Hello,
When I try to play .ts file (e.g. HBO HD movie) recorded using DVB-C set-top box, MXPlayer uses SW mode and playback looks like a slideshow.
So I have repacked the same movie to MKV container using mkvmerge and followed the advice from this forum to configure MXPlayer to use HW acceleration for video and SW mode using custom codec for audio (for AC3 decoding). Playback is perfectly smooth in this case, because MXPlayer uses HW acceleration.
The original TS file contains:
- H264 1080i PAL 50fps track
- 1st AC3 audio track
- 2nd AC3 audio track
- 1st DVB subtitle track
- 2nd DVB subtitle track
The repacked MKV file contains:
- the same H264 track (w/o recoding)
- the same 1st AC3 audio track (w/o recoding)
(mkvmerge cannot convert DVB subtitles, so in MKV file the subtitle track is missing)
I have the Acer Iconia A1 810 tablet.
Repacking to MKV is an option to play my recordings smoothly, but I'd like to play the original TS files from SMB share, because my archive is full of such TS files. Repacking is hard and slow and additionally it'd throwed the subtitles away.
Please, is it possible to modify MXPlayer so it can play also the TS files in HW accelerated mode?
Thank you in advance!
I doubt it, because the ts container can contain so much more incompatible formats and as you probably know, AC3 for instance is not hardware supported on most devices. You cant go and force hardware decoding for something that might-half-work, but you always have the option to select your decoder and try. I'm afraid you'll just have to accept that there's some things your hardware can't decode.
Note that the smooth playback is not a problem in my case. Repacked in MKV container, my hardware plays both the mentioned tracks (H264+AC3) smoothly.
What I ask the MXPlayer team for, is to enable the same MXPlayer behavior for the original TS container file containing the same tracks (H264/AC3).
In my opinion, the MKV container is the same case as the TS container. MKV file can also contain almost anything.
I've thought that the decision to use (or not to use) HW acceleration for a video track should come after a splitter, on the basis of the video format and should not be derived from a container file format.
Hmm, that is odd. Sorry I assumed the AC3 track would've been incompatible, as it is with many androids. I always thought MX Player did decide on HW acceleration independent of containers. I can only guess some track contained in the .ts is incompatible.
But have your tried forcing HW playback (or HW+) on the .ts file yet? You can select this in the top right while a video is playing.
I thought that HW support of different containers depended on the device. Not sure.
I would think that when you select HW, it not only passes the decoding, but also the container splitting, to the hardware, which is my guess at why HW won't support different containers since the hardware doesn't know how to split the container.
@bleu8888 could you provide some insight into this?
CDB-Man said:
I thought that HW support of different containers depended on the device. Not sure.
I would think that when you select HW, it not only passes the decoding, but also the container splitting, to the hardware, which is my guess at why HW won't support different containers since the hardware doesn't know how to split the container.
@bleu8888 could you provide some insight into this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you CDB-Man and Logic_ for your thoughts.
In MX Player, it is possible to use HW decoder for a video track in parallel (and in sync) with SW decoder for an audio track. That is why I hope, that a container-splitting can be done independently on choice which decoder will be used for the given track.
My understnading is that splitting is done by whatever is set as the video decoder in MX. Audio decoder just receives the audio stream from whatever splitter is used. It's not that SW audio runs "in parallel" with HW video per se; SW or HW audio just receives an audio stream from whatever is used as the container splitter.
Sorry, my previous post was probably somewhat misleading.
It was reaction to your post:
CDB-Man said:
I thought that HW support of different containers depended on the device. Not sure.
I would think that when you select HW, it not only passes the decoding, but also the container splitting, to the hardware, which is my guess at why HW won't support different containers since the hardware doesn't know how to split the container.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wanted to say, that from the fact, that video can be independently decoded by HW and audio by SW, I presume, that splitting can also be done independently - by SW - while maintaining the players ability to pass video track decoding to HW.
Hi KodloN,
Did you try hw+ decoder? hw decoder is just stock decoder which has no chance to be improved at all.
If you it still does not work with hw+ decoder, please send me (to [email protected]) a sample .ts file that cannot be played with hw+ decoder.
Thanks
bleu8888 said:
Hi KodloN,
Did you try hw+ decoder? hw decoder is just stock decoder which has no chance to be improved at all.
If you it still does not work with hw+ decoder, please send me (to [email protected]) a sample .ts file that cannot be played with hw+ decoder.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi bleu8888,
Yes, I've tried hw+ decoder, below are results:
1) The original TS file (HBO_HD recording)
SW decoder only. Trying to switch to HW or HW+ decoder falls back to SW with error message "Cannot play this video with H/W(+) decoder".
2) TS file in which the DVB subtitle track and the Czech audio track were removed (repacked by DVBViewer-TSPlayer)
HW+ decoder is functional, but playback is sluggish on my Acer Iconia Tab A1-810 (similar performance as SW decoder playback)
HW decoder cannot play this video.
3) MKV file created from the original TS file using mkvmerge
HW decoder is functional, perfect smooth playback
HW+ decoder cannot play this video
I will send you a link to all three files to the specified email.
Thank you in advance!
Hi,
Would you try latest test build from following link?
.ts hw+ playback is improved in this test build but I'm not sure your issue is fixed because this issue looks like happening only on MediaTek platforms and I do not have device having MediaTek playform.
(Please note that hw playback is not changed though)
https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/translation/test-build
BTW, DVB subtitle positioning issue is also fixed.
Feedback will be appreacited !
Thanks
KodloN said:
Hi bleu8888,
Yes, I've tried hw+ decoder, below are results:
1) The original TS file (HBO_HD recording)
SW decoder only. Trying to switch to HW or HW+ decoder falls back to SW with error message "Cannot play this video with H/W(+) decoder".
2) TS file in which the DVB subtitle track and the Czech audio track were removed (repacked by DVBViewer-TSPlayer)
HW+ decoder is functional, but playback is sluggish on my Acer Iconia Tab A1-810 (similar performance as SW decoder playback)
HW decoder cannot play this video.
3) MKV file created from the original TS file using mkvmerge
HW decoder is functional, perfect smooth playback
HW+ decoder cannot play this video
I will send you a link to all three files to the specified email.
Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
@ forum moderator / developer
Many Video players use GPU to decode and then CPU for transmitting buffer to display on supported videos. I don't know how Mx player handle videos. Is it possible to use GPU for decoding and directly throw the buffers to display (instead of using cpu to carry buffer)? Currently I have seen this feature in Vlc for android. It would be really better for performance as well as less battery uses.
In HW mode MX player just asks system to play video and it should use the fastest way. Dunno what happens in HW+
Also I'm not sure if there's any difference - since there's no real VRAM CPU and GPU buffers are the same.
warvevo said:
Hi,
@ forum moderator / developer
Many Video players use GPU to decode and then CPU for transmitting buffer to display on supported videos. I don't know how Mx player handle videos. Is it possible to use GPU for decoding and directly throw the buffers to display (instead of using cpu to carry buffer)? Currently I have seen this feature in Vlc for android. It would be really better for performance as well as less battery uses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vivan000 said:
In HW mode MX player just asks system to play video and it should use the fastest way. Dunno what happens in HW+
Also I'm not sure if there's any difference - since there's no real VRAM CPU and GPU buffers are the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As @vivan000 said, H/W decoder uses androids native mediaplayer interface. So, the video will be played using system decoders.
H/W+ uses the same system decoders. But, it uses MXPlayer's own media framework. So, it can support more formats.
So, Both H/W and H/W+ are most efficient decoders.
But, S/W decoder uses CPU for decoding. So, you will not get the benifit of hardware acceleration. It may need very fast cpu depending upon the video. So, it may not be as efficient as H/W or H/W+. But, only thing is you can play almost all formats.
Sent from my SM-G900H
Hi everyone,
Hoping someone can help
I just bought an Android TV Box featuring the RK3288 SoC and I cannot get MX Player to play the standard HEVC's (Sintel, Kazu, Tears of Steel etc).
They are just resulting in a black screen with audio only using the HW decoder, I tried activating the HW+ decoder but it says it's not available.
Any ideas? The files play fine in HW mode on Kodi.
Thanks,
Steve
I dont know about tv box. HW is not supported for HEVC. SW Decoder can play HEVC in my mobile. Have you switch to sw decoder?
SW is too stuttery to be of any use. The weird thing is I know that others can playback HEVC on theis SoC on MX Player so there is obviously something I'm missing...
It depends.
H/W decoder uses android's mediaplayer API to play the video. In short it will be similar to stock player. Some devices natively support HEVC. So, they can play HEVC in H/W decoder.
In some cases, the SOC may support HEVC decoding. But, the OEM may disable it to avoid patent issue or to save licensing fees.
If it's not natively supported, S/W decoder is the only option. But, in this entire decoding will be done on CPU. So, the performance will be purely depends on CPU power. It may be laggy on HEVC/HD videos.
Would it be possible to add HW and HW+ support for Spreadtrum processors? I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7.0, which uses the Spreadtrum SC9830 processor, and due to lack of support for these features, the tablet struggles to play 1080p videos encoded in the .mkv format as the CPU is not fast enough for software decoding.
Thank you in advance.
acornkenya said:
Would it be possible to add HW and HW+ support for Spreadtrum processors? I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7.0, which uses the Spreadtrum SC9830 processor, and due to lack of support for these features, the tablet struggles to play 1080p videos encoded in the .mkv format as the CPU is not fast enough for software decoding.
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HW basically uses standard mediaplayer api from Android. In simple words, MX Player acts as a framework of android mediaplayer API. So, if you device doesn't support anything it can't be played in HW.
HW+ is a hybrid method. But, it still utilizes the decoders available in order to play with hardware acceleration. It may play many videos that HW can't play.
Without any bug report we can't comment anything in general. Bug report will give better un sight to the issue.
Can you collect the logs immediately after playing the video in HW & HW+ .?
For more information about how to collect the logs & report bugs, Kindly read here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2843144
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs
Hello all,
I am trying to make my new Philips TV play 4k HEVC videos but am having no luck with smooth playback.
MX Player seems to do the best job but stalls eventually. HW+ decoder kicks in to do the playback.
Short version of TV specs:
SoC Mediatek MT5596A
CPU ARM Cortex-A53
GPU ARM Mali-T860 MP2
Android 6
I collected MX player logs while the video was choppy and can send if required.
Can anyone tell me if my device is supported or am I wasting time on MX Player ?
Thanks
sexy_lady said:
Hello all,
I am trying to make my new Philips TV play 4k HEVC videos but am having no luck with smooth playback.
MX Player seems to do the best job but stalls eventually. HW+ decoder kicks in to do the playback.
Short version of TV specs:
SoC Mediatek MT5596A
CPU ARM Cortex-A53
GPU ARM Mali-T860 MP2
Android 6
I collected MX player logs while the video was choppy and can send if required.
Can anyone tell me if my device is supported or am I wasting time on MX Player ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about HW decoder?
HW & HW+ decoder basically uses system decoders which are built into the firmware.
If HW decoder doesn't work and HW+ lags, probably your system decoders couldn't decode the video at that particular encoding profile. Can you share the logs here? We may have to look at the logs in order to understand the issue better.
Thirumalai.K said:
What about HW decoder?
HW & HW+ decoder basically uses system decoders which are built into the firmware.
If HW decoder doesn't work and HW+ lags, probably your system decoders couldn't decode the video at that particular encoding profile. Can you share the logs here? We may have to look at the logs in order to understand the issue better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello and thanks,
The thing is that built-in TV video player does not work with x265 videos. I have tried VLC which performs terribly. I guess it uses SW decocoding and can't even play 1080p smoothly with x265 encoding.
Archos is really slick and works well with 1080p x265 but lags on 4K. The speed of 4K playback with Archos is the same as for MX Player with HW decoder. Only HW+ will play smoothly but it eventually stalls to a point of 1 frame per seconds as if some error is encountered (always at the same point in movie). Any attempt to rewind will kill 4K playback smoothness and menu operations often result in MX Player crashing.
Here is my report file
*h*t*t*p*s://1drv.ms/u/s!Av9g--Caxs7ogzkI5M_WUWgfOp3D