I know the question of viewing BBC iPlayer on the TP2 has been raised before, but it seems like none of the suggested solutions really works very well, or at least not for me.
I've tried the trick of adding the Samsung Omnia user agent code in Opera 9.5. This works up to the point where the Streaming Media app opens, but then the video never loads - it just stays at 0% buffering for ever.
One can, of course, use Skyfire to access the iPlayer website, but Skyfire looks like pixellated crap and I hate it. Video playback is jerky too.
I did come across a stand-alone iPlayer app a while back, but it proved too unstable to use; constantly crashing.
The best results I've had so far are with using myplayer. Unfortunately I'm too cheap to shell out for Coreplayer so instead I use the Streaming Media player for actual streaming, and for downloaded material (which it says is "higher quality" - is that true?) I use TCPMP, which is not altogether satisfactory as you only get about 80% of frames rendered. I imagine Coreplayer would do a better job of playing the downloaded .MOV files, but even so, the resolution you're getting on those is really pretty poor compared to what you get out of iPlayer on a desktop PC. Downloads from myplayer have a resolution of 480x270, I think - certain 480 horizontal. Downloads to iPlayer desktop are, what, 640x360? And streamed content from iPlayer on my desktop PC (in "large" mode) has a resolution of something like 850x480.
Now, if I were starting with (say) a 720p .mkv file, I could feed it through the Encoder app, and cook it into a .mp4 file with 800x480 resolution and 750kb/s bitrate and it would play back beautifully using HTCAlbum as a player - HTCAlbum (and, indeed, Windows Media Player) do a far better job of video playback than CorePlayer on the TP2, thanks to their making far better use of the GPU. Is there any way of capturing high-resolution output from iPlayer on a desktop PC, and then using Encoder on it in the same way? Can this be done either with the flash videos that one streams to a desktop browser, or with the (encrypted?) .mp4 files that are downloaded to iPlayer desktop?
Are there any possibilities I'm missing?
(bump)
No one has anything to say...?
Works for me
Got iPlayer running OK on my TP2. Entered sgh-i900 in the Custom User agent of Opera config.
apv245l said:
Got iPlayer running OK on my TP2. Entered sgh-i900 in the Custom User agent of Opera config.
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Click to collapse
Well, as I've already said, that doesn't work for me. Possibly because O2 blocks access to iPlayer streams, I don't know. What sort of playback resolution do you get? Full desktop res? Does the streaming media player cope without dropping frames?
apv245l said:
Got iPlayer running OK on my TP2. Entered sgh-i900 in the Custom User agent of Opera config.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity I went back and had another go at this. Connecting to iPlayer over GPRS, EDGE or 3G, I now get a message on the website saying that iPlayer doesn't work over my network, and that I need to connect using WiFi. A note elsewhere on the website says that iPlayer is available over 3G for people on the 3 or Vodafone networks, but not on others. (I'm on O2). Connecting (briefly!!!) over my office's wifi network does work - the video can be played and opens in the Streaming Media Player. (I did try this once over a public wifi connection in my local Pret-a-manger, and it didn't work correctly).
However, even over wifi, the quality when streaming like this is even worse than I get from a myplayer .mov download - the resolution is a risible 320x176! So none of this really address my original question, which is how one can get better resolution out of iPlayer.
EDIT: Just to clarify, if I use myplayer to get streamed output from iPlayer, using Streaming Media Player to play it, this also gives me 320x176 video (but at least it manages to bypass the restriction on the O2 network, so it works over 3G). It also (sometimes) gives the option to download the programme in question, in the form of a 480x270 .mov file. Playing this nicely probably requires CorePlayer - TCPMP drops about 20% of frames.
Of course one could move the .mov file off the phone, re-encode to .mp4, and move it back on, and play it with HTCAlbum, but if you're going to go to that much effort it would be nice to be able to start with a higher-resolution video... which is where we came in.
Did a little more experimenting yesterday. Didn't really get anywhere, but in case anyone else has a bit more imagination than I have....
Some programmes on iPlayer now have two additional links. There's the standard "download" link (which downloads the programme for iPlayer Desktop on the PC). There are also (sometimes) two others which let you download the programme in WMV format - one suitable for desktop PCs, the other for "mobile devices".
Downloading to iPlayer Desktop produces a file with a .mp4 suffix, but no other application besides iPlayer Desktop (either on my PC or on my phone) seems to be able to make head or tail of it.
The "mobile device" .wmv file can be played correctly on the TP2 using Pocket Windows Media Player, but the resolution is the standard mobile 360x180 again, which makes it unwatchable. The intended-for-desktop .wmv file is much higher res - something like 680x544 (I forget the exact numbers, but it's roughly that). When played back on a desktop PC, Windows Media Player realises that it's in anamorphic format and scales it to 967x544 or thereabouts. It looks quite good.
Putting this file onto my TP2, however, doesnt work so well. Pocket Windows Media Player does play it, but playback is quite jerky (not surprisingly, as the bit rate is very high) and, even more annoyingly, it fails to recognise that it's anamorphic and plays it at "native" aspect ratio, which is useless. There doesn't seem to be any way to get it to stretch it.
I tried feeding the desktop WMV file through the Encoder application to convert it to 800x480 .mp4, but the end result is a video where sound and picture are both gibberish - the .wmv is obviously encrypted in a way that the encoder doesn't recognise.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Related
Whats up.
Just flashed to the new official ATT and I'm, loving it so far. I played around with a couple of the cooked builds before getting the official. Thanks to whoever leaked it. Anywayz down to business.
QUESTION: anybody got youtube to work on the new official WM6 release?
I have the new beta of TCPMP installed and the new wizzstar which is supposed to make http://m.youtube.com work for our WM6 tytn's.
for details:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=319226
No matter what i have tried i cannot get the file association to look at TCPMP. It always calls on realplayer which cannot play the file. I have tried to remove realplayer but this does not help. For those who do not know, Realplayer comes with WM6 ATT official. Supposedly people have done it for WM6 but noone has posted about the official release yet. Any input would be appreciated.
On a side note. Here is what i install to get more usability out of the device.
googlemaps - self explanatory
opera - newest beta
mochavnc - for remote VNC connections
SiriusWM5 - Sirius satelite radio ported to WinMO
TCPMP - Media player because Windows media player is teh suck
WM6 WMV9 codecs - enables TCPMP to play windows media in WM6
fp7_ppc_en - official Flash player for WinMo
Wizzstar FlashVideoBundle - was supposed to assist with youtube.
PCMKeyboard - A keyboard very much like the HTC Touch. Very Nice.
Remotedisplay for mobile - desktop control of your WinMo device.
Thanks,
J
Mobile Youtube should play through the Streaming Media app, not TCPMP. Mobile Youtube only has a very small collection of videos in poor quality to choose from.
Much better (IMHO) to watch the full Youtube video collection in full quality. All you need is TCPMP, an FLV plug-in (check my post here for a corrected version: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=325373 ) and then go to Mobytube.net and search for your Youtube video. It's a lot easier than it sounds and the quality's great!
Have fun.
You need to go into the settings of tcpmp then the file associations then check .flv, I think........
Orb
I use Orb 2.0 on my home PC. Then use the orb link in PIE to access You tube and all of my media at home. It transcodes FLV to streaming WMV and opens in WMP on your phone. Get access to everything without installing anything extra. Add a tuner card and get broadcast TV. Add Tivo2Go and stream your Tivo recordings. All for free and the price of powering your computer at home.
Gprs internet camera with video browser wm6
i cant veiw my security camara in my 9502 pls help
am using GPRS
youtubeplay
I've tried all the methods above and never had any luck. I found youtubeplay.cab in the forums. It's a stand alone program that searchs youtube and plays them in that program. It allows you to download the video or stream it. by far it is the easiest way to watch youtube videos. You only have to install one program, and you are done.
Another easy way to view youtube is in Skyfire. It's a private beta, I signed up months ago and got my invitation just few days ago. Its a really cool web browser, you phone doesn't render anything, their server does. It sends you the info already rendered, and its at least 2 times faster than any other browser I tried. It works with the actual youtube site, flash works, I haven't found anything yet that it won't work with. It's amazing.
any body knows of a link or any cabs for working tcpmp version I tried a few some did work but there not able to stream like youtube videos or thing like that any body out there that can help I have em6.1 and skunworks cab if that helps
There is a built-in YouTube client in the TP2. For any other streaming media, use the built-in Streaming Media Player.
You can use TCPMP for non-streaming video - this version works quite well: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3275845&postcount=172 (You need to go into the DirectDraw settings and tick the box to use blitting instead of overlays).
But you may well be better off, with non-streamed videos, if you download them and convert them into a format that HTCAlbum can play. (You can use this app to do the conversion: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112 ).
If you really need to be able to handle streaming videos and everything else in the same application, and you don't mind things getting jerky with high resolutions and bit-rates, then your best option is to purchase Coreplayer.
I spend quite a lot of time travelling, and find my HD2 has an ideal sized screen for watching films on when on the move.
Previously I had the Touch HD - which was also great.
I've been using a program which I found on here called MP4forHD - which works great - but all the videos are slightly out of sync. I'm processing them on a quad core 2.83ghz PC with 8gb or RAM, so I don't think its the PC thats the problem. When I check them on my PC once they've converted - they're already out of sync - so its not the phone.
The program converts directly from a DVD or file - which is exactly what I want.
Prior to MP4forHD, I was using another tool I found on here which was just called Encoder. It only did files, so I had to use DVD Decryptor, then VOB joiner to make a file that it could re-encode. I've tried it just now, and its also out of sync.
Both these programs have a setting for HTC Touch HD - so they encode at the correct resolution. I've tried fiddling with settings, but no matter what I do, it always seems to be out of sync.
What programs are folk using to get a good video file - and what settings? I'm away tomorrow morning on holiday and have a pile of out of sync films to watch! I hope I can get some suggestions so that I can re-encode a couple of them to be in sync
Cheers...
which app you use to play movie on your Leo?
patanello said:
which app you use to play movie on your Leo?
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I just use the standard Manilla player as its the only one that utilises the GFX chip on the phone. I do have Core Player, but it doesn't play the movies any better.
I've just been hunting through Core Players advanced options and realised that there is an A/V offset - which if I set it to about -0.3 seconds works perfectly!
Ideally I'd still like the films encoded in sync, so if anyone has any magical programs / untilites then please let me know. At least I'll manage to watch in Core Player in sync on my flight tomorrow
I use avidemux, which is good because it has lots of options and is free. I hear handbrake also works well, and microsoft even has their own, which worked well for me the one time I've used it
Microsoft Expression Encoder: http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/Encoder_Overview.aspx
Avidemux: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/
On a side note: If you have the time, could you see how high you can get the bitrate on a h.264 WVGA video before it starts stuttering?
I dont want to have to worry about decoding, or converting, or anything at all. I just want to click on a movie file, and play it. Is there any player out there(free) that can do that?
Vplayer is like that, and WAS free until about 3 days ago. you can give rockplayer a try, it isnt bad.
It really depends on the type of file you are trying to play (there are tons of video formats/containers out there). If you use some obscure format, you should search for it (try either directly in the market or on this site).
For the more commonly-used types though, popular choices on this forum include RockPlayer and VPlayer (not as popular now because it has become a paid app). Some people also like arcMedia. I believe there is also a ported version of mPlayer in the main app forum. Supposedly, VLC for Android will be coming out soon as well.
I've been using VPlayer without any issues, though I'm interested to try VLC once it comes out. RockPlayer also worked well for me before VPlayer came out.
okay well i found a 4 day old vplayer.apk online. we'll see what that does.
Edit: it flickers, a lot. Is it always like that?
I heard VLC is coming out soon for Android (sometime this month). If so and if it's anything like the PC version it should play pretty much anything.
Not sure about ISO (not sure if you need that), but for common formats like AVI, WMV, MP4, I find Rockplayer to be the best. It handles every video I've thrown at it. Although sometimes I need to pick either hardware decoding off/on depending on the video. With it off, some WMV videos lag. With it on, some AVI videos FC the program.
Vplayer lags into slow-motion on some WMV movies, and also has some pixelation for a few seconds while scanning through a few AVI videos. But otherwise a pretty decent player also.
ArcMedia was a very poor player, to me. It lagged on WMV videos. Interface needed lots of work (displayed file names too short, no landscape browsing). Inferior to both Rockplayer and vPlayer. Similarly, I tried mPlayer, file compatibility was not great, and the interface was really clunky. It takes too much time to navigate and find the desired video.
yeah when i said all formats, i really meant all the like, common ones. but more than just mpeg, and wmv. so divx and h264 is about as much as i need. I got vplayer installed now, the beta. the beta is pretty good, i wouldnt mind paying for it. I mean i would mind, because its just a damn video player, but i also wouldnt mind it. but it flickers a lot. is that normal?
I haven't noticed any flickering on vPlayer, that's odd. Is it evident just watching a video for a couple minutes (I mostly use Rockplayer)?
I have never had any flickering with vplayer. Try setting the lum at a level. Move your finger up on the left half of the screen while watching a video.
Video playback on android is a bit of a problem still. Problem is that the built-in player only recognizes a few containers, and these containers are very restricted in the content they can carry.
There are some other players that are more universal, but a design limitation of android makes it impossible for them to use the integrated video decoder to accelerate decode. As a result, these players will have a very low performance and drain your battery fast due to running the CPU hard.
Hi all,
I have been trying to stream videos from my laptop to my Note, and I haven't been able to get it running smoothly. I have tried a number of different players, but the issue is that it will either stutter like crazy or play audio without video. I can be more specific about the types of files (mkv, h264, 720p, etc.) and players (VLC for Android beta, Archos Video, MX Player, etc.).
Has ANYONE managed to stream and watch videos from their PC/laptop to this tablet successfully or is this tablet just not capable?
Many thanks!
I am running a plex server on my desktop and stream to several devices, including my note.
Another vote for plex it's pretty amazing. You can get it for free after you get some free coins from the amazon app store.
Of course the tablet is capable of streaming video smoothly. I use MX Player to stream videos from a samba server (traditional Windows share, no special software required). The MX Player is configured to use the 'HW+' decoder. It plays Full HD mkvs no problem.
no.0ne said:
Of course the tablet is capable of streaming video smoothly. I use MX Player to stream videos from a samba server (traditional Windows share, no special software required). The MX Player is configured to use the 'HW+' decoder. It plays Full HD mkvs no problem.
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Click to collapse
+1
Junetastic said:
Hi all,
I have been trying to stream videos from my laptop to my Note, and I haven't been able to get it running smoothly. I have tried a number of different players, but the issue is that it will either stutter like crazy or play audio without video. I can be more specific about the types of files (mkv, h264, 720p, etc.) and players (VLC for Android beta, Archos Video, MX Player, etc.).
Has ANYONE managed to stream and watch videos from their PC/laptop to this tablet successfully or is this tablet just not capable?
Many thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With MX player change it to all software decoders(audi n video). Its what I have to do with MKV Files.
gilani7 said:
With MX player change it to all software decoders(audi n video). Its what I have to do with MKV Files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! This resolved my issues!
gilani7 said:
With MX player change it to all software decoders(audi n video). Its what I have to do with MKV Files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not a good idea as a software decoder will burn through your battery, especially with HD content.
@Junetastic Can you try playing the sample videos from this site http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/ ? I have downloaded them to my computer and then tried streaming them to my tablet using the HW+ decoder and it worked without any problems (except the 'Birds' video, which is 40mbps and is too much for my wifi network to handle reliably. Once copied to the tablet, it of course played without problems.)
no.0ne said:
That's not a good idea as a software decoder will burn through your battery, especially with HD content.
@Junetastic Can you try playing the sample videos from this site http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/ ? I have downloaded them to my computer and then tried streaming them to my tablet using the HW+ decoder and it worked without any problems (except the 'Birds' video, which is 40mbps and is too much for my wifi network to handle reliably. Once copied to the tablet, it of course played without problems.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually just have to use the software decoder for the Audio. Didn't really know it would take a hit on the battery. How much more will it really take? I have gone through many media players and found this to be the easiest solution.
gilani7 said:
I usually just have to use the software decoder for the Audio. Didn't really know it would take a hit on the battery. How much more will it really take? I have gone through many media players and found this to be the easiest solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I don't think you have to worry about battery life if you software decode just the audio. It's the video that takes a lot of work to decode. From what I seem to remember, software decoding of HD video can drain the battery up to several times faster (depending on brightness and other settings, which can change the relative energy consuption of the decoding process).
no.0ne said:
That's not a good idea as a software decoder will burn through your battery, especially with HD content.
@Junetastic Can you try playing the sample videos from this site http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/ ? I have downloaded them to my computer and then tried streaming them to my tablet using the HW+ decoder and it worked without any problems (except the 'Birds' video, which is 40mbps and is too much for my wifi network to handle reliably. Once copied to the tablet, it of course played without problems.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just downloaded one file (Suzumiya) and it didn't work with H/W+ Decoder; however, I was successful in streaming some episodes of Silicon Valley from my PC with it (and using S/W decoder for audio).
Junetastic said:
I just downloaded one file (Suzumiya) and it didn't work with H/W+ Decoder; however, I was successful in streaming some episodes of Silicon Valley from my PC with it (and using S/W decoder for audio).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I think I know where the problem comes from - I bet you have P600, the Exynos version right?
no.0ne said:
Ok, I think I know where the problem comes from - I bet you have P600, the Exynos version right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. Am I out of luck?
Junetastic said:
Yeah. Am I out of luck?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the P600. I downloaded all of the video clips to my desktop. When I stream them directly using MX player, I do get some lag and stutter. However, when I add them to my Plex library I can play all of them just fine. The Plex server handles all the transcode that is needed and I just have to click play. I don't need to worry about formats or bitrates (unless I want to). It is so simple my 5yo can use it to watch videos on her tablet. She can even sync videos for offline viewing on car trips.
Junetastic said:
Yeah. Am I out of luck?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it seems that the hardware decoders are quite different on the Snapdragon vs. Exynos and since Samsung is very sparse with documentation, the MX Player developers didn't manage to optimize their software for the Exynos (this is just my guess). So you might try a different player, perhaps some will work fine. But then again, it might not. In which case you might have to abandon universal streaming and either transcode your videos or use an application that will do it for you on the fly (e.g. Plex as WJThomas proposed). The downside is you have to use a computer (and often a paid app as is the case with Plex) and can't stream your content from a NAS.
no.0ne said:
In which case you might have to abandon universal streaming and either transcode your videos or use an application that will do it for you on the fly (e.g. Plex as WJThomas proposed). The downside is you have to use a computer (and often a paid app as is the case with Plex) and can't stream your content from a NAS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The upside is that you don't have to worry about which device supports which formats, and that you can stream content from some NAS's without a computer. If you subscribe to PlexPass the app is free, and you can use the app to sync media to your device (and then you can even stream from device to device)
Can someone please explain how they're playing .mkv files without playback stopping after a few seconds?
What I'm trying to do is play full bit-rate Blu-ray .mkv rips. I am using ES File Explorer to navigate to shared folders on my Windows PC, and what happens is that the video will eventually start playing but then stop after 5 or so seconds of playback and never continue again. I've tried accessing the files via DNLA software like Servio, but I get the exact same result each time.
And bandwidth is not the problem, as I was able to stream uncompressed content just fine when I had my Surface Pro 2.
Megalith said:
Can someone please explain how they're playing .mkv files without playback stopping after a few seconds?
What I'm trying to do is play full bit-rate Blu-ray .mkv rips. I am using ES File Explorer to navigate to shared folders on my Windows PC, and what happens is that the video will eventually start playing but then stop after 5 or so seconds of playback and never continue again. I've tried accessing the files via DNLA software like Servio, but I get the exact same result each time.
And bandwidth is not the problem, as I was able to stream uncompressed content just fine when I had my Surface Pro 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use ES File Explorer to browse a 3TB networked hard drive and stream Blu-Ray .mkv files to my tablet with no problem. I use MX Player Pro (H/W decoder, H/W+ causes MX Player to force close on KitKat). No issues with playback.