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Playing Movies on captivate

bigal77

Lurker
Aug 12, 2010
8
0
Hello, I am about to get a Captivate from rogers Canada (mid october release??)

1) If i download a movie file of 700mb, avi, can i just transfer to my microsd or internal memory and play the file flawlessly?

I needed to compress file to play on my bold, or it would be extremely choppy.
Also, what about a 720p video quality movie? file size 1.4gb, will it be choppy?

2) Is there an app on android market for the android forums? one that will give notifications when replies or messages are sent? i know crackberry had one on the blackberry, but was really just a shortcut to their forums.

Thanks !
 
hi: sorry I can't really answer all your questions. I too plan on buying a captivate from rogers when it comes out mid october! As far as I have seen from a friends captivate, 720p videos such as your 700mb avi file will play more then fine on the captivate with no stutter or lag.
also, i too am interested about your 2nd question re: if theres an app for android like that.
 
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I have watched many movies on my phone. Even 720p .mkv files - they play fine with no chop, none that I have noticed anyways. Breaking Bad looked superb on my phone...

What kind of external card do you have? I have a class two 16gb and I have no issues.

Good to know !
I have a class 6( i think the higher the better) 8 gb card.
24gb with the internal is more than enough for me.
 
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Good to know !
I have a class 6( i think the higher the better) 8 gb card.
24gb with the internal is more than enough for me.

You should have no trouble then. With the class 6 it should be better/faster than what I experience with my class 2, which is zero problems :)

I have yet to find a video that will not play. Hope it stays that way.

Formats taken from Wikipedia -

The Galaxy S comes with support for many multimedia file formats, including 2 lossless audio codecs, video codecs and video formats: Video codecs: mpeg4, H.264, H.263,Sorenson codec, DivX HD/ XviD. VC-1 Video formats: 3GP (MPEG-4). WMV (Advanced Systems Format), AVI (divx), MKV, FLV Audio: FLAC, WAV, Vorbis, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MID, AC3, XMF
 
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Unfortunately it's just not that simple.

People incorrectly assume that the file extension defines what the video file is, and given extensions will either play or not play. Not the case. The extension just defines the "container", and says nothing about the codecs used for the audio and video. You might get one AVI file that plays fine, another that doesn't play at all, a third that has no audio, and a fourth that has no video. Or you might get an MP4 file that has audio sync issues on the Captivate but plays fine on a PC.

Even given codecs have tons of features, some are supported by some devices, some not. An MP4 file that plays fine on a full-featured player running on a powerful PC might not play on the limited-feature player and limited playback hardware of the Captivate, even though the Captivate plays MP4 files. The file might be using x.264 features the Captivate doesn't support, or they might be features that require so much processing power to decode that the Captivate can't keep-up.

The end-result is that whether a file plays or not is hard to predict without just trying and finding out. You can't assume anything from the file extension or the codec.

The good news? Compared to most phones, the hardware and codec support of the Captivate is way above-average. It won't play everything, but the chances of it playing on the Captivate is much better than other portable devices.

I've spent a ton of time experimenting with this for the DVD-to-Captivate section of the upcoming FAQ that a team of us are working on. It's been quite the learning experience.
 
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Good to know !
I have a class 6( i think the higher the better) 8 gb card.
24gb with the internal is more than enough for me.

Class number refers to the minimum sustained write speeds of the card in MBps. Class 6 is 6 MB/s where as Class 2 is only 2 MBps. The larger cards (32 GB right now) usually come out in Class 2 and then increase in Class, probably because manufacturers are able to introduce faster memory.
 
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I use a program called "Format Factory" which lets you take any disk or video file and convert it into whatever format, size, frame rate, etc you want so it will play on your phone. It even has mobile phone specific formatting. Super easy to use once you get used to it. But I guess most things are easy once you get used to them. :p
 
Upvote 0
Unfortunately it's just not that simple.

People incorrectly assume that the file extension defines what the video file is, and given extensions will either play or not play. Not the case. The extension just defines the "container", and says nothing about the codecs used for the audio and video. You might get one AVI file that plays fine, another that doesn't play at all, a third that has no audio, and a fourth that has no video. Or you might get an MP4 file that has audio sync issues on the Captivate but plays fine on a PC.

Even given codecs have tons of features, some are supported by some devices, some not. An MP4 file that plays fine on a full-featured player running on a powerful PC might not play on the limited-feature player and limited playback hardware of the Captivate, even though the Captivate plays MP4 files. The file might be using x.264 features the Captivate doesn't support, or they might be features that require so much processing power to decode that the Captivate can't keep-up.

The end-result is that whether a file plays or not is hard to predict without just trying and finding out. You can't assume anything from the file extension or the codec.

The good news? Compared to most phones, the hardware and codec support of the Captivate is way above-average. It won't play everything, but the chances of it playing on the Captivate is much better than other portable devices.

I've spent a ton of time experimenting with this for the DVD-to-Captivate section of the upcoming FAQ that a team of us are working on. It's been quite the learning experience.

I have searched far and wide and this has been the most informative post yet for video playback. I am currently running many different videos on my phone...and they are all experienceing a little lag and a split secon delay in the voice-audio. Would you say this is normal? I'm debating on bringing my phone back for a new one. Thanks,
 
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I have searched far and wide and this has been the most informative post yet for video playback. I am currently running many different videos on my phone...and they are all experienceing a little lag and a split secon delay in the voice-audio. Would you say this is normal? I'm debating on bringing my phone back for a new one. Thanks,

It can be normal. For all the reasons outlined in that post of mine you quoted. If a given video is giving you trouble on the Captivate, you can always use Handbrake to transcode it into something more easily-digestible by the Captivate.

Basically follow the instructions here, but instead of opening up the VIDEO_TS folder, open up the source video file:

Transferring movies from DVD - CapFAQ
 
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It can be normal. For all the reasons outlined in that post of mine you quoted. If a given video is giving you trouble on the Captivate, you can always use Handbrake to transcode it into something more easily-digestible by the Captivate.

Basically follow the instructions here, but instead of opening up the VIDEO_TS folder, open up the source video file:

Transferring movies from DVD - CapFAQ

I've used this link to rip DVDs and then encode them to fit the Captivate screen. The steps are very easy to follow and the end results are fantastic.
 
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