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[Q] Which video app for playing mkv?

hello
Which app do I need to play mkv/HD content on the transformer?
Thanks

DominikReber said:
hello
Which app do I need to play mkv/HD content on the transformer?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mobo player seems the best for functionality and .mkv files. Rock player for .avi. (My experience so far)

i had a lot of problems with mobo when i tried to hdmi mirror the only one that seems to work for me was Vplayer.... ya i know it's 5 dollars but atleast it works really work... and ya 1080 mkv's work fine

With Mobo player I have problems getting sound. (IE the movie playes stutter free, but i get no sound at all.)
With vplayer, rockplayer, and a few other I've tried, I get this horrible stuttering /slow fps in the playback.
I'm running a stock rom, not rooted with all OTA updates.

Honestly, your best bet is to transcode/re-encode your videos to mp4 format.

That's the reason I might switch to the Galaxy Tab when it comes out.
Re-encoding is a pain in the ass.
I wish there was something that works well for all the formats, a VLC or something would be awesomeness.

CasseTrop said:
That's the reason I might switch to the Galaxy Tab when it comes out.
Re-encoding is a pain in the ass.
I wish there was something that works well for all the formats, a VLC or something would be awesomeness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Galaxy Tab has the same engine under the hood, so it will have the same problems. You might have to wait until Tegra 3 for this to be fully fleshed out.

newtybar said:
Galaxy Tab has the same engine under the hood, so it will have the same problems. You might have to wait until Tegra 3 for this to be fully fleshed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_10_1-3894.php
vs
http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_eee_pad_transformer_tf101-3936.php
Look at the supported video formats section.

i use mobo with no conversion and all my videos work perfect. i always watch avi and not any high def vids but yea no wierd stuff with mobo and avi's for me
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

Yea vlc is making an android verson but no released dates as far asi know. Hope some here has more info then me

Haha. Just read this. Very funny.
www.videolan.org/vlc/download-android.html

hillywillybilly said:
Haha. Just read this. Very funny.
www.videolan.org/vlc/download-android.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed.... but its about time

CasseTrop said:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_10_1-3894.php
vs
http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_eee_pad_transformer_tf101-3936.php
Look at the supported video formats section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung frequently add support for MKV and AVI containers into their android phones. But that is _just_ the container support it doesn't magically give the Tegra2 enough grunt to play high bitrate high profile blue ray rips.
Also note that the TF can already parse MKV containers (otherwise it wouldn't be able to play WebM) it just doesn't have the ".mkv" file extension plumbbed into the gallery or the default player. I've found that as long as the video and audio streams are playable then simply renaming the file so that there is ".mp4" on the end (without transcoding nor changing container) is enough to make mkv's play in the default player

devzero42 said:
With Mobo player I have problems getting sound. (IE the movie playes stutter free, but i get no sound at all.)
With vplayer, rockplayer, and a few other I've tried, I get this horrible stuttering /slow fps in the playback.
I'm running a stock rom, not rooted with all OTA updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll bet that's high/main profile h.264 video with AC3 audio. That will never play without at least transcoding the audio track. You either get hardware acceleration (and the hardware can't play the audio track) or pure software decode (and the CPU can't keep up with the video)

720p MKV playback

Ok, I've been struggling with this and doing all sorts of research, but I can't seem to piece together a definitive answer. This is what I know (or think I know anyhow)
1) H264 will play just fine from more or less any video player as long as you have the decode mode set right. this seems to be why so many people swear to their particular player (and I've tried so many, moboplayer, dice, etc etc.)
2) H364 is just pure crap because Tegra2 just can't handle it. Something with proprietary codecs or some such.
Now, experimenting with different HD files over the time I've owned my TF, some play and some don't. I've heard others claim otherwise. If anybody can guarantee they can play ANY , really ANY HD mkv file (H364 without re-encoding included) I'd like to know what ROM/app you're using (and I'm sure a lot of others would too). I'm sick of having to pick out/convert my movies all the time.
I'd really like to put this thing to rest.

I hear ya I dont want to re-encode my library either but becuase I cant stand not knowing I have been doing some testing to see what the problem is with not being able to play all files. I have discovered that that the Transformer does not like 5.1 channel AAC audio. I can encode any video to MP4 and it plays great when I set the audio to stereo but when I try with 5.1 AAC MP4 files it no worky. 5.1 AC3 seems to be ok. I too have tried many players from the market and get different results with each one using the 5.1 setting (such as stuttering or lagging or I think it was BS player would only play the rear channel audio) but setting my encoding output to stereo they all play fine. I was on the Google Android Developers site and it stated stereo only was supported for honeycomb so maybe the ICS upgrade will fix this issue? In the meantime I plan on continuing testing different bit rates and audio settings to try and get to the bottom of this. Sorry in advance if this did not help you.

MX player- plays anything i throw at it. make sure you get the Arm7 codec pack too.

bob dylan said:
MX player- plays anything i throw at it. make sure you get the Arm7 codec pack too.
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Click to collapse
I like very much the MX player and it is true it plays mkr videos fine but I do not have sound... I have the ARMv7 codec pack (only this one) do you get sound?
Instead, to play and hear mkv I use DicePlayer Ad. with Dice player plugin for tegra2.
(I am unrooted)

Use software for audio (but hw for video)

Christian Troy said:
Use software for audio (but hw for video)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with this is that most players out there only let you use one decoding mode for both video AND audio. what player lets you do what you're saying?

wehweh said:
The problem with this is that most players out there only let you use one decoding mode for both video AND audio. what player lets you do what you're saying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mx video with the codec pack as said previously.

I'll be sure to try it once I get home.

MX player will play the movies just fine but the issue is with the audio. The Transformer has a problem playing audio encoded with 5.1 & 6.1.

Christian Troy said:
Use software for audio (but hw for video)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked great! thanks a lot!!

Playing MKV DTS Videos?

What's the best option for playing MKV DTS movies on the TF300? All the new players won't do DTS audio, but I hear that older versions of some software, like Dice will. But, I'm not sure that the older versions will support/use the Tegra 3.
Thanks in advance.

Found solution, but shuttering: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34649108&postcount=16

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-android.html
Says it does multi-core decoding. I'd like know how well it plays your mkv files.

MX Player with h/w+ decoding plays mine just fine. I use DSP Manager for all my Audio.

Thx, but VLC doesn't play MKV DTS videos.

babymatteo said:
MX Player with h/w+ decoding plays mine just fine. I use DSP Manager for all my Audio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you have no shuttering issues even with 1080p KMV DTS videos?

The shuttering is probably network related as I'm streaming it over WiFi, especially large files.

There's also XBMC for Android, I haven't tried it yet, but going to now: http://xbmc.org/download/

XBMC for Android works but isn't great at playing MKV files, really slow, shuttering.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

RodneyBR said:
XBMC for Android works but isn't great at playing MKV files, really slow, shuttering.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found a reliable option mate? I tried MX, Dice, VLC and all have problems with DTS. There is an option to use external filters in MX, but its unreliable. I tried several files, with bitrates from 2-3k to 20+k. MX with HW+ encoding plays smoothly, but no sound.
I think I tried SopCast player and it might have played DTS, don't really remember, maybe you can give it a try.
I'm using Galaxy Nexus. If you've found a solution, don't hesitate to PM me.

[Q] No audio with BS player app

Hi all-
Has anyone used BS player with ripped TV shows? Don't have the tablet in front of me, but pretty sure the shows are MP4 format and play fine with MX player - no issues at all. I'm trying to use "BS Player Free" as it successfully gets subtitles online for the shows. However, these which play fine in MX, have video and subtitles in BS player, but no audio. I've tried tweaking/changing the settings but I can't figure out a successful one to get it right. And after a few tries, the player begins to crash immediately when launching a show, not playing at all.
Very frustrating. Any suggestions/advice?
Thanks all.

Hi There,
I have never had any trouble with BS Player, altough I prefer the look of MX Player so don't use it that often. Recently they have updated to remove support for Dolby AC3 audio codec as they don't have a license to support it. You may want to search for an older version and install that instead. I am on 1.9.150.
Unfortunately Dolby don't seem interested to license out AC3 to small developers like that do they really don't have a choice but to either remove support, or go undeground with it. A shame really..

Yeah, I'll try that. If the older version doesn't work, or if I can't find that version, anything else I should try??

I'll assume that you've tried all the obvious things such as having the volume turned up, not on mute etc etc. Try a file that you know should work, I think if it's AAC audio it should work, and if that works OK then you know it's not the tablet or any setting in BS Player.
Thankfully AAC is quite popular and normally I would try to avoid anything with AC3 because some players won't support it. When I can't avoid it I keep my trusty copy of BS player handy (and backed up). I'm not sure of any other decent quality player that supports it. Dolby only appear interested in DVD/Blu-ray manufacturers and the likes. If you find another good player that works then let me know!

Oh yes - volume up, not on mute, etc. The same file/show works in MX player, but not in BS player which I'm trying to use for the subtitle feature.

If you haven't knowingly messed with any of the settings then I can't think of a reason it wouldn't work. Double check your preferences to make sure it is using HW decoder, and under playback preferences there are options for what codecs are supported, make sure MPEG4 H264 are checked. I guess that if those are unchecked it wouldn't play the video either. You also have an option during playback to select the audio stream. Normally there would be only one, but perhaps it is not sure which one to select and you need to manually tell it. To find that option open up the menu (top right) select audio, then audio stream. Might be worth a double check. I can't see any other settings that would affect it.
You're not using a bluetooth speaker are you? I have just double checked with mine and it seems to work OK for me over bluetooth.

Cool - will try/check those settings today. Will there be more than 1 audio stream to choose from? I don't think there were, but I'll double check. Audio didn't work with or without BT speaker, but works fine in MX player with or w/out BT speaker. I am using one regularly. But when I test tonight, I'll not use it and only use tablet speaker.
Thanks.

In case you cannot get your videos to work, you should consider Dice Player. Out of the box, Dice Player does not support those unlicensed codecs, but it supports custom plugins, which allow you play any videos with audio. As long as you know how to add a plugin, you should be able to play anything.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1833704

huy_lonewolf said:
In case you cannot get your videos to work, you should consider Dice Player. Out of the box, Dice Player does not support those unlicensed codecs, but it supports custom plugins, which allow you play any videos with audio. As long as you know how to add a plugin, you should be able to play anything.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1833704
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will try that as well - thanks for the suggestion!

huy_lonewolf said:
\Out of the box, Dice Player does not support those unlicensed codecs, but it supports custom plugins, which allow you play any videos with audio. As long as you know how to add a plugin, you should be able to play anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? Diceplayer plays the videos just fine without plugins. I've never installed a single plugin and have yet to run into a video it can't play...
I second DicePlayer. All my videos are ripped(ahem... We'll leave it at that.) TV shows as .mkv, .mp4, .avi or .mpg with .srt subtitles.
Regarding the subtitles; You do know you can just get them from podnapisi, right? (there is nothing illegal about that.)
Then just name them identical to the videofile except for the extension, put it in the same folder as the videofile, and pretty much every player plays it automatically...

No, I've never heard of podnapisi. Cool - thanks. I'll try that too.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Update - so When I got home and checked the ripped shows that work in both MX and BS, and compared it to the ones that only work in MX, I saw the pattern. Using a file manager app, I looked at the properties/details of the files/shows. Worked on both - audio was listed as MP3. Only worked on MX player - audio not listed. I don't know why its not on some shows, but obviously there is audio since it works on MX player. However, I could only get it to work on MX player by switching from HW decoding to SW decoding. Interesting and confusing for a newbie like me. Also, both shows are avi files so I couldn't see a difference there. Still puzzled but I will try Dice player next!!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4 Beta

So, Dice Player works flawlessly as you guys mentioned. And I added subtitles to the folder and it found those too. Love this forum and all the help you guys offer. Thanks so much!!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4 Beta

The trick for the subtitles also works for.sub files and all other subtitle formats if you ever run in to them, and they also work on a pc, media player, tv and dvd player this way.
As an added little bonus, diceplayer has a 400% volume boost as well. Which is useful, as the tf700 speakers are not exactly what you call loud.
Send From My Samsung Galaxy S3 Using Tapatalk 2

ShadowLea said:
What? Diceplayer plays the videos just fine without plugins. I've never installed a single plugin and have yet to run into a video it can't play...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am talking about audio codecs. For example, due to licensing issues, Dice Player removed support for DTS audio quite long ago (just like BS Player removed support for Dolby recently), so custom plugin is the only way you can get support for those audio codecs. Videos using those codecs will still play, just that there will be no sound.

jt1998 said:
Also, both shows are avi files so I couldn't see a difference there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AVI is just a container format - the codecs used for the audio and video streams inside the file make the difference whether you can play it or not.

Wish I knew how to open or modify it.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4 Beta

huy_lonewolf said:
I am talking about audio codecs. For example, due to licensing issues, Dice Player removed support for DTS audio quite long ago (just like BS Player removed support for Dolby recently), so custom plugin is the only way you can get support for those audio codecs. Videos using those codecs will still play, just that there will be no sound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah. That's why I never noticed.
VLC (Beta, but works shockingly well) still has support for both those codecs. It doesn't like 1080 .mkv very much, though.
jt1998 said:
Wish I knew how to open or modify it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd have to re-encode it. If you have an Adobe package (not acrobat), Media Encoder does the trick. Otherwise, try Handbrake. It's open source.

http://www.bsplayer.com/android/source.html
to compile specific custom codec for bsplayer with AC3 and other.

If you want to see how your video is encoded download this for Windows:
http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo
Then you'll be able to see how the audio was encoded in a video file.

How configure HDMI passthrough on MX Player 1.9.1

Hi,
The release notes says that it Support HDMI passthrough of Audio HD codecs.
But I can not figure out how to configure it.
Thanks,

arindamchoudhury said:
Hi,
The release notes says that it Support HDMI passthrough of Audio HD codecs.
But I can not figure out how to configure it.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HDMI pass through is automatically used when the connected device can decode Audio HD codecs like ac3, TrueHD, DTS, etc.

Thirumalai.K said:
HDMI pass through is automatically used when the connected device can decode Audio HD codecs like ac3, TrueHD, DTS, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Does it also work in HW+ mode?

arindamchoudhury said:
Thanks. Does it also work in HW+ mode?
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Click to collapse
Yes. HDMI Passthrough will be used when the codec is not supported by the MX Player & The same is supported by the device connected through HDMI.
We will improve it further in future to have more controls on the user side.

Thirumalai.K said:
Yes. HDMI Passthrough will be used when the codec is not supported by the MX Player & The same is supported by the device connected through HDMI.
We will improve it further in future to have more controls on the user side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi dev. I tried with many 4k with AC3 or DTS streaming.. but i can't get audio work..
I use MX player 1.9.8 pro on my sony 9005 android tv, connected to the ampli by HDMI/ARC cable.
In codec menu, i check any kind of hardware supported codec.. and deselect SW render (only HW+ for video/audio).. but can't hear anything from my speaker..
With other app (for local file streamiing), amplifier automatically detect the audio format and give me on it display the correct format (DTS or DD).
With MX player pro and local/iptv streaming, i can't get it work.
Any idea?
Thank'you!!!

Thirumalai.K said:
Yes. HDMI Passthrough will be used when the codec is not supported by the MX Player & The same is supported by the device connected through HDMI.
We will improve it further in future to have more controls on the user side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
I must say that in 1.9.8 with HW+ there is no 5.1 sound passthrough to my Apmplituner No DD and no DTS.
In HW there is 5.1 passthrough to my Ampli but only DTS 5.1. Amplituner sees Dolby Digital but plays only in 2.0 - I don't know why but there is a problem with DD.
Best regards
I'm using android TV on Philips POS 9002

lukcinek said:
Hi
I must say that in 1.9.8 with HW+ there is no 5.1 sound passthrough to my Apmplituner No DD and no DTS.
In HW there is 5.1 passthrough to my Ampli but only DTS 5.1. Amplituner sees Dolby Digital but plays only in 2.0 - I don't know why but there is a problem with DD.
Best regards
I'm using android TV on Philips POS 9002
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem. Has anyone found a solution?

kludi9999 said:
I'm having the same problem. Has anyone found a solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, no. The only way is attempting to force pass through even if the hardware doesn't report the decoding capability. We will highlight this with our development and will get it prioritized for you.

MXPlayer said:
Unfortunately, no. The only way is attempting to force pass through even if the hardware doesn't report the decoding capability. We will highlight this with our development and will get it prioritized for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, thanks for response! I really appriciate for "prioritizing" this! I looking forward for update then .

Hi
How the work is going? When should except Update with Passthrough on MX Player?

Hdmi passthrough
Hi everybody,
I tried to play movies using default video player of the Android tv and it supports 5.1 Dolby digital passthrough via HDMI ARC. But passthrough using 3rd party video players like MX player, Kodi doesnt seems to decode the 5.1 audio where as PCM works just fine.
My TV: TCL 55 P8
AUDIO System: SONY HT IV300

Hi all,
I have also problem with audio passthrough over HDMI, I try to run Dolby Atmos on my Nvidia Shield, problem what I faced now is when I have video with Dolby Atmos it need HW+ to work but passthrough work only on HW decoder,
Also I cannot select subtitles from mkv video with HW decoder,
MX Player v1.25.8 (AndroidTV)
Device: Nvidia Shield
Audio: Yamaha RX-A2080

On going issue
This has been an on going issue with MX for years, I reported this over 3 years ago and still no solution. Stock reply is they're looking at it!
A simple forced pass through like VLC would do the job for most users with an amp but it's yet to come.
Even the pro version won't allow forced pass through.

Is this issue solved? What im looking for is play dolby digital movie in my android smart tv and get 5.1 sound from my sony e6100 home theater via HDMI ARC. It seems MX cant handle this.

Necro join. MX sends everything as dd2.0 regardless of any settings.

As mentioned above this has been a issue for years. When you mention it on other forums the common response is "Install the codecs" which doesnt work in this situation. A year or so ago I sent mxplayer support a email and got the arrogant response of "Mxplayer app is the ONLY app that properly detects if hdmi-passthrough should be enabled, otherwise very very bad things can happen." Well guess Im damn lucky my receiver hasnt burst into flames when pretty much any other player in existence uses it. Either the developer doesnt have the skill to correct this, or doesnt care. In my search I did find a similiar app that I hadnt heard of that works very well. Vimu Player.