10-bit video hardware decoding

[Darkimmortal]

Since I don't think it's been mentioned in any reviews or anything yet, unfortunately the Z1 Compact doesn't support hardware decoding of 10-bit colour video, not even at 720p.

That being said, the snapdragon 800 is thankfully just about fast enough to play 720p 10-bit with styled subtitles smoothly through software decoding. 1080p is unwatchable (major frame drops).

Hopefully this helps someone researching the phone for anime watching purposes (it is sad that so many fansub groups have turned to this colour format)

 

[ziprar]

Since I don't think it's been mentioned in any reviews or anything yet, unfortunately the Z1 Compact doesn't support hardware decoding of 10-bit colour video, not even at 720p.

That being said, the snapdragon 800 is thankfully just about fast enough to play 720p 10-bit with styled subtitles smoothly through software decoding. 1080p is unwatchable (major frame drops).

Hopefully this helps someone researching the phone for anime watching purposes (it is sad that so many fansub groups have turned to this colour format)

I have tried several hi10 720p anime vids, using bsplayer with an option "hardware decoding for hi10" enabled and had no problems playing any of them. Not sure if it was really software decoder or not, but in any case vids played perfectly (no frame drops, full color, no problem with sound)

 

[Darkimmortal]

I have tried several hi10 720p anime vids, using bsplayer with an option "hardware decoding for hi10" enabled and had no problems playing any of them. Not sure if it was really software decoder or not, but in any case vids played perfectly (no frame drops, full color, no problem with sound)

Yep 720p does play perfectly, as the cpu is fast enough.

Using MX Player you can see that it fails to play with hardware and reverts to software decoding

 

[Option58]

Screen is 720p after all. No point of 1080p playing in terms of picture quality.

 

[trewelu]

Screen is 720p after all. No point of 1080p playing in terms of picture quality.

Maybe because you can hook it to 1080p monitor using mhl? I see no point using the phone with monitor if you also have desktop/laptop nearby though.


How about the subtitle? Is it easy to read it for prolonged time? I try to watch on my xperia ray before, but I guess 3.3 inch display is really too small to watch it comfortably.

 

[Option58]

A phone is never as good as PC, blu-ray players and such in terms of picture quality when viewing movies at home. I see no point in plugging to external monitor for that.
HDMI is used to show your pictures and videos taken by phone camera to your family.

EDIT: Oh wait yeah, plugging it on hotel TV and using it as a media player is a good use indeed. But 720p is good enough for hotel TV's.

And let's not forget it can play 1080p MKV movies but only not those hardcore quality animes.

 

[Darkimmortal]

Just to clarify the focus isn't really on the fact that it can't play 1080p 10-bit, but the fact that it has to use software decoding for 720p 10-bit. The battery drain is going to be quite significant to say the least, even if the playback quality is perfect (which it is).

For perspective, a snapdragon 600 can't handle software decoding of 720p 10-bit, so it's very cpu intensive

 

[Riyal]

I'm glad that I'm already fine with just ripping videos from streaming links hahaha! And oh I can watch animes with subtitles fine on my Nokia n95 years ago... I'm pretty sure I can live with Xperia Z1 Compact's screen.