I've noticed there are about 3 or 4 media players out there now on the marketplace. I was wondering if anybody here has tried them out and if one of them stands out as the best? Or maybe it's just a matter of preference in these early stages?
Ok... I guess I will try out a few players and post my findings. The first one I tried was called simply "Cinema". The program is as basic as it gets.. there are literally no options, it just plays video. The controls are cool.. you tap the screen to pause and resume. You tap and drag left or right to FF and Rewind. If you hit the "home" button to leave the app... it will pick up the movie in the same place where you left it. You can also browse your whole SD card in any folder with a built-in browser. As a test file I took a video Podcast (1up Show) and used the I-pod touch pre-sets in VEMoDe to resize the video. I set the resolution to something like 480x350 and it spit out about a 300mb mp4 video. It looks gorgeous on the screen and runs nice and smooth! No complaints so far. I know there are probably better programs to resize and re-encode... but this is one I had on my PC because I used to use it for videos on my Treo. I'll try out a few other players, see how they work and post what I find. Cinema pretty much does what I need so far though... I'll have to try to encode an entire DVD movie and see how that works.
All of the current apps are interfaces that use the built in function and codecs of the OS. That is why they are so small. A new codec will require translation to the Java layer, because it is not part of the OS built in function. If you go to the Corecodec forum (Coreplayer support site) they explain this and why it may be a long time before Coreplayer or any real media app with its own codecs is released on the G1.
Guys just quick one i have moved to the G1 from the HTC Touch and what can i say i havent soft resetting the G1 yet. Anyhoo on the topic of media players is there any out there that can browse Genre as awell as Artist Album etc etc
Thanks, MarvinAndroid. The first one I tried was Video Player and it indicated it found no videos (I have some on the MicroSD). While trying to open a video attached to e-mail, it did play audio and show the first frame as a still image. I do like how it manages to auto-rotate the still image depending on the orientation of the phone. I am downloading Cinema now (or trying to). I often find my downloads stall until my phone is next powered on...
I can't seem to get my G1 to play *any* video from my microSD, regardless of the apps (tried Cinema and Video Player). My file format must be screwed up. mp4. h.264. What else do I need to know? Is there a file size limit?
Try my "Meridian Video Player". At least it has a file browser to check ALL your files on SDCard, maybe you can find more informations from its mp4 header parser. == I think there's no size limit at least for my app
Fozzer Look to AntPlayer in the apps market, it lets you type in the genre as if on shoutcast, and pulls up the options.
Act 1 Video Player works best for me. Totally worth the .99 they're asking. http://www.hyperaware.com/android/video-player/
I tried many video players including Cinema, aPlayer, Video Player, Act 1 etc. I found a common problem: If you make a fast-forward, it takes more than 10 seconds before the player can catch up and continue playing the movie at the new seek location. I find aPlayer to be better in handling this.
I have only tried Cinema and it works well for me. It will even play some mp4's that my PS3 wont play.
I feel like Android is advanced enough that it should be able to handle playing almost any type of video. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. What are the video types that Android can play? Just mp4s?
I have seen a player in the market(the name slips my mind) but it says it will play xvid,wma,mp4,H234? and a few others. All the movies I download are already in mp4 format, so I dont need to convert.
Totally flippin' beyond me how the Droid doesn't come with a video player out-of-the-box, especially considering it's iPhone-rival status. I love the device but having to DL an app to watch video has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Actually, the Droid does have a default video player. If you click on the "Gallery" app, if you have videos or movies on the phone, it will play them. A bit of weird thing, but it does work.
Meridian player seems to be pretty nice. It will play my music including album art. It does a good job with videos too. At least as good as any other player I have tried. And it looks like there are plans in place for it to work with audio books. that covers all the bases for me.
Mixzing has a movie player built in as well. It looks exactly like the app "video player" but since I use it for my music, I use it for my movies as well. Movies have to be 480 pixels or smaller on the long side, H.264 mp4s, otherwise it won't open them. I'm not certain on those settings but I think that video player says the same thing. Handbrake is a program for mac that can covert movies, and its free. Like a poster said above using anther program, just use the iPod touch settings, but shrink it to 480 x whatever.
