Serious TCPMP Video issues on Hermes/TyTN...

[mackaby007]

Sorry guys, bad news. Sorry if this has already been posted and it has eluded me, but the hermes/TyTN cannot play your Divx/Xvid encoded AVI files in TCPMP! :cry:

I've read on some other forums that I am not alone in this area as during TCPMP installation, a pop message makes some mention of the on-board ATI imaging.....whatever. Point is the ATI stuff on the VarioII/TyTN interferes with TCPMP to the point of causing such interference that the interface is 'scrambled' almost like severe 'bad reception' to the point of being totally unuseable. I'm gutted. I've tried most versions of TCPMP includinc 0.71 and 0.72, but to no avail.

I've now tried for the first time other players, like PocketMVP, but no joy.
I was wondering if any TyTN/VarioII/VPA...owners have had a positive experience in this regard?

Specifically with their own Divx or Xvid encoded movie clips or full DVD's converted to such an AVI file.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
P.S. The developers of TCPMP are well aware of this as there are many posts on this topic in their forum but till now no solution.

Has anybody found an alternative player? And for those unfamiliar with this problem, NO Windows Media Player cannot handle Divx/Xvid AVI videos (which IMHO are the best quality video files on a PPC).

mackaby007
MDA VarioII/HTC TyTN
ROM: 1.21.11.3
ROM date: 06/19/06
Radio: 1.05.05.00
Protocol: 32.36.7010.04H

[faisal.husain]

I am just trying VLC for ppc will post findings!

[mackaby007]

I am just trying VLC for ppc will post findings!

Not to worry. Got our fav player working thanks to some other guys.
See below for link to solution:
http://www.4winmobile.com/viewtopic.php?p=36600#36600

[mdajax]

thank you VERY MUCH for that info. i was getting a bit worried that i wouldnt be able to play my videos with my new xda trion. i actually experienced better performance with the GDI video settings vs. the RawFramBuffer mode.

[mackaby007]

thank you VERY MUCH for that info. i was getting a bit worried that i wouldnt be able to play my videos with my new xda trion. i actually experienced better performance with the GDI video settings vs. the RawFramBuffer mode.

Thanks for that mdajax. Do you or anyone else know what the difference is between them?

[ktka]

Just set TCPMP to use Raw FrameBuffer or GDI through options -> video and it plays fine

[atonparis]

ok video play but bad quality... and bad sound !!!!

[mackaby007]

thank you VERY MUCH for that info. i was getting a bit worried that i wouldnt be able to play my videos with my new xda trion. i actually experienced better performance with the GDI video settings vs. the RawFramBuffer mode.

When I first read this post, I thought little of it until I came across some stuttering on Video playback under GDI settings.

I decided to run a Benchtest under TCPMP in both modes, and on my VarioII, RawFramebuffer mode outperformed GDI mode by minimum of 50%. Additionally, under 'Media Information' of TCPMP, GDI mode played back the Mpeg1 video file at 18 fps compared to 33 fps in framebuffer mode (no stutters either).

It must be differences between the ROMs or other 3rd party Apps that is causing such a great degree of difference, but for now, I'm sticking to RAWFRAMEBUFFER mode. :wink:

[mdajax]

ok video play but bad quality... and bad sound !!!!
looks and sounds great on mine. what kind of video files are you trying to play? what resolution/bitrate? if you're trying to play like an hr hdtv xvid file...then yea...your phone will have a hard time playing it.

i just use the psp or ipod video convertor to convert to 320x240, 768kbps...and it looks & plays beautifully.

[mackaby007]

ok video play but bad quality... and bad sound !!!!
looks and sounds great on mine. what kind of video files are you trying to play? what resolution/bitrate? if you're trying to play like an hr hdtv xvid file...then yea...your phone will have a hard time playing it.

i just use the psp or ipod video convertor to convert to 320x240, 768kbps...and it looks & plays beautifully.

The forementioned file was an MPEG 1 file @320x240 from pocketmovies.net, though usually I encode my own vids using DVDx and Divx Codec 6.0 @320x240 @ 400 or 500kbps and all play flawlessly. Presently though I can't test them coz I haven't received my Transflash card yet! :cry:

But hey, if it works for you, more power to ya. The other works better for me. :wink:

[ID64]

It's starts playing fine. But what happenes when you pause video and then play again? Mine is stuffers like hell, only solution is reload videofile....

[mrvanx]

Yep same here, works just great with video set to rawframebuffer and audio to anything, but after a puse or skip to later in the video audio stutters and the only resolution to it is reloading the file.

[suddenly_ike]

Same problem over here.
Even with BT radio off, I have the same scrambled view when selecting Ati.

Raw frame buffer works for video, but then I still have the audio skipping after pause.

[mdajax]

ok video play but bad quality... and bad sound !!!!
looks and sounds great on mine. what kind of video files are you trying to play? what resolution/bitrate? if you're trying to play like an hr hdtv xvid file...then yea...your phone will have a hard time playing it.

i just use the psp or ipod video convertor to convert to 320x240, 768kbps...and it looks & plays beautifully.

The forementioned file was an MPEG 1 file @320x240 from pocketmovies.net, though usually I encode my own vids using DVDx and Divx Codec 6.0 @320x240 @ 400 or 500kbps and all play flawlessly. Presently though I can't test them coz I haven't received my Transflash card yet! :cry:

But hey, if it works for you, more power to ya. The other works better for me. :wink:those psp/ipod video convertor programs (videora to be exact) convert it to mpeg4 format, using h.264. i've never tried playing an mpeg1 file on my mda or trion, but you should at least test a converted mp4 video file on your device and see how it plays.

edit: i just ran a benchmark of an alicia keys video...hehe, which is mpeg4, h.264, 768kbps...and the test reported an avg. of 27fps.

[y2whisper]

right now mine works decently with the imate rom with rawframebuffer i can pause and play it (minor hiccup occurs but then its fine) much better than having to reload it every time.

[atonparis]

but for the quality ( and use pause) i prefer use WM encoder....

[faisal.husain]

Guys can yo play back an Mpeg2 stream? Every time I try I get an error saying TCMP unsupported. Although I am usin version 0.66!

[faisal.husain]

Guys can yo play back an Mpeg2 stream? Every time I try I get an error saying TCMP unsupported. Although I am usin version 0.66!

[mackaby007]

Guys can yo play back an Mpeg2 stream? Every time I try I get an error saying TCMP unsupported. Although I am usin version 0.66!

It's not supported husain. But WMP10 can play it if the bitrate is not to exessive, but it will most likely be stuttery/jerky. It is after all the DVD format and requires hefty processing power to be smooth. Best bet IMHO is to use an encoder and use Divx or Xvid at whatever bitrate suits your needs. Anything between 500 - 768 kbps will look like DVD quality on a PPC QVGA device @320x240 resolution. :wink:

[faisal.husain]

Guys can yo play back an Mpeg2 stream? Every time I try I get an error saying TCMP unsupported. Although I am usin version 0.66!

It's not supported husain. But WMP10 can play it if the bitrate is not to exessive, but it will most likely be stuttery/jerky. It is after all the DVD format and requires hefty processing power to be smooth. Best bet IMHO is to use an encoder and use Divx or Xvid at whatever bitrate suits your needs. Anything between 500 - 768 kbps will look like DVD quality on a PPC QVGA device @320x240 resolution. :wink:

Thanks m8; have you managed to get rtsp working on tytn? I have tried with various degrees of transcoding with VLC on my PC using VOD (RTSP protocol) which works fine on other pc over wifi around the house; although the video streaming client that comes with my MDA vario 2 does not recognise the stream, Has anyone had any sucess playing any RTSP stream? Thanks in advance!

[mackaby007]

ok video play but bad quality... and bad sound !!!!
looks and sounds great on mine. what kind of video files are you trying to play? what resolution/bitrate? if you're trying to play like an hr hdtv xvid file...then yea...your phone will have a hard time playing it.

i just use the psp or ipod video convertor to convert to 320x240, 768kbps...and it looks & plays beautifully.

The forementioned file was an MPEG 1 file @320x240 from pocketmovies.net, though usually I encode my own vids using DVDx and Divx Codec 6.0 @320x240 @ 400 or 500kbps and all play flawlessly. Presently though I can't test them coz I haven't received my Transflash card yet! :cry:

But hey, if it works for you, more power to ya. The other works better for me. :wink:those psp/ipod video convertor programs (videora to be exact) convert it to mpeg4 format, using h.264. i've never tried playing an mpeg1 file on my mda or trion, but you should at least test a converted mp4 video file on your device and see how it plays.

edit: i just ran a benchmark of an alicia keys video...hehe, which is mpeg4, h.264, 768kbps...and the test reported an avg. of 27fps.

ookkaaayy....I just re-read all the posts on this thread and just realised that your benchmark results are in fact similar to mine....total crap (I'm sorry to say). Usually when benchmarking a clip like the one you benchmarked, you should get double the frame rate or at least close to it!!

No disrespect intended, but your probably getting acceptable playback to YOU, but if your a movie buff like myself and you have owned a few WM5 devices like myself, you would probably be aware that when you benchmark video clips or an entire movie (or a segment of it), that the frame rate is dramatically increased! 27fps is nothing to talk about. I think you are most likely experiencing the same problems as the rest of us, but don't notice it as you are happy with the playback.

I've tried a movie clip encoded to your specs and get similar results on my Hermes, but get more than 56fps benching the same clip on another device running an older Samsung 2440 CPU.

So if anyone else has had any other positive or negative experiences of videoplayback on the Hermes, I would really appreciate hearing about it.
I believe the ATI Imageon chip/driver/accelorator is not doing its job properly in the video department even though playback alone seems acceptable. But if my hunch is right, it would also affect the acceleration in other areas of the device that are dependant on the accelerator....meaning the Hermes could actually be considerably quicker across the board than we have come to believe and accept.

For your information, I have encoded files at various bitrate levels in the following formats:
MPEG 1
AVI (DivX, Xvid)
MP4 simple profile (according to the HTC TyTN Manual)
WMV
and MJPEG @ high and low quality.

All videos playback fine after the initial stutter at start of movie clip, providing I don't pause, rewind or forward the clip (else it does it again).

I have also read on another forum that someone is experiencing the same problems with MP3 playback in TCPMP. I don't believe TCPMP is directly responsible but that the ATI Imageon thingy and TCPMP are clashing on some level.

Any feedback/input is most welcome. Also did a bit of searching around and the Hermes CPU is more than capable, it's just not performing according to its ability. See link below:
http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM9Series/SC32442/SC32442.htm

[Bobik-s]

1. TCPMP fails to play video after a pause - it really tries, but it loses frames and makes noise.
2. When opening clips in window-mode in TCPMP I've got strange bug - the whole screen starts moving and flickering. It looks as if the resolution is too big for the screen. Though I understand it's not so. If you tries to work with TCPMP menu everything is all right.
:evil:

[mackaby007]

1. TCPMP fails to play video after a pause - it really tries, but it loses frames and makes noise.
2. When opening clips in window-mode in TCPMP I've got strange bug - the whole screen starts moving and flickering. It looks as if the resolution is too big for the screen. Though I understand it's not so. If you tries to work with TCPMP menu everything is all right.
:evil:

Try using MP4 encoded vids in WMP10, it seems to be supported by the ATI hardware decoder! See below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=62423

[Codeus]

I have also had problems with stuttery playback after a pause or skip with all versions up to an including the latest 0.72RC1. These problems happen with various DivX formats but some wmv and avi's do seem to play OK. Also, the stutter disappears if you disable audio (not ideal obviously).

I have these problems with the shipped HTC ROM as posted here in the Wiki (1.18.255.3 07/22/06).

Upgrading to the i-mate ROM (1.20.305.3 07/21/06) DOES FIX the problem.

That said, I don't much like the i-mate rom as it skins the dialler, wallpaper etc in cheesy i-mate stuff rather than the nice HTC green appearance. More importantly you need to mess with the ext rom abit because it doesnt install the MMS client by default.

In the end I decided I was happier sticking with the HTC ROM and waiting for an upgrade from HTC.

But if DivX playback is vital to you, the i-Mate rom posted at the link below is what you need for now.

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_Upgrades

Codeus

[mackaby007]

Whilst the I-mate ROM does bring some improvements over the VarioII ROM, it does NOT eliminate the forementioned problem at all. So far, only WMP10 has played back without issue for me (MP4 only), but I need a more versatile player like TCPMP. We just need Corecodec to add support for the in-built decoder, then we'r laughing.

[mado1971]

Tcpmp 0.66

to set the Option->Video to GDI and ->Audio to Low

for the quality

[christopherwoods]

1. TCPMP fails to play video after a pause - it really tries, but it loses frames and makes noise.
2. When opening clips in window-mode in TCPMP I've got strange bug - the whole screen starts moving and flickering. It looks as if the resolution is too big for the screen. Though I understand it's not so. If you tries to work with TCPMP menu everything is all right.
:evil:



As discussed on the CorePlayer forums (TPCMP is now known as The Core Media Player, http://coreplayer.org ), and as mackaby007 has already stated, the problem is to do with the ATi ImageOn processor not being fully compatible with the code.


Give it a little while, the CoreCodec guys are working with ATi the best they can to fix the issue - I'm keeping a keen eye on proceedings over on their forums. At the moment they're still waiting for a response from ATi, but I'm sure they'll fix it (they can't afford not to!)

[szlevi]

Another issue: if I skip ahead or stop and an my mp3, it starts stuttering... I have to close TCPMP and reopen it if I want to jump to the next song. :mad:

[javaoverride2003]

ive had the same problem as you guys when trying to watch my film when i start it it works fine but when i touch the screen\pause it it all gets messed up i did manage to get it a little better using hackmaster to increse my cpu speed but to be honest its not a great improvement

has any one tryed chaging the buffer size? if so what did you find to be the best buffer size

[rassah]

I had the same problem with the original TyTN rom. I switched to the Cingular rom, and now hae no issues at all (other than lack of support for ATI driver)

[Teo2005]

I found this link on another site

http://story.cetizen.com/akebi/tag/tcpmp

Seemes a never released version of TCPMP, 0.81RC1, although the latest official version is 0.72RC2 as far as I remeber. Some TyTN users stated that it works better than previous versions. Anyway it has support for more file formats. I'll give it a try and I'll post the results.

[Teo2005]

Tested this version, same issue with ATI driver - screen flicker awfully, but..
In RAW mode, benchmark scored a thefty 174%, and the video playback is smooth, after PAUSE video-audio synch is back after 1-2 seconds. No other isuues so far.

[schriss]

http://www.corecodec.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=29&expv=0&topic=3723.0

HTC TyTN/Hermes users: Here is how to play AVC/x.264 encoded files on Hermes with CorePlayer 1.04 with ATI Imageon 2282 Acceleration Enabled and almost no screen garbage in GUI and NO screen garbage in full screen mode.
When Encoding files, make sure you set output to be exactly 320x240. For audio use MP3 128kbps stereo or less and for video bitrate use ~500kbit, this gives almost perfect picture. You can try 300 or 400kbps to see if you like it, even in case of 300kbps quality is pretty good.
You can use free VirtualDub and free x.264 codec OR "ImTOO MP4 Video Converter".

How to setup CorePlayer: Menu, Options, Orientation - set upper and lower to Right-Handed. Menu, Tools, Preferences, Select Page, Video: Video Output-ATI Imageon, Quality-High, Smooth Zoom-ON, Enable Dither, Enable Acceleration. Select Page, Advanced: Enable "Slow Video Memory" and Enable "Disable AVC deblocking filter". Select Page, ATI Imgeon: Enable all options. Click OK and that's it. When you open a file, it will be rotated, but that (surprisingly) fixes almost all screen garbage that you would get if the picture was oriented portrait. Tap the screen to watch the movie in landscape mode and enjoy perfect picture and accelerated playback :-)

If you accidentally open DivX movie and screen gets distorted, just tap lower-right part of screen where "View" button is located, this toggles View mode, one of the modes does not contain preview window and picture will return to normal allowing you to change video renderer to Raw FrameBuffer.

[schriss]

Update: You no longer have to change orientation in Options, the only setting required to fix screen garbage is to set ZOOM to 100%.
Note that this works for AVC/x.264 encoded movies only.

For "Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Mans Chest - 1080p Trailer - 320 - 600kbps MP3 128kbps.mp4" I got 180% with ATI and 159% with Raw FrameBuffer.
Notice that this is x.264 codec with 600kbps - pretty good I think!

[skapri]

I have a V1605 since a week, and I was very irritated to not watch videos with the best quality.
Image is good with "Raw framebuffer" or "GDI" but the "syncro sound/video" was poor!

And I have found a beautiful soft who is "Smartmovie" !!!!

This player allows to set "synchro sound/video". (-0,60 sec on the screen)

Now I can say this Hermes is perfect ! :D

[obonilla66]

ROM 2.11.255.1 03/07/07 AKU 3.3.1, FIX THE VIDEO PROBLEM, I don't have any problem any more with TCPMP

[The_Hawk]

No matter which fix I try I still have nothing but issues when trying to play back video.

Having audio running over A2DP really isn't helping. I get a huge performance penalty when trying to use my headset. (incidentally the audio itself isn't bad).

In short audio and video is badly out of sync and the video is VERY jumpy.

When benchmarking in TCPMP 0.71 with the headset on I'm getting:

148.37%, 549kbit/s, 22.23 fps

this is off a divx encoded file @ 14.99 fps, 370kbit/s

All in all thats pretty woeful.

Even pulling out XCPU scaler and cranking it up to 500MHz doesn't help.


I have even tried Windows Media Player 11's built in 'sync' tool which converts video to wmv to play on WMP on the Dopod, but thats even worse, great sound, but about 1 frame in 10 for the video.

What am I going to do on the way to work??

I'm starting to miss my Magician. :(

[boz]

No matter which fix I try I still have nothing but issues when trying to play back video.

Having audio running over A2DP really isn't helping. I get a huge performance penalty when trying to use my headset. (incidentally the audio itself isn't bad).

In short audio and video is badly out of sync and the video is VERY jumpy.

When benchmarking in TCPMP 0.71 with the headset on I'm getting:

148.37%, 549kbit/s, 22.23 fps

this is off a divx encoded file @ 14.99 fps, 370kbit/s

All in all thats pretty woeful.

Even pulling out XCPU scaler and cranking it up to 500MHz doesn't help.


I have even tried Windows Media Player 11's built in 'sync' tool which converts video to wmv to play on WMP on the Dopod, but thats even worse, great sound, but about 1 frame in 10 for the video.

What am I going to do on the way to work??

I'm starting to miss my Magician. :(

You need to check out this link below, try using tcpmp 0.72 and the fix given in this link. You are better off converting the video images first to 320x240 with Pocket divX encoder which is freeware (google for it). Your problems will then be solved.:)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=297717

[The_Hawk]

You need to check out this link below, try using tcpmp 0.72 and the fix given in this link. You are better off converting the video images first to 320x240 with Pocket divX encoder which is freeware (google for it). Your problems will then be solved.:)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=297717

I am using Dr DivX to encode (as I have always done) to 320 x 240, I usually use 29.7fps but lowered it to see if that would help my playback...

I have installed the patch you linked to and am now running TCPMP 0.81 and my results are much improved although the audio is still not in proper sync and there is still quite a few artifacts. The benchmark on my 15fps, 320x240, 370kbit video is now up to ~320% so it's odd that when playing back nothing seems to be quite in sync.

The bluetooth headset still makes things even worse. Looks like the headset may have to go in the cupboard (or back to the store) until things improve on the video side since the only reason I got it was to watch videos while on the train going to and from work (1hr each way :P)

I will have to keep trying different encoding tools to see if I can get something that works better. *crosses fingers* MP4 seems to achieve better results than DivX at the moment.