Since there has been a bunch of conflicting and negative reports on the HTC Evo's HDMI output, I figured I'd shoot a video so you all can see my pretty favorable experiences with the Evo's HDMI out. The YouTube video here is itself shot at 720p so make sure you enable that when viewing, so you can see more of the detail.
In the video I show playback of animated short, Big Buck Bunny and the trailers for Avatar, Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3, and Toy Story 3--all are HD videos encoded to 720p resolution (and roughly 5.5 Mbps bitrate) using Handbrake. I also show a quick demo of the "HQ" Youtube playback over HDMI. In sum, the HD video playback is solid and performs quite well with no noticeable glitches or framedrops. But I'll let you guys see that for yourself:
Observations
It works, and it works well. I know there's been some skepticism about the HD out (e.g., http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/84380-poor-hdmi-review-evo.html ) and people on this forum appear to have varying levels of success with the HD out. All I can say is that when it works (as it does for me) it works well. One could easily throw some movies onto the Evo and take it to a friend's house for some HD movie watching.
There appear to be three potential variables for why HDMI output over the Evo isn't working well: the TV, the cable, and the media used. As far as the TV goes, it seems like it needs to be able to accept a 480p signal over HDMI for Youtube to work. I've also read some threads of users complaining that the cable they have doesn't work -- mine seems to be ok, it may be a cable problem, or it may be a TV problem in disguise. Lastly, the media needs to be encoded at the proper resolution, using the right container, the right h.264 profile (baseline), and a suitable bitrate (Evo manual specifies 6 Mbps or lower). I'm still experimenting with what Handbrake settings and bitrate works the best, but so far things look pretty good.
I've got an HTPC hooked up to the TV as well, so I might do some comparison videos between Evo output and output from an HTPC. Also I can demo video shot with the Evo over the TV if that's something people are looking for.
Feel free to ask questions here, and I'll do my best to answer them. If you found this overview and video helpful, feel free to throw a "Thanks" my way
Prior reviews/demos of the Evo HDMI out:
Hardware:
I'm using an Amzer Micro HDMI cable (cable says v.1.3) purchased on eBay from "wireless4cheap." The seller took a significantly long time to ship (two weeks), but he at least included a free screen protector. There have been reports of people with cables purchased from this seller that haven't worked, so take that into consideration as well.
Shot with a Panasonic Lumix LX3 @ 720p.
Television used is a 55" Vizio VF551XVT that was purchased late November 2009.
In the video I show playback of animated short, Big Buck Bunny and the trailers for Avatar, Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3, and Toy Story 3--all are HD videos encoded to 720p resolution (and roughly 5.5 Mbps bitrate) using Handbrake. I also show a quick demo of the "HQ" Youtube playback over HDMI. In sum, the HD video playback is solid and performs quite well with no noticeable glitches or framedrops. But I'll let you guys see that for yourself:
Observations
It works, and it works well. I know there's been some skepticism about the HD out (e.g., http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/84380-poor-hdmi-review-evo.html ) and people on this forum appear to have varying levels of success with the HD out. All I can say is that when it works (as it does for me) it works well. One could easily throw some movies onto the Evo and take it to a friend's house for some HD movie watching.
There appear to be three potential variables for why HDMI output over the Evo isn't working well: the TV, the cable, and the media used. As far as the TV goes, it seems like it needs to be able to accept a 480p signal over HDMI for Youtube to work. I've also read some threads of users complaining that the cable they have doesn't work -- mine seems to be ok, it may be a cable problem, or it may be a TV problem in disguise. Lastly, the media needs to be encoded at the proper resolution, using the right container, the right h.264 profile (baseline), and a suitable bitrate (Evo manual specifies 6 Mbps or lower). I'm still experimenting with what Handbrake settings and bitrate works the best, but so far things look pretty good.
I've got an HTPC hooked up to the TV as well, so I might do some comparison videos between Evo output and output from an HTPC. Also I can demo video shot with the Evo over the TV if that's something people are looking for.
Feel free to ask questions here, and I'll do my best to answer them. If you found this overview and video helpful, feel free to throw a "Thanks" my way
Prior reviews/demos of the Evo HDMI out:
- Hands-on with the HTC Evo 4G's HDMI-out | Crave - CNET
- Hands On: HTC EVO 4G's HDMI Cable | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
- Hands-on HDMI out with the Sprint EVO – Android and Me
- Video - HTC EVO 4G (Supersonic) HDMI demo - Phones
Hardware:
I'm using an Amzer Micro HDMI cable (cable says v.1.3) purchased on eBay from "wireless4cheap." The seller took a significantly long time to ship (two weeks), but he at least included a free screen protector. There have been reports of people with cables purchased from this seller that haven't worked, so take that into consideration as well.
Shot with a Panasonic Lumix LX3 @ 720p.
Television used is a 55" Vizio VF551XVT that was purchased late November 2009.
