Smooth video that is also in-sync (seems a tall order for the Trinity)

[OrangeSpiv]

Hi

I have an Orange SPV-M700, running the original WM5. Try as I might I am finding it difficult to get videos to play without dropping frames and often the audio being out of sync.

I know that the bitrate of videos makes a difference, and if I use very low bitrate videos admittedly the frame-dropping reduces. However, I am basing my results on the fact that I have owned several PDAs and the SPV-M700 is the latest, with the 400hz processor and yet it plays videos worse than any previous PDA I have owned.

I am testing using the same bunch of videos which played absolutely fine on my XDAIIi and also on my old HP4150. Software I am trying is TCPMP (7.2), Pocket TV, Windows Media Player 10 etc. I have performed exhaustive tests with almost every configurable setting each player offers. But whatever I try I find the video performance of the SPV-M700 disappointing and considering it has a fast processor I am very puzzled.

I have even tried three different makes of SD card and that seems to make hardly any difference. Do you think that the SD cards are not reading quick enough on this device, as surely the processor should be able to play videos efficiently?

I gather that TCPMP (which has always been my favourite media player for the Pocket-PC) doesn't properly support the Imageon chip - does the Core Player that you have to purchase work any better? - I believe that it comes from the same background as TCPMP.

I would appreciate any input or thoughts, and what your experience has been like with videos on the Trinity. It's really bugging me. I don't want to have to encode all my videos at lower bitrates - it's taking a step backwards and I purchased the SPV-M700 as an upgrade, not a downgrade!!!

At the moment, although it's bulkier, I am starting to think I'd be better off sticking with my XDAIIi and dumping the SPV-M700. I say this because I have also had much frustration with the well known Mini-SD card compatibility problems that the Trinity suffers.

A beautifully sized device like the Trinity is sadly let down by these sort of issues.

Thanks in advance

Spivvy.

[tnyynt]

Well, I had no problems with playback at all.
I use MPEG4 video at 512-640 bitrate with AAC audio at 96 bitrate all in a 3GP container. With these settings I get crystal clear results.

[Slither2006]

Hi OrageSpiv,

Before i used to own a Hermes that had a bad issue with it's imageon chip and TCPMP and Coreplayer (early versions). I paid something like $20AUS and it not only solved the issue on my Hermes but increased the perfomance so when I benchmarked my 320x240 512kb-Divx 128kb-mp3 movies to run on 300%-400% average. I tried it on my new Trinity 3600i and it sores along at 400% + I think since you have a 400mhz processor your perfomance will be similar to what I got on my Hermes Samsung 400mhz processor. I'd strongly recommend getting their newest version instead of the TCPMP betas.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Slither2006.

[OrangeSpiv]

Hi Slither

Many thanks for the reply - that's exactly the sort of information I was looking for. I know that I could lower the bitrate of videos etc but I am more interested in playing videos that used to play well on older Pocket PCs.

I will consider buying CorePlayer and I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Spivvy

[OrangeSpiv]

Hi

Well, I said I would get back to you if I decided to purchase CorePlayer. Slither's post was encouraging so I purchased CorePlayer and I can happily say that my initial tests are very good.

I have tried playing some of the video files that were not running as well as I had hoped and they play smoother, with fewer dropped frames and better audio sync than they did previously with TCPMP, MediaPlayer, Pocket TV etc.

The above findings are without changing any of the default settings within CorePlayer so I reckon there may even be scope for further improvement.

At the moment I am a very happy chappie - it's early days but the signs are good and I already feel that I have a better video player on my SPV-M700.

I'll report back later when I have made more tests etc. If any of you have had similar experiences it would be good to share them on here.

Cheers for now
Spivvy

[sksiong]

Hi OrangeSpiv,
How was yr coreplayer testing so far? r u manage to play DIVX movie smoothly using this software? I recently bought a p3600i but experincing the same problem you mentioned earlier. Trying to play divx movie i downloaded such as "Heroes" using TCPMP 0.72 but experiencing the lose of frame rate (lagging). Any other software which can play divx smoothly on our 3600 ? Thks. :)