Develop Bugs

Codec quirks in hardware decoder?

I really haven't done much testing on this, but I've noticed a number of quirks with the stock video/music player (or possibly the hardware decoder).
Is this just me, or has anyone else noticed any of the following?
MKV with 1280x720 H.264 [email protected] + Vorbis stream:
Seriously laggy video. Have tried reducing the H.264 stream to [email protected], but same result.
mVideoPlayer shows exactly the same behaviour, suggesting possibly an issue with OS itself?
MX Video Player only seems to run this through the software decoder, and works fine.
MP4 with 1280x720 H.264 [email protected] + AAC-LC stream:
Simply remuxing the above video stream into MP4 seems to get rid of the lagginess. But seeking is horribly broken here. Audio seeks fine, but video doesn't, leading to audio/video desync.
MX Video Player (HW decoding) has exactly the same issue. The SW decoder is fine though.
Interestingly, Dice Player, using HW decoder, doesn't have this bug. What's up with that?
44.1kHz HE-AAC music in MP4 container:
Seems mostly fine, but I've noticed "clipping" artifacts in some places of the audio. These don't show up using a software decoder.
Also, is there a more definitive guide on what exactly is supported in terms of media/codecs? I've seen this [http ://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html] (remove the space), but it's inaccurate, or at least lacking information. For example, some things I've picked up:
- MKV: header compression (which is enabled by default in mkvmerge) is not supported - will show up as invalid video if you have it
- H.264 support up to High profile @ level 4.1, level 5.0 won't play back (on HW decoder at least)
Thanks

Okay some partial solutions if anyone finds this.
I'm guessing the demuxers in Android are buggy/partially broken. I'm guessing DicePlayer uses its own demuxer and feeds the audio/video to the hardware decoder, whilst MX probably sends everything to the system to decode.
Haven't done much testing with MKV, so it's still stuttery.
The MP4 issue seems to be with the frame rate. I believe some devices have trouble with frame rates with high rationals. MP4Box specifically sets 23.976fps to 24000/1001, which fixes the broken video seeking behaviour. Interestingly, using a shorter GOP seems to have an effect if you use a 'broken rational frame rate', though if you use a good frame rate, GOP doesn't seem to matter much.
As for video, it seems that 'x264 --profile high --level 4.1 --preset placebo' always works (haven't tried open-gop). Do note that I originally just fed the x264 MP4s, which don't seem to work as x264 sets high rational frame rates (so encode to .264 and mux with MP4Box separately).
For the audio issue, it seems that applying a 5dB cut before encoding stops the clipping from happening. It only occurs with audio that pretty much maxes the volume.
AAC (without SBR), Vorbis and MP3 seems to work fine without having to do this, so there's something with AAC+SBR causing the decoder to clip the audio (probably something in the decoding chain which pushes the volume too high).

Kindle Fire Hardware Video Decoding Mode

I just wonder why Archos G9 supports all multimedia formats with the same processor as our Kindle Fire.
We can watch MP4 video without any problems up to 1080p.
MKV format can not work in HW mode.
I think the problem is due to lack of video codecs in the Kindle Fire.
Anybody can pull them out of the firmware Archos G9?

no one interested in this?

The issue isn't the codecs. The issue is the HW decoder. I can play 1080p video on my KF ICS with MX Video Player, using the software decoder.

You can, but with horrible lags and 5-10 fps right?

I like this idea. Why not try it out, we've got nothing to lose. Maybe kindly ask in the Archos forum for someone to upload them?

this is not so easy... we need developers help.

animefun135 said:
this is not so easy... we need developers help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You asked around in the Archos threads? What did they say?

Doesn't the G9s use the 4460 instead of the 4430? If so it's no wonder the hardware decoding is different.
*Wait, seems IVA3 can decode 1080p for both...difference is only in 3D...might look at this later.

What's the difference between the TI OMAP 4430 and TI OMAP 4460? Both the processor hardware can play 1080p. Yesterday I tried mp4 file with a resolution of 1920x1080 - he played without any lag.
The only difference is that the 4460 processor can play back 3D video in 1080p, and 4430 only 720. This is the only difference between these processors.
Archos specifically sold its codecs to support AC3 audio. Arcos independently developed codecs for their devices.
I tried to find firmware for the Archos G9, but I found it to extract the parts I could not, that would see what files are responsible for what codecs ..
We just need to find a way to add these same codecs for mkv. The hardware can play our processor such files.
After all, even the Chinese tablets are capable of playing 2160p in mkv format, so what our device worse than they?

Correct me if i am wrong but if i am not mistaken the videos canbplay back in software mode. That would imply that decoders are in place but the hardware decoder isn't working yet. The ICS build for the KF is still under development ... just wait till there is a actual beta build if you need video playback. If you have been following any other CM9 alpha builds you would see that gpu decoding has been a large hurdle but they have been making a lot of progress. ICS on KF just got sound and YouTube playback within the last week. Jackpotcalvin has made a lot of progress on the KF but he is going through some personal life problems ... I'm sure when he has more time that he will get ICS's video playback working. In the mean time use cm7 with the ice cream sandwich theme for cm7. ADW EX launcher runs great and has some pleasant themes that look great on cm7. Also add an ICS tag to the thread topic.

Step1Mark said:
Correct me if i am wrong but if i am not mistaken the videos canbplay back in software mode. That would imply that decoders are in place but the hardware decoder isn't working yet. The ICS build for the KF is still under development ... just wait till there is a actual beta build if you need video playback. If you have been following any other CM9 alpha builds you would see that gpu decoding has been a large hurdle but they have been making a lot of progress. ICS on KF just got sound and YouTube playback within the last week. Jackpotcalvin has made a lot of progress on the KF but he is going through some personal life problems ... I'm sure when he has more time that he will get ICS's video playback working. In the mean time use cm7 with the ice cream sandwich theme for cm7. ADW EX launcher runs great and has some pleasant themes that look great on cm7. Also add an ICS tag to the thread topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you think that Android 4.0 will support more formats than MP4?

1080p - with ease ;P
lack of codecs guys?! - try to use MX video player (commercial ver.) or Mobo player (freeware & support additional codecs as XVID etc)

Are you serious or what?
These players can play avi Divx, Xvid only in software mode, with terrible lags at 1080p. Unpleasant to look even 720p. While the battery is still wildly discharged.

animefun135 said:
Are you serious or what?
These players can play avi Divx, Xvid only in software mode, with terrible lags at 1080p. Unpleasant to look even 720p. While the battery is still wildly discharged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ti dot com /general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?templateId=6123&navigationId=12843&contentId=53243
^---cut
Full HD 1080p30 multi-standard video encode/decode
Programmable DSP provides flexibility for future codecs VTC 1080p30
---cut
this is in HW mode, but also video in SW mode KF plays with good speed! it depends only on the player for now.
I tested on video with:
Codec ID: XVID
Bit rate: 4 089 Kbps
Width: 1 920 pixels
Height: 1 080 pixels
Scan type: Progressive
at present, players so far from perfection ;p

We really need BSPlayer or DicePlayer support... This players can play 1080 HD mkv video by hardware decoder. But for now both players don't work on Kindle Fire.

Please don't take this the wrong way (some get defensive when things about their device are questioned) but what's the point of having 1080p video playback on a display that can't even do 720p and on a device that has no video output? I just always wondered what the fascination was, because a 1024x600 video is going to look the same as that 1080p video on a 1024x600 display.

CTTKDKing said:
Please don't take this the wrong way (some get defensive when things about their device are questioned) but what's the point of having 1080p video playback on a display that can't even do 720p and on a device that has no video output? I just always wondered what the fascination was, because a 1024x600 video is going to look the same as that 1080p video on a 1024x600 display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the advantage is that you don't have to re-encode your existing video data...

Once someone implements a USB host it might be useful, but as it is now with a limited screen and limited storage I don't think this is a priority for much people. A 720p, or even 420p video should be more interesting for now.

Hello,
Can't we just spoof an omap 4430 device that has HW video decoding in BsPlayer/DicePlayer? Does anyone know how to do this?
I know for example that Galaxy Nexus has omap 4460 and that is very very similar regarding hw video decoding to kindle fire and it is supported by DicePlayer.
Any thoughts?

The Archos G9 standard has a 4430 and the turbo has a 4460. Our resident dev for the Archs is surdu_petru.

[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

.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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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.

Video decoder malfunction

My device fell in some water.
I dried it out and it works fine except for:
1. The camera is not displaying a video stream ( It doesn't show you the "viewfinder" video stream before you take a picture)
2. Youtube hangs when I try to play a video
3. MXplayer hangs when I try to play a video with H/W decoding
4. AVI files (which automatically use S/W decode) play back just fine.
All this leads me to believe that the video decoder is damaged. Is this a component I can replace?
Can I do something to force software decode ( custom ROMs are welcome ).
I mean other than this, the phone is great. There has to be something I can do or mode.

Does Games work?

Herman76 said:
Does Games work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I started an openGL game and it works great.

Is there anyway to cancel h/w decode system wide?