Develop Bugs

Media Playback

I had all but given up hope on this topic, but I guess I'll ask.
The Samsung Galaxy S will play Divx/Xvid/MKV natively without a conversion. This is probably one of the best features I have ever heard, as I have hoped for it to be in some sort of mobile device I already owned, such as a phone, psp, or some other multi-purpose device, instead of having to buy a standalone media player which tends to play many formats.
All videos I watch are encoded in these formats (well mkv encoded in x264, with mkv container). Is there, or will there ever be a way to play these on Android 2.1 or 2.2 for other models? I have an evo, and would be EC-FREAKING-STATIC if I could just drag and drop videos to watch on it. Especially with the hdmi out!! I love the evo, I really think it is great. This one feature is the icing on the cake for me.
If it cannot be done, can somebody just give me a brief description as to why? The way I see it, when you need to play these files on a pc, you just install a video codec to decode it. Isn't there some way it can be added?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer this.
P.S.- For anyone who thinks conversion isn't a big deal, I agree, it really isn't. The thing is, a lot of the time I find out I need to be somewhere, have to leave right away, and don't have anything converted to watch. I can't tell you how many times I wish I had this feature!

atm there are not many options, at least as far as i know...
stock player (good baseline h264 playback)
rockplayer (good divx/xvid playback)
yxplayer (decent main/high h264 playback)
for everything else, i simply have "stream" folder on my PC, drop all other vids there, and play them using OrbLive while on the go.

Damn I have been living in the dark. Thanks!

just finished playing with rockplayer, and its pretty darn good
im actually waiting for something bad to happen, and then i
remember... I'm not using a windows mobile phone anymore.

gabemeyers said:
just finished playing with rockplayer, and its pretty darn good
im actually waiting for something bad to happen, and then i
remember... I'm not using a windows mobile phone anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, see now that's funny!

Wuzhenhua player maybe? I havent tried it out on the evo yet but it worked solidly on my other device.

New to Android - Why can't I play MPG videos?

So I love the EVO, and so far I love Android, except I can't seem to figure out how to play videos on it. Sure I can view Youtube, youporn etc , but I can't seem to find a player that will play simple MPEGs. I have downloaded and tried at least 5 different video/media players from the Market, and none of them will play MPEGs correctly. Some of them will give me sound, but none will give me video. I have tried a couple of different video files that I know work on my desktop.
Am I doing something wrong? I am coming from Windows Mobile with Windows Media Player that played just about anything I threw at it. I can't imagine such a wonderful piece of hardware coupled with what seems to be an awesome OS can't do MPG/AVI.
Note: I am currently rooted+nand+bugless beast 0.3 Although I was having this trouble before I had the custom rom or NAND unlocked.

sterlinron said:
So I love the EVO, and so far I love Android, except I can't seem to figure out how to play videos on it. Sure I can view Youtube, youporn etc , but I can't seem to find a player that will play simple MPEGs. I have downloaded and tried at least 5 different video/media players from the Market, and none of them will play MPEGs correctly. Some of them will give me sound, but none will give me video. I have tried a couple of different video files that I know work on my desktop.
Am I doing something wrong? I am coming from Windows Mobile with Windows Media Player that played just about anything I threw at it. I can't imagine such a wonderful piece of hardware coupled with what seems to be an awesome OS can't do MPG/AVI.
Note: I am currently rooted+nand+bugless beast 0.3 Although I was having this trouble before I had the custom rom or NAND unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious, have you tried Meridian? I don't really play a lot of videos on my phone, but Meridian has come through on everything so far for me. YMMV

Rock player is the best video player I have ever used on Android. I can play all my divx format movies without conversion and always get 25-30 fps.
The player is in private beta now and should be released soon.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=698451

KCarpenter - yes, I downloaded Meridian last night. Just tried it again, and still no luck. Thanks for the reply.
Danknee - Thanks!

Considering that the Evo has hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding, why bother playing other formats that will destroy your CPU and battery?
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

gbm85 said:
Considering that the Evo has hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding, why bother playing other formats that will destroy your CPU and battery?
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just that I received an e-mail MPG of my nephew riding his bike without training wheels and would like to see it that's all. Not sure what H.264 decoding is or if it has my nephew riding his bike without training wheels or not. I should go search for that thanks.
I just figure I should be able to view most any file attachment that comes into me these days.

H.264 is the video encoder for MP4's. Basically, if you used a program to convert your videos to MP4 videos, you would be able to play them without a problem. The phone has hardware acceleration for H.264, so it doesn't use as much processor/battery to play vs. other formats that have to be software decoded. Handbrake works good for me, though I can't remember what file types you can put into it.

sterlinron said:
It's just that I received an e-mail MPG of my nephew riding his bike without training wheels and would like to see it that's all. Not sure what H.264 decoding is or if it has my nephew riding his bike without training wheels or not. I should go search for that thanks.
I just figure I should be able to view most any file attachment that comes into me these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why you cannot play those mpg files is simple. Android doesn't support them out of the box. You need to turn to third-party video players which can do it.
Rock Demo Player is one (only one?) such video player.

You can try to use the third-party video player, I read an article is about the top 5 video player apps in Android Market. Maybe it is helpful to you.

Brucew0617 said:
You can try to use the third-party video player, I read an article is about the top 5 video player apps in Android Market. Maybe it is helpful to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread is over a year old. I think the OP figured it out.

Thanks for your remind, I hope it can also be useful to other guys.

I use MX Player. I've only had a problem with AVI files that encode the audio with AAC.
Sent from my carrier pigeon.

Mobo player so far for me has played anything I asked it to.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

MakeMeFibonacci said:
I use MX Player. I've only had a problem with AVI files that encode the audio with AAC.
Sent from my carrier pigeon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Moboplayer most of time, it seems that MX Player also have so much supporter. Maybe I should try it later.

I want to be able to play all movie types.

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.

[Q] Best video format?

i've never really watched videos on my phones (mostly due to screen size etc) but i figure now that I have the Galaxy Nexus i could watch a few things on it..
What would be the best video format to convert things to? I dropped an avi of a tv program onto it and it worked but it lagged a bit..

I just converted something to an HD mp4 using Permute for Mac, it bumped the filesize up about 100mb but tested it and it runs smooth in QuickPic or PlayerPro but when trying to use the built in video player (to get the true full screen) it plays for a second, stutters, then says it can't be played.. :S

has anyone managed to get moboplayer working ? says i need an arm7 neon codec - found that on their site ... followed instructions but it still wont work

Video playback may be a bit iffy until the apps are updated; one of the Diceplayer mob posted saying that it now supports HD playback for .mkv. They didn't mention .avi but that generally needs less resources than .avi so you could try your avi in Diceplayer.
The general trend in open source video development is towards .mkv, I'm trying that first.

I'd be surprised if much works well right out of the gate. The true beta is when the masses begin tinkering

vplayer seems to play avi nicely

Ill have to try it out.. downloading now

I've got the same question. And I don't mean what other player can I download to play movies. I mean what format can I encode videos in to get them to play in the native player. I did find the article below. I have tried each of these formats with no luck. Anyone know why Android can't play a movie out of the box?
http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html
And I also tired MoboPlayer with no luck.

pretty much if you use a baseline .mp4 format you will be fine
basically:
h.264 video
LC-AAC audio
no CABAC
and you should be fine up to 1080p these settings work on all my android devices
just set mpeg 4 level 4 and it should take care of it by itself

noobdeagle said:
pretty much if you use a baseline .mp4 format you will be fine
basically:
h.264 video
LC-AAC audio
no CABAC
and you should be fine up to 1080p these settings work on all my android devices
just set mpeg 4 level 4 and it should take care of it by itself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks noobdeagle,
I have tired those settings on several encoders (handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Magic DVD ripper) and still no success. What software are you using to encode? and have you tried the movies on the galaxy nexus? Because I have never had a problem on any other Android devices. Just this one.
cj

gave up re-encoding videos.
vplayer has played everything ive thrown at it so far. the built in movie player seems very limited.

wilbur-force said:
gave up re-encoding videos.
vplayer has played everything ive thrown at it so far. the built in movie player seems very limited.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the feedback but I have two problems with this particular advice.
1 - Have you seen the permissions for that player? Why would a video player need access to my "Phone calls - Read phone status and identity" and "Your personal information - Read sensitive log data"? Really?
2 - Why the hell can't this phone play videos out of the box. <rant>I have, as I suspect a lot of us here do, a fair few friends that I would call iPhone fanboys. One of the biggest gripes I always hear about android is that every time you run into a problem on Android is the best answer is to root your phone and install cyanogen, or go get xxxx app and that will take care of it, or you should have bought this phone instead. So I get this phone and think that finally Android is going to hit the main stream and I can't even play a movie. WTF!</rant>
Like I said, I appreciate the feedback but I am still looking for a way to play a video in the default video player.
cj

chrisjaffe said:
Thanks noobdeagle,
I have tired those settings on several encoders (handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Magic DVD ripper) and still no success. What software are you using to encode? and have you tried the movies on the galaxy nexus? Because I have never had a problem on any other Android devices. Just this one.
cj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no i have not tried on a galaxy nexus yet as that one week delay sim free means i wont be able to have mine in my hands untill at least next week :\,
i use mediacoder to encode videos, cant speak for the GN but ive used it for my xoom, nexus S, desire hd, htc legend and SGS 2 in the past (however SGS2 supported all codecs quite nicely anyway)
according to the android dev site the supported video list hasnt changed so this is quite strange.

noobdeagle said:
no i have not tried on a galaxy nexus yet as that one week delay sim free means i wont be able to have mine in my hands untill at least next week :\,
i use mediacoder to encode videos, cant speak for the GN but ive used it for my xoom, nexus S, desire hd, htc legend and SGS 2 in the past (however SGS2 supported all codecs quite nicely anyway)
according to the android dev site the supported video list hasnt changed so this is quite strange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I will seek out and try mediacoder.
FYI...I got my GN SIM free from Phones 4U. It was not easy though. I went in to a few stores before finding one that would sell it to me SIM free. And I think that I happened upon the manager at the store that did sell it to me. What makes it even better is that I am in the UK on business for a few months and so I can get the VAT back on my way out. Which makes it nearly 90 quid cheaper.
Thanks again,
cj

seems as if media coder works. Though that is one complicated program. You could get lost in those settings for days.
Thanks again.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

chrisjaffe said:
seems as if media coder works. Though that is one complicated program. You could get lost in those settings for days.
Thanks again.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format factory works and it's easy as to use.

Format factory does seem to work and is a little easier to use. Thanks. And just in time too because Mediacoder was having some trouble iwth a few of the vids I had.
cj

Do 720p mkv files work flawlessly without re-encoding?

Hi everyone,
I first got to say that I have not yet purchased GalaxyNexus. However I have a big concern in regards to 720p HD video files from the net. I realized this on my Galaxy Tab10.1 after I bought it that most HD files need to be re-encoded in order to run without lag or being choppy. I was very disappointed with that.
Would someone tell me how is the performance of mkv files on GalaxyNexus.
Thanks.
Sent from my HTC Hero using XDA App

Yes, use MX Player from the market, it can run just about anything smoothly

Or try dice player, only problem is its not allowing me to buy full version after 3 days trial has ran out, anyone know a way around that?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

heck it plays 1080p mkvs flawlessly. I have a 11gb mkv of Drive that sits on my phone just to show off. Now to get that MHL adapter.

biggiestuff said:
heck it plays 1080p mkvs flawlessly. I have a 11gb mkv of Drive that sits on my phone just to show off. Now to get that MHL adapter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried a sample of 1080p mkv on mxplayer and it was choking on SW only (no HW available). What player did you use?

CrazyDelta said:
Hi everyone,
I first got to say that I have not yet purchased GalaxyNexus. However I have a big concern in regards to 720p HD video files from the net. I realized this on my Galaxy Tab10.1 after I bought it that most HD files need to be re-encoded in order to run without lag or being choppy. I was very disappointed with that.
Would someone tell me how is the performance of mkv files on GalaxyNexus.
Thanks.
Sent from my HTC Hero using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whether it plays depends on a lot of things. The video format, (MKV is just a container), the audio format and most importantly the bitrate. A lot of desktop PCs will chunder along if the bitrate is too high for it's hardware to handle, so a phone will struggle even more.

The bottleneck seems to be the speed of the internal storage, for me. It plays stuff flawlessly, but if I play a 1080p file with a super high bitrate, it's all choppy.

cvbcbcmv said:
You a usenet user? Mkv files are all over that. (I hope you are, I wanna talk to somebody about how amazing it is!!!)
I watched a 3 gig mkv file of a 1 hour season finale of flashpoint (anybody watch it BTW?) and it was flawless. Jules was as amazing as ever, and Ed was as bald as ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean usernet user? whats that? and my mkv files play fine 720p and 1080p

Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.
However, I found this video review on YouTube and it kinda made me pessimistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDnY_nZ2SiE
*I hope it is ok posting a link to a video here.

CrazyDelta said:
Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.
However, I found this video review on YouTube and it kinda made me pessimistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDnY_nZ2SiE
*I hope it is ok posting a link to a video here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what player or videos are being used in this video but my 720 en 1080p MKV's are all working smooth on dice player.

cvbcbcmv said:
You a usenet user? Mkv files are all over that. (I hope you are, I wanna talk to somebody about how amazing it is!!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first rule of Usenet is, you don't talk about Usenet.

Is there a trick to getting these super large files on your phone? Everytime I've tried to drag an 8GB file over it complains it only takes files under 4GB. Are you splitting them?

lettcco said:
I tried a sample of 1080p mkv on mxplayer and it was choking on SW only (no HW available). What player did you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used diceplayer trial. That app is great. hopefully they get it working soon so I can get the full version.

not sure what your guys issue with dice player is. I have it on mine and it plays mkvs, wmvs, avis flawlessly

Dice Player plays high bitrate 1080p flawless for me. The only problem is the trial is only available so you have to uninstall and reinstall every 3 days.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

neok44 said:
not sure what your guys issue with dice player is. I have it on mine and it plays mkvs, wmvs, avis flawlessly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is the dev's actually. The account he was using to receive payment for the full version got suspended (for whatever reason), and due to that he isn't able to continue selling the full version anymore. If you were an early adopter (like I was, due to having a Asus Transformer), it's a non-issue because you already bought it. I'm not sure why the dev is taking forever to fix the issue.
EDIT:And on that note, I also must say that all MKV files I have downloaded work perfectly fine on my nexus using diceplayer. Both 720P and 1080P (only tried 1, just to see if it worked, since it is rather pointless unless you're outputting to a TV) work just fine and without any issues for me. I haven't tried any strangely encoded files yet, but so far all normal HDTV encoded files worked just fine.

cvbcbcmv said:
You a usenet user? Mkv files are all over that. (I hope you are, I wanna talk to somebody about how amazing it is!!!)
I watched a 3 gig mkv file of a 1 hour season finale of flashpoint (anybody watch it BTW?) and it was flawless. Jules was as amazing as ever, and Ed was as bald as ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
man I wish usenet was free

CrazyDelta said:
Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.
However, I found this video review on YouTube and it kinda made me pessimistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDnY_nZ2SiE
*I hope it is ok posting a link to a video here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's smooth once it get's hardware decoded.
No smartphone processor can decode 1080p without lag, which is exactly why OMAP put an IVA-HD chip inside to do all the work.

Much like the rest of the members I use dice player and it plays everything i throw at it. I use to have an issue with 12mbps MP4 files but they seem to have corrected that and now it is smooth for everything i throw at it.

is there a place to buy the full version or obtain one by other cough cough means?