Develop Bugs

Orb to Stream Videos on Rhodium/TP2

Hi all, I'm sure this is a common topic but unfortunately, the search term "orb" doesn't come up with anything since it is only three characters and using the google search isn't coming up with much up to date info.
I've managed to get it working, but the quality seems kind of shaky. I haven't re-encoded any of the video files on my computer, but from what I understood Orb transcodes on the fly to lower the bitrate to make a good match with the upstream and downstream capabilities of both your home computer and your phone or whatever device you are viewing the media on.
Is it just dropping the bitrate by dropping frames and decreased the sound quality or is it actually transcoding the resolution of the frames, etc.? Maybe a better solution, if I don't want to go through my entire library and re-encode everything to lower resolution would be to use TVersity which does for sure transcode...

...................................

If you make it stream through SteramingMedia it is a lot less studdery, but the quality is way low. I found that to stream movies Kinoma Freeplay is the best so far. I am currently looking for alternatives for streaming my LiveTv.

Rockplayerbase AVI DIVX & XVID Player!

Finally!!!
Mod. edit: Warez link removed. This is a beta, the developer didn't consent it's distribution. Consider this 1st warning!
Thread CLOSEDhttp://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6805512#post6805512http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6805512#post6805512

Two things!
a) This should've been posted in the Applications subforum.
b) If you'd searched these forums you'd have found that someone had already posted about this in the Applications subforum.
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
Two things!
a) This should've been posted in the Applications subforum.
b) If you'd searched these forums you'd have found that someone had already posted about this in the Applications subforum.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True it's an app, but for many people out there, it's basic functionality. I know that just like missing tasks and reminders as well as the lack of full Outlook synchronisation in Android, this lack of functionality has been a huge bone of contention for many who have taken the leap to Android only to find that they have been left up the creek without a paddle. For all it's hyped up "amazingness" how on earth can anybody release an OS with so many gaping holes, the lack of basic functionality which other OS's have as standard??
Anyway, I'm trying to spread the word. Especially because I see many people/admins have this strange idea of trying to censor this news (because it's a closed beta. - Who cares?).
Strange how there were some cryptic messages by a sysadmin on the Coreplayer forums about people keeping to the forum rules when there were no posts showing which appeared to have broken any rules! Check out pages five and six here http: // forum.corecodec .com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2885
We're here to help each other are we not?

What happens on other forums is immaterial! There are subforums here for a reason, and this news has already been posted there, which leads me to rule 1 of the XDA rules:
1. Search before posting.
Use one of our search functions before posting, whether you have a question or something new to share, it's very likely someone already asked that question or shared that news.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And I can understand why some might want to censor this "news" because it borders on warez! Yes, I'm being hypocritical because I've downloaded and installed this player, but the moment it gets onto the market I will buy it.
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
What happens on other forums is immaterial! There are subforums here for a reason, and this news has already been posted there, which leads me to rule 1 of the XDA rules:
And I can understand why some might want to censor this "news" because it borders on warez! Yes, I'm being hypocritical because I've downloaded and installed this player, but the moment it gets onto the market I will buy it.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the risk of repeating myself, I, and I am certain many others out there, consider AVI playback to be basic functionality, it's not just "another app" to do some silly thing which the world managed perfectly well without before it came along. Therefore I posted it in the general subforum and pointed to another subforum which had decent info.
As to the goings on on other forums, I was referring to a good number here on XDA too! As you said, search.
And I will buy it too!! This program ROCKS!

Well I for one am glad you posted this here, cos now there is an unwatermarked version available and I didn't know that.
Thanks OP, and thanks anonymous Dev for letting it slip
Will happily buy this from the market when the code is tightened

well, this thread is the 1st i heard of it and i just played an ep of tds perfectly.
is this a divx product? or someone elses?

agreed with others.. we shouldnt be told we are not allowed to know that ROCKPlayer exists. im fine with the link/attached file being removed.. but the WHOLE thread being deleted... ?

Thanks for posting it. The app is very buggy yet, certainly not fit for anything past Alpha. It does not even play 3GP and MP4 vids that the stock player does with ease. Not even what the phone itself records. Massive frame drops, stuttering and audio out of sync on even 600Kbps vids. It does play low bitrate DivX AVIs successfully though. I'll try MKVs and XviD soon. Currently, the latest Yxplayer is far ahead, yet.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

th3 said:
Thanks for posting it. The app is very buggy yet, certainly not fit for anything past Alpha. It does not even play 3GP and MP4 vids that the stock player does with ease. Not even what the phone itself records. Massive frame drops, stuttering and audio out of sync on even 600Kbps vids. It does play low bitrate DivX AVIs successfully though. I'll try MKVs and XviD soon. Currently, the latest Yxplayer is far ahead, yet.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh?
I am using it for playing AVI Xvid files of TV episodes etc (from you know where) and it plays them all without a hitch.
No bugs, no nothing. It just works!
Perhaps they could allow it to remember the last folder you opened though!
BTW, does anybody know why it needs access rights to the internet when all it does is play video files?

david_inuk said:
Huh?
I am using it for playing AVI Xvid files of TV episodes etc (from you know where) and it plays them all without a hitch.
No bugs, no nothing. It just works!
Perhaps they could allow it to remember the last folder you opened though!
BTW, does anybody know why it needs access rights to the internet when all it does is play video files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed i was confused aswell. I've played standard HDTV avis fine with ROCK, and if i used YXPLAYER it would play with lots of stuttering
I happy for ROCK to only play DIVX i dont mind it cant do MP4s has i only ever use DIVX.

It plays flv files perfectly too.. I tested it with a bunch of stuff I ripped from xvideos with downloadhelper for firefox
It also plays Xvid just the same as divX.. I've not tried mkv yet
If you want to play mp4/3gp then use the stock player you strange person <rolleyes>

Thanks op for posting this. I say that because when I get home of an evening I have about half an hour to check my emails, news, and about 3 or 4 forums including this one. A post in the apps forum may well have got missed. My fault entirely I hasten to add. The fact remains though I would have missed it.

Huh?
I am using it for playing AVI Xvid files of TV episodes etc (from you know where) and it plays them all without a hitch.
No bugs, no nothing. It just works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you've only tested XviD AVIs?
What bitrate, resolution, FPS, ratio, audio format are those files using?
Stock ROM?
To be really honest, you'd need to post more details on the files you've played. That's why I mentioned the vid properties. That's exactly how it is with any +650Kbps vid that has action/movement on mine after comparing it to how they play in Act 1.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

th3 said:
So you've only tested XviD AVIs?
What bitrate, resolution, FPS, ratio, audio format are those files using?
Stock ROM?
To be really honest, you'd need to post more details on the files you've played. That's why I mentioned the vid properties. That's exactly how it is with any +650Kbps vid that has action/movement on mine after comparing it to how they play in Act 1.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi I am using a stock Orange Rom.
Video properties:
624 x 352
Bit rate 124kbs
Audio MPEG Layer-3
23 fps
Data 1127kbs
Video sample size 12 bit
video compression FFDS

I have tested several .avis which I get from you know where. 350MB Tv shows. They all worked flawlessly.

Thanks fellas.
I can confirm two aspects of what they are saying. It plays ~640*270 ~1,100Kbps XviD and DivX movies using the AVI container, with MP3 and PCM audio, flawlessly. I've just finished two full movies, one of which is 1.7GB, no problem at all. I haven't tried bigger, better resolutions and bitrates yet.
It can also play low bitrate/resolution MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV vids properly.
However, it cannot run H.264 vids above ~400Kbps at such resolutions and greater without the earlier mentioned problems.
Test these .MP4 and .3GP container H.264 and MPEG-4 vids for yourself. Thanks goes to those who have uploaded them, only one is my own.
Run them on your choice of vid apps, the stock app and the Rock player. Do they play and sound perfect on the Rock player? Do they run at the correct frame rates?
Vid 1: http://db.tt/gWzJ5I
Vid 2: http://db.tt/CRx6pb
Vid 3: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JSXE2BTR
One is a 720p vid shot by the Desire itself. All of them play flawlessly on Meridian, Act 1, etc, but not so in this app. It's missing H.264 acceleration by the looks of it.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

Thanks for starting this thread, had no idea about this app. Works great!!

going to try and see if this plays 800xwhatever divx after work today.

IT's NoT A BloOdy h264 player!!
jeez ffs

[Q] Converting Video for WP7

Hi all,
just wondering what people are using to convert .avi/.mkv/etc to mp4/wmv/etc so Zune/Wp7 can use them?
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me, so anyone got any other good ones?
Only confirmed ones please, i've used dozens of Conversion apps that say they'd do the job but in reality they don't, so only post if you've used one for WP7/Zune.

Just convert your Video to MP4 or WMV with WVGA resolution.

Audio said:
Hi all,
just wondering what people are using to convert .avi/.mkv/etc to mp4/wmv/etc so Zune/Wp7 can use them?
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me, so anyone got any other good ones?
Only confirmed ones please, i've used dozens of Conversion apps that say they'd do the job but in reality they don't, so only post if you've used one for WP7/Zune.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this application should solve your problem....you can adjust everything....
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
It was great,I use it to convert videos for my android and Iphone...and it is very flexible.You can adjust the bit rate,size...almost everything...and it is free...

That's what i'm using at them minute sylau as i said in my post
Audio said:
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know of a good one which will let me just convert to mp4 WVGA Paul?
*EDIT* Just found This Thread which Recommends a GUI for MENCoder called "SUPER". My dealings with MENCoder have been great in the past so i'll give it a go and let others know what it's like.

FWIW the Microsoft way is to use Expression encoder for WMV. It's free, it's nice, and it does a good job encoding, so if you want WMV you should use that one.

paul_43 said:
Just convert your Video to MP4 or WMV with WVGA resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Zune does not even want to read WMV files so I can not upload. I have multiple copies of DVD's/Blu-Ray's with digital copie of movie for portable devices.
I can copy those movies to my PC and watch them, I can watch them on HD2 but zune doesn ot see them so I can not copy them on to phone. They are all in WMV or MP4 format.

MP4 don't work in Zune!
I tested with this videos: http://cid-e9230930f20e0820.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Windows Phone 7 Ads

deleted, please ignore this message

Same problem, I have digital copy's of blu-ray's that came with them, they play using WMV but the Zune Software won't see them and won't play them.

Download 'Expression Encoder'. There's an option to encode specifically for Zune.

Portos2008 said:
MP4 don't work in Zune!
I tested with this videos: http://cid-e9230930f20e0820.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Windows Phone 7 Ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny as phone by default records in mp4

Mabe the audio stream?
I was just playing around with this last night, and the biggest issue was the audio stream. While it plays h264 streams up to the High Profile level 3.0, it did not like an AC3 stream. I had to demux a video that I had in an mkv container, convert the audio to AAC and remux into an mp4 container. Microsoft has a whole detailed table of stream type compatibility with bit rates, profiles, etc. I can't seem to post links, so search for it at the msdn dot microsoft dot com under this title "Supported Media Codecs for Windows Phone". The list on the WP7 consumer site sucks btw.
The AAC has two compatible types, AAC-LC and HE-AACv1 or v2.
I used MeGui to redo the audio, and yamb to mux it.

Thanks dgetz, here is the link to msdn.

Audio said:
Hi all,
just wondering what people are using to convert .avi/.mkv/etc to mp4/wmv/etc so Zune/Wp7 can use them?
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me, so anyone got any other good ones?
Only confirmed ones please, i've used dozens of Conversion apps that say they'd do the job but in reality they don't, so only post if you've used one for WP7/Zune.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for the time being i have been using "HTC Touch HD Video Converter"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
Seems to work very well

anyone try clonedvd mobile. I have used this in the past with the sony psp settings and gotten very good results, just a very small black strip (maybe 1-2mm) across the top and bottom of the screen (on my hd2).

Portos2008 said:
MP4 don't work in Zune!
I tested with this videos: http://cid-e9230930f20e0820.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Windows Phone 7 Ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm that MP4 works on the Focus, using TV shows previously converted for my iPhone 4
I use handbrake on Windows and Mac to convert my videos, using the settings from
http://lifehacker.com/5572037/handbrake-presets-for-your-new-ipad-or-iphone-4
The results have been good, but using the frame(middle) setting shown in that article does bump up the file size a good amount, and as I'm sure a lot of you have heard, storage space isn't so easy to come by on WP7 yet...

Handbrake
I too can vouch for handbrake. All of the videos I have made for my ipod touch with it work just fine on the Focus. Unfortunately, the library I have for the touch is lower resolution, with videos at about 1/2 DVD resolution and at 500kbps encode rate. I end up with about 500 MB for the about 90 min. It is nice because they don't take up a lot of room, but still look decent. When output to a standard definition TV they look fine as well.
When I first put a few of these home videos on the Focus the lower quality was immediately noticeable. To see how I could push the phone, in my reply above I took a full DVD resolution video 720x400 (16x9 non-anamorphic) and corrected the audio stream. That video looks gorgeous on the Focus screen and is great for showing off the phone. It also takes up over 2.5 GB!!!! It is encoded at a rate of about 2100 kbps. As with any video encoding for a mobile device you have to make your own decision about resolution, encoding rate, etc in that constant game of quality versus size.
One thing to note. If there are black bars on your video, then either you have a video that was not encoded in a proportion that matches your screen or it was hard coded with the black bars. The second thing should be rare nowadays (eliminating this wasted information space was the point of an anamorphic DVD). The first is actually very common. IF your media is a studio movie, almost every action film these days comes at 2.35:1 instead of 16:9=1.77:1. Personally I like viewing any of my content in the way it was originally intended to be viewed and don't ever re-proportion anything. At the moment I am not sure if the Focus/WP7 'stretches' videos. I know on my ipod touch this was an option you could toggle by double tapping the video during playback...
Maybe I will play around with a few options tonight and report back.

have a zunehd and remember seeing this thread on abi
anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58183
it converts the audio of any avi/mkv and keeps the video the same, so converting only takes a few mins, and zune software recognizes it..for the zunehd anyways, maybe someone can try w/ wp7

Since I couldn't find right settings for MediaCoder (best video converter ever).
I was using Prism Video Converter for my Omnia7.
About settings for prism:
For .wmv use as video compresor WMV9 and for sound WMAV9, i am not changing the resolution as it is not bothering me at all. All files (mostly avi or mkv) played smooth after conversion.
If anybody have good settings for MediaCoder I will be much appreciated for sharing.
Thx

Okay, so MP4forHD works. The quality still isn't stunning, but it'll do for now (i guess.) However, i've encountered an issue with contrast. All my blacks appear as dark grays, which drives me nuts

FRX07/ Android/ or player issue? Playing .mp4/.mkv movies

I have dl/ed Soul Player and Mvideo player to attempt to watch some of my movies, the movies play just fine in WinMo. I notice the movies (those that will load) will just do nothing, they do not give an error that the file can not play but they also do not play at all However the time does countdown on the file as though it is playing the file (like it will say 5 seconds into the movie). If I move the scroll bar the screen will show that particular frame then be stuck on that frame.
am i missing something, there doesn't appear to be a stock movie player with android.
this affects multiple movies btw and the quality is fine in winmo..

There isn't a 'stock' movie player that I know of.
This is expected behavior (if you will). The codecs in Android do not make full use of the hardware for whatever reason - hyc has pushed the libs a little farther than they are capable of currently, but he was never able to match WinMo... We're still missing something on the Android side of things.
HQ YouTube has this same issue - seems videos above a certain resolution do not play nice. I'll have to do some searching to find hyc's posts on this topic, something you should've already done...

I got a large number of hits on it when I searched the issue but nothing providing an explanation similar to what you have stated, I suppose I will just continue viewing videos in winmo then.
Thanks for the assistance!

MDavisiw said:
I got a large number of hits on it when I searched the issue but nothing providing an explanation similar to what you have stated, I suppose I will just continue viewing videos in winmo then.
Thanks for the assistance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found hyc's post after a couple minutes of searching.
Searching and reading isn't easy or simple, I don't pretend that it is. Just an essential part of working with any open source project.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13834432&postcount=28
That post basically summarizes the conundrum we have with video playback in Android.

Video Conversion/Playback/Best Methods...Anyone need help?

**Just in case there are still those out there looking for the best methods for video file conversion/playback, HD, mkv, avi, divx, mpeg... I enjoy troubleshooting A/V hiccups for any who could use the help, don't have ALL the answers but it's fun for me and want to contribute all I can!
Sent from this phone

With that said...
WinX HD Video Converter free for download today by liking their facebook page:
http://www.f******k.com/WinXDVD?sk=app_208195102528120
replace the stars with the appropriate letters, duh...

dcxgod said:
With that said...
WinX HD Video Converter free for download today by liking their facebook page:
http://www.f******k.com/WinXDVD?sk=app_208195102528120
replace the stars with the appropriate letters, duh...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good lookin' out! Thanks for this! Another free alternative is Freemake Video Converter, it's the VLC Player of file converters with device presets preloaded.
Sent from this phone

with this phone i even forgot the last time i converted/encoded anything... MX Video Player is simply the best and will play anything you throw at it up to 720p. 1080p plays smoothly as well but not always. oh, and multi-subtitles/multi-audio tracks are supported as wel. only issue i found with it is it won't display embedded bitmap "vob" subtitles (other subtitles, both mixed in and external play just fine)
as far as video conversion, i take the geeky approach. AviSynth + x264 + neroAacEnc. with proper settings you will get the best results, ever... seriously. if you're scarred of command line, use the MeGUI or Handbrake frontends. same encoders, different approach.
i've spent many years experimenting with various video encoders/compressors and from my experience i've concluded that regardless of what you're trying to accomplish, h264/aac codec combo will give you the best quality than any other codec out there. oh, and make sure to use mkv container. it's the most flexible of popular container formats.
lastly, if you just want an easy tool, use Sorenson Squeeze. very flexible, easy to use, has gpu acceleration, and gives quite impressive results. only downside is its hella expensive, that is if you're trying to stay legal

frifox said:
with this phone i even forgot the last time i converted/encoded anything... MX Video Player is simply the best and will play anything you throw at it up to 720p. 1080p plays smoothly as well but not always. oh, and multi-subtitles/multi-audio tracks are supported as wel. only issue i found with it is it won't display embedded bitmap "vob" subtitles (other subtitles, both mixed in and external play just fine)
as far as video conversion, i take the geeky approach. AviSynth + x264 + neroAacEnc. with proper settings you will get the best results, ever... seriously. if you're scarred of command line, use the MeGUI or Handbrake frontends. same encoders, different approach.
i've spent many years experimenting with various video encoders/compressors and from my experience i've concluded that regardless of what you're trying to accomplish, h264/aac codec combo will give you the best quality than any other codec out there. oh, and make sure to use mkv container. it's the most flexible of popular container formats.
lastly, if you just want an easy tool, use Sorenson Squeeze. very flexible, easy to use, has gpu acceleration, and gives quite impressive results. only downside is its hella expensive, that is if you're trying to stay legal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true, our device will typically play most formats stock without a complaint. I mostly set this thread in motion for our fellow xda'ers who were having trouble finding options to overcome a single file size limitation without splitting. Your info was spot on my man.. well said!
Sent from this phone

http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/
That is a very simple, no options (other than picking the phone model) encoder. I don't know off hand that phone in its list has similar resolution with our phone (800x480 I think) but it works without a fuss. It doesn't do batch, only one at a time. I don't know if it's 2 pass or not. My preference is handbrake. If you use something like that, check in the settings that CABAC is off. That is a feature that will make smaller files but it will need more cpu to decode during playback. Off setting has larger file sizes but it's less cpu intensive during playback. I haven't made a comparison between on and off but I don't think off makes the file really huge. If you're doing DVD resolution encodes, dual pass encoding with video bitrate of 2000 is sufficient with no noticeable difference in artifacting from 2500.
Another suggestion is with the video the phone camcorder makes. It's bigger than it needs to be file size wise. Run it through handbrake with default settings, only changing CABAC to off, and perspective (screen) to none. That makes a 1080 2 gig 20 minute video down to about 300mb and I don't see the difference in video quality.

patrick_1 said:
Another free alternative is Freemake Video Converter, it's the VLC Player of file converters with device presets preloaded.
Sent from this phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this heads up, but I have a question. I was converting a DVD to test this one out, and it seems to work flawlessly so far, but I did notice if I choose to convert to Android 800x480 with the defaults everywhere else, I wind up with files around 1.25GB. Is there a particular set of settings I can use to shrink that size or a way to take the mp4 files and reduce their size? I'm used to mp4s being ~300 - 500MB, so just wondering if there is a way to set it up I'm not seeing.

I use Hand brake without issue on my epic touch. Just throwing out another program for everyone to try.

darthstewie said:
Thanks for this heads up, but I have a question. I was converting a DVD to test this one out, and it seems to work flawlessly so far, but I did notice if I choose to convert to Android 800x480 with the defaults everywhere else, I wind up with files around 1.25GB. Is there a particular set of settings I can use to shrink that size or a way to take the mp4 files and reduce their size? I'm used to mp4s being ~300 - 500MB, so just wondering if there is a way to set it up I'm not seeing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome! Yeah you can change a few things, the bit rate and format play a lot in the over all file size. Mp4 will compress more as apposed to avi. The ps3 setting is a useful one for that. You can click on each of the presets setting and get an overview of the container/codec/bit rate/frame rate that are being used to give you an idea.
Sent from this phone

Thanks again. I found in the dialog box that allows me to rename the mp4 I can also limit the maximum size of the file. It automagically changes the bitrate that way, and I have much more manageable files now.

darthstewie said:
Thanks again. I found in the dialog box that allows me to rename the mp4 I can also limit the maximum size of the file. It automagically changes the bitrate that way, and I have much more manageable files now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! Glad it's working for you! BTW..."darthstewie" damn I wish I'd thought of that as a username!!
Sent from this phone