I'm a heavy video watcher, so I naturally loaded up my Captivate with tons of videos, thrilled at the idea that I didn't need to convert them first...or so I thought.
While playback performance is superb on even HD content with subtitles, it seems that hardware acceleration will only work with files encoded at 23.976fps Playing files encoded at other framerates (like 30fps, or a few variable-framerate files) results in completely out-of-sync video and audio.
Now, I can maybe excuse lack of VFR support, since timecode implementation might not be so simple (I wouldn't know), but why can't my Captivate play videos at their correct framerates? Videos are perfectly in sync when playing in software mode (using players like VPlayer and RockBox), but performance is poor in comparison. That leaves me to re-encode a good portion of my videos using AviSynth--hours and hours of setup and encoding time--just to end up with a workable framerate for my Captivate.
I just want to make sure this isn't just an isolated issue, as I've had this problem on both my original and my replacement Captivates. Anyone think this should be fixed by Samsung in their Froyo release?
I convert lots of videos (BD and standard DVD discs) for use on my Cappy. Some I leave at 23.97, others I switch to 30fps. All play fine in both mkv, divx, mp4 and h.264 formats. I use PavTube Ultimate Video Converter as it reads BD discs, even those with copy protection (The Dark Knight, for one, as well as rental discs). Works great and the vids look stunning on my Cappy.
Miami_Son said:
I convert lots of videos (BD and standard DVD discs) for use on my Cappy. Some I leave at 23.97, others I switch to 30fps. All play fine in both mkv, divx, mp4 and h.264 formats. I use PavTube Ultimate Video Converter as it reads BD discs, even those with copy protection (The Dark Knight, for one, as well as rental discs). Works great and the vids look stunning on my Cappy.
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Hmm, interesting. The files in question are all mkv's that have framerates of 29.97 (constant framerate) or 23.976 (variable framerate). They have various resolutions and audio encoding. Every single one of them is heavily out of sync on my Captivate, even after remuxing into an mp4 container, although they play fine on my laptop. Using AviSynth and FFDshow to convert the framerate to 23.976 (constant) allows the videos to play fine on the phone.
A small bump: Another major issue I have with H.264 content seems to be seeking. Although I can't figure out whether this is caused by the video itself or the phone (since the videos always play and seek fine in VLC), the issue only seems to occur with H.264 videos in MP4 containers (not with MKV's).
The first set of videos are all MP4's made by extracting the H.264 streams from MKV's (all 23.976fps), re-encoding them at 800x450 resolution (using AviSynth and FFDshow on my desktop), and putting them into MP4 containers. The reason I converted them was to embed .ass softsubs as styled hardsubs (since styled .ass support is lacking in Android video players). Every single one of these videos will not manually seek past around 14:06 on my phone (they seek and play fine on my computer). If I seek to around 14 minutes and let the video play (or just let it play from the beginning), it will play through just fine, but attempting to seek beyond that causes ANY video player on my phone that relies on hardware acceleration to freeze (software codec players like RockBox and VPlayer will seek fine).
The second set of videos are exactly the same, except they are 640x480 resolution and they were encoded on my laptop (still using AviSynth and FFDShow). These videos will not seek past 3:25 seconds on my phone without freezing the player (once again, they play and seek fine on any computer). On top of that, these videos will NOT play through on their own: at some random point in the video (different each time), I get an error message saying "Sorry, the video cannot be played" (in any player relying on hardware acceleration), and then the video frame will freeze while the sound continues to play in the background.
Note that this only happens with MP4's: the MKV's have no problem playing or seeking, but they are out of sync if they are not at 23.976fps (constant) and I want my styled subtitles. Can anyone else reproduce issues like this? This has happened so far on TWO Captivates, whether on stock or running custom ROM's (I've used Cognition, Cezar's and Darky's with various kernels). I'm very confused and running out of ideas, I've already been asking about this on video encoding forums and haven't found a solution.
Edit: Nevermind these additional issues. I solved them by using FFmpegSource instead of DirectShowSource, now all my videos play and seek fine. However, this doesn't solve my issue with different framerates being out of sync.
Related
I think most of the active members are aware of the video difficulties SO please (please, please) turn your rants off for this thread. What I am trying to find is a combination of settings that DO work.
My preferred codec is MP4.
From some suggestions in other threads, I have tried these encoding settings.
Screen resolution: 320x240
Frames Per Second: 30
Kbps: 300
Audio codec: [email protected]
...and I am playing back on TCPMP 0.72RC1 using these settings
Options/Video: Raw FrameBuffer
Options/Video/Dither: Off
Options/Video/Pixel Aspect Ratio: Auto
Options/Settings/Advanced/Slow Video Memory: On
Options/Settings/Buffering/Preload at Underrun: 85%
Using this, all I get for video is about 1 frame every 3 seconds. Audio is fine.
So can anyone add this this for getting MP4 to work?
Do I need to use a different codec? If so, I would prefer something other then AVI, since I have a mixed environment. Does anyone have suggestions on the best cross platform Codec, that has work well on the Kaiser?
I'd be interested in this too. I can play back videos taken from the video camera flawlessly but when trying to encode them to the same MP4 codec they can get choppy. Not sure what gives :0
Using WMV here
I couldn't get the mp4 output from my ATI Multimedia Centre software to work at all on my TyTN II so I've settled on WMV 9 at 352 x 288 resolution and 372 kbps (thats at 15 fps). Anything with higher bit rate than that seems to cause problems with to much screen tearing during fast movement scenes.
You might want to follow this thread... seams that the Core Player is attacking this known problem for the Tilt. I'm by no means an expert on this, but seems like the Qualcomm QTV technology for the video has some issues:
http://www.corecodec.com/forums/index.php?topic=596.0
I use PDXE, Lathe, and a few others to encode Divx videos at 320x240 video quality at "28" audio in stereo at 96 or 128k MP3 with a total bitrate under 500k (usually shoot for 475kbps). If the encoder allows it, for portable video I bump the audio volume by 15% and I increase brightness as well. To me most movies look darker on the small screen. If cropping is allowed I crop widescreen content, cutting off some of the sides of the picture to get closer to the 3:4 ratio of PDA screen. I also like to turn the brightness down as much as possible to increase battery life so the bump in brightness helps there as well. An average movie 1:50 length is about 480MB
I've used Core and TCPMP (currently using TCPMP for the youtube capability) and use Rawframe buffer as well. I'm sure that Core 1.2 will make things even better.
I get 30FPS and normal fluid video, looks like my other 8525, hx4700, and Archos 320 and 400 units with crisp clear video, no complaints.
This MP4 doesnt play on my pc only the phone???
Flying Kiwi said:
I couldn't get the mp4 output from my ATI Multimedia Centre software to work at all on my TyTN II so I've settled on WMV 9 at 352 x 288 resolution and 372 kbps (thats at 15 fps). Anything with higher bit rate than that seems to cause problems with to much screen tearing during fast movement scenes.
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This MP4 doesnt play on my pc only onthe phone???
I have an TiLt and when i try to record videos on my phone in MP4, it appears to work fine and i can play it back on my phone using TCPMP. but when i try to run this on my computer rnning vista it only shows video with no sound.
What can be causing this, is there a way to fix this and has anyone else noticed this..
ps. i hope ths has not been spoken about b4, i hate sounding like a nubie
zulualpha7 said:
This MP4 doesnt play on my pc only onthe phone???
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There's lots avout video formats in the wiki here:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=The H.264 (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 10 and AVC) Bible
FWIW my mp4s recorded on my TyTN II wont playback on my PC either, it's simply a case of finding a suitable codec.
recorded videos on Tilt not playing on vista with sound!! I GOT IT FIXXX
Flying Kiwi said:
There's lots avout video formats in the wiki here:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=The H.264 (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 10 and AVC) Bible
FWIW my mp4s recorded on my TyTN II wont playback on my PC either, it's simply a case of finding a suitable codec.
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Hey thanx for the reply but VLC is what i got installed and doesnt work, thought someone else had the same issue like mine. The .MP4 files that the TiLT records doesnt playback properly. PROBLEM is : I get the video portion just fine, but no sound. I have the. I tried in Media Player, VLC, QuickTime, RealPlayer, etc.... All the same... video plays but no sound.
I googled the issue and found out some other HTC phone users got it too and a couple solutions i found are.
1. In QuickTime it says: "Error 2041 - Invalid sample description in movie"
Solution: Checked the Apple.com or quicktime forums, if you use quicktime, change the file name from .MP4 to .3GP and it will work, it will not work otherwise. (if you dont know how to rename the files or dont see extension, Windows vista or XP go to tools>folder options>view>uncheck hide file extensions for known file types and voila)
2. Since I did so much reading on this, I got a new player (KMPlayer) that beats vlc in my books it plays the files recorded from the tilt just fine unlike VLC latest build, its fast and does all vlc does but it has a better GUI and plays anything you throw at it. you can get kmplayer here
Conclusion: The TiLt is fine, just that I couldnt get the right player to run the video files it records. apparently there is some issue with the qualcomm processor and the video output files of .MP4, some others have reported issues with any .MP4 files and had to do the same listed above.
Hope this helps someone here...
if you want an mp4 player on your pc for free, go to nokia.com
zulualpha7 said:
Hey thanx for the reply but VLC is what i got installed and doesnt work, thought someone else had the same issue like mine. The .MP4 files that the TiLT records doesnt playback properly. PROBLEM is : I get the video portion just fine, but no sound. I have the. I tried in Media Player, VLC, QuickTime, RealPlayer, etc.... All the same... video plays but no sound.
I googled the issue and found out some other HTC phone users got it too and a couple solutions i found are.
1. In QuickTime it says: "Error 2041 - Invalid sample description in movie"
Solution: Checked the Apple.com or quicktime forums, if you use quicktime, change the file name from .MP4 to .3GP and it will work, it will not work otherwise. (if you dont know how to rename the files or dont see extension, Windows vista or XP go to tools>folder options>view>uncheck hide file extensions for known file types and voila)
2. Since I did so much reading on this, I got a new player (KMPlayer) that beats vlc in my books it plays the files recorded from the tilt just fine unlike VLC latest build, its fast and does all vlc does but it has a better GUI and plays anything you throw at it. you can get kmplayer here
Conclusion: The TiLt is fine, just that I couldnt get the right player to run the video files it records. apparently there is some issue with the qualcomm processor and the video output files of .MP4, some others have reported issues with any .MP4 files and had to do the same listed above.
Hope this helps someone here...
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Click to collapse
MANY THANKS! zulualpha7,
I have had the error 2041 problem for a long time and have never been able to play vids recorded on my TyTn II on my PC.
I almost installed various codec packs as other forum members have done but after reading about potential problems of having multiple codecs for same file type and upsetting the system I decided not to do this.
I have some really important 'once in a lifetime' family moments like my friend's son catching his first fish etc... I though they were all lost for ever.
I just downloaded latest Quicktime and renamed file extensions to ".3gp" like you said and now I can watch everything!!!!
Thank you so much this really has been a big improvement for me.
ONCE AGAIN THIS FORUM ROCKS! Thanks to everyone for so much fantastic helpful info.
Is there an app which can play AVI files?
i think i will bump this as this is a most have and a down side to owning a hero !
Forward the notion.
I'm with you on this. Not being able to play .sci is a real pain.
I've also put some .mp4 files on which haven't played either for some reason. Does anyone know if there is a specific format for video on the hero? Is there a specific converter anyone is using ?
Cheers,
HP
Using something like Handbrake to convert your videos should work. If it has a setting for Apple iPods/iPhones just use that.
Or, it should support the following:
- MP4 container format
- MPEG-4 AVC (also known as h.264) video, max [email protected] (try main profile, try disabling CABAC and B-frames for more reliability)
- AAC (AAC-LC) audio, 48khz suggested sample rate
- Keep overall bitrate low, try from 800kbps to 2000kbps
like most mobile devices, ofcourse there is a limit on the codecs supported, and what levels and settings in the codec that work.
In the current state, all / most clips that are _above_ the native resolution won't play at all. And as a quick rule: H264 @ level 2.1 will work, maybe some 3.0 stuff also works, but I don't know.
Basicly, make sure the MP4's you have are iPhone compatible but 480x320 or lower resolution and the Hero will play them fine.
Any video converter tool (handbrake / Megui / Mediacoder / commercial tools) wil work if you give them the iPhone preset.
About playing AVI files, nobody has written anything yet. Don't really know why people didn't jump on the bandwagon for this kinda of thing. Mostly some sort of ffmpeg-based player will appear quickly on a platform. Maybe it's the java development thing.
Anyway, convert your video's to iphone compatibility at the moment and they should play fine.
Keep in mind that AVI is an older, inferior container format to MP4, and the MPEG-4 ASP (DivX) codec often used with AVI is inferior to MPEG-4 AVC (h.264) usually used with MP4. So you aren't being ripped off in terms of quality or technology. They just neglected to support the older format. Hopefully apps can bridge the gap in future (apps with native libraries that is, not the virtual machine). Given the lower system requirements, I'd say that it would probably be capable of playing an AVI/DivX file encoded up to 640x480x30fps (my old Nokia with a 369MHz CPU can come close).
For best results, however, use handbrake to convert from the original, or from your existing AVIs, to a nice ipod compatible, 480xsomething pixel MP4. Go direct from the original to MP4 (without AVI in between) for even better quality.
however, still after converting that video lags all the time (closed all apps either)
Did you update to the latest firmware? The original shipped firmware has a known issue that the video 'stutters' every second or so for a bit.
ah oaky, this might be the problem... waiting for donut released officially by htc for hero
Been trying to find a good video player...all seem to lag quite a bit or are quite choppy...anyone have any luck with any working really good? If so, please share!
I like rockplayer. Used it for a bit on the plane yesterday.
Is there a certain resolution you encoding videos too or will rock player handle anything?
i have an android phone and I use both rockplayer and mvideoplayer. rockplayer handles avi files well but not mkv files. mvideoplayer handles both.
i don't have a nook color but I would assume if you have a rooted nook(and have access to market) you could get these players and they should work since the processing seems the same.
i'm interested in a rooted nook color but can't seem to find if anyone has actually tried these apps.
rockplayer on the nook can handle 480p non hd videos fine in the mkv or avi containers. anything higher than that and you start to get audio and video seperation because the proc cant keep the video going at the propper pace
oscarfrancois said:
i have an android phone and I use both rockplayer and mvideoplayer. rockplayer handles avi files well but not mkv files. mvideoplayer handles both.
i don't have a nook color but I would assume if you have a rooted nook(and have access to market) you could get these players and they should work since the processing seems the same.
i'm interested in a rooted nook color but can't seem to find if anyone has actually tried these apps.
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im using mplayer on mine right now and watching some mp4 videos, not an hd file ... but the proper ratio and it looks killer ... totally worth 250 bucks
vplayer
I use Vplayer beta and i strongly recomend it. it plays most videos well and only lags a bit when you get to real high quality videos
i bought a nook color and tried it out...so far video playback is not that great.
mvideo player seems to have a very slight audio lag when i played a standard avi file(not converted or optimized for nook color) and no mkv files work on any of the players.
i think this has something to do with the internal videoplayer itself and not really the actually processing power of the nookcolor.
looks like i will have to just convert files to mp4...an extra step but I read more than watch videos.
If you are using anything other than an mp4 file extension then you're using software decoding. Software decoding will only go as smoothly as the CPU allows. I've found when using software decoding I can handle AVIs up to standard def in Rockplayer. (480) I get a tiny bit of stutter at the start, but it smooths out within 60 seconds.
However, if you use hardware decoding, (only works with mp4 files) you can probably push the resolution up a bit. I have a 720x400 file at a video bitrate of 800 that plays instantly and smoothly in the native player and in Rockplayer. I plan to go home and push the resolution a bit further and see where it starts to desync, so once I do I'll report back.
tl;dr: Anything other than mp4 has to be standard def or lower and played in a 3rd party player that can do software decoding, like Rockplayer. Anything in mp4 can be played in anything that does hardware decoding, and can probably go quite a bit higher than SD.
vplayer install error
urbanengine1 said:
I use Vplayer beta and i strongly recomend it. it plays most videos well and only lags a bit when you get to real high quality videos
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I encountered an error while installing vplayer beta. didn't you get any?
So far I'm fine with Android but I still complain I playback video in Android doesn't work well. The problem is that in WinMO could perfectly reproduce videos in format AVI, resolution: 320 * 240 and FPS 18 but in Android can't do reproduce only recognized of all videos and movies that I have one that is in WMV, therefore transform a video that I had to that format while maintaining the same settings as in AVI and does not play well is unstable and closes only while playing and I tried moving some things in the converter of video formats and still did not play well.
My question is: is there any hack or something like that to make the playback of videos go better in Android or one player as CorePlayer it was that used in WinMO and had no problems with that AVI video format.
Greetings and I hope help me.
Josue_181 said:
So far I'm fine with Android but I still complain I playback video in Android doesn't work well. The problem is that in WinMO could perfectly reproduce videos in format AVI, resolution: 320 * 240 and FPS 18 but in Android can't do reproduce only recognized of all videos and movies that I have one that is in WMV, therefore transform a video that I had to that format while maintaining the same settings as in AVI and does not play well is unstable and closes only while playing and I tried moving some things in the converter of video formats and still did not play well.
My question is: is there any hack or something like that to make the playback of videos go better in Android or one player as CorePlayer it was that used in WinMO and had no problems with that AVI video format.
Greetings and I hope help me.
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Convert them to MP4. You also might try yxplayer, which plays a lot of avi videos(not all though) for me although it's not free.
-Arturo- said:
Convert them to MP4. You also might try yxplayer, which plays a lot of avi videos(not all though) for me although it's not free.
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Thanks a lot! Transforming it to. mp4 and playing with yxplayer works well but I will have to transform everything again but the important thing is that it works.
Best regards.
I have had most success with arcmedia in the android market. It uses the FFMPEG codec library rather then the codecs built into android which means it plays more file types successfully then most others i have tried. It even has a stab at playing higher quality videos where you would normally only get sound in the standard player, but they still stutter a little.
scooter1556 said:
I have had most success with arcmedia in the android market. It uses the FFMPEG codec library rather then the codecs built into android which means it plays more file types successfully then most others i have tried. It even has a stab at playing higher quality videos where you would normally only get sound in the standard player, but they still stutter a little.
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The I installed it and I did not get worked perhaps I need to install the codecs FFMPEG you mention but equally no matter because with the yxplayer and transforming the videos to. mp4 goes me well.
Best regards.
you could try rockplayer. plays avi files. i do not remember where i found the apk but i guess it is on market.
peter s said:
you could try rockplayer. plays avi files. i do not remember where i found the apk but i guess it is on market.
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Thanks for the recommendation but if you saw the answers the problem was solved transforming the videos to .mp4 and using the player YXPLayer, the player you mention does not work but I accept suggestions of other players who have best interface to YXPlayer.
are you saying rockplayer fails to play your original avis? (at least this is what i was recommending it for)
peter s said:
are you saying rockplayer fails to play your original avis? (at least this is what i was recommending it for)
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Does not play the videos that transforms .mp4 only showed audio.
Anyone know of a good app for Honeycomb that will play various video file types including .mkv? I have tried QQplayer and Vplayer but the its real buggy on the xoom. Thoughts?
robert_ayala said:
Anyone know of a good app for Honeycomb that will play various video file types including .mkv? I have tried QQplayer and Vplayer but the its real buggy on the xoom. Thoughts?
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There are threads all over the general section on this issue. No application will play a high profile MKV on the Xoom. The native video player can play MKV files but it has to be baseline encoded. You will need to use an application like Handbrake to convert the HD video using the universal preset available on the application.
http://handbrake.fr
I haven't used it yet for Mkv but rockplayer is a great app I use to play avi files.
I've been using the full version of xvid4psp to recode x264 mkvs. Technically you can just copy the video and convert the audio to aac and push into a mp4 container, but my Xoom wasn't able to handle 1280x538 or whatever a 2.4AR movie is. I converted it to 1024x430 and was still laggy when playing with Act 1. It only takes my notebook about 2.5 hours to re-encode a movie that way so I'll probably stick with 848x352 or 848x480. Though I fear that might make it lag at full 16:9 480p so I might have to look at different profiles to make it less complex of an encode.