Help battery life when watching films

[Deleted User]

my dhd battery is fine for normal use, ive done all the usual things to increase the battery life and im happy with how long it lasts

but when im travelling i like to watch a film or 2 but the battery only lasts 40 mins

any tips on how to improve on this?

want to be able to watch a film with a fully charged battery and have atleast a half charge still when the film ends

 

[Harry2]

Watching movies while charging with a mobile charger?

I use JustMobile Gum Pro, 4400mAh battery and 130g leight

Harry

 

[Deleted User]

cant charge whilst on the move due to no plug sockets/cigarette lighters etc...

 

[Harry2]

I should have said, these mobile chargers have built-in batteries

Harry

 

[Deleted User]

cheers just had a look at urs, but i begrudge paying out

 

[dan_hin]

You should probably be getting over 40mins of video out of your phone. I can stream a good 2- 2 and a half hours of video before my DHD battery dies.

Do you turn everything off when watching the video? What app do you use to watch films? What format are your films in?

Bear in mind that different types of video will be more demanding on the DHD's processor.

Dan

 

[Deleted User]

everything is turned off all the time, i just use the video app that came pre installed on the phone

films are in avi, i uninstalled advanced task killer last night and managed to watch a 120min film and still had 25% battery left

so it looks like that was draining quite a bit of my battery

 

[Deleted User]

I use one of these very impressive

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000NDQ92W/ref=oss_product

 

[Deleted User]

thanks but again it means paying out more money just to watch a film on my phone plus everytime i go away ive got to take it with me

 

[Deleted User]

thanks but again it means paying out more money just to watch a film on my phone plus everytime i go away ive got to take it with me

Well it is a phone and watching a film does drain the battery. If you took a laptop away the battery would drain watching a movie, not sure there is any other way round it

 

[khannr]

I barely get to 50% of the battery when watching a movie. My battery consumption is pretty good. I have Green Power running on my DHD which is free from the market. Try that to see if it makes any difference.

 

[john_g]

Have you checked what is reported to be draining the battery? Go to Settings -> About phone -> Battery -> Battery use. I imagine you'll find that the display is responsible for the vast majority of battery usage... mine regularly shows a figure around 80% which, perhaps paradoxically, is a good thing as it means that other processes aren't using up much power. It's worth tapping the graph shown there as it gives further useful insight into what's going on.

Assuming that the display is what's draining your battery, have you tried reducing the brightness setting?

 

[Deleted User]

Well it is a phone and watching a film does drain the battery. If you took a laptop away the battery would drain watching a movie, not sure there is any other way round it

but it shouldnt drain it so much that u cant do much else with it, the phone is designed as a video phone and was one of the main selling points

my laptop is too bulky to take away but it does have a 8 hour battery and films are fine to watch on it


will check out green power and see how it goes

the screen is using about 60% i can reduce the brightness but i do like my screen set to max

as i said before, ditching advanced task killer has made a quite a bit of difference so hopefully if i can save another 20% ill be happy with 45-50% battery after watching a film

 

[john_g]

the screen is using about 60% i can reduce the brightness but i do like my screen set to max

I'd suggest you try the auto brightness setting instead. This is what I do and, generally, it works well. The only time I override it is at night when I've got an app which sets profiles so, at night, I select a profile which reduces the sound volumes (except alarms) and sets the display brightness to 0%, as even the minimum that auto brightness goes down to is still too bright (the 0% is maybe a misnomer as the backlight is still on, albeit very dimly).

The fact that, even at maximum brightness, the display is still only accounting for 60% of the power drain does imply that something else is eating the battery - does the battery use screen not tell you what this is?