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With all the different roms and different versions I'm getting really confused and which roms can do what.
I've tried phiremod v2 and cm7 nightlies and the youtube app doesn't work at all in either. Youtube in the browser I couldn't get to work in phiremod v2. I can watch youtube if I change my user agent to desktop with cm7 nightly but it's choppy.
Can somebody enlighten me as to what I should be running if I want working and smooth flash videos?
This is not an answer to your question -
But if the widespread rumors are correct, then the B&N Stock NC will be updated to 2.2 with Flash by the end of the month, and then if you root that, you will be able to sideload Youtube App for Froyo to that. In fact, the update is supposed to include a B&N Market, and one would expect B&N to have all the Free Google Apps in their Market at startup. (But that's just speculation.)
Flash Player 10.2 working for me
I downloaded Flash Player 10.2 earlier today and it installed and works much better. I am running Phiremod 4.1. I got the APK from: freewarelovers(dot)com/android/app/adobe-flash-player
It's important to remember that Flash is an application framework that can deliver video among MANY other things. If you're looking for a FLV video player, then the performance still is not here: it requires hardware support and we don't have the drivers yet.
BUT, if you want to play games and use interactive websites written in Flash, then try out 10.2. It is WAY more functional.
Interesting. Are you saying that there are no roms with smooth playing flash video? It seems odd to me that everybody is so happy with these roms when they can't watch any flash video smoothly.
flammenwurfer said:
Can somebody enlighten me as to what I should be running if I want working and smooth flash videos?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To specifically answer your question, smooth video is supported in Eclair (the native Nook rooted ROM) and, I think, it plays acceptably in Froyo; although I could be mistaken.
A lot depends on the size/quality of the video; standard definition (640x480) should play acceptably well in either of those OS versions. Higher definition may stall from time to time.
Gingerbread 2.3 (CM7, etc) still does not have working drivers for the hardware assist features of the chipset, and hardware assist is essential to smooth video playback.
Here are the specs on Nook Color CPU/GPU (from Androidtablets.net):
CPU Processor: ARM Cortex A8-based Ti OMAP 3621 @ 800 MHz (same processor as Droid 2 and Droid X)
GPU Processor: PowerVR SGX530 Graphics Rendering: Open GLES1.1/2.0 Hardware Scaling: 854x480 scaled to 1024x600 Video Formats: .3GP, .MP4, .3G2 ** Video Codecs: H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, ON2 VP7 ** Image Formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP ** (same GPU as Droid 2 and Droid X)
As you can see, the GPU can support a native resolution of 854 x 480 (which is scaled in hardware to 1024 x 600); H.264/MPEG4 video (which FLV is a kind of) can be decoded in the hardware with the appropriate drivers. At present, all the players have to do this through software, which frankly is beyond the capability of the CPU at 800 MHz or even overclocked at 1.1 GHz.
We need to be patient; those hardware drivers will come.
Ok, I think I get it now.
So the stock rom is the only option at the moment for smooth youtube and flash, correct? The Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb roms do not have hardware decoding support?
So why are so many people running these other roms if they are missing a major function like that? What does CM7 and the other roms do that the stock rooted rom can't? Market?
flammenwurfer said:
So the stock rom is the only option at the moment for smooth youtube and flash, correct? The Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb roms do not have hardware decoding support?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure whether the Froyo rom can play video smoothly. It does on Droid and other phones, so I would guess those drivers have been tried out. I had Froyo on my Nook Color for a while, but frankly can't remember how the video was.
flammenwurfer said:
So why are so many people running these other roms if they are missing a major function like that? What does CM7 and the other roms do that the stock rooted rom can't? Market?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on what you need/want. For me, the text handling of Froyo was awful. I have a HTC EVO 4G (with Sense UI on top of native Froyo). On my phone, I can type pretty effectively. The user dictionary is fast and smart and if I make a mistake, I have an arrows-equipped keyboard to move the cursor to the text I want to correct and fix it.
Froyo (Android 2.2) on both my Nook Color and my Viewsonic G-Tablet were nothing like my Evo. The keyboard often got what I typed wrong and when I tried to set a cursor to make a correction, it would end up one letter off. I tried out a bunch of keyboards - some with arrows - and had an OK Froyo-based system, but as soon as a decent Gingerbread-based ROM came along (and Phiremod's is EXCELLENT!), I went with that.
In Gingerbread, you have a much more accurate keyboard and dictionary lookup. The keyboard still doesn't have arrows, but you have a very nice cursor positioning tool, plus the ability to select a little or a lot of text and copy/paste it anywhere throughout the system.
But, as you note, certain of the multimedia features aren't there yet. Since I use my tablets more as very handy computers and less as multimedia entertainment systems, the choice was pretty straightforward for me. I can wait a few weeks for video playback.
And, frankly, the reason a lot of people get excited about roms - and having lots of different roms - is because they are fun in and of themselves. They like to tinker. And with the Nook, if you have a few bucks to buy a couple of micro SD cards, you can have two or three swap-in brains that completely transform your tablet. And take them out and still have a factory fresh Nook reader. It's really kind of awesome when you think about it.
But your mileage will certainly vary. If high definition is a deal breaker for you, you may find the Nook ultimately inadequate even when the Gingerbread drivers (and eventually Honeycomb drivers) come out. There's only so much power under this hood. A tablet based on Tegra 2 (like the Viewsonic G-Tablet or Xoom) may be more what you're looking for. With the right drivers, though, we should get perfectly acceptable 480p playback.
glg
The rom you are looking for is nookiefroyo. I have great YouTube playback in app including high quality. In browser 360p plays fine, but anything above that is choppy.
I also have tested other flash websites. CNN was perfect, as was megavideo.
I purchase my nook a few days ago and thus far nookie froyo looks to be the latest and most complete rom out. That plus the softkey theme I installed and the honeycomb keyboard makes this tablet a force to be reckoned with. I might even have to post a video soon because I'm so amazed atnhow well this thing runs.
I'm on CM7 Android 2.3.3 and am very happy. Not sure if it's the websites I've been on or what, but pretty much all non-HD flash works flawlessly for me. I've OCed my NookColor to 925mhz and have tried probably 5 or 6 different websites (including youtube and zomganime) Certain embeded flash players work better than others I"ve noticed, also, so not sure why that is, but so far I'm very happy. I even was running 3 flash videos (just to test it out) at once the other day, only one was choppy beyond watching. Oh I'd also like to note that it SEEMS to work better with Dolphin Browser, but that could again just be the website(s) I was on.
Sure not having a YouTube app kinda sucks, but the desktop website works fine.
Just a little notice, YouTube app doesn't use Flash for playback, it grabs MP4 version of a video stream, which is meant to play on mobile devices.
JLCollier2005 said:
I'm on CM7 Android 2.3.3 and am very happy. Not sure if it's the websites I've been on or what, but pretty much all non-HD flash works flawlessly for me. I've OCed my NookColor to 925mhz and have tried probably 5 or 6 different websites (including youtube and zomganime) Certain embeded flash players work better than others I"ve noticed, also, so not sure why that is, but so far I'm very happy. I even was running 3 flash videos (just to test it out) at once the other day, only one was choppy beyond watching. Oh I'd also like to note that it SEEMS to work better with Dolphin Browser, but that could again just be the website(s) I was on.
Sure not having a YouTube app kinda sucks, but the desktop website works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As in audio and video actually work smoothly (and are in sync)? What version of CM7 are you on?
I would like to know as well.
I'm on the latest CM7 Nightly and just installed the OC kernel. Youtube videos at 360p are playing ok now, but the audio is out of sync.
I might have to give Nookie Froyo another try. Interesting that the Youtube app works so well for you. I could have sworn that I would just get an error every time I tried to play anything.
flammenwurfer said:
Ok, I think I get it now.
So the stock rom is the only option at the moment for smooth youtube and flash, correct? The Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb roms do not have hardware decoding support?
So why are so many people running these other roms if they are missing a major function like that? What does CM7 and the other roms do that the stock rooted rom can't? Market?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eclair does hardware video decoding but no flash. Froyo and cm7 both do flash and froyo has you tube and video harddware support. However froyo for me at least has buggy wifi and screen of death issues which made it non viable for me. Hope this helps.
From Nook Color dual boot with CM7
That does help. Thanks for the clarification.
I've heard good things about Nookie Froyoa so I will probably give that another try. I find it a little frustrating that there is not a single rom with everything working, but I know that's just the norm for hacking together roms. Oh well... Hopefully the update coming from B&N will help iron out the few issues that are left.
Honestly, most of my time will be spent reading, web browsing and playing a few games. I would just like to be able to pull up a funny video for friends every once in a while. I don't plan on watching movies or anything on it.
flammenwurfer said:
That does help. Thanks for the clarification.
I've heard good things about Nookie Froyoa so I will probably give that another try. I find it a little frustrating that there is not a single rom with everything working, but I know that's just the norm for hacking together roms. Oh well... Hopefully the update coming from B&N will help iron out the few issues that are left.
Honestly, most of my time will be spent reading, web browsing and playing a few games. I would just like to be able to pull up a funny video for friends every once in a while. I don't plan on watching movies or anything on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed I had thought froyo would be best compromise as it was fast had dsp and flash working, but the sleep of death and wifi connection issues led me to rebooting the thing many times/day which was a real pain.
For now I have a dual boot setup (see thread in development forum) So that I boot into eclair or CM7. This way I do most of my activities in or other rom and reboot into the other when I need say to watch a video or use stock B&N reader.....
Another thing I haven't really thought about. How does battery life compare between the roms? I seem to remember comments here and there about CM7 roms having worse battery life than froyo or stock.
I would suggest to those trying Nookie Froyo on eMMC now to try the kernel posted in post #770 of the Dalingrin kernel thread on the development forum. For myself and several others this kernel is solid and yields no wake or wifi issues whatsoever. Until a more stable interactive govenor kernel is developed this is the one I'll stick with.
glgehman said:
And with the Nook, if you have a few bucks to buy a couple of micro SD cards, you can have two or three swap-in brains that completely transform your tablet. And take them out and still have a factory fresh Nook reader. It's really kind of awesome when you think about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I'm a nooknoob but long time techie and am brimming with questions. Is that quote accurate -- that reverting to "factory fresh" state can be as simply as removing your SD card? (Because that's not the impression I've been getting; I thought you needed to do the 8 failed boots thing and/or reload ROMs.)
Hmm, guess not. I just noticed the thread titled "[HOW-TO] : Restore Nook Color back to stock EASILY".
I believe you can run most of the roms from the sd card without modifying the internal system. I don't know if you can do it without rooting though. You might have to root, then you an try roms on sd card. Someone else will have to confirm that or tell me I'm wrong , as I've not tried any of the sd card versions.
I've just updated my firmware with the new CM7 RC4 release and Darlinger's OC Kernel (Released 3/31). According to the release log, they should support hardward decoding.
However, when I open MP4 files with RockPlayer, it still reports that this format is not supported with the system player.
Am I doing something wrong, or it still doesn't support hardware decoding?
Do these files play on other ROMs?
So far as I know, they would play with the rooted stock ROM. I'm not sure about Froyo or Honeycomb, though.
poofyhairguy said:
Do these files play on other ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a search for "nook color handbrake preset". You'll find a thread on all about how to encode mp4 videos to work on the nook. There are some options when encoding the video that when enabled will break playback on the nook color. Mainly the video resolution.
Thanks. But I don't really think that's an encoding issue. The file played perfectly with the stock rom and system video player.
woot1524 said:
Do a search for "nook color handbrake preset". You'll find a thread on all about how to encode mp4 videos to work on the nook. There are some options when encoding the video that when enabled will break playback on the nook color. Mainly the video resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
woot1524 said:
Do a search for "nook color handbrake preset". You'll find a thread on all about how to encode mp4 videos to work on the nook. There are some options when encoding the video that when enabled will break playback on the nook color. Mainly the video resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If Nook Color' sample video cannot play by CM7 RC4 so hardware decoding is still disabled.
Here is the sample video from official Nook Color intro I extracted from latest firmware (1.10) :
http://www.mediafire.com/file/s5ka0xkdnsf4ajo/welcome_video.mp4
If default video player cannot play so hardware decoder still not enabled for CM7 RC4 and all variants...
Managing to play the video by means of diffrent 3rd party applications ( all video player that decode software and hardware based) make no sense...
Hmm I don't know what the deal is then... HW decoding is working brilliantly for me on CM7 RC-4 with latest OC kernel. I have a couple 720p mp4 movies that I re-encoded via the handbreak preset, and they played just fine.
woot1524 said:
Hmm I don't know what the deal is then... HW decoding is working brilliantly for me on CM7 RC-4 with latest OC kernel. I have a couple 720p mp4 movies that I re-encoded via the handbreak preset, and they played just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock ROM from NC can play http://www.mediafire.com/file/s5ka0xkdnsf4ajo/welcome_video.mp4 videos but CM7 RC4 still cannot plays and they claim hardware video decoder enabled!...
Offical welcome_video.mp4 is the proof of CM7 RC4 is STILL software based...
Overclocking may help only software decoding? But I want to use hardware decoder and latest version not old one used 1.1.15.2766 .. NC's offical latest video decoder is 1.1.15.3172 for our NC ( PowerVR SGX 530)
NOBODY uses latest hardware because hardware decoding is still unusable... Acceptence of this current reality and then focusing on OVERCLOCKING CPU makes no sense when you have a hardware decoder's power ...
nemir said:
Stock ROM from NC can play http://www.mediafire.com/file/s5ka0xkdnsf4ajo/welcome_video.mp4 videos but CM7 RC4 still cannot plays and they claim hardware video decoder enabled!...
Offical welcome_video.mp4 is the proof of CM7 RC4 is STILL software based...
Overclocking may help only software decoding? But I want to use hardware decoder and latest version not old one used 1.1.15.2766 .. NC's offical latest video decoder is 1.1.15.3172 for our NC ( PowerVR SGX 530)
NOBODY uses latest hardware because hardware decoding is still unusable... Acceptence of this current reality and then focusing on OVERCLOCKING CPU makes no sense when you have a hardware decoder's power ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! I was trying to make sense of this mess from January in my blog fineoils.blogspot.com. With a Nookie Froyo, Nookkolor started to lose everything that was there of hardware decoding AND hardware rendering. I was laghed at by CM7 NC dev dalingrin on my suggestion that lots of HW assistance in video playback is based on SGX, especially the HW overlay. CM7 team is of opinion that mp4/H.264 decoding can be made in DSP (IVA2 in our case) audio buffers for which were that "magic video fix" at the CM7 nightly 17 level. What we have is more or less smooth YouTube 2.1.16 (less smooth than EVO's 2.0.x "HQ" YouTube for Eclair) and stuttering/losing frames Flash 10.1...10.2 ("inline YouTube), plus stuttering local file playback with more than 480p or so. I have no indication that any HW-conscious FFmpeg codecs was ever used. NEON/Stagefright framework is missing/broken for unknown reason. Only Opera Mobile is capable of using 2D hardware assisted UI scrolling/layout, any other app/Webkit/launcher/wallpaper has no idea they all can use 2D/3D hardware acceleration, as, yes, drivers are broken/falling back to SW too easily. Sure, VOME engine by VisualOn might be just promised to AOSP 2.3.3 but never made it there, however I don't understand why latest Omapzoom commits on SGX driver and a special OMAP3 Adobe Flash Plugin couldn't be used.
Sorry for the long rant, but it seems that 90 % of CM7 dev efforts are concentrated on producing an "average" ROM for 40 or so supported devices. Our Nookcolor has unexpectedly better graphics hardware than all of them -- except Droid X.
Can't you try monitoring the CPU usage on stock and cm7 (top or similar), play a video and see if the CPU is way higher on cm7? I still see stutters on cm myself, and it would be sweet to see the video tweaked. We will also have new stuff to play with soon from B&N's froyo release. I'm guessing we will have a much easier time comparing apples to apples and diagnosing these issues if stock was 2.2 . There are a ton of factors in play (no pun intended), and we can all help by testing. It seemed like the last big jump in cm was prompted by the dude that found the video worked better with his bluetooth headset. That's the kind of thing that would take one person FOREVER to find, but amongst hundreds or thousands of testers becomes apparent. Test, and post results, and try not to be too emotionally attached to the issues. If it makes sense people will notice.... problems only arise when people start guessing, ranting, etc... (xda kids stuff) The nook is awesome and is only getting better
i would disagree - this has more to do with what codecs/containers are being supported rather than hardware acceleration
nook color at 2.1 did play that video but it could not play other formats becuase it did not support the codecs
same with flash - nook color 2.1 played that mp4 file but take same mp4 file and wrap it in a flash container and it cannot play it
nemir said:
If Nook Color' sample video cannot play by CM7 RC4 so hardware decoding is still disabled.
Here is the sample video from official Nook Color intro I extracted from latest firmware (1.10) :
http://www.mediafire.com/file/s5ka0xkdnsf4ajo/welcome_video.mp4
If default video player cannot play so hardware decoder still not enabled for CM7 RC4 and all variants...
Managing to play the video by means of diffrent 3rd party applications ( all video player that decode software and hardware based) make no sense...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cyberslug23 said:
Can't you try monitoring the CPU usage on stock and cm7 (top or similar), play a video and see if the CPU is way higher on cm7? I still see stutters on cm myself, and it would be sweet to see the video tweaked. We will also have new stuff to play with soon from B&N's froyo release. I'm guessing we will have a much easier time comparing apples to apples and diagnosing these issues if stock was 2.2 . There are a ton of factors in play (no pun intended), and we can all help by testing. It seemed like the last big jump in cm was prompted by the dude that found the video worked better with his bluetooth headset. That's the kind of thing that would take one person FOREVER to find, but amongst hundreds or thousands of testers becomes apparent. Test, and post results, and try not to be too emotionally attached to the issues. If it makes sense people will notice.... problems only arise when people start guessing, ranting, etc... (xda kids stuff) The nook is awesome and is only getting better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, customizations and many other improvements over "standard" CM7 ROM are welcome at any time, it's just an apparent lack of basic GPU/DSP functioning, as nemir stated, what might cause a somewhat critical attitudes. I repeat, the work of dalingrin is awesome, but there are still many questions/problems remain unresolved:
-- the "original" size of an audio "buffer" (if I get it right) was either zero, or small, or adaptive, plus small anyway. Wasn't it an indication that hardware decoding when functional didn't need any?
-- the addition of 32(?) of whatever units to that buffer brought a smoother video playback on YouTube, but can be also an indication that video playback can now easily fall back to software decoding;
-- switching the audio pipeline to push it via BT encoding might be originally either working better, or didn't need to be HW assisted at all. In any case, lipsyncing was missing, just like when the software decoding beyond bandwidth specs was involved
As for how many dudes it take to find a solution out of thousands of NC's inventive users, I'd rather try to find a real TI OMAP3/Zoom2 engineer or two who are NC owners and obviously ROFLing now seeing all these attempts at XDA Devs. In other words, they not only know the solution, it's offered in the open at their gits. It's our kernel level that cannot take it. CM7.x will be formidable when based on 2.6.36...38.
aludal said:
Exactly! I was trying to make sense of this mess from January in my blog fineoils.blogspot.com. With a Nookie Froyo, Nookkolor started to lose everything that was there of hardware decoding AND hardware rendering. I was laghed at by CM7 NC dev dalingrin on my suggestion that lots of HW assistance in video playback is based on SGX, especially the HW overlay. CM7 team is of opinion that mp4/H.264 decoding can be made in DSP (IVA2 in our case) audio buffers for which were that "magic video fix" at the CM7 nightly 17 level. What we have is more or less smooth YouTube 2.1.16 (less smooth than EVO's 2.0.x "HQ" YouTube for Eclair) and stuttering/losing frames Flash 10.1...10.2 ("inline YouTube), plus stuttering local file playback with more than 480p or so. I have no indication that any HW-conscious FFmpeg codecs was ever used. NEON/Stagefright framework is missing/broken for unknown reason. Only Opera Mobile is capable of using 2D hardware assisted UI scrolling/layout, any other app/Webkit/launcher/wallpaper has no idea they all can use 2D/3D hardware acceleration, as, yes, drivers are broken/falling back to SW too easily. Sure, VOME engine by VisualOn might be just promised to AOSP 2.3.3 but never made it there, however I don't understand why latest Omapzoom commits on SGX driver and a special OMAP3 Adobe Flash Plugin couldn't be used.
Sorry for the long rant, but it seems that 90 % of CM7 dev efforts are concentrated on producing an "average" ROM for 40 or so supported devices. Our Nookcolor has unexpectedly better graphics hardware than all of them -- except Droid X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you are right...
We must accept the lack of full potential power of NC's 2D / 3D GPU for both custom ROMs (CM and other variants) and OFFICAL STOCK ROM...
I have Archos 5 Internet Tablet which has only 256 MB RAM and same CPU ( 800 Mhz ) and Archos 5 Internet Tablet can play 720p .mkv .avi .mp4 .wmv files without any problem...
Moreover, Nook Color has higher RAM and can be overclocked to 1 Ghz ...
Like Archos 101 Nook Color has same GPU ...
I would prefer 800 Mhz ( maybe 1 Ghz overclocked) normal CPU with fully usable GPU ...
Processor • ARM Cortex A8 at 1 GHz with DSP
• Graphic accelerator: 3D OpenGL ES 2.0
Video Playback1 • MPEG-42 HD (up to 720p, 30 [email protected])
• MPEG-42 ([email protected] AVI, up to DVD resolution, 30 [email protected])
• H.264 HD ([email protected] up to 720p, 30 [email protected])
• WMV9/VC1 (AP up to 720p 30 [email protected])
• M-JPEG (Motion JPEG Video) in VGA resolution
With optional plug-in (downloadable on www.archos.com):
• Cinema: MPEG-2 (up to DVD resolution MP/D1, 30 [email protected] Mbps)
With the above codecs, the device can play video files with the following extensions: AVI, MP4, MKV, MOV, WMV, MPG, PS, TS, VOB, FLV, RM, RMVB, ASF, 3GP
Audio Playback1 • MP3 CBR & VBR
• WMA, WMA-Pro 5.1
• WAV (PCM/ADPCM)
• AAC, AAC+ 5.13
• OGG Vorbis
• FLAC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/specs.html?country=us&lang=en
Here is the table of CPU and GPU list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP
For Nook Color:
OMAP3621 800 MHz ARMv7 ARM Cortex-A8 PowerVR SGX530
Another information about NC
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/28/nook-color-processor-revealed-arm-cortex-a8-based-ti-omap3621/
So Archos 101 (1024x600) can be ported to NC to utilise ...
CM7 is generic and does not utilise the power of NC's GPU ... CM7 is beneficial for bluetooth and latest android 2.3.3 ... But Arhos firmware has a better full utilised GPU driver...
Frankly, the lack of GPU can NOT be accepted. Focusing on "CPU overclock" does not make sense if you have potential of better GPU driver...
Cool story.
CM7 does have hardware accelerated video.
Also it is the DSP chipset which controls what formats/resolutions are acceptable, not the GPU. Ours is incapable of playing 720p video in hardware acceleration. Not to mention it's a 854x480 hardware accelerator, so 1280x720 video would be wasted anyway.
You guys are loud.
That welcome video won't play because the stock software was able to tell it to play sideways. We can't do thatyet . We CAN hardware accel videos such as this:
http://www.mediafire.com/?d42dmvva9vbigm2
You know, in 16:9 instead of 9:16?
aludal said:
Exactly! I was trying to make sense of this mess from January in my blog fineoils.blogspot.com. With a Nookie Froyo, Nookkolor started to lose everything that was there of hardware decoding AND hardware rendering. I was laghed at by CM7 NC dev dalingrin on my suggestion that lots of HW assistance in video playback is based on SGX, especially the HW overlay. CM7 team is of opinion that mp4/H.264 decoding can be made in DSP (IVA2 in our case) audio buffers for which were that "magic video fix" at the CM7 nightly 17 level. What we have is more or less smooth YouTube 2.1.16 (less smooth than EVO's 2.0.x "HQ" YouTube for Eclair) and stuttering/losing frames Flash 10.1...10.2 ("inline YouTube), plus stuttering local file playback with more than 480p or so. I have no indication that any HW-conscious FFmpeg codecs was ever used. NEON/Stagefright framework is missing/broken for unknown reason. Only Opera Mobile is capable of using 2D hardware assisted UI scrolling/layout, any other app/Webkit/launcher/wallpaper has no idea they all can use 2D/3D hardware acceleration, as, yes, drivers are broken/falling back to SW too easily. Sure, VOME engine by VisualOn might be just promised to AOSP 2.3.3 but never made it there, however I don't understand why latest Omapzoom commits on SGX driver and a special OMAP3 Adobe Flash Plugin couldn't be used.
Sorry for the long rant, but it seems that 90 % of CM7 dev efforts are concentrated on producing an "average" ROM for 40 or so supported devices. Our Nookcolor has unexpectedly better graphics hardware than all of them -- except Droid X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What would it take to get a working patch to enable 2D/3D HW acc? I mean, if the folks working on CM7 won't take the approach you mention.
nemir said:
Here is the table of CPU and GPU list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That link tells you right there why we can't play 720p but the Archoses can:
OMAP3621 vs OMAP3630
They have a better DSP processor.
CM7 is generic and does not utilise the power of NC's GPU ... CM7 is beneficial for bluetooth and latest android 2.3.3 ... But Arhos firmware has a better full utilised GPU driver...
Frankly, the lack of GPU can NOT be accepted. Focusing on "CPU overclock" does not make sense if you have potential of better GPU driver...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPU and the DSP of the Nook Color work fine in CM7. We are able to play games just as well as rooted stock does, and videos I have encoded that maxed the rooted stock (as it had as high of a bit-rate as I could get without frameskipping) still play fine using Vital player on CM7.
As chisleu stated its not perfect, but its certainly working because the Nook Color's CPU can't even come close to playing my files.
Overclocking NC to 1 or 1.1 Ghz should give same performance as Archos's...
By the way, Motorola DEFY has 3610 GPU but it can plays 720p files by means of changing lib files ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=935017
We can try this method to our NC to play 720p movies ...
As I said before latest stock NC has more recent builds in lib folder. CW RC4 uses old lib files...
Anyone can compare and see the difference between latest stock ROM and latest CW R4... CW R4 does not update latest official files from lib (its sub folders and files too)
hey nemir how bout taking us to solution space
nemir said:
Overclocking NC to 1 or 1.1 Ghz should give same performance as Archos's...
By the way, Motorola DEFY has 3610 GPU but it can plays 720p files by means of changing lib files ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=935017
We can try this method to our NC to play 720p movies ...
As I said before latest stock NC has more recent builds in lib folder. CW RC4 uses old lib files...
Anyone can compare and see the difference between latest stock ROM and latest CW R4... CW R4 does not update latest official files from lib (its sub folders and files too)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nemir said:
Overclocking NC to 1 or 1.1 Ghz should give same performance as Archos's...
By the way, Motorola DEFY has 3610 GPU but it can plays 720p files by means of changing lib files ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=935017
We can try this method to our NC to play 720p movies ...
As I said before latest stock NC has more recent builds in lib folder. CW RC4 uses old lib files...
Anyone can compare and see the difference between latest stock ROM and latest CW R4... CW R4 does not update latest official files from lib (its sub folders and files too)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you could try to copy over those lib files and see if it works? If it does then maybe cm7 devswill port it.
From 1.1 Nook Color with 1.1 ghz overclock
poofyhairguy said:
That link tells you right there why we can't play 720p but the Archoses can:
OMAP3621 vs OMAP3630
They have a better DSP processor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That link mentions (quite vaguely) where variants of the same silicon (IVA2) are different:
Not highlighted in the list below is that each OMAP 3 SoC has an "Image, Video, Audio" (IVA2) accelerator. These units do not all have the same capabilities. Most devices support 12 megapixel camera images, though some support 5 or 3 megapixels. Some support HD imaging.
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Click to collapse
It is worth mentioning that encoding a (mp4) video is several times harder computational task than decoding it (as in playback). Sure I'm glad and happy for all owners of OMAP3 based smartphones with cameras which can record 720p, or 480p, or 360p or any medium to high bitrate video with their devices -- thanks to DSP HW acceleration of encoding process.
Now, (mp4) video decoding routine is much simpler process, and most important, it doesn't exactly use the same circuitry (the proof is in the possibility of live view while video is recorded on a given OMAP3-based device.) Sure, it doesn't conclusively prove anything, and TI engineers were not exactly helpful in detailing the 3621 IVA2 specs. But in my blog I was writing back in January/February on how smooth Evo's YouTube HQ could play clips searched out by "1080p" "Full HD" "IMAX" and the like keywords. Today, it struggles (loses frames), or refuses to play them.
The adequacy of hardware decoding of at least 480p/720p mp4 on NC was proven back then. Sure, that was Eclair back then, and AOSP 2.3 has NEON framework/hardware Stagefright pipeline broken/unimplemented since -- probably in expectation of Renderscript of Android 3.0 (or 2.4), I don't know
Out of my years (2004 or so) of struggle with mpeg2/mpeg4 decoding of 1080i satellite streams I was of conviction that in HD video rendering the major computational task is a scaling, deinterlacing overlay: once you don't have it in your hardware (shaders of GPU: SGX530 in our case), you have a stuttering, A/V desynced video -- or no video at all. Sure, it was outdated DirectX games back then, but anyway.
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fineoils.blogspot.com
General Comments
I've created this thread to centralize video discussions, tips, issues, etc.
Please limit this only to those running CM7. Something that works or doesn't work in rooted stock or Froyo may have no correlation to CM7 at present. CM7 is using different codecs, different DSP kernel driver, different media backend, and different userspace ALSA.
To start things off I have attached a handbrake profile that has worked well for me.
I will update this post as more specifics are found.
A few things to consider: ALSA
Our ALSA implementation is picky about the buffer size. Other devices that use ALSA in the same fashion have had to reduce their buffer as well. This may be due to a limitation of what can fit in the DMA buffer on the McBSP. Because the ALSA buffer scales with the audio sample rate, I recommend using 44.1K instead of 48K when transcoding videos. This is contrary to every handbrake profile I've seen folks post on XDA for the nook.
CPU Governor
Some people have had better luck with the Conservative CPU governor rather than Ondemand or Interactive.
Bitrate
I have found it best to limit the bitrate to something under 1000kbps.
Resolution
The resolution should always be limited to 854x480. This is the maximum limit for the open source codecs. We do not have a license for 720P codecs yet. Perhaps B&N will get a license for their Froyo update.
dalingrin said:
I recommend using 44.1K instead of 48K when transcoding videos.
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Click to collapse
I concur....I started doing this last night, coupled with a DRC of "3" and sound is better and louder.
360Razir said:
I concur....I started doing this last night, coupled with a DRC of "3" and sound is better and louder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree about DRC. I just updated my profile with dynamic range compression of 2.
Your preset causes an unhandled exemption for me when I load or use it in handbrake. If I try to play what it outputs, it doesn't play in the stock player.
I have to turn off Weighted P-Frames to get the nook to play in hardware (stock player.)
EDIT: Attached my preset. It has all the typical preset stuff, plus 44.1/128 audio like dal recommended, and it doesn't throw a fit when I import or select it in handbrake.
chisleu said:
Your preset causes an unhandled exemption for me when I load or use it in handbrake. If I try to play what it outputs, it doesn't play in the stock player.
I have to turn off Weighted P-Frames to get the nook to play in hardware (stock player.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weighted P-frames are off in my profile.
What version of HandBrake are you using? I have rev3736.
The other thing I have to test is my Droid X. Most of the Handbrake (HB) encoded movies I have were done for my DX last year. Like the NC, I set the movies to 854x480 for my DX and so that makes it nice to be able to test between the two devices.
My DX is now running (leaked) Gingerbread and playing the same videos between the DX and the NC, the DX is so incredibly smooth. No lag. No crackling. No slow-downs. No audio popping. Just buttery smooth. Now, I understand the screen is smaller, but again, same video resolution of the video. Not sure how the "guts" of the DX are vs. that of the NC, though?
However, what I can say, is that back in January when I first got my NC and went with AutoNooter, I was able to take my existing HB-encoded movies that I had lying around for my DX and play them perfectly on rooted stock. Since CM7, out of the 25 or so movies I have for the DX, only 7 of them play on the NC (using Act 1). The NC is picky, indeed.
The quest continues....
dalingrin said:
Weighted P-frames are off in my profile.
What version of HandBrake are you using? I have rev3736.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yours and the other guy's won't load without throwing an exemption which is where my confusion came from in the other thread.
Mine says 3728... it is 0.9.5 and says 2011010300 and says it is the latest when I try to update... going to redownload...
You are on the linux version aren't you?
Here are the videos with their specs that do currently work with Act 1 on my NC:
NOTE: most of my videos that work are in .m4v format. I had removed that setting in HB, but when I did, the video didn't play. I am sure it was probably something else getting in the way, but .m4v just seems solid for me right now, so sticking with that. To each his own.
As you can see from the attachment, the size, bitrate, dimensions, and frame rate are all over the map. Each plays well in Act 1 with Zoom set to "Aspect Full".
I will post my exact HB settings when I have something I have settled on and I am taking the suggestions from this thread, so thanks for that.
chisleu said:
... it is 0.9.5 and says 2011010300 and says it is the latest when I try to update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here....Win7/32-bit
I am attaching my settings for HB that work well for me with regards to full-length movies. Has excellent audio/video sync, with no lag.
Highlights include:
[ Original Presets were taken from Regular > High Profile and then just tweaked accordingly ]
● Picture: Anamorphic Loose
● Video Filters: Off
● Video: H.264, Same as source, 2-Pass Encoding (Turbo 1st), Avg Bitrate (kbps) 2000
● Audio: Source (default), AAC (faac), Stereo, 44.1, 160, DRC = 3.8
● Advanced: B-frames = 0, CABAC & 8x8 & Weighted P-Frames = unchecked
Again, I am using Act 1 with "Zoom" set to Aspect Full.
Please let me know what you think if you dare to try.
EDIT: Video source is a regular DVD, widescreen, ripped into Handbrake directly
The dalingrin presets work for me with the Handbrake svn3907 on Ubuntu. My resulting conversion of my Letterman test video plays fine.
@dalingrin:
Any ideas as to why disabling WiFi would stop the madness of the lagging/stuttering in the video? Was it something my system was doing in the background or one of my widgets fetching data?
Is this just the case for my NC or can this be replicated? Any tests I can run for you to see if it is something you can help with? Thoughts? Thanks.
~ Razir
360Razir said:
Any ideas as to why disabling WiFi would stop the madness of the lagging/stuttering in the video? Was it something my system was doing in the background or one of my widgets fetching data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's always been my guess. Things never quite settle as long as they have access to the network.
Is this just the case for my NC or can this be replicated? Any tests I can run for you to see if it is something you can help with? Thoughts? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Same here. And, it's not just video... it makes Pandora rather unpleasant. Luckily, my primary use case for video is on a plane where network access is unlikely or expensive.
Have you tried using the Conservative governor? It helps my situation.
Some rules for this thread to consider
Let me extend this discussion and propose a few rules for this thread:
1. The source video should be made clear. If you start with poorly encoded video you're obviously going to output something similarly crappy. Provide a link to the file, or upload it yourself and provide a download link. It should be legal, i.e. if you ripped it from your blu-ray, or if you torrented it from somebody else who ripped it from a blu-ray, then it doesn't belong on this thread. My source video will be a 1080p trailer from The Eagle, downloaded (legally) from here: http://www.hd-trailers.net/movie/the-eagle/
2. The encoder and settings should be made clear. I never used Handbrake before, but this morning I downloaded Handbrake 0.9.5 and installed it on my Win7 64-bit desktop. I'm using the preset for "iPhone & iPod Touch". This defaults to H.264 encoding and m4v container. I then adjusted either resolution or average video bit rate but everything else I also left at default, since I mostly don't know what they mean anyway.
3. The player should be made clear. I used Titanium Backup to uninstall Music because of a prior FC issue, then sideloaded music.apk that I pulled from cm_encore_full-37.zip, thus I'm back in business with the stock Video player and no longer using Act 1.
4. Optional: upload your transcoded file and provide a link to it. I've made 2 clips of the eagle trailer which can be downloaded here:
Eagle trailer - 854x352 - 800K: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22573583/Eagle_854x352_800K.m4v
Eagle trailer - 576x240 - 800K: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22573583/Eagle_576x240_800K.m4v
The short of it is that both files play flawlessly on my NC running CM7 n37 with dalingrin OC kernel 040411, overclocked 300/1100 interactive. Here are some notable observations:
- The 480p-ish 854x352 resolution limited by our open-source license plays flawlessly for me up to a video bit rate of 1300K, at which point one or two random split-second audio stutters occur through the clip. You can download my 800K encoded video at this resolution. I've gone up to 3000K at 854x352 resolution with still very smooth playback. I've also been able to play an 800K clip resized to 1024x600, the native NC resolution, flawlessly.
- The 576x240 resolution for me is the sweet spot on the Nook. Text resolution is inferior to 854x352, but the playback is perfect and file size is more accommodating. Stutter-free at 800K (download my Handbrake encoded file if you want), and actually stutter free all the way up to 3000K. What's so incredible is that the high-speed scrub (put finger in middle of screen and slide right or left) at this resolution is buttery-smooth.
- Adjusting the CPU speed up or down and moving around governor setting didn't do anything good or back for video playback. Video playback was just as good at 800MHz as 1100MHz CPU speed.
I'm not an expert on video codecs and encoding, by any means, but I've been around HD-DSLR video and non-linear editing ever since Vince Laforet busted out with Reverie nearly 3 years ago.
I'll stand by my opinion, expressed previously on the kernel thread, that CM7 and dalingrin OC kernel in its current iteration (nightly 37 and 040411) absolutely rocks for properly encoded video.
360Razir said:
@dalingrin:
Any ideas as to why disabling WiFi would stop the madness of the lagging/stuttering in the video? Was it something my system was doing in the background or one of my widgets fetching data?
Is this just the case for my NC or can this be replicated? Any tests I can run for you to see if it is something you can help with? Thoughts? Thanks.
~ Razir
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesnt stop it for me. no wifi. no bt. still stutters randomly on good files.
sinanju said:
Have you tried using the Conservative governor? It helps my situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I saw your post about that from the OC Kernel thread and so that is what I tried last night. It seemed to work at first, but then this morning it was also choppy using that governor. So, being on Interactive with WiFi off works.
My Droid X has many more widgets running and network access (both 3G and WiFi) and there is no hiccups or slowdowns whatsoever playing the same video. I know not apples-to-apples, but the quest is to get my NC to that kind of stability.
MedLine said:
Eagle trailer - 854x352 - 800K
Eagle trailer - 576x240 - 800K
The short of it is that both files play flawlessly on my NC running CM7 n37 with dalingrin OC kernel 040411, overclocked 300/1100 interactive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both of your videos are still choppy for me with WiFi enabled....meaning, something is fetching data in the background (Pulse, Palmary Weather, Plume, Engadget, or Google News, or even email polling) is messing with my video playback. Just wish the video was "shielded" from such things.
When WiFi disabled, all is good with your videos.
Which app you guys using to play videos? I'm using Rockplayer right now and getting audio sync issue. I had better luck with Mobo Player.
OK:
Using Sony's HD Experiment because it is short and high action.
http://www.demo-world.eu/trailers/redirect-high-definition.php?file=hd_other_sony_hd_experiment.rar
Encoding using the iphone and ipod touch preset.
I set 576x240 resolution and I can play completely smoothly with wifi on. File size is 4.44megs w/ RF: 25 (iirc)
I set 854x480 resolution and RF 30 it locks on whatever frame you start playing (black screen, etc.) Won't play. I set 854x480 and 800kbps avg kbps and it is also black screen. If I hit home and then go back and let it go, the video will change, but it doesn't seem like it will catch up. Definately broken.
I downloaded that 1080p trailer you linked.
start handbrake, load 1080p trailer, select "iphone and ipod touch" preset, select 854 width (auto height 368), changed to average kbps and set 800. My file size isn't exactly yours, but is very very close.
854x368 plays very well and looks fantastic, but it does have those pops/skips.
Disable wifi:
still get rare/random skips with my 854 file.
still get rare/random skips with your 854 file.
I turned "Disable Fullscreen" off on a hunch it was play a role in this:
My 854 file still skips from time to time.
My 576 file still skips from time to time, although more rarely. only once in 2 plays.
Your 854 file still skips from time to time.
Your 576 file still skips from time to time, maybe more rarely? Hard to quantify.
I encoded the eagle trailer with my 854 width, RF 25 "high quality" preset.
It is smaller than 800kbps (13.1M vs 18M)
It skips too.
tablo said:
Which app you guys using to play videos? I'm using Rockplayer right now and getting audio sync issue. I had better luck with Mobo Player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are mostly using the stock player because it forces hardware accel.
I prefer VitalPlayer to all. If you are having sync issues it is probably playing in software mode. I should say, VitalPlayer has never given me any sync issues at all while playing in software. Wish I had discovered that before DSP was working. haha
I'm running vegan tab gingerbread edition and flash works great, can play video through browser even with the default flash app found through the market. But I was wondering if its possible to get quality over 480P?
Thanks
Flash performance
I don't know of any Android devices that can credibly play flash videos in a browser at resolutions higher than 480p; some not even that dense. This has more to do with the underlying .flv format and Adobe's code implementation of Flash than with the device. My Galaxy Tab 10.1 will just barely do 480p inside a browser window - maybe 10-15 FPS if the content has substantial movement. But it can play it's own 720p videos at full frame rate without issue.
Part of the problem is, Android is an operating system, not a platform in the way that iOS+iPad hardware is. This leaves every phone and tablet manufacturer free to choose from a variety of processor and video implementations. This is one of the things I like most about Android - choice, and freedom (as in speech). But like any freedom, this one comes at a price, and that is the need for software developers to support a wide range of hardware implementations. This is not much of a problem for Angry Birds, but it is a huge problem for Adobe because the decoding of flash video is computationally intensive.
If Flash was open source the community would solve the problem, in the same way that the Linux Kernel runs on many platforms today. But the codecs involved in Flash (VP6, Sorenson H.263, H.264) are all protected by patent, and that makes open source a non-viable solution.
Adobe has not done a great job implementing Flash video for Android, in part I think because they know the war is already lost. The number of iPads in the wild (pushing 20 million this year, I think) and Apple's refusal to run Flash means that alternate solutions like HTML5 and custom video apps (think Hulu Plus or Netflix) will be developed no matter what Adobe does. So why pour money down a black hole?
Hopefully this will get better, as I would like to be able to watch 720p video on my 720p device using Flash. But I just don't think it is going to happen.
HTC sensation and Samsung galaxy s2 working 1080p plays video youtube....
My Samsung captivate with apex 9.3 with talon kernel can play 1080p on YouTube with dolphin hd. But my g tablet can only 720 poorly. But with Mx player I can watch 720p mkv,Avi, and mp4 no problem.
Edit: With Calkulin+Clemsyn 1.5ghz Froyo Combo 1.2 version 6, I was able to watch hd reviews on gametrailers. Even non overclocked using dolphin hd and latest flash from market.
XBMC works fine on my Nook Color, see details here: http://fineoils.blogspot.com
Has anyone got XBMC working? I installed the correct files from the link. After the initial loading screen, I just get a black screen. Using the 1/6/13 nightly. Any help would be appreciated.
emax said:
Has anyone got XBMC working? I installed the correct files from the link. After the initial loading screen, I just get a black screen. Using the 1/6/13 nightly. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is 1/4/2013, but if it's not later than 1/12/2013 I think it doesn't matter. I also don't use 1100 kernel which was a reason for too much sorrow with apps, especially with 3rd party apps. For the XBMC on Android, there are some self-help forums popping up. Then, a good XBMC installation may take quite a time for online updating of video add-ons at the first start. Mine get stable after maybe 5 minutes. Every second start and launching other (new) add-on (apart from obvious 1Channel) takes more time.
Then, MX Player should be installed and tuned up first. It also should be started and exited prior to launching XBMC.
Then, tons of streams may not be there at a given time, or at all.
XBMC also works fine on my Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P1010 (WiFi-only model) running Irish Gingerbread. No HW rendering though.
aludal said:
XBMC also works fine on my Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P1010 (WiFi-only model) running Irish Gingerbread. No HW rendering though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has any of that been integrated into the XMBC nightly, or do your directions still apply for the latest nightlies?
I didn't use XBMC nightlies, I used xbmcandroid.com unofficial build + NEON MX Player of (I think) mid-January. They might have some better builds in their main trunks, but I don't believe these offer anything of HW rendering for TI OMAP3621 as it's above our SoC capabilities once the stream has above 480p resolution or too high bandwidth whatever hits first. Some 720p streams/static files play good enough (22...27 FPS) in SW decoding mode, but that's it, end of a story for poor Nookie.
I might be interested in XBMC-Android + BS Player combos once there will be indications that BS Player can buffer/decode better than MX Player.
TI OMAP3630 in my SGT P1010 is totally equal to Nookie in XBMC handling terms, and there's not a single line of code in GB Android for IVA2 that is replaced with something better in CM10.1 (JB) that I run now in my Nook.