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?
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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
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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.
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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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For starters, it doesn't play xvid.

Shasarak said:
For starters, it doesn't play xvid.
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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
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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.
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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".
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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.

Disappointed on media handling

So I bit the bullet and bought a Desire.
I am totally blown away.
I had a HTC S740 WM phone before and had the following worries:
1. It might not play nice with my corporate Exchange server. Actually it plays better than WM ever did. This takes ActiveSync to a whole new level
2. It might not play nice with my BMW bluetooth. It works perfectly.
BUT
Music and video playback is almost non existent.
Windows Media Lossless is a non starter.
Video playback!!! What video playback? WMV, AVI. DVIX........
As a media device this thing really sucks which is a shame with such a screen.
So I have looked through the forums but there seems to be no answer to this one so what gives?
Surely the target phone for this device is the iPhone which of course is built around media so what gives?

the iphone doesn't support the codec you listed either so..??

networkguy said:
Surely the target phone for this device is the iPhone which of course is built around media so what gives?
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For video, you've answered your own question.
Android natively supports the same video formats as the iPhone (MPEG4/H264).
Regards,
Dave

You can try yxflash player which is in beta atm and can play WMV, DivX/Xvid and flash.

To be honest. I dont really care in what format they are. I have to convert them anyway into lowerfile size. So does it really matter if its mp4 or avi?

Mokurex said:
the iphone doesn't support the codec you listed either so..??
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But the iPhone is built on the back of iTunes so the lock in is expected (to a point). Oddly however it's OK for Apple to lock out Microsoft but not the other way around (remember all the anti trust suits)
And video?
It might support the same codecs but where is the player to use them other than yxflash which is very beta?
This phone is screaming out for a good media player. It has the hardware and has the screen. Even Windows Mobile is better on this front for goodness sake.

@MARK said:
But the iPhone is built on the back of iTunes so the lock in is expected (to a point). Oddly however it's OK for Apple to lock out Microsoft but not the other way around (remember all the anti trust suits)
And video?
It might support the same codecs but where is the player to use them other than yxflash which is very beta?
This phone is screaming out for a good media player. It has the hardware and has the screen. Even Windows Mobile is better on this front for goodness sake.
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Coreplayer 2.0 is in development but they are awaiting on Google to release proper APIs so they can get acceptable performance.
It's all the fault of Android being run on Java which adds a lot of overhead.

Will the addition of JIT mean a massive improvement for non GPU accelerated video decoding like in yxplayer?
I hope HTC release the xvid support soon.

I hope Core Player will support hardware playback of 720P videos. The Incredible can do this and has the same CPU so why cant they port over the player from the Incredible.

Nekromantik said:
I hope Core Player will support hardware playback of 720P videos. The Incredible can do this and has the same CPU so why cant they port over the player from the Incredible.
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Why bother?
The screen has a resolution of 800 x 480, HD Res video is wasted on it.
HD Recording though...

abc27 said:
Why bother?
The screen has a resolution of 800 x 480, HD Res video is wasted on it.
HD Recording though...
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true lol
forgot about that

Youtube works on Windows Phone 7 !!!!

Youtube works on WP7, caught on video
check it out : 1800PocketPC
once you play a video its automatically added to your Music and Video Hub !!!!

works on the youtube mobile version, http://m.youtube.com

Honestly, did anyone expect it NOT to work in WP7?

with out flash , yes many of us did not think it would work initially.

forget youtube....XVID is a supported format out of the box. Now I can do less work at work and look at animes on my phone .

gom99 said:
XVID is a supported format out of the box. Now I can do less work at work and look at animes on my phone .
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*Sigh*
It's not true, unfortunately, according to the official list of codecs supported in the RTM version of WP7. As you will see there, there's no xvid or divx in the list.
Luckily, MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile is listed, and this means that most xvid/divx videos should work as both xvid and divx are variations of this spec.
However, this codec isn't supported in .avi container, the file should be an .mp4 or an m4v.
To add insult to injury, you will not hear any sound in those videos if they have a soundtrack encoded in mp3 or AC3. Only AAC-LC.
To summarize, there's just no way to view a real-life video in WP7 without messing with some sort of convertion. A bit of good news is that it shouldn't require hours, it should be enough to remux the video (put it into another container) and reencode audio (a bit lengthier), and it's better than what you get in Android or iOS, but still far from smooth hassle-free experience.

^ very funny.
I'll have you know that I don't need to convert videos for my phone. Have you seen the specs for new higher end Androids, they support most codecs out the box. The only codec I haven't seen work was for converted dvds or .vob.

vetvito said:
I'll have you know that I don't need to convert videos for my phone. Have you seen the specs for new higher end Androids, they support most codecs out the box.
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I know, that's brought by OEMs. Who can do the same for WP7 if they wish, although that will cost them less as the base things are covered by MS, both in terms of licensing and hardware acceleration built in. Supporting a container is should be much easier than supporting a codec. In this case all you need to do is a demultiplexer, the actual decoders are already there.

vangrieg said:
*Sigh*
It's not true, unfortunately, according to the official list of codecs supported in the RTM version of WP7. As you will see there, there's no xvid or divx in the list.
Luckily, MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile is listed, and this means that most xvid/divx videos should work as both xvid and divx are variations of this spec.
However, this codec isn't supported in .avi container, the file should be an .mp4 or an m4v.
To add insult to injury, you will not hear any sound in those videos if they have a soundtrack encoded in mp3 or AC3. Only AAC-LC.
To summarize, there's just no way to view a real-life video in WP7 without messing with some sort of convertion. A bit of good news is that it shouldn't require hours, it should be enough to remux the video (put it into another container) and reencode audio (a bit lengthier), and it's better than what you get in Android or iOS, but still far from smooth hassle-free experience.
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Bah, I should have look at that further instead of taking the article at face value.
My 2nd thought was hoping that wasn't final and that wp7 should play everything zune does as well. So I looked up the Zune specs and the avi container isn't there either . Although the xbox 360 has supported xvid in .avi since fall 2007 I believe, so that's a glimmer of hope.
Thanks for clearing that up though. Audio & Video Codecs are a pain in the neck.

Not only codecs are a pain for everyone, but also a very confusing topic, tech blogs mix up things all the time.
The most amazing thing in all this story for me is that .avi is Microsoft's format. Why they don't support it in their products is totally beyond my comprehension.
Oh, and of course this: mp4 is based on Apple's QuickTime video format, while m4v is totally developed by Apple. Go figure.

[Q] No avi Xvid support?

Hi,
I was under the assumption that the wp7 Emulator supported avi containers and xvid files. At least I was hoping for the Windows Phone 7 platform to be able to play these files without conversion.
I stumbled across a review of the Omnia 7 on gsmarena (cant post the link) and apparently these files get transcoded by the zune software into *.mp4
Would anyone with more knowledge shed some light on this. Maybe its an OEM specific feature? I would hate to see the potential of fast file transfer go to waste to transcoding

http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-7-audio-media-codecs

The list on wpcentral is wrong and outdated. The list of supported codecs changed twice since MIX, and the final one doesn't list avi as a supported container.
Things may be not too bad in that MPEG4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile is back in, and that's basically what xvid and divx are. So, in order to watch a real life movie on a WP7, you might just need to remux it (it takes a minute or so).

Thank you very much domineus and vangrieg!! Very informative.
I wonder if MS would bow down eventually and bring back the support for the avi container.
One can dream ;D but 1-2 mins remuxing doesn't sound too bad.

VonCrisp said:
I wonder if MS would bow down eventually and bring back the support for the avi container.
One can dream ;D but 1-2 mins remuxing doesn't sound too bad.
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It's just my guess about remuxing, so please dont get too disappointed if I'm wrong.
Re avi, the strangest thing in Earth is that this is Microsoft's own format, and instead they choose to support Apple's ones.

The AVI format is horribly broken by design. The only reason it's still around is the piracy scene and both its idiotic reluctance for change and their desire to maintain legacy support for all these cheap chinese knock-off DVD players that support XviD in AVI.

The Youtube WebM Dilemma

So I was on SuperTube (paid version) trying to play a music video uploaded yesterday.
This specific video had up to 1080p quality, and I decided to stream the 720p version on SuperTube. Five seconds later I received a "Open Video Error!".
After using Keepvid.com to download this specific video, it turns out the video was part of the new wave of WebM encoded videos on YouTube.
To further confirm this issue, I specifically looked for WebM encoded videos on YouTube, sent it to my WP7, and copy-pasted the video name into SuperTube to try. Same error.
We all know that Microsoft is not going to support the codec, and SuperTube depends on Zune to play the .MP4 contained videos from YouTube.
Also, in some cases, the native YouTube app is unable to play the videos.
It is important to note that YouTube still encodes 360p videos using H264 and not WebM, as I was able to play those fine on SuperTube. LazyTube tends to play most of my test cases, with exceptions.
So, here I am presenting this potential problem (as YouTube will completely more to WebM soon) with WP7 YouTube and Video codec problem. What are you thoughts?
Any Ideas?
PS: To further confirm that 360p videos work and 720p videos do not, I downloaded the videos and uploaded them to my phone directly through Explorer (using the registry hack to make the device appear) and the 360p worked, while the 720p did not.

I've read and heard from my friends reports that there are problems with HD videos on Android devices, too. Whether this is due to WebM or not I don't know.
The whole world must bend over backwards now because Google doesn't like paying. No single SoC supports decoding WebM at this time, so it's not even up to Microsoft. Whether we will see hardware support for this new codec is questionable because it's not at all clear whether it's clean in terms of IP and patents. With open source stuff, the one who implements something is sued, not the one who wrote stuff.

Serriously I dont see the need for Google to push WebM, H.264 is well supported, it's funny that google make a webM plugin for IE9 and MS make a H.264 plugin for chrome

DMAND said:
Serriously I dont see the need for Google to push WebM, H.264 is well supported, it's funny that google make a webM plugin for IE9 and MS make a H.264 plugin for chrome
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native app on iphone is "missing" a lot of videos, many cant be played on mobile devices anymore. Also the copyrighted stuff or blocked in your country is getting worse. Its time for a good alternative to come up and all just switch away from youtube, unfortunately there is none and its a great service.

vangrieg said:
I've read and heard from my friends reports that there are problems with HD videos on Android devices, too. Whether this is due to WebM or not I don't know.
The whole world must bend over backwards now because Google doesn't like paying. No single SoC supports decoding WebM at this time, so it's not even up to Microsoft. Whether we will see hardware support for this new codec is questionable because it's not at all clear whether it's clean in terms of IP and patents. With open source stuff, the one who implements something is sued, not the one who wrote stuff.
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Only Andorid 2.3.2 (or 3) and above support WebM. Lower versions do not.
You can decode in software, but LOL on a mobile device that is kind of laughable. Say bye bye to your battery as this overworks your processor...

Marvin_S said:
native app on iphone is "missing" a lot of videos, many cant be played on mobile devices anymore. Also the copyrighted stuff or blocked in your country is getting worse. Its time for a good alternative to come up and all just switch away from youtube, unfortunately there is none and its a great service.
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don't blame youtube for these issues. blame coyrights, drm, and people that think nothing should ever be redistributed. youtube is following what the lawyers say they have to.

ohgood said:
don't blame youtube for these issues. blame coyrights, drm, and people that think nothing should ever be redistributed. youtube is following what the lawyers say they have to.
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I understand why. Its just stupid it has never been like this but as of recently there are a ton of videos being blocked. Even though the rights to broadcast have been always there and now they are just gone. So yeah no wonder people blame youtube if the exact same vids could always be watched trough officials channels then all of a sudden not supported in your country.

N8ter said:
Only Andorid 2.3.2 (or 3) and above support WebM. Lower versions do not.
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Android 2.3.3 cannot add hardware support for a new codec if it's missing in the device SoC. Or can it?
I can't imagine hardware support for WebM appearing overnight unless it's the same thing as MPEG4 Part 10 (which is what MPEG-LA will be happy to sue the hell out of everyone over).

^ wow
http://m.engadget.com/default/artic...-it-webm-support/&category=classic&postPage=1

vetvito said:
^ wow
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Wow what exactly? Is it true hardware support or software decoding?

It's probably software, but does it matter? Future SoCs may (most likely will) start supporting it in hardware because Google has the means to force feed it down consumers' throats. Once they finish transcoding all the YouTube content and switch to an HTML5 interface by default this can severely limit non-Android devices, especially if you don't want a device with Adobe Flash, since the site will stream WebM to your device.
Unless they keep H.264 versions as well, in which case I don't care.
But I don't like the way they are trying to force feed an inferior media codec down everyone's throats...

N8ter said:
It's probably software, but does it matter?
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You answered your question yourself a few posts ago:
N8ter said:
You can decode in software, but LOL on a mobile device that is kind of laughable. Say bye bye to your battery as this overworks your processor...
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N8ter said:
Future SoCs may (most likely will) start supporting it in hardware because Google has the means to force feed it down consumers' throats. Once they finish transcoding all the YouTube content and switch to an HTML5 interface by default this can severely limit non-Android devices, especially if you don't want a device with Adobe Flash, since the site will stream WebM to your device.
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I'm not at all sure about it. Judging by how they are treating their own Android customers, the majority of whom aren't using 2.3.whatever with WebM support, they just don't give a damn. It'll be up to OEMs and chip makers. And those guys may get in trouble with WebM because of possible lawsuits, not Google. So it'll most probably end with software decoding as supplied by Google (although even that won't save them because Google doesn't protect their OEMs in patent and other IP issues).
But that's just my guess.
N8ter said:
But I don't like the way they are trying to force feed an inferior media codec down everyone's throats...
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Exactly. I find this uber annoying. But not at all surprising.

vangrieg said:
Wow what exactly? Is it true hardware support or software decoding?
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read the article, you'll understand the wow. Google sux
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

vangrieg said:
You answered your question yourself a few posts ago:
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I meant does it matter in the grand scheme of things. Android phone users have gotten so used to poor battery life that most of them don't care. They'll just not use their phone for a couple days to post standby times on a forum and be happy.
What the underlying "what's it matter" meant (quite vaguely, I admit) what... Does it matter if it's software or hardware? Google's point is to promote their own codec by using their YouTube muscle, and they're going to make sure their own Browsers and Mobile platform are there first, which could potentially give consumers a reason to pick an Android phone over a competitor's...
So, does it matter if it's software or hardware if they are still accomplishing their goals (pushing WebM via YouTube down our throats and making sure Android is the first mobile OS to support it)?

Can you give a URL of a video that is not available? I think it's a bug in the software. YouTube is NOT going to encode videos in WebM exclusively. All videos in every resolution should be available in H264 and WebM.
This might change as soon as Adobe release a WebM capable Flash Player (10.4 maybe)...

Hades32 said:
Can you give a URL of a video that is not available? I think it's a bug in the software. YouTube is NOT going to encode videos in WebM exclusively. All videos in every resolution should be available in H264 and WebM.
This might change as soon as Adobe release a WebM capable Flash Player (10.4 maybe)...
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I can't give you a URL, but as of two days ago, my colleagues with DHD couldn't view a single newly uploaded HD video on YouTube with the built in client.
This may be because of a different problem though, that WebM is at fault is just my guess.

Hades32 said:
Can you give a URL of a video that is not available? I think it's a bug in the software. YouTube is NOT going to encode videos in WebM exclusively. All videos in every resolution should be available in H264 and WebM.
This might change as soon as Adobe release a WebM capable Flash Player (10.4 maybe)...
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YouTube is encoding all new videos in WebM, and transcoding a lot of others. I think most HD videos are being encoded to WebM.
Who are are you to say what they should be available as? You don't own YouTube, Google does...

N8ter said:
YouTube is encoding all new videos in WebM, and transcoding a lot of others. I think most HD videos are being encoded to WebM.
Who are are you to say what they should be available as? You don't own YouTube, Google does...
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I think he meant they should be, as in "if you check, you should find that they are encoded as both" not that he was stating what policies Google should be using. Whether he is right concerning the availability of both formats, I can't say.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

I have just confirmed this further with many more recent HD updates (from 25th of April and onwards), as well as a couple of my own videos uploaded.
The 720p and 1080p versions ARE being encoded in WebM, while the rest of the formats are still in their older forms...

Leave it up to google to fragment the hell out of something.......
Here is what Ive noticed with youtube as of late...
"Vevo" videos(music videos by signed artists that are sponsored or something by Vevo) do not show up when searched for on my ipod touch or my girlfriend's iphone<<<< This is stupid and is recent. Maybe because of the no ads thing on ipod's or iphone...I dont really know. They do however work with fastcode's Supertube app which is great. I dont know how long this will last with Supertube but Im hoping it doesnt change. Somehow fastcode is able to write a workaround with their code I guess. Again I dont know. All the while Microsoft is having some sort of issue with getting a proper youtube app out there for some other dumb reason probably to blame on Google. However Microsoft does allow Supertube to break rules by allowing the download feature to keep going. Again this is weird.
Now Youtube is encoding all hd videos in some new format "WebM" which Im certain will further complicate things on the developer side of things. This is just confusing.
Im not saying Google should allow people to just use their service for free or without any restrictions but I do not like the fact that Google sucks everyone in by leaving everything open at the beginning and then closes it up once they establish dominance in the market subsequently leaving people stranded and with no other choices.