I have about 50 movies on my PC computer. Most were ripped from my DVD collection and are in .mkv format.
Will I be able to load them on my Nexus 7? Don't say upload them to a cloud and download them from there. This would take forever, the up speed of my (and most) ISP is slow. So how can I do this, can movies be transferred through the USB cable? OR, am I screwed?
oldspook said:
I have about 50 movies on my PC computer. Most were ripped from my DVD collection and are in .mkv format.
Will I be able to load them on my Nexus 7? Don't say upload them to a cloud and download them from there. This would take forever, the up speed of my (and most) ISP is slow. So how can I do this, can movies be transferred through the USB cable? OR, am I screwed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just connect your Nexus 7 to your PC with your USB cable and copy them over using Windows Explorer like you would with any other device. Really simple.
DagsJT said:
Just connect your Nexus 7 to your PC with your USB cable and copy them over using Windows Explorer like you would with any other device. Really simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read in this review that the microUSB port "was only for charging". It this is true than it can't be used for data transfer.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/46282/google-nexus-7-pictures-preview
The Nexus 7 has wifi, so using an app you could either share a folder on it or access a share on your pc. Also someone said usb otg worked on Nexus 7 too
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
oldspook said:
I read in this review that the microUSB port "was only for charging". It this is true than it can't be used for data transfer.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/46282/google-nexus-7-pictures-preview
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure you can still use MTP to transfer data to and from a PC.
Edit: The official guidebook also confirms that you can do this.
https://play.google.com/books/reade...er&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA69
Out of the box, the Nexus 7 can't read external storage and transfer files from USB hard drives and flash drives etc. Although you can root your Nexus 7 and install StickMount, which fixes that.
Drag and drop onto internal memory via USB cable. Nothin' else to it!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I did it just this weekend for a trip. Hook up usb, windows 7 recognizes it, drag and drop movies on.
The bigger problem I had was not enough space to copy everything I wanted but I was able to fit more than enough video for a 9 hour trip.
splashtop thd is supposed to allow you to run remote desktop on tegra3 devices. not sure how it works specifically since i havent got my nexus 7 yet, but if it doesnt require both devices to be on the same network, why not just leave your PC on, piggyback your nexus 7 off your phone's wifi hotspot and just remote watch the files from your PC?
Souai said:
splashtop thd is supposed to allow you to run remote desktop on tegra3 devices. not sure how it works specifically since i havent got my nexus 7 yet, but if it doesnt require both devices to be on the same network, why not just leave your PC on, piggyback your nexus 7 off your phone's wifi hotspot and just remote watch the files from your PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works well but you better have a Damn good connection or its gonna be laggy laggy.
Sent from my EVO 4G LTE
If you don't want to physically move to your PC location, ES Explorer can easily find shares. Just cut and paste over wifi. Or if you prefer to push from your PC, then try Air Droid.
USB does not work properly with the KF ICS kernel (slow), so I got on the habit of just using wifi.
ES can also stream movies...if they are encoded on the right way.
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
oldspook said:
I have about 50 movies on my PC computer. Most were ripped from my DVD collection and are in .mkv format.
Will I be able to load them on my Nexus 7? Don't say upload them to a cloud and download them from there. This would take forever, the up speed of my (and most) ISP is slow. So how can I do this, can movies be transferred through the USB cable? OR, am I screwed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you conenct your device to you pC it will give you the option to file transfer. Just drag and drop the movies onto your device.
But 50 movies? That wont all fit
Most movies are 250-600 MB from my experience, and theres 1000 Mb in a GB. Its a 16 GB device but the OS takes up .66 so your left with 15.33. Your only gonna get like maybe 10-20 at the most if all you have is Movies on the USB STorage
It'll be a huge pain in the butt (cause the process is quite slow) but you can always transcode your videos down to a smaller size.
Make em 1 - 2gb each should be space to fit 5 to 10 movies for a 9 hr trip.
You can use following programs to do so:
Handbrake
SUPER
meGUI
Mediacoder
Psipherious said:
It'll be a huge pain in the butt (cause the process is quite slow) but you can always transcode your videos down to a smaller size.
Make em 1 - 2gb each should be space to fit 5 to 10 movies for a 9 hr trip.
You can use following programs to do so:
Handbreak
SUPER
meGUI
Mediacoder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1-2 GB?!?! Movies are not over 1GB they are like 500 MB
what does everyone use to shrink them down to below a gig?
Its all about how the movie is encoded and what type. I have well over 1500 movies done. Blue ray done so maintain HD ends with 23.5 gig avg. Reg DVD around 900 meg. I can get them smaller in size but then would look like crap.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2
CooLoserTech said:
1-2 GB?!?! Movies are not over 1GB they are like 500 MB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you sure your not stuck in the days of real player? any decently encoded movie ranges from 750mb - 2gb. It's time for you to come back to the future
zinv said:
are you sure your not stuck in the days of real player? any decently encoded movie ranges from 750mb - 2gb. It's time for you to come back to the future
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the DVD ripped movies are 750mb - 1.4gb but the BD rips are 3gb - 5gb. When working with my iPad, there are programs that resize and transcode them to the best size/format for the iPad. I assume that such programs will be available for the N7 in a short time.
As this is a wifi device I just steam my movies from a NAS (or PC) I guess if you wanted to wtch them on a trip you could copy some to the device, but if your at home just stream.
oldspook said:
Most of the DVD ripped movies are 750mb - 1.4gb but the BD rips are 3gb - 5gb. When working with my iPad, there are programs that resize and transcode them to the best size/format for the iPad. I assume that such programs will be available for the N7 in a short time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those 4 programs I mentioned above can do what you want, you can basically make any size, you just adjust the settings to shink down your movies.
Of course (and obviously) the lower the size, the lesser the quality. There's soooooo many settings in videos to reduce size. You change the audio from 5.1 down to stereo mp3, you can change the frame rate, you can change the bandwidth, you can change the color depth, you can change the encoding types and dozens more settings.
There is no "best" settings, everyone likes something different. Some people don't mind 480p videos, while others are fine with reducing the color depth or the bandwidth to still get 720p res.
With those programs you can customize your settings to make whatever suites you best.
Here, here's a guide from another user on how to transcode movies using Handbrake for an Acer A500 (which is a Tegra 2 device) - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1184002
Of course that guide is designed for a Tegra 2 but there's not tremendous difference between transcoding stuff for a Nexus 7. The Nexus has a high resolution equivalent to most 10 inch devices (such as the A500), so whatever is suitable on them will be plenty suitable on a Nexus 7 as well.
As for the guy with the 500mb movies... well... I guess some people just don't give a crap about quality at all. I for one am a bit more picky and therefore my movies are higher in size. As another user mentioned, most of mine are Blu-Ray rips. And the Nexus 7 has an HD screen. DVD's are lower resolution than what the Nexus screen can output so if you're only using DVD rips, you are losing quality, even on a small 7 inch screen, it's still a 720p HD screen. Some people don't care, I do. To each their own.
But the 4 programs mentioned above will do what you want. You just have to learn how to use them.
All are very good points. Each has his or her own preference.
Personally I like to keep the hi def stuff on the equipment and tech that can truly deliver that experience, like my home theater.
However when travelling I expect some loss of quality and have been fine with 720p or generally transcoding a specific set of movies down to 800mb-1.4gb depending on length and type of movie.
For the nex7 i would only see myself watching movies on it while underway, in flight, or long commutes. I also wouldn't expect to watch more than the battery life in movies in a single day, with that said i wouldn't need more than eight movies for a nine hour flight back to the mainland.
Like many have said, its all preference and what you need to get you through the day or week.
Sent from my GS2 using Tapatalk 2
Related
I would like a few movies to put on my phone but do not know where to download them from where they will have the correct format and all. Does anyone know any good sites? Thanks
We don't discuss warez here.
However there is a recent thread: nexus one video conversion with handbrake
OrganizedFellow said:
We don't discuss warez here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never said they had to be free
Austin021296 said:
I never said they had to be free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologies. i jumped to conclusions.
For my favorite movies,i need to rip and back then up to disk.
With an hyper independent toddler who scratches my disks, it's good to have a back up.
I would just suggest converting your own...
Pm sent man....
YOu don't have to download them "for the N1" You can use any movie you want and use Any Video Converter to convert them. There is an option to specify which device you're converting for and you can just select Nexus One and push convert. It's much easier than dealing with selecting the codecs and everything with other programs.
I've used doubleTwist to convert and sync some movies... but it takes FOREVER!!!
If you have enough cores and OCed then you can do other stuff while it encodes
britoso said:
If you have enough cores and OCed then you can do other stuff while it encodes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a lowly Intel Core2 Duo laptop with 3gb of RAM. Not amazing, but as law student, it's always been more than adequate. Anyway, converting and synching a gb of music from wma to mp4a, and a couple gb of avi to mp4 takes a couple of hours...
I think other converters can do this much faster, then I could just drag and drop straight to the SD card, since copying stuff with the card mounted in the phone is slower...
What would be great for doubleTwist, is if you could do the conversion without the phone connected to the computer (currently, it has to be plugged in the whole time), then synch later in a much shorter period of time. Maybe I should email them...
So, last night I decided to givemedia hub a whirl and downloaded 300 and watched the whole movie on the phone and I never realized how good this phones screen is for HD. It looks better than my tv.
But anyways, riht after the movie was done, I downloaded and watched V for Vendetta and fell asleep afterwards without charging, and right now I'm at 13hr 34min with screen on time of 5hr and 43 minutes.
Id say this phone handles media playback quite well lol
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Also just realized...tws is 53%...wtf lol
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Yeah its good to watch movies on this screen.I downloaded about 5 from media hub sofar.Dont forget the files are stored on your sdcard,I had to delete them manually for some reason.
I love using the tv.com app and watching STAR TREK: TOS episodes. Anytime they use a communicator, I feel a tremendous inner geek fire and oh how warm it is. Heh heh.
veoh.com/iphone is high on my list,that and I rip alot of movies to the phone in high qulity,about 1.3gb on most hour and a half movies.
I also highly recommend : Droid Streamer
it's free on the market and streams tv shows, movies, and anime @ 480i compressed. There's a Pro version, but i dont know what features you get with that.
How much gb is a movie file?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
droid streamer is nice but it seems like it wants to much info,but I do keep it on the sdcard and install when I want to use it...Media Hub files range in size,most are around 900mb - 1.1gb
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
ecooce said:
droid streamer is nice but it seems like it wants to much info,but I do keep it on the sdcard and install when I want to use it...Media Hub files range in size,most are around 900mb - 1.1gb
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't call droid steamer nice per se, but it is free and gets the job done when bored, altho the dev. needs to use a better player that can do aspect ratios.
Do Media Hub movies play @ 720p for 1gb -/+ files?
I think they are 720p native.
now if we could just find something that will allow us tpo play them through allshare woudl be great, i hate allshare can never get it to play any damn video
I use double twist for my player. Keep my music playlists there and watch TV shows and moveis with it. I transfer movies and shows from my pc to my sd card on my phone. And yes, it HD looks fantastic on Super AMOLED. It's the best screen I've seen on a phone
running_the_dream said:
I use double twist for my player. Keep my music playlists there and watch TV shows and moveis with it. I transfer movies and shows from my pc to my sd card on my phone. And yes, it HD looks fantastic on Super AMOLED. It's the best screen I've seen on a phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One cool feature i like is it lets you airsync your andriod to your itunes player. Do you know of a app that's similar to this but streams to WMP or VLC player?
I was back at Best Buy today to Lon at accessories for my Tab10.1. I was considering the USB host adapter, but then the helpful employee showed me this little gem. It is a mobile drive with battery and wifi wrapped in with a light 500gb drive. Although a bit pricy for a 500gb drive, it comes with wall and car chargers as well as built in wifi mini router. Up to 3 devices can connect and use at once.
When you consider a 32gb SD card is $100, this would seem to be worth the leap. No more eject and insert to share data, or sync between computer and mobile. Just push from computer to drive, and then the mobile device uses.
The only downside I can see is stream music via wifi means no multi tasking to the internet. Maybe that has been taken care of but to me this seems to be much better than cards and ports. It certainly means larger mobile storage!
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate...kuId=2740208&st=goflex mobile drive&cp=1&lp=1
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
hate to burst the bubble, but i picked one up the other day when i picked up my 10.1 and the keyboard, and will be returning it. mine is unable to stream movies. streaming music works ok, but movies or tv shows just dont work. i tried using mobo and the stock media player to no avai... also the lag on the samsung keyboard drives me insane. awesome device but the software intergration is poor. typical samsung.
clb33fyxj said:
hate to burst the bubble, but i picked one up the other day when i picked up my 10.1 and the keyboard, and will be returning it. mine is unable to stream movies. streaming music works ok, but movies or tv shows just dont work. i tried using mobo and the stock media player to no avai... also the lag on the samsung keyboard drives me insane. awesome device but the software intergration is poor. typical samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use plex, though its not free, but you will be able to stream any media without lag that also include 1080p.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
actually just found that es file manager works pretty well now! doesnt play avi but has played all of the m4v files i tried without a hitch
djchad72 said:
I was back at Best Buy today to Lon at accessories for my Tab10.1. I was considering the USB host adapter, but then the helpful employee showed me this little gem. It is a mobile drive with battery and wifi wrapped in with a light 500gb drive. Although a bit pricy for a 500gb drive, it comes with wall and car chargers as well as built in wifi mini router. Up to 3 devices can connect and use at once.
When you consider a 32gb SD card is $100, this would seem to be worth the leap. No more eject and insert to share data, or sync between computer and mobile. Just push from computer to drive, and then the mobile device uses.
The only downside I can see is stream music via wifi means no multi tasking to the internet. Maybe that has been taken care of but to me this seems to be much better than cards and ports. It certainly means larger mobile storage!
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate...kuId=2740208&st=goflex mobile drive&cp=1&lp=1
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know where you price shop but a 32gb micro sd card is not $100. More in the 50 - 60 range, even less sometimes.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk
LordLugard said:
I don't know where you price shop but a 32gb micro sd card is not $100. More in the 50 - 60 range, even less sometimes.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of the class 10 ones are around 100 or close to just depends on what brand they look at.
Exactly. The class 10's are over in the $100 range. Also, regarding playback of video..... keep in mind encoding, format, and resolution play a variable in video playback of anykind: streaming or local.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
I'm seeing class 10 32gb on newegg right now for $69. Last week (or 2) there was one with a MIR for $10 off but out of stock.
**For those willing to risk eBay, I came across this too-good-to-be-true listing for a class 10 32gb card for $30.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-32GB-CLASS-...Accessories&hash=item2565fe18d c#ht_500wt_918
Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk
No thanks. The speed isn't fast enough for me. It's very convenient, but the performance wouldn't be worth it.
clb33fyxj said:
hate to burst the bubble, but i picked one up the other day when i picked up my 10.1 and the keyboard, and will be returning it. mine is unable to stream movies. streaming music works ok, but movies or tv shows just dont work. i tried using mobo and the stock media player to no avai... also the lag on the samsung keyboard drives me insane. awesome device but the software intergration is poor. typical samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if its just me but I have Zero lag on my keyboard.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
Same here. I think it depends on what you are doing. Every 3.1 tablet seems to have some lag typing on web page forms.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
The Tab will be released next week in the UK and I don't wish to pay more than I need to, do you folks think that 16GB will be enough for general usage? How much space are you left with after installing your general apps etc?
Sent from my HTC Desire
It depends on what you are going to use it for and if you plan on keeping your media library on it, etc.
16gb is fine for me. I throw on movie files when I'm going to be out and want to watch something (delete them when I'm done), have no use to store pictures on it, a handful of apps that I use, ebooks, etc. I use my Zune HD for music, so I've no desire to put music on it.
I figure if I start to have lots of files I'll need access to, I'll get the USB or SD Card adapter at the store and be happy that I saved a hundred bucks between the difference of a 16gb and a 32gb.
I prefer 32GB. But 16 gb should be fine as well. For music you install google music and sign up for invite, then you can upload all the music from your computer to the Cloud. It let you upload 20000 songs. Not bad. For streaming movies and videos from your computer download the plex application from market.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
16GB works for me - acutally my Tab says 9GB free space.
Most of my music streams over Google Music, before a long flight I choose the movies I need and delete old ones and Office Documents are stored in my dropbox.
Slashtop HD helps too
Just get the Samsung USB adapter and a Micro SD card w/reader and you can copy files to/from the Tab while traveling, see my post in this thread for pics and prices...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1185810
16 GB is enough for me. If the 32 GB model was $50 more, then I probably would have gotten it. Can't see paying $100 more for it.
As mentioned earlier, I also store my music library in the cloud with Google Music. I can listen to my music from my phone, tablet, and PC.
I don't store movies on it. I only store a movie or two on it temporarily. When I'm done, I delete it. I have the USB adapter and a 16 GB adapter to go along with it. I recently went on a trip, so I have 10 movies on it, quite a few apps, and pictures. I still have 7 GB left. The 10 movies I have are not HD, therefore their file size is a lot smaller than HD videos. The videos still look pretty good to me. If I'm into the clarity of the movie, then I should be watching it on my 60" TV, and not a 10" screen.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
16GB is more than enough to store a few hours of video. Easy enough to plug in the USB adapter and a thumb drive to swap content past that point.
The USB dongle and a 32GB thumb drive costs less than the extra 16GB of builtin memory.
In fact, for the $100 price delta you can get the USB dongle ($20) and two 32GB thumb drives (approx. $40 each).
I ended up with 16gb model only because Staples does not carry the 32gb model in the store and I used the $100 coupon.
I would have bought the 32gb just to have it but like others have said for the $100 price difference it really doesnt make sense. Just manage your videos and put music in the cloud, should be good with 16gb that way.
I used the $100 I would have spent towards the purchase of a new Netbook.
I now have the best of both words. With the Tab being so thin, I can store my Netbook, Tab 10.1 with the Samsung flip case, chargers, USB dongle, and cables all in a traditional netbook carrying case. I can use the Netbook for PC specific apps and certain websites that I have issues with on tablet browsers. I can use the Tab for web browsing, reading, Android apps and games.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
Thanks for the replies folks, much appreciated. I think the 16gig version will be fine for my needs, I don't think I'll be loading music onto the Tab but perhaps a film or two for trips away etc. The next decision is .... white or black!
16GB becomes 13.27Gb in fact
i went with the 16GB and found out its not enough for me (it is though on my SGS II)
- nandroid backups takes 2GB each
- i have about 90 apps installed (2GB) but
- Gameloft Games data takes a lot of space and I cant get rid of them because that Spiderman HD is sooo good !
- videos are less than 1GB
- about 15 music tracks
I grabbed the 16GB version, as I bought mine almost entirely for my photography portfolio, a cooking app, and a pdf reader. I've got 12GB free, and probably wont go much below that. If I'm feeling adventurous in a year or so and I still have it, I'll look into the cost of 128Gb memory, and look at upgrading the memory myself (I'm assuming the tablet features dual 64Gb chips for a total of 128Gb, or 16GB, but i dont know until i can either take it apart or see internals
jeandujardin01 said:
16GB becomes 13.27Gb in fact
i went with the 16GB and found out its not enough for me (it is though on my SGS II)
- nandroid backups takes 2GB each
- i have about 90 apps installed (2GB) but
- Gameloft Games data takes a lot of space and I cant get rid of them because that Spiderman HD is sooo good !
- videos are less than 1GB
- about 15 music tracks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only keep one or two backups on my devices, the rest get offloaded to my pc.
evnarich said:
I only keep one or two backups on my devices, the rest get offloaded to my pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this require rooting my Tab?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
evnarich said:
I only keep one or two backups on my devices, the rest get offloaded to my pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
. Seriously, why in the world would anyone want to store multiples of 2gb backups on the actual device. Does not make any sense.
This is funny but i get the feeling that most of the people that replied to UKseagull think that UK is one of the states in US.
GUYZ WE DONT HAVE ANY GOOGLE CLOUD PRODUCTS, SAME GOES TO NETFLIX AND HULU. WE CANNOT BUY BOOKS OR MOVIES ON ANDROID MARKET EIHER.
But in regards to the question, 16GB should be more than enough,
My problem is 3G or not 3G, I know i have mny phone with me but on Tathering battery will last me few hours, than again Tab with 3G means i have to charge 2 devices at the same time.
3G will give me option to stream films online (thank you adobe) but than again thats another £10 to pay for new sim with unlimited data on P&G :/
Any good pros and cons?
I'd think that streaming films via 3G would be quite expensive, you can soon whiz through a 500mb data cap.
The 3G version is £100 extra to the wifi unit, but the MicroSD slot that comes with it is a plus.
Get a wifi tablet and a mobile hot spot. If you have a smart phone and laptop, they could share the hotspots and help eliminate the need for higher data on your smartphone. Just a thought to see if that is a better deal to double down on the mobile hotspots.
Regarding 16 vs 32. I bought 32gb knowing that expansion would have to be via USB cable plus drive. Its okay for stationary use but not the best for travel and mobile. But if you can be very selective on your media, 16gb will work fantastic.
I have about 600 songs, which are longer and larger files since they are remixes. Then 2 TV shows @ 550mb each and 1 movie @ 1.2gb. They are Standard Def movies. I have an ample list of apps installed as well. Barely any pictures. I have 18gb left on my storage. So I am doing quite well with 32gb. I could easily fit an ample supply of movies and music to fill it up. But I'm waiting to see what is available on the Samsung Hub in HD to download to my device. I listen to music at my desk at work via the media hub. So it charges while it plays, and then I grab and go to meetings with it. Saves me towing my iPOD with me everywhere. It stays in my Jeep and then only ejects for the gym. So my Tab is my work and travel entertainment device.
If you had a 16gb, you would be nearly full with the above list of media. So you would need to delete and make room for more or use the USB adapter plus external drive of sorts. Don't get me wrong it's nice to be able to do that.... but may not always be practical with the current case+stands out there. If you were wanting to watch a movie on a plane, it may be a bit much to drag out and spread on your tray table. or if you are in a hotel and want to watch a movie, it'll have to be on your tab storage if you use the HDMI adapter to connect to the hotel TV. You can't have external storage and HDMI at same time. I think downloading a movie while traveling would be nice to watch in a hotel room via HDMI adapter. Cheaper than a hotel and you can at least take it with you on your tablet for the trip to rewatch of finish if you fall asleep.
These scenarios are probably not applicable to most but if you travel alot you might appreciate the simplicity of the larger storage. Plus you can't change you mind later without loosing money on selling old and buy the more expensive 32gb. I hope that helps give a different perspective.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
32 GB and you will feel good about your purchase. Spend the extra money. Don't be cheap.
The SGT 10.1 is not out in Canada yet so I have to wait a little longer.
I think I'll go with the 16GB version.
If I need extra space then I will go with the Wi-Drive (Kingston). Rumor has it an app is in the works for Android. My other option is to use a microSd card in a SG2.
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.