Develop Bugs

Best Video Player for TP2?

I am trying to find a good player for .avi, .mpeg4, etc. for my TP2. I used to use TCPMP but when I installed it on my TP2 it errors out at launch. Any ideas? Is there a newer version of TCPMP that is compatible?
Thanks!

The WMP supports avi and mp4. And it works!

Hmm, it does not work for me. That is strange.

dcam1075 said:
I used to use TCPMP but when I installed it on my TP2 it errors out at launch. Any ideas? Is there a newer version of TCPMP that is compatible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3275845&postcount=172
Once installed you need to go into Options/Settings... and choose the DirectDraw page, then tick the box that says "Use blitting instead of overlay".

Try Core Player. It is amazing... it is also running via network (wifi)

the best video player is coreplayer

Aqrab said:
the best video player is coreplayer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The impression I get from reading these fora is that CorePlayer may be the best but that it's still not actually particularly good, as it is unable to benefit from any of the hardware acceleration provided by the Qualcomm chipset - this being HTC's fault for providing dodgy or non-existent drivers. It seems like this is a major weakness of the TP2.

Actually, from what I remember, it's not HTC's fault per se, so it's not really fair to blame HTC. The thing is that Qualcomm sold their chipsets but different price ranges for the same chip. The difference being that if one paid more then they'd get the drivers necessary to take advantage of other features. Basically one has to pay for the drivers. So HTC's player includes hardware acceleration, but just because it seems they have gotten the drivers for that feature doesn't mean that they can pass the drivers on to software makers (just like you can't legally pass your copy of a game on to a friend). But neither can we say it's Qualcomm's fault as it was their pricing plan. I think somewhere it was stated that it was a misunderstanding at some point. But yeah, that's the gist, and why if Coreplayer is to work they have to reverse engineer the drivers or deal with Qualcomm directly.

What's wrong with the built-in free WMP? It plays 640x480 MP4 (H.264) videos smoothly.

solsearch said:
Actually, from what I remember, it's not HTC's fault per se, so it's not really fair to blame HTC. The thing is that Qualcomm sold their chipsets but different price ranges for the same chip. The difference being that if one paid more then they'd get the drivers necessary to take advantage of other features. Basically one has to pay for the drivers. So HTC's player includes hardware acceleration, but just because it seems they have gotten the drivers for that feature doesn't mean that they can pass the drivers on to software makers (just like you can't legally pass your copy of a game on to a friend). But neither can we say it's Qualcomm's fault as it was their pricing plan. I think somewhere it was stated that it was a misunderstanding at some point. But yeah, that's the gist, and why if Coreplayer is to work they have to reverse engineer the drivers or deal with Qualcomm directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me get this straight... Your saying it's not HTC's fault because you think they didn't know they were buying chipsets without drivers from Qualcomm. To me it sounds like they cheaped out and screwed consumers.
I highly doubt its a misunderstanding and I'm not afraid to place blame because I'm more than certain HTC knew what they were doing otherwise they wouldn't keep ordering more of the same chipset to produce new phones.
If this were really the case I would assume we would see slightly different hardware or drivers included with CDMA versions since they would have had time to figure this out since everyone else already has.

Gave up Core Player for the Touch phones. It doesn't play movies at all well. Just use the built-in WMP or the HTC album player.
Download the Encoder GUI and just re-encode your movies. Let it run during your bedtime. Easy!

Lord_BlackAdder said:
What's wrong with the built-in free WMP? It plays 640x480 MP4 (H.264) videos smoothly.
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Click to collapse
For starters, it doesn't play xvid.

Shasarak said:
For starters, it doesn't play xvid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re-encode it using the Encoder GUI. Why fight it?
Don't think there any mobile phones that can play xvid videos at 800x480 smoothly. Even the latest i8000 only supports video playback at up to 720x480.
Even if you get an iPhone, you will still need to convert it to in order for you to watch it.
My solution, either re-encode it, or play a lower resolution xvid (i think i tried it once at 622x288, can't remember and it played ok in core player).

I'd go with Coreplayer too as it has the widest range of codecs available BUT if the bitrate of your clip is too high your phone won't like it whatever player you use (but you probably knew that anyway...)

Hi Everyone I have found that GOM Encoder does an outstanding job of converting any movie to a playable format for the Rhodium

reddog said:
Hi Everyone I have found that GOM Encoder does an outstanding job of converting any movie to a playable format for the Rhodium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, good find! Will give it a try for sure! Cheers!

Core player has some nice features, but benchmarking h264 playback it was somewhat lacking compaired to windows media player mobile....
95% of the time u will want to/have to re-encode to make it smaller or lower the bitrate to something it can play, so codec support shoudnt be a choosing factor...
I get WMPM playing smooth with H264(1300~ bitrate) and ACC audio(stereo at 128 varieable bitrate) at 800x416. which is dame nice quality on the small screen
I'll start a thread on encoding with MeGUI to get you all started

But I can't get full screen on WMP
Lord_BlackAdder said:
What's wrong with the built-in free WMP? It plays 640x480 MP4 (H.264) videos smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know what I'm doing wrong? After not being able to use WMP on my Universal (WM5) because it could not do full screen - I load a movie into WMP on my shiny new Touch Pro 2 and 'full screen' isn't - it has a dirty great big border round it! The video is smaller then the screen but WMP is set to stretch to screen. What gives??
John

Shasarak said:
Try here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3275845&postcount=172
Once installed you need to go into Options/Settings... and choose the DirectDraw page, then tick the box that says "Use blitting instead of overlay".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow that done the trick for me, awesome playback imo

I tried the Touch HD encoder and used the advised settings in the thread.
Playback is smooth in HTC Album, but the quality seemed fuzzier than my normal method.
So back I go to:
Coreplayer
Videos encoded using PocketDivXEncoder with the following settings:
HDTV preset
Video quality: 70
Audio quality: maximum
Resize the video so that the video width is 400 pixels, maintaining the aspect ratio.

Coreplayer problem

Since I switched from 6.1 (official rom) to 6.5 (official rom upgrade) the coreplayer started to have a choppy playback. It does not make a difference if I install it on the sd card (class 6) or on the phone itself, same for the videos
I had no problems with videoplayback on the 6.1!
Switching to a custom ROM (6.5.5) but that didn't make the video playback any faster. What can I do?

PumpAction said:
Since I switched from 6.1 (official rom) to 6.5 (official rom upgrade) the coreplayer started to have a choppy playback. It does not make a difference if I install it on the sd card (class 6) or on the phone itself, same for the videos
I had no problems with videoplayback on the 6.1!
Switching to a custom ROM (6.5.5) but that didn't make the video playback any faster. What can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you compare performance using a video you have tried before, and you considered it to run faster in WM 6.1.
Then, first thing to try is Video Settings, look for these settings:
Video Output = QTv Display (Other settings produced poor quality for me)
Video Quality = Medium or High
Then go to QTv Display, and make sure this is checked:
"TyTN II" driver mode.
I hope I was able to help you...
As side comments:
- Sometimes videos that have been compressed a lot would loose frames during playback. Sometimes we are too demanding and want to play videos at 800x480, but the TP2 can't really do it well at that resolution. Try a smaller resolution instead when converting your videos.
- In some cases, if the GUI is not using the 3D Accelerator (as with SBP Mobile Shell), CorePlayer performs terrible or even doesn't show the video.

AmazingIceman said:
Make sure you compare performance using a video you have tried before, and you considered it to run faster in WM 6.1.
Then, first thing to try is Video Settings, look for these settings:
Video Output = QTv Display (Other settings produced poor quality for me)
Video Quality = Medium or High
Then go to QTv Display, and make sure this is checked:
"TyTN II" driver mode.
I hope I was able to help you...
As side comments:
- Sometimes videos that have been compressed a lot would loose frames during playback. Sometimes we are too demanding and want to play videos at 800x480, but the TP2 can't really do it well at that resolution. Try a smaller resolution instead when converting your videos.
- In some cases, if the GUI is not using the 3D Accelerator (as with SBP Mobile Shell), CorePlayer performs terrible or even doesn't show the video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you can turn off Manila 3D when playing your videos. This is a known bug with Coreplayer, WM6.5, and Manila on the TP2. Just the TP2. My Topaz doesn't have this problem with the same setup and same Energy rom. Turning off Manila is the easiest workaround. Search the Rhodium forums for a mortscript routine that will shut off Manila, execute Coreplayer, and resume Manila once you exit Coreplayer. A nicer workaround in the long run. But still a workaround.

people have complaining about playback and ive never had a problem. i both upgraded my rom to 2.07 and my coreplayer to the latest version and now im one with choppy playback. not sure what exactly is different i wish i didnt delete my old core player cab so i could test that.

AmazingIceman said:
Make sure you compare performance using a video you have tried before, and you considered it to run faster in WM 6.1.
Then, first thing to try is Video Settings, look for these settings:
Video Output = QTv Display (Other settings produced poor quality for me)
Video Quality = Medium or High
Then go to QTv Display, and make sure this is checked:
"TyTN II" driver mode.
I hope I was able to help you...
As side comments:
- Sometimes videos that have been compressed a lot would loose frames during playback. Sometimes we are too demanding and want to play videos at 800x480, but the TP2 can't really do it well at that resolution. Try a smaller resolution instead when converting your videos.
- In some cases, if the GUI is not using the 3D Accelerator (as with SBP Mobile Shell), CorePlayer performs terrible or even doesn't show the video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK disabling Manila is a good idea, but what is the easiest way to shut it down? Everything else is set up correctly. And believe me, I tried each and every setting What I find surprising is that the official 6.5 gave me the same bug. Isn't it using any acceleration ?
EDIT: Windows Media Player does also have very very choppy playback. It does not matter if the files are placed on the SD Card or on the phone itself. Different file types, different file sizes. AVI, WMV, MP4 ... The moment the files have more than ~400kbit the video stutters. If I go into full screen it stutters even more

The Jack of Clubs said:
people have complaining about playback and ive never had a problem. i both upgraded my rom to 2.07 and my coreplayer to the latest version and now im one with choppy playback. not sure what exactly is different i wish i didnt delete my old core player cab so i could test that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It started with wm6.5 and Manila 2.x. I noticed even with Manila 2.1 this problem occurred. Only on the Tilt2 - maybe HD2 - I just know this because I own a Fuze and Diamond2 and never saw this problem. It doesn't matter what version of Coreplayer you use - even the one going back to the initial Qtv support. This has more to do with Manila hijacking the video drivers.
I say this because I noticed on a clean reboot the first execution of Coreplayer results in clean video results. But after you close it or load another video the poor performance kicks in. HTC Sense or Manila, running on wm6.5 or higher mind you, does not want other programs taking over the video driver. Not a very scientific explanation I know but this is my observation.

dario69 said:
It started with wm6.5 and Manila 2.x. I noticed even with Manila 2.1 this problem occurred. Only on the Tilt2 - maybe HD2 - I just know this because I own a Fuze and Diamond2 and never saw this problem. It doesn't matter what version of Coreplayer you use - even the one going back to the initial Qtv support. This has more to do with Manila hijacking the video drivers.
I say this because I noticed on a clean reboot the first execution of Coreplayer results in clean video results. But after you close it or load another video the poor performance kicks in. HTC Sense or Manila, running on wm6.5 or higher mind you, does not want other programs taking over the video driver. Not a very scientific explanation I know but this is my observation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK I formatted the SD Card. And I even used Task 29 to format the main os! I reinstalled another ROM (6.5 but with Sense 2.1) and the problem remains.
Windows Media Player AND Coreplayer, both have a VERY VERY choppy playback.

PumpAction said:
OK I formatted the SD Card. And I even used Task 29 to format the main os! I reinstalled another ROM (6.5 but with Sense 2.1) and the problem remains.
Windows Media Player AND Coreplayer, both have a VERY VERY choppy playback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI,
for Me the only ROM wich plays MP4 videos at 30fps with HTCPLAYER.exe at VGA resolution is the Valkirie ROM, and I have tried every main ROM for Rhodium many times each, maybe like 60 flashes or more.
This is the link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=569507
Wont be dissapointed, and dont need coreplayer for MP4, only for other formats like mpeg.
I hope this helps.

Does Coreplayer suck or is it me.. ?

So I love my HD because of it's big screen (I love watching movies). I download these high quality 3d anime movies and sink them down to 800x480, play them on my coreplayer 1.3.6 or smth and it lags like hell. I try it on Windows media player and it runs perfectly. Am I doing something wrong or does coreplayer really suck ?

i think it might be you.
on my HD, i pick any 1hr30min+ video encoded for playback on pcs (file size 700mb) and it plays fine in CP
Maybe its a ROM issue? try disabling manila or a softreset and see if that helps.

Would have to agree with ASK
Yeah, coreplayer is brilliant, plays pretty much everything i throw at it. Though at first i'd have agreed with you, but for differing reasons.

I think it's more A ROM issue, because I flash ROMs every week or two and on some ROMs coreplayer lags like hell. With stock ROM is the best I think

840x480 is too much for our HD try a bit lower something in the range of 624x352 it looks and runs smooth 98.22% average speed with a good ROM I run hdtv rips downloaded and not compressed or anything... tweaks are important also try different drivers and speed improving programs .

I loaded a standard definition american dad episode (approx 135mb) and coreplayer plays it flawlessly on my HD.

PaKo0o said:
So I love my HD because of it's big screen (I love watching movies). I download these high quality 3d anime movies and sink them down to 800x480, play them on my coreplayer 1.3.6 or smth and it lags like hell. I try it on Windows media player and it runs perfectly. Am I doing something wrong or does coreplayer really suck ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it is you. LOL, just kidding. I never sunk anything to a special format for it to be played by CP: I have DivX, XViD, MP4, AVI movies, I just put them on my storage card and open them "as is" in Coreplayer 1.36. Either your manipulation to "sink" the anime to 800*480 was wrong, because you don't need to actually. Or it could be ROM related.
f.

Never knew it could be ROM related.. 0.o I'll test that. What about other normal movies, like not anime? Are they watchable ?

where it could be ROM related it it probably more likely to be a long standing issue with the HD and drivers, this has been covered a zillion times already. The HD will have trouble most video files in coreplayer as there is no hardware acceleration and the CPU alone just doesnt have the low down grunt.Your best bet is to upgrade to the HD2 or to covert your files using the touch HD video converter, (there are a few versions about) and then play them in HTC video player which has acceleration.
That being said, coreplayer if by far the best player on the market with regards to formats and codec suppport, if you dont mind reducing the resolution a little on your movies they should reasonable well.
The software I like, the company I do not however as they are mislead their customers, make huge exegerations about future update release dates and generally pissed off their customer base when failed to release V2 on time and moved their dev to android.
If you are going to upgrade to the HD2 I would try the free version TCMP first as it has AC3 suppport.

Hey what class cards are you guys playing stuff off or are ya's playing stuff off the internal memory?
I'm asking because even though mine could play a cartoon flawlessly, I tried watching a normal tv episode on my HD and it failed miserably, dropped frames, video got stuck every few minutes, it was totally poo
I'm wondering if its my card or my TCPMP release, I have read some have hardware acceleration and most other versions don't, I'm using a Class 4 8GB card at the moment and am wondering if Ill get a lot of benefit for Video/Music going to a Class 6 8GB Micro SDHC card.

PaKo0o said:
Never knew it could be ROM related.. 0.o I'll test that. What about other normal movies, like not anime? Are they watchable ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have watched many 700mb DVD-rip's using coreplayer, i use the smartphone edition on my blackstone

why not use HTC encoder to transcode the files? that way the files can be played by HTC Album/WMP and take advantage of the h.264 hardware decoder in the blackstone.

Video playback on Rhodium (Coreplayer?)

Hi,
ever since I upgraded to Rhodium I could not get proper video playback.
Basically no support for overlay.
I was/am using CorePlayer v1.3.6.Build.7427.
Qtv (Tytn II mode on) should work, but it never has. Tried all other video output options, didn't help.
Tearing is always there as is s*itty framerate. Getting ~65%/880kbps on a 1.3mbit video, mp4 avi 640x352.
Coreplayer was working perfectly on my Raphael and working good on the Kaiser.
This all happens on NRG roms (the only one I use ), currently on: Energy.RHODIUM.21903.Sense2.5.Cookie.May.22
Any ideas?

kosmarnik said:
Hi,
ever since I upgraded to Rhodium I could not get proper video playback.
Basically no support for overlay.
I was/am using CorePlayer v1.3.6.Build.7427.
Qtv (Tytn II mode on) should work, but it never has. Tried all other video output options, didn't help.
Tearing is always there as is s*itty framerate. Getting ~65%/880kbps on a 1.3mbit video, mp4 avi 640x352.
Coreplayer was working perfectly on my Raphael and working good on the Kaiser.
This all happens on NRG roms (the only one I use ), currently on: Energy.RHODIUM.21903.Sense2.5.Cookie.May.22
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Known issue with TP2 and WM6.5 and above. Search the forums for more info.
Only known solution - turn off Sense when playing videos.

Try this
This cab fixed my tearing issues in Core Player.

Lightspeed said:
This cab fixed my tearing issues in Core Player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but in my case it didn't fix anything on the Tilt2. Framerate is still choppy until I turn off HTC Sense.

dario69 said:
Thanks but in my case it didn't fix anything on the Tilt2. Framerate is still choppy until I turn off HTC Sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, it works sometimes. Try soft-resetting the phone

Speed Issues
Are other things slow on ur Tilt2 or is it just Media Playback perhaps you have too much stored on ur internal memory and it is slowing ur whole phone down. Just a possible solution...hope it works or hope that somehow ur problem gets fixed

I've never had this problem, except from tcmp that was cooked in... Never core player...
Sounds like a RAM problem, which would be why shutting off sense would fix this. Might need to look at all the apps you are using and disable some. Depends on whether you prefer using all the apps you have now, I disable all the tabs I don't use\need and usually have soft reset the phone a little earlier to clear the RAM.

ultramag69 said:
I've never had this problem, except from tcmp that was cooked in... Never core player...
Sounds like a RAM problem, which would be why shutting off sense would fix this. Might need to look at all the apps you are using and disable some. Depends on whether you prefer using all the apps you have now, I disable all the tabs I don't use\need and usually have soft reset the phone a little earlier to clear the RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RAM has nothing to do with it. It is related to Sense. Pure and simple. Nothing to do with apps, RAM, the video bit rates. It is Sense, WM6.5 and up, and Tilt2. I have done enough testing with both my TP2, TP, and Diamond2 to know it has everything to do with this combination. Sense on the TP2 hijacks the video drivers and unless you turn Sense off video will run choppy on Coreplayer or TCMP.

Coreplayer renders my (DVDFab Mobile mp4 ripped from DVD9) 1.87GB Avatar file ( 2 pass / 1519kbps / 29fps / 368x208 @ full screen) flawlessly on my stock ROM Tilt 2 running Sense 2.1.
Fluid, non-stuttered fast scene movements/changes with great detail tracking 100%.
It has everything to do with fine-tuning OS to have +60MB RAM free (60%) too. Of course, Coreplayer MUST be installed into main memory, not running from SD.
Something else is at fault if still having issues.
AVI container is terribly inefficient, try a pure .mp4 encoding video+audio together (PSP profiles work particularly well). Walle as same .mp4 also plays butter smooth, another tough file to lose fast panning jitters and momentary lags.
Reducing frame size greatly helps without perceptible crispness losses.

Hi
I too am having problems with playing video
on my touch Diamond 2 i just used to transferr over avi files straight from my pc with no conversion and it worked fine.
tried it with the touch pro and the video was well stuttery and unwatchable.
i am just about to load up tcmp to see if that is better
I did turn of sense but that didnt seem to make any difference.
I am also going to try the following conversions:
mp4 PSP settings
h264 original resolution
wmv
i dont really want to have convert every video but if i do what is the resolution to go for?
also i have seen people talk about adjusting the settings for core player but cant see any resolution settings on the player.
sorry to be a bit thick.
thanks in advance

Coreplayer is the best video player. For resolution I find 1/2 display 800x400 gives best compromise of detail. For example, see above post about Avatar, a particularly difficult movie due to high detail levels combined with virtually zero non-moving backrounds adding rendering complexity.
368x208 gave very good detail, full 16:9 image and allowed high frame per second and high kbps which are far more important smoothing out high-action rendering. Higher resolution is just too much to process without lags.
PM me for a sample of what a good conversion can provide, without fooling around disabling Sense, etc.

bmhome1
see the other post i did on testing players and resolutions.
I agree that the mp4 PSP (368 x 208) works well
its just a pain that i have to convert all my files (or turn off sense)
I know its a business device but it seems a bit crap when it wont play as well as the TD2

Hi all,
I broke my blackstone (Touch HD) last week and bought a used Touch Pro, so I am new to this section of XDA.
The first thing I noticed was the poor video playback using coreplayer. I never had this problem with blackstone.
I decided to install NeoS2007_Driverpack_3.cab (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=496528), since it is compatible with our device and I must say it is a big improvement.
I wacthed the new A-team movie without any stutter or glitches, so for me this solution seems to work nicely. I left sense running and did nothing else to improve video playback. The file is a "regular' movie file (MPEG-4, 720x304, 25.000fps).
Hope I can be of some help.
cheers!
extra comment: I found the ram usage of stockrom and a lot of custom roms very high, but after flashing a couple I think I found a winner.... see signature. After using it for a whille, the ram usage is "only" at 45%, which is prettu descent I believe for rhodium roms. I installed the driver pack and R6-16 shortcuts and a bunch of other "crap" like changescreen to have TomTom and other programs to run in landscape, so it's no clean rom anymore.

in fairness to core player wheni played an mp4 file on it it was fine without the sense switched off - see my other post regarding the video player testings i did

I forgot to mention in my post here above that using tnyynt SD Tuneup will increase the access speed of the storage card.
You can read about it here: http://pocketnow.com/tweaks-hacks/how-to-dramatically-speed-up-your-storage-card
Install this tweak first and see how the video works. It will smoothen the playback even without NeoSdrivers installed.

Best Results (IMHO)
Original At&t Ship ROM (Winmo 6.5, Touchflo3D disabled)
Coreplayer v.1.3.6 build 7427 for ARM (Video set to Qtv)
WiMoSpeed v1.04 (Overclock set to 768Mhz)
With these settings, I was able to play a video (AVI: DIVX, 848x480, 23.976fps) with audio (mp3 48000 Hz 2 Ch, 81 kbit/s) smoothly, with no tearing.

brettzx said:
Original At&t Ship ROM (Winmo 6.5, Touchflo3D disabled)
Coreplayer v.1.3.6 build 7427 for ARM (Video set to Qtv)
MiMoSpeed v1.04 (Overclock set to 768Mhz)
With these settings, I was able to play a video (AVI: DIVX, 848x480, 23.976fps) with audio (mp3 48000 Hz 2 Ch, 81 kbit/s) smoothly, with no tearing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please don't resurrect old threads for no reason.

cajunflavoredbob said:
Please don't resurrect old threads for no reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry CFB, but I've been looking through threads for good info on quality video playback and unfortunately this thread was one of the few that offered any useful info (as old as it was) and I figured I'd leave my 2 cents for anyone coming after me that wanted the same.

Video playback and some testing

So after reading up and finding that video playback isnt brilliant on the tp2 i thougt i would do some tests.
my goal was to find an easy way to watch films. I dont really want to have to convert all my films to mp4 and use the htc album, but i dont really want to have to switch of sense and soft reset every time i have a spare 1/2 hour.
So using the same footage I ran multiple formats on the following players:
coreplayer, TCMP, Media Player and HTC album.
Not really sure how conclusive it is ( and there is certainly more testing that can be done)
i am going to try using MP4forHD to convert the file a last time and try that on all players
have a look at the results and let me know what you think

So basically what you're saying is that the only videos that work are the original AVI and some MP4s with coreplayer without Sense turned on. That sucks.

Interesting results. I have never bothered trying with sense or spb mobile shell off, but for most videos I watch (640x320 or something close, i.e., vga resolution), they seem to work ok on the tilt2. I get some annoying pixelation with TCMP, but the default windows media player seems to play them pretty crisply and smoothly. the only tradeoff there is WMP is pretty low on the totem pole feature wise.
it also seems odd to me that your results get worse when sense is turned off. It's more intuitive that it would work better if you have more ram available. Could this be an issue with a custom rom you flashed? I am using the stock ATT with spb mobile shell. Did you try a different media file?

I am using the stock rom
from what i understand the HTC and windows media use some sort of graphics acceleration
so you dont need to turn off sense.

stringman said:
I am using the stock rom
from what i understand the HTC and windows media use some sort of graphics acceleration
so you dont need to turn off sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, that makes sense. Still not sure why things get worse with Sense off, but maybe that is just the human side of the measurement, as they do all look pretty close between the two sets? And actually, it gets better for Core, worse for TCMP, and then about the same for the other two.
Do you think it would be worth trying with a different SD card, or better: trying a small video loaded from the device? If you play from the device, you at lease take the age/quality of the SD card out of the experiment as a variable. Even though you wouldn't watch a video from the device in real life, it may be a better way to benchmark, unless you are benchmarking for a specific card.
I think adding a streaming file to the test would be interesting too. Anyway, thanks for the research on this. It is a very interesting topic, imo.

The muisc player wasn't working for me either, and movies really sucked! nothing would play.
I switched roms and now everything works, music plays and comes up in the player, and movies look and play good.
I converted with AVS here are my settings:
Video codec: MPEG4(divX/Xvid compatible)
Audio codec: MPEG2/4 Audio
Frame Size:
Width: 368
Height: 208
Frame Rate:
Bitrate: 520
File Type: mp4 PSP
Channels: Stereo Sample Size: 16bit
Sample Rate: 48000Hz Bitrate: 128kbps
I watched on the built in player and didn't have to turn anything off, my fully charged battery lasted for almost 4 hours of nearly constant use ( i turned it off after i got under ~7% left).

PocketDiVXEncoder
hard to go wrong with PocketDiVXEncoder
http://www.pocketdivxencoder.net/EN_index.htm
its free, and makes amazingly good playable .avi's out of almost anything
the 1.7mb :30 second clip attached below was encoded at 300k video/96k audio, and the whole movie is about 390megs @ this level of quality.
Anything made in PDE thats <= 1200k/128k/640x480 seems to play flawlessly in COREplayer

my issue is that if i have to convert any file to anyformat its a real pain.
on the td2 i could tranfer a avi fil from my laptop to the sd card and watch the film no problem.
now i have to convert it to a mp4 or something and to a particular resolution
ok so its about 40mins but its a pain
so bearing in mind that this does need to be done
whats the best format ( i am leaning to mp4)
whats the best resolution settings
whats the best prog ( i am using mp4for hd at the moment)
cheers