Develop Bugs

[Q] Video playback fluidity / support on GN and over MHL?

All the reviews I have seen so far completely ignore media playback on the GN, or give it only a passing mention.
I'm really interested to know how well it handles media playback - AVI, MKV etc both on it's own screen, and over MHL to an HDMI connected screen - along with which specific MHL adaptor was used.
The SGS2 and HTC Sensation for example seem similar in spec, but when detailed reviews started coming in, it was clear the SGS2 was far superior in terms of media playback - both formats supported and fluidity of playback.
I'd love to get a GN, but I really need to know if the media playback is 'great' - and by great I mean 100% fluid on any reasonable file (up to 720p movies for example) - no skips, no out of sync etc... I'd also really like to know how well the MHL works in playing movies back on an HDMI connected screen - is it the same in terms of fluidity? What audio is sent over the cable?
Unfortunately here in New Zealand the device isn't released so I can't go try one myself, or else I would have already!
I'm not afraid of buying a good app if that's what it takes to have perfectly fluid playback - love to hear experiences with both the native and 3rd party payers on the GN.
Cheers - Neil G

I would also like to know about this.
Thanks

Theres a Diceplayer thread that says MKV work well, ive tried the trial version of it with 1 720p tv episode and it looked great.
not got any hdmi cables so cant test that but looked great on the phone.
AVI wasnt as good tho with what looked like a low fps problem.
do a forum search for Diceplayer for a bit more info.

r3k0 said:
Theres a Diceplayer thread that says MKV work well, ive tried the trial version of it with 1 720p tv episode and it looked great.
not got any hdmi cables so cant test that but looked great on the phone.
AVI wasnt as good tho with what looked like a low fps problem.
do a forum search for Diceplayer for a bit more info.
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Yea and the developer posted something about fixes for AVI, so that bug should be gone soon. Diceplayer might be the best choice for GN as of now.
EDIT: Actually MX Player seems to be updated and people are reporting better playback than Diceplayer: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1362375

It works fine over MHL and on Diceplayer, i've recorded a video of it.
Uploading atm, I have poor upload speed so it'll be a while till I can link you.

Help please
I really want to buy this phone but i'm waiting to see how the volume issue resolves. But one of my major considerations is video playback. I have a huge collection of blu ray rips(1080p and 720p) and most of them are .mkv; does the galaxy nexus natively support .mkv files? Is there any file size limit on videos i put in the device?(the rips range from 3gb to 10gb). I know that the galaxy nexus doesn't support USB mass storage... does that stop me from transferring natively unsupported file types to the phone? Any help would be greatly appreciated

I believe Nexus does have USB storage.
For the MKV, it does play them natively, can you post a short sample? We could then give it a try. Two players are supposed to be able to play with hardware acceleration: Diceplayer and MX Player.
From what I know, 720p is not a problem at all. 1080p, might depend on bitrate and other things.

Finally got the video uploaded.
Includes play of 720p + 1080p files.
Good value imo, works well and doesn't look or feel too cheap.

Thanks for the video samples!
Thankyou sir, that's _exactly_ what I was looking for. I think I see some jumpiness in the playback, but I suspect that's actually youtube's fault. Certainly seems to handle 720 and 1080 fine.
Could you link to the exact MHL adaptor your purchased please?
Cheers - Neil G

talkiet said:
Thankyou sir, that's _exactly_ what I was looking for. I think I see some jumpiness in the playback, but I suspect that's actually youtube's fault. Certainly seems to handle 720 and 1080 fine.
Could you link to the exact MHL adaptor your purchased please?
Cheers - Neil G
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It was checking out my friend's Galaxy Nexus and we noticed he had to install the codec pack on Android Market for MX Player before it allowed HW-accelerated playback of the specific clip he used, even though it played back fine in the stock player (though no sound). With the codec pack he could set it to HW for the video and SW for the sound. In the end it worked out great and I was surprised, considering the table of supported formats on developer.android.com didn't list MKV + h.264 as a supported format.

I've been using Dice Player and MX Video Player for 720P .mkv files on both my Thunderbolt and Rezound. The Thunderbolt had sync issues(even overclocked). With the Rezound, most of the time playback is fine, but occasionally will have a slight sync issue here & there.
Considering the specs of both the Nexus and the Rezound though, even with a possible 'stock' issue, it'd just be a matter of eventually loading a custom ROM & some minor modifications/tweaks here & there.

Another video demo (though not specifically of the Nexus). MHL is just mirroring so there's no difference in playback. If it works on the phone, it's exactly the same mirrored.
I can also confirm that it natively plays back AVIs (Xvid), sample: http://www.multiupload.com/GML7HC3HHM

schriss said:
I believe Nexus does have USB storage.
For the MKV, it does play them natively, can you post a short sample? We could then give it a try. Two players are supposed to be able to play with hardware acceleration: Diceplayer and MX Player.
From what I know, 720p is not a problem at all. 1080p, might depend on bitrate and other things.
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Sure i'll upload a sample or two in a bit. I know for sure it supports googles own mkv container(vp8 or something) but does it support mkv + h.264?

talkiet said:
Thankyou sir, that's _exactly_ what I was looking for. I think I see some jumpiness in the playback, but I suspect that's actually youtube's fault. Certainly seems to handle 720 and 1080 fine.
Could you link to the exact MHL adaptor your purchased please?
Cheers - Neil G
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Click to collapse
It's off ebay, item no 220897013161.
Can get the same thing a bit cheaper from HK if you're prepared to wait a few weeks.
The jumpiness might have been because I had a lot of apps open at the same time, I just tried playing back the same files and they were perfectly smooth with only the browser open.

Again, thanks OP - really great info and I've just ordered and paid for a Galaxy Nexus from Clove
Cheers - Neil G

Just an update to the 'clipping' on the home screen, you need to switch OFF 'overscan' in the TV menu settings, it should look like this:
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5277/img0427wt.jpg

whyamihere said:
Finally got the video uploaded.
Includes play of 720p + 1080p files.
Good value imo, works well and doesn't look or feel too cheap.
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Click to collapse
nice video mate

blunden said:
It was checking out my friend's Galaxy Nexus and we noticed he had to install the codec pack on Android Market for MX Player before it allowed HW-accelerated playback of the specific clip he used, even though it played back fine in the stock player (though no sound). With the codec pack he could set it to HW for the video and SW for the sound. In the end it worked out great and I was surprised, considering the table of supported formats on developer.android.com didn't list MKV + h.264 as a supported format.
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witch codec plz ?

le_pere_noel said:
witch codec plz ?
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The ARMv7 ones. It never complained about needing them but it worked after installing them.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mxtech.ffmpeg.v7_vfpv3d16

A.Ik said:
Sure i'll upload a sample or two in a bit. I know for sure it supports googles own mkv container(vp8 or something) but does it support mkv + h.264?
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Most of my files are MKV x264. 720p plays in hardware perfectly. I don't have many 1080p to try. also, 1080 move plays almost perfectly.
The only 1080p mkv x264 I have doesn't play in hardware for some reason.
Edit: MX Player seems best for me.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

[Q] terrible MKV playback?

So I've been searching for about a day now for a solution to this problem. I've been trying to play MKV files on my phone, but every single player i've tried (mobo, mx, rock, vlc nightly, bs, dice, and vplayer) have been really stuttery and the audio desyncs massively.
It seems that most people are able to play MKVs but for some reason I can not get it to play smoothly at all.
Has anyone come across this and know a solution?
(the file I'm trying to play is a 720p h264 mkv with aac audio. I would put up all the file information if I knew how, so I can if someone shows me)
I'm really sorry if there is an answer to this somewhere, but I tried a search here and only got a thread talking about how everyone can play MKVs smoothly

Are you running a stock Rom or one of the aokp or cm roms? With stock I haven't had an issue with any mkv even on my previous sgs and sgs2. Are all mkvs having problems or is it just the one ?
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

dude i can stream mkvs without problem
mx player by turning the software decoding on in settings
or vlc player beta

It seems like it only happens on 10bit MKVs. MX Player is the best with software decoding but there are still some dropped frames. I saw a video of someone playing 10bit perfectly fine and a thread saying the S3 can handle 10bit so I'm not exactly sure whats wrong.
I'm running TuchMi 5.0 so I might try to go back to full stock just to see if that helps.
I would try the VLC beta but US can't get it from the play store and the nightly crashes constantly for me.
EDIT: full wipe didn't help

make sure you got the 1.7 update, for me the audio would get out of sync on any anime but with H/W+ that is now solved and i got back DTS thanks to custom codecs.
Software is horrible for me it plays fine, but everything gets artifacts and colored blocks etc. At first i though it was the device that god it wasn't

I have 1.7. H/W+ works for you? it keeps telling me that I can't play the video with it. Can you give an example of and episode that works for you?

Actually I'm curious about this too. Just tried to stream Planet Earth from my PC and I had huge lag because if you are streaming on MKV it uses software decoding...
To be fair I might have to push up my VSEL values...but I really doubt that's the case. Another thing I'm going to try is PS3media server which TRANSCODES (meaning your computer does the coding) for all media files...so it is streaming everything converted for your phone. The annoying thing about it though is that it won't automatically start with my computer
A third alternative is to setup a vlc media player server.

To reencode or not to reencode videos?

Do you reencode HD video for the Note 2? If so, what have you found to be an ideal format and resolution? I mentioned in another thread that the native player and MX Player will play the video for my .MKV's but not the DTS soundtrack. I've fiddled with the settings on both players, but I'm not getting any sound at all for any of my blu-ray rips.

Generally I just grab the 720p version and leave it as is. The native player had an issue with one of my mkv files, but MX played it fine, no audio issues.
I generally download straight on the device, so to re-encode it would require transferring the file twice, plus the encoding time. Not worth it to me.
Sent from my Note II

Solved.
quarlow said:
Generally I just grab the 720p version and leave it as is. The native player had an issue with one of my mkv files, but MX played it fine, no audio issues.
I generally download straight on the device, so to re-encode it would require transferring the file twice, plus the encoding time. Not worth it to me.
Sent from my Note II
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Look at Randles' two posts on this page.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1831111&page=7

I tried running a 720p video using mx player (good quality video I think) from a plugged in usb flash key drive and kept getting frozen frames every few seconds though the sound was ok. I was considering asking the same question about how it should be encoded to play without stuttering. Then I played with the player and discovered I could pinch to zoom in or out of the image while it was playing and if I reduced the display a minimal amount it would play correctly. I changed it to 99% of normal size and no more playback problems. I don't know why this is but hope it helps someone...
Sent from my ATT SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app

Good to know.
Dumbo53 said:
I tried running a 720p video using mx player (good quality video I think) from a plugged in usb flash key drive and kept getting frozen frames every few seconds though the sound was ok. I was considering asking the same question about how it should be encoded to play without stuttering. Then I played with the player and discovered I could pinch to zoom in or out of the image while it was playing and if I reduced the display a minimal amount it would play correctly. I changed it to 99% of normal size and no more playback problems. I don't know why this is but hope it helps someone...
Sent from my ATT SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
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Thanks. Most of my videos are 720P MKV's with DTS sound. After installing the codec above, I haven't had any issues, but if I do, I will keep your suggestion in mind.

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

Video stuttering

Hello everyone. At first I have to say that english isn't my first language so please be understanding.
I've just bought new Note 3 and was pleased with it, until I've found that something is wrong with playing videos. When I try to watch some videos(for example anime) online, it is stuttering. Audio is ok but video lags like hell. Lets take videos from www*auby*no/files/video_tests/ (sorry I had to change "." with "*" because I was unable to post link to another site )as an examples.First I tried playing them online using official player and MX Player(using hardware decoding and software decoding). Then I downloaded them and tried playing again. While playing online using official player, every movie except Shrinkage and Shrinkage 2 was choppy. Playing them with use of MX Player with H/W resulted int the same thing(video lags), but when I changed to S/W everything run smoothly(except first two movies). Next I downloaded them and again tried to play them with official player, and guess what? Everything was ok. The same was with MX Player with H/W and of course S/W.
I also tried to play movies online with worse resolution (480p) and they were ok but other videos with 720p were stuttering. I also tried to play video in 720p using mobile-friendly online player and had lags, but when I played THE SAME video using not mobile-friendly online player(with usage of Flash Player) it was ok...
So dear friends I don't know what to do so I am counting on your help, because I really want to be able to watch movies online on this badass screen.

Try DicePlayer. Still one of the best players IMO, and one of the few that can play videos directly off of Windows network shares (though I use ES File Explorer to browse and Dice to play)
No stutter here playing even 10+Mbps 1080p h264 over wireless from samba shares on my NAS. (Haven't tried 20Mbps yet)

Well, I've tried this DicePlayer and it is really nice but only with playing videos where I can choose which player to use. If I, for example want to watch a movie on dailymotion I can't choose if I want to use MxPlayer or DicePlayer or something else. I have to watch it using dailymotion player (right?) and using these kind of players make videos stutter. That's my problem.

Note 3 has a problem. Verizon and ATT versions also show stuttering when streaming video. I have it in YouTube and other videos that streamed from a website.
We shouldn't have to use third party players, especially when it's not even an option (can't choose one) or in the case of youtube it's an app. This is nonsense. Samsung needs to address this issue. How can we contact them? I've been trying to figure that out.

Techweed said:
Note 3 has a problem. Verizon and ATT versions also show stuttering when streaming video. I have it in YouTube and other videos that streamed from a website.
We shouldn't have to use third party players, especially when it's not even an option (can't choose one) or in the case of youtube it's an app. This is nonsense. Samsung needs to address this issue. How can we contact them? I've been trying to figure that out.
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huh i havn't run into this problem myself, can you give me a youtube video that does it for sure so i can see it too?

systoxity said:
huh i havn't run into this problem myself, can you give me a youtube video that does it for sure so i can see it too?
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I never said it was every handset. But I've seen complaints regarding this issue on t mobile, verizon, att and the international version. I haven't checked others.
Try any hd video. They show it the most. But if you don't have the issue I don't expect you to see symptoms.

Try another browser with java support like maxthon
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

Ok. I've noticed another thing. Stuttering happens only with films in HD. For example I've played some film from vimeo in (probably) 480p and it was fine, but after playing it in 720p lags occurred. Also I've tried maxthon but it didn't help.
So, to sum up everything for now, stuttering occurs when I try to play HD films online, where I can't choose players like DicePlayer or MxPlayer and have to use "built-in" online players (for example on Dailymotion or Vimeo) and also when I try to play films online (which I can play using players on my note) using official player or MxPlayer with H/W or H/W+.

I talked to Samsung via Chat and the guy said he's never heard of this issue. I find that amazing since I've seen the complaints all versions of the Note 3.
We shouldn't have to watch videos in 480p and we shouldn't have to switch browsers. All this does is try to avoid running into a problem that shouldn't be there to begin with.
It's a high end device with a low end problem. Something is wrong. I suggest you all that are having issues to tell Samsung about it. Call or chat or do some type of communication.

I've talked with someone from samsung via live chat and he said that if phone doesn't have problem with playing films on sd card it isn't problem with phone itself. He also said that he will pass it to proper department. Also doesn't this problem seem like this one? Maybe it's not problem with note 3 but with JB 4.3?

Yeah you're right, can't stream some HD videos, especially on vimeo. Youtube is fine for me on full hd. Anything downloaded plays perfectly though.

I've had this issue on two different T-Mobile notes. HD videos in any browser for me stutter. I'm hoping its software related and can get patched soon.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

I'm hoping its software related and can get patched soon.
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I hope that it will come out soon if it's software related, because if it was hardware related I would have to change it and it restrains me for now from rooting it.