Related
As you may already have noticed, I've been promoting the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset-based handsets not only because of their, compared to the alternative chipsets / processors, more advanced features; for example, the pretty good, albeit a bit worse than now industry-standard SiRFstarIII GPS, HSPA support built-in; speed advantage over most other CPU's; being ARM11-based etc. But also because of their three-dimensional (3D) graphics and multimedia decoding acceleration support.
3D acceleration is a MUST for both running (yes, you've guessed) 3D games, some emulators (for example, Tala's SNES, PocketGBA or some arcade emulators - see my emulation-related articles). Multimedia decoding, in general, also means MPEG video decoding support, which, through the much lower CPU usage, may result in drastic battery life increase. A perfect example of this is decoding non-H.264 (unfortunately, decoding H.264 isn't supported by the 2700G) video on the Intel 2700G-based Dell Axim x50v and x51v. Enabling the explicit 2700G support inside TCPMP (or CorePlayer) results in the possibility of drastically underclocking the PDA. Typically, a full-res (PAL / NTSC) AVI file can be played back underclocked to 208 MHz, as opposed to 624 MHz, which the handheld would constantly run at when only using software-only decoding. This means a GREATLY enhanced battery life.
The developers of CorePlayer (the premiere video player for all(!!) mobile platforms (yes, even the iPhone will be supported!!) have announced they would look into the problem. BTW, they also promise support for the GoForce 5500 already available in the O2 XDA Flame, the Toshiba G900 and some forthcoming i-Mate PDA’s. Also, they promise support for the 3D accelerator in the Nokia E90 / N93(i) / N95, the S-E P990 / M600 / W950 / P1 / W960 and the Moto Z8.
Unfortunately, currently, it seems at least the HTC Kaiser (a.k.a. AT&T Tilt) doesn’t support any kind of hardware acceleration. Currently, all it does is software-only acceleration not taking advantage of the built-in hardware support at all.
This is certainly bad news. We can only hope either Qualcomm or HTC enables the access of the 3D accelerator to applications.
In the above-linked thread, I’ve asked the XDA-Devs folks to post (as I’ve also did with the O2 XDA Flame ones) to test whether ANY of the games / emulators listed as 3D accelerator-capable (see their list in the already-linked Flame article) run and make use of the 3D acceleration. (No need to test the multimedia decoding: I already know it doesn’t work).
If you do have a Qualcomm-based handset (in addition to the Kaiser, for example, the HTC s730) and would like to contribute to enabling 3D / multimedia support, make sure you join us HERE to share your experience.
Finally, if you work for Qualcomm and/or HTC, please PLEASE do something to cure these problems. A major selling point of the Kaiser (or, for that matter, ANY Qualcomm-based Windows Mobile handset) is the (promised) 3D and multimedia decoding support. We DO need it. We DO want to run 3D games, we DO want to have multimedia (video) players NOT chewing through our batteries, we DO want to run emulators at a decent speed. Do look at Nokia and Sony-Ericsson. They’ve been using 3D accelerators in their models for quite some time and they DO support it via both native and Java apps.
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2008—BARCELONA, SPAIN—FEBRUARY 11, 2008—
NVIDIA Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, today introduced NVIDIA® APX 2500, a breakthrough applications processor that enables intuitive 3D user interfaces and engaging high-definition video on connected Windows Mobile phones. The APX 2500 applications processor delivers an unprecedented 10 hours of 720p HD playback—an industry first for video quality and power consumption on a mobile device, as well as stunning HD camcorder and ultra-high-resolution photo imaging capabilities.
“This is the dawn of the second personal computer revolution,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. “Technologies are converging in amazing mobile devices that have all of the rich, visual capabilities of a modern PC—from watching movies and making video calls to surfing the web and playing 3D games. The APX 2500, combined with Microsoft® Windows Mobile, will make the next generation of smartphones our most personal computer.”
NVIDIA has worked closely with Microsoft on the development of APX 2500, marking a significant milestone in a long-term relationship that has seen the companies share a passion for making interaction with technology more visual and instinctive across multiple platforms. The combined engineering efforts of the two companies will ensure that next generation versions of the Windows Mobile operating system will harness the capabilities of the APX 2500 applications processor across challenging multimedia use cases.
“Microsoft is dedicated to providing people true mobile freedom, so that they only need to carry one device for both communication and entertainment,” said Todd Warren, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s mobile communication business. “We are delighted to work with NVIDIA to offer our users an amazing visual experience on the next-generation Windows Mobile phones.”
The NVIDIA APX 2500 applications processor, which is the culmination of 800 man years of engineering, delivers:
The industry’s first HD (720p) playback and capture capability for handheld devices
A new ultra-low-power (ULP) GeForce® core that is fully OpenGL ES 2.0 and Microsoft Direct3D® Mobile compliant and the lowest power 3D hardware solution available for acceleration of intuitive 3D user interfaces
NVIDIA nPower™ technology, enabling over 10 hours of high-definition video playback and up to 100 hours of audio—more than four times the audio playback of the latest touch-screen phones
The connectivity and media acceleration technologies required to enable the latest Web 2.0 applications, from effortless web browsing and social networking to GPS and mapping applications
The NVIDIA APX 2500 applications processor is sampling today with key customers and will enter into full production by the end of Q2 2008. For a live demonstration of the APX 2500 applications processor, please visit NVIDIA at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Hall 1, Booth # 1C34.
Complete specification:
Processor and Memory Subsystem ARM11 MPCore
16/32-bit LP-DDR
NOR and NAND Flash support
HD AVP (High Definition Audio Video Processor) 720p H.264, MPEG-4, and VC-1/WMV9 Decode
720p H.264 and MPEG-4 Encode
Supports multi-standard audio formats including AAC, AMR, WMA, and MP3
JPEG encode and decode acceleration
ULP (Ultra Low Power) GeForce OpenGL ES 2.0
D3D Mobile
Programmable pixel shader
Programmable vertex and lighting
CSAA support
Advanced 2D graphics
Imaging Up to 12Mpixel camera sensor support
Integrated ISP
Advanced imaging features
Display Subsystem True dual display support
720p (1280x720) HDMI 1.2 support
SXGA (1280x1024) LCD and CRT support
Composite and S-Video TV output
Links:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/apx_2500.html
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/02/13/hands-on-with-nvidias-apx-2500-and-yeah-it-plays-quake/
http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=11736
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXjKCEdFByM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dEa4j5PIhM
Yeah it's awesome but the thing is going to be extremely expensive when it launches.
Topic already being discussed here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=367842
But yea, looks awesome
The underlying chipset in a handheld device or phone has probably the biggest impact on major properties of the device like battery life, the (in)ability to use 3G and overall performance, particularly when it comes to graphics. Even users that don’t know much of of the hardware of these devices know that, for example, at least in the Windows Mobile world (as opposed to Symbian devices), TI OMAP almost exclusively means very good battery life but reduced performance and lack of hardware acceleration of, for example, 3D or video decoding. In this installment of my MWC series, I explain and evaluate most of the remaining, announced new chipsets.
In Part I of my CPU/chipset-related MWC series, I’ve elaborated on the brand new and really-really cool MWC announcement of Samsung. I’ve also introduced the latest technology from Imagination Technologies and have also touched on Qualcomm. Let’s start with the latter.
Qualcomm
In the previous article, I’ve promised I would fill you in on their latest chipset, the QST1x0x (QST1000, QST1100 and QST1105). I’ve already linked to the official announcement in a later, generic article. Now, let me elaborate on the new chipsets a bit more thoroughly.
The new chipset, as you can check it online too, has three submodels: the cheapest and non-connected QST1000, which promises some additional niceties compared to the current MSM7200(A) chipset many Windows Mobile devices are currently based on; for example,
”It’s based on the 65 nm process technology for enhanced battery life and bill-of-materials savings” - as opposed to the 90 nm of the previous generation. 65 nm represents the highest-end technology today with all major chipset manufacturers. (Of course, the lower the number, the better). In this regard, all other major manufacturers are already using (or, have just announced switching to) the same technology: remember the just-announced / released Samsung S3C6410/ S3C6430 from the previous chipset report? They’re both 65nm, as opposed to the previous-generation, 90nm S3C6400. And, the case is the same with the semi-new TI OMAP 3 platform, which I’ll elaborate on later.
”Seventh-generation gpsOne engine with support for Standalone-GPS and Assisted-GPS modes, as well as gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology delivering enhanced Standalone-GPS performance.” - This, hopefully, also means that its performance and sensitivity will be on par with (or even better than) the, currently, most powerful SiRFstar III consumer chipset.
”Rich multimedia features, including camera, video playback at up to VGA resolution, and TV-out.” – Let’s start with the latter. Unfortunately, the pure mention of “TV-out” may show it (still) won’t support digital (VGA) output (only a subpar analogue one), let alone outputting at higher resolutions (which, incidentally, wouldn’t be of much use as analogue output is next to unreadable even at VGA, that is, 640*480 resolutions, let alone higher ones). I’ve already shown some real examples of the downsides of this approach in my i-mate article.
Also, as far as the rest of the statement is concerned, the description completely lacks a list of what video decoders are supported in hardware. (There’s another sentence in the press release, “A comprehensive range of popular audio and video codecs”, but it only refers to software en/decoding, which isn’t of much use as they can’t be accelerated.) As has been pointed out in several of my articles (see for example the H.264 Bible), hardware-accelerated video decoding may dramatically increase performance and battery life. (More on this in the next installment of my MWC device report, when I report on the Nokia N96’s built-in hardware support for video decoding supported by both the operating system and the built-in media player (both out-of-the-box), which is pretty much unmatched in the mobile world. For example, on Windows Mobile, the built-in Windows Media Player doesn’t use the video acceleration features at all on devices that do have hardware video acceleration features – for example, the 2700G-equipped Dell Axim x50v / x51v or the GoForce 5500-based models. On these devices, you can call yourself lucky if you do find a player that makes use of these features: on the Axims, there is (TCPMP / CorePlayer), but on the 5500-based models, there isn’t such an app.)
”Support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM radio.” - Of this, it’s mostly the FM radio that interests me the most. Currently, very few Qualcomm-based WinMo handhelds have an FM radio. Actually, if you recall, I’ve emphasized in my i-mate article that it’s only the Intel Xscale PXA270-based 6150 and 8150 that have an FM radio, not the Qualcomm-based 8502 / 9502. The situation is pretty similar with HTC’s models. Now, with the arrival of an “official” FM radio, it’ll hopefully much easier for WinMo ODM’s/OEM’s to include FM radio in their handsets.
Note the lack of the GSM / 3G support in the QST1000, which isn’t by mistake: it’s meant for, for example, phone-less navigators, multimedia devices (if and only if the QST1000 is indeed has decent video decoding support) and classic (non-phone) PDA’s. It’s the QST1100 that adds wireless WAN connectivity for voice calls and data capabilities.
Finally, the QST1105 also has a hardware-accelerated 2D/3D graphics core capable of performing up to 2.8 million triangles per second for compelling user interfaces and gaming applications. They didn’t really have a demo showing this; the gaming section of their booth,
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didn’t have any 3D demo; not even a reference design (demo) device.
These three chipsets, as with Samsung’s current (S3C6400) and just-announced (S3C6410/ S3C6430) chipsets, are pin-compatible, which mean (comparatively) easy switchability. (No need to redesign the “motherboard” of the handheld when a manufacturer want to up/downgrade to another chipset.) However, it’s not known whether it’s pin compatible with the MSM7200 (I bet it isn’t) – again, unlike with the case of the (previous generation) Samsung S3C6400 -> (new generation) S3C6410/ S3C6430 upgrade.
NVIDIA
If you’re a desktop PC gamer, you must know what NVIDIA is famous for: the 3D accelerated GeForce video card series. You may also have heard of their GoForce 5500 integrated in (very few) Windows Mobile devices.
(their booth)
(some of the mostly feature phones using Nvidia’s products)
They have, so far, had limited success on the Windows Mobile platform as vendors of stand-alone, additional 2D / 3D chips simply because the platform has been deemed a productivity and not an entertainment / gaming one. Their GoForce 5500 (and its predecessor, which completely lacked 3D acceleration) was only included in few and not very successful devices (the pretty much lackluster, buggy and not any more supported O2 XDA Flame and, now, the two new i-mate Intel Xscale-based models, the 6150 and the 8150) and had even less third-party software support than the Intel 2700G (the other, notable 2D / 3D accelerator ever used in Windows Mobile devices). For example, as has also been explained in my i-mate article, it’s (currently) only two games (!) that make use of its 3D capabilities and absolutely no video player programs. Again, unlike with the 2700G, which has considerably better support.
Their newly-announced APX 2500 (see more info & official homepage HERE), however, seems to be really groundbreaking. No, not only because its 3D and hardware video decoding acceleration capabilities, not in the least.
(their APX 2500 reference design decoding a 720p video)
Not that they would be bad – just not supported by third-party developers, and not NVIDIA themselves, who refuse to open the API to some of the devs like the CorePlayer folks.
They also demoed Quake on with the new chipset, which ran really good. None of the other 3D accelerator folks did the same (they should have done – it’s much more interesting than just some demos). In this respect, Samsung, who, otherwise, has the best-specced chipset announcement, only demoed the 3D capabilities of the S3C6410 with a simple, almost texture-less 3D GPS simulation (which can clearly be seen in the following shot I’ve taken of their tech demo:
; this demo is also visible in the picture you may have already seen). Samsung really should demo their stuff with 3D accelerated games like demos, not just plain GPS navigaton simulation, which, frankly, doesn’t look much better than, say, the 13+-year-old 3D Super FX chipset in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. At least Imagination Technologies (see PowerVR) used tech demos run on in-production, current (Nokia) models to show the difference between software and hardware acceleration, which was indeed very instructive. In my opinion, NVIDIA’s going for demoing Quake running on their processor in their high-resolution demo device was a nice move. Pretty well, I should add – the animation wasn’t at all jerky.
They have also demoed 720p video playback on both the same device and an external, HD TV:
I couldn’t help noticing the picture being sometimes jerky; however, it was still WAY better than any solely software-based decoding and the occasional stutters in the video weren’t annoying at all.
I can only hope the NVIDIA folks come up with a much more open approach to opening their API and/or making it 100% compatible with, say existing Intel 2700g code (a lot of games, emulators and TCPMP / CorePlayer) so that third-party apps can make use of these features.
Here’re two shots of their reference design device:
Sorry for their being so blurry (hence the lack of a high-res version); check out Engadget’s related article for more shots of it if this is a problem.
Of course, it’s just reference design; real-world devices will be much leaner / prettier; therefore, you won’t really be interested in just a reference design. More in real-world devices if and when they do get released.
3D and hardware video decoding acceleration aside, they seem to enter the mobile business too: their new chipset does much more than “plain” multimedia / gaming acceleration. It contains full support for communications. Again, check out the official specs for more info - its’ certainly worth it. I can only hope their entering the mobile scene as a real mobile chipset manufacturer makes for example Qualcomm spend more time on bringing out better and better products and helping their customers (like HTC) to easily (!) develop drivers that use all of their features. They have even created a VERY nice, 3D phone interface, which is much prettier than that of iPhone. (YouTube demo links below.)
Finally, you may want to check out THIS cellphonenews link collection linking to some other NVIDIA-related articles. Of course, there’re several other resources worth checking out; for example, you will DEFINITELY want to see THIS and THIS YouTube videos on their ‘iPhone buster’ user interface. THIS PPCT thread may be also of interest, particularly my comments in there.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments, of course, concentrated on showcasing their new OMAP 3 platform. What’s so special about it? you may ask.
Well, if you’ve ever seen a, say, Nokia N93(i), Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB or Nokia N82 running a 3D game, you already know the answer. TI’s CPU’s aren’t as bad as most Windows Mobile users (even geeks!) think. Not in the least. It’s just that HTC is still using the oldest CPU generations (for example, the 130 nm and, therefore, indeed pretty old TI OMAP 850) in their handhelds (other WinMo manufacturers have, in some of their models, have already switched to the 2420 – see the Motorola MOTO Q9h, the Samsung SGH-i617 BlackJack II / Jack, and the Samsung SGH-i616). The second-generation (OMAP 2; all these CPU’s start with ‘2’ as in the 2420 chipset used in most of the N-series Nokia models released in 2007) TI OMAP CPU’s are really-really capable. Their new, OMAP 3 platform and its (then) flagship chipset, the OMAP3430, which was announced just a year ago, is really worth paying attention to. It has specs that are way better than even Qualcomm’s just-announced QST1105. (Note that there’s also a OMAP3440, but I did’t really notice any difference between it and the OMAP3430, so, I don't know in what it's better).
The OMAP3430 is promised to deliver 720p high-definition video playback for mobile phones, while the QST1000 / QST1100 most surely can’t go over VGA resolution. I bet the latter doesn’t support H.264 hardware decoding either. The OMAP3 platform also supports both analog (TV) and digital video output; the latter up to XGA resolution. In contrast to the analog & VGA resolution-only QST1x0x. And the list continues: for example, upon browsing the product data sheet, I realized the OMAP 2/3 series (but, of course, not the OMAP 850 deployed in many Windows Mobile models) are also able to interface with TI’s own digital TV receiver, the Hollywood Solution DTV1000/1001, which is either DVB-H (most of the world) / ISDB-T (Japan) compatible. No such feature is known about the new Qualcomm chipset. (I'll elaborate on digital TV issues & questions in my next article.)
The flagship model, the OMAP3430, is rumored to go into production first half of this year. Hope at least Nokia puts it in the then-to-be-announced models (N97? N98?) so that we can see what it’s capable of. Speaking of Nokia, interestingly, the Nokia N96 (and N78), that is, the two, just-announced MWC models are rumored to run either on the Freecell (as has been explained in one of the post-WMC All About Symbian podcasts) or the STMicroelectronics (more precisely, the Nomadik STn8815 rumoured HERE) platform - that is, most probably not on TI OMAP.
On the TI booth, several third-party companies building on their platforms were present; for example, Ingenient Technologies with their Low Power 3D PND. As their homepage (including their related press release) doesn’t contain almost anything on what their solution is really capable of (as was the case with Samsung’s latest-and-greatest, just-announced 6410 chipset), I ended up having to take a photo of their flyer:
Of course, it’s just an example of the several companies developing system-level support & drivers & API’s for TI.
What next?
Yes, I know you've all been waiting for my article on further MWC devices. Most of the article has already been written, I will publish it tomorrow, along with a thorough explanation of digital (terrestrial / handheld) TV.
(their booth)
(The TI booth – forgot to include in the article, sorry)
UPDATE (03/17/2008): yet another quick note: the OMAP3 architecture, along with Ingenient Technologies' solution, demoed at playing back King Kong in 720p:
(note that the big image is 2500 pixels wide so that you can see a lot of details in for example the flyers)
The video playback was really smooth: I haven't noticed any kind of stuttering, as opposed to the Nvidia APX 2500 demo.
I've heard about okl 4 from open labs allows win mo to recognize omap 3 if so can one hack an omap 3 device to run windows mobile???
qjsmartphone said:
I've heard about okl 4 from open labs allows win mo to recognize omap 3 if so can one hack an omap 3 device to run windows mobile???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to repost your q to the dev & hacking subforum here.
I’ve published several articles on Sony Ericsson’s forthcoming Windows Mobile device, the XPERIA X1. Up until now, little had been known of the capabilities of the phone. Now, the S-E folks have just published a white paper, which answers several (but not all!) questions.
It is available HERE for download as a PDF document. (Just enter the anti-denial of service four characters in the input field for access.) The best news is that, according to InfoSyncWorld, it’s coming in August 2008 – that is, earlier than most have thought.
Some of the most interesting stuff the old, MWC / CEBIT leaflets / presentations didn’t provide an answer to and/or could have been improved upon the first prototypes:
- it has a TFT LCD, NOT an OLED screen (some people stated it’d have OLED)
- it seems to have a traditional D-pad in addition to the touchpad if and only if "Four way key - to navigate menus" (see page 7) is what this means. Very good news for most people (see my generic remarks on the issue in my i780 article on touchpads.)
- the camera has both auto-focus and touch focus touch focus. The latter allows for quick focusing on the object you press on the touchscreen - clearly a clever way of focusing to out-of-focus subjects as quickly as possible. However, it seems it won’t have lens protection, unlike the Nokia N95 / N82 (the current top-end Smartphone camera model) and, generally, seems to be weaker.
- as far as the video recording capabilities are concerned, the video size (resolution) and frame rate are VGA and 30 fps, respectively for the non-US model; for the US model, this is QVGA and 24 fps only. Frankly, I just don’t get the point in so severely a dumbed down US model... Did the Sony people go crazy?! Not that I would except Nokia quality shots from the camera (no lens protector and the lens itself seems to be pretty weak), but 30 fps VGA is, today, a MUST in any decent smartphone; therefore, I just don’t understand why they plan to release a device for the US market with such specs. (Nevertheless, I’m absolutely sure some hackers / ROM cookers will be able to enable the American model to operate in VGA mode – if nothing else works, by flashing an European ROM on it.)
- it supports ("Media sharing is compatible with DLNA." on page 6) DLNA (see THIS), which is the first on Windows Mobile (unless you use a DLNA-compatible client). See my UPnP Bible for more info on it.
- it, in addition to the worldwide 3G bands, also supports most (but not all, as it's only tri-band) of the US 3G bands (but, of course, not the forthcoming, absolutely incompatible T-Mobile one); that is, most people in the US will get HSDPA coverage with either bands. This is definitely good news.
- according to page 27, the US version doesn’t support H.264 playback either. (See the H.264 Bible for more info.) Interestingly, the non-US version supports the H.264 Baseline profile.
- according to Page 26, the built-in music player supports eAAC+; that is, HE-AACv2. (I REALLY hope Sony didn’t mess up with the different versions in here.) This means the music player will be something much better than the built-in WMP in Windows Mobile 6 Professional, which doesn’t support this format. (See THIS for more info on this question.) At last some good news for us HE-AACv2 fans using Windows Mobile devices – I may even stop using my N95 as a HE-AACv2 player? ;-)
Note that
- it’s still not known whether it will have 3D hardware acceleration or not. Page 4, which is almost the same as the one in the original MWC leaflet, only lists “HW 3D Graphics” and, unlike most? all? the other list elements, it’s not elaborated on later either. There's a related remark ("3D fish Panel: A cool panel which will showcase the 3D features of the phone (A fish tank with 3D fishes).") on page 6, which MIGHT mean it indeed has hardware acceleration. Again, it is still to be seen whether it's true and whether it has hardware acceleration or not.
- it’s not known whether the built-in MIDlet manager supports Java 3D or not (see “N/A” in the Java 3D row on page 27). Given that the latest, 3.1+ Esmertec Jbed versions all support Java 3D (so far, without hardware acceleration because of the lacking Qualcomm drivers on HTC’s own phones), this MIGHT mean it uses either a non-Esmertec MIDlet manager or a non-3D-capable one. (Not that it’d be hard to install the latest Jbed on it... Still, it might not have support for the 3D hardware acceleration, if any – unlike, say, the Nokia N95 / N82, where hardware accelerated 3D games work just great.) (See the MIDlet Bible for more info.)
Menneisyys said:
- as far as the video recording capabilities are concerned, the video size (resolution) and frame rate are VGA and 30 fps, respectively for the non-US model; for the US model, this is QVGA and 24 fps only. Frankly, I just don’t get the point in so severely a dumbed down US model... Did the Sony people go crazy?!
- according to page 27, the US version doesn’t support H.264 playback either. (See the H.264 Bible for more info.) Interestingly, the non-US version supports the H.264 Baseline profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are likely patent related issues.
Surur
I cant see whether its windows 6.1 or 6.1+?
As Surur stated, it's very likely that the difference between the US and European version are related to Patent issues.
As for 3D I've seen a few videos where the SE rep talked about 3D, not to mention having a panel to show off it's 3D capabilities, add to that that HTC says they will have 3D acceleration in future models, it all points to the device most likely having 3D accelerated support.
The most upsetting thing is the touch panel, such a beautiful with an amazing 800x400. For me it's both exciting a and frustrating. The resolution makes pretty much any web site viewable without fiddling with magnification or scrolling around the page. Terminal Services will be even more useable than on a 640x480 display. It's all good as long as you can see it. I guess people will have to wait until the sun goes down
I've said this before but the more I play with an IPhone or Ipod Touch, the more I wish that the Xperia or any Windows Mobile device for that matter had a Capacitive Screen. Not only does it make finger touch cababilities much better. I was playing with an Ipod Touch outside yesterday, it was very sunny. I pulled out my HTC P3600 and compared the screen. The P3600 was unviewable, even with my hand providing some shade, I could still barely see the screen. The IPod Touch screen on the other hand, it was perfectly viewable even with the screen facing the sun.
It's frustrating as hell, I am looking forward to the Xperia, finally a device that isn't missing one feature, high resolution display, 128 megs ram, all radios, even a decent form factor. I'm not a fan of Qwerty keyboards and would like a thinner model (maybe X2) without the keyboard but it's still thinner than my P3600. Still, I'm considering switching to an IPhone. Even with all the limitations and things that I would be missing, the screen and touch goes from frustrating to enjoyable compared to my WM devices.
They should have at least had an OLED display.
Most of 8-bit encoded anime suffers from banding. Debanding filter is supposed to improve such videos.
About a year ago shader-based debanding was implemented in madVR. I was using it since then and now it's hard to watch video without it With fastest settings ("High preset") it takes about 5ms to process 720p frame on Intel HD 3000, I believe that modern devices are fast enough to handle something similar to it.
Examples of what I'm talking about:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK_MX.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK_madVR_original.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK_madVR_debanded.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK.mkv
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK2_MX.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK2_madVR_original.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK2_madVR_debanded.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/AgK2.mkv
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/GnK_MX.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/GnK_madVR_original.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/GnK_madVR_debanded.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/GnK.mkv
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/ssW_MX.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/ssW_madVR_original.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/ssW_madVR_debanded.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16254258/android/mx/banding/ssW.mkv
P.s. I've noticed that colors are a bit off, presumably wrong colormatrix (BT.601 instead of BT.709) was used in MX case. I'll check it and will make a proper report in a sepate topic regarding this issue.
This is interesting. I'd like to see where this issues goes, or if @bleu8888 has any comments.
EDIT: Very marginally somewhat related: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mx-videoplayer/76p1PxVy08I/discussion
CDB-Man said:
EDIT: Very marginally somewhat related: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mx-videoplayer/76p1PxVy08I/discussion
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Hmmm, actually adding custom shaders support (instead of specific filters) seems to be a much better idea. That way anyone will be able to write/use any such filter.
It would be possible to port already exisiting shaders too, they're written in hlsl which is similar to glsl that Android supports.
Indeed, I'd like to see this feature implemented as well.
Forgot to mention before, but this has been added to the feature requests list: http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-player/sticky-running-list-feature-requests-t2718297
@vivan000 @CDB-Man
If I am not wrong, video processing filters are not possible in either H/W or H/W+ since both use native decoders.
It may be possible in S/W, but will lead to lot of performance related issues. As of now even most modern devices are struggling to play full hd video in S/W decoder without any filters. Adding filters will add further load to cpu. It will lead to freeze or ANR issues.
ktsamy said:
If I am not wrong, video processing filters are not possible in either H/W or H/W+ since both use native decoders.
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Well, it might be impossible to copy video texture to the cpu (or what you get from HW decoder), but it should be possible to process them with opengl (just like DXVA on windows - decoded image can't leave gpu*, but you can do some processing there)
OpenGL can be used to render the MediaCodec output to screen. It is also useful to add some video effect when doing playback. The key is SurfaceTexture class.
SurfaceTexture is included in API Level 15 (Android 4.0.3). Developers can use it to stream images to a given OpenGL texture. So, if configuring MediaCodec with SurfaceTexture, the output buffer will be rendered to an OpenGL texture but not to the device screen. Thus, video post-processing is required.
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ktsamy said:
It may be possible in S/W, but will lead to lot of performance related issues. As of now even most modern devices are struggling to play full hd video in S/W decoder without any filters. Adding filters will add further load to cpu. It will lead to freeze or ANR issues.
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Click to collapse
But filters (shaders) run purely on gpu, and currently gpu is doing almost nothing during playback.
(*actually it could, but only with DXVA 2.0).
That's very interesting to hear.