Develop Bugs

Best video format and player for watching movies

So what format (fps, compression type, audio format, etc.) and player to watch a movie in 480x800 and have it play smoothly and also be the smallest file size possible?

There are a lot of good video players out there, but I have found that Core Player works best. You have to pay for it, but if you watch a lot of movies on your phone then I believe it is worth the cost. I have had no problem watching a number of different file formats. I have found with some tinkering that the .mp4 format also used in iPhones to give decent bang for the buck in quality vs size. I am using Core Player version 1.3.5 build 7340 for ARM and have had no problem at all playing movies. Hope that helps.

EVOIXGSR said:
So what format (fps, compression type, audio format, etc.) and player to watch a movie in 480x800 and have it play smoothly and also be the smallest file size possible?
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VLC is the best player i have seen on Windows, it practically plays anything you give it (it is a windows program). but guess what? it is in windows mobile too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-362613.html

irkan said:
VLC is the best player i have seen on Windows, it practically plays anything you give it (it is a windows program). but guess what? it is in windows mobile too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-362613.html
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I just tried to find it and I can not, all I get from your link is a couple of dll's

For encoding rate, I recommend getting http://www.pocketdivxencoder.net/EN_index.htm and selecting the Touch Diamond settings, it'll do all the rest. You can tweak the video and audio quality.
I'm really impressed, although I've also discovered some 3gp settings that, for a 40MB file, are comparable to a 150MB avi (or so it seems to me).

innovator8 said:
I just tried to find it and I can not, all I get from your link is a couple of dll's
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http://sourceforge.net/projects/vlcpocketpc/
its still a beta though

Your best option would be the x264 format with faac audio which windows mobile player has acceleration for. It will give you very awsome quality and saves u having to pay/install other software.
Your best option for x264(but not the simplist) would be meGUI(easy to find on google)
When installing choose x264 *Scrathpad* and FAAC *scratchpad* profiles with any others u might like to use
There are afew settings u will need to setup on the first run, next time u encode something u just need to follow the bold options
tools - > AVS script creator
add video file to video input
tick suggest resolution in the resise options and make make it small enough to fit the screen at 800x480 (i dont recommend changing the aspect ration(eg making the width bigger but not changing the height))
click save
in video section change encoder settings to x264 *scrachpad*
press configure next to it
change mode to automated 2 pass
check turbo(much faster no noticable quality diff)
change bitrate to 500-600~ u can go as high as 800 but it wont be smooth and 600 is more then enough for the screen size
click ok
file format to MP4
in audio section add the same file from video input to audio input
change encoder settings in audio section to FAAC *scratchpad*
click config next to it
output channels to "convert to mono" seeing as we dont need it
VBR to 128~
click ok
extention to MP4-AAC
click autoencode in the bottom right hand corner
container = mp4
device = standard
size and bitrate choose No target size
press que
Go to the queue tab at the top
press start

Some basic questions

Hi - I am new to Android and am struggling with some fairly basic concepts:
1. Unloading images, and video: I have Win7 and using the built in Windows image importer - it tries to unload all other images - not just camera. So I get lots of bookmark thumbnails etc; etc; I have also tried doubleTwist but that seemed overly complicated?
2. Sharing recorded video with others: The Desire seems to record to a format that no one can play. Well the video does but the sound does not. I have read that there is no way round this and you can only play it on your phone!!?? Surely thats not right? I just want to email friends some videos - surely thats not tricky!?
3. Multiple calendar reminders: When I get a reminder I get the option to Snooze All or Dismiss All - but I cant seem to dismiss just one reminder. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any help

vilbs said:
Hi - I am new to Android and am struggling with some fairly basic concepts:
1. Unloading images, and video: I have Win7 and using the built in Windows image importer - it tries to unload all other images - not just camera. So I get lots of bookmark thumbnails etc; etc; I have also tried doubleTwist but that seemed overly complicated?
2. Sharing recorded video with others: The Desire seems to record to a format that no one can play. Well the video does but the sound does not. I have read that there is no way round this and you can only play it on your phone!!?? Surely thats not right? I just want to email friends some videos - surely thats not tricky!?
3. Multiple calendar reminders: When I get a reminder I get the option to Snooze All or Dismiss All - but I cant seem to dismiss just one reminder. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any help
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1. The beauty of using a non-Apple smartphone is that you don't have to use a special application to manage your files. Just connect your device to your PC as a disk drive. Browse to it with your file explorer and just drag&drop.
2. Not sure what you mean here. Windows Media Player on Windows can play the videos recorded with the Desire. And Quicktime on OSX can as well.
3. Yeah, there's no way around this one. Bummer...

In terms of photos, why don't you just drag and drop...you don't really need to use an importing tool. That seems overly complicated for what you want.
On the video side of things, you have two formats to choose from. 3gp and Mp4. When you're shooting video there's a tab on the left. Pull it out and at the bottom is the settings. You can then choose "Encoding type" and switch. I believe you'll get the best compatibility with Mp4.
The reminders thing? I have no clue.

1. Issue with sync - OK I will drag and drop. The importer utility is normally quite handy as it only unloads images that havent already been unloaded etc; etc;
2.
Aitese said:
On the video side of things, you have two formats to choose from. 3gp and Mp4. When you're shooting video there's a tab on the left. Pull it out and at the bottom is the settings. You can then choose "Encoding type" and switch. I believe you'll get the best compatibility with Mp4.
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I have the choice out of H.263 and MPEG4. Both options output a .3gp file (I presumed that MPEG4 should output a .MP4). Both .3gp give the following message in VLC player "No suitable decoder module: VLC does not support the audio or video format "samr". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this." Media player doesnt give me a message it just doesnt give audio. Google this tells me that there is no easy way to solve this. So how come it works for you?
3. "...Yeah, there's no way around this one. Bummer..." Bummer indeed
Oh well - thanks for your answers guys but I would really love to try and sort this video issue. Incidentally its the same with sound recordings - they use the same samr codec which basically cant be used

Ah, well it seems both RealPlayer and Quicktime can play back the videos encoded with the mp4 or H.263 format.
EDIT - And also Windows Media player. I have read that VLC can't play them due to licensing issues for the AMR sound format.

download and install the k-lite codec pack it will include the classic player which is more than capable of playing these videos. I did have an issue with my vids i was recording when i was making a recording that lasted longer than 10 minutes, it was almost as if the card was too full record properly however the recorder still carried on going, this can be recognised when you press stop on the video recording and it goes straight back to the desktop instead of the camera. when this occurs nothing will play the file as it is corrupt. it must have been a third party program i had installed as when i defaulted the device the problem stopped and it would record as normal.

Looking for a decent video player!

As the title says, I am looking for a decent video player, I have tried most, if not all in the "Market", but none I have found, seem to offer what I had as standard on the iphone!
What I would like, is the following:
1. Thumbnail of each video, with it's title.
2. The ability to zoom correctly, with proper aspect ratio support.
3. Remember the exit point of each video.
Zimly, has the best interface, of the ones I have found, but it does not support aspect ratio zoom, neither does it remember the exit point! Otherwise, I think this app is definitely on the right track!
The standard app, is good, but it does not display the title, nor does it remember the exit point, and you have to go into "Photos" to get to it!
If anyone knows of such an app, I would be most greatful.
P.S. Would just like to add, that the screen on this is superb for watching videos, whites are properly white, and blacks are really black! Unlike the iphone, which is a washed out mess with absolutely no contrast! Woe betied anyone who complains to Apple about this, I was actually told by their customer services, that no one else has complained, and that "They are happy with it"!!!! Thanks a lot Mr Jobs!

Another problem with video playback is that you cant jump to middle of movie. You can only jump cca 7min into movie, it you try to jump more it resets movie, starts playback from begining.
Tryed default player and one free with full lenght movie.
Mp4 format, h264
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Meridian is the best I've used. Whilst it doesn't tick all your boxes (eg no preview), it does remember where you left off on each individual video. It also allows you to seek to particular point in the video far more effectively than the stock app.
Regards,
Dave

This is the best Video player you can possible have on a android phone. It has all what you seek plus more. http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.hyperaware.videoplayerfull
On the fly bringnes settings, aspect ratios and it does remember the exit point also. It tells you if a file is playable. Only thumbnails are missing.
The only bad thing is no divx support on this phones. So You have to convert every ****.

Balos said:
The only bad thing is no divx support on this phones. So You have to convert every ****.
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You can play XviD/DviX movies with yxFlash player. Although it is be no means a perfect player, it is the only one(or at least was for a while) that can play these formats.

YxFlash is buggy as hell though... it doesn't even let me navigate to find files to play.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

I am using Act 1 video player. IMHO it us awesome. Fast, remembers the position where you have left a particular movie, tells you whether the file is playable, shows batt percentage, clock etc..
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Sent from my HTC Desire via PDA-development app

th3 said:
YxFlash is buggy as hell though... it doesn't even let me navigate to find files to play.
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i agree yxflash is buggy as hell...
very bad quality when playback mp4 movie.

YxFlash is buggy as hell though... it doesn't even let me navigate to find files to play.
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i agree yxflash is buggy as hell...
very bad quality when playback mp4 movie.
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It's also been renamed to yxplayer now BTW.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

temka said:
I am using Act 1 video player. IMHO it us awesome. Fast, remembers the position where you have left a particular movie, tells you whether the file is playable, shows batt percentage, clock etc..
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Sent from my HTC Desire via PDA-development app
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+1 from me also

Still no decent video players?
They seem to lack codecs or just be horribly made. I tried XYplayer but it's out of sync.

[Q] some questios on playing videos

Hey guys, sorry for the probably newbie question but..
whats the best way to convert/compress/store and play video's on our phones?
I've got a few Divx movies that I'd like on my phone, and I have Rockplayer, but theres no way I have enough storage to be putting 3/4/5gb movies onto my SD card
especially not since im rocking a stock 8gb atm

i use the program anyvideoconverter. it lets you put in the screen size bit rate etc. Most of my movies end up around 700MB they also look very good on the evo at this side. Some longer and better quality ones are 1.5 to 1.6 but rarely bigger. I currently convert all movies if they arent to AVI through it (or if they are huge i convert but change resolution to the evos)
Witht he free version yuo have to manually enter the information the paid version has a lot of presets that allow you to just select the device type and it will convert it for it.

Handbrake is another good one. Tons of advanced settings for mobile use. Google handbrake and evo. There are a few great sites out there that explain the perfect settings just for the evo.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

+1 on Handbrake. Just don't encode using h.264, use mpeg-4. I had issues on 2.1 with h.264 (audio/video sync, lag). 2.2 may have cleared those up, but I have not tested.

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...
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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Nice! Glad it's working for you! BTW..."darthstewie" damn I wish I'd thought of that as a username!!
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