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Help Droid X MKV performance

yawdapaah

Android Expert
Aug 20, 2009
900
288
NJ
Is anyone able to play MKV on their phones? I've tried a couple videos and the screen is almost completely grayed out. Those videos were at 720p. I'm wondering if there's anyway around this (I kind of bought the droid x for MKV playback).
I've seen the Galaxy S play 1080p MKV. Is it's GPU that much more powerful?


Edit:
I've also tried a 480 mkv file. And I used both Rockplayer and YX Flash but no dice.
 
No, MKV's are not supported, though I don't see why you would even attempt to load one up when they are at least 3gb +.

Here's a link describing Rockplayer: RockPlayer Media Player Beta For Android
Quote from that link: "In case you're wondering why you should give it a try, it offers support for a wide range of video formats which includes AVI, MKV, MP4, FLV, 3GP, MOV, ASF, DivX, Xvid, and H.264."

However, in my quick Googling, I didn't find anything saying YXFlash plays mkvs. I'm not sure why Rockplayer would be having an issue though.
 
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I tried to play a 720p feature film .mkv with Rock Player. I played but was choppy. Now, it may have been the older version of Rock Player I was using (haven't tried the new one) or it may have been the slightly weaker GPU on the DX as opposed to the Galaxy.

I would lean more towards a different explanation than the GPU: I'm betting that the app itself isn't completely optimized yet. The 720p video taken on the camera apparently plays back correctly (right?... I think I read that). I'm not a video codec or quality buff so I don't know if there are other differences that I should be taking into account, but until I hear otherwise I'm going to assume the issue is with Rockplayer, not the GPU (Rockplayer is relatively new isn't it?)
 
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I would lean more towards a different explanation than the GPU: I'm betting that the app itself isn't completely optimized yet. The 720p video taken on the camera apparently plays back correctly (right?... I think I read that). I'm not a video codec or quality buff so I don't know if there are other differences that I should be taking into account, but until I hear otherwise I'm going to assume the issue is with Rockplayer, not the GPU (Rockplayer is relatively new isn't it?)

You're probably correct, but I would be that the 720 video taken with the phone is a lot more compressed than a .mkv. I could be wrong though.
 
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I don't think the phone can handle it... I tried converting an 720p mkv to mp4 (high quality, but down to appropriate size--tv show, 30 mins) and the phone would not play it without losing video/audio sync. The sound was not matching up with the video, I tried several video players with the same result. When I dragged the original file to the Droid (Win7) it asked me to convert, I said, what the heck, and let it convert, that played fine, but it had a green stripe going horizontally across the screen.
 
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I took a 720p avi of ghostbusters, dropped the audio quality on it (to reduce file size) and it plays perfectly on our DXs.. both Ghostbusters I and II.

The DX does not have a 720p display though, so the phone is actually downsizing the video on the fly to play it.. you need to really drop the video size to fit on the display to keep the file sizes as low as possible, but also keep the best quality.
 
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I don't think the phone can handle it... I tried converting an 720p mkv to mp4 (high quality, but down to appropriate size--tv show, 30 mins) and the phone would not play it without losing video/audio sync. The sound was not matching up with the video, I tried several video players with the same result. When I dragged the original file to the Droid (Win7) it asked me to convert, I said, what the heck, and let it convert, that played fine, but it had a green stripe going horizontally across the screen.

I take it that it played correctly on your computer after converting? The reason I ask is b/c some programs are known to cause the audio and video to unsync in certain situations.

I would try converting to something like a .avi with similar quality and see what happens.
 
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I take it that it played correctly on your computer after converting? The reason I ask is b/c some programs are known to cause the audio and video to unsync in certain situations.

I would try converting to something like a .avi with similar quality and see what happens.
I used handbrake, and I use this program frequently to convert videos. Yeah it worked fine on my computer... I just felt like the phone didn't have enough grunt to handle it. I am thinking the phone is not optimized to offload the HD decoding onto the GPU.
 
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How's the battery life and heat levels been for playing 720p videos on the Droid X? I just returned a Galaxy S phone and it could easily play 5-6 hours worth of 720P videos on a charge and it was also nice that it never got too hot when playing videos of course it had a great GPU as well.

Why'd you return the Galaxy S? I was thinking of returning the Droid X and getting that (for the playback capability). :thinking:
 
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Why'd you return the Galaxy S? I was thinking of returning the Droid X and getting that (for the playback capability). :thinking:

I returned it cause T-Mobile's 3G coverage is awful, super fast when it works but 3G is spotty even in the middle of a major city. The phone itself was great, a bit buggier then the Droid X from what I can tell but it has a very active mod community which should be able to take care of all of that. If the Fascinate comes to Verizon within 30 days of me getting the Droid X I will probably switch to it. The screen on the Galaxy S alone is almost enough to warrant it. I don't need to play that many MKV's on my Droid X, but I do want to be able to play 480p xvids and want to make sure it can at least do that without the device overheating or battery life being terrible.
 
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I returned it cause T-Mobile's 3G coverage is awful, super fast when it works but 3G is spotty even in the middle of a major city. The phone itself was great, a bit buggier then the Droid X from what I can tell but it has a very active mod community which should be able to take care of all of that. If the Fascinate comes to Verizon within 30 days of me getting the Droid X I will probably switch to it. The screen on the Galaxy S alone is almost enough to warrant it. I don't need to play that many MKV's on my Droid X, but I do want to be able to play 480p xvids and want to make sure it can at least do that without the device overheating or battery life being terrible.

Hmmm. I can play 480p xvids just fine so that shouldn't deter you from buying the Droid X.
You've piqued my interest in the Fascinate; I wonder if I want that Hummingbird + Amoled enough.
 
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I'd take a good hard look at the T-Mobile and AT&T variants of the Galaxy S. I did some reading myself and it turns out there are quite a few problems (more than just software stuff). Some of them may be fixable, but you will always have the issue with signal decrease (based on where you hold it: there is a technobuffalo video about this that was posted in the DX forums) and the screen will be far less durable (ie. it will scratch and break more easily due to lack of GG). The Galaxy S and the variants also seem to be having big time difficulties with GPS: I won't go into it much, but that's a pretty big part of the phone for me. The few things I've just mentioned are certainly enough to make me cringe (and I'm sure it's the same for a lot of you).

As for video on the DX, I suggest you guys explore other forums and find out how to properly convert video for the DX before abandoning ship (that is if no one here is really answering the questions adequately... and right now it seems to be that way)
 
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