HDMI output

dantheman4162 · December 21st, 2011, 11:13 PM

Tonight I tried to output a movie I was streaming via Motocast to my tv from my Razr. I used a micro HDMI cord and hooked it up to the tv. The image was incredibly grainy, black was grey and everything was at best standard tv/VHS quality. One of the movies was 720 and that was slightly clearer, but the dvd quality movies were almost unwatchable. One of the movies was in avi format and the other was mp4. On the droid screen, both movies appears rich and near-high quality. I couldn't output any movies stored locally on the razr, they were avi and the phone gave me an error.

Is this a setting issue? Did I buy a crappy HDMI cord? Any suggestions or opinions?

Brickman · December 22nd, 2011, 08:03 AM

I have the HDMI docking station and only have this issue when I streaming a poor quality video in the first place. The quality you will see on the screen is only going to be as good as the video compression its self. It cannot make an already crappy video look better. My suggestion is to make sure you are streaming an HD quality movie or clip and you will not have the issue. When I stream movies in HD the quality is as good as my Comcast on demand or by blueray disks. Both avi and mp4 are compressed formats that are going to sacrafice picture quality in the compression process.

lowboydrvr · December 22nd, 2011, 09:00 AM

I believe that without a docking station, connecting HDMI directly from Razr to TV simply enlarges the Razr screen to fit the TV, it doesn't actually convert the image for playback on the TV. From my understanding, using the Desktop mode (via the dock), actually converts the video so that it looks good (not just blowing it up to fit the screen).

RandolphNY · December 22nd, 2011, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowboydrvr

I believe that without a docking station, connecting HDMI directly from Razr to TV simply enlarges the Razr screen to fit the TV, it doesn't actually convert the image for playback on the TV. From my understanding, using the Desktop mode (via the dock), actually converts the video so that it looks good (not just blowing it up to fit the screen).

Would like to hear other thoughts. I have only tried it once with netflix and agree that it wasn't what I expected via hdmi.

rushmore · December 22nd, 2011, 10:11 AM

Netflix looked great on a 24" display with 4G, but not tried a bigger one.

Brickman · December 22nd, 2011, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowboydrvr

I believe that without a docking station, connecting HDMI directly from Razr to TV simply enlarges the Razr screen to fit the TV, it doesn't actually convert the image for playback on the TV. From my understanding, using the Desktop mode (via the dock), actually converts the video so that it looks good (not just blowing it up to fit the screen).

I'm not an expert by any means, but the time it takes to convert video streams is not instantanious. I do not see how a dock and a cable can convert anything. I can find no information online anywhere that would give me the impression that the razr or the HD doc is capable of doing this. The quality you get out will be no better than what goes in. Once the compression of a video or audio feed is complete, the information lost is not recoverable or convertable. It may be able to maxamize some of the information and enhance the picture, but it cannot create information that isn't there. I suggest that you rip your movies in a higher quality video file for videos that you want to store on your phone. Crap in crap out. It really is that simple.

dantheman4162 · December 22nd, 2011, 03:42 PM

Well, so one of the movies I watched was "crap". It was definitely dvd quality, but not HD. The second movie was 720p and even that was highly pixilated, for example a 2 inch "V" in the opening credits was jagged pretty substantially.

I even tried an HD youtube video and that definitely barely passed for low def. Oh well. The tv was 40 inches i think? Maybe thats why. I'll try it again on a monitor.

designer43 · January 18th, 2012, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dantheman4162

Well, so one of the movies I watched was "crap". It was definitely dvd quality, but not HD. The second movie was 720p and even that was highly pixilated, for example a 2 inch "V" in the opening credits was jagged pretty substantially.

I even tried an HD youtube video and that definitely barely passed for low def. Oh well. The tv was 40 inches i think? Maybe thats why. I'll try it again on a monitor.

Record HD (widescreen) with rear camera, and play it thru cable. Mine looks good, but my 37" Westinghouse reports 720 but not 1080 and I don't know why.