Develop Bugs

Excited about possible video recorder cab from the Xperia X2

I know that we can get better quality video recording out of the TP2, with the first WinMo phone shooting WVGA @ 30fps with the exact same hardware (minus cam module), I'm excited to see if someone can work their magic to incorporate better recording from the TP2.
Anyone else?
Cyph

I too am curious about this. I have actually always been curious as to whether the video capabilities are more software dependent or hardware... Though if the phone is capable of displaying the video on the viewfinder at WVGA at 30fps it should theoretically be possible to record at that quality. Anyways, we'll see what crops up later

Not at all
solsearch said:
I too am curious about this. I have actually always been curious as to whether the video capabilities are more software dependent or hardware... Though if the phone is capable of displaying the video on the viewfinder at WVGA at 30fps it should theoretically be possible to record at that quality. Anyways, we'll see what crops up later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately the above statement is not at all true. Recording depends heavily on the camera hardware in terms of possible frame rate at a given resolution. Furthermore real-time compression and encoding is a significantly different proposition to the CPU than decoding and playback. This is not to say the TP2 hardware may not be capable of doing better than it does, just that playback capabilities are no indication.
Dennis

Like I said, I don't know how much the camera module affects it. And what I meant by theoretically is that if it can display that on the viewfinder at that res then theoretically it could be recorded in raw format (as long as the transfer to the memory could handle the speed), but it would not be practical by any means. But if the x2 is capable of it and IF the ONLY difference is the camera module, and IF the camera module is just the sensor and no graphics processing then it could possibly happen. And I'd love to see it. But neither am I going to hold my breath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OEIZvXqzxs
You see minutes 4:29 ..... But WVGA recording resolution is 720x480? or 800x480?
Thanks

The Xperia X2 has the same CPU as the Rhodium and in theory the video recording abilities can therefore be ported. The drivers for video recording must be extracted and put into the Rhodium ROM.
Even if the Rhodium camera or drivers doesn´t handle WVGA widescreen recording it´s possible with some development work to use better encoding drivers - i.e record VGA but let a good MP4 encoder with good quality do the encoding job (i.e replace the original HTC video encoder with a better one).
In this case the original HTC camera application is retained but with replaced encoders. The user only sees a quality difference - the handling of the camera app is the same otherwise.

E90 Commie said:
The Xperia X2 has the same CPU as the Rhodium and in theory the video recording abilities can therefore be ported. The drivers for video recording must be extracted and put into the Rhodium ROM.
Even if the Rhodium camera or drivers doesn´t handle WVGA widescreen recording it´s possible with some development work to use better encoding drivers - i.e record VGA but let a good MP4 encoder with good quality do the encoding job (i.e replace the original HTC video encoder with a better one).
In this case the original HTC camera application is retained but with replaced encoders. The user only sees a quality difference - the handling of the camera app is the same otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's definitely be a good thing. Maybe it could even up the fps a little bit.

The Xperia X2 has the same CPU as the Rhodium and in theory the video recording abilities can therefore be ported. The drivers for video recording must be extracted and put into the Rhodium ROM.
Even if the Rhodium camera or drivers doesn´t handle WVGA widescreen recording it´s possible with some development work to use better encoding drivers - i.e record VGA but let a good MP4 encoder with good quality do the encoding job (i.e replace the original HTC video encoder with a better one).
In this case the original HTC camera application is retained but with replaced encoders. The user only sees a quality difference - the handling of the camera app is the same otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if we can get someone on that I'd be willing to pay (big - ROM COOKERS LISTENING?? :-D ) for the capability to enhance the video recording capabilities. I just need an additional 10 fps and maybe another 200 kb/s bit rate for excellent video. That would make the video recorder to 30 fps @ ~ 1Mb/s..niiice.
If they can accomplish WVGA or even D1 (720x480) that would be cool too (or better).
I wish I had the skills/tools to do that, I'd be all over it like white on rice! LOL
Cyph

Personally I don't need 30fps (though it'd be nice). I'd be happy with a video standard such as 23.976fps or whatnot. 20 does look stuttery. Just a few more would fix that. Well. Let's hope someone looks into it. Though it might be necessary that we wait until the x2 is actually released

Recording video to h.264 codec on Evo?

This question is for developers. Can devs replace crappy compression codec on Evo recording cam to record with h.264 to improve quality of vids we shoot by far. Current cam codec is SO bad that 720p does no justice for the cam. Basically in my view camcorder is useless. H.264 would change the whole game for this phone. Would love to see the rom with h.264 video camera codec. Would any shead some light on this ?

stewie-droid said:
This question is for developers. Can devs replace crappy compression codec on Evo recording cam to record with h.264 to improve quality of vids we shoot by far. Current cam codec is SO bad that 720p does no justice for the cam. Basically in my view camcorder is useless. H.264 would change the whole game for this phone. Would love to see the rom with h.264 video camera codec. Would any shead some light on this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they cant do a whole lot with any camera settings till the source kernal is released. Who knows when that will be heh

stewie-droid said:
This question is for developers. Can devs replace crappy compression codec on Evo recording cam to record with h.264 to improve quality of vids we shoot by far. Current cam codec is SO bad that 720p does no justice for the cam. Basically in my view camcorder is useless. H.264 would change the whole game for this phone. Would love to see the rom with h.264 video camera codec. Would any shead some light on this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you even know what the current cam codec is?
It's MPEG-4 Part 2 (generally referred to as "MPEG-4"), which is most commonly known for it's implementations in divx/xvid.
It's not as trendy as H.264 (aka MPEG-4 Part 10 and/or AVC), but generally quality isn't what people take issue with when choosing h.264 over MP4 - it's filesize. When you get into higher resolutions with higher bit-depths, being able to compress a stream allows you to work around issues with slow write speeds.
I think you really aren't familiar with video encoding or codecs in general. You should educate yourself a bit more before announcing that a simple codec change will resolve the camera woes with the Evo.
h.264 is currently patent encumbered, which is part of why you don't see it implemented so widely.
Swapping out the codec isn't going to be a magic fix to improve this camera. It's limited by it's very design. Consider the 720p video a novelty and try to only shoot in situations with lots of ambient light and it'll be far more usable.

Petronic said:
Do you even know what the current cam codec is?
It's MPEG-4 Part 2 (generally referred to as "MPEG-4"), which is most commonly known for it's implementations in divx/xvid.
It's not as trendy as H.264 (aka MPEG-4 Part 10 and/or AVC), but generally quality isn't what people take issue with when choosing h.264 over MP4 - it's filesize. When you get into higher resolutions with higher bit-depths, being able to compress a stream allows you to work around issues with slow write speeds.
I think you really aren't familiar with video encoding or codecs in general. You should educate yourself a bit more before announcing that a simple codec change will resolve the camera woes with the Evo.
h.264 is currently patent encumbered, which is part of why you don't see it implemented so widely.
Swapping out the codec isn't going to be a magic fix to improve this camera. It's limited by it's very design. Consider the 720p video a novelty and try to only shoot in situations with lots of ambient light and it'll be far more usable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you. But x.264 is not involved in any patent issues, is free, and works very will with the best container format available to date... mkv.
Now the phone will do hardware decoding of x/h.264 but you are right, I don't see any advantage other than the smaller file size. You are right again, on one of those P labeled cams the h.264 stream is much smaller than that of mpeg-2/dvd or others so it works well on those crappy hardware writers.
Changing the encoding profile of this camera would not fix your issues OP.

I've never seen bad quality from h.264 codec but then again i agree i have not research enough on the codecs comparison enough but that's why i'm asking. I just know it looks horrible. Somehow camera pics are acceptable. Thank you for the input.

stewie-droid said:
I've never seen bad quality from h.264 codec but then again i agree i have not research enough on the codecs comparison enough but that's why i'm asking. I just know it looks horrible. Somehow camera pics are acceptable. Thank you for the input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could encode an h.264 video in a low bitrate and low resolution and it would look bad. The codec is only one factor involved in the end result. Different codecs can squeeze better quality video into a smaller file size but it comes at the expense of CPU use and other bottlenecks. In this case I don't think the choice of codec is what is holding back the video. It's probably more about processing power and overall architecture.

I'm not sure that implementing x.264 compression for the EVO would solve anything. From my experience in order to have better quality with h.264 over h.263 it requires much more processing power due to the higher compression complexity.. This would all have to be done real time by the phone.
With the great hardware being sported by the EVO I wonder if a more unorthodox approach could be implemented to attain the highest quality possible.
How about this:
Capture video using a real time lossless compression. Maybe huffyuv?
Once captured let the phone recompress the source to x.264 or whatever via a background service or at a scheduled time like 3am or something
Maybe via this method a higher frame rate could even be achieved?

amdchip said:
I'm not sure that implementing x.264 compression for the EVO would solve anything. From my experience in order to have better quality with h.264 over h.263 it requires much more processing power due to the higher compression complexity.. This would all have to be done real time by the phone.
With the great hardware being sported by the EVO I wonder if a more unorthodox approach could be implemented to attain the highest quality possible.
How about this:
Capture video using a real time lossless compression. Maybe huffyuv?
Once captured let the phone recompress the source to x.264 or whatever via a background service or at a scheduled time like 3am or something
Maybe via this method a higher frame rate could even be achieved?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uncompressed [email protected] with 8-bit color would be something like 45MB/s. (That's excluding audio.)
No current SD card supports those write speeds.
I'm not sure that you could losslessly compress it down to something that'd support even a class 6 card.

Petronic said:
Uncompressed [email protected] with 8-bit color would be something like 45MB/s. (That's excluding audio.)
No current SD card supports those write speeds.
I'm not sure that you could losslessly compress it down to something that'd support even a class 6 card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eeeeek!!
I checked it out and you are right on the money.
(8 bit @ 1280 x 720 @ 59.94field = 105 MB per/sec) / (2.33:1 huffyuv) = 45.06
Still I wonder if better video quality could be achieved via a capture now (large file size) compress later (small file size) solution.
Certainly, considering your well taken point, we would need to keep things within the requirements of the EVO's hardware (sd card included). Probably would need to keep the data rates within the EVO's stock microsd specifications in order for it to be viable for everyone.

The iPhone 4 can record in h.264 and its processor isnt *that* much more powerful than Snapdragon (and the camera is similar--same company, same sensor size, same features, just 5MP instead of 8MP). What it comes down to is lazy coding by HTC

I don't know if you guys have looked in the build.prop file but the settings are in there. I just don't have alot of time to play with them but here's what's inside. Sprint/HTC changed the line in 1.47,ro.media.enc.vid.m4v.bps, to 8000000 from 6000000 on 1.32, so I'm guessing that's how they upped the Mbits in the upgrade. I could be wrong and the change may need to be in the kernel also but play with them and see.
Code:
#
# This file describes the media capabilities and profiles
# using system properties.
#
# Note: The property key and value has some length
# limit as defined by PROPERTY_KEY_MAX and
# PROPERTY_VALUE_MAX, respectively
#
# WARNING: We may not use system properties for specifying
# media capabilities and profiles in the future
#
ro.media.enc.file.format = 3gp,mp4
ro.media.enc.vid.codec = m4v,h263
ro.media.enc.vid.h263.width = 176,1280
ro.media.enc.vid.h263.height = 144,720
ro.media.enc.vid.h263.bps = 64000,6000000
ro.media.enc.vid.h263.fps = 1,30
ro.media.enc.vid.m4v.width = 176,1280
ro.media.enc.vid.m4v.height = 144,720
ro.media.enc.vid.m4v.bps = 64000,8000000
ro.media.enc.vid.m4v.fps = 1,30
#
# Increase SKIA decode memory capability for progressive jpg file
#
ro.media.dec.jpeg.memcap = 20000000

I may not be a...
developer but when you are talking about codec you are talking my language (I am an editor). H264 isn't that great itself and won't make the EVO's footage look any better yeah you get some more detail out of the H264 but the real reason the camera doesn't look as good is the variable fps in different lighting conditions. The variable kills it. The cam should be fixed at 24fps or 30fps. If that can be done you will see a major difference. I'm not sold on the white balance either. Also I would love to have h264 but the difference in the two is compression. H264 is better but again FPS is key.

I agree as well as most of the other people that h.264 won't help by itself.
Though one thing it would help with is allowing to bump up to a higher bit rate and or FPS and still maintain speeds sufficient for Class 2 SD cards. So, even though it won't do anything by itself, it will help in that you could in theory record higher quality video to your phone.

billobob said:
The iPhone 4 can record in h.264 and its processor isnt *that* much more powerful than Snapdragon (and the camera is similar--same company, same sensor size, same features, just 5MP instead of 8MP). What it comes down to is lazy coding by HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Das troo, I emailed Omnivision about the issue, they said that their Evo is great there, and that I should contact HTC about it and had said they created the driver/software for it.
"Hi Steve,
I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues video performance. The HTC EVO we have here works great. OmniVision only makes the sensor. HTC makes the drivers and software that run the sensor. Unfortunately, you will need to contact them with any issues.
Sorry, I couldn’t be more help.
Scott"
Then I had asked them if they have any samples they used. And sent me a video they just recorded.
"We just went outside and took this simple video. Hope it helps.
Scott"
Currently uploading right now, i'll edit the link.
EDIT: here you go
bit.ly/c0lwOb
What do you guys think?

FunYunZ said:
EDIT: here you go
bit.ly/c0lwOb
What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not able to post links yet I'm guessing. Just type it out.

Holyrolla said:
Not able to post links yet I'm guessing. Just type it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you don't see the link? its a bit[dot]ly link. But yea i can't post links yet, so I used the URL shortening.
bit[dot]ly/ c0lwOb

That video is pretty clear, but jumpy as well (expected). Wondering if they tweaked it or installed the OTA update on it?

Holyrolla said:
That video is pretty clear, but jumpy as well (expected). Wondering if they tweaked it or installed the OTA update on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I wondered to, but I guess not.
We are using one of our employees phones he bought from Sprint. All of the drivers and software are stock and from HTC.
Scott

Good god, that video sample is hideous! Look at this video comparison done between the Evo and the iPhone 4 in the exact same scene. There's just no competition between the two.

Good god, our Evo sucks mighty ass in the 720p category.

Video Player that support filter/post processing effects

I am looking for a Video player app that supports effect/filter/post processing mainly Sharpening. possibly other options like contrast, saturation/hue etc.
VLC for desktop and many other PC player apps support this, but I have yet to see one for mobile.
I've used MX Player Pro for long time, but i has no way to tweak the actual video it plays...any suggestions?
EDIT: MPV
That does it all if u setup a .conf.
Now use it for Android and PC.
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/

Sharpening while playing is a Hardware based ability
Hi there,
Unfortunately, for now, Sharpening while playing, is a mere Hardware ability (in contrast to HUE, SATURATION, BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST etc which are software depended).
Sharpening works on its best with PCs hardware architecture, but on mobile platform you should go for proper hardware, not all SOCs support SHARPENING. for instance some MEDIATEK SOCs support it and the ability is called MIRAVISION by MediaTek. i had your problem, and finally bought a midrange tablet with MEDIATEK MTK MT8783 chipset which supports Sharpening and other MiraVision abilities very well, satisfied me with crystal clear and crisp video playing on FullHD IPS screen, far better than any TV.

Amir1975 said:
Hi there,
Unfortunately, for now, Sharpening while playing, is a mere Hardware ability (in contrast to HUE, SATURATION, BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST etc which are software depended).
Sharpening works on its best with PCs hardware architecture, but on mobile platform you should go for proper hardware, not all SOCs support SHARPENING. for instance some MEDIATEK SOCs support it and the ability is called MIRAVISION by MediaTek. i had your problem, and finally bought a midrange tablet with MEDIATEK MTK MT8783 chipset which supports Sharpening and other MiraVision abilities very well, satisfied me with crystal clear and crisp video playing on FullHD IPS screen, far better than any TV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW....really...reply to 2yr old thread.....mods will probably ban u for that....they very picky here.....
And your very wrong......
Discovered over a year ago...no thanks to anyone here on XDA.....that MPV player app has everything u can set via its .conf file. Sharpness, brightness,contrast, scalers, etc. I now use it on Android and PC. Even find it much better then MPC-HC i was using on PC.

tnx for your reply, i tried it but never works correctly bro, at least i couldnt make it to work like miravision. if you have a config file please upload it here and share.

Amir1975 said:
tnx for your reply, i tried it but never works correctly bro, at least i couldnt make it to work like miravision. if you have a config file please upload it here and share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What u mean "never works correctly". What device and source file are you playing?
By default, it should work just fine to play pretty much anything. Works fine on my Pixel 3
If u fuss with the settings, and your devices does not support those settings, or the hardware is not strong enough, then things will have issues.
MPV has extensive documentation on how to use each syntax command and what scalers, and hw accel/decode modes support what etc.
The .conf would be unique to each device/platfourm etc.
The only things i have in my mpv.conf on my phone is:
sharpen=1.18
saturation=10
I also use ewa_lanczossharp for up and downscaling filter. I have noticed that using Interpolation makes the video look wonky, but that is very device specific experience, screen refresh rate and gpu power etc.

wow!!
thats great pal, really great. i used your config and then changed it, changed sharpness to 5! though uses more system resources but works great. now i can use my abandoned android box on tv too, it doesnt have battery so no worries about battery drainage.
also found some instructions on net, so complicated for me to read and use it all, but at least learned how to use cfg file.
tnx again

unfortunately, it doesnt work with my Amlogic s905 CPU of Android box. player runs well but commands like sharpen never get to work with any parameter. i tried it again on my Mate9 phone and worked well with KIRIN chip, so about Amlogic, it needs more development.

Is X265 10bit 1080p mkv supported?

Is honor 8 pro capable of playing X265 10bit 1080p hevc video?
I've tried samples from jelly fish with stock player, mx player n vlc. None works. Tested the same on friend's op3t phone n it played smoothly with stock player. Even X265 10bit 120mbps 4k video was played without lag on op3t. But this honor 8 pro cant even play 5mbps X265 10bit video?
So is this hardware issue on honor 8 pro?
Any suggestions??

Life_sux said:
Is honor 8 pro capable of playing X265 10bit 1080p hevc video?
I've tried samples from jelly fish with stock player, mx player n vlc. None works. Tested the same on friend's op3t phone n it played smoothly with stock player. Even X265 10bit 120mbps 4k video was played without lag on op3t. But this honor 8 pro cant even play 5mbps X265 10bit video?
So is this hardware issue on honor 8 pro?
Any suggestions??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It's absolutely capable. I just tried. Make sure you're using the latest vlc 3.0.0
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk

Yes i m using vlc 3.0 but no help. Any settings to change? Attached is the screen grab. It plays for few secs and then hangs.
https://youtu.be/gvWLlUT0jMs

Pls can anyone suggest what would be the prob??

Life_sux said:
Yes i m using vlc 3.0 but no help. Any settings to change? Attached is the screen grab. It plays for few secs and then hangs.
https://youtu.be/gvWLlUT0jMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really have no idea.
Try turning the hardware acceleration to Full in Vlc.
Are you on EMUI8?
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk

Hardware acceleration is to full and m still on emui 5.1, waiting for ota update.

If its of any help, attached is the screen grab from stock player.
Playback is smooth but with distorted colors.
https://youtu.be/YDyZ4vTSJuM

Life_sux said:
If its of any help, attached is the screen grab from stock player.
Playback is smooth but with distorted colors.
https://youtu.be/YDyZ4vTSJuM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too had this problem on EMUI 5.1
Wait for the update. It may solve the problem because I didn't encounter this problem on EMUI 8.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk

Thanks for your help!! Will update once i get oreo update..

So my phone has been updated to emui 8.0 and phone has been factory reset post update but this issue of non playing X265 10bit videos is still there.
Any advise?

1080p hevc mkv videos cannot be played with inbuilt player (due to colour distortion, though videos are played). With MX player, HW decoder is not supported; video automatically starts playing with SW decoder. With VLC full Hardware decoding is supported without color distortion (but still playback is not that smooth, sometimes even videos got stuck).
Overall video playback on honor 8 pro is poor. So don't expect much.

Lakadbaggha said:
1080p hevc mkv videos cannot be played with inbuilt player (due to colour distortion, though videos are played).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct
Lakadbaggha said:
With MX player, HW decoder is not supported; video automatically starts playing with SW decoder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct
Lakadbaggha said:
With VLC full Hardware decoding is supported without color distortion (but still playback is not that smooth, sometimes even videos got stuck).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct
M facing same issues that u highlighted above. Earlier in my posts I was told that this device is capable of running hevc 10bit videos so I thought its my device specific issue.
Lakadbaggha said:
Overall video playback on honor 8 pro is poor. So don't expect much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so any solutions to play hevc vdo or should I stick to x264 only?

Life_sux said:
correct
correct
correct
M facing same issues that u highlighted above. Earlier in my posts I was told that this device is capable of running hevc 10bit videos so I thought its my device specific issue.
OK, so any solutions to play hevc vdo or should I stick to x264 only?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The chipset is surely capable but I don't know why this happens.
Vlc does play the video but if the video is skipped, it gets stuck on that frame.
Maybe because the kirin chipset isn't widely used and thus, there are optimisation issues with many apps. I get dropped frame rates almost in all games and this baffles me because the chipset is fairly powerful.
I am not buying device with kirin chipset again. Lots of optimization issues with 3rd party apps.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk

K.khiladi said:
The chipset is surely capable but I don't know why this happens.
Vlc does play the video but if the video is skipped, it gets stuck on that frame.
Maybe because the kirin chipset isn't widely used and thus, there are optimisation issues with many apps. I get dropped frame rates almost in all games and this baffles me because the chipset is fairly powerful.
I am not buying device with kirin chipset again. Lots of optimization issues with 3rd party apps.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it would be really sad. u've contributed a lot to this community. to say this means we won't see you in the honor/ huawei section that often since they usually stick to their own processor.
but yes, it does seem sad that there's really not much optimisation... though for the GPU, it is still MALI, which is also on Exynos.
i can only hope things will be better and Huawei/ honor can really work with more developers.

mydragoon said:
it would be really sad. u've contributed a lot to this community. to say this means we won't see you in the honor/ huawei section that often since they usually stick to their own processor.
but yes, it does seem sad that there's really not much optimisation... though for the GPU, it is still MALI, which is also on Exynos.
i can only hope things will be better and Huawei/ honor can really work with more developers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't really say if that first line was sarcasm or not.
This device can't play any game without skipping frame rates. It lags pathetically on playing temple run 2.
There are clearly optimisation issues for 3rd party apps because they have optimised it exceptionally well for their own apps and the whole software. This ruins the overall experience because as the OP stated that a device with SD821 plays 1080p 10 bit x265 videos smoothly while this doesn't.
Exynos devices may not be relying from this same problem because Samsung sells those devices in a lot more number than Kirin devices.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk

K.khiladi said:
I can't really say if that first line was sarcasm or not.
This device can't play any game without skipping frame rates. It lags pathetically on playing temple run 2.
There are clearly optimisation issues for 3rd party apps because they have optimised it exceptionally well for their own apps and the whole software. This ruins the overall experience because as the OP stated that a device with SD821 plays 1080p 10 bit x265 videos smoothly while this doesn't.
Exynos devices may not be relying from this same problem because Samsung sells those devices in a lot more number than Kirin devices.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why do you think it's sarcasm??
as for Exynos devices... they also use MALI GPU, though it's a diff variant of the chip. still, if they can get it optimised... i guess we can hope it's the same for Huawei/ honor. after all, Huawei/ honor is also one of the top manufacturers in the world right now.

mydragoon said:
why do you think it's sarcasm??
as for Exynos devices... they also use MALI GPU, though it's a diff variant of the chip. still, if they can get it optimised... i guess we can hope it's the same for Huawei/ honor. after all, Huawei/ honor is also one of the top manufacturers in the world right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I felt it was sarcasm because I don't think I have done anything major for the community here. I am not a dev [emoji12]
I haven't used an Exynos device. So, I am just guessing. Yup, I know they both use the same GPU but with lesser number of cores though. Maybe that's the root cause of this or it's just pure optimisation problems, don't know because reviews didn't show any such issues with this device. I am really confused.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk

K.khiladi said:
I felt it was sarcasm because I don't think I have done anything major for the community here. I am not a dev [emoji12]
I haven't used an Exynos device. So, I am just guessing. Yup, I know they both use the same GPU but with lesser number of cores though. Maybe that's the root cause of this or it's just pure optimisation problems, don't know because reviews didn't show any such issues with this device. I am really confused.
Sent from my DUK-L09 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes even i am also confused as reviews shows no such issues but it can be possible that not many ppl really tested these specific vidoes on this device. Hence I posted screen recordings of my phone. Need some more testers to see if I m the unlucky one.

Stock player plays video smoothly but with lot of color distortion. VLC just hangs after 1sec and MX player plays through SW decoder with lot of stuttering. XPlayer from Google play plays video much better but still stutter a lot. Overall you can't play x265 10bit HEVC videos with higher bitrate n framerate and of higher file size on our H8Pro. What a disappointment. I tested the Jellyfish sample video which was around ~33mb and main10

Not only in hevc, x264 video playback also have a bug. The 'blacks' are not shown properly in HW decoding of MX player or inbuilt player or VLCs full Hardware decoding or any app using internal codecs including video playback in YouTube app. There is a permanent 'tint' over video (only video screen) when played in these ways. The tint is absent in SW decoding mode of MX player which means the fault is in internal decoding.
To check this pause a black scene of widescreen video (so that there are top and bottom black bars). The black bars are distinctly visible in inbuilt player (and other playbacks that use internal decoding); But screen is full black (black of screen becomes same as that of bars and so can not be distinguished) when SW decoding of MX player or VLC (No harware acceleration) is used.
Not only blacks become greenish black but all colors become slightly dull compared to actual.
This most probably wasn't before oreo update.
Also there is one more magic to it. I tried to attach screenshot, but the screenshots are clear (tint is absent), even when screen recording is on tint dissapears and reappears as soon as screen recording is turned off.
I had to take shot from another phones camera. Pics in attachment is of same black scene (video paused). Screenshot is completely black while photograph shows how it actually appears (distinct top and bottom stripes).
Eye comfort or display color settings has nothing to do with it.
I already reported this issue to honor customer care but I don't think it would do anything.
Anyways, there is NO way to fully enjoy videos in our honor 8 pro. We have to just accept this. To avoid frustrations: stop downloading x265 video, stop comparing with other phones and simply accept what we have.

Question HDR on Mi Pad 5 doesn't work as it should

Hi guys, I've tried to watch some movies with HDR (1080 and UHD movies) but the image is really really dark even on max brightness level in a dark room; I've tried both Plex and MX Player Pro but still nothing, even the HDR videos on YouTube are very dark.
Also I am sure that the HDR of the video works correctly because on a samsung galaxy s10 it works perfectly and I can see it very well.
Here is a comparison to show you the difference indicatively (S10 VS Mi Pad 5): Imgur Comparisons
Does this happen to you too?
My tablet: International Xiaomi Pad 5 with MIUI 12.5 (12.5.8.0 Stable)

different display, different hdr format. s10 use hdr10+ with a amoled screen so def better than ips panel with standard hdr10.

different display, different hdr format. s10 use hdr10+ with a amoled screen so def better than ips panel with standard hdr10.
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Click to collapse
It's not a question of better or worse panel, here with the mi pad 5 the HDR does not work completely.
It is sold as HDR10 & Dolby Vision certified but then they don't work at all; I've also seen a user on reddit report the exact same thing so I'm starting to think it's a software problem...

Filippo255 said:
It's not a question of better or worse panel, here with the mi pad 5 the HDR does not work completely.
It is sold as HDR10 & Dolby Vision certified but then they don't work at all; I've also seen a user on reddit report the exact same thing so I'm starting to think it's a software problem...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you open hdr video, if it's too dark, yes, that's because hdr is working, but ips panel is not really good at dark color so that's the problem.

I also subscribe to this issue, I own the Non-Pro and HDR videos are way too dark, some movies on Netflix are almost impossible to watch despite cracking the brightness up manually (it makes the subtitle too bright compared to actual video).
I hope Xiaomi will implement a fix in future updates.
Also, when playing Dolby Vision files, the aspect ratio is something bad such as 20:9 (actual videos are played in some ultra-wide aspect ratio), the actual dark frames on top and bottom eat 50% of the vertical space, this is also a bug.
If I knew the software is that bad I would had gone with Samsung tablet instead.
@OP is not wrong at all, this is a software issue, the screen is bright enough for HDR content but the software is lacking.
Bug has been reported on a lot of forums, including here :
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/rofr22

icsterm said:
I also subscribe to this issue, I own the Non-Pro and HDR videos are way too dark, some movies on Netflix are almost impossible to watch despite cracking the brightness up manually (it makes the subtitle too bright compared to actual video).
I hope Xiaomi will implement a fix in future updates.
Also, when playing Dolby Vision files, the aspect ratio is something bad such as 20:9 (actual videos are played in some ultra-wide aspect ratio), the actual dark frames on top and bottom eat 50% of the vertical space, this is also a bug.
If I knew the software is that bad I would had gone with Samsung tablet instead.
@OP is not wrong at all, this is a software issue, the screen is bright enough for HDR content but the software is lacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for confirming my theory, it needs a bug fix otherwise so the device is really unusable for HDR content.
Have you also reported this to Xiaomi hoping that it will solve as soon as possible?

The problem is that hdr videos are made for really bright screens (hdr10 1000nits, hdr10+ 4000nits, DV up to 10tsd nits). Now on TVs this is normally not a problem because the TVs know what there max. brightness is and they can adjust the brightness of the movies. The tablet itself does also know the max. brightness but the Netflix or whatever player does not (or at least it does not work). What you can do is, use a player like mpv, and set the target-peak or, which i would not recommend, set the video brightness. Sadly, once again, the users who pay and watch movies legally are the ****ed once.
Its a night and day difference.

Filippo255 said:
Have you also reported this to Xiaomi hoping that it will solve as soon as possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you used the feedback app that they include in the actual ROM? Or on a website?

icsterm said:
I also subscribe to this issue, I own the Non-Pro and HDR videos are way too dark, some movies on Netflix are almost impossible to watch despite cracking the brightness up manually (it makes the subtitle too bright compared to actual video).
I hope Xiaomi will implement a fix in future updates.
Also, when playing Dolby Vision files, the aspect ratio is something bad such as 20:9 (actual videos are played in some ultra-wide aspect ratio), the actual dark frames on top and bottom eat 50% of the vertical space, this is also a bug.
If I knew the software is that bad I would had gone with Samsung tablet instead.
@OP is not wrong at all, this is a software issue, the screen is bright enough for HDR content but the software is lacking.
Bug has been reported on a lot of forums, including here :
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/rofr22
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that the "standard" display mode was way better for me than Vivid on Netflix. I can see dark scenes way better with it

manu_jedi said:
The problem is that hdr videos are made for really bright screens (hdr10 1000nits, hdr10+ 4000nits, DV up to 10tsd nits).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By your logic, DV must be completely black but instead, it's the only HDR that works on Pad5.
icsterm said:
Also, when playing Dolby Vision files, the aspect ratio is something bad such as 20:9 (actual videos are played in some ultra-wide aspect ratio), the actual dark frames on top and bottom eat 50% of the vertical space, this is also a bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a "just player" bug, use mpv.

Critical Hit said:
By your logic, DV must be completely black but instead, it's the only HDR that works on Pad5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, bad wording. It is made for screens up to ...nits. Now when you want to display it on a screen, not as bright, you need to map the colors to a lower brightness. And you don't wan't to simply cut it off on the dark or bright side. But you can tweak the mapping and the default players are really bad at it. Also i have no clue why DV should be the only one working.
Critical Hit said:
This is a "just player" bug, use mpv.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also highly doubt that mpv fixes anything. It uses the same HW decoding than any other player for DV or if it uses the SW decoder the colors will not be correct. Here is the issue: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/7326

You don't understand. DV _and_ hdr10 should work, but right now it's only DV and only with mpv and JP. The image is dark but not too dark as with hdr10. Just Player has a bug with black bars (it's not the aspect ratio because the image is cut on top and bottom.), not colors.

Critical Hit said:
You don't understand. DV _and_ hdr10 should work, but right now it's only DV and only with mpv and JP. The image is dark but not too dark as with hdr10. Just Player has a bug with black bars (it's not the aspect ratio because the image is cut on top and bottom.), not colors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't wan't so sound rude but mpv just does not support DV. IF mpv playes your DV files i would be highly interessted in those files. I can imagine that you have some hdr10 compatible DV files? These will play in mpv just like hdr10 files. You can check with mediainfo and look for the HDR format string. E.g Lotr DV BD would be :
Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SM PTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible"
you can also see the mastering brightness here
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2,m ax: 4000 cd/m2
Also the cropping for files happens on all DV files (that i could find). All of these players have in common that they use the HW decoding for DV and afaik there are no DV players which do not use HW

manu_jedi said:
These will play in mpv just like hdr10 files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, it looks like you're right but results are still completely inconsistent.
manu_jedi said:
Mastering display luminance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe this is the problem. But I can't get this info in MI.
This sample has this mediainfo:
Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.05.06, BL+RPU
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Click to collapse
JP plays it perfectly (or ok) without cropping problem and mpv has broken colors (so it really can't play DV).
Sample
Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.08.06, BL+RPU, HDR10 compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just Player plays it perfectly but has the cropping problem. With mpv picture is completely broken and with VLC&MXP it's ok (not too dark).
Sample
Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.08.06, BL+RPU, HDR10 compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JP has cropping&brightness problems, mpv doesn't. But it looks like mpv is using tone mapping (?) - if you pause the file in VLC and tilt the pad the image would be the same as in mpv.

IMO this is a limitation with the physical screen itself, the fact is pad 5 only had a peak brightness of around 500, 478 nits iirc. Trying to play HDR content on a 478 peak brightness screen is impossible without doing some sort down- "tone mapping" which if it does, it's not HDR anymore, just capable of displaying HDR video. (the S10 iirc has 1000 nits max brightness and can peak to 1200 when required on a short time, that;s why the dark part is clear there).
on a 478 nits screen, even if you crank the brightness as high as it could, the dark part of the video is probably too crammed together, thus you're seeing a crushed black on HDR videos, where the dark part actually blends into a blob instead of just being really dark with some sort of defining shape clarity. The only solution is to change the tone mapping to SDR (BT.709 color space) either by transcoding the video itself or use a player with a tone mapping function (which if exist only useful for video files and not streaming services).

Etmors said:
(the S10 iirc has 1000 nits max brightness and can peak to 1200 when required on a short time, that;s why the dark part is clear there).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You talking about marketing numbers. Here is a test of S21 https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s21-review-2218p3.php 416 to 856 nits. https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_pad_5-review-2317p3.php pad5 has 478 nits and they guessing there can be more "Unfortunately, there is no Sunlight Boost even if the settings page suggests that. Maybe it will be enabled with a future firmware update, maybe not. Still tablet can be much brighter when watching HDR content, of course,". Iirc there was a review with 500+ nits max test with this Boost.
And the question is why there is only one player that can show you decent results with dv&hdr10 but has a cropping bug? Why Xiaomi with these hardware specs marketing it as compatible when even their own player can't play this content with decent results?

Updated to miui13 and it looks like the cropping problem on Just Player is gone.

Critical Hit said:
You talking about marketing numbers. Here is a test of S21 https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s21-review-2218p3.php 416 to 856 nits. https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_pad_5-review-2317p3.php pad5 has 478 nits and they guessing there can be more "Unfortunately, there is no Sunlight Boost even if the settings page suggests that. Maybe it will be enabled with a future firmware update, maybe not. Still tablet can be much brighter when watching HDR content, of course,". Iirc there was a review with 500+ nits max test with this Boost.
And the question is why there is only one player that can show you decent results with dv&hdr10 but has a cropping bug? Why Xiaomi with these hardware specs marketing it as compatible when even their own player can't play this content with decent results?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will refer to displaymate, while 400-800 nits are brightness in manual mode, when used in automatic brightness at high ambient light it could bring up to 900 nits for 50% apl, and 1200+ nits for 1% (which is probably where the 1300 nits marketing came from, while 1% APL is practically useless it's not entirely false either).
I did once owned an S10, and when you play HDR content, the screen will enter that automatic brightness mode, as it does becomes really-really bright, as if I was using it outdoor (high ambient light). So I would assume when comparing HDR vs HDR then the S10 probably should be assumed operated at 800-900 nits. Playing SDR content, you can't achieve the same brightness when playing HDR. I can't comment on s21 since i don't owned one, and can't tell if this automatic brightness thing still exist.
This is the same issue with HDR400, while by specification it is HDR, it sucks. And pad 5 being "Support Dolby Vision" is not equal to a brilliant dolby vision experience, it could be just technicalities that means that it could receive dolby Vision Input.
HDR10 contents usually are mastered at 1000-4000 nits, (I would assume DV is around that or bit higher). HDR TVs are usually only start to have good HDR experience from 600 nits or more, 1000 nits preferable. So I really can't complain if I don't get the same experience with seeing HDR10/DV on a 1000 nits TVs.
OTOH I do agree that there's also a software issues because the inconsistencies I've also experience, like when playing HDR content, even when i pump the brightness to full, it felt like it is not as bright as playing SDR at full brightness. And playing HDR10 in youtube is usually just fine (idk if youtube tone-mapped the HDR), only when playing hdr10 video files or streaming service like netflix/prime that the issue exist.
The only thing I wish it had is a turn off HDR switch or tone-mapping enable switch. Like most dark scene on netflix with DV are unviewable in this device, because it's way too dark, and I'd just rather see the SDR version.

Etmors said:
The only thing I wish it had is a turn off HDR switch or tone-mapping enable switch. Like most dark scene on netflix with DV are unviewable in this device, because it's way too dark, and I'd just rather see the SDR version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Youtube app doesn't do tone mapping but you can manually set quality to SDR in the smartube app.
With files (or netflix), if it's too dark, you can set the color scheme to "standard" but the image would be low saturated or use built-in brightness&contrast settings in mpv (+10 both is good).
Tone mapping is an app feature not global, so until Netflix does something you can't do much. Only fake the hardware id/specs that it can't support HDR (idk if it's possible).

Just some more info on mpv with hdr (all for normal hdr, no DV):
Use this if you want to use the hardware decoding that normal player use (like the integrated video player):
vo=mediacodec_embed
hwdec=mediacodec
wid=(intptr_t)(*android.view.Surface)
this will directly use HW decoding and present the result on the screen.
Use the following if you want more details in dark scenes (i think this are the default settings):
hwdec=mediacodec-copy
gpu-context=android
I don't know exactly what mpv uses internally here but the main idea is to use the HW decoding, copy the image back to memory, do some post processing and present it on the screen
What i like to use:
hwdec=mediacodec-copy
gpu-context=android
hdr-compute-peak=yes
tone-mapping=hable
Mostly the same, but not as aggressive in my opinion (only personal preference).
more to read: https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#options-tone-mapping