[Q] Cannot smoothly play 480p YouTube? - Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Just wondering if anyone else has the same problem with playing 480p YouTube videos:
- Full version of YouTube website (not mobile site or using app.)
- 360p plays smoothly, but 480p causes stutters every 2-3 seconds
- Occurs for all embedded YouTube videos too
I have tried (all clean flashes):
- Android 2.3.2 (tried 2 different "generic world" ROMs from XDA forums) with Flash 10.1 and 10.3
- Android 2.3.3 (updated both of the 2.3.2 using OTA) with Flash 10.1 and 10.3
Dolphin Browser HD 6.0, Miren, Skyfire, Opera Mobile, Boat Browser did not make a difference (don't think I tried Firefox).
To my recollection the stock ROM (T-Mobile Netherlands - without much branding to be honest) played 480p smoothly, and 720p stuttered less than it does now.
Other things I have tried but didn't help:
- Using the PC Companion to do a "repair flash"
- Using a different SD card, same 8 GB, but speed 6 instead of 2
- Using different "allocation unit size" (block size?) for the memory card, I believe default from SonyEricsson is 16KB
The above was posted on official SE forums already:
talk.sonyericsson.com/message/88447
Today - at the moment of this post - I went to the IMDb site to watch 720p trailors, and not only did 480p run smoothly, but 720p was smooth too!
Is it normal that YouTube videos cannot play smoothly at 480p on the arc?
Update 1 - benchmark scores:
- AnTuTu: 2904
- Quadrant: ~1200 to ~1600

mine works like a charm... your phone might have some hardware problems. tried just now with several videos and all work smoothly
edit* tried with android's default browser. Also, have you tried using a task killer to free up your RAM? Tell me if it works

Task killers shouldn't make a difference at this point, since I've done a clean flash (all settings and data reset as a precaution). There is more than 100 MB free RAM.
No apps were installed other than updating Flash.
*updated OP with info on benchmarks

i got the same problem...
720p plays like 1 fps :/ 480p some laggs..
180mb ram with browser running in "pre-memory"
android stock browser..

Yep i have the same thing with my Arc and my Neo, they both seem to lose a few frames in 480p
Sent from my LG-P920 using XDA App

Related

[Q] Problem with mp4 files on FroYo

Hello,
I have quite serious problem after OTA. I can't play movies from facebook mobile web page (m.facebook.com). On 2.1 that was working fine. Now video player writes "can't play video". I tried to open video also withe Opera mini. Opera can't play it, but game me option to download it as MP4. After downloading it and try to play, she same issue - "can't play video". I tried on few videos, but the same result. I have unrooted Desire with no branding, EU.
Please excuse me my english.
I have that problem too - sometimes... but after restart it works again. However I have a constant problem with the videoplayer zooming too much - ex if on the real video there is three people, then after Froyo the same video zooms too much and you can only see the one in the middle...??? Is there a place to change the resolution for playback ( 4:3, 16:9, zoom like on a regular tv or is there a better videoplayer than the standard one?)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Make it 3 .. now I can't play my mp4 videos after Froyo upgrade.. Hmm Rock player seems to play it on my hero but it is slow.. not smooth as my previous player in 2.1..

Videoplayer

Hello
i am searching for a videoplayer that plays HD movies and AVI, xvid etc..i tried rockplayer but the video turned out laggy and out of sync. Anyone have an idea of an good player that plays this kind of codec?
The.Simpsons.S22E11.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION
without lagg or out of sync problems
thanks
i use rockplayer...my phone is rooted and OC'd and i have no lag or sync issues.
mysterymeat said:
i use rockplayer...my phone is rooted and OC'd and i have no lag or sync issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is very weird mate can u plz link the version of rockplayer u are using? i am running 2.2.1 froyo stock
Wow you're able to play 720p movies? I get lag with each video player out there. Rockerplayer, vplayer, arc.. but dvd quality runs perfect.
CM7 nightly 20 oc'd to 1.4ghz.
Sent from my HTC Vision
no like i said i cannot run 720p movies so there is no solution for this ?
The.Simpsons.S22E11.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION
^Did you get that from the pirate bay? Shame on you.
Try an overclock it should help some. I stream 720p flash movies and they actually perform quite well at 1.516Mhz performance, but it does overheat after a while. If you are not rooted and OC is not an option, You might have to convert the file to 480X800 to get it to play smooth. Be warned though that this can take from 20 minutes to 6 hours depending on the speed of your computer, and results in image quality loss.
If you ever get out of sync issues, just jump back a few seconds and it will resync itself. For flash movies I usually resync it every 15 minutes or so.
mejorguille said:
The.Simpsons.S22E11.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION
^Did you get that from the pirate bay? Shame on you.
Try an overclock it should help some. I stream 720p flash movies and they actually perform quite well at 1.516Mhz performance, but it does overheat after a while. If you are not rooted and OC is not an option, You might have to convert the file to 480X800 to get it to play smooth. Be warned though that this can take from 20 minutes to 6 hours depending on the speed of your computer, and results in image quality loss.
If you ever get out of sync issues, just jump back a few seconds and it will resync itself. For flash movies I usually resync it every 15 minutes or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/careface?
anyway its to bad it cannot play 720p properly and i have no plans on rooting and oc
You can try Act 1, I have had it play a few formats the others wouldnt...I like Rockplayer, Vplayer not so much. Meridian is another good video player.
Try arcMedia
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
ya arc media is pretty good
If anyone is still looking for more video player choices, Vital Player seems pretty good. Either pretty new, or I just haven't found it before. Good interface, seems compatible with lots of my videos, and automatically selects software or hardware decoding based on the video (without having to select or toggle like Rock Player). I've seen some complaints in the Market reviews about the free version showing ads during video playback. But I haven't seen this. I have AdFree running, so it seems to be doing its job. Also, Vital Player is not yet compatible with Gingerbread, so it doesn't work on CM7.
Since I've switched to CM7, its Rock Player for me. It plays almost everything I've thrown at it, without lag. vPlayer lagged like crazy for me on some videos. ArcMedia has lots of things I didn't like about the interface, and lagged on some WMV files.
I've been using the stock video player since day one when I got my G2. I play all my videos at 720P after converting to .mp4 using handbrake. No lag issues at all.

[Poll] is YouTube at 480p smooth for you?

Since I couldn't find any reviews specifying this, I have created a poll. This is the closest thing I found - "YouTube videos played quite smoothly (360p-480p)"
Are you able to stream YouTube at 480p smoothly? (zero stuttering/dropped frames)
This is in regards to my previous thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1180717
you can watch 720p fine with jetvd from the market. I do it all the time..uses so much data though O.O
Thanks for the tip, jetVD works nicely - smooth 720p.
I CBA to send the phone for repair for 4 weeks just to potentially fix a small issue.
Edit: the KeepVid app looks exactly the same as jetVD
I only watch via WiFi, is faster and saves me €10 a month.
But streaming HD still seems to lag (I use Opera Mini w/ lastest Flash Player), I think the phone (I have a Neo) can't handle streaming HD well enough...
It can handle 720p streaming just fine, only not through Flash. Video playing through Flash still isn't optimal, but that is just flash. When going through the Yt desktop site not even 480p works completely smooth here.
With JetVD you can watch 720p streaming just fine, and since JetVD uses the Gallery player it even uses the Bravia engine, AND the output over HDMI would be real 720p and not just 854x480 upscaled!

[Q] How to play 720p mkv smoothly?

Hello, my friends. I'm currently using ICS Arconium ROM (.64 baseband) in My Arc S and I'd like to know if is there possible to run mkv hd (720p) videos (movies, series etc) smoothly. When I try to do so, most of the times it goes laggy. Is there any app or tweak to fix this? Thanks.
Try MX Video Player, i can play my video smoothly with it
I tried this player, but it doesn't work very well here. It keeps laggy. I heard that DICEPLAYER is the best mkv player for android, and I just bought it (about 6 dollars), but when I start it, it crashes... =\ Thank you anyway
I have tried 1080p streams on the phone, and it was smooth, but I had the stock ROM when I tested that.
I believe our phone doesn't support .mkv out-of-the-box(correct me, if wrong), but you can get it work with RockPlayer(also plays .avis!)
I am using vplayer which can play most of the file formats.
I tested all of these, guys... Not successfully =\ Some of them screw up the subtitles (my native language is portuguese, they doesn't accept characters as ^ ´ ´ ~ etc) and in ALL of them mkv doesn't work well. I think that Arc S has a strong enough processor to run this format without any lag, but it's not working...
You can try MoboPlayer. But make sure, that you Enable "Soft decoding" in menu. If still doesn't work, you should try to download "MoboPlayer codecs" but you must download right version for arc S prosessor. I think it is ARMV7VFP3 but I am not sure of that.
Just tried Moboplayer... But no changes.
I'm sure that my Arc S is powerful enough to run this kind of video, but it's not working fine. The video/audio are pretty out of sync... The audio runs normal, but the video gets slow and/or laggy. I tried overclocking my processor to almost 2Ghz, but for nothing.
I contacted the developer of DicePlayer and he responded... He provided me with a working version of the app (no crash when starting), but the lag/sync problem continued.
See what he said: "I may need to check with the device, but currently I don't have the device. In my opinion, ICS needs more heap memory than Gingerbread, so the main problem is from lack of memory. Anyway I'll check it and try to resolve the playback issue."
Obviously the Arc S processor is nor guilty for the lag, but possibly the low level. Maybe a memory optimizer will answer my problem?
New response:
Hi,
The single core Qualcomm chipset has some weak point to decode the H.264 MP/HP video frames, so it may depend on the video files. I don't know that is the reason or not. I'll check the issue when I get the device, but I don't know when it is.
We can watch mkv videos @720p with hardware acceleration but most of the films and shows are encoded with profile level 4.1 and our phone can play only videos with profile 3.1/4.0. This levels can be changed within 1 second using H264LevelEditor. I always change it to 3.1 and almost every movie is running perfectly. With 4.0 I can't get it to play. But even with this change I couldn't play one video. Don't know why but the only one difference I noticed was "Format settings, ReFrames". Sometimes it is 5 frames and someetime 8 or 9. But dunno if it's the problem
I use diceplayer on arconium 7.2 with latest doomkernel.
btw. It was discussed before. Use search next time.
4.1, 4.0 or 3.1 or even 3.0 mkv 720p videos are running exacly the same way... It plays, the audio is OK but the video is laggy and slow, what makes them become out of sync with the audio...
Because you are playing videos with app that plays it in software mode, not in hardware mode. It's normal that phone can't decode 720p video with software mode. You need to get videos to play in hardware mode. BSplayer has it's own hardware support but it's still not what it's suppouse to be. The only app that play in hardware mode mkv videos with profile level 3.1 for me is DicePlayer. And it's doing it without any glitches or lags. It's perfectly A/V synced
I bought DicePlayer yesterday, I'm running my videos on it. All levels are now in 3.1, and I realized that some of them run in SW mode, and some in HW mode. When it runs in hardware mode, everything goes pretty fine... When in software mode, I get the problems. How can I "force" HW mode? Is there a way? Thanks.
You can't force hardware mode. I don't know why some videos can't be played. It must be something with encoding videos, some settings. You can compare parameters of videos that are working with those played in software mode. There must be some difference and maybe there is a way to change it fast.
I also use MX Video Player with the additional codec on my LT15i but experience no lagg at all.
I watch mostly The Walking Dead in 720p MKV
I am at 1.5 GHZ on doomkernel so maybe you could consider overclocking.
Greetz
MX player. No lag at all. I am watching Bleach episode right now
Alright, some updates.
All my mkv files are level 3.1 level now... But still some of them can't run in HW mode. The video starts to play (diceplayer, of course) in HW mode but 1 second later it gets an error and returns to SW (laggy) mode. Half of my 720p mkv videos can run like a dream in hardware decoding (3.1 level), but some of them just can't, even in 3.1 level.
For example, The.Big.Bang.Theory.S05E05.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION can run very smoothly. Hardware deconding. Butt The.Big.Bang.Theory.S05E17.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION can't do the same, it goes only in SW.
What's the difference?!?! What else can I change?
Thanks.
Maybe is because your video was compiled in 10bits, nothing to do until somebody releases a player that supports 10bits well
But you can try MOBO, it lags at the start but after 2mins start running normal
I think you have to play it with MoboPlayer dude

HW video acceleration problem with 4.3

Hi,
I've noticed that since android 4.3 something changed in terms of hardware video acceleration.
I used to watch movies on my Galaxy Nexus and the same movies that played nicely with 4.2.2, now stutter or lag with 4.3
I've tried with the latest MX Player and BS Player and even the internal stock video player. All do the same.
I used to play HD 720p videos and some 1080p videos without a single glitch, as long as HW or HW+ (MX Player) were enabled.
Now, after a few reencodes and tests I've come to the conclusion that the reference frames can't be higher than 5. An AVC video with ref frames of 6 and higher play with stuttering, but when in SW mode, they play OK.
You may download the samples to test:
H.264 HD 720p [email protected] ref frames 5
H.264 HD 720p [email protected] ref frames 6
Ref frames= 5 plays like it should, no problems with HW acceleration
Ref frames= 6 stutters, lags. Only plays nice with SW mode.
I've tried with a Galaxy Nexus of a friend, also with 4.3 and it happens as described.
Anyone would know why would Google break the acceleration, or how can I report this?
Thanks
Nuno
Hi, I just registered because I have the same problem. I even searched and tried a lot of apps and it doesn't matter, the result is always the same. My GNex plays some files very choppy.
I downloaded both videos you linked and tested with MX Player (with custom codec ARMv7 NEON)
Ref. frames 5 = Plays fine with HW+ and SW.
Ref. frames 6 = Plays choppy with HW+ and plays fine with SW.
I have a lot of playback problems with most video files, specially TV series rip from the scene (for example HDTV 720p rips from DIMENSION and other scenes group) and some other 720p BluRay releases and it stutters like hell in HW+. Some times HW it doesn't even work and with SW plays fine 10 or 20 seconds and then starts to stutter a lot to the point it is unwatchable.
Then if I test some 1080p movies (even 15gb files and over LAN) they play excellent. Some don't.
I tried everything, even forcing min. CPU freq. for MX Player with Franco Kernel and it's always the same.
I have Android 4.3 (clean install) and I tried with and without Franco Kernel and it doesn't matter.
You have to understand 4.3 API is not easy. It's been almost a month since the release of 4.3 and there hasn't been a stable ROM, kernel yet. If that doesn't drop some enlightenment then you have to realize 4.2.2 took 8 months to perfect and reach where it is. Rather than blaming 4.3 how about you understand the coding that goes on behind it. The app developers never meant to focus solely on 4.3 they need to make sure that it doesn't cause instability for 4.2 and below, as there are tons of devices from different oem that react differently to small changes. Just be patient and the dev will sort it out. Quit making like little girls 'daddy I want it NOW NOW'. Be patient and eventually it will be fixed.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Misledz, nobody's whining.
Both me and AgusL just pointed something that I haven't found discussed anywhere else.
The purpose of this thread is just to share one's experiences with this subject. I perfectly understand this is either a bug or a intended feature of 4.3. I just hope it's a bug because I'm used to watch a lot of movies on my GN and now they are unwatchable (battery-wise)
Would you be so kind to share your experience with your Nexus 4? Does it affect it also? I am just trying to figure out if this is PowerVR SGX540 related or if the Adreno 320 is also affected.
Thanks
Nuno
Using the Android Video Player and MX Player, I have no stuttering or lag on either of these 2 videos.
I have used MX Player and switched between HW and SW decoding and cannot see any issues.
on CM10.2 (unofficial) playing HQ/HD videos though MX by using HW or HW+ decoder.. makes videos laggy..
SW works perfectly..
I wish that people who discuss possible bugs and problems would firstly install Google stock Nexus image and test there, before flashing incomplete nightly ROM's and judge how the new system is.
FFS.
No problem playing videos with latest MX player pro on stock 4.3 here, I think the problem is probably rom related if using a custom 4.3 rom.
Factory resetted Galaxy Nexus with OTA updated 4.3 firmware, and then reflashed to stock 4.3 firmware, and another GN OTA updated to stock 4.3, both displays severe glitches in hardware video decoding mode. Tested in the Dice Player and VLC Player with HW decoding enabled.
Video track info from the problem files:
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 8 frames
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
On the Nexus 10 and the Nexus 7 (1st gen) both with stock OTA updated 4.3 firmware exactly the same files played well in HW decoding mode.
Only Galaxy Nexus seems to be affected.
On the stock 4.2.2 firmware and CM 10.1.2 problem does not exist.
Nuno_PT said:
Misledz, nobody's whining.
Both me and AgusL just pointed something that I haven't found discussed anywhere else.
The purpose of this thread is just to share one's experiences with this subject. I perfectly understand this is either a bug or a intended feature of 4.3. I just hope it's a bug because I'm used to watch a lot of movies on my GN and now they are unwatchable (battery-wise)
Would you be so kind to share your experience with your Nexus 4? Does it affect it also? I am just trying to figure out if this is PowerVR SGX540 related or if the Adreno 320 is also affected.
Thanks
Nuno
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologies I didn't mean to make it sound like it's whining. I just see so many posts saying 4.3 is bad in the general section that they just get shut down. Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot, what I meant from experience was the 4.3 API just has a few restrictions unlike the open breeze the previous builds had. People and paranoia just request so many things that what's not broken ends up being broken due to changes. I felt it was unfair if I had not shared the experience.
On the GNexus and N4 I don't have that issue. I assume this was supposed to be kernel related since we are playing with builds that weren't supposed to be released for us. I've tried downloading a 1080p MKV file (I am Legend) and streamed it off an SMB server, and it played flawlessly on DicePlayer (GNexus) I had no stutter, subtitles loaded perfectly and I still got to see Will Smith fire some rounds in the air.
Have you given DicePlayer a go? I promise it's something not to look back upon
Misledz said:
On the GNexus and N4 I don't have that issue. [...] Have you given DicePlayer a go?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You see, not all files have this glitches. There is a problem only with specific video coding, I.e. ref.frames=6 or 8.
Do you tried examples from Nuno_PT post?
Just tried examples from top post and "ref frames 6" definitely have problems with Dice Player v.2.0.35, but "ref frames 5" playing well.
Latest MX Player Free not playing "ref frames 6" in HW mode, but does fall-back to software decoding (and displays HW mode icon simultaneously - that is bug, obviously) and playng in software, with corresponding CPU load and battery drain.
Galaxy Nexus with stock 4.3 firmware.
Youtube videos playing perfectly.
Video files with ref frames = 1, or 2, or 3 - all playing well.
Trailer "Prince of Persia - Sands of Time" in 1080p for example, have video track:
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
And, of course, playing well.
But video files with ReFrames = 6 or 8 definitely not playing well in HW mode on stock GN 4.3.
SW playback does too much battery drain, so it is a problem.
First I would like to say that I am glad this is not a problem with only my phone. It pleases me to know that affects all Galaxy Nexus with stock 4.3, and it looks like CM 10.2 is also affected.
I came to the conclusion, along with Vinni Sanders, that this only affects HD encodes with ref frames higher than 6.
Most scene movies you find over the internet where encoded with 12 ref frames, or at least higher than 6.
The thing is that with stock 4.2.2 this didn't happen and I could play videos with 12 ref frames with HW acceleration, as far as I can remember.
At first I didn't know what was the trigger, but after messing around with re-encodings of movies I came to the conclusion that it were the ref frames.
I haven't made tests with 1080p, so I can't state how many ref. frames would trigger the stuttering with HW acceleration. But I do remember watching high bit rate 1080p movies with HW acceleration when I had stock 4.2.2
My question is, what's the next step? It surely looks like a regression. How can we correctly report this to Google?
Nuno
and ianncer
Well, I come with some updates. I tested a movie on my Nexus 7 (2012) and my Galaxy Nexus, both Android 4.3 stock. This is the media info:
Format: MPEG-4 - Base Media / Version 2
File size: 1.40 GiB - Duration: 1h 20mn - Overall bit rate: 2 497 Kbps
Video
Format: AVC / [email protected]
CABAC: Yes - ReFrames 5 frames
Bit rate mode: Variable - 2 100 Kbps
Width: 1 280 pixels - Height: 720 pixels - Frame rate: 23.976 fps - Color space: YUV
Audio
Format: AC-3
Bit rate mode: Constant - Bit rate: 384 Kbps
Channel count: 2 channels - Sampling rate: 48.0 KHz - Bit depth: 16 bits
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus 7 -> MX Player on H/W+ plays perfect, no frame drops at all.
Galaxy Nexus -> MX Player on H/W+ very laggy. H/W is the same. S/W plays perfect.
Also, some 1080p movies play fine on my Nexus 7, but on my Galaxy Nexus will only play (laggy) on S/W mode only. H/W and H/W+ gives me an decoding error.
So, the problem is Android on this particular device, and not an Android global bug across all devices.
Is there a way to test at what percent the GPU is used when playing a file on Android? I tried through Developer options, but some of you can do more serious tests.
Please forgive about my english writing
Got the exact same issue with my Galaxy Nexus stock 4.3. Alle players have major stutter when using differnt mkv files. Same codes as described below. Alle scene stuff from the interwebs.
There is the official issue tracker for Android: code.google.com/p/android/issues/list
Same issue for me with cm-10.2-20130815-NIGHTLY-maguro.
Technical Support from MX Player says:
You are all right. Hardware video playback is broken on Galaxy Nexus 4.3.
Unfortunately it cannot be fixed with HW+ decoder because it is a kernel side issue.
I'm not sure who made this issue but may be one of these: Google, Samsung or TI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mx-videoplayer/-sKEPENyAj8
Issue 59020 - Android Open Source Project Issue Tracker
Hi,
I've opened Issue 59020 at the Android Open Source Project Issue Tracker.
Feel free to comment there in hope that Google can do anything about it and hopefully release a 4.3.1 update with this issue fixed.
Nuno
To the OP why don't you email the Dev of MX player about your problem next time.
fux0r99 said:
To the OP why don't you email the Dev of MX player about your problem next time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did.
They've acknowledge that the problem is in the kernel of Android 4.3, like m1m1 said above, post #16.
Nuno
Hi guys,
I am having the same problem with my Galaxy Nexus and 4.3. Videos with HW Accelaration stutter like hell, unfortunately the Software Decoder is not completely smooth, so that is not an option for me. In addition to the video issue, my phone felt much slower than before.
I downgraded to 4.2.2 yesterday and I am very happy with the fact, that the phone runs so much smoother now and I can watch videos again. I don't see any reason right now why I should upgrade to 4.3 soon. Maybe to 4.3.1 when Google fixed these problems.
I can recommend anyone to go back to 4.2.2 again. The phone is wiped, that is true. But it also runs much better than before. It will cost you some hours fixing everything back up, but I don't regret it.
Cheers,
DS
I was able to reproduce OP's issue on stock 4.3 with MX Player.
Very odd. Fortunately I use my Nexus 7 to watch tv/dvd/br rips so I hopefully won't really run in to this issue during my regular use, but it is definitely there.

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