Database Develop

[Q] Mkv support ??

Currently owning a vodafone smart II (really sluggish) , and I just found out this marvelous mobile . Well that said my only concern is will it play mkv on its default player ? I double checked their site (Sony) and found none info listed. Tried google and nada nada ... Well seeing this mobile has potential would be nice to know it supports MKV natively... Any one knows something please ????

zalman360 said:
Currently owning a vodafone smart II (really sluggish) , and I just found out this marvelous mobile . Well that said my only concern is will it play mkv on its default player ? I double checked their site (Sony) and found none info listed. Tried google and nada nada ... Well seeing this mobile has potential would be nice to know it supports MKV natively... Any one knows something please ????
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Yes it will Xperia 2012 devices already support mkv files
Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

It plays MKV out of the box, but audio support may be an issues. Either way MX Player plays MKV fine with support for most audio formats.

MKV is just a container so the real question would be it's audio and video codec.
Xperia Z/ZL or any high end android phones only support H.263, H.264, DivX, Xvid, 3GPP, 3GP2 I think that should be all the video codec it support. But as the other poster said... Just download MX Video player I use that over any stock video player 99% of the time.

MKV's work, but there are limitations. You can't select what audio track to play, it just uses whatever default track there is. Secondly there is a somewhat limited codec support. Many higher quality MKV's you find in less legal places of the interwebs use AC3 (Dolby) or DTS (or their HD variants) audio codecs which aren't supported. As far as I know it'll only play files with audio in MP3 or AAC, and I'm not sure about multi-channel AAC. Subtitles won't work either. And then some MKV files just randomly refuse to play, but I haven't identified what causes that problem.
There are two solutions:
Either just play everything with MX Player, with the HW or HW+ decoders you still have full hardware support and the benefits of Bravia Engine combined with full support for pretty much all audio codecs, multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitle tracks.
The other solution is to use software to remove unused audio tracks from your MKV's and if necessary recode your preferred audio track to stereo AAC. By far the best software to do that is Avidemux. It allows you to delete and recode streams without affecting other streams. Basically that means you can remove audio tracks you don't need and recode the one you want without having to recode the video, which is extremely fast and with recent CPU's only limited by the disk read/write speed.

Ambroos said:
MKV's work, but there are limitations. You can't select what audio track to play, it just uses whatever default track there is. Secondly there is a somewhat limited codec support. Many higher quality MKV's you find in less legal places of the interwebs use AC3 (Dolby) or DTS (or their HD variants) audio codecs which aren't supported. As far as I know it'll only play files with audio in MP3 or AAC, and I'm not sure about multi-channel AAC. Subtitles won't work either. And then some MKV files just randomly refuse to play, but I haven't identified what causes that problem.
There are two solutions:
Either just play everything with MX Player, with the HW or HW+ decoders you still have full hardware support and the benefits of Bravia Engine combined with full support for pretty much all audio codecs, multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitle tracks.
The other solution is to use software to remove unused audio tracks from your MKV's and if necessary recode your preferred audio track to stereo AAC. By far the best software to do that is Avidemux. It allows you to delete and recode streams without affecting other streams. Basically that means you can remove audio tracks you don't need and recode the one you want without having to recode the video, which is extremely fast and with recent CPU's only limited by the disk read/write speed.
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Wow such a huge explanation given , well I think my rips combined with MX player will do the trick then and that Avidemux is a little nice tool.
Thanks all ya for your reply , always appreciated.

Video Player with Chromecast Support

Am I correct in thinking there is no video play with chromecast push support? I.e. MX Player, you are watching video on phone then you press cast button?
Not possible or just no app has done it yet?

Avia has paid ($2.99) CC support.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

There is an app called y2cast which can cast videos to the Chromecast together with an app called Moliplayer. The 1. problem of this is that everytime you turn on your TV, you have to connect y2cast with your Chromecast before you can start casting via Moliplayer and the 2. is that Moliplayer doesn't play every file format (even when you haven't connected it to the Chromecast) and is also very slow/has a lot of lag.
---------- Post added at 03:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:27 PM ----------
Does Avia play every file format and can avia cast every file format to the chromecast?

There are loads of apps now that will play media from phone to Chromecast - BubbleUPnP is my personal choice, Allcast, Localcast, Avia....there are more.
They vary in their capabilities - most can't cast videos that are not encoded in a Chromecast friendly format. BubbleUPnP can with the help of a Bubble Server installed on a PC on the local network.

neu - smurph said:
There are loads of apps now that will play media from phone to Chromecast - BubbleUPnP is my personal choice, Allcast, Localcast, Avia....there are more.
They vary in their capabilities - most can't cast videos that are not encoded in a Chromecast friendly format. BubbleUPnP can with the help of a Bubble Server installed on a PC on the local network.
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Well then you could just cast the video in a tab via Chrome. I'd love to see a solution where an android device does that, most of the devices are probably capable of doing it.

Pete1612 said:
Well then you could just cast the video in a tab via Chrome. I'd love to see a solution where an android device does that, most of the devices are probably capable of doing it.
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Share the page to either vGet or Web Video Caster, and cast from there.
It's one extra step - sharing the link - but it works great for supported video formats.
vGet has more options and is a paid app. Web Video Caster just casts and is free.

EarlyMon said:
Share the page to either vGet or Web Video Caster, and cast from there.
It's one extra step - sharing the link - but it works great for supported video formats.
vGet has more options and is a paid app. Web Video Caster just casts and is free.
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for thus you can also use chrome for android (free from google obviously), go to chrome://flags and turn on chromecast support

Avia does NOT work on all formats. It's a bit of a hit and miss. Some work some dont
The moment everyone is waiting for is for mx player or vlc to support Chromecast !

I think that the limitions are not in the players but in the software of ccast that can play only a few format and codecs.
Do you think that, in future, ccast will be updated and so it will play other video format? Is a feature that can be implemented with a firmware upgrade?
Thanks!

davboc said:
I think that the limitions are not in the players but in the software of ccast that can play only a few format and codecs.
Do you think that, in future, ccast will be updated and so it will play other video format? Is a feature that can be implemented with a firmware upgrade?
Thanks!
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Yes and Maybe....
You're right in that the CCast is limited in codec and container support.
But that is really only true if the Player app that gets loaded into CCast relies on the CCast hardware to play the files.
Android itself is almost as limited as the CCast is as far as Compatible file formats are concerned but the video players we use on Android add the support for those different codecs and container types into the APPs themselves.
The same could be done on the CCast side and BubbleUPnP seems to be the one (and Only) app that has gone the farthest in doing that.
All the others seem to just send whatever format the file is in and if it isn't CCast compatible it won't play.
What needs to happen is for someone to create an MX Player type CCast Player app that can play many Container and Codec types without the need for Transcoding. Then others could potentially use that Player App (think along the lines of a JW Player type CCast Application) when sending Media to the CCast without the worry of incompatible file and codec format.
Or Google needs to create it and add it to the CCast OS as the default player.
As of now there is no option close to that...Bubble supports more container types than others and in conjunction with the Bubble Server will transcode the ones it doesn't support.
Plex seems to transcode everything that isn't directly CCast compatible and the other Player Apps we have for Android don't deal with Compatibility at all they merely send the media to CCast and it works only if it is compatible.
Perhaps in time they will add to the CCast Player side to gain more support but Bubble is so far the only one to really focus as much on the Player side compatibility expansion and features.
Plex is working on it as well but they are less focused on Compatibility due to the fact they are able to transcode everything to whatever format they want. After they get all the transcoding perfected they might turn focus into finding ways to avoid transcoding for those who have issues due to low power servers.

Asphyx said:
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perfect explanation! Really thank you. I hope that this device will be supported with the right software, meaning apps, in the near future.
Thanks again.

davboc said:
perfect explanation! Really thank you. I hope that this device will be supported with the right software, meaning apps, in the near future.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem right now seems to be that every App creates their own CCast Player App (called the receiver) but the DIAL protocol really doesn't require that to happen.
If the Open Source community would create a FREE TO USE Player App for CCast that any Android (or iOS app for that matter) could have the CCast load You might see a situation where all players could use that app to play to CCast and remove the need to code a Player themselves.
The only reason to code your own player then would be if you wanted to add other features like Media Info Mirroring and if the Player was Open Source it could be used inside their custom versions as well provided there is no issue with GPL license and Commercial Use.
the CCast support has come a long way since December...
I hope by next December we see more after people figure it out better.
The holdup is Google Locking it all up with the Whitelist.
I keep looking here hoping to find a developer that has decided to work on a CCast Player side to bring full client side support that others can use.
So Far Bubble is the only one focused on that side of the coding.
In the end the CCast player should support any container, Most Codecs, Client side selectable Subtitles and Multitrack Audio with Client side selection as well.
If they could add Dolby Support (not likely given the Licensing requirements) it would set the bar for all the others.

Localcast works well for me. Even let's me access and stream movies/TV shows straight from my USB stick on my Note 2 using an otg cable.
Sent from my Sinclair ZX81.

Koush tried software decoding for H.264 video - the processor ran hot enough to destroy his Chromecast, and that was using a known and mature routine.
The MediaTek processor is very good but it has limitations.
Maybe someone will take it further and succeed. I think it's more reasonable to look for more codecs on Chromecast 2, if at all.
Btw, LocalCast now lets you use your phone for headphones for stuff you're casting.

Not doubting you here...I know the Hardware is close to being an Egg Cooker even under normal usage....
But I'm curious as to why would he software decode H.264? No need to do that as it's already supported.
I'm just wondering if he was trying to do transcode from unsupported codec to H.264 on the device.
That method I would expect to not work at all.
But by adding loadable Software codecs it should not require the same proc cycles and speed as trying to transcode as it's really just a decoding operation which is roughly half the intense of transcoding which both decodes then re-encodes.
The Tricky part would be getting the player to load codecs on an as needed basis which is where I expect it might make the approach impossible.
I'm personally less concerned with codec support as I am with Containers, Subtitles and Audio Track selection being done on the Player side.
All of my Library is already H.264 But I much prefer MKV container for keeping Subs and Multiple Audio (for Commentary) so once a player comes out that supports all of those without transcoding I'll be a very happy puppy.

I don't know but I imagine that he was simply following a standard best practice -
Comparing known quantities to map the solution space before proceeding into the unknown.
The H.264 routine (just a software codec attached to a simple player from what I recall looking at the time) made sense for that, precisely because it was a mature, known quantity that could be compared to the existing feature in hardware.
Apples to apples.

perhap he tried that since H.264 is the most hardware intensive compression compared to say On2, Cinepak or the older Indeo...
If it could software decode H.264 then it could pretty much decode everything else just fine with the exception of MPEG2 which requires specific hardware.

Asphyx said:
What needs to happen is for someone to create an MX Player type CCast Player app that can play many Container and Codec types without the need for Transcoding. Then others could potentially use that Player App (think along the lines of a JW Player type CCast Application) when sending Media to the CCast without the worry of incompatible file and codec format.
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Are you saying if a player i.e. MX player had the cast function builtin into it then you can cast any video format that MX player supports?

ermacwins said:
Are you saying if a player i.e. MX player had the cast function builtin into it then you can cast any video format that MX player supports?
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That's what a lot of people want.

ermacwins said:
Are you saying if a player i.e. MX player had the cast function builtin into it then you can cast any video format that MX player supports?
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No not at all.....an App's (aka Transmitter) ability to cast to a CCast has little to do with it can support but what the CCast supports....Other than through the player app it tells CCast to load to receive the stream (aka the Receiver app).
Every App tells the CCast to load a player and it is that player that determines what format can be played not what the App that started the cast supports.
So even if MX Player supported CCast now...Doesn't mean at all that streaming from it to a CCast means MKV or MOV files will play on the CCast despite the fact they play in MX Player just fine.
That is unless MX Player wrote a custom player (receiver) for the CCast that supported all the formats MX Player does or MX Player added the ability to transcode any format to work with the receiver they load into the CCast.
As of today just about every app that supports more than just the standard CCast compatible media do so via Transcoding.
And thats not likely to change soon unless someone figures out a way to do it without frying the unit.
I bet it would work a lot better if the player app was run outside of the Google Sandbox the way Netflix is when it does it's own decryption.
The question is will anyone other than one of the Partners who invented the DIAL protocol ever get that type of access to the hardware?
Not without Google being fully on board....

Is there DTS fix?

Hello,
I just bought a chromecast and i'm wondering that DTS Codec is not supported. Is there a way to get dts codecs working on the chromecast? Or is it necessary to convert files before they can be played by chromecast?
regards
Leichti

leichti said:
Hello,
I just bought a chromecast and i'm wondering that DTS Codec is not supported. Is there a way to get dts codecs working on the chromecast? Or is it necessary to convert files before they can be played by chromecast?
regards
Leichti
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No, the best work around is to install plex and have it convert to acc 5.1.

Ty for the tipp.
Unfortunately all my stuff lies on a NAS (NSA325v), and for Plex it is necessary to run a computer/server for streaming?
Do you think that DTS support will come?

leichti said:
Ty for the tipp.
Unfortunately all my stuff lies on a NAS (NSA325v), and for Plex it is necessary to run a computer/server for streaming?
Do you think that DTS support will come?
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No probably not because it would require licensing the codecs from Dolby.
NetFlix can do it because they have the licensing so unless some other player/receiver is developed that has the licensing not likely to see it anytime soon.
Since you are using an NAS it's also not likely Plex will help in this regard unless you run a computer and map the NAS drives to it.
Then your options open as as you can also use BubbleUPnP which also does transcoding.
But if the computer is not an option for you then the only thing you can do right now would be to use handbrake and add/create an AAC Multichannel track (using the existing DTS track) that can give you surround support on a CCast.
If your library is not too big yet it's a good thing to do anyway, I make sure all of my Library files have whatever Dolby tracks plus one AAC Multi and one AAC Stereo just to be sure they are fully compatible with any device I have now or in the future.

Thank you for your help!
Is it possible to transcode only the audio data with handbrake?
Asphyx said:
No probably not because it would require licensing the codecs from Dolby.
NetFlix can do it because they have the licensing so unless some other player/receiver is developed that has the licensing not likely to see it anytime soon.
Since you are using an NAS it's also not likely Plex will help in this regard unless you run a computer and map the NAS drives to it.
Then your options open as as you can also use BubbleUPnP which also does transcoding.
But if the computer is not an option for you then the only thing you can do right now would be to use handbrake and add/create an AAC Multichannel track (using the existing DTS track) that can give you surround support on a CCast.
If your library is not too big yet it's a good thing to do anyway, I make sure all of my Library files have whatever Dolby tracks plus one AAC Multi and one AAC Stereo just to be sure they are fully compatible with any device I have now or in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

leichti said:
Thank you for your help!
Is it possible to transcode only the audio data with handbrake?
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Click to collapse
Well Handbrake isn't a LIVE option...
Based on the settings you can have it do No Transcoding to the Video at all and have it simply pass video and existing audio tracks to the destination file...
Which in essence if you just ADD an Audio track all it will really be doing is transcoding for that new track.
It will however do any decoding needed to read the source so it's still not going to save you much but you won't need a ton of horsepower as the horsepower of your unit will only affect the speed at which it completes.

[Q] why is google shying away from playing all video formats in chromecast??

hi
has any one got an opinion why chromecast despite having the required hardware to play many more video formats is not given the ability to do so??

mahi98 said:
hi
has any one got an opinion why chromecast despite having the required hardware to play many more video formats is not given the ability to do so??
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Licensing of Codecs for one....
Understand that CCast is really meant to be an HTML5 appliance so it is built to play anything that is HTML5 compatible and that leaves a lot of codecs off the supported list because they are old and inefficient or not suited for streaming over WiFi.
The device is simply not meant to be a ROKU, it is a device that is meant to put Web content onto a big screen and not much more.
If you want more features and video support then AndroidTV is probably the device you are looking for.

It's not like Roku plays a lot of formats either - just mp4 with the standard expected codecs and a small subset of mkv files that happen to be compatible.
I just don't worry about it. I mostly play downloaded files via Plex, relying on Plex to do the transcoding. I only check out the actual file format if Plex seems to be stumbling over some HD file with a rare slow codec. In that case I run it through a video converter utility with hardware GPU acceleration on my desktop PC that can convert a 1-hour video to standard mp4 in about 60 seconds. Problem solved.

DJames1 said:
It's not like Roku plays a lot of formats either - just mp4 with the standard expected codecs and a small subset of mkv files that happen to be compatible.
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Aren't mp4 and MKV containers? Meaning two different mkv files could use two different codecs (the reason why *some* mkv files are compatible and other are not).
Like you, I use Plex or Allcast and let them do the transcoding. I haven't run into many issues with this approach.

That's correct, but you'd find that most mp4 files today consistently use H.264 as the video codec and stereo AAC as the audio codec. It's possible to use other codecs in an mp4 files, but with so many devices that will play standard mp4s and most of them choking on any unexpected codec it's just easiest to stick to the standard. mkv files tend to have more variety, so a large percentage of them will fail on devices like the Roku or Chromecast that support a very narrow range of codecs and format variations. For example an extra track of chapter marks or an extra audio track will cause many devices to fail even though these are allowed within both the mkv and mp4 container format.

DJames1 said:
It's not like Roku plays a lot of formats either - just mp4 with the standard expected codecs and a small subset of mkv files that happen to be compatible.
I just don't worry about it. I mostly play downloaded files via Plex, relying on Plex to do the transcoding. I only check out the actual file format if Plex seems to be stumbling over some HD file with a rare slow codec. In that case I run it through a video converter utility with hardware GPU acceleration on my desktop PC that can convert a 1-hour video to standard mp4 in about 60 seconds. Problem solved.
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Yes but the main focus of the Roku is for Alternative video where as the CCast will play video but is designed more as a Web Content device.
This is why the Roku all have wired network connections (recent dongle excluded of course as it is meant to compete with CCast.)
Roku supports more merely because it has the App support.
There is nothing to stop someone like MX Player from making a receiver app that will add codec and container support to the CCast.
What is keeping some developers away is the convoluted discovery and control protocol needed.
Roku doesn't need any of that so they can just focus on the player code cause the remote does the navigation for them.
And in time as more support for the CCast comes around you will find that killer receiver app made that supports more codecs and containers and if the folks at plex are smart they will either license it or make it themselves!
99% of their complaints could all be handled better and go away with a little work on the player side.

Congrats to BubbleUPnP! Transcoding on Mobile!

Just in case anyone is interested (I'm sure there is an announcement somewhere on XDA)
BubbleUPnP for Android will now do some transcoding on the fly when needed without the need to have a PC running the server.
Not sure what this might mean for it's CCast support (This may be DLNA only) but if it is supported for CCast Streaming that is a MAJOR feature for those wanting to Cast local ON DEVICE content that needs transcoding.
So Congrats and Great Job to the Bubble Dev!

Haven't all the major clients done some transcoding on the fly since they were introduced?
I'd test its behavior on high resolution photos, but right now my only television is occupied.

primetechv2 said:
Haven't all the major clients done some transcoding on the fly since they were introduced?
I'd test its behavior on high resolution photos, but right now my only television is occupied.
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Not on the Mobile device....All required a PC running a Server.

Asphyx said:
Just in case anyone is interested (I'm sure there is an announcement somewhere on XDA)
BubbleUPnP for Android will now do some transcoding on the fly when needed without the need to have a PC running the server.
Not sure what this might mean for it's CCast support (This may be DLNA only) but if it is supported for CCast Streaming that is a MAJOR feature for those wanting to Cast local ON DEVICE content that needs transcoding.
So Congrats and Great Job to the Bubble Dev!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's useful to mention that this is usable for transcoding audio only (including audio tracks in videos), which is not very CPU intensive.
Do not expect to transcode video, unless it is really low resolution.

Well considering your project seems to be the first to transcode anything on a mobile I thought it worth mentioning. LOL
Question is...
Will it transcode audio while sending Video track if the Video track needs no transcode?
Useful for those who have a H.264 Video but AC3 or DHT Audio that is incompatible with CCast...
I have the Server and never keep content locally because of that so I don't really need the feature but many more do I'm sure.

Asphyx said:
Well considering your project seems to be the first to transcode anything on a mobile I thought it worth mentioning. LOL
Question is...
Will it transcode audio while sending Video track if the Video track needs no transcode?
Useful for those who have a H.264 Video but AC3 or DHT Audio that is incompatible with CCast...
I have the Server and never keep content locally because of that so I don't really need the feature but many more do I'm sure.
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This! Can't tell you how many times I had a compatible video file but audio wasn't. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Asphyx said:
Well considering your project seems to be the first to transcode anything on a mobile I thought it worth mentioning. LOL
Question is...
Will it transcode audio while sending Video track if the Video track needs no transcode?
Useful for those who have a H.264 Video but AC3 or DHT Audio that is incompatible with CCast...
I have the Server and never keep content locally because of that so I don't really need the feature but many more do I'm sure.
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Yes of couse, It transcodes only what is required. For a MKV with H264 + AC3 (or DTS) , only the AC3 track is transcoded.
Depending on the input video it will transcode only audio, only video, video+audio, or even do just a remux (if both the audio and video tracks are compatible but the container is not).

How are these apps at transcoding high resolution pictures? They always ended up looking like photo CDs loading pictures in my DVD player.. or do they just have to be batch resized to 720×n beforehand?

bubbleguuum said:
Yes of couse, It transcodes only what is required. For a MKV with H264 + AC3 (or DTS) , only the AC3 track is transcoded.
Depending on the input video it will transcode only audio, only video, video+audio, or even do just a remux (if both the audio and video tracks are compatible but the container is not).
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That will help a lot of people I know!