What's the best movie format to play on Android?

ItalianHunk · Apr 3, 2012

I'm using Rockplayer Lite cause it plays a lot of different formats. But I'm wondering...

Which format will take up less space on my memory card?

Which format will play the smoothest?

I have a HTC Inspire. Soon to get the HTC One X. (if that matters)

chanchan05 · Apr 4, 2012

I prefer AVI, because its a format which can be played smoothly using hardware decoding on all phones.

ItalianHunk · Apr 4, 2012

chanchan05 said:
I prefer AVI, because its a format which can be played smoothly using hardware decoding on all phones.

Does AVI use up less space than MKV? Which is what my Friends TV shows are in. All 10 seasons. I would hate to convert all episodes to AVI.

chanchan05 · Apr 4, 2012

mkv uses less space, but it can't be played with hardware decoding (only software), so the playback may not be as smooth if your phone/tablet isn't powerful enough. When using avi, it is decoded using the graphics chip, but if you use mkv, everything will be done by the CPU.

BillCosby · May 22, 2012

I use Mobo player and it plays 720p MKV files perfectly. I don't know what the best format to use is but Mobo plays a lot of them.

jgreetham · Jun 8, 2012

I use .mp4 also. The size is greatly dependent on the encoding bit rate, resolution and other factors. IMHO the best format is one which uses the hardware decoding.

Chocobliss · Jun 26, 2012

I have a huawei android m860 n im having trouble playn video ive tried mobo, daroon and all the apps n the video takes 4ever 2 buffer n wen it does it wont play without stoppn n playn 4 only a few seconds wats wrong??

conaneddy · Jun 28, 2012

hello guys
I prefer Mobo player, because it can be played smoothly using hardware decoding on all phones.

_________________________

Demache · Jul 1, 2012

chanchan05 said:
I prefer AVI, because its a format which can be played smoothly using hardware decoding on all phones.

Not really. Because first off, AVI is just a container type. The actual video could be an MP4, DivX, MPEG, whatever. And I have never seen a phone that can play AVI through hardware (not to say they don't exist). Usually its just MP4.

baba123 · Jul 6, 2012

I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out on this one. I just picked up a new ViewSonic G tablet and love it. I have a couple of DVD's I want to place on the SD card for mobile viewing.

Here is the question, what format should I use to get the best HD or close with out the size getting to big (I'm hoping to keep the size around 2gm per movie). I know the higher Def I go for the bigger the file. But would love to find a nice balance. I'm open to ideas. Again screen size is 1024 X 800 10.1"

Maical Jecol · Apr 22, 2013

You can see the below table shows what files Android devices support, with both codec and filename extension information provided.

Learn More Android Support Media Formats at http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html

However, an Android application can use media codecs either provided by any Android-powered device, or additional media codecs developed by third-party companies. Therefore, if you want to play videos on Android, find a multi-format video player or convert videos to Android compatible formats.

PS: Personally, I have a HTC One phone, I like to convert my MKV, AVI, FLV video to MP4 and put them to my phone for watching at any time

PotMonster · Apr 22, 2013

My phone is not the greatest, but was affordable with good enough features to satisfy me 'till the near future and I can play 3/4GB .mkv w/o a problem, which REALLY surprised me, I use MX Player Pro. So ofc way smaller files like .avi and .mp4 play fine and come out pretty sharp as well.

LiveWallpapers · May 2, 2013

AVI / MKV / MP4 - Most of these work smoothly without a problem on BSPlayer. BSPlayer has a great interface too!

Here is the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bsplayer.bspandroid.free&hl=en

007shark · May 5, 2013

I have all my movies (200+) in mkv format stored on a 2TB shared drive. I access them on Android using Plex which will direct play the file if the device supports the format or automatically transcode the file if the device does not support the format which means the file will always play. If you sign up for their new subscription model or one-time lifetime fee, you also have the ability to download movies or shows to your device in a compatible format.

To me, this is the easiest way to store and watch my movie collection from all my devices without loading individual movies on the microSD card. You could also use HandBrake to convert your movie files to different formats.

The only issue I have with the mkv format is movies with DTS soundtracks. Android does not support DTS and will not down-convert to stereo automatically as it does with Dolby Digital. For these files, I use HandBrake and re-encode the audio with AC3 6 Channel Discrete.

SamanthaB86 · May 29, 2013

Id say AVi and MP4 are the best. Very clear quality

Shocky · May 30, 2013

Samsung video player plays everything I throw at it so it's not something I ever think about.

jonbanjo · May 31, 2013

Interesting shocky. My Samsung Ace 2 refused to play the files I tried from mythtv (.ogg and .mpeg) when I tried it. I put VLC Player beta on it as an app I think should play just about anything.

As for formats, my main concern is compatibility between the Linux computers here and the android devices. This may be sort of historical (I've not looked in more recent times) now but because of its MS ties and support not always being that good for it on Linux, AVI has been a format I prefer to avoid.

Shocky · May 31, 2013

jonbanjo said:
Interesting shocky. My Samsung Ace 2 refused to play the files I tried from mythtv (.ogg and .mpeg) when I tried it. I put VLC Player beta on it as an app I think should play just about anything.

As for formats, my main concern is compatibility between the Linux computers here and the android devices. This may be sort of historical (I've not looked in more recent times) now but because of its MS ties and support not always being that good for it on Linux, AVI has been a format I prefer to avoid.

ogg and mpeg work fine here, I don't think you can really compare the Ace 2 to the Galaxy S/Note series

Use whatever format your comfortable with, most of my video files are mkv

argedion · Jun 2, 2013

jonbanjo said:
As for formats, my main concern is compatibility between the Linux computers here and the android devices. This may be sort of historical (I've not looked in more recent times) now but because of its MS ties and support not always being that good for it on Linux, AVI has been a format I prefer to avoid.

AVI plays very well on my Linux System (Fedora 17x64) as do a lot of other formats. In the early days there was a few issue but those have been long gone.

Dodgy1 · Mar 29, 2014

Shocky said:
Samsung video player plays everything I throw at it so it's not something I ever think about.

My S4 stock video player won't play .avi

tearfulrelic86 · Mar 29, 2014

Mp4. Movies are only like 200mb

What's the best movie format to play on Android?

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