Database Develop

Video playback

Hi there!
I have gotten to new Lg Optimus 2x now for about a week and I am getting a bit annoyed now. I bought it purely on Being able to play full HD Movies on my Tv. But with countless hours spent on forums and trying with different players, and also differnt types of formats.
What I have on the phone now is QQplayer and arcmedia and ofcourse Lg's player
Formats I have used and there display quality:
.AVI Works in QQ, Arc but not in LG's
.Xvid Works in all
.Mkv (480p) Works in QQ ,Arc but not LG's Also this is where the framerate goes down.... out of sync audio.
.Mkv (720p) Just awfull
I am now converting a 720p movie to mp4 format h.264 to try if that works but it takes ages and I can't be botherd to convert a movie for 4h when I want to watch it on my TV.
So what can be done.. why can it play back some lame teasers on full hd but not a bloody movie in decent quality on 480p...
What should I try to convert movies and episodes to?(prefix)
The phone is not Rooted and I have no experience in that matter
Kind regards!

Kruxa said:
So what can be done.. why can it play back some lame teasers on full hd but not a bloody movie in decent quality on 480p...
!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because a video is not just a video
Video consist of 3 parts
videopart encoded to some specific format (xvid, divx, mpeg-4, h264, mpeg-2) etc
audiopart encoded to some specific format (mp3, ac3, dts) etc.
a container (avi, mp4, mkv) etc. that encapsulates the video and audio part
furthermore the video and audio part are not just encoded in specific formats, but according to specific settings - often called profiles. These define things like bitrate, b-frames, ref.frames, and other technical stuff
The chipset only support hardware acceleration (which is needed to play video in high resolution) for certain types of formats, and only when encoded after certain specifications, and only when encapsulated in certain containers, and finally only when being played by the LG player.
Other players cannot utilize the hardware acceleration but rely on software filters like ffmpeg, these give you the possibility to play formats that are not supported by the chip itself or by LG's player by using these software filters. But this also means there are no hardware acceleration to help the playback and therefore you can only play these in standard resolution and/or you can get synch issues between video/audio.
the main format supported by the chip and the LG player is called mpeg-4/h264 - and its only supported inside an mp4 container - mkv are not supported.
The encoding of the video part mpeg-4/h264 are only supported up to a certain profile level - meaning it only support upto a certain bitrate, a certain number of ref.frames, of b-frames etc. It also only support certain audio formats, mainly aac. It wont play your downloaded 720p/1080p mkv with ac3 or dts audio, and a videotrack using h264 profile level H4.1 or more with lots of ref.frames
In short you cannot just throw any downloaded or home cooked video to the mobile and expect it play - it wont. Secondly if you bought it to be a generic HD mediaplayer for these types of videofiles, then you bought it for the wrong reasons. It is not a generic HD mediaplayer, its a mobile phone, with the ability to record and play up to fullHD video - if these comply to the specifications which are supported. This videoability are mainly targeted at recording video of reasonable quality (for a mobile phone) and playing web2 content like youtube HD video which complies to these standards.
Nothing more - it wasnt designed to be your HD mediaplayer replacement
So what to do ?
make sure youre videos are encoded as h264 using max profile level 3.1 and max 10mbps bitrate - using an AAC audiotrack and encapsulated in an .mp4 container. Then they will play in HD resolution.
Now all you need is reading a couple of hundreds websites and guides on how to check your files for these specifications (mediainfo), remux video from an mkv container to an mp4 container if the video and audio inside are allready compliant, or how to reencode to desired specifications if they are not compliant.

Very usefull mini guide into the jungle of video/audio, codec, splitters and containers.
Knowing this makes it easy to setup DVDFab and other rippers/converters (hopefully).
Thanks

I tested some h264 formats on the LG2x. Baseline profile works fine for 1080p video, I tried that up to 10mbit/s. Main profile works, but is too slow on 1080p and I think 720p also. It might work with SD resolutions, but I didn't test this. High profile simply isn't even recognized by the LG media player. I did try all profile levels, it ate all of them. Perhaps someone else can figure out the maximum bitrate the device will play smoothly, and what the "maximum" resolution for the main profile is (and at what bitrate).
So if you're putting h264 HD material on there, put it in an mp4 container with AAC audio, and use the baseline profile. 10mbit/s worked fine for the 1080p source I tested with (Looney Tunes Short Fur of Flying).

spawndk said:
In short you cannot just throw any downloaded or home cooked video to the mobile and expect it play - it wont.
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Click to collapse
Hrms, can an app do this? Like for instance, on a desktop/laptop, Window's default player is not the greatest- however, here comes VLC player & it damn plays anything. My point is, can there be a App out there in our future that does this too for Android?

fen_nyc said:
Hrms, can an app do this? Like for instance, on a desktop/laptop, Window's default player is not the greatest- however, here comes VLC player & it damn plays anything. My point is, can there be a App out there in our future that does this too for Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An app on Android can not use the hardware acceleration! On a computer however, a program (like vlc) is able to use your full power!

Hi all
Read this guide "How to make videos to Optimus 2x using Handbrake"
http://www.knowyourcell.com/lg/lg-optimus-2x/optimus-2x-guides/697986/how_to_convert_videos_and_transfer_them_to_the_lg_optimus_2x.html

Hi.. THX that is great help.. Very interesting.... .
Do you think that we can expect some 3rd party video player using hardware acceleration of Tegra 2 in Market soon.? Playing .mkv and other HD formats.? Or it is not possible.?

I do not know, but if Tegra 2 will be used in other phones than Optimus 2x ... drivers might be upgraded to support more video types.

Walvater said:
An app on Android can not use the hardware acceleration! On a computer however, a program (like vlc) is able to use your full power!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RAWrrrRRR!! WHY?? Okay, I kinda get it thanks...

Its a fact that HW acceleration can only be used when/if Nvidia Tegra 2 drivers supports it.
But any app can play any format if it have the right SW decoder (using CPU).
Optimus 2x should be fast enough to play quality video (DVD resolution 720×576) using sole SW decoders
Isn´t Full HD on a mobilephone a total overkill and kind of waste?
If I want to se a movie on my Full HD Flatscreen I use my Media Center or BluRay player

im not sure what you guys looking for but all movies i downloded from internet just fly

gintas111 said:
im not sure what you guys looking for but all movies i downloded from internet just fly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What kind of movies
YouTube videos ?

Hi Mittaa,
how does it work with big files..? You can only put files up to 4 Gb on the SD card can't you..? So there is not enough room for 1080p movies..???

element332 said:
Hi Mittaa,
how does it work with big files..? You can only put files up to 4 Gb on the SD card can't you..? So there is not enough room for 1080p movies..???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said ... "Isn´t Full HD on a mobilephone a total overkill and kind of waste?"
FAT32 SD card can't handle files > 2GB
Maby you could split files and maby Android supports filessystems other than FAT16 and FAT32 ... I don't know

I think it is not a overkill. I don't have any way of getting HD content on my TV (BlueRay, Playstation, etc) so i can sure use this.
Or when I travel I can just plug my phone to the TV in the hotel room and watch the movie.

Overkill? Whats wrong with that?
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA Premium App

HerrKuk said:
Overkill? Whats wrong with that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. This phone has the specs to run it, & space is up to the owner to use. I remember a headline from Engadget stating that the "the 2X has a crazy amount of codecs for video media" when it's released in S. Korea. .mkv is probably the most popular container for HD videos- disappointing the 2X does not support this...

HerrKuk said:
Overkill? Whats wrong with that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is it possible to play 1080X1920 on a 480x800 screen?
It might be possible to use 1080X1920 when using HDMI mirror, but then how much space do you have on your phone? And do you want to split files > 2GB?
OK ... if you use hard compression file size drops ... but then quality also drops to something that you can compare with DVD resolution!
What I ment was that I personally prefare a lower resolution in a good quality
DVD resolution 720×576 ajusted to my phone (MPEG4) take up about 1-2GB and I use to have around 6-8 good movies on my 16GB SD card.
I too hope that more formats will be supported ... at the moment its just not good enough ...

optimus 2x supports baseline profile 4.1
basically it means that most of the 720p media files you'll find in the internet won't play smoothly because they are encoded according to high profile or even have been encoded after specifically more quality wise settings
if you need to encode for 2x you basically need software such as handbrake, set on the iphone and ipod touch profile on the right and change the resolution to your preference up to 1920 width and then set the bitrate so that the maximum won't go over 20Mbit
basically avg 15 would be fine though because of the fat32 limitations 4 gigabytes, it would be wise to calculate the bitrate according to the maximum file size
i do not know if Android supports ExtFat, which supports much higher filesizes, but because of the baseline profile limitations it doesn't really make any real difference between 1080p 15kbit/s or 5kbit/s video stream nor does those additional settings in Handbrake software
there is no "almost lossless" settings for optimus 2x, only thing matters is the speed for reencoding the bloody internet

[Q] Will we have tegra2 hdmi 1080p mkv h.264 bd-rip hardware decoding?

Will we have tegra2 hdmi 1080p mkv h.264 bd-rip hardware decoding?

our o2x doesn't support NEON and therefore isn't great at decoding video. it is as important as MMX was in the Pentium 1 days, it seems!

wapz said:
our o2x doesn't support NEON and therefore isn't great at decoding video. it is as important as MMX was in the Pentium 1 days, it seems!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought NEON abandoned coz nvidia states h.264 support in h/w, while neon instruction set helps to decode video in s/w. Gurus will correct me.

JugglerLKR said:
I thought NEON abandoned coz nvidia states h.264 support in h/w, while neon instruction set helps to decode video in s/w. Gurus will correct me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe. but so far nobody has been able to smootly play full 720p mkvs properly, which seems to work on the tablets with tegra2 that do support NEON. so why is that different?
flash 10.3 also uses neon since the last update. see changes for new version.

wapz said:
maybe. but so far nobody has been able to smootly play full 720p mkvs properly, which seems to work on the tablets with tegra2 that do support NEON. so why is that different?
flash 10.3 also uses neon since the last update. see changes for new version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
probably new Tegra (Kal-El) series with NEON instruction sets from ARM and 1080p H.264 High Profile video decode
but according to this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Tegra
all current tablets uses the same chip without NEON... again correct me if I'm wrong.

You're correct, there is not one tegra 2 chip with NEON. But the tablet or whatnot that can play 720p mkv probably have a player that supports MKV decode on hardware (gpu). The O2X can't handle mkv with the in-built player, and thats the only one with HW-acceleration, as of yet. Hopefully there will soon be one, or if we can port from the SGS2 with tegra (i9103).

Mkv is just a container format. These days mkv videos usually contain h.264 avc video just as .mp4 videos do, and .mp4 videos can be played back smoothly up to 1080p resolution (however just with base profile).
NEON is indeed an expanded set of processor instructions, and Tegra2 does not support it.
However, NEON is only of use if you do the decoding on the CPU in software.
Since most video will be decoded in hardware on tegra2 devices, Nvidia chose to leave out the NEON instruction, since those need a lot of space on the chip.
However it is true that the next generation tegra 3 chip (which actually has a quad core cpu) should support the NEON instruction set, which helps speeding up handling some features in software.
However, since it is my understanding that Nvidia also plans to improve hardware video decoding on tegra 3 so it should support h.264 main or even high profile 1080p videos, it is not of the upmost importance.
Hardware decoding is more efficient (and thus will save battery life) than using NEON. So whenever having the choice, go for hardware decoding...
The reasony why high resolution .mkv files cannot be played fluently is just because the standard video player does not yet support the .mkv format, and only the standard video player supports using the hardware video decoding feature.
What actually happens when you play back a video file is that the software reads and understands the container format, which contains a raw video and audio stream. The player software then handse the video off to the hardware so it can do the decoding. The audio is also decoded - common formats possibly also in hardware.
The player controls the decoding and then feeds the decoded video to the screen and the audio to the speakers.
The standard player just does not understand the .mkv container format and thus cannot reach the embedded h.264 video.
So when you use another player that does suppot .mkv then it will usually do the decoding in software, which cannot do it fast enough for high resolution videos.
However, there is great news on this!
A new update is due to arrive soon, probably until the end of the month that will include support for mkv videos, and thus mkv can be played in hardware..
This update is already available in in korea for their version LG-SU660, and judging from this post from LG:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LG-Optimus-Speed/192477164116791
those improvements will also come to the european P990 version.
See here a thread about the improvements of the korean version:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LG-Optimus-Speed/192477164116791
Just to be sure, i'll provide them here again:
Faster internet browsing
Support .mkv
Hardware support for 720p h.264 4.1hp
60 frame xvid works
Little bit better LG home
Little bit faster for everything.
Apparently this also includes an improvement of the use of the tegra2 hardware to also allow high profile 720p video (before it just supported low profile). This 4.1hp video is for instance used on youtube, if my information is correct...
So to answer your original question:
You will be able to play back high resolution h.264 mkv files.
However, it will probably not be able to play all of them, because the tegra2 hardware only supports the base profile for 1080p.
So it actually depends on how the rip was made.
You can already make bd rips in 1080p that will play fine on a tegra 2 device.
For instance, if you use handbrake to encode videos, choose the MP4 container format and H.264 (x264) as video codec, and in the advanced tab in the text field, enter this line:
ref=2:bframes=0:subq=7:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:cabac=0:weightp=0:me=umh:trellis=0:cqm=flat
This will create a video in base profile that should play fine on a tegra 2.
(Please note that some settings in that line are optimized for quality, not encoding speed. You can for instance alter the subq parameter to a lower value such as 6 and remove the me_umh option, which will result in faster encoding but worse quality).
This ofcourse requires you to have/own the bluray to create such a copy.
You are on your own for anything else...
Btw, i did not take part in the survey since the correct answer is more complex than just yes or no and ticking individual boxes.

I hope my O2X can play. T_T

So...does Tegra 2 now smoothly play 1080p h.264????

Man, what do you do for living? Tanks for all this clear technical exposé!
Hironimo said:
Mkv is just a container format. These days mkv videos usually contain h.264 avc video just as .mp4 videos do, and .mp4 videos can be played back smoothly up to 1080p resolution (however just with base profile).
NEON is indeed an expanded set of processor instructions, and Tegra2 does not support it.
However, NEON is only of use if you do the decoding on the CPU in software.
Since most video will be decoded in hardware on tegra2 devices, Nvidia chose to leave out the NEON instruction, since those need a lot of space on the chip.
However it is true that the next generation tegra 3 chip (which actually has a quad core cpu) should support the NEON instruction set, which helps speeding up handling some features in software.
However, since it is my understanding that Nvidia also plans to improve hardware video decoding on tegra 3 so it should support h.264 main or even high profile 1080p videos, it is not of the upmost importance.
Hardware decoding is more efficient (and thus will save battery life) than using NEON. So whenever having the choice, go for hardware decoding...
The reasony why high resolution .mkv files cannot be played fluently is just because the standard video player does not yet support the .mkv format, and only the standard video player supports using the hardware video decoding feature.
What actually happens when you play back a video file is that the software reads and understands the container format, which contains a raw video and audio stream. The player software then handse the video off to the hardware so it can do the decoding. The audio is also decoded - common formats possibly also in hardware.
The player controls the decoding and then feeds the decoded video to the screen and the audio to the speakers.
The standard player just does not understand the .mkv container format and thus cannot reach the embedded h.264 video.
So when you use another player that does suppot .mkv then it will usually do the decoding in software, which cannot do it fast enough for high resolution videos.
However, there is great news on this!
A new update is due to arrive soon, probably until the end of the month that will include support for mkv videos, and thus mkv can be played in hardware..
This update is already available in in korea for their version LG-SU660, and judging from this post from LG:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LG-Optimus-Speed/192477164116791
those improvements will also come to the european P990 version.
See here a thread about the improvements of the korean version:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LG-Optimus-Speed/192477164116791
Just to be sure, i'll provide them here again:
Faster internet browsing
Support .mkv
Hardware support for 720p h.264 4.1hp
60 frame xvid works
Little bit better LG home
Little bit faster for everything.
Apparently this also includes an improvement of the use of the tegra2 hardware to also allow high profile 720p video (before it just supported low profile). This 4.1hp video is for instance used on youtube, if my information is correct...
So to answer your original question:
You will be able to play back high resolution h.264 mkv files.
However, it will probably not be able to play all of them, because the tegra2 hardware only supports the base profile for 1080p.
So it actually depends on how the rip was made.
You can already make bd rips in 1080p that will play fine on a tegra 2 device.
For instance, if you use handbrake to encode videos, choose the MP4 container format and H.264 (x264) as video codec, and in the advanced tab in the text field, enter this line:
ref=2:bframes=0:subq=7:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:cabac=0:weightp=0:me=umh:trellis=0:cqm=flat
This will create a video in base profile that should play fine on a tegra 2.
(Please note that some settings in that line are optimized for quality, not encoding speed. You can for instance alter the subq parameter to a lower value such as 6 and remove the me_umh option, which will result in faster encoding but worse quality).
This ofcourse requires you to have/own the bluray to create such a copy.
You are on your own for anything else...
Btw, i did not take part in the survey since the correct answer is more complex than just yes or no and ticking individual boxes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App

So which p990 Fimrware enables 4.1 Hi Profile H264?
Please point me to which firmware enables 720P Hi Profile 4.1 H264 for the P990 model.

I also wana know which firmware or APP can decode h.264 Hiprofile 1080p MTS videos smoothly.
I have tried mxplaer, diceplayer or p990 media player but none of them could decode it right. Is there any way to decode it?
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App

scalexda said:
I also wana know which firmware or APP can decode h.264 Hiprofile 1080p MTS videos smoothly.
I have tried mxplaer, diceplayer or p990 media player but none of them could decode it right. Is there any way to decode it?
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can't play 1080p in hiprofile, only 720p

for me not even 720p HP worked

-sandro- said:
for me not even 720p HP worked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you use handbrake to encode videos, choose the MP4 container format and H.264 (x264) as video codec, and in the advanced tab in the text field, enter this line:
ref=2:bframes=0:subq=7:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:cabac=0:weightp=0:me=umh :trellis=0:cqm=flat
just convert you movies like this also work with 1080p^

that's the problem I have to reconvert 720p files already with high profile but different encoding settings = fake hd decoding of this chip

My stock V10D plays 720/1080p h264 mkv just fine!
I do have to convert some video to a lower profile in order to play them but right now I can play
H.264 mkv in profile [email protected], 1920x1080 at 27fps fine no problem!
Average filesize for such a movie is 4-6 GB, 720p @30fps runs fine as well.

I mean they released this "amazing chipset with dual core capabilities bla bla" and they can't even handle common 720p files but the sgx540 released 1y earlier can

-sandro- said:
I mean they released this "amazing chipset with dual core capabilities bla bla" and they can't even handle common 720p files but the sgx540 released 1y earlier can
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree with you. Tegra2 is really bad with h.264 high profile videos.
Sent from my DJDroid LG 1.2.1 using XDA App

[Q] LG P990 Video Problem

Hello Community,
so I gat the following problem:
The phone should show and record 1080p and 720p videos. No problem with recording, but I gat a problem with playing a video. Every 1280x720 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 video is constantly laggy, but the sound works perfect.
640x360 videos are working perfect, no matter what codec.
The sample videos in 1920x1080 are working perfect, so I think it's a problem with the codecs, but all videos are H264, so what's the problem here?
I hope you can help me!
Thanks,
Max
ps: found no topic about that thing, I hope it's not already existing!

I think tegra 2 doesn't support it (yet?)
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA Premium App

aren't they in mkv container? if that's the case, then it's normal... no mkv support yet

sorry but you both failed at my answer.
The LG P990 does support 1920x1080! As I mentioned above the sample videos are working perfectly, but other videos in 1920x1080 are laggy , even when it's the same codec, so what's the problem here?
what do you mean with mkv container?

For all who have the same problem:
I gat the answer now:
The H264 Profile of the video files must be baseline, otherwise your video will lag
You can convert to h264 baseline for example with the program SUPER
Regards,
Max

the problem is the encoding profiles used to create the videos you try to play
You dont mention where these videos come from or if you encoded them yourselves, but video are much more than just the codec.
When videos are encoded there are many different encoding settings that can be used, settings like bitrate, resolution, macroblocks, cabac, reference frames, b-frames, etc. etc. - for H264 these different settings is arranged into something called profiles and levels. Levels go from 1 up to 5.1 and profiles is called baseline, main and high
Each level and profile describe the set of encoding settings that can be used.
Read more details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC
Different types of content for playback on different kinds of units allows different profiles and levels, like HDTV specifies a maximum profile level to be used and Bluray another maximum profile level to be used. The idea is then that manufacturers of Bluray hardware decoders design their hardware codecs to support up to the maximum profile level for Bluray (which is High L4.1)and the content creators can encode their Bluray videos to the same specifications and thereby ensure that the content can be played on Bluray players.
The Tegra2 chipset support recording and playback of content up to 1080p, but that is only a specification of the resolution - you also have to know which maximum profile levels of encoding specifications it support before you can encode video properly for the Tegra2 chipset. And since it isnt designed for Bluray but for mobile use, it doesnt support the same high encoding specifications as Bluray but only a lower profile level.
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
If you download pirated HD movies, then most of these are encoded with similar or even higher specifications as Bluray movies - these will not play on a Tegra2 chipset.
And if you encode yourself, then you have to ensure that the settings you choose in the encoding application does not exceed the specifications supported by the Tegra2 chipset.
In short - if you download movies you can never be sure it will play because you have no control of how it was encoded. If you want to make sure videos will play, you have to encode them yourself and make sure to use the correct settings.
The videos you have that doesnt play right, will have to be reencoded with correct settings to play.
Edit: I see you found an answer while I was writing this

thanks for the answer
just something to add: The baseline things just getting important when the resolution is higher than 640x480 , my LG P990 can display all videos with all codecs and baselines with 640x480 but 1920x1080 for example will lag So these films are not a problem, because mostly they are 640x480 for mobile phones and not higher, that your Card isn't full with 2 vids

so what program would be best to convert a video to, as stated above :-
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
I normally use Total video Converter but cant find any of the L4.0 ect setting on it.

Kickasskev said:
so what program would be best to convert a video to, as stated above :-
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
I normally use Total video Converter but cant find any of the L4.0 ect setting on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
going to bump this, would be awesome to know exactly what setting and a program to use.

Kickasskev said:
so what program would be best to convert a video to, as stated above :-
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
I normally use Total video Converter but cant find any of the L4.0 ect setting on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll bump again just in hope

NVIDIA Tegra 2 optimized Video Player

Found this at the transformer forum..
*Phi* said:
Just thought i'll share,
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad&feature=more_from_developer
its a multi-format player called MX videoplayer(in case the market link doesnt work).
so far seems good, comparable to mobo player
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more.
regards

Thanks! Best player so far!

Wish there was a no-ads option, but it's good.

ZanshinG1 said:
Wish there was a no-ads option, but it's good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to send a note to the Dev telling him he should make a Paid, No-Ads option. A while back someone posted a ~95MB .mkv of Planet Earth in 1080P, and while MX player doesn't play it in any usable FPS, no other Xoom player I've seen will even attempt to touch it.
I'd pay $5 for this one. I'm just surprised how limited the Tegra2 HW codecs are; so many of the videos I have play in SW mode (but then again, maybe NVidia hasn't released all the specs necessary to take advantage of them?)

I really don't get why anyone wants 1080p playback (unless it's for HDMI of course) since it's a 16:10 1280x800 screen, which is 720p (plus the extra 80 rows of pixels for the menu bar).

kcrudup said:
I'm going to send a note to the Dev telling him he should make a Paid, No-Ads option. A while back someone posted a ~95MB .mkv of Planet Earth in 1080P, and while MX player doesn't play it in any usable FPS, no other Xoom player I've seen will even attempt to touch it.
I'd pay $5 for this one. I'm just surprised how limited the Tegra2 HW codecs are; so many of the videos I have play in SW mode (but then again, maybe NVidia hasn't released all the specs necessary to take advantage of them?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really nice player indeed.
...but would even kill for a player with playback rate control and pitch correction through... (any dev listening? =] )

brandogg said:
I really don't get why anyone wants 1080p playback (unless it's for HDMI of course) since it's a 16:10 1280x800 screen, which is 720p (plus the extra 80 rows of pixels for the menu bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because no one wants to reencode before watching.

I tested with 720p mkv movies and not work. Screen remains black, but is not running. Any tip? Mobo Player run 720p, but slow or dropping frames.

I have only tested MxVideoPlayer on divx/avi files and it is very similar to Moboplayer. I'd pay for a paid app also without adds if they would add/fix a few things below..
- Auto Rotate option.
- video playback should have option of resume or start over. I found a few bugs playing/resuming on videos that were incomplete. MxVideoPlayer would then show Video Playing Error when clicking on play because video was stuck on that *end spot*. The fix was to reset counters in preference to fix.
- add next/previous video button to toolbar and auto play next video in preferences.
Fix the above and remove adds and then I'll pay for that app.

brandogg said:
I really don't get why anyone wants 1080p playback (unless it's for HDMI of course) since it's a 16:10 1280x800 screen, which is 720p (plus the extra 80 rows of pixels for the menu bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who wants 1080(p)?

1080p will be on the Xoom 2..the screen on that thing goes way beyond 1080p.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Well I guess I get it if you have a 1080p movie that you want to watch on your PC, PS3, etc, and don't want to download (or *ahem* re-encode) a 720p version. That makes sense then.

I'm intrigued by, and appreciative of, the suggestion. I did download and try it, but I don't see anything to tear me away from Act 1 (which I've been quite happy with). Probably, I don't understand which format to use - but, I tried re-encoding a movie at 1080 and MX Video wouldn't play it any better than Act 1. Which is to say, I got a "format not supported" message and no joy...

Any ideas why this app (MX videoplayer) needs our GPS location?

this app is cool.
Thanks for sharing.
REgards

you guys see a diff between s/w code and h/w codec. Seems the same

It is not working for me, are there requirements for specific mkv codecs?? my mkv files never worked proporly 3.0, 3.1 or 3.2 with mobo, rockplayer or this one (just tried with 3.2)

Nothing will play in HW, it all plays SW. Even when I uninstall and reinstall both the app and codec.
Thanks happened to me with Mobo Player as well.
Stock, non-rooted, US WiFi only on 3.2.
Any ideas?

Timbledore said:
Nothing will play in HW, it all plays SW. Even when I uninstall and reinstall both the app and codec.
Thanks happened to me with Mobo Player as well.
Stock, non-rooted, US WiFi only on 3.2.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What kind of files are you trying to play? HW mode means that the app will make use of the Tegra2 hardware acceleration.
That means it will be subjected to the limitations of the Tegra 2 chip. The Tegra 2 chip can only decode certain 720p h264 formats with certain profiles and up to a certain bitrate. Let's not even go into 1080p.
Not only that, the Tegra 2 can only decode certain audio streams as well, so if your videos are in AC3 audio, you have to reencode the audio to something like AAC.
You can use a program like Mediainfo to check what formats your video files are in.
Edit: I think some folks are still not familiar with video formats and what the extensions mean. Mkv is just a container format for video files, similar to Avi. What's important is what codecs are used to encode the video and audio streams.
For example Avi files usually have divx/xvid encoded video streams and mp3 audio streams, mkv files have h264/mpeg4 AVC video streams and AC3/AAC audio streams.
So 3rd party apps are just able to open up these video containers and attempt to decode the video and audio streams for your viewing.
But they will use the CPU to process them using the app's built in codecs where possible if the chipset doesn't support it.
You can refer to the official specs of the Tegra 2 to determine what kind of video/audio compression formats it can decode.
So technically, the Xoom can playback avi files encoded with divx but because using software to decode requires some licencing fee in certain scenarios so that's why Honeycomb has no basic support because being "open source", Google did not pay for the licenses to playback some of the supported video formats. I may be wrong about this but it makes sense.
If you see other tablets like the Transformer or the Acer Iconia, you will realize they can playback more formats because the manufacturers probably paid for extra licenses and added playback capability into the OS. At least that's what I figured out.

musashiken said:
What kind of files are you trying to play? HW mode means that the app will make use of the Tegra2 hardware acceleration.
That means it will be subjected to the limitations of the Tegra 2 chip. The Tegra 2 chip can only decode certain 720p h264 formats with certain profiles and up to a certain bitrate. Let's not even go into 1080p.
Not only that, the Tegra 2 can only decode certain audio streams as well, so if your videos are in AC3 audio, you have to reencode the audio to something like AAC.
You can use a program like Mediainfo to check what formats your video files are in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, these are mostly xVid with AC3.
Mainly TV shows that I have missed. I rarely have time at home to catch up and more time on the move.

[Q] How to play most HD videos (720p/1080) Galaxy tab?

Hi,
I am trying to find out following:
I would like to use Galaxy Tab 8.9 (7300/stock HoneyComb 3.1) to play video on my HDTV (Full HD via HDMI adapter). However almost all the apps that I have tested seem to produce dropped frames or problems with sync with audio/video during playback for number of mkv/mp4/avi media files I have tested. I was able to play normally some of the full HD videos but that was in only few cases while most of 720p/1080p would have poor playback. So I am looking for an advice:
1) Will updating to ICS (now only custom roms available) help with video playback?
2) Are there any apps that you found that can play most of full hd videos? I have tried almost all the popular ones but could not get to cover full HD?
3) Will overclocking help with decoding? I saw several posts that indicate that some custom roms support overclocking. In some cases I got SW based playback to give almost good playback (HW based decoding did not work in all cases).
4) What is proper approach for mounting external drives that are in formats such as NTFS/exFAT? I am looking at this as some files might be bigger then 4GB limit of FAT32.
5) Is there a device that I can stream to 1080p from Galaxy Tab 8.9? Of course assuming that Galaxy Tab 8.9 can stream 1080p...
6) Do you have any other advice?
7) There are number of custom ROMs available (as listed in http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1441). Which one would you recommend for best video performance?
Kind regards,
Bo

Just got a Tab 8.9 and really struggling with this as well so keen to hear responses.

1) Will updating to ICS (now only custom roms available) help with video playback?
The GTab8.9 is Tegra 2 powered and will always struggle with HD playback, regardless of ROM or player. Good video player apps, I like MXPlayer, can mitigate it a little.
2) Are there any apps that you found that can play most of full hd videos? I have tried almost all the popular ones but could not get to cover full HD?
I like MX Player, but Vplayer is solid, but costs money. You will not find one that can play all 720p videos smoothly, and forget about an 1080p videos. Unless the bitrate is so low as to basically be low def, it won't happen.
3) Will overclocking help with decoding? I saw several posts that indicate that some custom roms support overclocking. In some cases I got SW based playback to give almost good playback (HW based decoding did not work in all cases).
Maybe a little, not worth it IMO.
4) What is proper approach for mounting external drives that are in formats such as NTFS/exFAT? I am looking at this as some files might be bigger then 4GB limit of FAT32.
I'm not sure on this, I will defer to others.
5) Is there a device that I can stream to 1080p from Galaxy Tab 8.9? Of course assuming that Galaxy Tab 8.9 can stream 1080p...
The GTab8.9 will struggle to play most 720p, forget about any 1080p.
6) Do you have any other advice?
I like the GTab 8.9 for its size, but a media power house it is not. If you want to play all manner of HD videos, then you're going to need a tablet with a Tegra 3 or better. Perhaps the upcoming Kindle Fire HD 8.9 or Nook+ HD 9, with their OMAP4470/SGX544s, will handle better and keep the smaller size.
7) There are number of custom ROMs available (as listed in http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1441). Which one would you recommend for best video performance?
I have not tried any custom roms myself yet. The video playback is a hardware limitation and a known weak point of the Tegra 2 SoC. Roms and players can attempt to mitigate it, but its not possible to resolve it.

Try vlc
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

UnwiredDroid said:
Try vlc
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For some reason VLC is not compatible with the device...

I've got my NTFS flash stick running perfectly... with USM mass storage watcher...

Flash rom with ics by tracid..no problem with 720p playback even with stock video player :good:

hwooei said:
Flash rom with ics by tracid..no problem with 720p playback even with stock video player :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have problems with 720p with HoneyComb before? How much did it improve your performance?

Bo... said:
Did you have problems with 720p with HoneyComb before? How much did it improve your performance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hc laggy on 720p playback..with ics rom no laggy wih 720p playback even with stock video player..or try bsplay**..support hardware acceleration..

hwooei said:
Hc laggy on 720p playback..with ics rom no laggy wih 720p playback even with stock video player..or try bsplay**..support hardware acceleration..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The BS player gave me the best playback but not always smooth on 720p. Thanks for the info.... Great news....

2) In MX Player, turn on H/W+ mode in Settings>Decoding. This plays back 720p video (with a tiny audio lag) on stock Honeycomb 3.2. It's not going to do much to help you with 1080p though -- it's probable that nothing will.

you can run 720p or 1080p fluid.. spawndk from the eepad transformer forum:
"The Tegra2 chipset are designed as a mobile sollution chipset - to support web 2 standards. The highest encoding profile used here (Youtube 1080p) are 1080p baseline and this the Tegra2 chipset will both record and play with no troubles. As well as 720p baseline and main profile - but only upto L3.1 with some limitations. It doesnt matter which container is used (mkv, mp4, m4v, avi etc) and it doesnt matter if resolution are 1080p - its only a matter of the encoding profile used to encode the supported video format H264
Tegra2 will NEVER be able to decode High profile L4.1 encodes - it's not a software issue, neither in terms of Honeycomb or Nvidia libs, its simply a limitation of the abilities of the hardwaredecoder in the Tegra2 chipset and this will never change. It is also not a limitation in the Transformer specifically, but a limitation in ALL Tegra2 based tablets and mobilephones.
This is the same reason why some mediaplayers like the Boxee Box that was originally intended to use the Tegra2 moved on to an Intel chipset before launch.
In short the Tegra2 chipset will support playback of videos encoded in 1080p or 720p resolution, using the H264 video codec and AAC audio codec - as long as the video are encoded after the baseline profile standard
It will not now or ever - play 1080p/720p encodes encoded after the high profile standard."
So basically, you have to reencode videos just like on ipad..