Develop Bugs

converting videos for TP2

anyone done any yet, if so whats the best converter and format to use and best res
think i heard on a review anything above 720 and it drops frames
anyone confirm this
thanks in advance

combat goofwing said:
anyone done any yet, if so whats the best converter and format to use and best res
think i heard on a review anything above 720 and it drops frames
anyone confirm this
thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a two-part video review that tried several bitrates and came up with an ideal for multiple formats based on CorePlayer's benchmarks. Check the video review thread.
As for 720, that's a 1280x720 resolution, so if you're converting specifically for the TP2, it's a waste and will yield lower quality video than a lower resolution because the device is having to scale it down. Shoot for 800x480 if you want the video to be ideal for the device.
Best converter is going to be a matter of personal taste. Many of the free compression programs out there are just frontends for programs like ffmpeg and mencoder, so the quality ends up being the same. It's just a question of what interface you prefer.

WVGA Conversion
Hi guys,
have you looked here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
regards

ive used the convertor terryd1980 linked to. and its great, slow on my pc (though that'll be my pc's fault) but after a small problem in using large 4gb+ files it seems fine now.
i did a bit of a test with a tv episode. a 1gb 720p file converted with the above and played through album (with a bitrate of 750), compared to coreplayer playing an unconverted 200mb dvd rip. although the dvd rips still looked excellent and played perfectly the originally hd file looked a touch better. i didnt notice any playback issues and there didnt appear to be any skipped frames. i dont know if there's anyway to display how many frames were dropped using album, but coreplayer shows 0 dropped frames after its finished playing.

I dont think it is your computer Jamie, mine runs fairly slowly too and I've spent a lot of cash making my PC pretty beefy.
As it seems to do a great job converting I'm not too fussed but I will leave it going in the background or before I leave for work so that it doesnt bother me.

terryd1980 said:
Hi guys,
have you looked here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
greate .. thx

Has the Kaiser video driver / acceleration issue been solved in Rhodium?

Hi,
I am a Kaiser user, and as you know HTC launched that product with incomplete drivers. Video acceleration drivers were included, and video playback is worse than on most phones; even the ones that are MUCH cheaper.
So one of the BIG questions that most Kaiser / ATT Tilt / TyTN II users will have when considering an upgrade is whether the drivers on the HTC Rhodium are complete, whether video acceleration works perfectly, etc.
Can those of you familiar with the driver problems on the Kaiser, and who own a Rhodium reply to this thread telling us what is the driver situation with this model?

soon to be former titan user subscribing

so far things are ALOT better .. but they still act up on things like fpsece it is still that terrible qualcomm cpu just a slightly newer one.. im hoping that since this is one is new there is still alot to come for it especially with windows marketplace around the corner i would blame windows mobile but i played with an omnia today and the lack of bugginess blew me away but its no where near as pretty as my tp2

bump.
Anyone got tips on whether or not to get one of the touch pro 2's? god I dont want an iPhone but media is the biggest thing I'm looking for in my next phone.

tbh you dont want an iphone then. its low res and not capable of many vdeo formats, videos must be "synced" and are easily deleted by apple software. the rhodium also has a nice tilt screen great for watching videos.

I really like the tilting screen my current phone is the TyTn II and my only complaint is the video performance. A jail broken iphone plays all media types via VLC media player so thats an easy fix. But I'd really rather have the Tilt 2 I just need it to not be the gimp multimedia device that the Tilt is.

SmarterThanMyPhone said:
I really like the tilting screen my current phone is the TyTn II and my only complaint is the video performance. A jail broken iphone plays all media types via VLC media player so thats an easy fix. But I'd really rather have the Tilt 2 I just need it to not be the gimp multimedia device that the Tilt is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO (yeah that dangerous acronym), I've noticed that the TyTnII/Kaiser and the Rhodium are more for business users not recreational users. My partner has an iPhone and I've played with it a couple times. When it came to upgrade my Kaiser, I considered the iPhone as a possible upgrade, but chose the Rhodium/Tilt2.
Why? iPhones do real lousy with Microsoft Office apps, no hard keyboard (I'm fat fingered enough thanks), and a dependence on iTunes that I find frustrating. I've also found several apps that will allow me to convert between iTunes format and standard MP3/wma. Besides, as far as I know there are no cool roms that take advantage of the power of the iPhone.

I think this phone would be superior to the iPhone in every way if these stupid bugs didn't exist. How many just exist for texting? From random message lag to the damn thing freezing for several minutes when you back out of a text. The message box can be all screwed up, too. And all of this happens way to frequently.

core player works fine for me. i watch all types of video. the tilty screen is good for it.

so it seems that from what yall are saying; if I'm not in it for office documents and all i want is to watch my cartoons and make phone calls/texting (I have skinny fingers ) the iphone still beats out the tilt 2.
HTC makes such a sweet looking device, but man they really need to get away from qualcom, and poor video acceleration.

there a video acceleration drivers out. I attached a version i use below.

SmarterThanMyPhone said:
so it seems that from what yall are saying; if I'm not in it for office documents and all i want is to watch my cartoons and make phone calls/texting (I have skinny fingers ) the iphone still beats out the tilt 2.
HTC makes such a sweet looking device, but man they really need to get away from qualcom, and poor video acceleration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont use it for documents. i just said i use it to watch videos.

I've been playing with my buddies tilt 2 today he just got it on saturday, the video is LEAPS & BOUNDS better than my tilt, but its still not as smooth as the video on a 3gs.

SmarterThanMyPhone said:
I've been playing with my buddies tilt 2 today he just got it on saturday, the video is LEAPS & BOUNDS better than my tilt, but its still not as smooth as the video on a 3gs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
except when you play something like divx on an iphone. then the video playback sucks so bad that the movie doesnt even play.

divx lol. avi ftw sir.

My TP2 playes mp4 (H.264) very nicely, full screen.

SmarterThanMyPhone said:
so it seems that from what yall are saying; if I'm not in it for office documents and all i want is to watch my cartoons and make phone calls/texting (I have skinny fingers ) the iphone still beats out the tilt 2.
HTC makes such a sweet looking device, but man they really need to get away from qualcom, and poor video acceleration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd not say the iPhone beats out the Rhodium/Tilt 2, but I will say that the Rhodium/Tilt properly tweaked and free of AT&T bloatware is a media match for iPhone. But then again, I'm a business user who watches a lot of video on my Tilt 2...hehehe...and one has to admit, a slideout hard keyboard and tilting display is a good feature for those of us who don't have thin fingers...<chuckle>

Possibility of a ROM producing better 720p video?

Okay, so I know absolutely nothing about ROMs, so this is mostly a question of if this is possible:
Currently, the EVO's 720p video recording is lackluster. I find that the biggest reason for this is the bitrate of the video used. I imagine that the bitrate used on the video was to accommodate the included microSD card's Class 2 write speed.
Is it possible to increase the bitrate used for encoding of this video, to something ~5mbps, to which a Class 6 microSD could handle just fine? Ideally this could even be implemented as an option in the camera app, so that those who don't have/can't afford a class 6 microSD could still use the ROM.
If that is possible, what are the chances of having the video also record using a different audio codec? The current codec used is pretty much impossible to play back in anything except Quicktime (VLC's latest release candidate just added support, but it still sounds awful, like a pack of hyenas on top of the track). I'm really not particular on what audio codec is actually used; be it mp3, ogg, etc, as long as it's more easily played.
The best case scenario, the DREAM EVO ROM for camera capability for me, would be:
1. At least double the bitrate (4-5mbps) for the 720p video with an option to use old settings.
2. A better audio codec using higher quality settings (minimum 64kbps mp3/ogg/similar) that is playable in many more programs.
3. A more compatible container format like mp4/m4v.
Am I dreaming or would this be possible in a custom ROM?

Don't forget it will also be limited to how fast the hardware can encode the video. Someone with the right skills will have to push the hardware encoder to see how high they can push the bitrate without exceeding real time.
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gbm85 said:
Don't forget it will also be limited to how fast the hardware can encode the video. Someone with the right skills will have to push the hardware encoder to see how high they can push the bitrate without exceeding real time.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, there might be hardware limitations, that's sort of what I'm asking; if this is something that can be "fixed" in a ROM or if we're stuck.
I think as long as it can handle the bandwidth though, I don't see why the chip would be incapable of higher bitrates. I'm not an expert on the matter, but I thought that the less compression/higher bitrate something is, the less power was required to make it happen.

well im pretty sure this is possible, if a dev puts the time and effort into such a large project. i only say this cause the nexus one recently got 720p video recording, something it didnt have from the start. and i think its known that htc made the video recording compressed, so i think theoretically if we lift this compression and use a different form of compression, we can get higher bitrates from the video.

Yeah, I'm hoping a developer can investigate this thoroughly. Even if it takes a while, it'd be nice to know someone is at least looking into it.
And to make it worth their while, I'd be more than willing to pitch some donation funds towards such a project when it becomes successful. I doubt I'd be the only one as well.

I was wondering this also. I'm not up on the technical aspects of this, but I was also wondering if the 720p could be improved through software fix/ROM development? I agree also that I'm sure a lot would be willing to donate for such a fix.

I'm sure eventually we will get a better cam, i mean look at the how the nexus got 720p video

You can easily get 720p at 60FPS... The snapdragon can support it.

i would most certainly donate for this improvment

yup i would donate as well
we just dont have as lively a development community as the nexus yet, but we will in time - we;re gaining momentum fast

EtherealRemnant said:
You can easily get 720p at 60FPS... The snapdragon can support it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that encoding or decoding? And at what bitrate?

gbm85 said:
Is that encoding or decoding? And at what bitrate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go look at the Nexus One forum... They've got up to 1080p capture.
Realistically though, it seems silly to rely on our phones to capture HD video. I have a G9 that does that task quite handily.

All I could find was 720p capture at 20fps and a max bitrate of 12Mb, which is plenty.

This is interesting, I'd like to see this happen as well.
I'll do what I can in terms of research.
Better low-light pictures too, if at all possible

We need a better video camera

So just browsing along I stumbled on this video review of the camera app. I knew our DINC's had problems with video, but WOW, is it really this bad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzglMIwpYo4
I'm sure there has to be a developer that can maybe come out with a fix for this

theguy386 said:
So just browsing along I stumbled on this video review of the camera app. I knew our DINC's had problems with video, but WOW, is it really this bad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzglMIwpYo4
I'm sure there has to be a developer that can maybe come out with a fix for this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm not sure what a dev could do to fix this. it seems that the issues with the pixel density and audio aren't something that could be overcome with patching a file from another OS or even an app...
my advice is this:
if you want a better video experience, buy a dedicated video camera or a dedicated camera with video functions. as a phone, it's a balancing act. you're not gonna get the best of ALL worlds, but including hardware and features for things like recording video in 720p is pretty handy and convenient when you're caught without a dedicated camera or video device. i wouldn't rely 100% on my phone as my primary device for anything except phone calls. but to each their own

That video showed me at least one new thing: I didn't realize that with 2.2 and 720p recording, H.264 isn't available. With H.264 selected, the highest available resolution drops to WVGA (800x480). Only H.263 and MPEG4 are available in 720p. Does anyone know if this is true on other Froyo devices, like the Nexus One? Or did something get changed when 2.2 went through HTC?
Perhaps the OP is right, I think that with a software update of some kind, H.264 for 720p could be enabled on the Droid Incredible, as well as higher bitrate audio. The OP's video suggests those two things to be major reasons as to why the camcorder quality is so different. Anyone know if Cyanogen is working on 720p H.264 as well as his continuous autofocus awesomeness?
Of course the actual optics are a bit different between the two devices as well, but I'd like to think the Droid Incredible has a better camera than those camera tests seem to show.

chameleon131 said:
That video showed me at least one new thing: I didn't realize that with 2.2 and 720p recording, H.264 isn't available. With H.264 selected, the highest available resolution drops to WVGA (800x480). Only H.263 and MPEG4 are available in 720p. Does anyone know if this is true on other Froyo devices, like the Nexus One? Or did something get changed when 2.2 went through HTC?
Perhaps the OP is right, I think that with a software update of some kind, H.264 for 720p could be enabled on the Droid Incredible, as well as higher bitrate audio. The OP's video suggests those two things to be major reasons as to why the camcorder quality is so different. Anyone know if Cyanogen is working on 720p H.264 as well as his continuous autofocus awesomeness?
Of course the actual optics are a bit different between the two devices as well, but I'd like to think the Droid Incredible has a better camera than those camera tests seem to show.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'll ask my friends with other devices that are capable of 720p and see what they say, will post findings
EDIT: samsung captivate doesn't have encoding settings. we didn't record a video to see what it saved it as, either. but there is no option in the settings to change encoding, only resolution.

chameleon131 said:
That video showed me at least one new thing: I didn't realize that with 2.2 and 720p recording, H.264 isn't available. With H.264 selected, the highest available resolution drops to WVGA (800x480). Only H.263 and MPEG4 are available in 720p. Does anyone know if this is true on other Froyo devices, like the Nexus One? Or did something get changed when 2.2 went through HTC?
Perhaps the OP is right, I think that with a software update of some kind, H.264 for 720p could be enabled on the Droid Incredible, as well as higher bitrate audio. The OP's video suggests those two things to be major reasons as to why the camcorder quality is so different. Anyone know if Cyanogen is working on 720p H.264 as well as his continuous autofocus awesomeness?
Of course the actual optics are a bit different between the two devices as well, but I'd like to think the Droid Incredible has a better camera than those camera tests seem to show.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been thinking the same thing. I even posted about changing the codec but no one responded.
I was reading on the evo forum about the camera software and several posters suspected that the compression is what is making the video not as good as it could be. They also had the same thought about enabling h.264.
I would definitively pay for these features.
kdog78
Virtuous v3.0 - Evo Camera App
Unrevoked Forever
Hydra Kernel #1 Overclocked Undervolted 1.15ghz v1.0

You bought a cell phone? What do you expect? ITS NOT GONNA HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA/CAMCORDER BUILT IN!!!!!! Get over it... If you want high quality then buy a standalone camcorder. Phones weren't made to take great videos. They are more for like a quick need thing. Maybe you see some cops doing something underhanded, see some kind of crime in progress, stupid things that happen at a party that you feel are important, etc.

TNS201 said:
You bought a cell phone? What do you expect? ITS NOT GONNA HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA/CAMCORDER BUILT IN!!!!!! Get over it... If you want high quality then buy a standalone camcorder. Phones weren't made to take great videos. They are more for like a quick need thing. Maybe you see some cops doing something underhanded, see some kind of crime in progress, stupid things that happen at a party that you feel are important, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah pretty much what i was going to say

I thought XDA was about getting the most out of your device through tips, tricks, tweaks and hacks, and that it's been that way for some time. Maybe I'm mistaken.
I think trying to squeeze the best performance out of your device's camera is perfectly legit, OP.
Am I wrong?
----------------------------
Anyway, that's weird and seems pretty pitiful that the Captivate won't even let you change the codec setting at all. Better for user experience I suppose, not to have to mess with codecs to try to get the best picture. I'm curious what codec it defaults to. I wonder what a comparison between the Captivate and Incredible camcorder would look like.

The camera indeed has some problem on the Incredible. My incredible will flicker in low light condition even in camera mode. I had to return and exchange one, but the problem is still there just less severe.

TNS201 said:
You bought a cell phone? What do you expect? ITS NOT GONNA HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA/CAMCORDER BUILT IN!!!!!! Get over it... If you want high quality then buy a standalone camcorder. Phones weren't made to take great videos. They are more for like a quick need thing. Maybe you see some cops doing something underhanded, see some kind of crime in progress, stupid things that happen at a party that you feel are important, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the power this phone possesses, the video sucks. I would not only expect it to be better, but use the latest codecs and not amr audio and save files in .3gp! What good is high def video if I can't play it on my Xbox or PS3, or other media boxes?. That's a joke. I think as long as the iPhone can do it, maybe Droid should.
I didn't buy a cell phone. I bought a multi-hundred dollar smartphone with an 8mp camera that BOASTS 720p video. If I bought a RAZR I would accept it.
I found your post rude and unhelpful.

[Q] Video capture quality on the G2..

All the video samples from the G2 I have seen on Youtube so far have not been impressive. Most disturbing about these videos is the sound quality, it is pretty bad. I have a Nexus One (hacked with Cyanogenmod's 720p recording feature) and it also isn't that great so I'm guessing this is a 'feature' of HTC phones. Compared to the Galaxy S (from Samsung) the HTC phones (G2, N1 and even the EVO) seem to suck in the video / audio department.
In a recent post I read that the audio codec for a HD recording off the G2 is this:
AMR (samr), Mono, 8k, 32 bits per sample
Could this be the problem and can this be changed?

AMR == Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio Codec. Dunno what the "s" in "samr" is all about tho.
I see a comparison with the nokia 8 and there is a definite sound quality difference. (Be sure to watch this in 720p)
Wonder if the sample rate is adjustable by firmware/settings or if it's set in hardware. Strangely wikipedia lists 14 modes, none of which are at the "8k" (rate?) you reported... I see AMR_7.95 tho.
Anyway, my g2 is on the way....
W

cowmixtoo said:
AMR (samr), Mono, 8k, 32 bits per sample
Could this be the problem and can this be changed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, yeah that's pretty bad.. 8k.

ericc191 said:
Wow, yeah that's pretty bad.. 8k.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, my watch can do better..

I just confirmed that my N1 encodes audio in the exact same format.

cowmixtoo said:
I just confirmed that my N1 encodes audio in the exact same format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idle thought- I wonder if the codec is set to a low bandwidth to accommodate slower SD card speeds. I think the g2 comes with a class 2, and this thread suggests that there is stuttering when playing back at the HD setting.
This is just idle speculation.

http://vimeo.com/15487989
Done a couple days ago, not so much about the audio, but the video couldnt keep up.

Yup, I noticed a lot of stuttering when playing videos back too.

ericc191 said:
Yup, I noticed a lot of stuttering when playing videos back too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What SD card?

Agreed. Audio isn't stellar and playback has stuttering. In fact, I've already experienced a weird situation where the video wouldn't actually play - just showed a blank screen with the audio playing.
I love this phone, but the video / audio / picture quality on my Sprint Epic is far superior.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

VValdo said:
What SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8GB Class 6 Transcend. It usually transfers up to 7mb/ps, so definitely not the issue.

ericc191 said:
8GB Class 6 Transcend. It usually transfers up to 7mb/ps, so definitely not the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn thought it might be it... well what else causes stuttering? Not buffering enough... or maybe cpu being pulled to do something else..?
Is there any message from logcat when it's stuttering?
Meanwhile, I'm looking at the video camera source to see if there's any way to change the audio bitrate...
Lines ~230:
Code:
for (AudioEncoderCap encoder : EncoderCapabilities.getAudioEncoders()) {
switch (encoder.mCodec) {
case MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB:
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("amrnb", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
break;
case MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC:
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("aac", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC);
break;
}
}
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.putDefault(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.DEFAULT);
/*
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("amrwb", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_WB);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("qcelp", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.QCELP);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("evrc", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.EVRC);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("aacplus", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC_PLUS);
AUDIO_ENCODER_TABLE.put("eaacplus", MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.EAAC_PLUS);
*/
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("1280x720", 6000000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("720x480", 3000000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("800x480", 3000000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("640x480", 1600000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("352x288", 360000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("320x240", 320000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.put("176x144", 192000);
VIDEOQUALITY_BITRATE_TABLE.putDefault(320000);
}
The video bitrate is right there.. how do you change the audio I wonder....? And what's up with the commented-out bits...
Maybe I'll try to get this running... I have no g2 yet to try it on but will soon.
W

One more thought... This is an old issue. If you doubt the potential the video camera COULD have, take a look at this audio comparison linked from the thread. At least on the n1, the microphone is capable of way better sound than the camera app currently offers. The g2 has a faster processor-- it should be able to encode better sound.. AAC? Ogg?
Update: It's not the camera app's fault. It's Android's. There is an open issue for this. It looks like Android itself doesn't support anything better. The good news is this isn't a hardware limitation. As someone suggested, a WebM encoder seems like an obvious thing to add.

VValdo said:
One more thought... This is an old issue. If you doubt the potential the video camera COULD have, take a look at this audio comparison linked from the thread. At least on the n1, the microphone is capable of way better sound than the camera app currently offers. The g2 has a faster processor-- it should be able to encode better sound.. AAC? Ogg?
Update: It's not the camera app's fault. It's Android's. There is an open issue for this. It looks like Android itself doesn't support anything better. The good news is this isn't a hardware limitation. As someone suggested, a WebM encoder seems like an obvious thing to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's a plus.

VValdo said:
One more thought... This is an old issue. If you doubt the potential the video camera COULD have, take a look at this audio comparison linked from the thread. At least on the n1, the microphone is capable of way better sound than the camera app currently offers. The g2 has a faster processor-- it should be able to encode better sound.. AAC? Ogg?
Update: It's not the camera app's fault. It's Android's. There is an open issue for this. It looks like Android itself doesn't support anything better. The good news is this isn't a hardware limitation. As someone suggested, a WebM encoder seems like an obvious thing to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow amazing! i really hope we can fix this issue

I just starred the issue (they look at that don't they?)... I recorded some video at a concert last night and while the video wasn't terrible, the sound is absolutely unbearable. Makes the videos pretty much worthless

I keep wondering if it's possible to stuff our own codec in there. I mean, some of the android phones have higher quality audio, right? If so, how do they do it? Why are those codecs commented out in the video camera code for...?
Doesn't cyanogenmod have FLAC support? Couldn't other codecs be added to the phone app, even if they're in java?
You're right, the current audio situation sucks.