So, need to convert my Media to something for the phone - General Topics

Hey guys
before anyone gets on a rant, I have ripped my own collection of films - I can show you photo's if you like!
Now that i've finaly got a winmob device thats able to play media properly (HD2) on a nice big screen I figured I might want some of my family guy etc on it for the odd occasion. So, I tried pocket media encoder and set it to 700*480 (i think), asked it to resize and uploaded to the memory card.
Sadly it failed.
Coreplayer and WinMedia Player just won't play it.
I also realised something quickly, 16 gig won't be enough! The Family Guy episode came out at 250meg, thats only 64 episodes if i ONLY have Family Guy on the SD card, which I don't of course.
So, can you recommend an app that works (free or has a limited trial offer) and settings that will work please?
thanks in advance!!!

Try the free version of DVD Catalyst i use the pay version so not sure on the device database with free.
Your not going to get much smaller than 250MB per episode with good quality @ the resolution of HD2

Worked a treat Stylze! Thank you.
Have also dropped the quality a little and still shows OK in core player full screen. Down to 150meg an episode.
edit: That did such an awesome job, i've just purchased the full version!!!! THIS is why I asked the question, to get a personal recommendation and its worked perfectly. Thank you! It also seems to be using all 8 cores as well.... for $9 can you get better???

Cool glad it worked
Yeah the software is cheap and well worth the price tag, yeah imagine 150MB dropping the quality as get on VGA about 250MB on full length movie.
To answer the question for $9 can you get better? No way, there are many freeware available but then you have to battle with setting till you find how the best to recode, DVD Catalyst basically does this depending on device then all you have to do is make minute tweaks to get it how you want regards size\quality.

Related

[Q] micro sd card got stuck

I am a newbie to this board. I purchased a micro sd card at Amazon. It worked for one day on my transformer. I took it out and then inserted it the following day. It got swallowed up and I couldn't remove it. My transformer also didn't recognize that the SD card was there. It took many hours to remove it. I ended up using a fine pair of twizzers. I read that amazon is carrying a lot of fake SD cards from China...read the reviews on Amazon if you are interested. I wonder if that was the problem...however I used a adapter and the card worked fine on my computer but not on my droid phone nor camera where it alerted me the card was damaged.
Has this happened before? Is this a glitch with the transformer...the card getting stuck? Since it was day 13 of purchasing it at Best Buy, I returned it. Now I want another one and can't decide to wait and purchase the prime or buy the same one cheaper.
I also had another problem with my tablet. I like watching House on Fox TV. It was barely possible. I would get alerts saying my mobile is not compatible. I got a lot of streaming issues where it would stop every few seconds and load up.
Does anyone know if the prime would solve this issue? It only has 1gb of ram. Watching Netflix was fine...not Fox TV.
thanks in advance
i can't help you with the memory card but it's usually a good idea to stick with the name brand cards.
i say good job on returning the transformer while you still could. i think the prime is a pretty big leap over the original and at an extra $100 it's a bargain imo.
as for the netflix versus foxtv viewing. netflix was probably fine because you were using the netflix app. foxtv is laggy because it is probably running through flash which the transformer couldn't handle properly for some reason. flash on android in general is a mixed bag and i don't know if the extra power of the prime will fix it. my guess is it will be better but can't say by how much. i think when prime eventually gets the ice cream sandwich update is when we'll truly see what it's capable of which hopefully is a whole lot.
From the sounds of it more like you insert it wrong or something as opposed to a fake sd card. Fame or not it should go on and out the same imo
I don't know what happened. It wasn't inserted wrong. I pushed it in and it went in too far and I didn't have the grip of my nails to pull the SD out.
I just saw an ad for the original transformer with 32gb for $389. I'm still can't decide to wait and pay the extra $125+++ and get the prime just for speed but 16GB or spend $389 and get a larger 32 GB drive. I am not using it for games but just for movies. I also hope to use the movie maker app to edit my long videos and burn to DVDs.
anyone think it is worth it to wait for the prime which is somewhat lighter in weight in but faster than the origjinal--- or buy the original with double the GB for a lot cheaper price now and use it for 6 months and wait for what ASUS offers after the first of the year when they get even a faster tablet and buy it then after all the kinks are worked out with the operating system?
The prime is built to aim more towards gamers than anyone else. The quad/quint core is only used to its full potential when dealing with graphically intense apps... like games.
For most other purposes, the transformer 1 is more than capable of handling.
Regarding the card issue, this is the first I've heard of it. But I'll tell you this. I don't know if you inserted it wrong or not, since I wasn't there. But through all my years of tech help of other people, the #1 issue that most people run into when they say they have a bad card or their device card slot is bad is actually them inserting the card wrong. I'll leave it at that.
Please feel free to ask plenty of questions. Myself and other experienced android users will be more than happy to help you. I may appear cranky at times, but that's just my other personalities. Take my advice. Multiple personality disorder, when left untreated, can result in poor health and social relationships with others.
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Someone on here got a used Transformer from Amazon and was pretty stoked about it; it still had most of the plastic on it and didn't look as if it'd been used much, if at all. You could swoop up a 32GB unit for $297 (it's also eligible for a SquareTrade warranty, if you're into that [some cats swear by it]) and chill with that till Prime shows up and is worked out. Just a thought!
transformer_girl said:
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
transformer_girl said:
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be a yes and no. In theory if it brings enough of the processor cores online for the job, yes by brute force. Also yes in the sense that something there is probably a way for a movie player to take advantage of it, but no in the sense that you probably won't find such a soon enough to care, and no in the sense that at the hardware level it might not always. Logic there: AFAIK they use a baby core for simple tasks and start reving up to the quadtacular power house as needed, so e.g. if you just e-mail you get mega battery life. Try playing Need For Speed non stop and it'll drain faster but run smooth.
Can't say if it's any good but there is an Adobe Photoshop Express app; for simple tasks it might suffice but it may vastly fall short of what you may need. My expertise in your field is minimal so take it with a grain of salt.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
You mention that you could not grip the card with your nails to pull it out. To remove the card, you push in on it to release it and it should pop far enough out to grab with your fingers. It is not like the sim card on some phones that you pull out. It is a push to insert ( till it clicks) then push again ( till it clicks) to remove.
transformer_girl said:
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say that. I said to the average user or users who don't game or don't care much for those really high pixel movies won't notice a difference. If you're a graphic artist, then yes the prime will be perfect for you. Again, it all comes down to what you want to use it for.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to use photoshop and all the graphically intense stuff, then yes I'd recommend waiting for the prime.
thanks for all your advise. I will wait and get the prime...however I am quite disappointed that the new docking has only 1 USB and not 2....
regarding inserting the SD card that got stuck. Yes, it is possible I didn't push it in hard enough to have it pop out but it was stuck so far in it the port that I was afraid to try to push more to ejact the SD. Regardless when it was stuck in my old transformer didn't recognize it
ok so this video about tegra 3 says that flash performance will be greater than before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtciCHZNE20&feature=relmfu

Jukeboxe function on tablets?

My daugther has a popcorn hour a-110 and i have created the jukeboxefunction on it, but beside that files stops working or shortcuts and that is kinda slow i want the ability for here to self pick what movie she wants to see, its importent that it is jukebox function cause she is to young to read.
I bought the archos it 101 and i seem to be one of not so many that it runs really slow even after custom room and oc etc so i have given up on that pieace of crap.
But i have read that they can suffer from the ability to read all kind of files, lack of jukebox function and ability to run 1080p
im not gonna run 1080p movies but i want it to have the power for it, its mainly dvd rips etc, im not gonna run thos file types that include 1080p with 3d, 7.1 surround and whatever it needs, not even i run that kind of files.
But i need jukebox function and ofcourse its good if i get the best tablet for the price, even if i dont use all functions i still want to do a good deal....
I have looked into differens tablets and now im looking into acer iconia a500 cause its on auction for 2000SEK, little under 300$, and the auction runs out in around 2 hours and i forgat to ask here before
edit: im gonna use external 2tb 3.5" drives for the movies and HDMI output, some have full HDMI but this ones hasnt, but it isnt the end of the world.
edit or the galaxy tab 10.1, found one that is for sell and ens tomorrow its on the same price but i dunno how much higher it will end on, downside is that i need the dock station to use HDMI but that is on the package and the keybord to.
I know bumping isnt allowed but because its not so much more then 1 hour left on the acution for a500 i just wanna try getting answers.

[Q] Advice on storage limitations

Hi All
I currently have a HTC Desire Z which I love ..... unfortunately my touchscreen intermittently becomes non-responsive in the middle and a factory reset didn't fix.
As part of a Product Replacement Plan Bell Canada will give me a HTC One S for 150$ ....
The HTC One S looks like a wonderful phone except for one head scratching unbelievable crippling ..... only 10GB of storage and no SD slot.
Unfortunately, this omission makes this phone a big step backwards from my Desire Z. Why? .... because my unlocked Froyo Desire Z with apps already does everything I want it to reasonably quickly and I can store all my music on it because I have a 32GB microSD card in it.
I don't want to spend hours figuring which tracks and photos I want to store locally on the phone. It becomes a nightmare of babysitting. With the Desire Z all I have to do is sync a few tracks here and there as I add them to my PC.
Is there any way to get around this limitation?
I have used Dropbox and the phone comes with 20Gig of Dropbox Storage, but really what good is that for music or even pictures? Is Dropbox so integrated with the OS that it is just like they are local except for a some lag. Otherwise how would I find tracks and play them in the music player. Would PowerAMP be able to catalog them? What about album art, playlists and lyrics? I can't see how any would work gracefully with Dropbox, even if it was integrated, as cataloging the tracks properly would mean accessing 32GB of on-line files, which would take days and cost a fortune.
I have already compressed my music to the minimum acceptable quality in OGG and it barely fits a 32GB card.
I think there already is a microSD card slot present in the HTC OneS ...... has anyone taken a shot at un-crippling it?
If it wasn't for this problem I would be more than happy with this phone, but the crippling seriously affects how I actually currently use my Desire Z.
What could have possibly be going through the designers minds to have a microSD card slot and disable it? I know SD storage is a major pain in Froyo because somewhere in the chain from APP programmer to Google Play market something is messed up because a lot of 3rd party apps cause SD card corruption, but I would have thought that would have got fixed by ICS.
If I wanted a 10GB phone with no expansion I would have bought an Iphone. HTC just removed one of the features that brought me to Android in the first place. I find it hard to believe that SD memory controller chip just wouldn't fit in the case. The only reason I can think of is that HTC wants to go back to the bad old days of renting content by forcing users on line to pay data and rental fees. But that doesn't make sense unless they are desperate to please carriers.
I will probably end up telling Bell to keep this phone unless somebody here has some advice or workaround.
The Samsung Galaxy IIIS might be an option but I am shy on Samsung because they used to be the worst cripplers. I had a Samsung SGH255 that wouldn't even let me set a jpg picture as a background unless the picture was taken with the phone it was so locked down. Those were the bad old days and I see removing SD storage as the first step back to those days.
First off, if you know you are asking a question(though this seems more of a statement than anything, please post in the question section.
I had g2/dz and this phone blows it out of the water.
I don't see why people feel the need to load so many gigs of music. It's not that hard to delete stuff you dont want and add stuff you do want
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using xda app-developers app
Widrive is my solution. I keep almost everything backed on there.
It wouldn't bother me if the One S had half the storage it has. For me a phone with 150gbs of storage wouldn't be enough to house my music collection, and even if such a device were available and affordable there's no way I'd load all my library onto my phone.
That's what playlists are for.
In my case, my music, video, photo collection etc is on my NAS, and distributed around my network regardless of the rendering device, music station, tv, phone, MP3 player, etc. All I ask of my phone (or any device I want to play any media) is the ability to join my network and a client. I always have more than one or two of my many playlists stored locally for when I'm out and about, but if I'm pottering in the garden I can stream any playlist, album, whatever, whenever. It's easy, fast and it works. My music files stay safe, backed up and RAID 1 protected, my phone stays uncluttered.
It doesn't have to be NAS of course, it could an ordinary PC, the point is the mindset. A requirement for local storage will always end up in disappointment because your OGG and FLAC collections will always grow much faster than your ability to pay for devices with increase storage capacities with which to cope with them.
If you insist on vast amounts of local storage, good luck. But perhaps the HOS is not for you. I would instead save your money buy a cheap phone and spend the difference on a separate MP3 player.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
You can buy the HTC ONE S special edition, or ONE X \ ONE X+, and even GALAXY S3.
And yeah.. I have the same problem that you have - 16GB is not enough for me
My reasoning
Double post
My reasoning
From the OP
Sorry for posting in the wrong section .......
I am surprised people can't understand how luxurious my HTC Desire Z with PowerAMP is/was for music and why I don't want to give it up.
1) When all your music sits on a microSD card there is no maintenance of your mobile music whatsoever except to copy a new tracks over from your PC once and a while. No syncing, no copying files back and forth. There is no work and who wants more work. I don't want to have to babysit my music or sync new tracks in the morning trying to guess what I might want to listen to during the day.
2) Music choice becomes spontaneous when you have it all with you. I just pick up my Desire Z open Power AMP and all my music is already cataloged with album art. It takes 30sec to make a short playlist suited exactly to the mood I am in. Every time it is a new listening experience exactly tailored to my mood.
3) I have a home music system ..... my Desire Z is for playing music everywhere else. When your files are cataloged and local you can play them anywhere regardless of data usage or cell reception, even when you need to turn off data because of roaming charges.
4) 32GB cards are fairly cheap and 64GB and even 128GB cards are becoming available. Nothing on-line can even remotely compete with the speed and accessibility of them.
5) A dedicated music player is a waste of money for me because when I want it I probably won't have it because I don't want to lug it around. I lug a cell phone around because it is a necessary evil and it is very nice to automatically have a really good music player along for the ride.
If I could load up all my music to Dropbox and be able to seamlessly catalog and access it with PowerAMP just like the music was on a microSD card I would probably pay for 100GB of storage and be done with it. But as far as I can tell there is no on-line storage that can do this.
I wouldn't even consider this phone but it is the phone Bell wants to give to me as a replacement for my Desire Z. Before I fight with them I would really like to have HTC One S work for me because other than the limited storage it suits me just fine but alas there doesn't seem to be any solution.
Well looks like your getting a different phone then. I have 42 mp3 albums on my phone which I change when I'm bored with what's on it. Now taken into consideration that each album has 12 tracks (average) and run for 4 minutes each that's 33.6 hours of continuous music. Please explain to me why you could possibly need any more than that? Not to mention the extra workload with so many files.
Oh and I have ALOT on my sdcard but still have 2.5gb free. I think you need to understand that your buying a phone not a mass storage device to hold all your sh*t on. This phone is in my opinion outstanding, certainly the best phone I have ever owned and so what if it doesn't have an sd slot? It stills beats the snot out of most other phones on the market.
You make all the antediluvian arguments for having a separate music player then say you don't want to lug one round.
Take the HOS from your network provider sell it and buy another desire or somesuch. I'm not sure you are ready for this phone.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Actually have the phone now
From the OP
I actually got my HTC One S in the mail.
Its beautifully designed and almost a work of art. For everything other than music it is a great phone. Yes it is fast and smooth but it really doesn't do anything that my Desire Z couldn't do with apps. ICS and Sense is getting pretty bloaty too.
For music it is utterly horribly crippled. How can HTC sell a music oriented phone and only give it 10GB storage? They make a phone that actually has a good audio quality and then they make it inferior to 2 year old technology by forcing you to synch files.
Does anyone actually like syncing files? It is a horrible waste of time and energy and there is always a good chance you won't have the song you want to listen to with you. When you have your whole collection with you all the time, you just scratch your head and wonder how you could have ever synched files.
HTC Desire Z with a microSD card - reach into your pocket and queue up the songs you feel like playing .... Done
HTC One S - wake up and try to remember to sych songs you think you might like to play, wait wait wait ... Error the tracks won't fit .... search through to find the files you wanted but must leave behind..... try syching again ...... leave for work. Later, reach into your pocket, but your mood isn't the same and you are missing what you would like to hear. Then you try to remember what you actually have on the device ..... then you give up and just pick something second best (or 3rd) because it happens to be there. Repeat 2-3 times a day.
I don't think the two experiences are even remotely similar. Wouldn't you rather just reach into your pocket and play what you want to hear? ...... that is 2 year old tech already mature and working and now there are 128GB cards so even a huge collection could be sampled down in OGG and it would fit.
For music nothing can come close to local storage, until data is unlimited and on-line files can be cataloged locally and transparently on the phone.
Can anyone really say they like leaving 1/2 their collection at home? There is no need to as long as a phone has a microSD slot. Even a cheap 32GB card is big enough because OGG is more than good enough for phone hardware.
The point of all this: an microSD slot is an essential aspect of Android .... no phone should be without one, especially one where they bothered to put Beats Audio on it. I switched to Android almost for that alone.
I don't understand your problem...But I know that 10gb is really not enough. So I suggest you to buy samsung galaxy s2/3, or htc one x+ or Iphone.
Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

[Q] best media center for the buck

so i hear the raspberry pi can run xbmc but i want to know what to know which device will have more performance wise im looked at the pi today and it seems to be a solution to my problem but i also looking at boxee box and the mk802 which i hear good things from it but i want to know which is the best. I want to play mkv avi formats with out lag file size of the videos will be around 2 gigs for long ones and a couple mb for shows.:laugh:
Please see the device suggestion thread for all phone decision questions. Thread closed.

I hate to say it but I like the Fire TV stick better

I bought a Fire TV Stick for $19 when they offered it to Prime members for $19 because, well, it was $19.
The Stick works a lot like the Nexus Player. It's very snappy and navigates menus quickly. The Fire TV stick plays movies and TV shows instantly. No hesitation, no buffering, no determining download speed. And it's hidef quality. Instantly.
When playing music on the Amazon music player it shows the words of the song while playing automatically.
But the compelling point is content price. I have a Prime account so a lot of content is included in the price. I was able to play Hunger Games: Catching Fire immediately and for free. On Nexus Player it would have cost $20. I was able to play an episode of the Good Wife for free. It would have been $2 on Nexus.
Yes, it doesn't have cast. But I have a Chromecast to take care of that.
I think my Nexus Player will become a gift for one of my kids.
TabGuy said:
I bought a Fire TV Stick for $19 when they offered it to Prime members for $19 because, well, it was $19.
The Stick works a lot like the Nexus Player. It's very snappy and navigates menus quickly. The Fire TV stick plays movies and TV shows instantly. No hesitation, no buffering, no determining download speed. And it's hidef quality. Instantly.
When playing music on the Amazon music player it shows the words of the song while playing automatically.
But the compelling point is content price. I have a Prime account so a lot of content is included in the price. I was able to play Hunger Games: Catching Fire immediately and for free. On Nexus Player it would have cost $20. I was able to play an episode of the Good Wife for free. It would have been $2 on Nexus.
Yes, it doesn't have cast. But I have a Chromecast to take care of that.
I think my Nexus Player will become a gift for one of my kids.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you hate to say it, then dont.
If you want the Amazon ecosystem then nexus player isn't the best bet yet. I got a stick as well, and it's remote seems better, but it feels lagging to me
I purchases a fire stick as well but I don't think it has 802.11ac support which is a must for me since it doesnt have an Ethernet port. I streams tons of 15GB content using xbmc. But I'm glad its working for you, how do you consume content if you don't mind me asking? Plex, xbmc with addons like genesis?
TabGuy said:
I bought a Fire TV Stick for $19 when they offered it to Prime members for $19 because, well, it was $19.
The Stick works a lot like the Nexus Player. It's very snappy and navigates menus quickly. The Fire TV stick plays movies and TV shows instantly. No hesitation, no buffering, no determining download speed. And it's hidef quality. Instantly.
When playing music on the Amazon music player it shows the words of the song while playing automatically.
But the compelling point is content price. I have a Prime account so a lot of content is included in the price. I was able to play Hunger Games: Catching Fire immediately and for free. On Nexus Player it would have cost $20. I was able to play an episode of the Good Wife for free. It would have been $2 on Nexus.
Yes, it doesn't have cast. But I have a Chromecast to take care of that.
I think my Nexus Player will become a gift for one of my kids.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been on Netflix for a little while now. So, that's not a particularly good example.
Can the Fire TV Stick run XBMC/KODI and play high bitrate 1080p files with DTS smoothly?
I personally don't care about premium content beyond Netflix. I have Amazon Prime and never even watch it.
I actually do have kodi loaded on my stick, and have tested some files with no issues. It's nice. It's not as powerful as the nexus player and more locked down
Returning
I agree completely with the OP. I have a ouya, chromecast, fire tv stick and fire tv all running and I have put more time trying to get xbmc to run smoothly on the NP than any other device put together. I have tried every build possible with zero to no luck resolving constant force closes during streaming from sources like genesis, freezing, not being able to use it yet as a launcher, lack of apps and netflix on it is the worst. The only thing I have found to work good on it is google play content. Mines being returned and ill take the cash loss from the shipping just to get this thing gone since I have it on kijiji at cost price with zero response. Worst device of the year imho
I think that's a bit hard. Especially when you think that this device is out since merely two weeks..
ks2hot4u said:
I agree completely with the OP. I have a ouya, chromecast, fire tv stick and fire tv all running and I have put more time trying to get xbmc to run smoothly on the NP than any other device put together. I have tried every build possible with zero to no luck resolving constant force closes during streaming from sources like genesis, freezing, not being able to use it yet as a launcher, lack of apps and netflix on it is the worst. The only thing I have found to work good on it is google play content. Mines being returned and ill take the cash loss from the shipping just to get this thing gone since I have it on kijiji at cost price with zero response. Worst device of the year imho
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. I've been using WDTV Live boxes and you don't know the meaning of pain. Lots and lots of issues...
If I were you you, I'd RMA the unit back to Google. Google will send you a brand new one. Don't open it! You'll have a much better chance of selling it on Kijiji as new un-opened.
ks2hot4u said:
I agree completely with the OP. I have a ouya, chromecast, fire tv stick and fire tv all running and I have put more time trying to get xbmc to run smoothly on the NP than any other device put together. I have tried every build possible with zero to no luck resolving constant force closes during streaming from sources like genesis, freezing, not being able to use it yet as a launcher, lack of apps and netflix on it is the worst. The only thing I have found to work good on it is google play content. Mines being returned and ill take the cash loss from the shipping just to get this thing gone since I have it on kijiji at cost price with zero response. Worst device of the year imho
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its early days for android l and think you are jumping the gun. The np has just been rooted and expect to see good things develop in the near future. Performance wise it is faster than most of the devices you own. I installed xbmc 13.2 on it with advanced settings and it works ok, not rock solid but reasonable. I will admit Navi-X is rocky, but does work sometimes.
Worst device of the year is a bit far of a reach especially when you are looking at it for XBMC use. On that end it may be a simple thing of its too new of a product.
For the value the fire stick could be a better buy if you are in the US. In canada Prime instant video means nothing, you could probably tinker with your router and work through that but sometimes you just want to be go the simple non hacking route.
Personally i am enjoying the nexus player very much. but if you are looking for xmbc streaming or the amazon eco system then yeah go for the fire tv stick. grab a chrome cast as well for good measure.
ks2hot4u said:
I agree completely with the OP. I have a ouya, chromecast, fire tv stick and fire tv all running and I have put more time trying to get xbmc to run smoothly on the NP than any other device put together. I have tried every build possible with zero to no luck resolving constant force closes during streaming from sources like genesis, freezing, not being able to use it yet as a launcher, lack of apps and netflix on it is the worst. The only thing I have found to work good on it is google play content. Mines being returned and ill take the cash loss from the shipping just to get this thing gone since I have it on kijiji at cost price with zero response. Worst device of the year imho
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? This is worrying, I have an ouya and xbmc works great on it, was going to buy a nexus player for downstairs though as fancy one and Wifi is bit flaky on ouya.
Does xbmc not run great on it?
A device with a locked bootloader, it will never be better than one with bootloader open. Because you will always be forced to do only what the manufacturer wants. If they want to remove XBMC they will do it in a second, like many other things. Thanks to Google Nexus Player is a true Nexus device with an open bootloader and the potential is a million times greater than the Fire TV. Specially with a new and modern OS like Android 5.
Sorry for the intervention and i suggest to vote with your wallet. Do not buy a device with a locked bootloader if you like Android.
Will get better
Not only is it new hardware, but it's new software also. I'm sure kodi will eventually run perfect on it and google will patch up android L...
zulu99 said:
A device with a locked bootloader, it will never be better than one with bootloader open. Because you will always be forced to do only what the manufacturer wants. If they want to remove XBMC they will do it in a second, like many other things. Thanks to Google Nexus Player is a true Nexus device with an open bootloader and the potential is a million times greater than the Fire TV. Specially with a new and modern OS like Android 5.
Sorry for the intervention and i suggest to vote with your wallet. Do not buy a device with a locked bootloader if you like Android.
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Agreed. It's the community of developers, small and large that makes this OS so great. I don't see much progress in the Fire TV forum and its been out for months.
I think my point was missed. I ordered the NP first day. Love my nexus 5, have a nexus 7 flo installed in my dash which replaced the nexus 7 2012 that was there before it. I run xbmc on all my nexus products without a hitch. Received the NP last Wednesday, as soon as I plugged it in I sideloaded Chainfires tool, installed es explorer and used the official xbmc x86. Right off the get go it seems slow and laggy, it has a few hiccups using addons but no biggy. The biggest issue for me in xbmc is streaming content from 1channel, icefilms and genesis during a 22 minute episode xbmc crashed 4 times and returned me to the launcher. I tried spmc, tvmc, fired tv xbmc, Kodi alpha 1,2,3,4, and now 5 all with multiple configurations they all crash frequently. The remote is cheap and lacks a menu button, 1gb ??,no spdif, no ethernet, no full size usb (although I had no issues with OTG and a hub), Netflix broke so hard I had to do a factory reset, and the chromecast integration is laggy and bug ridden. Might have good potential in the future but as of right now I would much rather use the 25 dollar fire stick. Only tested one game asphalt 8 and the fire tv blew it out of the water. This isnt a debate of the potential of the device or what it might do in the future with roms its about out of box usage with current methods and mods. The ouya lacks in areas but out of the box ran 10x better and especially after with cyanogen. The reality is I received my firetv rooted it loaded xbmc and backups 20 minutes later up and has ran with no issues, received the fire tv stick a bit slower than the box but still set up and running in 20 minutes and no issues. To me thats enough, I have a rma and hate that I waited anxiously for over a month to have the thing ship and destroy any conceived expectations of a good working fire tv contender.
I'm running Kodi on mine streaming even 3D content at high bitrates no problem. I recommend the Helix Beta. Downloadable as an APK at: kodi.tv/download (choose the android beta x86 version).
I agree with ks2hot. I have issues with xbmc/kodi 14 beta 1,2, &4 on the NP. For whatever reason I am getting FCs. My firestick has had beta2 on it and is rock solid. I am sure they will figure out the issue and fix. The NP is a better box in most every other way though, but if I am playing a movie via xbmc I will choose the stick for now
volwrath said:
I agree with ks2hot. I have issues with xbmc/kodi 14 beta 1,2, &4 on the NP. For whatever reason I am getting FCs. My firestick has had beta2 on it and is rock solid. I am sure they will figure out the issue and fix. The NP is a better box in most every other way though, but if I am playing a movie via xbmc I will choose the stick for now
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I too have had issues with XBMC 13.2, kodi betas 1-5 and now the nightlies - but only if I enable addons. Straight kodi has had no problem streaming hours of a random sampling of my 600+ blu-ray rips, 100+ television shows and my music collection from my synology nas. Once I start adding addons, the thing gets unstable pretty quickly - I haven't narrowed down which addons to date.
The Nexus Player is the first production lollipop set top and devs haven't had much time updating for it. Google also has some clear bugs to deal with on the box. Even with those caveats, however, I love the NP. That its easily rooted, has simple support for a ton of peripherals (such as any of my bluetooth ps3 controllers), hard drives, extended storage for games, etc... the list goes on. The ability to sideload and use hundreds of thousands of apps with ease is also a huge bonus while we wait for devs to code leanback interfaces and games.
A relatively open system will *always* be preferable to a closes system in my mind. The Nexus Player is a keeper, even as it is right now for me.
Elrondolio said:
I too have had issues with XBMC 13.2, kodi betas 1-5 and now the nightlies - but only if I enable addons. Straight kodi has had no problem streaming hours of a random sampling of my 600+ blu-ray rips, 100+ television shows and my music collection from my synology nas. .
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Thanks good to know..I will get rid of all my addons and see if that helps. Once we get the expanded storage thing figured out the NP is going to be a beast.. Its already a phenomenal device

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