• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Can the Nook Tablet (16GB with 1G RAM) playback 720p H.264 (AVC) video (MKV container)?

jkc120

Android Expert
Apr 12, 2010
2,266
1,107
El Dorado Hills, CA
I'm wondering if the Nook Color can handle 720p MKV videos with h.264 video and either ac3 (and software decoding) or aac audio?

I'm unhappy with the video quality on the galaxy nexus, so I'm looking for a cheap alternative to watch videos on. I realize the screen isn't quite 720p, but would want to play 720p videos.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to play them without having to re-mux to mpeg4 and aac audio and definitely will not consider transcoding the video. It must be able to handle the h.264 video in most TV downloads (as an alternative to watching the DVR'd recordings downstairs).

If anyone has any insight as to how well the Nook Color can (or can not) play back such videos, I'd really appreciate it.

FWIW, here's an example of the video info of a typical file I want to be able to play:

% mediainfo test.mkv
General
Unique ID : 198507507189767519472018894547148223412 (0x955727BD09C671298CF972E7F0B633B4)
Complete name : test.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 677 MiB
Duration : 42mn 29s
Overall bit rate : 2 227 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-02-11 18:34:02
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.0.2 ('You're My Flame') built on Feb 21 2007 23:40:55
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 9 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 42mn 29s
Bit rate : 1 798 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.081
Stream size : 547 MiB (81%)
Writing library : x264 core 120 r2164 da19765
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=9 / deblock=1:-2:-2 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=20 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=5 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=18.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 42mn 29s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 117 MiB (17%)
Thanks in advance!
 

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones