Develop Bugs

Media Playback

I had all but given up hope on this topic, but I guess I'll ask.
The Samsung Galaxy S will play Divx/Xvid/MKV natively without a conversion. This is probably one of the best features I have ever heard, as I have hoped for it to be in some sort of mobile device I already owned, such as a phone, psp, or some other multi-purpose device, instead of having to buy a standalone media player which tends to play many formats.
All videos I watch are encoded in these formats (well mkv encoded in x264, with mkv container). Is there, or will there ever be a way to play these on Android 2.1 or 2.2 for other models? I have an evo, and would be EC-FREAKING-STATIC if I could just drag and drop videos to watch on it. Especially with the hdmi out!! I love the evo, I really think it is great. This one feature is the icing on the cake for me.
If it cannot be done, can somebody just give me a brief description as to why? The way I see it, when you need to play these files on a pc, you just install a video codec to decode it. Isn't there some way it can be added?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer this.
P.S.- For anyone who thinks conversion isn't a big deal, I agree, it really isn't. The thing is, a lot of the time I find out I need to be somewhere, have to leave right away, and don't have anything converted to watch. I can't tell you how many times I wish I had this feature!

atm there are not many options, at least as far as i know...
stock player (good baseline h264 playback)
rockplayer (good divx/xvid playback)
yxplayer (decent main/high h264 playback)
for everything else, i simply have "stream" folder on my PC, drop all other vids there, and play them using OrbLive while on the go.

Damn I have been living in the dark. Thanks!

just finished playing with rockplayer, and its pretty darn good
im actually waiting for something bad to happen, and then i
remember... I'm not using a windows mobile phone anymore.

gabemeyers said:
just finished playing with rockplayer, and its pretty darn good
im actually waiting for something bad to happen, and then i
remember... I'm not using a windows mobile phone anymore.
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Click to collapse
lol, see now that's funny!

Wuzhenhua player maybe? I havent tried it out on the evo yet but it worked solidly on my other device.

New to Android - Why can't I play MPG videos?

So I love the EVO, and so far I love Android, except I can't seem to figure out how to play videos on it. Sure I can view Youtube, youporn etc , but I can't seem to find a player that will play simple MPEGs. I have downloaded and tried at least 5 different video/media players from the Market, and none of them will play MPEGs correctly. Some of them will give me sound, but none will give me video. I have tried a couple of different video files that I know work on my desktop.
Am I doing something wrong? I am coming from Windows Mobile with Windows Media Player that played just about anything I threw at it. I can't imagine such a wonderful piece of hardware coupled with what seems to be an awesome OS can't do MPG/AVI.
Note: I am currently rooted+nand+bugless beast 0.3 Although I was having this trouble before I had the custom rom or NAND unlocked.

sterlinron said:
So I love the EVO, and so far I love Android, except I can't seem to figure out how to play videos on it. Sure I can view Youtube, youporn etc , but I can't seem to find a player that will play simple MPEGs. I have downloaded and tried at least 5 different video/media players from the Market, and none of them will play MPEGs correctly. Some of them will give me sound, but none will give me video. I have tried a couple of different video files that I know work on my desktop.
Am I doing something wrong? I am coming from Windows Mobile with Windows Media Player that played just about anything I threw at it. I can't imagine such a wonderful piece of hardware coupled with what seems to be an awesome OS can't do MPG/AVI.
Note: I am currently rooted+nand+bugless beast 0.3 Although I was having this trouble before I had the custom rom or NAND unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious, have you tried Meridian? I don't really play a lot of videos on my phone, but Meridian has come through on everything so far for me. YMMV

Rock player is the best video player I have ever used on Android. I can play all my divx format movies without conversion and always get 25-30 fps.
The player is in private beta now and should be released soon.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=698451

KCarpenter - yes, I downloaded Meridian last night. Just tried it again, and still no luck. Thanks for the reply.
Danknee - Thanks!

Considering that the Evo has hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding, why bother playing other formats that will destroy your CPU and battery?
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

gbm85 said:
Considering that the Evo has hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding, why bother playing other formats that will destroy your CPU and battery?
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's just that I received an e-mail MPG of my nephew riding his bike without training wheels and would like to see it that's all. Not sure what H.264 decoding is or if it has my nephew riding his bike without training wheels or not. I should go search for that thanks.
I just figure I should be able to view most any file attachment that comes into me these days.

H.264 is the video encoder for MP4's. Basically, if you used a program to convert your videos to MP4 videos, you would be able to play them without a problem. The phone has hardware acceleration for H.264, so it doesn't use as much processor/battery to play vs. other formats that have to be software decoded. Handbrake works good for me, though I can't remember what file types you can put into it.

sterlinron said:
It's just that I received an e-mail MPG of my nephew riding his bike without training wheels and would like to see it that's all. Not sure what H.264 decoding is or if it has my nephew riding his bike without training wheels or not. I should go search for that thanks.
I just figure I should be able to view most any file attachment that comes into me these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why you cannot play those mpg files is simple. Android doesn't support them out of the box. You need to turn to third-party video players which can do it.
Rock Demo Player is one (only one?) such video player.

You can try to use the third-party video player, I read an article is about the top 5 video player apps in Android Market. Maybe it is helpful to you.

Brucew0617 said:
You can try to use the third-party video player, I read an article is about the top 5 video player apps in Android Market. Maybe it is helpful to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread is over a year old. I think the OP figured it out.

Thanks for your remind, I hope it can also be useful to other guys.

I use MX Player. I've only had a problem with AVI files that encode the audio with AAC.
Sent from my carrier pigeon.

Mobo player so far for me has played anything I asked it to.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

MakeMeFibonacci said:
I use MX Player. I've only had a problem with AVI files that encode the audio with AAC.
Sent from my carrier pigeon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Moboplayer most of time, it seems that MX Player also have so much supporter. Maybe I should try it later.

[Q] MKV Player Problem

So I've recently started watching shows again and I've wanted to find a great MKV player that works well on the Dinc. Only problem I'm having is the actual playback, is the Dinc not suited for mkv playability?
When I use Rockplayer, its really choppy on the different files. And the sound doesn't seem to sync up all that well, a bit on the laggy side. I know the hardware isn't really suited for video playability but it seems to do pretty well on avi's and mp4's and the sort. MKV seems to be the popular type among others, but it isn't handled well by the phone.
Should I just convert my videos to the "lower" format? Does anyone have a good reccomendation for an MKV player or settings of the sort?
Thanks in advance!

I tried RockPlayer today, too, and was disappointed in it. Seems that I'll be transcoding my files to AVI with h264 or some such. It might help to remove unnecessary language tracks, subs, etc. If you don't plan on using another screen to view the files, downsizing to 720x480 would be a great help, if the source files are larger.

Have you tried VPlayer? it is in alpha right now, but I haven't had a problem with it playing anything. Although I haven't tried a HD movie file.

When I had the Original Motorola Droid 1 I used both RockPlayer and arcMedia.
When I tested .mkv files with arcMedia, it played really smooth.
Look for arcMedia in the market and let us know if it works out better for you.

g00s3y said:
Have you tried VPlayer? it is in alpha right now, but I haven't had a problem with it playing anything. Although I haven't tried a HD movie file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VPlayer seems like the closest possible. Once it gets better I'll definitely use it. But right now, its not so good because its pretty choppy. For one of my dual audio files, it plays a screechy sound, but it'll get better. I'll leave the creator some feedback and such but, I like it.
FranzVz said:
When I had the Original Motorola Droid 1 I used both RockPlayer and arcMedia.
When I tested .mkv files with arcMedia, it played really smooth.
Look for arcMedia in the market and let us know if it works out better for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works somewhat well, but when I play videos, they're still choppy and the sound isn't synced either. Better than Rockplayer in terms of playing mkv files but maybe it might also be the size of the file itself that is causing the problems.
500mb does seem like quite a bit to process. But...a contradiction lies with the fact that Rockplayer and others can play large avi/mp4 files? Gah, I guess I'll just wait for updates or something, convert some of my files. >_>

Check out CorePlayer on Twitter. Their tweets indicate that it will be released very soon.
I've been waiting for this since I made the switch from Windows Mobile to Android. It should be extremely stable and play everything.
Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

mkv files are a problem in general. Most of my files are in .avi. I have a 1.4 gb dream theater concert that runs fine on arcmedia, but again its not an mkv.
We have VLC Mobile to look forward to early 2011 lol
Sent from my Droid Incredible using XDA App

Galaxy Nexus 1080p FULL HD and 720p MKV Video Playback Test

What do you think?

/\
So in summary:
1080p MKV:
laggy with no sound in stock player
laggy with synced sound in QQ player
MKV Scene released (torrents)
Has issues preventing playback
720p MKV:
Runs fine (stock player et al)
1080p MP4:
Runs fine (stock player et al)

I'd suggest trying MX Player instead. Probably no need for a video though.

ill just leave this here http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html

Still I'm disappointed with the performance, coming for a Galaxy S2 and all.

I had no problems at all playing a 400MB large 6 minutes long 1080p MP4 video. If there are problems with other formats, that has got to do with the application playing them or the codecs used. GN can play high definition video very well.

kristovaher said:
I had no problems at all playing a 400MB large 6 minutes long 1080p MP4 video. If there are problems with other formats, that has got to do with the application playing them or the codecs used. GN can play high definition video very well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is some people encode their stuff as mkv or download hd rips (cheeky) off the internet.
The Galaxy Nexus feels more like an iPhone now I suppose as you cannot chuck any file at it and expect it to play, perhaps I'm used to the ease of things with the GS2.

momagic said:
The problem is some people encode their stuff as mkv or download hd rips (cheeky) off the internet.
The Galaxy Nexus feels more like an iPhone now I suppose as you cannot chuck any file at it and expect it to play, perhaps I'm used to the ease of things with the GS2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But of course. You cannot chuck ANY file at it. Nothing works like that. You cannot chuck ANY file at Windows either.
Just because it has problems with high definition mkv files doesn't mean it has problems with mkv files in general. Just play lower resolution files and if it doesn't play, try out a different player that might.
Let's remember that high definition video playing is still promoted as feature on high end tablets. Tablets are a bit more powerful to begin with, phones have not caught up with your high end TV or laptop yet.

I don't feel this is an issue with the phone its application thing..
Most mkv's have an h.264 video stream which the phone can hardware decode its just the software doesn't know the container so I presume its software decoding and in which case im impressed it does as well as it does..
Vplayer might be a good app to try..

True, but with another phone (which I will not name as I may be labelled a fanboi) I chuck numerous files... and they played.
Don't get me wrong, not everyone cares if this phone is 'pure google' or if somethings not 'optimised' for it, we just want it to work.

the video doesn't help at all really
no bitrates were mentioned on the "laggy" video
no video or audio codecs were mentioned anywhere in the video
MKV can contain any number of different video and audio codecs
MP4 can contain (for example) h.263 and h.264 codecs

This is really annoying coming from a GS2. GS2 played any video file I threw at it. On the Nexus I have to use an app from the market and even then its not as fluid. I guess this is due to the older GPU. In general I am dissapointed with this phone, the S2 is much snappier.

bongadadu said:
This is really annoying coming from a GS2. GS2 played any video file I threw at it. On the Nexus I have to use an app from the market and even then its not as fluid. I guess this is due to the older GPU. In general I am dissapointed with this phone, the S2 is much snappier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry total rubbish, you are using a stock Android ICS phone, it does not come with touchwiz and other Samsung software, one of it being a video player. Please don't blame this on the phone hardware, it is nothing to do with it. If you expected everything to work out of the box I'm afraid maybe you should have got another phone! Stick on MX Player as an earlier poster suggested, also DICE player has now been updated, took all of 1 minute to get this information!

momagic said:
True, but with another phone (which I will not name as I may be labelled a fanboi) I chuck numerous files... and they played.
Don't get me wrong, not everyone cares if this phone is 'pure google' or if somethings not 'optimised' for it, we just want it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google can only put on file formats and codecs that they have licenses for and native Android 4.0 comes with open source software and proprietary Google owned software.
Yes, it is a 'pure Google' issue even if you don't care about it. And more open than others on the market has its advantages and disadvantages. Sorry that you are disappointed, but reality is that Android Market has a number of media players that can play a lot of file formats and codecs that Android 4.0 does not natively support. No one forces you to use native players.

Using diceplayer the Galaxy Nexus can play any content I throw at it. It can play samples from Bluray rips at full bitrate so it's as good as you could possibly need it to be (unless you have higher than bluray quality material).

JustinL01 said:
Sorry total rubbish, you are using a stock Android ICS phone, it does not come with touchwiz and other Samsung software, one of it being a video player. Please don't blame this on the phone hardware, it is nothing to do with it. If you expected everything to work out of the box I'm afraid maybe you should have got another phone! Stick on MX Player as an earlier poster suggested, also DICE player has now been updated, took all of 1 minute to get this information!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, I completely forgot about touchwiz, my bad. Tried dice player and had issues with my avi rips lagging, this was couple of days ago. I'll try the new dice player today.
I have been experiencing lag in the browser (pinch to zoom on heavy sites) which I didnt have in the GS2 (loved the bounce and elastic scrolling in that browser). I also sometimes get lag when loading the appdrawer (animation is laggy).
Don't know if I'm being paranoid but I think my device may be a bit messed up. When I took it out of the box, I was never greeted with the setup, just the home screen. Had to manually go to settings and add an account. Perhaps this was a returned model that I got given ?

momagic said:
True, but with another phone (which I will not name as I may be labelled a fanboi) I chuck numerous files... and they played.
Don't get me wrong, not everyone cares if this phone is 'pure google' or if somethings not 'optimised' for it, we just want it to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because samsung offers enhanced codec support on their galaxy S phones.. those phones running an AOSP build like CM 7 cannot play those formats out of the box. (last time I checked, they hadn't managed to port over samsung's codec support)

bongadadu said:
You're right, I completely forgot about touchwiz, my bad. Tried dice player and had issues with my avi rips lagging, this was couple of days ago. I'll try the new dice player today.
I have been experiencing lag in the browser (pinch to zoom on heavy sites) which I didnt have in the GS2 (loved the bounce and elastic scrolling in that browser). I also sometimes get lag when loading the appdrawer (animation is laggy).
Don't know if I'm being paranoid but I think my device may be a bit messed up. When I took it out of the box, I was never greeted with the setup, just the home screen. Had to manually go to settings and add an account. Perhaps this was a returned model that I got given ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get your's from? Was the box sealed? Mine was from O2, no issues at all, minimal lag if any, I also had a GS2 and I find the GN a much nicer device to use. Maybe do a full factory wipe and start again. For the video MXPlayer has just been updated for ICS and incorporates hardware decoding, best of all it's free, maybe install this one first. Also check the quality of the video's you are putting on.

JustinL01 said:
Where did you get your's from? Was the box sealed? Mine was from O2, no issues at all, minimal lag if any, I also had a GS2 and I find the GN a much nicer device to use. Maybe do a full factory wipe and start again. For the video MXPlayer has just been updated for ICS and incorporates hardware decoding, best of all it's free, maybe install this one first. Also check the quality of the video's you are putting on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contract on O2 but bought from phones4u. They didnt have any in their local shop so they sent this guy to get it from a shop nearby. When the guy gave it to me the box was not sealed (didnt have to cut / open anything to be able to get device out). I thought they do this to show you the phone before hand.
The phone itself had a plastic cover on it's front and back. Thinking back now I'didnt have to put the battery in either, just the SIM.
This was bought 2 days ago. I have done a reset, still do get the same lag, the camera is absolute ****e as well.
I was on text chat to O2 today, told them about the volume bug and all that, and they gave me a ref number. They also said that I could take to any phones4u shop and get it swapped, I will have to do that just to keep my self from going insane with paranoia.

I just want it to work. Call me a snob but I don't really care about sense or touchwiz, as long as it works, that's fine by me.

Do 720p mkv files work flawlessly without re-encoding?

Hi everyone,
I first got to say that I have not yet purchased GalaxyNexus. However I have a big concern in regards to 720p HD video files from the net. I realized this on my Galaxy Tab10.1 after I bought it that most HD files need to be re-encoded in order to run without lag or being choppy. I was very disappointed with that.
Would someone tell me how is the performance of mkv files on GalaxyNexus.
Thanks.
Sent from my HTC Hero using XDA App

Yes, use MX Player from the market, it can run just about anything smoothly

Or try dice player, only problem is its not allowing me to buy full version after 3 days trial has ran out, anyone know a way around that?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

heck it plays 1080p mkvs flawlessly. I have a 11gb mkv of Drive that sits on my phone just to show off. Now to get that MHL adapter.

biggiestuff said:
heck it plays 1080p mkvs flawlessly. I have a 11gb mkv of Drive that sits on my phone just to show off. Now to get that MHL adapter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried a sample of 1080p mkv on mxplayer and it was choking on SW only (no HW available). What player did you use?

CrazyDelta said:
Hi everyone,
I first got to say that I have not yet purchased GalaxyNexus. However I have a big concern in regards to 720p HD video files from the net. I realized this on my Galaxy Tab10.1 after I bought it that most HD files need to be re-encoded in order to run without lag or being choppy. I was very disappointed with that.
Would someone tell me how is the performance of mkv files on GalaxyNexus.
Thanks.
Sent from my HTC Hero using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whether it plays depends on a lot of things. The video format, (MKV is just a container), the audio format and most importantly the bitrate. A lot of desktop PCs will chunder along if the bitrate is too high for it's hardware to handle, so a phone will struggle even more.

The bottleneck seems to be the speed of the internal storage, for me. It plays stuff flawlessly, but if I play a 1080p file with a super high bitrate, it's all choppy.

cvbcbcmv said:
You a usenet user? Mkv files are all over that. (I hope you are, I wanna talk to somebody about how amazing it is!!!)
I watched a 3 gig mkv file of a 1 hour season finale of flashpoint (anybody watch it BTW?) and it was flawless. Jules was as amazing as ever, and Ed was as bald as ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean usernet user? whats that? and my mkv files play fine 720p and 1080p

Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.
However, I found this video review on YouTube and it kinda made me pessimistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDnY_nZ2SiE
*I hope it is ok posting a link to a video here.

CrazyDelta said:
Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.
However, I found this video review on YouTube and it kinda made me pessimistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDnY_nZ2SiE
*I hope it is ok posting a link to a video here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what player or videos are being used in this video but my 720 en 1080p MKV's are all working smooth on dice player.

cvbcbcmv said:
You a usenet user? Mkv files are all over that. (I hope you are, I wanna talk to somebody about how amazing it is!!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first rule of Usenet is, you don't talk about Usenet.

Is there a trick to getting these super large files on your phone? Everytime I've tried to drag an 8GB file over it complains it only takes files under 4GB. Are you splitting them?

lettcco said:
I tried a sample of 1080p mkv on mxplayer and it was choking on SW only (no HW available). What player did you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used diceplayer trial. That app is great. hopefully they get it working soon so I can get the full version.

not sure what your guys issue with dice player is. I have it on mine and it plays mkvs, wmvs, avis flawlessly

Dice Player plays high bitrate 1080p flawless for me. The only problem is the trial is only available so you have to uninstall and reinstall every 3 days.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

neok44 said:
not sure what your guys issue with dice player is. I have it on mine and it plays mkvs, wmvs, avis flawlessly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is the dev's actually. The account he was using to receive payment for the full version got suspended (for whatever reason), and due to that he isn't able to continue selling the full version anymore. If you were an early adopter (like I was, due to having a Asus Transformer), it's a non-issue because you already bought it. I'm not sure why the dev is taking forever to fix the issue.
EDIT:And on that note, I also must say that all MKV files I have downloaded work perfectly fine on my nexus using diceplayer. Both 720P and 1080P (only tried 1, just to see if it worked, since it is rather pointless unless you're outputting to a TV) work just fine and without any issues for me. I haven't tried any strangely encoded files yet, but so far all normal HDTV encoded files worked just fine.

cvbcbcmv said:
You a usenet user? Mkv files are all over that. (I hope you are, I wanna talk to somebody about how amazing it is!!!)
I watched a 3 gig mkv file of a 1 hour season finale of flashpoint (anybody watch it BTW?) and it was flawless. Jules was as amazing as ever, and Ed was as bald as ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
man I wish usenet was free

CrazyDelta said:
Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.
However, I found this video review on YouTube and it kinda made me pessimistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDnY_nZ2SiE
*I hope it is ok posting a link to a video here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's smooth once it get's hardware decoded.
No smartphone processor can decode 1080p without lag, which is exactly why OMAP put an IVA-HD chip inside to do all the work.

Much like the rest of the members I use dice player and it plays everything i throw at it. I use to have an issue with 12mbps MP4 files but they seem to have corrected that and now it is smooth for everything i throw at it.

is there a place to buy the full version or obtain one by other cough cough means?