concerned that the Diamond may still not have good video drivers. I used the clip below to test the 6700 vs. the HTC 6900 "Vogue" (Sprint Touch) and found that the 6700 was sadly superior.
Please download and play the "Futurama: Bender's Big Score" preview from below:
http://mediafilmnetwork.com/
Run it fullscreen landscape with nothing else in the background, and let me know what your benchmark results were. I'll post mine at 416 and 624mhz.

P0ll0L0c0 said:
Would you or someone else mind doing an apples to apples benchmark using Coreplayer? I'm concerned that the Diamond may still not have good video drivers. I used the clip below to test the 6700 vs. the HTC 6900 "Vogue" (Sprint Touch) and found that the 6700 was sadly superior.
Please download and play the "Futurama: Bender's Big Score" preview from below:
http://mediafilmnetwork.com/
Run it fullscreen landscape with nothing else in the background, and let me know what your benchmark results were. I'll post mine at 416 and 624mhz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just done it, it said ac3 not supported but did the bench anyway on default settings ie qtv high quality and the diamond at defaults.
Average Speed: 125.63%
Video Frames: 3000
Amount Of Data: 25138 KB
Bench Time: 01:39.599
Bench Frame Rate: 30.121
Bench Data Rate 2.07 Mbit/s
Original Time: 2:05.125
Original Framerate: 23.976
Original Data Rate: 1.65 Mbit/s
Hope this helps!!
Is it anygood? it certainly looked bloody good and smooth!

That would be REALLY good if sound were enabled . . . I did a similar test with the 6700 and the Touch - and the Touch was able to get similar results when the user disabled sound. Obviously, when sound was enabled - their results became terrible. I'm hoping your Diamond is still trying to work with sound, and the results reflect what you'd see during actual usage. I'm using TCPMP with the AC3 plugin.
Let me post results from my 6700:
624mhz (XCPUScalar)
Average speed: 131.91%
Bench Frame Rate: 31.63
Sample Rate: 63565
Bench Data Rate: 2.1MB/S
416mhz
Average speed: 109.58%
Bench Frame Rate: 26.27
Sample Rate: 52744
Bench Data Rate: 1.8MB/S
Can you either enable the AC3 plugin, or find another online video I can access - that you can actually play? I'd love to test and make sure we're comparing performance at the same task. I'm concerned that HTC may not have their video drivers straightened out. That's the only thing keeping me from considering an "upgrade".

Okay seems like some of you got the full avi and mpg working exactly how im i doing this again. Does having a gray import also matter coz maybe it might not yet be updated.

Watch this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXo9UZOX2k

badman112 said:
Okay seems like some of you got the full avi and mpg working exactly how im i doing this again. Does having a gray import also matter coz maybe it might not yet be updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. It's only a matter of the program you're using. You can get the last free version of core player, plus the AC3 plugin from this website:
http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/
The AC3 plugin has a readme on how to install it.
I'm not sure if the plugin will work with the version you have if it's different. But you might try installing this version, then running the video for comparison.
Just for your information - the HTC touch version benchmarked that video at 105% without audio but only at 78% with audio. I'm concerned that if you benchmark the Diamond and it gets worse results than my 416mhz 6700 - then the drivers are still screwed up.

If badman can't run this test, can someone else do so?
I think it'd be useful to everyone to know how this phone benchmarks vs. the 6700, HTC Touch, and even the HTC Tytn II. In light of the "class action" issues with HTC/Qualcomm video drivers - I would think everyone would want to know if the same problems exist with the new Diamond.

P0ll0L0c0 said:
If badman can't run this test, can someone else do so?
I think it'd be useful to everyone to know how this phone benchmarks vs. the 6700, HTC Touch, and even the HTC Tytn II. In light of the "class action" issues with HTC/Qualcomm video drivers - I would think everyone would want to know if the same problems exist with the new Diamond.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been trying to run this test for you but the player keeps crashing with an 'Unexpected program failure' message. It was working when I first installed it, but now it's gone weird.
Sorry!

No worries, I appreciate the effort. It's a shame that the player won't work for you? Have you tried uninstalling then reinstalling?
I also realized that there's other factors involved in making a head to head comparison. The most important being a VGA screen vs. a QVGA screen in the other devices.

Yes I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, both on the device and in the internal storage.
The video wasplaying OK, then when I went to run the test it had stopped working. Most annoying.

who needs AC3 for a mobile device?
its just puts unnecessary load on the cpu and you gain next to nothing...

It was actually the AC3 plugin that was causing the application to crash. I've removed that and now I can play the video but obviously don't get any sound.

P0ll0L0c0 said:
That would be REALLY good if sound were enabled . . . I did a similar test with the 6700 and the Touch - and the Touch was able to get similar results when the user disabled sound. Obviously, when sound was enabled - their results became terrible. I'm hoping your Diamond is still trying to work with sound, and the results reflect what you'd see during actual usage. I'm using TCPMP with the AC3 plugin.
Let me post results from my 6700:
624mhz (XCPUScalar)
Average speed: 131.91%
Bench Frame Rate: 31.63
Sample Rate: 63565
Bench Data Rate: 2.1MB/S
416mhz
Average speed: 109.58%
Bench Frame Rate: 26.27
Sample Rate: 52744
Bench Data Rate: 1.8MB/S
Can you either enable the AC3 plugin, or find another online video I can access - that you can actually play? I'd love to test and make sure we're comparing performance at the same task. I'm concerned that HTC may not have their video drivers straightened out. That's the only thing keeping me from considering an "upgrade".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, finally got it working. I had to install the AC3 plugin before the application which seems a bit odd to me. Anyway, here are the results. Note that this is with a tweaked Diamond, using the tweaks found on here to speed up TouchFlo etc. Only thing running was the phone radio.
Average speed: 79.34%
Bench Frame Rate: 19:02
Sample Rate: 38094
Bench Data Rate: 1.3MB/S
So, pretty poor really.

Ouch, that's a shame. :-(
That could either mean that the video drivers aren't being properly implemented yet - or they have been, but outputting video to a VGA screen is too much for the device to handle. I know that's been the case when trying to play emulators on powerful VGA devices. I'm sorry to hear the results, regardless. Thank you very much for running that benchmark - I believe more people than I would be appreciative of the results.
BTW - the only reason AC3 is a useful implementation, is that many of us already have A LOT of video files on our computer at full resolution and with AC3. Encoding usually takes a minimum of an hour - so it's not useful to just grab and go. With my 6700 I can upload a movie on the run at any time.
If you're happy converting movies, it's by far the most efficient way to go with regards to PDA storage and processing power. That's just not terribly useful for a lot of users like me.

Bumped for reference with a bencharking thread.

[CM7] All things video (CM7 only)

General Comments
I've created this thread to centralize video discussions, tips, issues, etc.
Please limit this only to those running CM7. Something that works or doesn't work in rooted stock or Froyo may have no correlation to CM7 at present. CM7 is using different codecs, different DSP kernel driver, different media backend, and different userspace ALSA.
To start things off I have attached a handbrake profile that has worked well for me.
I will update this post as more specifics are found.​
A few things to consider: ALSA
Our ALSA implementation is picky about the buffer size. Other devices that use ALSA in the same fashion have had to reduce their buffer as well. This may be due to a limitation of what can fit in the DMA buffer on the McBSP. Because the ALSA buffer scales with the audio sample rate, I recommend using 44.1K instead of 48K when transcoding videos. This is contrary to every handbrake profile I've seen folks post on XDA for the nook.​
CPU Governor
Some people have had better luck with the Conservative CPU governor rather than Ondemand or Interactive.​
Bitrate
I have found it best to limit the bitrate to something under 1000kbps.​
Resolution
The resolution should always be limited to 854x480. This is the maximum limit for the open source codecs. We do not have a license for 720P codecs yet. Perhaps B&N will get a license for their Froyo update.​

dalingrin said:
I recommend using 44.1K instead of 48K when transcoding videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur....I started doing this last night, coupled with a DRC of "3" and sound is better and louder.

360Razir said:
I concur....I started doing this last night, coupled with a DRC of "3" and sound is better and louder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree about DRC. I just updated my profile with dynamic range compression of 2.

Your preset causes an unhandled exemption for me when I load or use it in handbrake. If I try to play what it outputs, it doesn't play in the stock player.
I have to turn off Weighted P-Frames to get the nook to play in hardware (stock player.)
EDIT: Attached my preset. It has all the typical preset stuff, plus 44.1/128 audio like dal recommended, and it doesn't throw a fit when I import or select it in handbrake.

chisleu said:
Your preset causes an unhandled exemption for me when I load or use it in handbrake. If I try to play what it outputs, it doesn't play in the stock player.
I have to turn off Weighted P-Frames to get the nook to play in hardware (stock player.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weighted P-frames are off in my profile.
What version of HandBrake are you using? I have rev3736.

The other thing I have to test is my Droid X. Most of the Handbrake (HB) encoded movies I have were done for my DX last year. Like the NC, I set the movies to 854x480 for my DX and so that makes it nice to be able to test between the two devices.
My DX is now running (leaked) Gingerbread and playing the same videos between the DX and the NC, the DX is so incredibly smooth. No lag. No crackling. No slow-downs. No audio popping. Just buttery smooth. Now, I understand the screen is smaller, but again, same video resolution of the video. Not sure how the "guts" of the DX are vs. that of the NC, though?
However, what I can say, is that back in January when I first got my NC and went with AutoNooter, I was able to take my existing HB-encoded movies that I had lying around for my DX and play them perfectly on rooted stock. Since CM7, out of the 25 or so movies I have for the DX, only 7 of them play on the NC (using Act 1). The NC is picky, indeed.
The quest continues....

dalingrin said:
Weighted P-frames are off in my profile.
What version of HandBrake are you using? I have rev3736.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yours and the other guy's won't load without throwing an exemption which is where my confusion came from in the other thread.
Mine says 3728... it is 0.9.5 and says 2011010300 and says it is the latest when I try to update... going to redownload...
You are on the linux version aren't you?

Here are the videos with their specs that do currently work with Act 1 on my NC:
NOTE: most of my videos that work are in .m4v format. I had removed that setting in HB, but when I did, the video didn't play. I am sure it was probably something else getting in the way, but .m4v just seems solid for me right now, so sticking with that. To each his own.
As you can see from the attachment, the size, bitrate, dimensions, and frame rate are all over the map. Each plays well in Act 1 with Zoom set to "Aspect Full".
I will post my exact HB settings when I have something I have settled on and I am taking the suggestions from this thread, so thanks for that.

chisleu said:
... it is 0.9.5 and says 2011010300 and says it is the latest when I try to update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here....Win7/32-bit

I am attaching my settings for HB that work well for me with regards to full-length movies. Has excellent audio/video sync, with no lag.
Highlights include:
[ Original Presets were taken from Regular > High Profile and then just tweaked accordingly ]
● Picture: Anamorphic Loose
● Video Filters: Off
● Video: H.264, Same as source, 2-Pass Encoding (Turbo 1st), Avg Bitrate (kbps) 2000
● Audio: Source (default), AAC (faac), Stereo, 44.1, 160, DRC = 3.8
● Advanced: B-frames = 0, CABAC & 8x8 & Weighted P-Frames = unchecked
Again, I am using Act 1 with "Zoom" set to Aspect Full.
Please let me know what you think if you dare to try.
EDIT: Video source is a regular DVD, widescreen, ripped into Handbrake directly

The dalingrin presets work for me with the Handbrake svn3907 on Ubuntu. My resulting conversion of my Letterman test video plays fine.

@dalingrin:
Any ideas as to why disabling WiFi would stop the madness of the lagging/stuttering in the video? Was it something my system was doing in the background or one of my widgets fetching data?
Is this just the case for my NC or can this be replicated? Any tests I can run for you to see if it is something you can help with? Thoughts? Thanks.
~ Razir

360Razir said:
Any ideas as to why disabling WiFi would stop the madness of the lagging/stuttering in the video? Was it something my system was doing in the background or one of my widgets fetching data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's always been my guess. Things never quite settle as long as they have access to the network.
Is this just the case for my NC or can this be replicated? Any tests I can run for you to see if it is something you can help with? Thoughts? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Same here. And, it's not just video... it makes Pandora rather unpleasant. Luckily, my primary use case for video is on a plane where network access is unlikely or expensive.
Have you tried using the Conservative governor? It helps my situation.

Some rules for this thread to consider
Let me extend this discussion and propose a few rules for this thread:
1. The source video should be made clear. If you start with poorly encoded video you're obviously going to output something similarly crappy. Provide a link to the file, or upload it yourself and provide a download link. It should be legal, i.e. if you ripped it from your blu-ray, or if you torrented it from somebody else who ripped it from a blu-ray, then it doesn't belong on this thread. My source video will be a 1080p trailer from The Eagle, downloaded (legally) from here: http://www.hd-trailers.net/movie/the-eagle/
2. The encoder and settings should be made clear. I never used Handbrake before, but this morning I downloaded Handbrake 0.9.5 and installed it on my Win7 64-bit desktop. I'm using the preset for "iPhone & iPod Touch". This defaults to H.264 encoding and m4v container. I then adjusted either resolution or average video bit rate but everything else I also left at default, since I mostly don't know what they mean anyway.
3. The player should be made clear. I used Titanium Backup to uninstall Music because of a prior FC issue, then sideloaded music.apk that I pulled from cm_encore_full-37.zip, thus I'm back in business with the stock Video player and no longer using Act 1.
4. Optional: upload your transcoded file and provide a link to it. I've made 2 clips of the eagle trailer which can be downloaded here:
Eagle trailer - 854x352 - 800K: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22573583/Eagle_854x352_800K.m4v
Eagle trailer - 576x240 - 800K: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22573583/Eagle_576x240_800K.m4v
The short of it is that both files play flawlessly on my NC running CM7 n37 with dalingrin OC kernel 040411, overclocked 300/1100 interactive. Here are some notable observations:
- The 480p-ish 854x352 resolution limited by our open-source license plays flawlessly for me up to a video bit rate of 1300K, at which point one or two random split-second audio stutters occur through the clip. You can download my 800K encoded video at this resolution. I've gone up to 3000K at 854x352 resolution with still very smooth playback. I've also been able to play an 800K clip resized to 1024x600, the native NC resolution, flawlessly.
- The 576x240 resolution for me is the sweet spot on the Nook. Text resolution is inferior to 854x352, but the playback is perfect and file size is more accommodating. Stutter-free at 800K (download my Handbrake encoded file if you want), and actually stutter free all the way up to 3000K. What's so incredible is that the high-speed scrub (put finger in middle of screen and slide right or left) at this resolution is buttery-smooth.
- Adjusting the CPU speed up or down and moving around governor setting didn't do anything good or back for video playback. Video playback was just as good at 800MHz as 1100MHz CPU speed.
I'm not an expert on video codecs and encoding, by any means, but I've been around HD-DSLR video and non-linear editing ever since Vince Laforet busted out with Reverie nearly 3 years ago.
I'll stand by my opinion, expressed previously on the kernel thread, that CM7 and dalingrin OC kernel in its current iteration (nightly 37 and 040411) absolutely rocks for properly encoded video.

360Razir said:
@dalingrin:
Any ideas as to why disabling WiFi would stop the madness of the lagging/stuttering in the video? Was it something my system was doing in the background or one of my widgets fetching data?
Is this just the case for my NC or can this be replicated? Any tests I can run for you to see if it is something you can help with? Thoughts? Thanks.
~ Razir
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesnt stop it for me. no wifi. no bt. still stutters randomly on good files.

sinanju said:
Have you tried using the Conservative governor? It helps my situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I saw your post about that from the OC Kernel thread and so that is what I tried last night. It seemed to work at first, but then this morning it was also choppy using that governor. So, being on Interactive with WiFi off works.
My Droid X has many more widgets running and network access (both 3G and WiFi) and there is no hiccups or slowdowns whatsoever playing the same video. I know not apples-to-apples, but the quest is to get my NC to that kind of stability.

MedLine said:
Eagle trailer - 854x352 - 800K
Eagle trailer - 576x240 - 800K
The short of it is that both files play flawlessly on my NC running CM7 n37 with dalingrin OC kernel 040411, overclocked 300/1100 interactive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both of your videos are still choppy for me with WiFi enabled....meaning, something is fetching data in the background (Pulse, Palmary Weather, Plume, Engadget, or Google News, or even email polling) is messing with my video playback. Just wish the video was "shielded" from such things.
When WiFi disabled, all is good with your videos.

Which app you guys using to play videos? I'm using Rockplayer right now and getting audio sync issue. I had better luck with Mobo Player.

OK:
Using Sony's HD Experiment because it is short and high action.
http://www.demo-world.eu/trailers/redirect-high-definition.php?file=hd_other_sony_hd_experiment.rar
Encoding using the iphone and ipod touch preset.
I set 576x240 resolution and I can play completely smoothly with wifi on. File size is 4.44megs w/ RF: 25 (iirc)
I set 854x480 resolution and RF 30 it locks on whatever frame you start playing (black screen, etc.) Won't play. I set 854x480 and 800kbps avg kbps and it is also black screen. If I hit home and then go back and let it go, the video will change, but it doesn't seem like it will catch up. Definately broken.
I downloaded that 1080p trailer you linked.
start handbrake, load 1080p trailer, select "iphone and ipod touch" preset, select 854 width (auto height 368), changed to average kbps and set 800. My file size isn't exactly yours, but is very very close.
854x368 plays very well and looks fantastic, but it does have those pops/skips.
Disable wifi:
still get rare/random skips with my 854 file.
still get rare/random skips with your 854 file.
I turned "Disable Fullscreen" off on a hunch it was play a role in this:
My 854 file still skips from time to time.
My 576 file still skips from time to time, although more rarely. only once in 2 plays.
Your 854 file still skips from time to time.
Your 576 file still skips from time to time, maybe more rarely? Hard to quantify.
I encoded the eagle trailer with my 854 width, RF 25 "high quality" preset.
It is smaller than 800kbps (13.1M vs 18M)
It skips too.

tablo said:
Which app you guys using to play videos? I'm using Rockplayer right now and getting audio sync issue. I had better luck with Mobo Player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are mostly using the stock player because it forces hardware accel.
I prefer VitalPlayer to all. If you are having sync issues it is probably playing in software mode. I should say, VitalPlayer has never given me any sync issues at all while playing in software. Wish I had discovered that before DSP was working. haha

Video problems with Mobo switched to vital neon fixed, but not using hardware decoder

Hi All,
So I have read all the threads I could find about video players on the Nook Color, and I am still having a little trouble. I don't know if its normal, so I am looking for some help/advice/guidance. This is going to be long, but it's because I am trying to be as thorough as I can.
My Goal:
To have a 7" tablet that browses the web, reads/writes email, lets me IM, reads ebooks, plays video files from my video collection, plays music from my collection, runs Pandora, Netflix, and Hulu, and is capable of swype (slideit).
What I have:
I have a brand new Nook Color that I bought just for turning into a tablet to play with (3 days ago). I started by rooting with nooter, and flashing CM 7.0.3 stable (2 days ago) to the emmc through CWM. I have since updated to CM7 Nightly #144 (today - more on that later)
My problems:
So I was happy with everything in CM 7.0.3 except for its video playing capabilities. I was using Moboplayer (I didn't download any codecs or anything, just straight moboplayer from Market). I know that the advice of the professionals on here is to use handbrake to convert whatever video you want to watch to an exact format that is ideal for the Nook, however, I, like many other people on here, have tons of movies (7 TB), and I have tons of places that I play them (every console, psp's, ds's, laptops and netbooks aplenty, etc.). So I don't want to convert them, and I have read several threads where people are playing un-converted videos without problems. So I picked a random episode and tried to play it. Here are the specs of that video.
Total file size: 349MB
Video -
Length: 42:26
Frame width: 624
Frame height: 352
Data Rate: 1003kbps
Total bitrate: 1152kbps
Frame rate: 23 frames/second
Audio -
Bit rate: 149kbps
Channels: 2(stereo)
Audio sample rate: 48 kHz
While in 7.0.3 with Moboplayer the video runs ok and the audio is sync'd up fine, but its not silky smooth. It looks like its running at about 18fps. I don't know how to find the exact framerate, but it is just a little less then when it plays on my computer, and it is just barely low enough to cause enough chop to be annoying. So the first thing I tried was downloading Dalingrin's 042411 OC kernel for eMMC. I thought if I overclocked my processor, it might solve the problem, and my research on this forum led me to believe that was the right OC file for my version of CM. I set both the min and the max to 1300 and still had the problem. In my research I also found that many people were talking about how Dalingrin had unlocked hardware decoding in some of the newer CM nightlies. Also, the OC kernel already exists in the newer nightlies. So I downloaded the newest nightly. I am now on #144. Once I got back up and running, I downloaded Moboplayer and tried again. Same problem. Even overclocked. I saw someone mentioned using the Neon codec pack for moboplayer. For some reason the Neon codec pack doesnt show up in my market (although a bunch of other Moboplayer codec packs do). So I went to Moboplayers website and downloaded the Neon codec pack zip file. I tried to install it with CWM in recovery mode, but it keeps failing. Having done some more research I downloaded a player called VitalPlayer Neon (there is a non Neon version but I paid for and installed the Neon version). When I play that same avi file in VitalPlayer is starts it and a little window pops up at the very beginning that says "Software codec play!!" The video (and several others like it) plays silky smooth. I couldn't ask for a better video playing experience. However, if I go into the settings for VitalPlayer (Settings -> Decode Mode) and tell it to use hardware codec, when I try to play the file its says, "Can't be played!!" Am I missing something?
Summary - So my questions are:
1) Is there a way to monitor FPS?
2) Don't I want my video player running with Hardware codec?
3) Why isn't my video player running with hardware codec?
/** Note relavant to thread *
<rant>
When I am done, I am going to write (yet another) guide for how to do this the easiest way for someone looking for a tablet/ereader experience like I was, that doesn't mind paying a couple dollars to get it right. The advice I have gotten on this site has been AWESOME, I just wish it was compiled a little better. It seems like people try so hard to get the free apps to do what they want, that they miss the $1.49 app that does it perfectly. And you have to dig to find the non-free apps that do what you want. Theres a few threads where people are jumping through hoops, spending hours and days, and screwing up the CM installs to get swype to work when for $4.99 SlideIt is up and working perfectly in seconds. Money well spent for me. Also, the $1.49 for ezPDF was priceless compared to the hours I spent trying other pdf readers that wouldn't even remember what page I was on when I stopped reading. ezPDF should be the defacto standard for PDF reading IMO. I can even resize what I am reading to a legible size and it will wordwrap (text reflow) for me so I don't have to move left and right on each line.
</rant>
Thanks,
Josh

Not every zip file you see in Android is intended for flashing! Yikes! That zip you downloaded is most likely just compressing/wrapping an apk. Look in the zip.
Be glad it didn't run
I looked there, and I just see an apk.. http://update2.moboplayer.com/apk/armv7_neon-release.apk
And it says that moboplayer SHOULD automatically install a codec, so not sure it'd help but it's worth a try?

a) Just install the codec apk like any other, and MoboPlayer will automatically pick it up.
b) You can't use hardware decoding unless the resolution is at or below 854x480, period. Since your content (presumably) is higher resolution than that, software decoding is your only option. The good news is that (when overclocked) the Nook is indeed capable of dealing with pretty high resolutions, the bad news is that battery life will suffer.
Rodney

khaytsus said:
Not every zip file you see in Android is intended for flashing! Yikes! That zip you downloaded is most likely just compressing/wrapping an apk. Look in the zip.
Be glad it didn't run
I looked there, and I just see an apk.. [link removed because I am not allowed to post links yet -Josh]
And it says that moboplayer SHOULD automatically install a codec, so not sure it'd help but it's worth a try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Khaytsus,
I am glad it didn't run. In retrospect I definately should have known better then to try to let CWM "flash" this instead of "installing" it (so tired). That website does list it as an apk, but when you download it, it downloads as a zip. Should I have renamed it to apk and tried it? MoboPlayer didn't download anything when I started it, at least not that I saw (may have done it in the background). Either way I uninstalled it because VitalPlayer is working. I just need to see if I can make it do hardware decoding.
Thanks for the help!
Josh

rhester72 said:
a) Just install the codec apk like any other, and MoboPlayer will automatically pick it up.
b) You can't use hardware decoding unless the resolution is at or below 854x480, period. Since your content (presumably) is higher resolution than that, software decoding is your only option. The good news is that (when overclocked) the Nook is indeed capable of dealing with pretty high resolutions, the bad news is that battery life will suffer.
Rodney
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Rodney,
In Re b): Since my video is Frame width: 624 Frame height: 352, doesn't that mean my resolution is 624x352 ... < 854x480? If not, how can I check to see what resolution my video is? I got those stats by right clicking the avi file properties -> details.
You're right VitalPlayer plays that video beautifully. Thanks for the tip about the batter. I will keep an eye on it.
Thanks,
Josh

gijosh28 said:
In Re b): Since my video is Frame width: 624 Frame height: 352, doesn't that mean my resolution is 624x352 ... < 854x480? If not, how can I check to see what resolution my video is? I got those stats by right clicking the avi file properties -> details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a bit more to it than that, actually. It must be in a MPEG-4 container using the H.264 codec with baseline profile level 3.0 or less. AVIs need not apply. =)
Rodney

Hey,
As an update to this thread, I used Chisleu's Handbrake profile from this thread, and converted the video with the specs above. The new video did play with hardware decoding in both the stock player, and VitalPlayer Neon. It did not look quite as good (just an iota of a difference) as leaving the file the way it was and letting the software decode it. However, when I ran the new file with software decoding it didn't look quite as good as it did with hardware decoding (again miniscule difference). Summary: The original file looked the best, but wouldn't play with hardware decoding. The Handbrake'd file looked just a tiny bit worse (hardly worth mentioning) with hardware decoding, and just a little worse still with software decoding. Below are the file specs from right-click -> properties -> details.
new Handbrake'd file = left / old as downloaded file = right
File Size: 186MB / 349MB
Length: 42:58 / 42:59
Video -
Frame Width: 624 / 624
Frame Height: 352 / 352
Data Rate: 475kbps / 988kbps
Total Bitrate: 603kbps / 1137kbps
Frame Rate: 23fps / 23fps
Audio -
Bit Rate: 128kbps / 149kbps
Channels: 2 stereo / 2 stereo
Audio Sample Rate: 44kHz / 48kHz
Also noteworthy: In refference to the battery suggestion, since I upgraded from CM 7.0.3 to CM 7 Nightly #144, my battery performance has been stellar.
Thanks,
Josh

gijosh28 said:
Hey,
As an update to this thread, I used Chisleu's Handbrake profile from this thread, and converted the video with the specs above. The new video did play with hardware decoding in both the stock player, and VitalPlayer Neon. It did not look quite as good (just an iota of a difference) as leaving the file the way it was and letting the software decode it. However, when I ran the new file with software decoding it didn't look quite as good as it did with hardware decoding (again miniscule difference). Summary: The original file looked the best, but wouldn't play with hardware decoding. The Handbrake'd file looked just a tiny bit worse (hardly worth mentioning) with hardware decoding, and just a little worse still with software decoding. Below are the file specs from right-click -> properties -> details.
new Handbrake'd file = left / old as downloaded file = right
File Size: 186MB / 349MB
Length: 42:58 / 42:59
Video -
Frame Width: 624 / 624
Frame Height: 352 / 352
Data Rate: 475kbps / 988kbps
Total Bitrate: 603kbps / 1137kbps
Frame Rate: 23fps / 23fps
Audio -
Bit Rate: 128kbps / 149kbps
Channels: 2 stereo / 2 stereo
Audio Sample Rate: 44kHz / 48kHz
Also noteworthy: In refference to the battery suggestion, since I upgraded from CM 7.0.3 to CM 7 Nightly #144, my battery performance has been stellar.
Thanks,
Josh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want the handbrake transcoded file to look as good as the original then you're going to need to match the video bitrates.
I generally transcode my videos with handbrake before I use them on my Nook. It doesn't take too long on my PC and the battery savings with hardware codecs is worth it to me.
Media playback is still a work in progress. The hardware codec "pickiness" isn't going to get much better but things like Flash and higher resolution and bitrates should improve in the not so distant future.
No miracles though =)

dalingrin said:
The hardware codec "pickiness" isn't going to get much better but things like Flash and higher resolution and bitrates should improve in the not so distant future.
No miracles though =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/drool
Me thinks previously mentioned optimizations are coming along...... cannot wait!

dalingrin said:
If you want the handbrake transcoded file to look as good as the original then you're going to need to match the video bitrates.
I generally transcode my videos with handbrake before I use them on my Nook. It doesn't take too long on my PC and the battery savings with hardware codecs is worth it to me.
Media playback is still a work in progress. The hardware codec "pickiness" isn't going to get much better but things like Flash and higher resolution and bitrates should improve in the not so distant future.
No miracles though =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it gets no better then it already is, I am extremely satisfied. I left yesterday with a full charge at about 3pm. I went back to my room, watched an episode of Numb3rs (thats the file I was using for my tests above) with software decoding, played about an hour of airport mania, and read some Isaac Asimov for an hour. It is now 2AM (11 hours later) and my battery is at 74%. I even have the Bubbles live wallpaper which is supposed to eat up my battery. This thing is almost perfect in that it does everything I want, does it well, and does it efficiently. Thanks for your hard work on it Dalingrin.
Now if I could just figure out my music problem from the other thread, I'd be golden.
Josh

Are you streaming or copying to the nook and playing? If streamimg, you can use vlc convert and stream to transcode on the fly, otherwise handbrake is the way to go.