Database Users

Did I overestimate the Tegra2?

So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?

MichaelWestin said:
So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The hardware is capable of it. You just need to stop buying devices that don't hardware accelerate mkv files. You need to look for something with divx certification. My epic4g plays ridiculously high bitrate 720P mkv files FLAWLESSLY, because Samsung went the extra mile and got hardware acceleration for avi and mkv files. The evo is a mess because its made by HTC and HTC doesn't give a crap about media capability. The evo stutters playing AVI files because it has to software decode them, which makes me laugh at my friend who owns it. That giant screen and it is useless for video. A tablet without divx certification is useless to me, which is one of the dozen or so reasons I will not be buying the Xoom.

Well if they do that for the new Tab, then the Xoom is going right back.. I have 90 days to find out

MichaelWestin said:
So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you enable hardware decoding in the settings of RockPlayer?

parrotheadmjb said:
Did you enable hardware decoding in the settings of RockPlayer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That only works if the hardware supports hardware acceleration of the filetype, right? Does the Xoom support playing MKV and AVI files in the stock video player?

MichaelWestin said:
Well if they do that for the new Tab, then the Xoom is going right back.. I have 90 days to find out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I am hoping for too. So far the entire line of Galaxy S phones and the Galaxy Tab was divx HD certified. I am hoping and praying that the delicious Galaxy Tab 10.1 with its giant 6860 mah battery has Divx HD certification as well. I can't imagine it wouldn't.

parrotheadmjb said:
Did you enable hardware decoding in the settings of RockPlayer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Software only. :-(

MichaelWestin said:
Software only. :-(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idk I turned on hardware decoding on RockPlayer in my Xoom and it started playing the 720P almost seamlessly, but no audio... weird

It is hardware decoding my mkv's though I am hitting an annoying bug where sound stops. going to home and back restores sound though.
The m4v I put on is being decoded in software and it can't quite handle it smoothly.
I will have to try a couple of my mp4 rips.

Yes they really should add more codecs to default Android. I bet they expected some 3rd party apps to arrive.

MichaelWestin said:
So far, everything seems to work pretty well. No force closes, the few games I have tried look great, everything is nice and smooth for the most part.
But god dammit, I just wanted one thing. ONE THING. To be able to play scene release 720p HD Tv shows, when I'm on the train every day, without having to re-encode. For years, there has been almost no solution to this. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can play the lower quality xvid rips on my Evo.
There are always other players like Archos that just play this stuff right out of the box. But I always wished that something I would carry anyway would play it, like my phone or tablet.
I downloaded every media player I could get a hold of with good reviews. Rock Player, VPlayer, qqplayer, arcmedia, mVideoplayer. No success. The best I could get was sound with choppy/lagging video, in Rock Player.
I know there are alternatives, but like I said, for this to be a feature on something I would be carrying on an every day basis for multipurpose use, instead of a dedicated media player is top feature to me.
I'm just trying to figure out if there is any hope of this eventually working on the current slew of Honeycomb Tablets with app optimization, or if the processor just can't handle it. Anyone have decent/extensive knowledge on that subject?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A similar problem on the Tegra 2 Notion Ink adam was fixed with a software update or a custom rom.
When shipped, all the players etc, were choppy or desynced or had no audio - but running a custom rom fixed these problems. Additionally, shortly after shipping, Notion ink provided an update that fixed these problems on stock.
Its definetly a software issue - it will be fixed soon im sure.

OK Rockplayer can not handle my default mp4 rips well. They are nothing particularly special though I don't use ... I can't remember the term. "simple mode" I use the higher modes to allow for better quality for size.
Ah well, most of my newer stuff I rip to mkv's anyway (subtitle and alternative audio support).

setite said:
Yes they really should add more codecs to default Android. I bet they expected some 3rd party apps to arrive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CODECs cost money to license them. Google leaves this up to the OEM's to pay the bill.

This handbrake preset produces great videos for my evo...

warb said:
This handbrake preset produces great videos for my evo...
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Click to collapse
I'm sorry, not to use a Steve jobsism, but if you have to convert videos for your tablet you have failed. I think it's ridiculous to have to do it for phones, which is why i bought the epic4g. To have to do it on a tablet is ridiculous, especially one with a dual core processor and an eight core gpu. The freaking iPad can play 720p mkv files now with xbmc ported over.

setite said:
Yes they really should add more codecs to default Android. I bet they expected some 3rd party apps to arrive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange as I am reading this a Xoom commercial came on the TV saying that the Xoom is "everything a tablet should be" and even showing a video playing on the device. I hope they are not serious about this issue.

+1 thanks for Costco return window

well I dont know what to say.. I tried two different formats (mp4 and mkv) 720p, and both worked just fine, all video and audio was perfect. These were top gear uk episodes. I'll try a dvd rip and see what happens now.

And.... any news in that regard?

If you own an iPad, how is this situation there?
I mean, can you just throw any video files and iPad will play it flawlessly?
I just want to know this comparison.
If VLC is available for Android, do you think this kind of issue will be solved?
I read this is caused by Google not investing on "codec" (licensing), neither does VLC.
If VLC can solve this, why Google does not want to use it
Sorry, if I got this all wrong. I am not an expert on video thing ...

[INFO] My first impressions... Not Good.

When unboxing I was very excited. I liked the color, the size, the feel and the build quality. I didn't mind the weight either.
Turned it on and was immediately impressed with the screen quality and the snappiness of the OS and preinstalled apps. I immediately checked for latest updates and downloaded flash 10.3.
The good things really stop there. I'm willing to give it another shot if someone can point out some resolutions for the following issues I’m about to point out.
1. I was unable to install some apps. Stating device is not supported. (Example, Slacker Radio, Pinger TextFree and etc...) I thought all android apps were compatibly with Honeycomb? I just thought the cell phone version just upscaled and other apps were optimized for Honeycomb. Boy I was wrong.
2. Video playback was very choppy on most of my files. The files I was trying to play were only 720p m4v files for the iPhone/iPad. I tried 4 different media player apps (Mobi, rockplayer, default player and another I can't think of write now) and all were jerky. The same file can be played smoothly using my Nokia N8 phone with a 680mhz single core cpu. By the way I was using the default Nokia video player app. I thought this device has a 1ghz dual cpu with a Tegra 2 gpu? It’s marketed to play 1080p. What the deal? And the solution to encode with like dvd rip like settings is not really a solution is it? More like a work around too me. There was an extreme lag too when trying to back out of the app.
3. YouTube app was much hit and misses too. More misses then hits. The first time i tried to play a video, it just stayed there with a spinning indicator. Waited for 10 minutes and the video never played. Tried again, played for a little bit then stopped. Tried again and got a force close. Launched and tried again, and a force close again. I gave up at that point. How could Google not QA their own app? I'm not talking about any app, but there main app "YOUTUBE" that gets about a millions of views a day. That's like internet explorer not working on a freshly loaded windows box.
4. How in the hell do I see my pictures in the SD CARD in keyboard slot to show up in the photo gallery? I have a Pictures Folder on the root of my SD Card and loaded it with jpg's and the gallery does not see them. I could not find any settings to add a folder for my SD Card. I can go to the file manager and open them one by one but this is just a ghetto way to look at your pictures. No way to do slideshow. So I went on the market looking for another app. I found QuickPic. Now I can add a directory. But guess what? I cannot see /Removable. Total BS.
5. The crashes. I've only used this device for 3 hours and already I've experienced 5 Force closes. 3 in YouTube and two while in the Market.
6. Other small annoyances I've found were: Clouding issues. I can clearly see it during a movie with the black bars on top and bottom. No task manager to exit or close apps without having to add an app. No Ad-Hoc networking support. I could not see my Wi-Fi hotspot on my Nokia N8 phone. The iPhone, iPad, Nokia Phones and laptops sees them no problem. The touchpad gets in the way while typing. I had to disable it to actually type a paragraph. The browser, I could not find a way to click a link to view full html for Facebook and other websites. Using the same "Opera" Browser on my Nokia N8 phone I have the option to view in full.
Issues in number six I can live with but 1-5, definitely not. I really do believe that the OS was rushed out the door too soon. I also believe Asus has very little to do with it. I am a professional hardware/software QA engineer and I think it should have been cooking in the oven for another 6 more months. I was a first adopter of symbian^3 and too think is was rushed out a couple of months early, but the experience was no way nearly as bad as what I experienced with Honeycomb. I didn't experience a single crash on Symbian^3 until a couple of week later I've owned it. With Honeycomb, a few minutes.

Yes, these are all Honeycomb issues, and you'll see the same with any other tablet running the OS (I went through it all with Xoom).
Let's wait for 3.1 (mid-June, per Asus).

Welcome to Honeycomb
Sent from my HTC Eva 4G using Tapatalk

to be fair, video playback stuttering on 720p is a tegra 2 hardware issue that won't be fixed by a software update. in order for it to play smoothly you would need to re-encode whatever you're gonna put on the device

What version firmware are you running?

most of these are honeycomb issues..can't really fault ASUS or the TF for them...
the compatibility issue is subject to each app's own developer to address.. I suspect the honeycomb support will become eventually..
video playback has been discussed extensively everywhere.... as of now..Tegra 2 on honeycomb can only hard-decode main profile h264 (either 720p or 1080p)..I don't find the quality is massively different between main profile and high profile..but I agree it's a pain to re-encode all file to main profile if you have a huge library..

to be fair, video playback stuttering on 720p is a tegra 2 hardware issue that won't be fixed by a software update. in order for it to play smoothly you would need to re-encode whatever you're gonna put on the device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can easily play 720p h264 [email protected] videos on my Viewsonic Gtablet which was released last year on Tegra2 SOC. That's maximum it can get. Transformer fails to repeat this. Tegra2 is pretty weak hardware, but should be able to decode this. I hope it will be fixed in Honeycomb 3.1
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

ivan.volosyuk said:
I can easily play 720p h264 [email protected] videos on my Viewsonic Gtablet which was released last year on Tegra2 SOC. That's maximum it can get. Transformer fails to repeat this. Tegra2 is pretty weak hardware, but should be able to decode this. I hope it will be fixed in Honeycomb 3.1
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea, from my understanding 720p h264 [email protected] is the max tegra 2 can handle. if the transformer is having trouble with it then dunno

Youtube for now works better in the browser, 3.1 should fix this. Besides that you can tether your N8 by using the Wpa_supplicant file in the dev section.
Personally I have rarely found apps that wont work so can't help there.
Videos need to be re encoded, for an easy guide search handbrake guide within these forums, it's posted by Buri73.
No idea about SD card in dock either since I don't use the dock slot.

thaddyusmaximus said:
I was unable to install some apps. Stating device is not supported. (Example, Slacker Radio, Pinger TextFree and etc...) I thought all android apps were compatibly with Honeycomb? I just thought the cell phone version just upscaled and other apps were optimized for Honeycomb. Boy I was wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Devs are free to exclude their app from large screen devices when they upload to the market, that is their choice.
thaddyusmaximus said:
2. Video playback was very choppy on most of my files. The files I was trying to play were only 720p m4v files for the iPhone/iPad. I tried 4 different media player apps (Mobi, rockplayer, default player and another I can't think of write now) and all were jerky. The same file can be played smoothly using my Nokia N8 phone with a 680mhz single core cpu. By the way I was using the default Nokia video player app. I thought this device has a 1ghz dual cpu with a Tegra 2 gpu? It’s marketed to play 1080p. What the deal? And the solution to encode with like dvd rip like settings is not really a solution is it? More like a work around too me. There was an extreme lag too when trying to back out of the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AOSP android has no MKV container support, Some OEMs may add support (Like Samsung) but the only way to decode MKV containers is with pure software rendering (E.G. Rockplayer Moboplayer) but software rendering on a 1ghz cpu will _never_ play HD h.264 well
Specs for The current crop of Tegra2 Honeycomb tablets are up to 1080p h.264 baseline-profile only mp4 container only + stereo aac
thaddyusmaximus said:
3. YouTube app was much hit and misses too. More misses then hits. The first time i tried to play a video, it just stayed there with a spinning indicator. Waited for 10 minutes and the video never played. Tried again, played for a little bit then stopped. Tried again and got a force close. Launched and tried again, and a force close again. I gave up at that point. How could Google not QA their own app? I'm not talking about any app, but there main app "YOUTUBE" that gets about a millions of views a day. That's like internet explorer not working on a freshly loaded windows box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have this problem
thaddyusmaximus said:
4. How in the hell do I see my pictures in the SD CARD in keyboard slot to show up in the photo gallery? I have a Pictures Folder on the root of my SD Card and loaded it with jpg's and the gallery does not see them. I could not find any settings to add a folder for my SD Card. I can go to the file manager and open them one by one but this is just a ghetto way to look at your pictures. No way to do slideshow. So I went on the market looking for another app. I found QuickPic. Now I can add a directory. But guess what? I cannot see /Removable. Total BS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The mount point for the MicroSD was added by ASUS, the built in google app are not aware of this mount point's existance. Feel free to complain to ASUS. This is why the Xoom shipped with a disabled MicroSD-card slot
thaddyusmaximus said:
5. The crashes. I've only used this device for 3 hours and already I've experienced 5 Force closes. 3 in YouTube and two while in the Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not get the frequency of crashes you do, but those few I do I expect to clear up with the 3.1, there is no debate that Honeycomb was rushed out of the door.
thaddyusmaximus said:
No task manager to exit or close apps without having to add an app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android does not need a task manager, if you insist on force-terminating an app go to setting->Applications->manage applications->running
thaddyusmaximus said:
No Ad-Hoc networking support. I could not see my Wi-Fi hotspot on my Nokia N8 phone. The iPhone, iPad, Nokia Phones and laptops sees them no problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Bluetooth PAN, it's easier on the battery. But then again my phone does infrastructure tethering.
thaddyusmaximus said:
The touchpad gets in the way while typing. I had to disable it to actually type a paragraph.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surely this is no different than any other netbook?
thaddyusmaximus said:
The browser, I could not find a way to click a link to view full html for Facebook and other websites. Using the same "Opera" Browser on my Nokia N8 phone I have the option to view in full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings->advanced->user agent

Welcome to the wonderful world of Early Adoption
As above, I've had no particular problem with video playback, I've used Aura to rip some DVDs using the Xoom presets and they all run pretty fine (some very slight a/v sync issues maybe, but equally that could be my imagination looking for problems that arent there). I can't comment too much on the 720p / 1080p playback issue as I bought the tablet largely as a device for watching movies on the move rather than plugging into a TV and I don't think I'll see too much of a difference between 720 and 1080 on the TF's screen.
Otherwise, as others have said before, I'd like to think the majority of wrinkles will be ironed out with HC3.1. One thing to bear in mind: it's not like we're playing with a new tech running an established OS, or an established tech running a new OS. For better or worse we're running a new (and largely beta-plus) OS on new tech. This is the New World, Android-wise, so I guess we have to expect problems to begin with at least. And hell, at least we have working microSD slots

When did Internet Explorer worked properly? XD

AOSP android has no MKV container support, Some OEMs may add support (Like Samsung) but the only way to decode MKV containers is with pure software rendering (E.G. Rockplayer Moboplayer) but software rendering on a 1ghz cpu will _never_ play HD h.264 well
Specs for The current crop of Tegra2 Honeycomb tablets are up to 1080p h.264 baseline-profile only mp4 container only + stereo aac
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While this is all true, the OP was talking about m4v container, not MKV. I have a 720p rip of Ninja Assassin in h264 and m4v container and it plays smooth on iPad 2 but choppy on the TF (I had to rename it to mp4 for the TF to recognize it and no renaming has nothing to do with playback as m4v and mp4 are interchangeable like that).

songmeesay said:
While this is all true, the OP was talking about m4v container, not MKV. I have a 720p rip of Ninja Assassin in h264 and m4v container and it plays smooth on iPad 2 but choppy on the TF (I had to rename it to mp4 for the TF to recognize it and no renaming has nothing to do with playback as m4v and mp4 are interchangeable like that).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point, my mistake. So if you run MP4Box -info on the file what do you get?
( http://www.videohelp.com/tools/mp4box )

Looks like it's h264/avc [email protected]

songmeesay said:
While this is all true, the OP was talking about m4v container, not MKV. I have a 720p rip of Ninja Assassin in h264 and m4v container and it plays smooth on iPad 2 but choppy on the TF (I had to rename it to mp4 for the TF to recognize it and no renaming has nothing to do with playback as m4v and mp4 are interchangeable like that).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's my point. Other devices like iPad and Nokia Phones can play these files. I only want to encode once where its a decent quality on my phone, pc, ipad and TF.

Munszu said:
When did Internet Explorer worked properly? XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True but when accessing web outlook IE is king.

monkeyboy451 said:
What version firmware are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The firmware version is 8.2.3.9.

Maybe you should update? 8.2.3.13 has been out for a while now.

Now i'm noticing I have to reboot the device when to transferring files from Full Sized SD Card to internal memory after coming out of standby mode.

Xoom - new user experience

I have had this Xoom tablet since Monday and every evening after work I've been busy toying with it to see what it can do. Wasn't sure initially that I was going to get it since a new version is about to hit the markets, but I got a good deal at Dixons in Dublin airport (€289) for the WiFi version.
Anyway, in most of the things it's a great toy but it has a few, but really annoying, shortcomings:
- Not able to charge via USB cable
- Not able to mount like a normal Android device to my computers
- Playing movies is a a horrible experience, if at all possible.
For the second item, I have downloaded and installed the Motorola drivers for my Windows PC and after that it mounts just fine. Same goes for my Mac. For Linux I had to fire up the Terminal and do some fiddling following various guides on how to set up USB mounting and Samba sharing. So it's not impossible, just annoying that manual setup needs to be done on various platforms...or perhaps I'm just lazy.
I have quite a few .mkv movie files and I have searched this forum for players that will accept the files. None of the players I've downloaded are able to play mkv even with Codecs installed. All of the players mentioned in this thread do not work with a mkv file the size of 1.5GB. There appears to be software that can convert the files to be more Xoom friendly, but it costs about $30. Of course, seeing my mate being able to play all movie files on his HP TouchPad with WebOS without problems doesn't exactly help to lift my spirits.
I did have some issues with Google Music not wanting to remember my online collection but since downloading the latest app yesterday this now appears to be fixed.
My Xoom runs Tiamat Xoom Rom 2.2.2 - Moray and I flashed the Odachi kernel.
Other than my ranting above the Xoom is great for browsing the web, skype, listening to music and reading books (becoming addicted to buying books in Kindle)

For the MKV files - handbrake won't convert em for you? Cause that's free - and what I use to convert raw material for my xoom.
edit: and I personally have never seen a tablet that charges via USB. Samsung's galaxy tabs charge via their dock, my old nook color required the charger to charge, even though it was a modified USB cable, and the xoom is well.. we know already.

ZeroSX said:
For the MKV files - handbrake won't convert em for you? Cause that's free - and what I use to convert raw material for my xoom.
edit: and I personally have never seen a tablet that charges via USB. Samsung's galaxy tabs charge via their dock, my old nook color required the charger to charge, even though it was a modified USB cable, and the xoom is well.. we know already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't used Handbrake in a while so I'll have a try to see if it works. Any special settings you set up in Handbrake for it to work with the Xoom?
This is my first tablet so I don't actually have much to compare with regarding the USB charging. I just mentioned the lack of USB charging to two colleagues who have HP tablets and they were surprised that it needs an actual wall charger.

As its been said many times before USB charging would take forever on a tablet. I can charge my xoom to 100% way faster then my girlfriends Galaxy 10 which uses the 5v USB.
And the way the file managing is done is better and worse in a way. Phones and pcs handle it better and i haven't had a issue with corrupting my sd card like i did with my Droid 2 and the old mounting. But linux is a pain to get MTP to work with. On my Win 7 pcs it saw it right away and worked with out needing anything DLed.
And handbrake does all my video converting great. It may not be super 1080P HD but i really dont need super HD on a tablet. Ill try to pull my preset file for you to try.

I use MX Player off of the market for MKV files and it plays them flawlessly when changing to software decoding and such for certain files. You should look into that.

omac_ranger said:
I use MX Player off of the market for MKV files and it plays them flawlessly when changing to software decoding and such for certain files. You should look into that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second MX Player off of the market (http://goo.gl/WvXLa).
I also found pre-alpha VLC player that I've used without any issues.
http://dl.cvpcs.org/android/test/common/VLC-neon.apk
http://dl.cvpcs.org/android/test/common/VLC-noneon.apk
I used to convert my video with Handspring but I no longer have to with these two awesome video players.

omac_ranger said:
I use MX Player off of the market for MKV files and it plays them flawlessly when changing to software decoding and such for certain files. You should look into that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that but it didn't work even when changing to software decoding.

nephroid said:
I also found pre-alpha VLC player that I've used without any issues.
http://dl.cvpcs.org/android/test/common/VLC-neon.apk
http://dl.cvpcs.org/android/test/common/VLC-noneon.apk
I used to convert my video with Handspring but I no longer have to with these two awesome video players.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool thanks! Was looking for VLC earlier. Will give these a try.
Edit: first one (VLC-nonneon) works albeit the picture is not very steady. Loads of small breaks when playing a film. Second one force closes.

slonn said:
Cool thanks! Was looking for VLC earlier. Will give these a try.
Edit: first one (VLC-nonneon) works albeit the picture is not very steady. Loads of small breaks when playing a film. Second one force closes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity, how large are these files you're testing with? .mkv's, .avi's?
The VLC app works for me if I don't try to jump all around the videos too often. It's pre-alpha so there should be some quirks.

nephroid said:
Just out of curiosity, how large are these files you're testing with? .mkv's, .avi's?
The VLC app works for me if I don't try to jump all around the videos too often. It's pre-alpha so there should be some quirks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The files were about 1.5 GB. I've tried with smaller files and that seems to work. I just assumed that any file under 4 GB would play without problems. In any case I've fired up Handbrake to compress the movie files. Great with free software

My way of doing things.
so far i havent had any problems playing videos, partially because things have been too hectic for the 4g xooms so i keep changing stuff, and partially because most of the movies i own in digital form all play without hesitation, like from the google movies.
as far as mounting goes, windows does fine once u have the drivers, but i hate paying for software, so fudge windows. linux on the other hand is easy, all i do is boot into cwm and mount usb drive. works like a snap, prob work in windows too, just havent tried. that lets u access your externalsd, but theres prob a way to mount ur internal, just havent tried that yet either.
and the charging i read somewhere actually works through usb, its just so slow, and so low that one, it doesnt register, and two it would only really be fesible in an emergency. but i actually like the fact we get a full powered charger that just juices it up quick and painlessly. true the only way to charge it on the go is get a seperate charger, or a converter, but i can live with the battery power.
hope u figure your stuff out, i love this thing. does all i want and more, witht the added benefit of having a metal case, which is more important than u think!! wait till your mates drop their pads, i put mine through some rough wear, and that metal case has saved it several times. the biggest thing that breaks on these that ive seen is the glass on the screen, which is a pretty easy fix, plus it wont make it unusable if u do, just gotta live with it. have fun!!!

I use MX Player to play video files that were nearly 1.1GBs, never had a problem. Is the Video the problem or the audio when you were using it?

omac_ranger said:
I use MX Player to play video files that were nearly 1.1GBs, never had a problem. Is the Video the problem or the audio when you were using it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the video that lags.

no lag now after the films were compressed with handbrake. Happy days

I play 10GB MKVs with MX Video player, I have no idea why you would be having issues with your files. I love my Xoom and MX plays everything

charged it to 100 % last night and it was at 99% thus morning. Just one per cent down in 10 hours with screen off. That's very impressive!

slonn said:
no lag now after the films were compressed with handbrake. Happy days
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What format did you convert too? MP4?
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

slonn said:
charged it to 100 % last night and it was at 99% thus morning. Just one per cent down in 10 hours with screen off. That's very impressive!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep in my experience this is pretty normal! ;-)
Sent from my DEFY running CM7 using XDA App

From my personal experiences:
- Not able to charge via USB cable
Aye, that's a shame but understandable due to the amount of power needed.
- Not able to mount like a normal Android device to my computers
Unfortunately this will be the way for all android devices, also all phones. This is due to the switch to MTP connectivity from ICS and up. Google made this switch so they were able to pool all the memory in a device to a single storage pool, this to avoid all the issues with earlier (low amount of memory) devices which would run out of space after installing a lot of applications like for example the HTC Desire or original Nexus.
- Playing movies is a a horrible experience, if at all possible.
Agreed, it was quite a let down, mostly due to the limitations of the Tegra cpu. As mentioned by a lot of others MX player does it pretty well however, for my own collection i use and can advise you Plex. Its removes the need to recode anything in you library. On the move its not an option if you are without wifi in your case (i have a 3g Xoom myself) but its awesome when connected.
Enjoy your device.

King350z said:
What format did you convert too? MP4?
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, converted it to m4v.

[Q] coming from a prime, have a question on an acer.

I currently have the Asus prime and love the tablet, but it doesn't work for my needs as a multimedia device on the go. With the blue tooth and streaming video/audio issue, my main purpose of it is no longer functional. I could careless about the gps.
I was looking at the Acer 500 tablet. I know it would be a tegra2 compared to the tegera3 and there is the 510 model just released. After the mess that is happening with the prime I'm hesitant to try another brand spanking new model right out of the gates. I don't mind yesterdays technology if it's proven to work and tweaked already. Plus it should be a bit cheaper.
So my question is, how do you owners of the Acer brand of tablets like your devices? Particularly the media abilities of it. I use youtube, stream tv shows, stream cartoons, and internet radio. Being able to use my blue tooth headset is my sore spot and is what I'm looking to rectify with a different tablet.
I do some gaming but not much on the android platform has really taken me yet. If these Acer models play Order and Chaos then it would be a boon.
Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

THere are video limitations with 1080p . mosy 720 will play fine. Streaming for me works well,of course some of the roms are better then others.I will not make comments on any of them. I would say read the forums of those roms.Order and Chaos does actually run very well on my A500. as with most other android games. I can also say my Bluetooth motorola hd 9 headset works flawless.
Good Luck .

Its OK
I have an a500, video and audio streamig works fine, same goes for bluetooth, I hate how the browser auto closes when it runs out of memory specially when watching heavy loaded web sites (I mean heavy Flash content).
I am on stock 3.2.1 rom, no root.
I love the big usb port as I can connect almost anything, I have a USB hub and can connect 4 things at the same time (memory, keyboard, mouse and gamepad).
Sound is good, not top best but is ok.
No good 1080p playback as Erica already said.
No GPS issues unless you go for custom roms.
Planned to update to ICS by the end of the month.

I like my A500 but I would never go from a Prime to an A500.
I don't have any issues with my device per say. I run netflix, crunchyroll, etc. on there and I use plex as well as tversity so 1080p videos and anything out of the scope of compatibility for my tablet from my library aren't an issue for me. Like you, I use it for multimedia purposes and I am satisfied.
My unwanted 2c is you just wait for a patch that makes you LOVE your Prime. It took several software revisions before Acer got it right with Honeycomb on the A500 and Tegra3 as well as ICS is brand spanking new so I'd give it a bit more time. I stuck with the A500 because I liked it and I found the USB port useful but as I said, I would not go from a Prime to an A500 for the mere fact that the Prime is technically speaking, a newer device with better/faster hardware and a better screen....even if you THINK you don't care about Tegra3 vs. Tegra2, once Asus gets the software refined, overall it will be better than the A500. If it's a case where you have some disposable dollars and are thinking of getting the A500 in the interim, go ahead; but if you're going to swap/exchange the Prime and then buy an A500 I would heartily advise against it.
Good Luck to you, whatever you decide.

As for me, here is what I can say about the A500 :
- for the videos, I'm used to ripping my DVDs and blu-rays so I can read them on the tablet. My favorite format is MP4. Nothing special to say about DVDs, but as for the Blu-rays 720p main profile works fine (high profile does not), just as 1080p low profile (both main and high profile won't be readable with a comforable frame rate). It's also a matter of bit rate : for 720p main profile, 3500 Kbps is almost perfect, 4000 Kbps is fine 90% of the time but it can get really laggy for some minutes at times. For 1080p low profile, 5500 Kbps was fine, haven't tested anything else yet because anyway good 1080p compressed movies weighs like 8GB and with FAT32 you're supposed to be limited to 4GB. No noticeable quality differences with the tablet screen anyway, and very little on a large TV screen given the compression, so to me 720p main profile remains the best choice.
- Sound is surprisingly good but mic really (and I mean really) sucks. Barely usable.
- Screen isn't as accurate as on other tablets. It makes no differences at all for a normal use but if you intend to handwrite it is still possible but not perfect.
- Battery life is fine for me, but it lasts less than others. Like 6 to 8 hours in video, the same for a standard use (internet, reading,...).
- The screen is good, but again not as good as the Asus's screens or iPads and Galaxy tabs ones.
- The USB port is a huge feature for me, it works just fine with my NTFS external hard disk, with all my USB keys, with all my USB PC controllers (that are already set the right way !), with my keyboard, my mouse, and my USB hub so I can use my keyboard and mouse at the same time on the tablet !
- With Honeycomb, internet browsing is a little bit too slow and lacks smoothness for me with the default browser (I'm used to great smoothness and speed with my SGS 2), so I chose to use Dolphin Mini, which is fine. Hope the ICS update will fix that though.
In conclusion it's a good device but for 2011, you're likely to be disappointed coming from a Transformer Prime. Better wait for the A510 or the A700 to my mind.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to hold on to the prime for another 2 weeks or so and see how the 510 is holding up. It's always the customers that find the little quirks which are not noticed by the manufactures in their testing phases.
Thanks again!

sureeee
fsured said:
I currently have the Asus prime and love the tablet, but it doesn't work for my needs as a multimedia device on the go. With the blue tooth and streaming video/audio issue, my main purpose of it is no longer functional. I could careless about the gps.
I was looking at the Acer 500 tablet. I know it would be a tegra2 compared to the tegera3 and there is the 510 model just released. After the mess that is happening with the prime I'm hesitant to try another brand spanking new model right out of the gates. I don't mind yesterdays technology if it's proven to work and tweaked already. Plus it should be a bit cheaper.
So my question is, how do you owners of the Acer brand of tablets like your devices? Particularly the media abilities of it. I use youtube, stream tv shows, stream cartoons, and internet radio. Being able to use my blue tooth headset is my sore spot and is what I'm looking to rectify with a different tablet.
I do some gaming but not much on the android platform has really taken me yet. If these Acer models play Order and Chaos then it would be a boon.
Thanks for any suggestions or advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i really love my tab
it supports all my needs
but on a500 you have to use external 3g modem (i dont use 3g on my tab)
if 3g is important i would rather a501
but the other things about it is really good
i use it for media too. i even dont use my pc since ive got it
and about the 1080p video playback
hardware codecs are kinda laggy but i use software decoders and its ok

Wifi Exynos v. LTE Snapdragon

Has anyone used both devices and willing to share their experiences? I assume on paper the LTE version should blow it away. I went to Verizon today with my wifi in hand and attempted to compare the units. Apparently, thanks to the demo and the bloat, it struggled to open a web page on wifi while mine was fast. I am hoping to find a comparison using real results and examples. I can't even find one on youtube. Has anyone else been wondering this?? I know I can't be the only one...
Thanks!!

Sudbury78 said:
Has anyone used both devices and willing to share their experiences? I assume on paper the LTE version should blow it away. I went to Verizon today with my wifi in hand and attempted to compare the units. Apparently, thanks to the demo and the bloat, it struggled to open a web page on wifi while mine was fast. I am hoping to find a comparison using real results and examples. I can't even find one on youtube. Has anyone else been wondering this?? I know I can't be the only one...
Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no difference. The exynos is actually faster than the snapdragon 800. But the snapdragon has a bit faster gpu. You won't notice any difference unless your perceptions are that one Has to be faster. Both are insanely powerful and great. He just charges a little faster

How about codec support (for video). I've noticed that on my wifi version that I get quite a few crashes with most (all?) players and some videos end up being in software instead of hardware (I mostly use h.264+mkv). I wonder if the snapdragon version works better in this department (software decoding is fast enough but higher battery drain).
Duly.noted said:
There is no difference. The exynos is actually faster than the snapdragon 800. But the snapdragon has a bit faster gpu. You won't notice any difference unless your perceptions are that one Has to be faster. Both are insanely powerful and great. He just charges a little faster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Haven't had any issues on my 12.2 Wifi with MX Player and H.264/dts MKV files played through my local network. Using H/W+ and the software dts decoder. Played them full screen and using multi-window.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

jake21 said:
How about codec support (for video). I've noticed that on my wifi version that I get quite a few crashes with most (all?) players and some videos end up being in software instead of hardware (I mostly use h.264+mkv). I wonder if the snapdragon version works better in this department (software decoding is fast enough but higher battery drain).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never have this issue. The only thing im aware of is playing 4k video doesnt work on the exynos.....I dont have any 4k video though so this doesnt bother me
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I was upset about Dice Player losing its AC3 license, which made watching my mkv videos impossible. I tried MX Player and Archos player, but neither had the great features of Dice like configurable audio delay (which I need for my BT headphones). Also, the carousel interface in Archos was twitchy and a pain to use, and I had to keep reverting to software decoding for most of my videos. BS Player turns out to have all the features I need and plays everything via hardware. Very happy about it.
I have the Exynos Note 10.1 and Snapdragon Note Pro, and I don't really notice a huge difference between the two. I haven't done a lot of comparing in regards to battery and charging.
I will say, the LTE on the Note Pro is super fast.

Hanson68 said:
I was upset about Dice Player losing its AC3 license, which made watching my mkv videos impossible. I tried MX Player and Archos player, but neither had the great features of Dice like configurable audio delay (which I need for my BT headphones). Also, the carousel interface in Archos was twitchy and a pain to use, and I had to keep reverting to software decoding for most of my videos. BS Player turns out to have all the features I need and plays everything via hardware. Very happy about it.
I have the Exynos Note 10.1 and Snapdragon Note Pro, and I don't really notice a huge difference between the two. I haven't done a lot of comparing in regards to battery and charging.
I will say, the LTE on the Note Pro is super fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hanson... Do you find the opening and closing of apps to be quicker on the LTE? I have had about 8 apps open on the wifi ( my lte comes tomorrow) and browsing on chrome was so slow, it drove me nuts. Maybe 8 open apps was too much for the tablet to handle.

Sudbury78 said:
Hanson... Do you find the opening and closing of apps to be quicker on the LTE? I have had about 8 apps open on the wifi ( my lte comes tomorrow) and browsing on chrome was so slow, it drove me nuts. Maybe 8 open apps was too much for the tablet to handle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had an Android device where Chrome wasn't laggy. I use Dolphin as my daily driver (with flash naturally), and flash fox for two sites I need which don't like the webkit engine.
Dolphin just flies.

Sudbury78 said:
Hanson... Do you find the opening and closing of apps to be quicker on the LTE? I have had about 8 apps open on the wifi ( my lte comes tomorrow) and browsing on chrome was so slow, it drove me nuts. Maybe 8 open apps was too much for the tablet to handle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Iv had up to 12 in popup windows. Chrome just sucks. Everything else was still smooth.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I also use Dolphin because it's faster and smoother. It's also much easier to save to Pocket.
It's hard for me to compare the two directly since I've been using the 10.1 for three months now while the Pro is brand new. The Pro is also for work, so there are a lot less games and apps installed.

You might try BSDplayer. I swtich routinely between dice, bsd and mx player. With regards to the above posts; I am not using 4K videos and I'm not talking about lag. What happens is that if I seek in the movie it can either crash the player or cause the player to loose hardware decode. This has happened with dice, mx and samsung's video palyer. One thing that is nice about BSplayer is that i can explicitly ask it to retry hardware deocidng after it switches to software (with dice i have to exit and reenter for it to re-attempt hadware decoding). The videos are a mixture of 720P and 1080P mkv (h.264/mp3). Dice is my favorite player but I'm leaning torwards the most recent update of BS (all three mx,dice,bsd) are similar and they seem to leap frog each other. The nice thing about dice is it is 'free'. The free version of bsd and mx have ads and the paid version are $5.50 and $6.50 (I prefer bs to mx).
Hanson68 said:
I was upset about Dice Player losing its AC3 license, which made watching my mkv videos impossible. I tried MX Player and Archos player, but neither had the great features of Dice like configurable audio delay (which I need for my BT headphones). Also, the carousel interface in Archos was twitchy and a pain to use, and I had to keep reverting to software decoding for most of my videos. BS Player turns out to have all the features I need and plays everything via hardware. Very happy about it.
I have the Exynos Note 10.1 and Snapdragon Note Pro, and I don't really notice a huge difference between the two. I haven't done a lot of comparing in regards to battery and charging.
I will say, the LTE on the Note Pro is super fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What about performance between LTE and 3g model ???
I have 3g and there is a lag as we used with samsung devices when open apps
I think this lag not existing in LTE version, i don't sure if this true or not so any one of you tried both versions ???

zoalla said:
What about performance between LTE and 3g model ???
I have 3g and there is a lag as we used with samsung devices when open apps
I think this lag not existing in LTE version, i don't sure if this true or not so any one of you tried both versions ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the 3g version has the Exynos 5 5420 processor just like the Wifi version so one would think that it would perform similarly to the Wifi version . . .

I had both and returned them as the lag was too annoying to me. I just use my lightning fast note 3 and my iPad 3 which actually runs smoother.

Sudbury78 said:
I had both and returned them as the lag was too annoying to me. I just use my lightning fast note 3 and my iPad 3 which actually runs smoother.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wasnt the LTE a bit faster and smoother?
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

A nice comparison between the two, but a translation is necesarry for those that dont speak german: http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-U...ote-Pro-12-2-LTE-SM-P905-Tablet.112965.0.html
We all know the LTE version has the quickcharge, but the review clearly mentions: "In fact, the running times of the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 LTE again by up to 20 minutes shorter than its sister model, with WiFi."
So while you get a faster charger its battery life is shorter, up to 20 min, because of the added stuff.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk