Develop Bugs

Diceplayer supports Galaxy nexus - plays MKV/AVI with Full HW acceleration

Diceplayer v 1.7.4 supports Galaxy Nexus.
It take advantage of OMAP4's video decoder.
720p H.264 High profile + DTS/AC3/Flac audio MKV with embedded subtitles works perfectly.
I'll post some test video on next Monday.

YES. YES. YES. That is awesome. My only reservation about the phone was codec support. Thanks for sharing Juami!

Awesome try some 1080p stuff. Also try mxplayer if you have the time

veli69 said:
Awesome try some 1080p stuff. Also try mxplayer if you have the time
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mx : not supported version popup
bs and mobo : couldn't play at all
add:
I think devs could not get Galaxy Nexus yet.
I got unreleased Galaxy Nexus for testing. so I could release diceplayer update for Galaxy Nexus.

Thanks for the update, been using Diceplayer on my tab 10.1 for a while now and it's been awesome. On the nexus however it seems it's missing some frame rates. Will try it with a few more vids and see how it goes.
Edit: Tried a 720p mkv and it was flawless. Avi's of TV shows are playing back at a low frame rate, and are noticeably choppy.

I can play 10gb 1080p rips without problem, Can't try anything larger as Diceplayer crashes when I try to play over my network so have only been able to play local files.

Plays local files fine but doesn't go fullscreen - leaves the onscreen buttons.

VPlayer seems to work nicely

The UI for Vplayer is defo not perfect.. the folders glitch, and the soft buttons stay lit, however the playback is smooth and in sync, so very usable for now.

wilbur-force said:
VPlayer seems to work nicely
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vPlayer have a good sw video decoder(ffmpeg) but
vPlayer can't use HW video decoder except native supported format(mp4).
SW video decoder use higher CPU power than HW decoder and drains battery too fast. and loose a color detail.

Great news. Loved the Dice player on my Asus Transformer. Sold my tablet though so I'm looking forward to using it on the GN

mingoid said:
Plays local files fine but doesn't go fullscreen - leaves the onscreen buttons.
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we update diceplayer to support full screen on Galaxy Nexus.
changelog of diceplayer v.1.7.5
--------------------------------------
What's in this version:
Support full screen for Galaxy Nexus
Fix bug that sometimes continuation does not work properly for Galaxy Nexus
Fix bug that some AVI files are not played properly
Fix bug that aspect ratio is abnormal when orientation is changed
Add option that shows audio only files (default off)
Add option that saves the subtitle (default on, can move by touching subtitle while playing)
Fix minor bugs

Has anyone tried playing MKV's on the native ICS media player? I can play aac-audio h.264-video MKVs without installing any additional player

SilentMobius said:
Has anyone tried playing MKV's on the native ICS media player? I can play aac-audio h.264-video MKVs without installing any additional player
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after Honeycomb, Android supports MKV format ( not perfectly) but audio codec limited to AAC/MP3.
if you want to play AC3/DTS/Flac audio and embedded subtitles, you should install 3rd party player.

Just though id add my findings.
Ive tried dice player but as with Vplayer i have had mixed results.
Some of my Mp4 files play just fine whilst others fail to open. The player just goes back to the andriod home screen. The ones that fail have ac3 audio.
Im guessing its down to the audio codecs required to play the files.
I do like the look and feel of the app though.
Its a shame im having these issues as the galaxy s2 played them all natively.

Haven't bought Dice Player but I can confirm the trial will playback high profile MKVs in 1080p:

I tried Diceplayer on few local 720p MKV and these play nice.
But two things:
1. My TXT subtitles did not load.
2. When I tried to play the same file from network share, Diceplayer crashes.

I was just able to mount my network share drive via CIFS, so that it appears under /mnt/cifs/share
Then I tried Diceplayer and it did play my 720p MKV in HW with no delay on start.
If it only supported TXT subtitles... (it would probably need to handle different formats, as I have noticed sometimes different formats used in TXT file)

Will run my usual batch of test video files through the Nexus and Dice Player in next couple of days as I just got my Nexus. Expect it won't measure up to the Note/SGSII that I'm accustomed to, but if it can handle 720p I'll be happy enough...

Not sure If I posted this already, but Dice player was able to play 1080p mov trailer in hardware other players either could not play at all or used software and were skipping.

needs h.264 support

So I just copied over a handful of TV/Movies from my Fascinate only to realize that the GNex doesn't play them
I've already tried a handful of players but they just crash when I try to launch them and I'm convinced that they wouldn't work regardless of ICS.
From what I've read it looks like only 3.0 has h.264 (and other codec) support natively and that my fascinate ROMs probably had that coded into them. I am missing something here? Is there an App that I'm unable to find to get this working?

Diceplayer works well. Its a paid app but i believe there's a trial. Also you could try Moboplayer, that might work.

+ 1 for dice player. It's the current king of video playback

First pick is Dice Player for sure.
Second pick is MX Video Player.

Thanks. I gave Dice Player a shot and it is pretty good.
I was also impressed with MX as it works pretty well too...I think Dice is a hair better though.
My only issues now are that Dice Player isn't reading the embedded subtitles properly and that I can't buy the full version ("Currently can not purchase the full version because the checkout account is suspended." - Android Market)
For anyone out there who sees this and is also looking around...here are some duds I would avoid (at least on Android 4.0)
I had also Rock Player but that one was barely better than nothing.
I also tried Mobo but it doesn't even open...it crashes instantly.
***EDIT***
Subtitles are working fine...I played the same video on my PC when I got home from work and the subs are in hebrew or something :S
Just thought I should clear that up for anybody following this.

Your GN, if it's in anyway like mine, will also have a native player with h.264 support, so the codecs for video is not lacking. You will be able to enter the stock player through the gallery(took some getting used to for me as well).
The only problem with the stock player is that it doesn't support the xvid/divx codec and it's lacking quite a few audio codec's such as ac3, so your hd video's will likely play back fine but with no sound. This is where diceplayer is available, as it supports the native hw video decoding and a bunch of software decoders for audio.

mortenmhp said:
Your GN, if it's in anyway like mine, will also have a native player with h.264 support, so the codecs for video is not lacking. You will be able to enter the stock player through the gallery(took some getting used to for me as well).
The only problem with the stock player is that it doesn't support the xvid/divx codec and it's lacking quite a few audio codec's such as ac3, so your hd video's will likely play back fine but with no sound. This is where diceplayer is available, as it supports the native hw video decoding and a bunch of software decoders for audio.
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I think it did have DivX support. 4.0.2 removed DivX support and is readding it in a later OTA

zephiK said:
I think it did have DivX support. 4.0.2 removed DivX support and is readding it in a later OTA
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This is true.

.mkv audio problems

my .mkv videos dont play sound . unless i use softwere decoding on mobo but the the video is a lag fest. anyone know of a good way to convert them for one x friendly viewing

DicePlayer is working flawlessly for me with my 720p .mkv files. Buttery smooth video and audio is perfectly in sync.

Try Avidemux its free.
Just copy the video and re-encode the audio.
Works spot on for me.

mishmac said:
Try Avidemux its free.
Just copy the video and re-encode the audio.
Works spot on for me.
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thanks works great changing it to aac
and its fast

Theres also bs player lite if you don't like the menu bar in diceplayer.

On MX Player you can set it to use the hardware decoder to decode video (H.264), software decoder to decode audio (Dolby 5.1/DTS) and enable fast mode.
720p and 1080p .mkv's tested here working perfectly.

Yeah currently using MX Player. But you gotta set the decoders away from HW every time you start playing an .mkv file.
What does Avidemux do exactly? Is mkv not really supported by ICS?
Thanks

Your audio is probably DTS or AC3 encoded, Dice Player can handle those and use hardware decoding. Best video player for any Android it supports IMO. No dirty transcoding or anything, just drag n drop and everything works.

NZtechfreak said:
Your audio is probably DTS or AC3 encoded, Dice Player can handle those and use hardware decoding. Best video player for any Android it supports IMO. No dirty transcoding or anything, just drag n drop and everything works.
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Ah, gonna try Dice and do some experiments, like, see if it can play my mkv files with hardware acceleration instead of software.

kythor said:
Ah, gonna try Dice and do some experiments, like, see if it can play my mkv files with hardware acceleration instead of software.
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Try MX Player. You can try HW video and SW audio and see how that goes. Decoding isn't locked to the same type between video and audio on MX

I just tried Dice Player and it can play the mkv's audio with HW.
I don't think my ears are sensitive enough to hear the difference, but I read that HW acceleration uses lesser battery juice than SW?

kythor said:
I just tried Dice Player and it can play the mkv's audio with HW.
I don't think my ears are sensitive enough to hear the difference, but I read that HW acceleration uses lesser battery juice than SW?
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Yes it does cos most SoC's come with a built in decoder. SW decode would mean you're using your CPU power to convert audio/video on the fly as you watch/listen, causing more battery drain.

Here is a comparison on what I have tried so far, for playing .mkv files:
Default HTC player: No audio at all and you cannot setup decoding to play audio whatsoever.
Mobo player: The same as HTC player.
Dice player: Audio works and videos play using hardware acceleration, but if you have stock rom, you cannot watch videos in full screen because of the menu bar, which is a huge deal breaker for me.
BS player: ICS friendly (menu button and all), plays videos with audio fine on software decoding mode or hardware decoding mode (BSPlayer engine). But on hardware decoding mode (system), the video is really bad, it has some corrupted squares all over it. I reckon that "HW decoding mode (system)" should be utilizing Tegra 3, right?
MX player: Also ICS friendly. Plays videos with audio fine on software decoding mode, but on hardware decoding mode, there is no sound. There is, however, an option to software decode audio when playing hardware decoded video, but, when I select that, the video completely stops and it's unplayable.
So, the final conclusion is this:
In MX player, currently the only way to watch videos is by software decoding. BS player can use hardware decoding using its own engine, but actually I don't know what "BSPlayer engine" utilizes for hw decoding. So the winner should be BS player, but the problem is that I really much more prefer MX over BS, due to other functions that it has and the overall appearance and experience.
My question to you guys is this: are there any negative effects if I use MX player with software decoding? Will my battery last shorter if CPU does all the decoding instead of the Tegra 3? I guess it will in theory, but has anyone tried and actually seen the difference with HW over SW decoding?
I sure hope that all of these app devs will soon follow ICS standards and new phones with graphics accelerations.
Also, if anyone can suggest a video player that hasn't been mentioned here, please do so!

xaeder said:
Here is a comparison on what I have tried so far, for playing .mkv files:
So, the final conclusion is this:
In MX player, currently the only way to watch videos is by software decoding. BS player can use hardware decoding using its own engine, but actually I don't know what "BSPlayer engine" utilizes for hw decoding. So the winner should be BS player, but the problem is that I really much more prefer MX over BS, due to other functions that it has and the overall appearance and experience.
My question to you guys is this: are there any negative effects if I use MX player with software decoding? Will my battery last shorter if CPU does all the decoding instead of the Tegra 3? I guess it will in theory, but has anyone tried and actually seen the difference with HW over SW decoding?
I sure hope that all of these app devs will soon follow ICS standards and new phones with graphics accelerations.
Also, if anyone can suggest a video player that hasn't been mentioned here, please do so!
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Software decoding will always consume more power. How much more I do not know. Also, Tegra 3 IS the CPU. Hardware decode means that there is a specific chip in the SoC that is there specifically to encode/decode video/audio and hence CPU resources are minimal. When that chip does not support a certain format, it's forced to render it in software.
Also, .mkv is just a container, there are many audio and video formats that can be encoded into .mkv

Thank you for your answer! I understand now what Tegra 3 actually is.
Oh, and for the format, sorry I forgot to mention. You are right, .mkv is just a container
The format of my files tested is:
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 23.98fps [Video]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo [Audio]
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As mentioned in other posts... If you have to use S/W in MX, it's because you have a 5.1 audio track.
Use something like mkv2mp4, and that will convert the audio stream to 2ch
Then MX will play the video & audio with H/W

adamsweeting said:
As mentioned in other posts... If you have to use S/W in MX, it's because you have a 5.1 audio track.
Use something like mkv2mp4, and that will convert the audio stream to 2ch
Then MX will play the video & audio with H/W
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This is helpful. Thanks

I think BSplayer is best. Sure, it uses it's own HW engine(if you want), but it shouldn't be any big differences I hope. It sure as hell uses alot less battery then SW anyway. And also, BSplayer can play straight from .rar's and stream from a windows share in HW-mode (with it's own engine ofc)! Most players switch back to SW when you play through network but not bsplayer. And BSplayer also downloads subs automatically. The only downside is that it's kind of ugly. Haha
Now, it they only would port XBMC to android..
---------- Post added at 10:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 PM ----------
adamsweeting said:
As mentioned in other posts... If you have to use S/W in MX, it's because you have a 5.1 audio track.
Use something like mkv2mp4, and that will convert the audio stream to 2ch
Then MX will play the video & audio with H/W
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Click to collapse
The whole idea with these media players is to not have to convert every video you've want to see. BSPlayer is the best player, period. It can play everything I've tried as of yet anyhow.
There it however one thing I hate, but thats probably the phone (or drivers) and not bsplayer. If you play say 720p over network with a bluetooth headset, it will lag. It's if they haven't given enough bandwidth to the wifi/bluetooth chip. Don't think I had this problem on my old phone.

just tried Dice player there, i must say it is really good. no lag what so ever, and the sound was perfect, and the menu bar didn't bother me at all.

some of them might work in whatever app you want to use, but i can tell you that some of them will never work right. i bought a Cowon D2 (what a mistake!) and ended up selling it. some mkvs didn't show video and a lot of them didn't have audio. it depends on the codecs that were used. it's the same on PS3. there are certain videos and audios that you need better hardware to play. i've seen people say that the audio has to be "AC3" for it to work on PS3. i wouldn't waste too much time with it and you should just convert it lower or use a computer with mid to high level AMD/Nvidia and some $100+ sound card. if you're trying to watch bluray disc rips that keep some of the quality, then it most likely won't work.

[Q] Is it possible to use H/W decoding to watch *.mkv in nexus 7(2013)

Have any one tried it.
Or will it be done by flashing a custom rom(may be cm10)

mahoihei said:
Have any one tried it.
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Yes. My sat-box records in .mkv and it is viewable (streamed from sat-box) without changing anything. I use vplayer.

I use diceplayer, works great.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

MX Player with custom codec.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

sidthegreatest said:
MX Player with custom codec.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
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+1. You can even boost the volume level to upto 30 if you use HW+ decoding, works amazing on AC3/DTS audio

serviio and diceplayer. Makes a great DNLC network that can stream any file to your Nexus. As for playing it on the nexus, I personally dont like putting movie files on mine since the memory gets used up rather quickly.

MX Player and the VLC Beta both work fine with .mkvs for me. I've even played some pretty hefty 1080p files with no issues.

you don't need to do anything. just open the file with MX player, be player or similar. sorry I'm not understanding why this is an issue for you

You can use HW decoding for video in players such as MX Player but you can't do audio HW decoding for some codecs since Dolby is suing everybody for supporting their formats without permission and is also refusing to license them.

MX Player works great in HW+ mode. I have had no problem with normal HD mkv files or 10 bit anime mkv

Tony_YYZ said:
You can use HW decoding for video in players such as MX Player but you can't do audio HW decoding for some codecs since Dolby is suing everybody for supporting their formats without permission and is also refusing to license them.
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Actually you can, custom codec option in mx player Worked wonders for me, there's threads about this. Stock rom, locked.

Yes, it can for both 8-bits 720p and 1080p, but 10-bits sorry, can't....

Can anyone point me to the right codec to download? All videos I try are using S/W instead of H/W in MxPlayer (except MP4). WMV and MKV are playing in S/W. Thanks a bunch

joey4321 said:
Can anyone point me to the right codec to download? All videos I try are using S/W instead of H/W in MxPlayer (except MP4). WMV and MKV are playing in S/W. Thanks a bunch
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ya, where do i download the latest HW codecs? my s/w works fine but HW mode doesnt work too well in mxplayer pro/ lags and stutters

Some education is needed
MKV is not a codec, it's a container format much like DVD .... The problem is not the MKV container but what it contains. Generally the biggest problems are MKV's made from US OTA (Over the air) and cable TV recordings which all have the audio in AC3 format and usually in Dolby encoding. (And as someone mentioned Dolby doesn't like it when they don't get their Cut, even if the software is free and no one is actually profiting from it except the Consumer)
I've recorded and archived several TV series since 2006 and some of my first MKV's kept the AC3 audio format (but converted the video to h.264) because I was having sound sync problems (Not sure if it was an x264 or the cable company's fault but the issue eventually went away) and for those I have to use software decoding for the audio but the video is still hardware accel .... The ones I've made in the last 3-4 years have the audio converted to AAC format and those have full hardware accel video and audio and play flawlessly and effortlessly even on my lowly Rockchip dual core TV Stick (720p and in the process of being embedded in a Motorola Lapdock)
Point being it's not the MKV container that is the problem, what counts is the formats it contains .... And in the case of us North Americans we need to convert the audio (AAC is the best bet IMO) so you may as well convert the video (Much of it is interlaced and that's another issue conversion fixes, Handbrakes default Decomb filter does it well) .... For that I would recommend x264 and Handbrake (x264 is included in Handbrake) which should not only take care of compatibility issues it also makes for a smaller file (Better transfer/streaming over wifi) without any loss of playback quality .... Also I would recommend stripping off any extra audio feeds (Languages) if you aren't going to use them, ditto for subtitles ... In other words keep it simple and convert to formats with known/best compatibility

SPAM.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2156254
MX player > settings > decoder > download custom codec

what about the mpeg2 decode ,not h/w decode?

no hardware acceleration for 1080i dvb-s2 recordings or streams
My nexus 7 with stock Rom plays 1080p h264 content in MKV containers flawlessly with h/w acceleration with various players. Except for either streams or recordings from my tvheadend server. If they are 1080i (no German station broadcasts in 1080p) none of the players gets h/w working. SD and 720p do work though. The only difference I can see between my recorded files and the ones that do play is that the recordings have 25 fps whereas the other mkvs have about 24.
In the attachments there are two screenshots of two mkvs' properties. The 25 fps one is the one that won't work.
Anyone's got an idea? Thanks

from what i know,snapdragon still don't support 10bit decoding perfectly,thats why u can't use hw+ mode for 10bit video.
When I tried with my HTC One X,it can play 10bit video in hw+ mode though.Its likely for now Tegra and Exynos only support 10bit decoding in hw+ mode,even not perfectly.
u can refer to this thread ->
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mx-videoplayer/WKv1LNeUTSI

Unsupported audio codec??

My videos in stock player play fine, but I get this error message "unsupported audio codec" - and I have no sound.
They play ok in Galaxy Note 2, and everywhere else. Tried MX player, same thing. Video is ok but with no sound.
Any solution to this?

carlitos66 said:
My videos in stock player play fine, but I get this error message "unsupported audio codec" - and I have no sound.
They play ok in Galaxy Note 2, and everywhere else. Tried MX player, same thing. Video is ok but with no sound.
Any solution to this?
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Your video probably comes with DTS stream that cannot be decoded. Google MX player DTS you wull find the proper codec.

If you are using Mx player you need to check off the audio codec in the settings. I would keep it that way forever.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium HD app

I actually loved the stock samsung player on th gn10.1 2012. it played everything. the first vid I tried to play on this one and it won't play ac3 audio. so I've started using archos and the old bs player again.

Bsplayer got hit with ac3 problem when dolby demanded royalty fees, maybe samsung did to?

+1 for mxplayer

Speaking of players, can this thing play 4K videos?

madsquabbles said:
I actually loved the stock samsung player on th gn10.1 2012. it played everything. the first vid I tried to play on this one and it won't play ac3 audio. so I've started using archos and the old bs player again.
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me too, weird why Samsung changed this. One of my main reason to buy this tablet - put anything on SD card and play without converting with Hand Brake etc...

carlitos66 said:
me too, weird why Samsung changed this. One of my main reason to buy this tablet - put anything on SD card and play without converting with Hand Brake etc...
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I believe it was due to legal issues.

SlimJ87D said:
I believe it was due to legal issues.
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for a $600 there shouldn't be any legal issues. pay the royalty and be done with it.

madsquabbles said:
for a $600 there shouldn't be any legal issues. pay the royalty and be done with it.
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I bet from a business standpoint, the amount the royalties cost per a device wouldn't have been worth it compared to the actual amount of people that would really take advantage of it. But yes, it would be cool to have had it out of the box. But I believe it works fine with MX Player from my testing, and it really wasn't that hard to get MX Player.

I had the same issue with unsupported audio codec, solved with VLC player.

I've paid. for just about every player, mobo, dice, bs.. right now my favorite is archos. it's a mix of mizuu and bs. I havent had a single video that it couldnt play yet.

Are those your recommended players to watch most content? I really want to buy one but in the past have ran into audio issues.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

I like archos because it can download movie info, tv series info, and play about everything. I use he archos free codecs and everything plays fine. I've always liked archos media player from when I used to have the archos 101.

I know you can use other media players, but the point of using stock player is that it plays videos with the help of hardware, thus less battery consumption, versus if you use software decoding by other apps. Or at least It was like that on Nexus 10.

Has anyone tried to contact Samsung about this? My old galaxy 7.7has ac3 support.

carlitos66 said:
I know you can use other media players, but the point of using stock player is that it plays videos with the help of hardware, thus less battery consumption, versus if you use software decoding by other apps. Or at least It was like that on Nexus 10.
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the other media player can use hardware decoding if available. archos does ac3 fine with hardware decoding. i'd supposed the old bs player will to but i've not used it yet.
but it was nice having a great player that played everything built into the system.

SlimJ87D said:
If you are using Mx player you need to check off the audio codec in the settings. I would keep it that way forever.
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If you download MX Player's NeoN-driver (you'll find the download link to the .zip in the settings), you can use HW+ for video and audio (DTS supported). Using this you are in audio/video heaven with the new Note 10.1. You can even play 2 full HD movies, one with MX Player and one with the built-in player (in pop-up mode) at the same time without any hickup. And if you so desire, open up an internet or file browser while you are at it - screen area allowing.
I see so much talk of lag and other supposed deficiencies here, while so far I have been in honeymoon state for 8 days solid.

lord69 said:
Speaking of players, can this thing play 4K videos?
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Yes with mx player