Develop Bugs

[Q] 720p video playback issue

Hello,
I'm having some problems about playing 720p videos from HTC Desire Z. It plays some 720p videos smoothly which are recorded by itself (also there is a fps problem in there, some are about 19fps).
I wonder which {container, codec} we should use to play 720p videos smooth. I tried with several media players like Vplayer, Moboplayer, Rockplayer and Android's default media player.
I tried some files. Here their properties:
Container: MKV
Video Codec: H264
Audio Codec: AC3
Overall Bitrate: ~4.5Mbps
Length: 71min
Size: 2.2GB
This was a concert video.
--
Container: MKV
Video Codec: H264
Audio Codec: AC3
Overall Bitrate: ~4.5Mbps
Length: 40min
Size: 1.1GB
This was a tv show.
Rockplayer can play this videos but not smooth enough. It freezes for 5-10 milliseconds at every 1-2 seconds.
Using stock 2.3.3 ROM and stock SD Card.
Phone can play 480p videos smoothly but I think it can play 720p videos since it can record 720p videos.
Thanks in advance.

The DZ isn't actually powerful enough to play 720p videos from an external source. I can barely play 480p AVI smoothly. MKV and MP4 are a total lost cause for me. Haven't tried after I installed Virtuous 2.0 and had it OC'd to 1.5GHz though.

ArmedandDangerous said:
The DZ isn't actually powerful enough to play 720p videos from an external source. I can barely play 480p AVI smoothly. MKV and MP4 are a total lost cause for me. Haven't tried after I installed Virtuous 2.0 and had it OC'd to 1.5GHz though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, DZ has hardware decoding for 720p videos. So it can play 720p videos and DZ records with 8mbps and encodes with h264 and its container is 3gp. Only difference is container. Maybe changing container will fix this but I tried with avi, mkv. Maybe I should try with 3gp container.
Anyone tried?

Try dice player
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App

tcchuin said:
Try dice player
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried with its trial version but it says "sorry, this video can not be played" when i try to play video which I mentioned at my first post (tv show one) and also another video which is a mp4 video.
DicePlayer can not play any video in the phone

I use Rock Player Lite and it can play MP4 vids properly. Granted, I just OC'd my DZ to 1.5GHz, and an MP4 file encoded in h.264 with an average bitrate of 1.5kbps plays flawlessly. At stock speeds the audio goes out of sync and artefacts get introduced. Haven't tried MKV files since I OC'd yet though. Software decoding in RPL.
Hardware decode basically is the same as the default media player, software decoding takes up more CPU resources, but is able to play more formats and containers.

I haven't found any way to reliably open mkv container on desire z. MX video player by far does the best job (and yes, I've used other players like rockplayer, dice player, etc) but it still plays 720p mkv h264 slightly choppy. 720p h264 mp4 plays fine with software and hardware decoder, while 720 avi xvid can play smoothly on a small overclock.
I try to avoid 720 anyway because the difference between 720 and 480 on a 3.7inch screen is barely visible to me lol

Exactly lol. As long as it can play 480 on the DZ it's more than fine by me. 720p on a 480x800 screen... ~_~
MX Video Player.. Never heard of it. Gonna search and try that out. How does it compare to Rock Player?

i really liked rockplayer for a long time until i found out mx player had software codecs tweaked for ARMv7. Check it out on the market, its free anyway lol

I tried mx player but still there is the same problem.
I also tried to change the container to mp4. PC plays well but when I try to play on phone, video is smooth but there is no sound and audio codec is ac3. Maybe the problem is here.
I tried with rockplayer using software decoding, there is sound but laggy video.

Try MX with SW. Works fine on any container and format so far for me.

ArmedandDangerous said:
Try MX with SW. Works fine on any container and format so far for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried in 3 available mode in MX Player but still laggy video

The trick is to use video in the correct settings for the hardware decoder. If you do that then it won't matter if it's in mkv or mp4.
For the video portion, use baseline profile h.264 with the maximum bitrate (VBV) capped at 8mbps up to 720p
For audio, use AAC-LC in stereo.
Sent from my HTC Vision

ChronoReverse said:
The trick is to use video in the correct settings for the hardware decoder. If you do that then it won't matter if it's in mkv or mp4.
For the video portion, use baseline profile h.264 with the maximum bitrate (VBV) capped at 8mbps up to 720p
For audio, use AAC-LC in stereo.
Sent from my HTC Vision
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so. But there is a problem when playing MKV files. There is problem after I changed container to mp4, though.
But the audio codecs of videos which I tried are not AAC. Maybe this causes the problem.
I don't know, how hard can it be to play videos which have AAC audios.

Use Handbrake to encode and it'll be easy to specify AAC for audio. You can use the iphone profile for encoding.

Hi again,
I've solved my problem. I use dice player which plays 720p mkv videos (even with ac3 audio codec).
I wrote here dice player can't play any video in the phone. That was a hardware decoding problem, I think. When I try to play an unsupported video format with hardware decoding, hardware decoding crashes and unable to play videos as it should be.
So, after that if I restart the phone hardware decoding comes back and plays videos perfectly.
Is this a common issue? If it is not should I do a factory reset to my phone?

To be honest, with our default 800*480 screen, we would not be able to take advantage of 720p quality as 720p is 1280*720 (Unless we stream it to a HDTV or Monitor). Re-encoding it to 800*450 is wiser to conserve file size as well
found this recommended settings at afterdawn for Handbrake or MEGUI. Tried it with rockplayer hardware decoding and it is smooth i used mp4 format
full link is here http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/converting_video_for_the_htc_desire_z.cfm
Code:
Recommended Video Options
Format H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC)
Profile Baseline
Level 3
Average Bitrate 800kbps - 1800kbps
Max Resolution 800×480 @ 24fps
800×480 @ 25fps
800×432 @ 30fps
768×448 @ 30fps
720×480 @ 30fps
Maximum GOP Length 250
Minimum GOP Length 25
B-frames None
CABAC Off
Other Recommended Settings
Audio Format AAC
Audio Channels 2
Audio Bitrate 128kbps - 256kbps
Container (File Type) MP4*
Subtitle Format Timed Text or SRT **

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).

streaming 1080p from a media server

Stock CPU voltages or overclocked standing next to a router...anyone do it? Experiences on the GS3? In my experience 720p was no problem 1080p it seems like it can buffer for a few seconds but then gets choppy after that

I've streamed a 1080P Xvid file through BubbleUNP no problem.

[Q] 1080p MKV / MP4 freezing

Hi,
i have problems with 1080p MKV and MP4 playback.
When i playback a movie with 1080p and Hardware Decoding, I get terrible blocking and freezing (strainge colours, green Pixel and so on).
I tested with MX-Player (H/W+), VLC Player, Plex and XBMC. The result is always the same.
When i use the same file in ts oder m2ts - Format, then everything is ok.
So i tested to create the mkv and mp4 File with different Tools: mkvmerge, ffmpeg, makemkv, mp4box and so on..
Always Errors and terrible playback.
Is there a trick or can the device handle HD only in *.ts without Errors???

stehohrhase said:
Hi,
i have problems with 1080p MKV and MP4 playback.
When i playback a movie with 1080p and Hardware Decoding, I get terrible blocking and freezing (strainge colours, green Pixel and so on).
I tested with MX-Player (H/W+), VLC Player, Plex and XBMC. The result is always the same.
When i use the same file in ts oder m2ts - Format, then everything is ok.
So i tested to create the mkv and mp4 File with different Tools: mkvmerge, ffmpeg, makemkv, mp4box and so on..
Always Errors and terrible playback.
Is there a trick or can the device handle HD only in *.ts without Errors???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm able to play 1080p mkv files and mp4 files without issue. I actually download a lot of 1080p movie trailer in mp4 format to my tablet. However, I normally use Archos Video player or BS player though as the hardware acceleration appears to be better on them than other video players I've tried.

I use mx player and never have an issue, have you tried the software codec for mx?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Try archos and the achos free codec pack.

MX player
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda premium

so, i tested more:
Archos has the best Performance. you only see sometimes litte stuttering. But the PGS-Subtitles are not shown -((
BS-Player has Picture -Errors
MX-Player in S/W and H/W Looks ok, but not enough Performance for full framerate Decoding.H/W+ Decoder has enogh Performance, but the same Errors in the Picture like BS-Player, Plex, XBMC abd so on.
I don't understand why... the Problem ist not all movies... and this are not the movies withe the highets Bitrate. convert to ts looks good.
I put a short sample online.. mail me, if you are interessed to verify and help... I can not post the link here.. (new user board-rule)

I just streamed a 1080p mkv from my WD Live network drive with no stuttering or sound issues. I use Archos player and the free codec pack.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app

i have the P605 with quadcore. has this other gpu than the P600 octagon ?

stehohrhase said:
Hi,
i have problems with 1080p MKV and MP4 playback.
When i playback a movie with 1080p and Hardware Decoding, I get terrible blocking and freezing (strainge colours, green Pixel and so on).
I tested with MX-Player (H/W+), VLC Player, Plex and XBMC. The result is always the same.
When i use the same file in ts oder m2ts - Format, then everything is ok.
So i tested to create the mkv and mp4 File with different Tools: mkvmerge, ffmpeg, makemkv, mp4box and so on..
Always Errors and terrible playback.
Is there a trick or can the device handle HD only in *.ts without Errors???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe is not the resolution but profile... 10bits encoding or 8bits encoding?

stehohrhase said:
i have the P605 with quadcore. has this other gpu than the P600 octagon ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey, stehohrhase, has this resolved with different player? I am tempted to buy p605, but I don't want to buy one that has issue with video playback.

angilinmago said:
hey, stehohrhase, has this resolved with different player? I am tempted to buy p605, but I don't want to buy one that has issue with video playback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess is not the player... TS is just the container... this device can handle 1080p

no issues
I use MK player with no issues even in FULL HD movies!
Maybe your files (muvies) are stored in ExtStorage (microSD).
Have you check your microSD card speed?

Try Dice Player its one of the best players out there, but for DTS audio you need "libffmpeg.so" from the attachment below.
Other than that try a test sample with video stream only and see if it plays fine, if it does then mux in the other streams one at a time until the problem returns.

10 bits encoding maybe?

HD video on MX player

Ok, this is not specifically a Fire app, but just wanted to throw out there that the fire plays everything i've thrown at it - 1080p HD video too in Mx Player, with HW+ decoding, flawlessly.
Mentioning this because amazon's specs say it plays SD video, but the cpu seems very capable, and the screen isn't too bad either. Colors seem to have a bit of a yellow hue instead of pure white, but it's pretty good, especially at the price.

It says it plays SD video since the screen isn't an HD screen. The screen on the Amazon Fire is 1024 x 600, HD is defined as 720p (1,280 × 720 progressive scan) 1080i (1,920 × 1,080 split into two interlaced fields of 540 lines) 1080p (1,920 × 1,080 progressive scan).
The hardware is capable of playing HD content. It just down scales it to fit the native hardware resolution.

How did you get hw+ decoding? My movies are very laggy. Had to switch to software decoding...

go to mx player, settings, use hw+ decoder. I also checked everything in HW+ video codecs