[Q]XviD playback choppy on SGH-T989? - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989

Hi. I got a SGH-I727 (AT&T Galaxy S2 Skyrocket), which has the same 1.5ghz dual core Snapdragon processor as SGH-T989, and I'm curious if the SGH-T989 has the same issues with XviD encoded with the XviD 1.2.1 codec (aka bitstream XviD0050).
To verify that I wasn't going out of my mind, I fired up my old Galaxy S(I9000), and the same XviD videos played buttery smooth on it. But my SGH-I727 plays videos at about 2/3 of the fps. So for example, the XviD that should be 23.97 fps play at about 16fps. And 29.97 fps videos play at 20fps. Can someone try firing up a XviD on the SGH-T989?
On a side note, XviD encoded with DivX503b* play just fine (mainly because they are just DivX files in disguise). None of the other video codecs seem to have any problems. The problem is that 99% of my videos I want to watch are are encoded with XviD 1.2.1, so it is a real drag.
I've tried every player in the market. And even though software decoding delivers perfect fps, the resolution is pixelated. On Hardware Acceleration, they all seem to play back with the same level of choppiness. The only one showing any promise is the BS Player lite, but it is incredibly buggy, although the framerate is there.
Players that I've tried:
Dice Player
MX Player
BS Player lite
Mobo
VPlayer
Rock Player
None of these players play XviD files as smooth as my I9000 (Samsung Galaxy S). If the XviD plays fine on the SGH-T989, can someone use something like SystemApp Remover and make a backup of VideoPlayer.apk? I would seriously appreciate it. I've been trying to find a solution since the day I got my GSII Skyrocket. Thanks in advance!

i use MoboPlayer and it works fine on my AVI and MKV files
i'll need to find some DviX files to try and see if i can reproduce the problem you are describing
might simply be an encoding issue, DivX has always been a flaky encoder wrapper of choice to use

Samsung Demo HD Videos
hey you can try these
HD Samsung BoA - I Did It For Love.divx http://www.multiupload.com/SOLIRYEP5E
HD Samsung 2NE1 - Fire (Space Version).divx http://www.multiupload.com/L5ZGGPOH0U
HD Samsung Wonder Girls - Nobody.divx http://www.multiupload.com/MBAQMQS20A
they play smooth and nsync with audio
set your Mobo Player to play with Hardware Decoding
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
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Thanks for your inputs. The problem is that DivX is not choppy. But XviD is choppy. Specifically XviD 1.2.1 encoded XviDs, which is the majority of all video files I have and it is the format that I wish to download in the future. (Mainly TV Shows)
What I mean by choppy is, the movements are not smooth if you can tell the difference between 24fps vs 16fps. You can see the affect by doing a software decode, and noticing the smoothness of movement in comparison to the HW decode mode. As far as I can tell, every other Samsung Galaxy S and S2's can do HW decode, and have the motion as smooth as you see with the SW decode. Mobo on HW decode only produces the same choppiness that the standard Video player is capable of.
Can someone test this with XviD's? I would like some solid confirmation that it is either the Snapdragon processor (so SGH-T989 would have the same issue), or just my phone (SGH-i727 Skyrocket).

i do watch a lot of TV shows (Warehouse 13, Eureka, Terra Nova, Animes, etc, etc) from my phone as well, but they are all H.264 encoded
i'll need to dig through my old archives to find old Xvid encoded files.
unless you have some samples readily available

I also play alot of xvid and have noticed the weird lag that xvid gives too, on almost all the players out there, even with mobo on hardware (mobo still lets the phones software to use the hardware to decode, so mobo still isn't doing the heavy lifting so u still get xvid choppyness). So I bought Dice Player (true hardware decoding control) and it works 100 percent fine now and i love that player also, i love the scrubbing feature of the seek bar!

pychobj2001 said:
I also play alot of xvid and have noticed the weird lag that xvid gives too, on almost all the players out there, even with mobo on hardware (mobo still lets the phones software to use the hardware to decode, so mobo still isn't doing the heavy lifting so u still get xvid choppyness). So I bought Dice Player (true hardware decoding control) and it works 100 percent fine now and i love that player also, i love the scrubbing feature of the seek bar!
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Hi pychobj2001, thank you for your reply. You're not the first one to point out Dice Player. Someone pointed this out on the SGH-I727 forum as well, but I tried the trial, then I ended up buying the full version for ~$5, and it still is choppy. Not getting the smooth 23.97 and 29.97fps I can get on much older Galaxy S devices... I've tested it with 5 XviD files of different shows, but all encoded with XviD0050 (1.2.1). Dice player seems to be maybe marginally better, if it is any better at all. If you really want to see what smooth fps looks like try BS Player lite. Unfortunately, it is really buggy, but you can see moments of smooth playback that even Dice Player can't seem to do. I'm looking for that level of smoothness without the messed up picture. SW decoding delivers the same amount of smoothness, but at the cost of having to see pixelation.

AllGamer said:
i do watch a lot of TV shows (Warehouse 13, Eureka, Terra Nova, Animes, etc, etc) from my phone as well, but they are all H.264 encoded
i'll need to dig through my old archives to find old Xvid encoded files.
unless you have some samples readily available
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Click to collapse
Yeah, H.264 is perfect on these devices. It would be nice if everyone on the Internet forgot about XviD and used H.264 and DivX for my sake. Unfortunately, I have 2 terabytes of XviD video that I would rather not re-encode.
The whole point of getting the Galaxy S2 was that I would never have to re-encode anything. I owned an iPhone for 2 years and what I ended up doing was encoding about 16GB of videos to H.264, but I never bothered to re-encode anything after that, so I was watching the same dang videos for 2 years. That is why I would never buy an iPhone again. Anyway, sorry for the rant.

so i found a recent XviD
Assassin's.Creed.Embers.2011. in .XviD.

AllGamer said:
so i found a recent XviD
Assassin's.Creed.Embers.2011. in .XviD.
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I got a hold of the Assassin's Creed XviD file. Verified it was XviD0050 (1.2.1). This video plays at about 20fps, when you should be seeing 24fps. For example, at the 3:10 mark, during the zoom in, the zoom in should be totally smooth, not like someone is flipping through stop motion animation. If you want to see how smooth it should be, you can enable software decoding to get the smooth playback. The downside of software decoding is that the images look pixelated.
All the other Galaxy phones are able to produce the smooth playback at 24fps, but with the upscaled image quality hardware encoding provides. Just not on the on the Snapdragon processors.
If you have a friend with a Exynos processor, play the same video side by side with your Snapdragon device. But prepare to be disappointed knowing although your should be able to do it, it isn't doing it. And there are no current player in the android market that can play xvid files as smooth as an out of the box Exynos-based Galaxy S/S2.

I've finally found a solution. CineXPlayer. The features and interface is very basic and slight amateurish that music is acceptable during load up (luckily it disables), but all I care about is the video quality because choppy frame rates is noticeable during the entire duration. Better than DicePlayer when playing XviD files because DicePlayer still does choppy XviD playback on the Snapdragon devices. CineXPlayer is $2. Well worth the money. Haven't tested any other media formats because I can just use the Videos app for every other format because the phone does it well without the need for a 3rd party app. It will be nice if I can open streams with CineXPlayer using a DLNA device, but that is not top priority. It will be a nice addon to CineXPlayer whenever they get around to it. Case closed as far as I'm concerned.

Lucidmike said:
I've finally found a solution. CineXPlayer. The features and interface is very basic and slight amateurish that music is acceptable during load up (luckily it disables), but all I care about is the video quality because choppy frame rates is noticeable during the entire duration. Better than DicePlayer when playing XviD files because DicePlayer still does choppy XviD playback on the Snapdragon devices. CineXPlayer is $2. Well worth the money. Haven't tested any other media formats because I can just use the Videos app for every other format because the phone does it well without the need for a 3rd party app. It will be nice if I can open streams with CineXPlayer using a DLNA device, but that is not top priority. It will be a nice addon to CineXPlayer whenever they get around to it. Case closed as far as I'm concerned.
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Agreed and downloaded.

Lucidmike said:
I've finally found a solution. CineXPlayer. The features and interface is very basic and slight amateurish that music is acceptable during load up (luckily it disables), but all I care about is the video quality because choppy frame rates is noticeable during the entire duration. Better than DicePlayer when playing XviD files because DicePlayer still does choppy XviD playback on the Snapdragon devices. CineXPlayer is $2. Well worth the money. Haven't tested any other media formats because I can just use the Videos app for every other format because the phone does it well without the need for a 3rd party app. It will be nice if I can open streams with CineXPlayer using a DLNA device, but that is not top priority. It will be a nice addon to CineXPlayer whenever they get around to it. Case closed as far as I'm concerned.
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pativets said:
Agreed and downloaded.
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Try playing a DD5.1 file, doesnt work. But the video is good...

dboy75 said:
Try playing a DD5.1 file, doesnt work. But the video is good...
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What kind of videos use that file type? Never heard it before so don't think it'll be a problem for me.

pativets said:
What kind of videos use that file type? Never heard it before so don't think it'll be a problem for me.
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Its not the video part, an xvid with dolby digital 5.1 audio encoded. In case you were going to watch on a big screen through hdmi the player doesnt support 5.1 audio.

Guys, I've stumbled onto a strange workaround. You don't need CineXPlayer but you may need to be rooted.
Basically, there is a bug in the skyrocket OS. When a hardware video overlay is enabled, the video becomes choppy. CineXPlayer does not use the hardware overlay the same way, that is why the video is not choppy. A workaround was that I downloaded gamecih2 (not gamecih available from Android Market). Gamecih2 is availablehere http://www.cih.com.tw/download.
Why have gamecih2 toolbar running in the foreground? I have no idea but it solves the xvid choppiness issue! Strange yes, but effective. You will notice the diff immediately. Try killing the toolbar and the choppiness returns. Just have it running before you start the vid. You can even make the gamecih2 toolbar transparent.
Now...if you a real stickler like myself about video quality you will notice the stock hardware decoding, while it has improved to near perfection, is still not perfect. It drops a frame or two every now and then. There is a solution. You need to use the gamecih2 toolbar with DicePlayer. Try the DicePlayer Trial with the gamecih2 toolbar. This combo will make your Skyrocket play your XviD as good as the original Galaxy S. I'm not sure if it does DD5.1 audio, but definitely try it out.
Why not just use CineXPlayer? You can, but I've realized although the player plays as smooth as using the gamecih2 floating toolbar work-around with DicePlayer, the features on the CineXPlayer is lacking (UI, streaming support, DD5.1 support), and the quality of the images is off by just a hair on the CineXPlayer.
Solution 1:
CineXPlayer* $2
*limitations: no streaming support, no DD5.1, outdated UI
Solution 2:
gamecih2* (run this app, make it transparent before you start your video in any player)
DicePlayer (optional $5.38, not absolutely necessary unless you are looking for absolute perfect playback.)
*this toolbar requires your device to be rooted.

regarding the Xvid choppiness
i actually found the same bug in my home theatre PC quad core with 4 GB RAM when running XMBC
however if i use another Video Player, then the Xvid bug goes away.
seems like anything encoded in Xvid is just bad over all, and you need good paid software to compensate for its problems
playing any other media files format / encoders, have no problem even when they are 720p or 1080p files
why Xvid is so crap?

Related

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.

Diceplayer supports Galaxy nexus - plays MKV/AVI with Full HW acceleration

Diceplayer v 1.7.4 supports Galaxy Nexus.
It take advantage of OMAP4's video decoder.
720p H.264 High profile + DTS/AC3/Flac audio MKV with embedded subtitles works perfectly.
I'll post some test video on next Monday.
YES. YES. YES. That is awesome. My only reservation about the phone was codec support. Thanks for sharing Juami!
Awesome try some 1080p stuff. Also try mxplayer if you have the time
veli69 said:
Awesome try some 1080p stuff. Also try mxplayer if you have the time
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mx : not supported version popup
bs and mobo : couldn't play at all
add:
I think devs could not get Galaxy Nexus yet.
I got unreleased Galaxy Nexus for testing. so I could release diceplayer update for Galaxy Nexus.
Thanks for the update, been using Diceplayer on my tab 10.1 for a while now and it's been awesome. On the nexus however it seems it's missing some frame rates. Will try it with a few more vids and see how it goes.
Edit: Tried a 720p mkv and it was flawless. Avi's of TV shows are playing back at a low frame rate, and are noticeably choppy.
I can play 10gb 1080p rips without problem, Can't try anything larger as Diceplayer crashes when I try to play over my network so have only been able to play local files.
Plays local files fine but doesn't go fullscreen - leaves the onscreen buttons.
VPlayer seems to work nicely
The UI for Vplayer is defo not perfect.. the folders glitch, and the soft buttons stay lit, however the playback is smooth and in sync, so very usable for now.
wilbur-force said:
VPlayer seems to work nicely
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vPlayer have a good sw video decoder(ffmpeg) but
vPlayer can't use HW video decoder except native supported format(mp4).
SW video decoder use higher CPU power than HW decoder and drains battery too fast. and loose a color detail.
Great news. Loved the Dice player on my Asus Transformer. Sold my tablet though so I'm looking forward to using it on the GN
mingoid said:
Plays local files fine but doesn't go fullscreen - leaves the onscreen buttons.
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we update diceplayer to support full screen on Galaxy Nexus.
changelog of diceplayer v.1.7.5
--------------------------------------
What's in this version:
Support full screen for Galaxy Nexus
Fix bug that sometimes continuation does not work properly for Galaxy Nexus
Fix bug that some AVI files are not played properly
Fix bug that aspect ratio is abnormal when orientation is changed
Add option that shows audio only files (default off)
Add option that saves the subtitle (default on, can move by touching subtitle while playing)
Fix minor bugs
Has anyone tried playing MKV's on the native ICS media player? I can play aac-audio h.264-video MKVs without installing any additional player
SilentMobius said:
Has anyone tried playing MKV's on the native ICS media player? I can play aac-audio h.264-video MKVs without installing any additional player
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after Honeycomb, Android supports MKV format ( not perfectly) but audio codec limited to AAC/MP3.
if you want to play AC3/DTS/Flac audio and embedded subtitles, you should install 3rd party player.
Just though id add my findings.
Ive tried dice player but as with Vplayer i have had mixed results.
Some of my Mp4 files play just fine whilst others fail to open. The player just goes back to the andriod home screen. The ones that fail have ac3 audio.
Im guessing its down to the audio codecs required to play the files.
I do like the look and feel of the app though.
Its a shame im having these issues as the galaxy s2 played them all natively.
Haven't bought Dice Player but I can confirm the trial will playback high profile MKVs in 1080p:
I tried Diceplayer on few local 720p MKV and these play nice.
But two things:
1. My TXT subtitles did not load.
2. When I tried to play the same file from network share, Diceplayer crashes.
I was just able to mount my network share drive via CIFS, so that it appears under /mnt/cifs/share
Then I tried Diceplayer and it did play my 720p MKV in HW with no delay on start.
If it only supported TXT subtitles... (it would probably need to handle different formats, as I have noticed sometimes different formats used in TXT file)
Will run my usual batch of test video files through the Nexus and Dice Player in next couple of days as I just got my Nexus. Expect it won't measure up to the Note/SGSII that I'm accustomed to, but if it can handle 720p I'll be happy enough...
Not sure If I posted this already, but Dice player was able to play 1080p mov trailer in hardware other players either could not play at all or used software and were skipping.

Video playback performance for MKV?

Edit: Sorry I didn't see this thread sooner: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1366756
Hello, currently I am using the Galaxy S II (1.5ghz Qualcomm S3 version). It almost play 720p MKV videos with RockPlayer, but not quite, since the audio lags behind the video.
Can someone give RockPlayer a try with some hd MKV files on their Nexus and see if it can handle them? Low bitrates will manage, but I'm looking at 720p and 1080p MKV videos at 2000kbps or more.
I am interested in waiting for the American version of the Galaxy Note, but it will also use the Qualcomm S3 chip, which means even though it has a larger screen, it won't play be playing my videos. If the Nexus can manage these videos, I rather get it instead.
There are some legal hd videos such as big buck bunny, which can be converted from MP4 to MKV.
(PS. Yes I want to watch HD videos on my cellphone screen.)
I am the same way. I play 720P .mkv on my phone. i currently have the Rezound(the Nexus is not available in the US yet). When i was using the Thunderbolt, it would play these files, but unless i overclocked the phone it would play out-of-sync(but even then, it would still be slightly out-of-sync).
On the Rezound, 99% of the time the files play just fine(no sync issues). I found that the best player to use is 'Dice Player', followed by MX Video Player.
I did say "99%", and yeah.. for some reason, on rare occasions a video will start to slip out-of-sync, and when it does it's with MX Video Player.. but if do it through Dice Player it plays fine.
I will say though that having 'Sense' on this phone isn't exactly a big plus when it comes to try to getting the best performance out of it. Luckily, the Nexus doesn't have Sense.
I have done a few BluRay rips to 1280x720 (native nexus) and they play on the Galaxy Nexus perfectly using build in player. Much, much better than they ever did on my 10.1 tablet. No issues at all.
The scene I use for test is the bit in Inception where the tables explode in the cafe, this really makes some struggle. No prob on the nexus, very impressed.
Posted Today, 01:39 PM
Galaxy Nexus 1080p FULL HD and 720p MKV Video Playback Test
justsayinbro said:
Posted Today, 01:39 PM
Galaxy Nexus 1080p FULL HD and 720p MKV Video Playback Test
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MX Player seemed to have more options on when to use hardware decoding than QQ Player has in that video. You could have hardware video decoding while also running software audio decoding.

.mkv audio problems

my .mkv videos dont play sound . unless i use softwere decoding on mobo but the the video is a lag fest. anyone know of a good way to convert them for one x friendly viewing
DicePlayer is working flawlessly for me with my 720p .mkv files. Buttery smooth video and audio is perfectly in sync.
Try Avidemux its free.
Just copy the video and re-encode the audio.
Works spot on for me.
mishmac said:
Try Avidemux its free.
Just copy the video and re-encode the audio.
Works spot on for me.
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thanks works great changing it to aac
and its fast
Theres also bs player lite if you don't like the menu bar in diceplayer.
On MX Player you can set it to use the hardware decoder to decode video (H.264), software decoder to decode audio (Dolby 5.1/DTS) and enable fast mode.
720p and 1080p .mkv's tested here working perfectly.
Yeah currently using MX Player. But you gotta set the decoders away from HW every time you start playing an .mkv file.
What does Avidemux do exactly? Is mkv not really supported by ICS?
Thanks
Your audio is probably DTS or AC3 encoded, Dice Player can handle those and use hardware decoding. Best video player for any Android it supports IMO. No dirty transcoding or anything, just drag n drop and everything works.
NZtechfreak said:
Your audio is probably DTS or AC3 encoded, Dice Player can handle those and use hardware decoding. Best video player for any Android it supports IMO. No dirty transcoding or anything, just drag n drop and everything works.
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Ah, gonna try Dice and do some experiments, like, see if it can play my mkv files with hardware acceleration instead of software.
kythor said:
Ah, gonna try Dice and do some experiments, like, see if it can play my mkv files with hardware acceleration instead of software.
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Try MX Player. You can try HW video and SW audio and see how that goes. Decoding isn't locked to the same type between video and audio on MX
I just tried Dice Player and it can play the mkv's audio with HW.
I don't think my ears are sensitive enough to hear the difference, but I read that HW acceleration uses lesser battery juice than SW?
kythor said:
I just tried Dice Player and it can play the mkv's audio with HW.
I don't think my ears are sensitive enough to hear the difference, but I read that HW acceleration uses lesser battery juice than SW?
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Yes it does cos most SoC's come with a built in decoder. SW decode would mean you're using your CPU power to convert audio/video on the fly as you watch/listen, causing more battery drain.
Here is a comparison on what I have tried so far, for playing .mkv files:
Default HTC player: No audio at all and you cannot setup decoding to play audio whatsoever.
Mobo player: The same as HTC player.
Dice player: Audio works and videos play using hardware acceleration, but if you have stock rom, you cannot watch videos in full screen because of the menu bar, which is a huge deal breaker for me.
BS player: ICS friendly (menu button and all), plays videos with audio fine on software decoding mode or hardware decoding mode (BSPlayer engine). But on hardware decoding mode (system), the video is really bad, it has some corrupted squares all over it. I reckon that "HW decoding mode (system)" should be utilizing Tegra 3, right?
MX player: Also ICS friendly. Plays videos with audio fine on software decoding mode, but on hardware decoding mode, there is no sound. There is, however, an option to software decode audio when playing hardware decoded video, but, when I select that, the video completely stops and it's unplayable.
So, the final conclusion is this:
In MX player, currently the only way to watch videos is by software decoding. BS player can use hardware decoding using its own engine, but actually I don't know what "BSPlayer engine" utilizes for hw decoding. So the winner should be BS player, but the problem is that I really much more prefer MX over BS, due to other functions that it has and the overall appearance and experience.
My question to you guys is this: are there any negative effects if I use MX player with software decoding? Will my battery last shorter if CPU does all the decoding instead of the Tegra 3? I guess it will in theory, but has anyone tried and actually seen the difference with HW over SW decoding?
I sure hope that all of these app devs will soon follow ICS standards and new phones with graphics accelerations.
Also, if anyone can suggest a video player that hasn't been mentioned here, please do so!
xaeder said:
Here is a comparison on what I have tried so far, for playing .mkv files:
So, the final conclusion is this:
In MX player, currently the only way to watch videos is by software decoding. BS player can use hardware decoding using its own engine, but actually I don't know what "BSPlayer engine" utilizes for hw decoding. So the winner should be BS player, but the problem is that I really much more prefer MX over BS, due to other functions that it has and the overall appearance and experience.
My question to you guys is this: are there any negative effects if I use MX player with software decoding? Will my battery last shorter if CPU does all the decoding instead of the Tegra 3? I guess it will in theory, but has anyone tried and actually seen the difference with HW over SW decoding?
I sure hope that all of these app devs will soon follow ICS standards and new phones with graphics accelerations.
Also, if anyone can suggest a video player that hasn't been mentioned here, please do so!
Click to expand...
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Software decoding will always consume more power. How much more I do not know. Also, Tegra 3 IS the CPU. Hardware decode means that there is a specific chip in the SoC that is there specifically to encode/decode video/audio and hence CPU resources are minimal. When that chip does not support a certain format, it's forced to render it in software.
Also, .mkv is just a container, there are many audio and video formats that can be encoded into .mkv
Thank you for your answer! I understand now what Tegra 3 actually is.
Oh, and for the format, sorry I forgot to mention. You are right, .mkv is just a container
The format of my files tested is:
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 23.98fps [Video]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo [Audio]
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As mentioned in other posts... If you have to use S/W in MX, it's because you have a 5.1 audio track.
Use something like mkv2mp4, and that will convert the audio stream to 2ch
Then MX will play the video & audio with H/W
adamsweeting said:
As mentioned in other posts... If you have to use S/W in MX, it's because you have a 5.1 audio track.
Use something like mkv2mp4, and that will convert the audio stream to 2ch
Then MX will play the video & audio with H/W
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Click to collapse
This is helpful. Thanks
I think BSplayer is best. Sure, it uses it's own HW engine(if you want), but it shouldn't be any big differences I hope. It sure as hell uses alot less battery then SW anyway. And also, BSplayer can play straight from .rar's and stream from a windows share in HW-mode (with it's own engine ofc)! Most players switch back to SW when you play through network but not bsplayer. And BSplayer also downloads subs automatically. The only downside is that it's kind of ugly. Haha
Now, it they only would port XBMC to android..
---------- Post added at 10:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 PM ----------
adamsweeting said:
As mentioned in other posts... If you have to use S/W in MX, it's because you have a 5.1 audio track.
Use something like mkv2mp4, and that will convert the audio stream to 2ch
Then MX will play the video & audio with H/W
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The whole idea with these media players is to not have to convert every video you've want to see. BSPlayer is the best player, period. It can play everything I've tried as of yet anyhow.
There it however one thing I hate, but thats probably the phone (or drivers) and not bsplayer. If you play say 720p over network with a bluetooth headset, it will lag. It's if they haven't given enough bandwidth to the wifi/bluetooth chip. Don't think I had this problem on my old phone.
just tried Dice player there, i must say it is really good. no lag what so ever, and the sound was perfect, and the menu bar didn't bother me at all.
some of them might work in whatever app you want to use, but i can tell you that some of them will never work right. i bought a Cowon D2 (what a mistake!) and ended up selling it. some mkvs didn't show video and a lot of them didn't have audio. it depends on the codecs that were used. it's the same on PS3. there are certain videos and audios that you need better hardware to play. i've seen people say that the audio has to be "AC3" for it to work on PS3. i wouldn't waste too much time with it and you should just convert it lower or use a computer with mid to high level AMD/Nvidia and some $100+ sound card. if you're trying to watch bluray disc rips that keep some of the quality, then it most likely won't work.

[Q] Hi10p playback on Note 3 with MXplayer/other video player apps?

Those who have a Note 3: can anyone report back on how MKV files with 10-bit profile/hi10p play back using MXplayer (Using HW+ or whatever codec works best) or whatever video app you prefer to use?
Sample files in both 720p and 1080p resolution are here: koi-sama.net/files/hi10/
This was one of the first things I tried, to see whether or not it could handle my bluray quality anime. Guess what, IT DOES! Both MXplayer and even the stock player handle hi10p mkv bluray flac 1080p videos with ease. Also subtitles work great in both, but are substantially better in mxplayer which does some effects for the subtitles and can do more than one line at a time.
wiimonkey9 said:
This was one of the first things I tried, to see whether or not it could handle my bluray quality anime. Guess what, IT DOES! Both MXplayer and even the stock player handle hi10p mkv bluray flac 1080p videos with ease. Also subtitles work great in both, but are substantially better in mxplayer which does some effects for the subtitles and can do more than one line at a time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung should give you some commission because you just sold me on the phone! <3
Thanks and thanks!
Can you try out Dice player to see if that app works also?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.a
Use the provided codec with it please. The codec has to be in the internal sdcard & link it in Dice settings
TYVM
Here's the codec since I'm unable to edit my previous post
RMXO said:
Can you try out Dice player to see if that app works also?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.a
Use the provided codec with it please. The codec has to be in the internal sdcard & link it in Dice settings
TYVM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked both without and with the codec. Subtitles worked better than the stock player, as it showed multiple lines at once during openings with karaoke lyrics, though both lines were on top of each other, instead of one being on the bottom and one being on the top like mxplayer had it. There are possibly settings to play with subtitles and such, but either way it seems that the phone is playing videos like a boss.
For testing I was using these videos: http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=236223
I'm about to test http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=446022
and one of the most subtitle intensive videos I know, the first episode of this http://colormesubbed.com/the-world-god-only-knows-ii-bd-vol-1
I'll update this post when I am done testing.
Update:
Alright. The stock video player failed to play both of those, and only played the audio and basic subtitles. MXplayer and Dice player both played the World God only knows video perfectly, but with only MXplayer perfectly applying all of the subtitle effects(which is pretty impressive). They both needed S/W rendering to play it however. They could only play Garden of Words with S/W rendering as well, though it did lag and stutter. The video for Garden of Worlds is honestly a nightmare with even most laptops being unable to play it, though I do expect that the Note 3 will eventually be able to play it with better optimizations from the video player apps in the future. Even though the world god only knows video was the same codec, it was at half the bitrate and had 2-channel sound instead of 6-channel. Like I said, that video is an overboard example. The phone literally plays every other video in my collection.
wiimonkey9 said:
Alright. The stock video player failed to play both of those, and only played the audio and basic subtitles. MXplayer and Dice player both played the World God only knows video perfectly, but with only MXplayer perfectly applying all of the subtitle effects(which is pretty impressive). They both needed S/W rendering to play it however. They could only play Garden of Words with S/W rendering as well, though it did lag and stutter. The video for Garden of Worlds is honestly a nightmare with even most laptops being unable to play it, though I do expect that the Note 3 will eventually be able to play it with better optimizations from the video player apps in the future. Even though the world god only knows video was the same codec, it was at half the bitrate and had 2-channel sound instead of 6-channel. Like I said, that video is an overboard example. The phone literally plays every other video in my collection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the report, hi10 compatibility is a major point for me too!
So, all videos play fine, even 1080p hi10 subbed, except some pretty heavy ones, like Garden of Words..
Maybe this was due to the bigger size (a movie and not episodes) and the sourround sound?
Just figured I'd post a more technical answer for people here who are wondering. The Note 3 does not appear to support hardware acceleration for High [email protected], or for most people who watch anime know it as, 10-bit. Now that doesn't mean it won't play it, but you aren't going to get 100% smooth video with it when video higher bittrate or 1080P video.
Just so you know I've pretty much watched every new anime that came out this season on my Note 3 (20+ shows) and not a single one had issues. At most I've only had one or two instances of stuttering which was attributed to other tasks in the background doing stuff, since it still is a phone. The Note 3 definitely is a beast and probably the best phone you could get for watching Anime. Heck, there's times where I'll sit on my bed watching an episode because it looks better than my computer screen.
But regardless, just know it doesn't really support it. This means that the H/W and H/W+ modes in MXPlayer (or any player you can get from and Android store) don't work on the video and it'll force you to use S/W mode (you can tell by the S/W mark on the top right of the video when you open the seek menu within MXPlayer)
So what does this mean exactly? Well even in S/W mode the phone has enough power to force its way through rendering anything as long as it's not too demanding. Several of the shows that came out this season are encoded 10-bit by quite a few groups and I have had no issues. The biggest one I've watched without issues is [UTW-Mazui]_Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun_S_-_24_[720p][1E0D545F] which comes in at about 800mb for the episode and definitely has one of the highest bittrates you'll see for currently aired Anime. Though do note the video is High [email protected] so it's not the newest format profile but it still forces the phone to use S/W mode. However the video plays perfectly fine with no stuttering or lag issues.
But once you go beyond that the phone's power just isn't enough to make up for the lack of hardware support. Playing [Coalgirls]_Sword_Art_Online_02_(1920x1080_Blu-ray_FLAC)_[483024FB] shows noticeable lag and is practically unwatchable. I would say I get around 10-15FPS, but that's really only an estimate. My guess is most 1080P 10-bit videos you'll watch with software mode will be unwatchable, however 720P 10-bit videos seem to be fine. I've thrown everything I can find at it and anything 720P 10-bit works perfecly. But do note that if the video is not 10-bit then you should have no problem at all watching it. I've watched [Coalgirls]_Infinite_Stratos_01_(1920x1080_Blu-Ray_FLAC)_[A9B39255] without any issues, and in fact completed that entire series on my phone without a single issue, however the phone does play back the video in H/W+ mode because it's not 10-bit.
I hope this helps someone decide on this phone. It is honestly the best phone I've ever owned and finally lets me watch all the Anime I want. While I wish it would watch every video I have as I have a lot of newer 1080P 10-bit stuff it still gets the job done better than any other phone I've tested. And my god lets not forget to mention the screen which is absolutely perfect for Anime viewing. The size makes the viewing a pleasure and the extra color options really make it perfect. Though there are settings to get the color accuracy down to normal if it is too colorful for your taste.
P.S. I also have a paid Chrunchyroll account and have had no issues watching anything there.
---------- Post added at 11:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 PM ----------
wiimonkey9 said:
This was one of the first things I tried, to see whether or not it could handle my bluray quality anime. Guess what, IT DOES! Both MXplayer and even the stock player handle hi10p mkv bluray flac 1080p videos with ease. Also subtitles work great in both, but are substantially better in mxplayer which does some effects for the subtitles and can do more than one line at a time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just want to make sure that no one buys the phone thinking this is true. MXPlayer will play 10-bit anime in S/W mode and the built in video player will say "unsupported video codec" While not ill intent was involved my guess is that wiimonkey9 probably tried 1080P MKV blu-rays that weren't 10-bit encoded. Read my post above if you want more information but I figured I'd quote this in case anyone does a Google search to get here like I did and immediately read his response.
GameBoiye said:
Just figured I'd post a more technical answer for people here who are wondering. The Note 3 does not appear to support hardware acceleration for High [email protected], or for most people who watch anime know it as, 10-bit. Now that doesn't mean it won't play it, but you aren't going to get 100% smooth video with it when video higher bittrate or 1080P video.
Just so you know I've pretty much watched every new anime that came out this season on my Note 3 (20+ shows) and not a single one had issues. At most I've only had one or two instances of stuttering which was attributed to other tasks in the background doing stuff, since it still is a phone. The Note 3 definitely is a beast and probably the best phone you could get for watching Anime. Heck, there's times where I'll sit on my bed watching an episode because it looks better than my computer screen.
But regardless, just know it doesn't really support it. This means that the H/W and H/W+ modes in MXPlayer (or any player you can get from and Android store) don't work on the video and it'll force you to use S/W mode (you can tell by the S/W mark on the top right of the video when you open the seek menu within MXPlayer)
So what does this mean exactly? Well even in S/W mode the phone has enough power to force its way through rendering anything as long as it's not too demanding. Several of the shows that came out this season are encoded 10-bit by quite a few groups and I have had no issues. The biggest one I've watched without issues is [UTW-Mazui]_Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun_S_-_24_[720p][1E0D545F] which comes in at about 800mb for the episode and definitely has one of the highest bittrates you'll see for currently aired Anime. Though do note the video is High [email protected] so it's not the newest format profile but it still forces the phone to use S/W mode. However the video plays perfectly fine with no stuttering or lag issues.
But once you go beyond that the phone's power just isn't enough to make up for the lack of hardware support. Playing [Coalgirls]_Sword_Art_Online_02_(1920x1080_Blu-ray_FLAC)_[483024FB] shows noticeable lag and is practically unwatchable. I would say I get around 10-15FPS, but that's really only an estimate. My guess is most 1080P 10-bit videos you'll watch with software mode will be unwatchable, however 720P 10-bit videos seem to be fine. I've thrown everything I can find at it and anything 720P 10-bit works perfecly. But do note that if the video is not 10-bit then you should have no problem at all watching it. I've watched [Coalgirls]_Infinite_Stratos_01_(1920x1080_Blu-Ray_FLAC)_[A9B39255] without any issues, and in fact completed that entire series on my phone without a single issue, however the phone does play back the video in H/W+ mode because it's not 10-bit.
I hope this helps someone decide on this phone. It is honestly the best phone I've ever owned and finally lets me watch all the Anime I want. While I wish it would watch every video I have as I have a lot of newer 1080P 10-bit stuff it still gets the job done better than any other phone I've tested. And my god lets not forget to mention the screen which is absolutely perfect for Anime viewing. The size makes the viewing a pleasure and the extra color options really make it perfect. Though there are settings to get the color accuracy down to normal if it is too colorful for your taste.
P.S. I also have a paid Chrunchyroll account and have had no issues watching anything there.
---------- Post added at 11:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:20 PM ----------
I just want to make sure that no one buys the phone thinking this is true. MXPlayer will play 10-bit anime in S/W mode and the built in video player will say "unsupported video codec" While not ill intent was involved my guess is that wiimonkey9 probably tried 1080P MKV blu-rays that weren't 10-bit encoded. Read my post above if you want more information but I figured I'd quote this in case anyone does a Google search to get here like I did and immediately read his response.
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Is this for a particular type of anime. or just Anime in general?
Is this for specific MKV files running bluray (fullHD) rips?
dragonstalker said:
Is this for a particular type of anime. or just Anime in general?
Is this for specific MKV files running bluray (fullHD) rips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't specifically only related to Anime or MKV files, it's more specifically related to the h.264 standard. You can read a brief description of it here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Hi10P and a more indepth description here: http://x264.nl/x264/10bit_01-ateme_pierre_larbier_422_10-bit.pdf
While it can be used for any videos, it's primarily used for Anime as it can provide better video at the same bittrate. It fixes a lot of problems that come with animation being encoded such as banding. It can be used for regular content but the benefit for non-animation medium is not enough to justify the increase in processing power and lack of hardware support to get people to switch.

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