Athena Video Performance - Prove yourself!

leoni1980 · Jan 16, 2008

Let me first state that I AM NOT decrying the needs of Athena owners, nor am I suggesting they shouldn't own one. Everyone has different devices to fit different needs, HOWEVER in the course of heated debate on these forums people have frequently stated that their Athena is MORE THAN CAPABLE of playing video, without optimisation which neither skips, jumps or loses sync. I owned two and over the course of nearly nine months NEVER managed to get a high quality, non-optimised video to display solidly without losing sync.

What I ask is for people to describe a high quality (700mb+) Divx or Xvid file that their Athena can play fluidly and without losing sync, and for the sake of credibility upload a video of this in action. When I get chance later today I will upload a video of an N95 playing a full-size divx movie - I will demonstrate the video size and specifics, show the device playing it whilst multitasking and demonstrate fast-forwarding, pausing and playing and how this affects lip-sync and general playback quality.

Let me re-iterate that I understand that the N95 is not a competitor to the Athena and that for the most part it is unsuited to the needs of people on these forums; but if you're going to state that your video performance is good I'd appreciate if you could prove it! It is after all a powerful machine with loads more RAM and processing power than the humble N95.

Just a bit of fun.

EDIT: DISREGARD THE 'BUT DISAPPOINTING' ASPECT OF THE 3RD QUESTION WHEN VOTING AS I WILL ADMIT IT SOUNDS BIASED
MidgetEdit: Fixed the poll

spacecat · Jan 16, 2008

Here we go again and this time i didnt start it

HeartOfDarkness · Jan 16, 2008

Voted for second option, "can play most things well". I'll try and demonstrate that tonight, hopefully.

leoni1980 · Jan 16, 2008

hey i think i've been very fair with my questions

HeartOfDarkness · Jan 16, 2008

Well... Didn't want to point it out, but in all fairness, the "but disappointing" should be removed or brought to the option below.

For one can find the Athena's video performance average and NOT be disappointed...

leoni1980 · Jan 16, 2008

HeartOfDarkness said:
Well... Didn't want to point it out, but in all fairness, the "but disappointing" should be removed or brought to the option below.

For one can find the Athena's video performance average and NOT be disappointed...

Fair point. If you can tell me how to remove the 'but disappointing' bit from the poll I will, otherwise we'll imagine the 'but disappointing' bit doesn't exist for the purposes of the poll...

Here's my video. If it's out of sync please report as I've had this problem before and didn't have chance to check the upload before I left the house. Cheers.

yetdy · Jan 16, 2008

I can't say that I'm impressed by the video performance of the athena because it's my largest problem eversince I got it last week especially in 128 dpi settings. I'm neither in the position to say that I'm disappointed also because I really haven't had the chance to play with it that long. I would have to vote later. I appreciate though these types of threads because it forces people to look for ways to either extend their capabilities in trying to know and teach what they can do with their athena to prove that it's a really good machine or to simply shoot down the opinion of others. Suffice it to say that it may bring out the best of the athena or bring it down to te gutter. The best part is that people get to choose base on their best judgement who to believe and which opinion to discard.

leoni1980 · Jan 16, 2008

Any performance videos yet?

I genuinely would like to know if the claims about video performance being good are true, I'm not trying to catch anyone out

eaglesteve · Jan 16, 2008

Sorry, I did'nt see the word UNCONVERTED and picked A. I guess it should have been a B. But why would anybody play it unconverted? The files are just far too big unconverted, isn't it? Also, it would carry so much useless information designed for home theatre systems at least, that it would literally chock any small device movie player to dealth. What I do play include a 900MB movie which is crystal clear, does not skip at all, and never have any out of sync problem. But I'm not sure if it has gone through conversion, as I downloaded it from the net.

If I want a home theatre movie quality experience, I'd not use Athena to do it. I'll use my home theatre system.

Would you play movies unconverted on say a viewty or N95?

Midget, could you transfer my vote from A to B?

Martincyborg@gmail.com · Jan 16, 2008

eaglesteve said:
If I want a home theatre movie quality experience, I'd not use Athena to do it. I'll use my home theatre system.

Would you play movies unconverted on say a viewty or N95?

quite to the point ha?

leoni1980 · Jan 16, 2008

eaglesteve said:
Sorry, I did'nt see the word UNCONVERTED and picked A. I guess it should have been a B. But why would anybody play it unconverted? The files are just far too big unconverted, isn't it? Also, it would carry so much useless information designed for home theatre systems at least, that it would literally chock any small device movie player to dealth. What I do play include a 900MB movie which is crystal clear, does not skip at all, and never have any out of sync problem. But I'm not sure if it has gone through conversion, as I downloaded it from the net.

If I want a home theatre movie quality experience, I'd not use Athena to do it. I'll use my home theatre system.

Would you play movies unconverted on say a viewty or N95?

Midget, could you transfer my vote from A to B?

My wording is a little off-kilter. When I say 'unconverted' I mean 'not specifically optimised for the device' I.E. the sort of file you'd download/play on your desktop. Sorry for the equivocal wordage peeps!

eaglesteve · Jan 16, 2008

I never convert any movies that I download, so that qualifies as unconverted then?

Just about right · Jan 16, 2008

I hav to jump in here. The resolution or aspect ratio of your movie file along with the audio coding was low. If I had those settings on a movie and played on the Athena, it would be no problem. I convert almost all my movies using DVD Catalyst and I ensure it is at 30 fps, audio is at 192, the max I can get it and the picture adjustment is at 1100. I have very few problems when I play those on my athena. If I could get the file you have I would love to cross compare, because that video shouldn't choke the Athena at all. At least in my experience using core player.
Then again, this is just my two cents.

leoni1980 · Jan 17, 2008

eaglesteve said:
I never convert any movies that I download, so that qualifies as unconverted then?

yes it does! when you get chance to upload a video showing the quality please do. I'm suprised if your Athena can handle them without either displaying linear patterns during fast scenes, losing sync or stopping and starting. If it can then I will capitulate and say you are a lucky so-and-so!

leoni1980 · Jan 17, 2008

Just about right said:
I hav to jump in here. The resolution or aspect ratio of your movie file along with the audio coding was low. If I had those settings on a movie and played on the Athena, it would be no problem. I convert almost all my movies using DVD Catalyst and I ensure it is at 30 fps, audio is at 192, the max I can get it and the picture adjustment is at 1100. I have very few problems when I play those on my athena. If I could get the file you have I would love to cross compare, because that video shouldn't choke the Athena at all. At least in my experience using core player.
Then again, this is just my two cents.

i chose that video because it is one i had problems with on my athena.

leoni1980 · Jan 17, 2008

EVERYONE TRY THIS SHORT VIDEO AND REPORT BACK ON THE PLAYBACK QUALITY. I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE BEST TO HAVE A STANDARD FILE TO TEST OUT THAT'S SMALL ENOUGH TO UPLOAD. It's just a video of my dog recorded on my N95 at tv quality. It is a 640 by 480 resolution video which should be a good ratio for the Athena. I haven't modified it in any way. Let me know what results you all get.

Cheers

eaglesteve · Jan 17, 2008

leoni1980 said:
yes it does! when you get chance to upload a video showing the quality please do. I'm suprised if your Athena can handle them without either displaying linear patterns during fast scenes, losing sync or stopping and starting. If it can then I will capitulate and say you are a lucky so-and-so!

In that case, I'd keep my A rating for the time being because until now I still don't understnad the issue.

I'd test your sample file and provide feedback. There must be something that I've missed I guess. Yes, perhaps I have been real lucky.

eaglesteve · Jan 17, 2008

I've downloaded it to my desktop runing Vista and want to try it here first. But could'nt play it media player. Do you need to convert it before it can play there too? What program do you use to play it on desktop?

On my device, it says "MPEC4 AAC Audio Decoder not included! It was removed from the official install package because of intellectual property considerations." (strange. I never had this error before)

Is this the kind of problem you're referring to Leoni?

Oh wait, although it has the above error message, the video plays perfectly! I get very sharp image. The camera itself jerks a bit I think during shooting but the playback is smooth.
No sound though. Is there supposed to be sound?

Cute little doggy! Is that your dog?

So, to sum up, for me. It works without conversion on my Athena but not on my Vista desktop.

leoni1980 · Jan 17, 2008

The issue is that Video playback is an issue with the Athena (and other devices) yet some people insist theirs work fine. If there is no problem then I wonder why threads like this this this this and this among many others exist? (oh, and this!)

Many moons ago I thought I'd solved the problem bu it must've been a lucky video file as a couple of days later I tried a different downloaded movie and back I was to the 'flickery' pictures and loss of sync.

I just wish there was an answer that worked for everyone.

leoni1980 · Jan 17, 2008

eaglesteve said:
I've downloaded it to my desktop runing Vista and want to try it here first. But could'nt play it media player. Do you need to convert it before it can play there too? What program do you use to play it on desktop?

On my device, it says "MPEC4 AAC Audio Decoder not included! It was removed from the official install package because of intellectual property considerations."

Is this the kind of problem you're referring to Leoni?

Oh wait, although it has the above error message, the video plays perfectly! I get very sharp image. The camera itself jerks a bit I think during shooting but the playout is smooth.
No sound though. Is there supposed to be sound?

Cute little doggy! Is that your dog?[/QUOTE

Yes it's my doggywoggy. I use VLC. It's freeware - try it on that to give you an idea of how it should look. The TCPMP extras you need for playback of that file are in PK's extras package just in case you want to get em.

Athena Video Performance - Prove yourself!

How well does YOUR Athena play UNCONVERTED videos?

The Athena can handle whatever I throw at it!

The Athena can play most things well

The Athena's performance is average

Performance is below average unless converted

Video performance is absolutely dreadful!

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