Hi guys,
I was just curious, if any of you have been experimenting with XBMC for Android yet? This weekend, it reached a new milestone with the release of Beta 3: http://xbmc.org/natethomas/2012/12/08/xbmc-12-frodo-beta-3/
Now I've had an early alpha release on my (then stock) tablet. Last week I installed CleanROM (2.7.2) and this weekend I've installed beta 3 on top of that. The interface is running smoothly, but there are some problems with add-ons (dependancies not met?). I can play SD quality movies, but it crashes when I try to play 720p quality or better.
Anyone else experiencing crashes? I've looked at the forums of XBMC.org, but there aren't many 300T XBMC users as far as I can tell...
Just installed it, linked to my current xbmc library on my media PC and it streams my movies but they are unwatchable even at 720p, thought this should handle playback fine for 720p but its so choppy, I'm running energy rom, and nothing crashes its for me just really bad playback and the app itself likes to freeze up too just going through the menus
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda premium
From the FAQs
"Note: Hardware video decoding support is very limited right now, so most devices will have to use software decoding. Expect support for hardware decoding to improve with time."
Vidfreek said:
Just installed it, linked to my current xbmc library on my media PC and it streams my movies but they are unwatchable even at 720p, thought this should handle playback fine for 720p but its so choppy, I'm running energy rom, and nothing crashes its for me just really bad playback and the app itself likes to freeze up too just going through the menus
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just installed release candidate 1 (RC1). 720p now plays (choppy), however after terminating playback XBMC also crashes...
I guess there's still a lot to be done on the Android version (also taking comment above in consideration).
Related
I just got the 3.1 upgrade on my wifi Xoom. I then downloaded the 10.3 flash player, but still when I play 720p Youtube videos, my Xoom will stutters so bad, that the videos are unwatchable. I thought these updates would have fixed the problems. Am I the only one like this or does everyone's xoom stutter on HD youtube videos? My Xoom is stock and unrooted.
Are you watching them in browser? Why? I haven't tried that, but i will try when i get home and let you know.
HD videos in Youtube app play just fine on my device.
I was just about to post something about my video play back. When I first got my xoom. I come watch Tekzilla and Hak 5 HD versions of the show. Now its like watching a scratch dvd but the audio is great. I'm stock as well but not updated to 3.1. I hope someone can help...
weird. Its super smooth for me.
Is your net connection stable?
kgeissler said:
I just got the 3.1 upgrade on my wifi Xoom. I then downloaded the 10.3 flash player, but still when I play 720p Youtube videos, my Xoom will stutters so bad, that the videos are unwatchable. I thought these updates would have fixed the problems. Am I the only one like this or does everyone's xoom stutter on HD youtube videos? My Xoom is stock and unrooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
speedtest.net...
Report your speed then if sufficient, troubleshooting can begin. If you're trying 720p on 1.5Mbps/384kbps dsl then you will get crappy performance.
I guess the videos that play aren't necessarily Youtube videos, but Flash videos.
For example...try playing this video on your xoom:
http://www.flashvideofactory.com/test/DEMO720_Heima_h264_500K.html
Mine stutters, the audio sounds ok.
It plays fine on my PC.
Speedtest on my Xoom is 12937 Down and 10935 Up...it definitely isn't a speed problem.
kgeissler said:
I guess the videos that play aren't necessarily Youtube videos, but Flash videos.
For example...try playing this video on your xoom:
http://www.flashvideofactory.com/test/DEMO720_Heima_h264_500K.html
Mine stutters, the audio sounds ok.
It plays fine on my PC.
Speedtest on my Xoom isw 12937 Down and 10935 Up...i definitely isn't a speed problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This stutters on my work desktop computer also, so i'm not expecting it to work on my Xoom, but i will try when i get home.
I admit, this computer is old: Win XP on AMD Athlon 2800+, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 graphics.
I can't play that video on a dual core 2.66 ghz laptop, with 4gb RAM and a 50Mbps downstream connection.
I'm not going to hold out hope for my Xoom on that.
it stated that it isn't optimized for mobile viewing.
I tested http://www.flashvideofactory.com/tes...h264_500K.html video on my Xoom now and it doesn't play good. It plays about the same as my work computer did.
I also tested a random 720p Youtube video in full screen (on Facebook). It played just fine, without any problems.
FYI: WIFI only Xoom (US) Android 3.1 and Flash 10.3
Im trying to watch either .mp4 or .mkv but both lag in stock player and moboplayer. Anybody get this to work with zero lag?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
I get no lag using Vital Player.
Popsiclestand said:
I get no lag using Vital Player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried that and it lagged a lot...
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
What are the specs on the videos that you are trying to play?
Here is a vid of me using Vital Player on the transformer with a H.264 encoded MP4 and an MKV movie. No lag, no sync issues.
http://vimeo.com/23927515
If the movies you're trying to watch are encoded with High profile then playback will be laggy no matter what on the TF.
Popsiclestand said:
What are the specs on the videos that you are trying to play?
Here is a vid of me using Vital Player on the transformer with a H.264 encoded MP4 and an MKV movie. No lag, no sync issues.
http://vimeo.com/23927515
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice!
Okay I'm a new when it comes ti all these video formats.. all I know is that I get choppy playback
So this handles 1080 but with some tweaks I'm assuming..again, I'm a new at this
Were those movies you converted? Is so you mind writing up a little tutorial
Thanks
For the MKV, I downloaded it was already encoded so I am not sure of its specs, but the playback quality and resolution are excellent even on my desktop's 24" HD monitors.
For the MP4 played at the beginning of the video, that was shot in 1920x1080, brought into Premiere CS5 for editing and exported through Adobe Media Encoder using H.264 at 1280x720.
There are some threads with Handbrake encoding specs on the forums as well.
When using Vital player make sure the Decode Mode settings are set to automatic. It will automatically recognize there is no hardware acceleration (as I understand is normal with the Tegra-2). It will then compensate with "software acceleration". Also in the Video Mode settings I have it set to speed over quality as the performance is better without sacrificing much of the quality to my eye.
With these settings, Vital Player should play just about any video you might download off of a torrent site. I have yet to find a video that does not play well through it. I'm not sure if other users who say it does not work for them have checked the Vital Player settings, if my videos are just not up to the elusive "high profile" they are talking about, or if I just have a rare Transformer that just works, but as you can see in the video it does work for me.
Popsiclestand said:
For the MKV, I downloaded it was already encoded so I am not sure of its specs, but the playback quality and resolution are excellent even on my desktop's 24" HD monitors.
For the MP4 played at the beginning of the video, that was shot in 1920x1080, brought into Premiere CS5 for editing and exported through Adobe Media Encoder using H.264 at 1280x720.
There are some threads with Handbrake encoding specs on the forums as well.
When using Vital player make sure the Decode Mode settings are set to automatic. It will automatically recognize there is no hardware acceleration (as I understand is normal with the Tegra-2). It will then compensate with "software acceleration". Also in the Video Mode settings I have it set to speed over quality as the performance is better without sacrificing much of the quality to my eye.
With these settings, Vital Player should play just about any video you might download off of a torrent site. I have yet to find a video that does not play well through it. I'm not sure if other users who say it does not work for them have checked the Vital Player settings, if my videos are just not up to the elusive "high profile" they are talking about, or if I just have a rare Transformer that just works, but as you can see in the video it does work for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you had to encode the mkv or mp4 before playback? So it cant just play them straight up?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
I believe that nearly any video you get is going to need be encoded in some form at some time.
The MKV was more than likely encoded by someone else before I downloaded, but no further encoding was necessary on my end. The MP4 was shot on my own camera (Canon 7D recording at 1920x1080p) and needed to be edited. When you export directly from the timeline in Premiere, it must be encoded to even be usable. For sites like YouTube or Vimeo to even accept them there must be encoding. The H.264 encoding that I used is the highest setting for that type of video's purpose (HD web playback). It is different than what I would have exported for burning to Blu-Ray but is adequate for a screen the size and resolution of the Transformer's.
When I return home, I will try bringing in the raw, unedited video from the 7D (which is around 3GB for a 4 minute vid at that resolution btw) and see if Vital Player plays it back with no lag. I seriously doubt it as some average computers have a hard time playing that back without lag. Even Final Cut Pro can't import raw 7D video without a conversion (Adobe Premiere does not have this problem though). Why anyone would want to play a video of this size and resolution on a tablet is beyond me (3GB for 4mins is ridiculous in a playback form). I can't even imagine wanting to watch a full length movie in that form.
Both of these videos seriously choke in any player other than Vital Player (including Mobo, QQ, and MVideo). I couldn't play any video in my library with them or the stock player, but all of these files play just fine in Vital.
I'm playing 720p with no problem
converted with Handbreak. Settings below.
container: "mp4" everything else turned off
picture: "1280x720"
video: "h.264 (x264)"
target size as least as large as the source
advanced: reference frames = 4
b-frames = 0
I'm using moboplayer and downloaded some sort of codec pack (the player prompted me the first time and opened the app store). The default player also works.
AtomicAge said:
I'm playing 720p with no problem
converted with Handbreak. Settings below.
container: "mp4" everything else turned off
picture: "1280x720"
video: "h.264 (x264)"
target size as least as large as the source
advanced: reference frames = 4
b-frames = 0
I'm using moboplayer and downloaded some sort of codec pack (the player prompted me the first time and opened the app store). The default player also works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe that's all I was missing for the other players (I didn't get prompted to download codecs). I'll stick with Vital Player though simply because it's already on my tablet and it works.
Popsiclestand said:
Maybe that's all I was missing for the other players (I didn't get prompted to download codecs). I'll stick with Vital Player though simply because it's already on my tablet and it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive tried lots of different players and anything i download from BitTorrent (.mkv which I convert to MP4 for my Xbox) won't play worth a damn on my transformer. They are all720p. They all lag like crazy. Can the transformer not handle this?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
tsatrom said:
Ive tried lots of different players and anything i download from BitTorrent (.mkv which I convert to MP4 for my Xbox) won't play worth a damn on my transformer. They are all720p. They all lag like crazy. Can the transformer not handle this?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
90% of all HD videos you download the internet are ripped from blu-ray and likely encoded with high profile h264 because that's what looks best. the tegra 2 cannot handle these files at 720 or 1080p, and thus they need to be re-encoded to main profile, which as i understand it, means a much lower bitrate (and thus worse picture).
you can read more about it here
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=98211 (bottom of page)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
fakeyfakerson said:
you can read more about it here
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=98211 (bottom of page)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks guys
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
I got all excited because of this thread...but I just gave VitalPlayer a shot on a 720p high profile x264 and it still sucks. No artifacts but the framerate is really low it seems.
In case anyone is interested I did receive this message from ASUS:
"On this issue, we have tested some of the 1080p video is playing well. We have cooperation with google and will launch android 3.1 in June to resolve the 720p and 1080p video playback problems."
We'll see...
GetLaid said:
I got all excited because of this thread...but I just gave VitalPlayer a shot on a 720p high profile x264 and it still sucks. No artifacts but the framerate is really low it seems.
In case anyone is interested I did receive this message from ASUS:
"On this issue, we have tested some of the 1080p video is playing well. We have cooperation with google and will launch android 3.1 in June to resolve the 720p and 1080p video playback problems."
We'll see...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i believe that is flash only, as in 720/1080 youtube streaming which is much lower quality than a high profile blu-ray rip. the problem is tegra 2, which is a year old, not supporting 720/1080p playback. it's the reason boxee box dropped tegra for an intel chip.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1060825
this thread seems to do a pretty good job of explaining everything and going through how to get HD vids working
How is the Video playback on our Sensation?
I'm currently at Android Revolution HD Rom.
And I can run some 720P 600MB MKV BDRIPs
But when I tried a 1.5GB 720P MP4 File it won't work and the phone seems lags/freezes. Black screen no sound
Btw I'm using Mobo Player
Anyone can recommened a better player?
I just want to test the power of Sensation plus the large screen with qHD Resolution is really a great treat.
Diceplayer is the best
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Will Try this one. Thanks
Still the same man. Got
in the same boat....
gr3yh0und said:
Still the same man. Got
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i made a thread about this a few days ago. I hate to keep comparing this phone to my hd2, but this one does not handle simple processes fluidly like that one did. the hd2, once you had the right player, handled all codecs properly and it did not matter how big the file was. I played a 2 gig Watchmen .avi movie and had NO hiccups. I have gone through 5 players to try and find the one that will handle movies smoothly. None works as it should. I did not have to convert movies either. This is really irritating me.
Try arcmedia. It's the only player that won't cut off sound when I watch a movie for nor than 5 minutes. Ive tried 11-12 players and this is the only one that worked.
Hope it helps
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
i am using DicePlayer 1.1.3. It is hardware accelerated and I can play 720p TVShow mkv (1,09GB each) flawlessly. 720p and 1080p mp4 can play in default media player app. I have even tried 1080p mkv, file was source.code.2011.BluRay.1080p.DTS.x264-CHD DicePlayer handled it wery well without any lag and video & DTS audio in sync all the way.
I dont know if I am allowed to attach apk's, if I am I will attach the file later...
HW Acceleration don't work. Using Dice Player 1.1.4, Just blackscreen but the seek is still counting, with no sound. With Software Acceleration tried it on MoboPlayer. It got video but the sound is ugly fcked up
newset diceplayer version is v1.5.2
try diceplayer trial version.
I bought vplayer at first, but because it only used SW rendering the quality was far from great. Then I bought Dice player, as it supported HW acceleration. I've had my share of problems with it, but it was definitely worth it. Updates almost daily removed the crash after 5 minutes, improved the interface, added better subtitle support. I don't understand, why people mention the version 1.1.4, which is quite old. If you base your decision on such an old version you're making a mistake. There's really a huge difference since then and the program is updated very often.
Picture quality is just awesome and I managed to play everything so far. Didn't try HD yet, as I only have limited card space.
so its not just me....
From looking at all the responses it appears that some of us are having a problem with the way the Sensation is handling video playback. I have already paid for apps that worked on a lesser phone. This is a real concern to me.
I'm having trouble figuring out what's going on here. My Asus Transformer (Prime Rom, dual-core 1ghz Tegra with 1gb RAM, ~20gb free SSD space) Is having problems playing video. It stuters the sound (rarely), or the sound plays normal 1:1 but the video plays at a speed of 1:2 or worse (1/2 speed) so after a few seconds its unwatchable, not to mention that if I watch 15+ seconds it crashes the app. Also, if there are Subtitles, they keep pace with the audio without issue. on a few rare occasions, (notably 1 set of rips) the video plays fine but the audio is severely compromised where people speaking sounds like somone playing notes on a low-quality synthesizer...
Most videos are encoded as MKV (varying audio codecs, all the way from low-quality 56kb all the way up to FLAC)
I've played off internal storage, MicroSD, Dock+USB (flash and USB HDD), Dock+SDHC, none seem to make a difference.
My guess is that it's a app or rom issue, since my EVO (1ghz single core, 512mb ram, CYM rom) plays full 1080p video without a hiccup (while mirroring it over HDMI!!!).
Can anyone suggest a player that will play 720p without a problem? 1080p would be nice. If this is an Android problem, is there any kind of workaround without down-grading my videos? (I mean 480p already doesnt look great on my TF's screen, 240p would REALLY suck...)
You never mentioned what player you're using, but Tegra 2 doesn't support MKV containers properly, it needs to be fed raw h264 streams for hardware acceleration to kick in. The only player that does this is DicePlayer. It'll demux the mkv file and decode video with hardware and audio with software giving you lagless experience. Your experience with FLAC may vary though.
frosty5689 said:
You never mentioned what player you're using, but Tegra 2 doesn't support MKV containers properly, it needs to be fed raw h264 streams for hardware acceleration to kick in. The only player that does this is DicePlayer. It'll demux the mkv file and decode video with hardware and audio with software giving you lagless experience. Your experience with FLAC may vary though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the built-in video as well as "Mobo Player" which claimed it had MKV support.
Someone else on another forum suggested Dice, since it's got a free trial I'll be installing it this weekend and seeing how well it works. (While I would have preferred a free solution I'm willing to pay a few dollars to support devs as long as they're not asking like $19.99 or something for a dinky little app)
I'll report back if I can get it working later, thanks for the explanation!
Give Dice Player a try. It's by far the best player now. It claims to us the actual hardware instead of software decoding.
Hmm, do you have streaming problems too? For some reason, my netflix seems to be lagging in video now. It didn't use to (pure-root, no prime) then it did (prime 1.8? 1.6? can't remember but it was 1.x), didn't lag (2.0.1) but is now laggy again (2.0.3 or whatever the latest patch is).
I'm getting mixed results.
Yes, a certain number of videos will play now, but some still wont it still says it's unable to use hardware decoding. However these are 720p and 1080p (480p plays fine now) so I'm wondering if it's an HD issue... (Yes I did install the Tegra Plugin) So it _IS_ an improvement... I'll have to compare the encoding info to see what else is different between the ones that play and the ones that dont...
Overall, I am pleased with Dice and will likely put up the $6 the developer is asking for. it DOES appear to be Hardware decoding and hopefully it will only improve from here (considering my EVO, with half the specs, can decode + Mirror 1080p I assume this is an issue that will be resolved with time and dev work on the app/plugin)
@ asdfuogh:
I've not done any updates. I bought it used with Prime pre-installed, so I cant really compare. I dont have netflix but I'll try some of the longer youtube streams and see if they hiccup (I was having issues earlier with youtube but I was also on cellular so I had limited bandwidth to work with)
Ashton_Durkhun said:
I'm getting mixed results.
Yes, a certain number of videos will play now, but some still wont it still says it's unable to use hardware decoding. However these are 720p and 1080p (480p plays fine now) so I'm wondering if it's an HD issue... (Yes I did install the Tegra Plugin) So it _IS_ an improvement... I'll have to compare the encoding info to see what else is different between the ones that play and the ones that dont...
Overall, I am pleased with Dice and will likely put up the $6 the developer is asking for. it DOES appear to be Hardware decoding and hopefully it will only improve from here (considering my EVO, with half the specs, can decode + Mirror 1080p I assume this is an issue that will be resolved with time and dev work on the app/plugin)
@ asdfuogh:
I've not done any updates. I bought it used with Prime pre-installed, so I cant really compare. I dont have netflix but I'll try some of the longer youtube streams and see if they hiccup (I was having issues earlier with youtube but I was also on cellular so I had limited bandwidth to work with)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing with Dice is, it'll use Hardware acceleration for Main Profile 1080p (I forgot what level) and High Profile 720p with certain reference frames, etc. Exceed it and Tegra 2 can't decode it so it becomes software. I believe the full specification can be found through a search "tegra 2 h264 decoding profile"
After digging through the dumps of the videos I found my problem.
I mislabeled them...
What I labed as "720p" had a resolution of "1920x1080" I had switched to true HD recording about the time I got my BluRay drive (as opposed to my old HD-DVD drive) and for some reason screwed up and labled some BR rips as 720p...
After comparing the dumps and re-labeling, I've found nothing 720p or lower that Dice wont play (and with shocking efficiency! 2-3 hours of 720p playback (mostly over internal speaker) from my USB HDD and I am still at 97% power!!!
I'll still look over the codecs that Tegra can support, maybe I can find a way to get a "low profile" 1080p sometime, but for now since I dont have anything except my PC monitor that can exceed 720p, I'm good ^_^
Thank you all for your help!
EDIT:
Nevermind the 97% bit, I forgot the dock had a seperate battery, the dock was down to 16%... though I think that's still impressive for what I was doing...
MX Video Player is the best.Install the app and the Tegra plug-in.
Ashton_Durkhun said:
I'm getting mixed results.
Yes, a certain number of videos will play now, but some still wont it still says it's unable to use hardware decoding. However these are 720p and 1080p (480p plays fine now) so I'm wondering if it's an HD issue... (Yes I did install the Tegra Plugin) So it _IS_ an improvement... I'll have to compare the encoding info to see what else is different between the ones that play and the ones that dont...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately hardware decode of HD H264/AAC files is still broken with HC 3.2.1. It used to work with 3.1, but got broken with 3.2. It doesn't matter which player you use.
I have a ticket open with Asus. They initially said they would fix it in 3.2.1, but didn't. When I then told them this in the ticket I had open, they said "nobody has reported a problem". This is in the very same ticket where I reported the break 2 months ago! I got quite cross at this point as it clearly hasn't been passed up the chain.
Anyway, they have promised to look into it. I've supplied them with a file that plays back with hardware decode in 3.1, but doesn't in 3.2.X. Let's hope they sort it out soon.
Killer Bee said:
MX Video Player is the best.Install the app and the Tegra plug-in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this 10char
Killer Bee said:
MX Video Player is the best.Install the app and the Tegra plug-in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with this. MX Player is all I use now. It will dim the button bar and notifications, blank the tablet screen when connected to HDMI, and can easily play back all my (previously) problem mkv files with hardware on the video and software on the audio.
And its free, something DICE player cannot claim.
Rockplayer
Try Rockplayer.
This works flawlessly on my phone but doesn't play any videos on my TF700.
Anybody else got it working?
Kenif1983 said:
This works flawlessly on my phone but doesn't play any videos on my TF700.
Anybody else got it working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look for XBMC for OUYA, this works perfectly.
I'm running XBMC Frodo 12.2 from xbmc.org and it works fine.
I got it from xbmc.org but no videos play. (I have MX player installed and I have previously used it)
Sorry but I'm not sure what could be wrong because I know next to nothing about xbmc. I thought xbmc uses its own internal player and not mxplayer but that's purely a guess.
Are you trying to run videos from add-ons like icefilms or stream files from a computer? If the later, have you tried skifta? I've had no problems streaming files from my computer using skifta/mx player combo. I did find, however, that xbmc seems to buffer videos better than skifta/mx player.
I know at least a few people on the board uses xbmc because that's how I got turned to it. Hopefully someone who knows a lot more than me can help out!
Hardware Acceleration Coming to XBMC 13
If you were trying to play HD videos in XBMC, you will run into problems due to the lack of hardware acceleration support in XBMC for Andriod. They have recently released an alpha version that supports this feature. It is the alpha #7 release. I have been using it since and aside from minor bugs that come from using an alpha version, it works great.