[Q] Hardware Video Acceleration Not Working - Nook Color Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
I'm a new nook owner, but I'm not new to Android (I've had a Galaxy S for some time now). I just received my 'new' nook which came with CM7.10 (CWK74) on it and it's working fine except for hardware acceleration for video playback. I've tried a couple of HW accelerated players (Dice & BS Player), but neither of them seem to be able to play anything back using HW mode, only SW. I've tried a number of different files, both HD & SD, no difference.
Interestingly, Dice seems to at least try to play in HW mode, (the HW indicator shows when you initially try to play a file) but then immediately falls back to SW mode.
Anyone got any suggestions as to what might be going on here?

The videos are most likely not encoded properly for the nook... either the frames are too large or they aren't in h.264

DizzyDen said:
The videos are most likely not encoded properly for the nook... either the frames are too large or they aren't in h.264
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So are you saying that in order for hardware decoding to be available, the videos must be encoded in a certain format? My Samsung Galaxy S plays the same videos in Dice with HW decoding without any issues (I know it's different hardware, but the principal's the same; I have not re-encoded the files for my Samsung and they play fine).

it seems from my experience anyway playing larger files or hd type that arent in h.264 lag some

envied said:
it seems from my experience anyway playing larger files or hd type that arent in h.264 lag some
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So is your player in HW decode mode?

atm im using an ICS version and not CM7 so I cant tell you for sure and I dont really remember if it was or not. Head hurting so cant think atm sorry.

I've never had much luck with DSP video acceleration of H.264 on the NC with the various video players. But YouTube and Netflix do work mostly fine and they use DSP playback.
The problem is that the drivers and kernel for the Nook Color are a bit of a homebrew collage and there are problems. The devs do the best that they can with what B&N provides and with what can be scraped together from other devices.

Related

[Q] Video Playback Problem

So I just got the new Epic from Sprint, and I just put on some videos. All of them work, EXCEPT FOR ONE.
I had recently created a video using Adobe Premiere in CS5. It output to MP4 with AVC/AAC (LC) codecs. It plays fine on my computer, my Samsung TV, and even my Samsung Blu-ray player (they all have USB ports for digital media), but no luck with the phone. The phone says displays "unsupported file type," and promptly returns to the gallery.
I have looked at the posted file and codec support, and so I converted copies of the original file to:
MP4: H.264, AAC
MKV: H.264, AAC
DIVX: AVI, MP3
But they all yield the same disappointing result: "unsupported file type." What else could I possibly try to make this play?
P.S. The supported file and codec list that I found is located here (apparently, I don't yet have enough posts for the site to let me link to the rest of the internet):
*ars.samsung.com/customer/usa/jsp/faqs/faqs_view_us.jsp?SITE_ID=22&PG_ID=0&AT_ID=316039&PROD_SUB_ID=0&PROD_ID=559&EMAIL_ID=*
Go to the market and download RockPlayer
Technically, the player was successful in opening the video, since it has a choice of "software decoding" and "hardware decoding" mode. "Software decoding" mode made the video lag the audio big time (>1 sec into playback before lag started). Selecting "Hardware decoding" mode for the file returns the error "This file cannot be played with System Player." After some digging on the company's website, it says that the "software decoding" mode can play just about anything, and while the System Player integrated into Android itself can only play a limited list of files, the System Player can use hardware acceleration.
So the question of the day becomes, is there a media player app that doesn't rely on the System Player for hardware acceleration?
Rockplayer is it...
What is the resolution of your video? 1080p? 720p? (1080p wont work from what I hear..even though Hummingbird does support it :/)
Also, is your audio 5.1? try removing the audio from your file and see if the video works.
Yeah, the video was coded into 1080p. The software decoding mode will play it, but it lags a lot. If Hummingbird CAN handle the hardware decode, then my issue is with the Android System Player's ability to use the hardware, right? If so, is it that Android doesn't like 1080p period, or is it a matter of using a separate program that CAN use the hardware effectively?
The audio plays without a hitch. It's coded for just simple stereo.
Dante of the Inferno said:
Yeah, the video was coded into 1080p. The software decoding mode will play it, but it lags a lot. If Hummingbird CAN handle the hardware decode, then my issue is with the Android System Player's ability to use the hardware, right? If so, is it that Android doesn't like 1080p period, or is it a matter of using a separate program that CAN use the hardware effectively?
The audio plays without a hitch. It's coded for just simple stereo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the 1080p is your issue..software decode is always a lot slower..while the Hummingbird does support 1080p, either Samsung did not include the drivers to make it happen or it is an Android limitation I am not sure...but its 100% in the Hummingbird specification..so its not impossible... just someone has to figure out how lol
For now your best bet is to re-encode it to 720p and you will be fine.

Vega / Mobii and MKV

Hi
any news about mkv (h.264) videos whith this tablet?
Hardware is the problem? or android is the problem?
regards
AFAIK, the Vega can't play MKV as this is a limitation of Android (as opposed to the tablet). perhaps in 2.3 / 3.0 we'll see MKV support introduced.
thanks
I can to play mkv with h.264 files, but it's too slow, 4-6 fps only with any players (vital player, meridian, etc)...
saludos
Did you try rockplayer? Have good experiences with it, but haven't tried mkv yet...
You can always use a program like Handbrake to convert it to mp4/h264, which works fine for me.
Remember that MKV is just a container if the base AOSP build of Android suddenly gained the ability to parse Matroska containers it would not magically give you the ability to play High-profile 1080p H.264 video streams, or DTS/AC3 audio that may be contained in the MKV.
Rockplayer and all the ffmpeg-alikes are able to parse the containers but _none_ of them will be able to use the native hardware acceleration and as such will be useless for HD content.
SilentMobius said:
Rockplayer and all the ffmpeg-alikes are able to parse the containers but _none_ of them will be able to use the native hardware acceleration and as such will be useless for HD content.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the problem
I use vital player, the best for mobii/vega, because I can view all videos with AC3 without problem (divx or wmv with AC3). MKV with vital player are slow too...
The best codec for mobii/vega 720p? mp4/h264? wmvhd? I have a lot of mkv/h.264/mkv...
regards
Funny thing is my first tablet the ZT-180 was able to play mkv 720p high profile with DTS beautifully! It stuttered a bit on 1080p, watchable though. This is on a low budget machine, on the vega it should fly! This was in real player for android by the way. Explain that
demonknight9 said:
Funny thing is my first tablet the ZT-180 was able to play mkv 720p high profile with DTS beautifully! It stuttered a bit on 1080p, watchable though. This is on a low budget machine, on the vega it should fly! This was in real player for android by the way. Explain that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is the big question WHY??!!!
demonknight9 said:
Funny thing is my first tablet the ZT-180 was able to play mkv 720p high profile with DTS beautifully! It stuttered a bit on 1080p, watchable though. This is on a low budget machine, on the vega it should fly! This was in real player for android by the way. Explain that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this. MKV was perfect on the ZT-180's 2.1 rom. Proof that this is not a limitation of android.
hi,
i have installed rockplayer and mVideoPlayer. it seems that they install some codecs because now i can play 720p and partly 1080p MKV videos on my mobii tegra (vega rom + modaco) via the video player that comes with the rom.
greez
ndroid2k11 said:
hi,
i have installed rockplayer and mVideoPlayer. it seems that they install some codecs because now i can play 720p and partly 1080p MKV videos on my mobii tegra (vega rom + modaco) via the video player that comes with the rom.
greez
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really? witch rom are you using? addons? I can play 720p MKV, bur slowly, at 5-10fps
regards
I can play the mkv files but just no sound.. running vega rom with modaco.
dopeh said:
I can play the mkv files but just no sound.. running vega rom with modaco.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can use vitalplayer, the best for me.
demonknight9 said:
Funny thing is my first tablet the ZT-180 was able to play mkv 720p high profile with DTS beautifully! It stuttered a bit on 1080p, watchable though. This is on a low budget machine, on the vega it should fly! This was in real player for android by the way. Explain that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because that tablet its _so_ dodgy that the OEM built in MKV/DTV/AC3 decoding into android (like Samsung/etc) and released it without paying for the licences (for DTS and AC3).
If dolby et al notices then the retailers will get a lawsuit.
Though it does mean that there is Android source floating around China that includes MKV parsing. Latest Gingerbread update add WebM so lest see if that comes with a full matroska parser.
pildo said:
really? witch rom are you using? addons? I can play 720p MKV, bur slowly, at 5-10fps
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Advent Vega 1.09 ROM + MoDaCo r8
when i play the movies with rockplayer or mVideoPlayer it's slow, too. But with the original player it works fine. Don't know why
Hi all
Apologies for the thread revival. There's no need to use any third party apps to play MKV files, you can play MKVs using the built in media player. I use Astro file manager and do the following: navigate to file, long-press on the file itself, select "Open As", select "Video", then choose the default media player. It might be easier to have the app recognise it as standard, but this method works. I've tried quite a few 1080p x264 vids and the only thing the Vega struggles with is the audio codecs - it supports AAC, but AFAIK it doesn't support AC3.
EDIT: I should probably mention that I use the default 1.09 ROM, modded with MCR R8.
The reason that third party apps probably get a low FPS is that they do not use the Tegra2 hardware accelerated decoding - the built in player does however.
The core Android system actually supports the MKV container format - it's listed on the spec page; I guess implementation is obviously different for each device. As someone pointed out though, the important thing is the codec in use for each video/audio stream; MKV is just a container format.
Is there a program which can link file extensions with app s?
I believe that mVideoPlayer literally just makes the mkv format available/viewable/whateverable in the stock player, so if you install it, you should just be able to play mkvs in the stock player (mVideoPlayer does not have any codecs, so it will only be able to play the codecs that your device can already play)
most devices can play H264 mkv, hell my phone can even play them with one player or another, the issue here is decoding, the vega simply cannot decode h264 high profile video hence the slow framerates as the player has to switch to software.
Suggesting this is possible by switching to the stock player is just nonesense, those that claim to have good frame rates are NOT playing h264 high profile, the hardware cant do it, period, end of thread.
Note: most "ripped" MKV films / tv files (1 gig usually for TV rips 6 gig + for films) that can be downloaded in 720p and 1080p will be encoded in high profile, you simply wont ever be able to play these with decent frame rates without re-ecoding into a codec tegra can handle like H264 main profile - unless the open source VLC team manage to create their own CPU optimisations when VLC finally come out, even then it wont be buttery smooth.
give it up people, you are going to have to re-encode or not bother using it as media tablet.

[Q] Supported video formats

I am a new Nook user.
So far I was using a noname chinese tablet (TCC8902-based at 720MHz) and I am used to be able to play any video. The screen quality was pretty bad, but it played absolutely everything i dropped to it.
Now, I upgraded to nook and was planning to enjoy it's excellent screen, but found out that it just doesn't play more than a half of video files that I have. I tried both native Nook FW (videoplayer reports "video is not supported") and CM7 installed on uSD - ES File Managers player (that I mostly used on my old tablet) just doesn't play them without any message.
I would expect Nook's hardware including video accelerator to be more advanced than TCC8902 but looks like there are some restrictions.
Is there anywhere a list of video/audio formats and codecs that are and that are not supported? I was trying to search, but couldn't find one.
Is there any chance that my device has some hardware issues? I think it's unlikely since everything else works fine, but may be?
Try getting MX video player from market.
Get Rock Player Lite
Thanks guys, I will definitely give a try to these players tonight (don't have Nook with me at work).
But as far as I understand all these players are just a front end GUI. Most if not all of the streams parsing, decoding and displaying is done by HW (unless we are talking about software video decoding which I don't consider). Apparently the player i used (built into ES file explorer) is clever enough to pass data to HW since it works fine on inferior tablet.
I am quite sure a question of video support on Nook has been discussed in details, I just couldn't find anything. Could anyone please point me to any good discussions covering this topic?
I'll add a nomination for MoboPlayer. It uses software decoding to play files not supported by hardware.
Also, download Handbrake and search for the suggested Nook settings to convert video files for optimal playback.
Edit: I wanted to add that yes, getting a special video player & converting files is a bit more complex than just dropping the file onto the tablet and playing it. But let's not lose sight of the fact that we're trying to use an eReader to play large, usually HD videos. The fact that it can do it at all is pretty awesome.

Streaming video off the LAN is choppy

Does anybody else here watch downloaded videos directly off the LAN? i can't get the video to play cleanly. I get about 1 frame every two seconds.
Streaming from my network works great to the ps3 and the tv, and the Gtab plays my videos smoothly when they are copied to its internal memory, so i'm struggling to figure out why i cant play these vids on my tab from the network. Throughput does not seem to be the problem either as the files copy onto the tab at 20Mb/s.
I have tried selecting the videos via an SMB share in ES and any DLNA media player, the results are the same.
Does anybody have this working properly ?
I use bsplayer from market and have no issues. Everything up to 720p plays.
Use Qloud bro, stream at 2048mbps.
Not sure why yours isn't working. I just tested playing some of my TV show downloads from EZTV off of a shared folder on my windows 7 PC using Moboplayer and it worked fine. Movie rips that I encode specifically for my tab play fine in stock video player over wifi as well.
Your streaming to other devices is over wifi as well?
yeah, streaming to every other device is fine, thats why i cant figure out the problem.
Seeing as you all have it working ok i'm going to keep trying different things.
Nacho Zits said:
yeah, streaming to every other device is fine, thats why i cant figure out the problem.
Seeing as you all have it working ok i'm going to keep trying different things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had all the problems you described too, just tried Qloud based on someone's recommendations in this thread, and that is the only one that works without stopping every few frames
Has to be something else since other such as myself are able to play things just fine with other applications. As I've started both the stock video player and moboplayer are working for me. I have mobo set up to default to software decoding which gives me smooth playback of TV show downloads from eztv. For my bluray rips the stock player works fine.
Out of curiosity what kind of wifi security are you running?
WPA2 on a Linksys E3200 but i doubt that should matter.
Tried Qloud too but my NAS requires usr/pass to connect. Qloud does not support that.
muzzy996 said:
mobo set up to default to software decoding
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should solve your problem. Try Moboplayer and set it to software decoding in the settings. That works for xvid HDTV shows, 720p will most likely not work with software decoding.
Yep, only other thing I'd look at is the way the videos are encoded. As gokpog stated for stuff like xvid rips software mode in mobo works great at long as the resolution and bitrate is manageable. For h.264 stuff baseline rips with no bframes work for me at 720p. If not that then im at a loss as to what to suspect next.
gokpog said:
This should solve your problem. Try Moboplayer and set it to software decoding in the settings. That works for xvid HDTV shows, 720p will most likely not work with software decoding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried Moboplayer but cannot browse to a network drive with it. Do you guys have a network drive mounted via a rooted app ?
I use ES File Explorer for that and when I select the file, I can choose Moboplayer, Dice Player and every other supported player to play that file directly from my NAT.
gokpog said:
I use ES File Explorer for that and when I select the file, I can choose Moboplayer, Dice Player and every other supported player to play that file directly from my NAT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course. Sorry i missed that one.
Playing my videos off network with hardware acceleration turned on gave me the usual 1 frame per second. Turning off hardware acceleration FIXED THE PROBLEM ! My videos now stream perfectly.
I cannot understand why this is the case and dont expect a fix to ever materialise, but damm am i happy
Thanks to all for your help. Now i just have to deal with this bum 3.2 update i installed last last night !
To clarify...
I'm sure this is considered "old" by now as you've resolved this back in November... but I'm unfamiliar with disabling hardware acceleration... I can't seem to find a suitable guide either no matter where I look.
Simply hoping to have the same stroke of luck you were in disabling it for the purpose of streaming video.
Just install MoboPlayer or RockPlayer. Both have hardware acceleration as a checkbox in the options. By default it is on.
Uncheck it and try again.
I use bubbleupnp and bsplayer with accelarated hardwaredecoding. Plays almost anything without problem. In addition I am now able to seek within videos, which is not possible with samsungs allshare-app.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk HD

NexusHD2-ICS-4.0.4-CM9-HWA No Hardware Acceleration Mx Video

Put the newest build i could find for this guy. Bought him off ebay for a cool 135 free shipping and has turned out to be amazing. Using him with my old Tzones plan running NexusHD2-ICS-4.0.4-CM9-HWA.
Everything runs great except videos. If I am streaming an MP4 its like an 80% chance the file will just be green and blurred like scrambled cable. Sometimes it will play just fine. Even crappy 240p files will be green in both the regular android player and MX Player.
Now I'm trying to see which type of 720p files the phone can play. After a couple of handbrake encodes it will play the 720p in MX Player but it will be frame ratey. The stock player wont even touch the file.
I check the decoding options in MX Video and only software decoding is enabled. Is there an ICS build capable of playing videos with Hardware Decoding.
Your thoughts guys !
Edit --
Tried with Mobo Player and still the same error.
Xplic1T said:
Put the newest build i could find for this guy. Bought him off ebay for a cool 135 free shipping and has turned out to be amazing. Using him with my old Tzones plan running NexusHD2-ICS-4.0.4-CM9-HWA.
Everything runs great except videos. If I am streaming an MP4 its like an 80% chance the file will just be green and blurred like scrambled cable. Sometimes it will play just fine. Even crappy 240p files will be green in both the regular android player and MX Player.
Now I'm trying to see which type of 720p files the phone can play. After a couple of handbrake encodes it will play the 720p in MX Player but it will be frame ratey. The stock player wont even touch the file.
I check the decoding options in MX Video and only software decoding is enabled. Is there an ICS build capable of playing videos with Hardware Decoding.
Your thoughts guys !
Edit --
Tried with Mobo Player and still the same error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install MX Player and install the Armv7 addon for MX Player (it will be in the related apps or something in the play store) and use software decoding. I have also found 720p playback to be atrociously laggy, but I tried Inception at 480p and it plays great.
Installed and it definitely seems to be working with the green videos but 720p seems like a no go...
Is it the rom or is it the phone ?
Xplic1T said:
Installed and it definitely seems to be working with the green videos but 720p seems like a no go...
Is it the rom or is it the phone ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, 720p playback is usually listed as a working thing but I don't see how NexusHD2 is in any way inferior to the other ROMs, it definitely has a comparable performance.

Categories

Resources