[Q] Mkv support ?? - Xperia Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Currently owning a vodafone smart II (really sluggish) , and I just found out this marvelous mobile . Well that said my only concern is will it play mkv on its default player ? I double checked their site (Sony) and found none info listed. Tried google and nada nada ... Well seeing this mobile has potential would be nice to know it supports MKV natively... Any one knows something please ????

zalman360 said:
Currently owning a vodafone smart II (really sluggish) , and I just found out this marvelous mobile . Well that said my only concern is will it play mkv on its default player ? I double checked their site (Sony) and found none info listed. Tried google and nada nada ... Well seeing this mobile has potential would be nice to know it supports MKV natively... Any one knows something please ????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it will Xperia 2012 devices already support mkv files
Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

It plays MKV out of the box, but audio support may be an issues. Either way MX Player plays MKV fine with support for most audio formats.

MKV is just a container so the real question would be it's audio and video codec.
Xperia Z/ZL or any high end android phones only support H.263, H.264, DivX, Xvid, 3GPP, 3GP2 I think that should be all the video codec it support. But as the other poster said... Just download MX Video player I use that over any stock video player 99% of the time.

MKV's work, but there are limitations. You can't select what audio track to play, it just uses whatever default track there is. Secondly there is a somewhat limited codec support. Many higher quality MKV's you find in less legal places of the interwebs use AC3 (Dolby) or DTS (or their HD variants) audio codecs which aren't supported. As far as I know it'll only play files with audio in MP3 or AAC, and I'm not sure about multi-channel AAC. Subtitles won't work either. And then some MKV files just randomly refuse to play, but I haven't identified what causes that problem.
There are two solutions:
Either just play everything with MX Player, with the HW or HW+ decoders you still have full hardware support and the benefits of Bravia Engine combined with full support for pretty much all audio codecs, multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitle tracks.
The other solution is to use software to remove unused audio tracks from your MKV's and if necessary recode your preferred audio track to stereo AAC. By far the best software to do that is Avidemux. It allows you to delete and recode streams without affecting other streams. Basically that means you can remove audio tracks you don't need and recode the one you want without having to recode the video, which is extremely fast and with recent CPU's only limited by the disk read/write speed.

Ambroos said:
MKV's work, but there are limitations. You can't select what audio track to play, it just uses whatever default track there is. Secondly there is a somewhat limited codec support. Many higher quality MKV's you find in less legal places of the interwebs use AC3 (Dolby) or DTS (or their HD variants) audio codecs which aren't supported. As far as I know it'll only play files with audio in MP3 or AAC, and I'm not sure about multi-channel AAC. Subtitles won't work either. And then some MKV files just randomly refuse to play, but I haven't identified what causes that problem.
There are two solutions:
Either just play everything with MX Player, with the HW or HW+ decoders you still have full hardware support and the benefits of Bravia Engine combined with full support for pretty much all audio codecs, multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitle tracks.
The other solution is to use software to remove unused audio tracks from your MKV's and if necessary recode your preferred audio track to stereo AAC. By far the best software to do that is Avidemux. It allows you to delete and recode streams without affecting other streams. Basically that means you can remove audio tracks you don't need and recode the one you want without having to recode the video, which is extremely fast and with recent CPU's only limited by the disk read/write speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow such a huge explanation given , well I think my rips combined with MX player will do the trick then and that Avidemux is a little nice tool.
Thanks all ya for your reply , always appreciated.

Related

[Q] Tegra 2 Optimized MKV Player for Xoom?

OK, I've read every thread I can find on XDA on the subject, and it appears that the LG phones have a GPU-optimized video player, but otherwise there is nothing out there that really takes advantage of the Tegra 2 for playback of MKV files. Is that correct?
Most of my files are 720 or 1080 MKV with embedded subtitles. So far the best response I have gotten has been from QQplayer. I tried Moboplayer with the ARM7 codec it sends you to, but could never convince it to show the subtitles.
So what are YOU using to play such files (if anything)? Please also share your settings in case the problem is user error at my end
TIA!
I use PLEX to stream my 720p and 1080p mkv files.
If I need to stored the files on the xoom, i normally convert them to mp4 format using HandBrake.
i havent found a good mkv player for the xoom yet.. i am a VLC kinda guy on my PC and i havent found anything that compares to it...
I use xilisoft ultimate to convert to mp4 for native playback on the xoom
If you haven't bought Plex you have no idea what its like to play MKVs on your device
Plex provides better quality and performance than any other app.
I use Plex but the quality is not the same as if I play the same video (4GB 720p MKV) on the PC.
But one thing is sure, gets the job DONE.
My comments on plex WRT the ASUS transformer:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=13480404&highlight=plex#post13480404
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=13712848&highlight=plex#post13712848
I have found that 3.1 actually does contain enough matroska container parsing (Probably due to WebM) to play any MKV files that would normally play when re-muxed to MP4 however the mimetype and file extension don't appear to be plumbed in. So as long as the audio is AAC or MP3, the video is h.264 and the bitrate/profile/resolution is ok to play then simply renaming the file to add on .mp4 (so the native video player doesn't object to the filename) then launching the video file from a file manager and just choosing "Video player" plays just fine.
Plex is a streamer, we need a local player that's better then Mobo or Rockplayer.
Plex is awesome, but it still won't the display .srt subtitles. I've tried RockPlayer, but it won't play everything.
SilentMobius said:
I have found that 3.1 actually does contain enough matroska container parsing (Probably due to WebM) to play any MKV files that would normally play when re-muxed to MP4 however the mimetype and file extension don't appear to be plumbed in. So as long as the audio is AAC or MP3, the video is h.264 and the bitrate/profile/resolution is ok to play then simply renaming the file to add on .mp4 (so the native video player doesn't object to the filename) then launching the video file from a file manager and just choosing "Video player" plays just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this in 3.01 and it didn't work but I'll give it a go on 3.1. If this works...!!
I started with rockplayer but then I moved to Vplayer.
Vplayer is awesome all the mkv files with subtitles that rockplayer couldn't handle, vplayer played it like a champ.
Plus i use remote potato to stream my stuff from my home PC and vplayer has been the only player to handle the task.
I still do Moboplayer it works for everything I need. When the MKV files I have don't show the subs I back out and long hold on the file and select Soft Decode which always kicks the subs in for me. Try that and see if it works for you.
Is my Xoom the only one that stutters when it's playing 720P movie on either MoboPlayer or RockPlayer?
I have not found any player that can play mkv file perfectly!
Yesterday, i tested with 1 mkv file, 720p, ac3 audio, size=1.5 Gb, both rockplayer and moboplayer could play that movie very smooth and showed subtitle correctly, but there was no sound!
When i switched to "software decode" mode, sound was fine, but video was very laggy!
Unfortunately none of the players allow mixed mode rendering, as hardware for the video is a go, but there is no hardware (or OS level) support for AC3 audio. Honestly, Android still has a ways to go as far as video codec and container support is concerned.
Just got a Xoom yesterday and have tried about 10 different players...
BS Player was the ONLY one that worked well.
kruegz said:
Just got a Xoom yesterday and have tried about 10 different players...
BS Player was the ONLY one that worked well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my G2x, also Tegra 2, I use MX Video player, and the codex required for ARMv7
Sent from Narnia
Old ass thread, but use DICE Player. You'll thank me later.
brandogg said:
Old ass thread, but use DICE Player. You'll thank me later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 DicePlayer is awesome and it supports HW Acceleration
Nobody uses MX Video Player? Found it last year when I wanted to play some anime on my Evo 3D, worked like a charm, and has a separate plugin for device-specific support. Works flawlessly using software decoding, only played 480p videos so far though, supposedly works perfectly using hardware decoding on 720/1080 videos, somebody give it a shot and lemme know
I use Mx Video Player its got best interface and plays most videos and h/w support for 720p videos 1080 is pushing to the limits for Xoom.

MKV

Im using the stock rom but i cant play mkv files with any video player wtf? None of the players can see the mkv files only my 3gp and mp4 files show up.
your point being????????
Maybe he means "can't" ?
Yes i meant cant.
try this, you will need somthing like root explorer to put it in system/app if it doesn't install automatically.
it's the newest one pulled from Gr2, and it defo works because I have recently watched the Khan fight which was in .MKV 720p
Tried this in CM7 and it do work indeed
Sent from my Optimus 2X using Tapatalk
try this, you will need somthing like root explorer to put it in system/app if it doesn't install automatically.
it's the newest one pulled from Gr2, and it defo works because I have recently watched the Khan fight which was in .MKV 720p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why can't i get it to work, or push it with root explorer, its install fine but i can't see the videoplayer ?
Actually I cant see the videoplayer too but the codecs there so I just use the other videoplayers.
Sent from my Optimus 2X using Tapatalk
This thread is not informative enough: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1183398 ?
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk
Kickasskev said:
try this, you will need somthing like root explorer to put it in system/app if it doesn't install automatically.
it's the newest one pulled from Gr2, and it defo works because I have recently watched the Khan fight which was in .MKV 720p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wont allow me to install it.
The issue here is not the video player application, but the codecs installed on the device. Are you sure you're using the latest rom?
Sckank said:
Tried this in CM7 and it do work indeed
Sent from my Optimus 2X using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? 720p mkv works on CM? When and how did that happen?
ergoen said:
The issue here is not the video player application, but the codecs installed on the device. Are you sure you're using the latest rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im using the latest stock rom yes.
Well, to be honest, most mkvs don't play well at all on lateststock rom, you need gingerbread for that. Those with header compression/header stripping enabled don't play at all, you can check this using for example mediainfo ( http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net ), and even those without it usually lag horribly and/or crash the media player for me. So you're not missing a working feature.
Ok now iv got a 720p mkv video running using mx videoplayers, runs pretty well both sound and video, some very very minor video distrotion on occasion but nothing serious, stock video player says unknown video format or something.
I thought the lg video player was supposed to support mkv natively.
it does support it natively. but as stagefright is enabled by default, mkv playback is broken. disabling it allowed me to play mkv's on stock player. i had to put the following strings in my o2x's build.prop to make it work.
media.stagefright.enable-player=false
media.stagefright.enable-meta=false
media.stagefright.enable-scan=false
media.stagefright.enable-http=true
media.stagefright.enable-rtsp=false
eraldo said:
Wont allow me to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
make sure you are rooted and unknown sources enabled
noxxious said:
it does support it natively. but as stagefright is enabled by default, mkv playback is broken. disabling it allowed me to play mkv's on stock player. i had to put the following strings in my o2x's build.prop to make it work.
media.stagefright.enable-player=false
media.stagefright.enable-meta=false
media.stagefright.enable-scan=false
media.stagefright.enable-http=true
media.stagefright.enable-rtsp=false
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Because mine plays mkvs (rather poorly) without any modifications to anything, I'll try this later and see if there is a difference!
Lets clear up a few things here
support for the mkv containter are fully supported by the native LG mediaplayer in the latest firmware (v10c/d), but not in the previous firmwares.
If one has the latest firmware, then nothing needs to be done to enable mkv playback.
If the native LG mediaplayer do not show mkv files in the media list at all, then one does not have the latest firmware !
If the native LG mediaplayer do show the mkv files in the media list, but complain when trying to play the files, then the mkv files contain some video or audio format which is not supported. For instance are DTS audio not supported, thus trying to play an mkv with a DTS audio track will not work. Propably AC3/DD are not supported either, or flac. An mkv can also contain a non supported videoformat. In other words, if the files do not show then its wrong firmware, if they do show but dont play, then its not because mkv are not supported but because some video or audiotrack inside the mkv are not supported.
support for mkv are not a codec question, since mkv are just a container and not a video format. Codecs are used to decode video (and audio) formats. Parsing containers like mkv are just a matter of having a parsing filter and support for the extension .mkv in the media build properties. Codecs are used to decode the video and audio formats inside the container after the parsing filter has parsed the container and send the video and audioformats to the decoders.
The typical videoformat inside mkv are h264/mpeg-4 (but can be many other formats also), this format has allways been supported on all firmwares but only inside mp4 containers up untill the latest firmware, the only thing new in the latest firmware in this regard, are the addition of a parsing filter for the mkv container.
For best playback of mkv (and the h264 video inside) only the native mediaplayer should be used, because the hardware acceleration from the Tegra chip is needed and most third party media players do not have full access to this hardware acceleration Instead they use software decoders which are not as effective. A few third party media players do have hardware acceleration, but they dont offer any better playback than the default LG mediaplayer because when hardware acceleration is used then it makes no difference which media player interface is used to call it. The playback quality will be identical, therefore there are no point in using third party mediaplayers except for playing other types of videofiles which the native mediaplayer do not support at all, but may be supported by the software decoders in the third party player. But for supported files the default LG player will play as good or better as third party players.
If playback of an mkv containing a typical h264/mpeg-4 videotrack plays poorly, with video distortion/pixelation or other problems, then its because the video has been encoded with to high encoding levels. Most pirated 720p/1080p rips in mkv that people download from the internet are encoded using higher encoding levels than what is supported by the Tegra chip - typically they are encoded in profile level [email protected] and the Tegra chip only support up to [email protected] for 1080p and possibly [email protected] for 720p
If playback are poor because of to high encoding profiles have been used, or the mkv contain some non supported video/audiotrack, then the only sollution are a reencoding of video and/or audiotrack to a supported format using a supported encoding profile setting.
read more on h264 and encoding profiles here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC
and use media info to get information about your mkv files regarding video and audio formats inside, and which encoding profile has been used to encode video with
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/
Thanks for the informative post spawndk!

[Q] Encoding Video for Nexus One

I have some movies that I'd like to encode for playback on my Nexus One using Handbrake or some other type of freeware. What format is best to use with the Nexus One, that would give the best playback performance. I assume there must be some type of format that is natively supported, or hardware accelerated.
A google search should probably pull up that info, but I stopped worrying about that a long time ago. I just switched to Mobo Player and now never worry about encoding video. It will play anything.
So I assume from searching that MP4 is the preferred method of encoding, but what about the sound? Just looking for some more details on this.
Well, mp4 is just a container. It doesn't tell you about the video nor the audio codec used in the video file. You can try recording a video and then viewing the codecs used in making that video.

[Q] What video formats/containers can be harware decoded by HTC One?

Hi all
SGS IV looks like complete s*it. So now the only thing that stops me from buying HTC One this year is format support. Heard that it can't hardware decode mkv, is it true? I dodn't mean out of the box but any player like MX or BS. They both have hardware+ decoders that may somehow help with mkv.
MKV is not a video format but a container so I guess it depends on what type of format it was encoded.
Regarding full video formats supported HTC said it is
3gp, 3gpp, 3gp2, mp4, avi(dix, vidx), h264, webm & WMV
I know mkv is a container, but h.264 video decoding is implemented in many previous htc flagship chipsets (e.g. in HTS One X), though mkv can't be hardware decoded on these devices even with 3rd party players (judjing by responses on One X). The same in apple devices. There are no apps that could simply on the fly demux mkv and hardware decode h.264 video stream. Are there anybody who already owes the device and could run the test with any 1080p rip or beter BD remux in mkv?
Amaj7 said:
I know mkv is a container, but h.264 video decoding is implemented in many previous htc flagship chipsets (e.g. in HTS One X), though mkv can't be hardware decoded on these devices even with 3rd party players (judjing by responses on One X). The same in apple devices. There are no apps that could simply on the fly demux mkv and hardware decode h.264 video stream. Are there anybody who already owes the device and could run the test with any 1080p rip or beter BD remux in mkv?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry I would like to revise my previous statement it doesn't support xvid, divx And yeah doesn't also support MKV. But Xperia Z does.
My stock video player won't play .mkv files correctly (no sound), nor will DicePlayer which I'm very surprised about.
MX Player works perfectly - in the Settings I have the video set to H/W and the audio set to S/W - and now my 720p .mkv files run buttery smooth and are pin sharp.
delboy98 said:
My stock video player won't play .mkv files correctly (no sound), nor will DicePlayer which I'm very surprised about.
MX Player works perfectly - in the Settings I have the video set to H/W and the audio set to S/W - and now my 720p .mkv files run buttery smooth and are pin sharp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great then... nothing to worry about
darkgoon3r96 said:
Great then... nothing to worry about
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well yes, that I figured out as well, that MKV, and AVI (divx-xvid) is not supported, but only those which are encoded with AC3
Because of this, some youtube videos are not played, or sorry..played but without any sound....furthermore, when I try to stream anything via DLNA (samsung allshare runs on the pc and or Router) then I cannot watch them...its kinda annoying....
do you have any solution for this? like installing codecs?
Thanks ...only because of this I would not choose the galaxy s4...and I dont want to convert any video I have...
Thanks !
zimilaci said:
Well yes, that I figured out as well, that MKV, and AVI (divx-xvid) is not supported, but only those which are encoded with AC3
Because of this, some youtube videos are not played, or sorry..played but without any sound....furthermore, when I try to stream anything via DLNA (samsung allshare runs on the pc and or Router) then I cannot watch them...its kinda annoying....
do you have any solution for this? like installing codecs?
Thanks ...only because of this I would not choose the galaxy s4...and I dont want to convert any video I have...
Thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that MX Player supports some additional codecs
MacHackz said:
I know that MX Player supports some additional codecs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, I found out as well, but my main problem is:
When I am trying to play video on my HTC ONE using DLNA (which is hosted, operated on my PC) the videos which are using or coded with AC3
audio, they...just won't play....
As far as I know mxplayer does not have DLNA support....but correct me if I am wrong... and also what would you do with the youtube videos ?#
After contacting HTC, they just told me sorry these formats are not supported.... I hope it will be only a matter of an update...cause its kinda annoying that you can put any files on a galaxy s4 or galaxy s3...and just play it with the default app...
A little update on this... I manage to make an mkv movie play on the stock player. However the audio codec is not supported. So I think MKV is supported. DivX and Xvid are the only codecs that's not working.
Riyal said:
A little update on this... I manage to make an mkv movie play on the stock player. However the audio codec is not supported. So I think MKV is supported. DivX and Xvid are the only codecs that's not working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well playing mkv, or avi is not an issue, but it plays without sound (due to the missing AC3) codec, mxplayer must be installed and its good to gooo with hw+ and its perfect, I even found a solution for the DLNA thingy.
Now I just need to get use to the camera, which is perfect on the display, but less perfect on the pc

[Q] why is google shying away from playing all video formats in chromecast??

hi
has any one got an opinion why chromecast despite having the required hardware to play many more video formats is not given the ability to do so??
mahi98 said:
hi
has any one got an opinion why chromecast despite having the required hardware to play many more video formats is not given the ability to do so??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Licensing of Codecs for one....
Understand that CCast is really meant to be an HTML5 appliance so it is built to play anything that is HTML5 compatible and that leaves a lot of codecs off the supported list because they are old and inefficient or not suited for streaming over WiFi.
The device is simply not meant to be a ROKU, it is a device that is meant to put Web content onto a big screen and not much more.
If you want more features and video support then AndroidTV is probably the device you are looking for.
It's not like Roku plays a lot of formats either - just mp4 with the standard expected codecs and a small subset of mkv files that happen to be compatible.
I just don't worry about it. I mostly play downloaded files via Plex, relying on Plex to do the transcoding. I only check out the actual file format if Plex seems to be stumbling over some HD file with a rare slow codec. In that case I run it through a video converter utility with hardware GPU acceleration on my desktop PC that can convert a 1-hour video to standard mp4 in about 60 seconds. Problem solved.
DJames1 said:
It's not like Roku plays a lot of formats either - just mp4 with the standard expected codecs and a small subset of mkv files that happen to be compatible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aren't mp4 and MKV containers? Meaning two different mkv files could use two different codecs (the reason why *some* mkv files are compatible and other are not).
Like you, I use Plex or Allcast and let them do the transcoding. I haven't run into many issues with this approach.
That's correct, but you'd find that most mp4 files today consistently use H.264 as the video codec and stereo AAC as the audio codec. It's possible to use other codecs in an mp4 files, but with so many devices that will play standard mp4s and most of them choking on any unexpected codec it's just easiest to stick to the standard. mkv files tend to have more variety, so a large percentage of them will fail on devices like the Roku or Chromecast that support a very narrow range of codecs and format variations. For example an extra track of chapter marks or an extra audio track will cause many devices to fail even though these are allowed within both the mkv and mp4 container format.
DJames1 said:
It's not like Roku plays a lot of formats either - just mp4 with the standard expected codecs and a small subset of mkv files that happen to be compatible.
I just don't worry about it. I mostly play downloaded files via Plex, relying on Plex to do the transcoding. I only check out the actual file format if Plex seems to be stumbling over some HD file with a rare slow codec. In that case I run it through a video converter utility with hardware GPU acceleration on my desktop PC that can convert a 1-hour video to standard mp4 in about 60 seconds. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but the main focus of the Roku is for Alternative video where as the CCast will play video but is designed more as a Web Content device.
This is why the Roku all have wired network connections (recent dongle excluded of course as it is meant to compete with CCast.)
Roku supports more merely because it has the App support.
There is nothing to stop someone like MX Player from making a receiver app that will add codec and container support to the CCast.
What is keeping some developers away is the convoluted discovery and control protocol needed.
Roku doesn't need any of that so they can just focus on the player code cause the remote does the navigation for them.
And in time as more support for the CCast comes around you will find that killer receiver app made that supports more codecs and containers and if the folks at plex are smart they will either license it or make it themselves!
99% of their complaints could all be handled better and go away with a little work on the player side.

Categories

Resources