Lagfree playing of .mkv 720p/1080p source - Acer Iconia A500

Hi folks,
Is there any posibility of a lagfree playing of those videos ?
It sucks watching Videos with less than 20fps...

3.1 is supposed to improve playback... just no idea if it will improve 720/1080p playback
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

I use Handbrake and imported these setting I found on the net.
https://sites.google.com/site/theiveryinc/a500files
That Google site is mine.
Converts all my 720p.mkv files perfectly, the only issue is the files are big, 2-4 GB, but the quality is outstanding. They even play on 'Movies' which darkens the navigation bar.

i was looking for something like this so many times before, but I never found a stable movie app. On my Samsung Galaxy S II however, it's no problem at all. And that's a freaking phone man! But it's no wonder the hole system is so fast. It makes my newly aquired Iconia looking really sluggish and outdated :-( I don't know if I gonna keep this tablet or gonna look my movies on a 4.3" screen...

I asked Acer customer support whether they're ever going to support additional formats and they replied that they won't ever add support for MKV and can't comment on the rest. So official support for MKV is out the window.

Mkv isn't a video format, it's a container. It's just that most mkv's don't contain only baseline h.264, which is the only supported video format currently. The most benefit would come from adding support for main or high profile h.264

themono said:
Mkv isn't a video format, it's a container.
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Click to collapse
I know, it still doesn't help at all if the video player application or framework don't support the container format. I personally love MKV, it's handy to slap in two different audio tracks and subtitles in English, Finnish and the hearing-impaired version, plus any metadata about the movie itself. No need to hassle with several files then.
The most benefit would come from adding support for main or high profile h.264
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I tried transcoding a 1080p movie to 720p in constant quality mode, both in baseline and high profile modes, and while the quality was the same the high profile one used a lot less storage space. With storage space being rather scarse on mobile devices....
Well, we can only hope. But I don't know if the DSP is beefy enough to decode high profile or if it can be re-programmed to support it. Some DSPs are hardcoded and can't be used for anything other than what they already do when shipped. I don't know anything about Tegra 2 internals so I don't know what to expect.

godashram said:
3.1 is supposed to improve playback... just no idea if it will improve 720/1080p playback
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use 3.1 atm, but there is no mentionable ddifference to 3.0.1

The nVIDIA Tegra 2 250 is fully able to hardware decode:
H.264
VC-1 AP
MPEG2
MPEG-4
DivX 4/5
XviD HT
H.263
Theora
VP8
WMV
Sorenson Spark
Real Video
VP6
and encode:
H.264
MPEG4
H.263
VP8
And this is for 1080p both enc/dec
Why ACER can't (won't) support them is beyond me! Even my Single Core 7" Samsung Galaxy TAB can play all 1080p videos I have thrown at it!
And here is the full spec of the Tegra 2 250 Link!

Is it maybe because of that, that I play these videos from my USB-HDD?

dgcxsk said:
Is it maybe because of that, that I play these videos from my USB-HDD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can always copy one of them to the TAB and see if there is any change ( I doubt it)

Using a OLD 60gb usb hdd (literally 8 years old)
And it does not seem to matter - even with the low speed of an old external drive I have no issues playing video from it.
.Mkv -- Regardless of where it is stored is not going to work on the Iconia right now - i don't think there is anything anyone can do or change to fix that right now - the system will not?/can not? use the hardware decoder on mkv files - and software decoding, even for a low bit rate video file is always going to suck.
Hopefully 3.1 will improve our video performance - but I find it a very simple matter to just transcode a video file if the only source I have handy is mkv. Plenty of great and free tools that make the process pretty darn easy. I watch a lot of movies/TV on my a500 - and get a great experience as long as I don't throw .mkv files at it.

WereCatf said:
Indeed. I tried transcoding a 1080p movie to 720p in constant quality mode, both in baseline and high profile modes, and while the quality was the same the high profile one used a lot less storage space. With storage space being rather scarse on mobile devices....
Well, we can only hope. But I don't know if the DSP is beefy enough to decode high profile or if it can be re-programmed to support it. Some DSPs are hardcoded and can't be used for anything other than what they already do when shipped. I don't know anything about Tegra 2 internals so I don't know what to expect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is tegra2 will support h.264 high profile up to 720p @ 20mbps, but only baseline profile for 1080p.
With regard to the container format vs video format thing, I'm under the impression that container format support can be added by an app - so even if Acer never support mkv in the default player, if they do add hardware high profile h.264, then other apps should be able to play an mkv that contains high profile h.264 with hardware acceleration.

entropy.of.avarice said:
Hopefully 3.1 will improve our video performance - but I find it a very simple matter to just transcode a video file if the only source I have handy is mkv. Plenty of great and free tools that make the process pretty darn easy. I watch a lot of movies/TV on my a500 - and get a great experience as long as I don't throw .mkv files at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From playing around with PRIMEE, mkv containers are split appropriately and if the video format is supported hardware decoding works. The problem is that there is no support for AC3 therefore majority of compatible MKVs will play very well but have no sound.
Unfortunately once software encoding is enabled we are back to the same stuttery playback issues.
I personally don't believe it's Acers' job to add playback compatibility, I personally believe it should be built into Honeycomb as a baseline. Honeycomb is a tablet OS and as such should be expected to play popular video and audio. codecs. Saying that, if manufacturers did add additional codec support it would be a solid competitive edge.

Use mobo player.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

patterson12123 said:
Use mobo player.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read any of the thread, running moboplayer doesn't help, as I mentioned above as soon as you enable software decoding HD MKVs start to get choppy.

hellcat82 said:
From playing around with PRIMEE, mkv containers are split appropriately and if the video format is supported hardware decoding works. The problem is that there is no support for AC3 therefore majority of compatible MKVs will play very well but have no sound.
Unfortunately once software encoding is enabled we are back to the same stuttery playback issues.
I personally don't believe it's Acers' job to add playback compatibility, I personally believe it should be built into Honeycomb as a baseline. Honeycomb is a tablet OS and as such should be expected to play popular video and audio. codecs. Saying that, if manufacturers did add additional codec support it would be a solid competitive edge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, that's good to know, so with a baseline h.264 payload an MKV will play fine on stock?
I think it probably IS Acer's job to add codec support, frankly. At the end of the day we're talking about hardware acceleration, and Android provides the software framework for that to work, and it's up to the hardware vendor to make it work with their specific hardware.
Frankly I think Nvidia should be doing it though - it'd do wonders for Tegra 2 sales if they offered up code to support hardware acceleration for their platform on Android.

I guess you didn't really do your research on video playback on Honeycomb tablets, did you?
You can not blame Acer for poor HD playback when, frankly, this is a Google/nVidia issue. Currently no 10" Honeycomb tablet can playback high profile encoded HD vides--smoothly, if at all--without reconverting said movies.
There may or may not be a *real* fix in the future (quad core Tegras are right around the corner, so...), only time will tell.
OrionBG said:
The nVIDIA Tegra 2 250 is fully able to hardware decode:
H.264
VC-1 AP
MPEG2
MPEG-4
DivX 4/5
XviD HT
H.263
Theora
VP8
WMV
Sorenson Spark
Real Video
VP6
and encode:
H.264
MPEG4
H.263
VP8
And this is for 1080p both enc/dec
Why ACER can't (won't) support them is beyond me! Even my Single Core 7" Samsung Galaxy TAB can play all 1080p videos I have thrown at it!
And here is the full spec of the Tegra 2 250 Link!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

edgie168 said:
I guess you didn't really do your research on video playback on Honeycomb tablets, did you?
You can not blame Acer for poor HD playback when, frankly, this is a Google/nVidia issue. Currently no 10" Honeycomb tablet can playback high profile encoded HD vides--smoothly, if at all--without reconverting said movies.
There may or may not be a *real* fix in the future (quad core Tegras are right around the corner, so...), only time will tell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought an ACER device so I'll blame them! Problem here is that the Tegra 2 chip is capable to decode and encode the formats at 1080p without problems! The fact that Google still hasn't taken advantage of this feature doesn't mean that ACER couldn't!! To back my words here is an example:
Samsung! The Galaxy S and Galaxy TAB (7") they have much superior video codec support! I'm playing 1080p movies just perfectly on the Galaxy TAB. Samsung have invested in codec support and optimized it for the platform (both Hardware and Software) The Hummingbird CPU is Single Core! So why can't ACER do it? Maybe because they never did something like this before? Maybe because the have done only the hardware till now and they don't have the programmers that can pull this of? Ones the managers at ACER understand that selling thees devices without enhancing the base that Google provides won't cut it, I think we will have a very good device (not that it isn't good now but...)

OrionBG said:
I bought an ACER device so I'll blame them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess you'll have to "blame" every single manufacturer out there who have a Honeycomb tablet out too, then.
OrionBG said:
tl;dr
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So does the Samsung 10.1 play 1080p videos smoothly?
From what I've been reading.. no. Frankly, watching a 1080p on a 10" tablet is pointless (which is what I'm assuming you're crying about). If 720p isn't "good enough" on a 10" tablet, well, then, time to buy a 17" laptop.

Related

Atrix 4G won't play any content 720p or above...

Anytime I try to play a video file that's 720p or bigger it the Video Player comes up with an error window saying "File cannot be displayed or played". I've tried playing the videos in Rock Player and they don't work there either (either jittery, don't play at all, or only display the first frame while the sound plays in the background).
For reference: all the files are in the mp4 container and are h264 or standard mpeg file type. I've even tried using TubeMate to download videos in 720p from YouTube and those don't work either. I've tried using an external MicroSD and same error.
All of these files work *perfectly* on my Galaxy Tab and any computer I try them on.
For reference, although it wouldn't make a difference, I rooted the device the second it came out of the box.
did a bit more research...found weird things.
Transcoding my videos to FFmpeg (still 720p) even up to around 2,000kbps (didn't try higher) bitrate...the videos worked fine. In h264 they didn't work at all. Currently transcoding a video a few times to test a theory...but I'll report back in a few minutes.
Ok even transcoding the videos smaller than the screen display size (960x540) doesn't make them work if they're in h264. I'm completely lost on this... I'd appreciate someone else trying this stuff out too and seeing if it's just my phone...
Tegra2 has no NEON support so neon version of Rockplayer will not work.
Also Tegra2 cannot decode high-profile H.264 video, which might be your case.
So can it run 720p mkv files then?
amtrakcn said:
Tegra2 has no NEON support so neon version of Rockplayer will not work.
Also Tegra2 cannot decode high-profile H.264 video, which might be your case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very strange...since Motorola listed H.264 under the codec list for the Atrix...
So what kind of limitations are there? I mean it plays *some* H.264 but not all...so where's the line? Pretty strange that it doesn't play the *MOST* used format in the world lol
metaldood said:
So can it run 720p mkv files then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried MKV but I've definitely narrowed it down to H.264. amtrak was definitely right, but trying to figure out what kind of limitations that entails.
You're going to want baseline codec, no b frames most likely.
Try handbrake - (http://www.handbrake.fr)
and put these settings in the "Advanced" tab commandline box
ref=5:bframes=0:me=umh:subq=9:mixed-refs=1:8x8dct=0:analyse=all:cabac=0
Andrmgic said:
You're going to want baseline codec, no b frames most likely.
Try handbrake - (http://www.handbrake.fr)
and put these settings in the "Advanced" tab commandline box
ref=5:bframes=0:me=umh:subq=9:mixed-refs=1:8x8dct=0:analyse=all:cabac=0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried it and seen it working? I'm encoding now using my normal H.264 profile just with 0 b-frames. Anyway to use the baseline codec without using the commandline? Don't want to have to do that everytime
metaldood said:
So can it run 720p mkv files then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MKV is a general "container", the actual video is conpressed in different ways.
I'm not really familiar with the difference between high-profile and baseline, but lacking such support is disappointing.
hotleadsingerguy said:
Have you tried it and seen it working? I'm encoding now using my normal H.264 profile just with 0 b-frames. Anyway to use the baseline codec without using the commandline? Don't want to have to do that everytime
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the settings that worked on the Zune HD, a device with the original tegra chipset from nvidia.
Those settings would be transferred over to that device without being re-encoded by the software, so I figure they are pretty much guaranteed to be supported by the Tegra 2 unless nvidia removed some of the featureset.
You should only have to enter the settings once unless you start manually changing the profiles..
amtrakcn said:
MKV is a general "container", the actual video is conpressed in different ways.
I'm not really familiar with the difference between high-profile and baseline, but lacking such support is disappointing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I'm trying a transcoding right now with the commandline settings from the post above...it definitely takes a *long* time to encode with these settings (at least 3x as long).
At this point it's just better to encode in FFmpeg. It encodes *very* quickly and the loss in quality is unsubstantial for same-size files.
hotleadsingerguy said:
Well I'm trying a transcoding right now with the commandline settings from the post above...it definitely takes a *long* time to encode with these settings (at least 3x as long).
At this point it's just better to encode in FFmpeg. It encodes *very* quickly and the loss in quality is unsubstantial for same-size files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't really think about the encode time.. I have an i7 at home.. so it only took about 20 minutes for the average hr long tv show..
Maybe if you've got a shorter clip to test it would work better.. I'd love to see the actual video specifications for the Tegra 2.. but nvidia hasn't seen fit to post the exact profile specifications.
This makes me think we may be out of luck for high profile h264 on tegra 2 platforms, though..
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/13/boxee-box-ditches-nvidias-tegra-2-for-intel-ce4100-pre-orders/ It was one of the reasons cited for boxee box ditching tegra 2..
hotleadsingerguy said:
Well I'm trying a transcoding right now with the commandline settings from the post above...it definitely takes a *long* time to encode with these settings (at least 3x as long).
At this point it's just better to encode in FFmpeg. It encodes *very* quickly and the loss in quality is unsubstantial for same-size files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aaaand doesn't work. I put the settings you used into the commandline and the file still doesn't work. Apparently the Atrix 4G just doesn't play well with H.264...
Andrmgic said:
I didn't really think about the encode time.. I have an i7 at home.. so it only took about 20 minutes for the average hr long tv show..
Maybe if you've got a shorter clip to test it would work better.. I'd love to see the actual video specifications for the Tegra 2.. but nvidia hasn't seen fit to post the exact profile specifications.
This makes me think we may be out of luck for high profile h264 on tegra 2 platforms, though..
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/13/boxee-box-ditches-nvidias-tegra-2-for-intel-ce4100-pre-orders/ It was one of the reasons cited for boxee box ditching tegra 2..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heh I'm encoding on a Q9550 OC'd to 3.6Ghz. One of the best processors available for transcoding files aside from applications that use both the CPU and GPU in conjunction. It doesn't take *long* but for a 4minute 720p video (around 120Mb) it took almost 8 minutes. Encoding the same video with the normal H.264 profile takes about a minute and a half. Encoding it in FFmpeg took about 35 sec.
This make no sense at all a captivate will play L.3 720p MKV's all day and this phone chokes on lesser material? Something is wrong here, plus the whole excitement around a dual core tegra chip is that you will not have to re-encode anything just drop a file and play. In the brief time I with it today it was chocking on almost any 480p or higher video I threw at it. I also tried multiple video players from the market. These same videos even played fine on a inspire 4G except the L.3 720p that only play on the captivate.
After doing some more research apparently the tegra 2 for all its power sucks at High Profile H264. Which is almost every H264 file on my PC and on the internet. Since my captivate plays High L3.1 720p's I thought for sure this would.
Sigh I guess this isn't my dream phone...
Can someone upload a video to youtube showing the quality of 720p video running on Atrix???
alton987 said:
After doing some more research apparently the tegra 2 for all its power sucks at High Profile H264. Which is almost every H264 file on my PC and on the internet. Since my captivate plays High L3.1 720p's I thought for sure this would.
Sigh I guess this isn't my dream phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the thing...I encoded a few videos in other codecs and they worked great...even at 1080p and over 2,000kbps bitrate (basically what BluRay ends up converting down to for the most part). The processor wasn't even taxed at *ALL* (something like 18%). The problem with the high-profile H.264 is that the Atrix refuses to play it...not that it struggles with the actual video output.
The thought is that the tegra 2's gpu cannot hardware decode high profile H264..
What codecs did you use that worked well?

[Q] Chances for better hardware-accelerated media playing?

Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I really love my Tab for web-browsing and gaming, but you have to admit it sucks at video playing. MP4 and 3GP are crappy formats that are hardly used in RL und converting your whole video and movie collection isn't a real option.
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
In theory, the Tegra 2 has more than enough power to play 1080p files, right?
I already tried like 6 different media players but all of them weren't able to play 720p mkvs nice and even non-HD-avi-files felt a little slowed-down.
So can we hope for a hardware-accelerated media player that enables alle the joy of moving pictures for us? Will possibly acer itself help us out on this issue? What are Samsung and Motorola doing on their Gingerbread tablets to enable nice media playing?
Hoping for a better tomorrow
Cheers
pint
pintness said:
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sure about that?? my 101 throws a fit with 1080p mkv videos and both use the the firmware.
but i agree, i would love better video support on the iconia, since it runs circles around my archos when it comes to everything else.
pintness said:
Hi Iconia-Lovers,
I really love my Tab for web-browsing and gaming, but you have to admit it sucks at video playing. MP4 and 3GP are crappy formats that are hardly used in RL und converting your whole video and movie collection isn't a real option.
I had have an Archos A70 which plays even 1080p MKV flawless with a single core 1GHZ CPU, but relies on an additional decoding chip if i get this right.
In theory, the Tegra 2 has more than enough power to play 1080p files, right?
I already tried like 6 different media players but all of them weren't able to play 720p mkvs nice and even non-HD-avi-files felt a little slowed-down.
So can we hope for a hardware-accelerated media player that enables alle the joy of moving pictures for us? Will possibly acer itself help us out on this issue? What are Samsung and Motorola doing on their Gingerbread tablets to enable nice media playing?
Hoping for a better tomorrow
Cheers
pint
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried VPlayer? it costs like $4/ £2.30 but it can play practically all standards, not sure how it fares for 1080p tho.
I had it playing .avi and .mkv fine though.
Vplayer--
Video formats: divx/xvid, wmv, m4v, flv, rmvb, avi, mkv, mov, mp4, 3gp, ts, tp...
Streaming: http, rtsp, mms and m3u(apple http stream, m3u8)
I use UPnPlay (network streaming) along with MoboPlayer and it has played everything i have on my NAS very well.
Also I know Rockplayer gives you the option of hardware/software decoding so you may want to give that a try if you haven't already. There is a free version.
Both moboplayer and rock player are useless for my 720p and 1080p videos... total stutterfest, but that's a known thing for tegra devices on 3.0...
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
godashram said:
Both moboplayer and rock player are useless for my 720p and 1080p videos... total stutterfest, but that's a known thing for tegra devices on 3.0...
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... I use moboplayer, and every 720 did I've tried has been great! I haven't tried any 1080p vids though.
tested 1080 quality....the videos lag and the audio missing....
hope acer will figure it out....
Avatar & 10,000 B.C. in 1080P using UPnPlay & MoboPlayer streamed from my WD NAS, looks great. No lagging at all.
not another one of these threads..
edgie168 said:
not another one of these threads..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? You aren't being forced to read this thread.
lord_voldemort666 said:
Guess what? You aren't being forced to read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? It pushes down other, more quality threads.
Guess what? There's already something like 6 or 7 threads EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE already.
Guess what? People need to learn to use the search function.
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?
^ If you don't like it, report it to a mod and move on...
edgie168 said:
Guess what? It pushes down other, more quality threads.
Guess what? There's already something like 6 or 7 threads EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE already.
Guess what? People need to learn to use the search function.
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess what? You've just caused this thread to get bumped several times.
XP
I have been trying all the suggested encoders to get smooth playback for film material as 60/50hz works fine. I maybe more sensative to it than others as I tent to look for it on moving objects. But I got it to replace a media player too.
I tried the script posted in another thread with good results but the jump is still there.
Bought DVD Catalist 4 with same results.
Freemake with custom profile same again.
Handbreak I find too slow but I read it works but can't verify it.
Any Video Converter Pro with xoom profile WORKS - it has very little judder but having to strip the subtitles out of the MKV every time is a real pain ( Anyone know how to disable them ) and it's too expensive anyway.
Trying to edit DVD Catalist 4 profile now but no success yet
Oh and I tried Vplayer , Rockplayer , Moboplayer and any others I could find
Hope my two weeks at this helps somone else out.
@RaveOn911
With any problem, you need to find its parameters. Only a handful of people notice the "micro-stutter" deal, so it's either a user sensitivity issue, or a tablet-centric issue (which could be hardware or software, user-caused or device defect).
Ask somebody to watch a video clip on your tablet, and ask them if they see anything wrong with playback. Don't tell him beforehand about "micro-stutter", as you don't want to bias his observation.
If he notices the stutter, it's your tablet. If he doesn't, it's you.
If the first, then bring a video clip on a uSD card into a store and try it on other tablets (hopefully with same or similar make as yours). If it doesn't happen on other tabs, then replace your tab. If it happens on every other tab, then again it's you.
If you have heightened sensitivity, then there may be params that can alleviate the issue. The default interleave for MP4Box is 0.5s. You can reduce this interleave, eg
MP4Box -inter 250 -add infile.mp4 -new outfile.mp4
(or)
MP4Box -tight -add infile.mp4 -new outfile.mp4
MP4Box works on MP4 only. Given that MKVs can only play in software mode currently on Teg2 tabs, it's a fool's errand to play MKV and claim that they don't play smoothly. Avail of the native support.
Mobo Player plays my mkv and xvid/divx AVI's just fine. I'm no codec/encoding expert, but from what I've read it's worth re-encoding some of the files to a more manageable bitrate for both audio and video and maybe dump the 5.1 or AC3 audio. I haven't looked at every file I've played, but a couple that would choke on my Win7 Asus netbook, I re-encoded with Handbrake. They still look and sound great.
e.mote said:
Given that MKVs can only play in software mode currently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understood that that's the whole point the OP was trying to make: he wishes that someone makes a video player application that can handle MKVs via the hardware decoder. It's not a bad thing to wish for, either; it would provide better performance and hardware playback uses less battery, too.
The question remains: is it possible? As far as I know, the chip itself doesn't get relayed anything more than the actual video stream inside the file, regardless of the container, and thus an app should be able to do exactly that. But since I don't know anything about Android internals are applications given any such access?
My N900 phone uses regular GStreamer stack and thus you can demux anything you want and supply the video stream to the hardware decoder. As long as it's H.264 normal profile and not too high a resolution it'll play, regardless of the originating container.
There's nothing wrong with wishing, but until it happens, we have to use what we've got. For HC, for now that means MP4 for native support.
3.1 thus far has been worse than 2.x insofar as multimedia, probably because vendors have had 2.x for much longer, and were able to add enhanced support. A good case in point is the Samsung GalTab 7 vs the GalTab 10.1. The 7, released last year, can play MKV. The new 10.1 can't. Ditto for all the "my old phone can play MKV, why can't my tablet" complaints. It is what it is.
From all indications, HC was and is a rush job. It had to be pushed out the door because of competition from the iPad. I think the prospective buyer should understand that s/he is buying into a beta, and temper his expectations accordingly. Android has high potential, but now isn't then.
I've written a script that does fast remux/convert to MP4. A straight remux takes a few minutes, and it can process batch. It's a more productive route than wishing for a HW-accel player to come along.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
e.mote said:
It's a more productive route than wishing for a HW-accel player to come along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose that's a matter of viewpoint.
I took a look at the MediaPlayer class in Google's APIs and it seems to me that it should be fairly straightforward to demux the MKV file in software on-the-fly, create named pipe with mkfifo and feed the MediaPlayer class the raw video stream via that. Just throw a simple GUI on top of that and you have a rudimentary video player capable of playing MKV files with hardware accelerated video.
I'll try it out once I receive my tablet, was planning to learn Android programming anyways.
PS. Bah, doesn't allow me to post links yet :/

Poor Video Playback

So, bought the Gtab on Friday, got a 32gb unlocked (Sweet). So, here is the problem that appears to be happening to almost everyone.
My video playback is Horrible, I've tried multiple codex's, and different Resolutions.
The videos so far i've tried.
3,343 Kbps 1280x720 at 29.970 fps, AVC ([email protected]) (CABAC / 4 Ref Frames) .MP4 Container, Very Choppy.
1,390 Kbps 640x272 23.976 fps MPEG-4 Visual (Xvid) Advanced [email protected]) (BVOP2) .avi Container Very Choppy
5,000 Kbps 1280x720 29.970 fps, VC-1 (WMV3) ([email protected]) .wmv Container Plays Flawlessly
Everything but the .wmv will play flawlessly on my Vibrant. Actually .wmv's are the only thing that i have found that won't play on my Vibrant.
I will test more configurations, but so far i'm not pleased with the video playback on the galaxy tablet.
I've tried other video players off the market, Moboplayer, mVideoplayer, haven't tried RockPlayer yet, but i had it on my vibrant and I felt the playback was not as good. Maybe i'll try it on Honeycomb.
So, I guess list your experiences so far, and suggestions. I will update as I go and find things.
Reserved... (Pending List of known formats)
Working Audio Codex's (So far):
AAC Low Complexity 2 Channel, Best
MP3 2 Channel
WMA 2 Channel
None Working Audio Codec:
AC-3 (Any Channel)
Working Video Codex:
AVC/H.264 Base Profile for 720p/1080p 3 Ref Frames, 0 B Frames
MPEG-4 Visual (Xvid) (Unknown limitations)
VC-1 (Unknown limitations)
Vplayer works great for me
Unfortunately, the fact that Samsung kept their hands out of Honeycomb has a downside. As far as I know, the Tab supports no more video types than stock Honeycomb. Which results in almost no good support at all. I've come to deal with it and you can, too.
The majority of my videos (720p and 1080p mkv) are converted and compressed while maintaining the quality by using this setup:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
Worth it.
tsunami1609 said:
Unfortunately, the fact that Samsung kept their hands out of Honeycomb has a downside. As far as I know, the Tab supports no more video types than stock Honeycomb. Which results in almost no good support at all. I've come to deal with it and you can, too.
The majority of my videos (720p and 1080p mkv) are converted and compressed while maintaining the quality by using this setup:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102922
Worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that this morning and tried it, i Converted 3 different files, and tried different settings, and they all run like crap. I guess i will try some other settings on it.
Who thinks Sammy should use Exynos in the tab? Tegra does not seem to be very friendly with respect to playback. I find it tough to believe that Tab looks so sluggish compared to GS2.
Just download a different movie player app. MoboPlayer works great, and it's free.
I downloaded Hall Pass 720 BRRip xvid and it looks amazing and works great...
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
DroidHam said:
I downloaded Hall Pass 720 BRRip xvid and it looks amazing and works great...
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And its a .avi
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
Whats wrong with just converting everything to hi-def MP4 on your desktop/laptop and dumping on your tablet? I mean the iPad does it with great success and gives the user the impression that it can play every video format??
The tab is a 10" screen, just about any video format 720p and above (hell even some 480p) will look just as good as 1080p on your 40-50" tv screen....or am I missing something???
kponti said:
Whats wrong with just converting everything to hi-def MP4 on your desktop/laptop and dumping on your tablet? I mean the iPad does it with great success and gives the user the impression that it can play every video format??
The tab is a 10" screen, just about any video format 720p and above (hell even some 480p) will look just as good as 1080p on your 40-50" tv screen....or am I missing something???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What program and settings do you use, then?
Ok, I just purchased the 10.1. I use it alot to play back mp4 and m4v videos that have been encoded by Handbrake. What I've noticed on the 10.1 is that while they look excellent, when panning, the video pans with a jerky motion and is not smooth.
Any suggestions? I've looked around the forum but have not found anything definite. I've encoded the video at 720p.
From what i've read and researched, Tegra 2 only supports H.264 with Mainline Profile, Meaning 3 Reference Frames and no B frames, i've encoded several 720p Videos that way at 5Mbps and they play flawlessly.
While researching, i came across someone that came up with a Profile on Handbrake. That is what I've been using to encode my videos and so far, everything works great.
I will continue to do more Research.
Just a fyi, it does support High Profile, but with a max of 4 reference frames and 3 B frames.
Check the very first post here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
It also includes presets for High and Baseline.
buri73 said:
Background
As I understand it, Tegra 2 should playback up to High Profile 720p and Main Profile 1080p. However, with limitation on Honeycomb and/or lack of driver release by Nvidia, current crop of HC tablets do not playback anything above Baseline Profile smoothly. Future updates by Google/Nvidia should fix this issue, but it looks like we may have to reencode High/Main profile media for the time being.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even he says it, Tegra 2 currently doesn't support anything above Baseprofile because of driver limitations
But that thread is a Very good reference on how to encode video using handbrake, for Tegra 2 Devices.
He wrote that before the 3.1 update. He should really take that out.
buri73 said:
Update 5/28: Honeycomb 3.1 upgraded TF101 can playback 720p High Profile natively!
Verified with native player and Mobo(HW playback). Modified steps 3-3.1 to reflect HP settings, added HP preset and sample. Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh I see it, right at the top, right now im testing it out, encoding a 720p video using his High Profile.
Metzenw said:
I found that this morning and tried it, i Converted 3 different files, and tried different settings, and they all run like crap. I guess i will try some other settings on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only converted mkv files, but for 720p ones I use 1280 max output width, 20 video quality, live video type, high h.264 profile, and veryfast encode speed. For 1080p I just change the profile from high to baseline. All of my videos (with the exception of Avatar.....Man that's a long movie) are cut by two thirds. I guess I should mention though that I have a Motorola Xoom til I can sell it and get a Tab
If that doesn't work, just contact the OP of that post. He's really good at giving prompt replies.
Thanks for the information guys, I really appreciate it!
I just got my tab today and I am bitterly disappointed in how poor it is in terms of formts supported. Non of my avi or mkv files play (and when I use a 3rd party app they lag like crazy).

Does this tablet do MKV natively?

I watch a lot of anime and that would be the primary function of this tablet for me. I was wondering if this tablet could handle the 720p/1080p mkv files encoded in h624. and also if they support subtitles.
here is a test file for current 10.1 owners.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9ZQAFZIZ
I got lots of anime 720P MKV files. They won't play on any Tegra 2 tablet I've had, including this one.
There video player apps in the Market that will play MKV.. but they don't usually support hardware acceleration so it'll prolly be very choppy :/
There's not a tablet out in existence im aware of that can play MKV with hardware accel.. sigh.
Galaxy Tab 7" can, and I suspect the HTC Flyer could too.
Regards,
Dave
First thing I do with all my anime mkv is to convert them to mp4 with the subs burned in, with Handbrake. I prefer this because it takes the guess work out of not knowing if this device will play such and such mkv, and everything handles mp4 nowadays moreso than mkv. Even Archos devices that are the king of media codecs and formats have problems with some mkv files even, because as a container an mkv file could contain a myriad combo of codecs.
LordLugard said:
First thing I do with all my anime mkv is to convert them to mp4 with the subs burned in, with Handbrake. I prefer this because it takes the guess work out of not knowing if this device will play such and such mkv, and everything handles mp4 nowadays moreso than mkv. Even Archos devices that are the king of media codecs and formats have problems with some mkv files even, because as a container an mkv file could contain a myriad combo of codecs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I'm just using handbrake to convert all my movies to mp4 so there is no worry. Handbrake will let you queue up items so you can basically just let it run.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
When the TouchWiz update comes out expect this tablet to get a lot more media friendly.
Mine would appear to play mkv files no problem, although I can't control them, fast forward or jump to a certain point, which means I wouldn't want to rely on it.
(Stock player and Vplayer on 3.1)
**EDIT ** Actually, the sound is not in sync...
th0r615 said:
When the TouchWiz update comes out expect this tablet to get a lot more media friendly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't bet on it. tergra 2 can't handle the throughput of most high profile hd. it can handle some but it's very picky. it also chokes on ac3 and has a hard time with aac multichannel sound. i have some multichanel files that'll play and some won't.
tegra 2 is no media powerhouse. imho the archos 101 is still the best for all the files it can play, but it's quality is lackluster... and the screen sucks.
It doesn't do it natively, but MoboPlayer is a great app (free) for it. It will handle 720p MKV no problem.
it can handle some 720p mkv. its very hard to make a general statement for files higher than main profile and 2 channel sound.
tegra is limited on media playback. check all the other tegra 2 forums. this is the reason boxee box dropped tegra 2.
don't get me wrong, I love the tablet, but there are some limitations to expect with media playback. it's not even as goog as the gt7".
madsquabbles said:
it can handle some 720p mkv. its very hard to make a general statement for files higher than main profile and 2 channel sound.
tegra is limited on media playback. check all the other tegra 2 forums. this is the reason boxee box dropped tegra 2.
don't get me wrong, I love the tablet, but there are some limitations to expect with media playback. it's not even as goog as the gt7".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
Tegra 2 has awful performance in alot of areas. Video playback and portrait view basically slow it to a crawl.
xManMythLegend said:
This.
Tegra 2 has awful performance in alot of areas. Video playback and portrait view basically slow it to a crawl.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hardly think portrait view slowing down has to do with the hardware. More likely HC.
I use my tab for MKV's all the time. RockPlayer Lite handles it like a champ. Perfect audio and all. Scrubbing works fine too. Just select software decoding mode when playing the videos
I found a program caled XenonMKV which rips the mp4 out of the mkv container and converts the audio to aac. It's a much faster process since there is no video re-encoding involved and it works 'ok'. It still skips a bit but it at least kind of works smoothly most of the time.
EDIT: tried RockPlayer Lite Software & Hardware and it was still stuttery from time to time. (3500kbps 720p mkv and mp4 from XenonMKV)
I think if you had a Max bitrate of about 3mbps or less and it wasn't AC3 it could do it.
slal said:
It doesn't do it natively, but MoboPlayer is a great app (free) for it. It will handle 720p MKV no problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you actually test this ?
I'm very concerned about video support in honeycomb tablets, and in galaxy tab in particular. I don't understand why, but it seems this feature has been left behind in every honeycomb tablet, whereas SGS and SGS 2 handle 720p mkv with hardware acceleration very well in stock video player. I just don't understand what the manufacturers are doing.
I can't even transfer that large of a file on my tab. It hangs and stops at the end. Weird.
Handbrake is free and works like a champ to convert any file. I'm using it on the @pple tv2 settings with some minor tweaks
Sent from my Galaxy Tab 10.1 using Tapatalk
Just watched an mkv last night thanks to vplayer. No problems
im.thatoneguy said:
I think if you had a Max bitrate of about 3mbps or less and it wasn't AC3 it could do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this. also, if the movie is quite slow (not much of on screen action, etc) i had good results at around 5mbps too and mp3 audio.

[REF] Video playing ,Converting video formats and Application/Software introduction

Is it possible to play mkv format with 1080p resoloution in galaxy tab 10.1 ?
if so which players could do it?
which softwares are suitable for video convert?
and other video related soloutions for galaxy tab 10.1 to be discussed here
List of available softwares for video convert:
1-Handbrake (free)
Download page
Information page
Tutorial for 10" Display (thanks to buri73 )
2-Any Video Converter (AVC) ($29.95)
Download (trial)
Information page
3-DVD Catalyst ($9.95)
Download (trial)
Information page
4-Aiseesoft Blu ray Ripper ($39)
Download (trial)
Information page
5- ...
Recommended Video player applications on honeycomb :
1- MoboPlayer
2-...
No, and besides what's the point? The screen is not even 1080p. You can try Moboplayer and see what happens. Best advice is to recode the file down to 720p mp4. Try Handbrake or Freemake.
LordLugard said:
No, and besides what's the point? The screen is not even 1080p. You can try Moboplayer and see what happens. Best advice is to recode the file down to 720p mp4. Try Handbrake or Freemake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont have the tablet yet but I'm going to buy and doing some research now,
how if we dont convert the file format ? is it possible to watch or is it laggy?
does the sound and the screen match?
Why would you do that?
The screen resolution is not even 1080 pixel height.
Don't you know that?
It's a waste of resources.
Try to get 720p instead.
taha_e said:
Does anyone know if it is possible to play mkv format with 1080p resoloution in galaxy tab 10.1 ?
if so which players could do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
taha_e said:
I dont have the tablet yet but I'm going to buy and doing some research now,
how if we dont convert the file format ? is it possible to watch or is it laggy?
does the sound and the screen match?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me know what your research shows. I've been converting blu ray and mkv into 720p mp4 using DVD catalyst 4, real simple setup. From what I found out, mkv files do not work on any tablets because mkv is a container. If you convert it to mp4 then any tablet can handle it, including my phone galaxy s captivate . Takes me an average of 3-4 minutes per TV show and 10-20 on a movie. I stopped encoding at 1080p because there was not much difference other than size of file.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
they work but not with high profile settings. you need to reduce them.
you can google what high profile for mkv is.
The answers you are looking for: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
mkv is not a format, its a container for H.264 format.
You should be asking "is it possible to play 1080p H.264 in the galaxy tab 10.1?"
The answer is yes BUT (and a BIG BUT) you can only do so if the H.264 file is encoded in the old H.264 baseline profile which nobody uses anymore.
Tegra 2s video accelerator is way to slow to play H.264 videos that are encoded in the popular Main/High profiles which everyone uses today. Yes its unfortunate but you have to recode all your videos to baseline profile if you want to watch on ANY tegra 2 based units.
5thElement said:
mkv is not a format, its a container for H.264 format.
You should be asking "is it possible to play 1080p H.264 in the galaxy tab 10.1?"
The answer is yes BUT (and a BIG BUT) you can only do so if the H.264 file is encoded in the old H.264 baseline profile which nobody uses anymore.
Tegra 2s video accelerator is way to slow to play H.264 videos that are encoded in the popular Main/High profiles which everyone uses today. Yes its unfortunate but you have to recode all your videos to baseline profile if you want to watch on ANY tegra 2 based units.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tab, along with every other Honeycomb 3.1, tegra 2 device plays H.264 high profile 720p and main profile 1080p video just fine.
Although given the screen resolution, playing back 1080p video of any profile is pointless.
hoodoomagic said:
The tab, along with every other Honeycomb 3.1, tegra 2 device plays H.264 high profile 720p and main profile 1080p video just fine.
Although given the screen resolution, playing back 1080p video of any profile is pointless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct it CAN play them back but at only very low bitrate and 1080p is not pointless since you can hookup to TV or monitor via HDMI
I did some testing on bitrates for the Teg2 at 720p HP here,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15054949&postcount=250
it does OK at 6Mb/s, and chugs when bits hit 10Mb/s. 6Mb/s avg is about the ceiling for most 720p videos, so one can generalize that the Teg2, at HC3.1, will play a fair number of 720 H264 HP videos (in MP4 format). Ruminations are that HC3.2 will speed things up a bit further.
The clip, along with others, are here if anyone wants to try them:
http://www.mediafire.com/?depxt4zyvpwel
I've played with h.264 video on the Gtab, Use Baseline profile for best results. I've done some encoding in High Profile, and baseline, and compared screen captures, and you can't tell the difference, it has mostly to do with Compression, the higher your Profile (Ref Frames, B Frames, CABAC) the smaller your video file will be without suffering Quality lose. Just that higher profile requires more horsepower to decode, which Tegra 2 does not have.
hmm samsung should have gone with the SGS II guts. It plays pretty much whatever you throw at it
ph00ny said:
hmm samsung should have gone with the SGS II guts. It plays pretty much whatever you throw at it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honeycomb only supports Tegra 2 CPUs. HC 3.2 brings support for Qualcomm CPUs. I could only wish this thing had the SGSII CPU.
Yeah, much as I like my Tab, I always feel like I'm taking a step back when I use it after using my SGS2...both in speed and display. I'd queue up in the pouring rain for a week to get a SAMOLED tablet.
5thElement said:
mkv is not a format, its a container for H.264 format.
Tegra 2s video accelerator is way to slow to play H.264 videos that are encoded in the popular Main/High profiles which everyone uses today. Yes its unfortunate but you have to recode all your videos to baseline profile if you want to watch on ANY tegra 2 based units.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which explains why I am playing 720p24 high profile h.264 with no problems. Oh. Wait. No it doesn't.
Tegra 2 can handle high profile fine at 720p as long as you avoid wighted p frames. However the stock player does not. Enter diceplayer, built on the NDK and supporting all T2 decode capabilities. The stock player is totally borked.
1080p however is another problem. But you'll probably hit the fat32 4GB file size limit with those anyway before you encounter issues with high profile content. None of my 1080p MKVs will fit on the device anyway due to the fat32 limitation, so transcoding it pretty much a given. So I tend to go to 540p or even 480p just to save space. The screen is small, and while I can tell the diffeence between a clean 720p encode and 480p it doesn't bother me in this scenario. And if you drop down to 480p weighted p frames work again.
So, essentially Mr. Element, you don't what the hell you're talking about.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
I can only support what ianken said. I can play 720p hig profile just fine with Diceplayer.
Here is a test clip to see on your own. http://www.multiupload.com/CJU6YB5JC3
It is in High 4.1 Format
just thought id let you know it does play 720p mkv files just fine (tested on my galaxy 7" with no skipping or slowness at all) assuming since it works on the 7" the 10" wouldnt have any issues with it.
Danstek said:
Honeycomb only supports Tegra 2 CPUs. HC 3.2 brings support for Qualcomm CPUs. I could only wish this thing had the SGSII CPU.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not entire true since manufacturers can add their own drivers to the OS
I highly doubt gingerbread is tailored to a single platform
bilsmaks said:
just thought id let you know it does play 720p mkv files just fine (tested on my galaxy 7" with no skipping or slowness at all) assuming since it works on the 7" the 10" wouldnt have any issues with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm can play 720p high profile without any issues on Galaxy S Captivated. Gtab 10.1 and other HC tablets are using tegra2, that has some issues playing mkv high profile 720p. So far maker of diceplayer are the only one who have figured out how to make use of tegra2 to decode high profile 720p.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App

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