Basic Questions about video playback

[madmaxmedia]

Hi all,

I have some questions about video playback with the new FullMovie player and codecs (or whatever it is called) that is hacked from the VZ-

1. What resolutions will it play at full screen?

2. If it will play 320 x 240 at fullscreen, how is the scaling? On my old UX50, the scaling was very good so there was no pixellation (I assume it was being done in hardware, and should be the same with the TH55.) On the UX screen, 320 x 240 is still relatively 'dense', so the video still looked very detailed.

I would rather encode at 320 x 240 (at around 250 kbps) than 480 x 320 since the 320 x 240 will have less compression artifacts.

3. Has anyone tried using the new BetaPlayer? How are results on the TH with that? Since the new player from the VZ is very versatile, I would think for DVD rips there's little reason to use BetaPlayer. But for little downloaded clips (that you don't want to re-encode), BetaPlayer seems like it could do the job (if the TH CPU is fast enough for at least 320 x 240.)

Thanks!

[Pdaman]

Hi all,

I have some questions about video playback with the new FullMovie player and codecs (or whatever it is called) that is hacked from the VZ-

1. What resolutions will it play at full screen?

2. If it will play 320 x 240 at fullscreen, how is the scaling? On my old UX50, the scaling was very good so there was no pixellation (I assume it was being done in hardware, and should be the same with the TH55.) On the UX screen, 320 x 240 is still relatively 'dense', so the video still looked very detailed.

I would rather encode at 320 x 240 (at around 250 kbps) than 480 x 320 since the 320 x 240 will have less compression artifacts.

3. Has anyone tried using the new BetaPlayer? How are results on the TH with that? Since the new player from the VZ is very versatile, I would think for DVD rips there's little reason to use BetaPlayer. But for little downloaded clips (that you don't want to re-encode), BetaPlayer seems like it could do the job (if the TH CPU is fast enough for at least 320 x 240.)

Thanks!3. Yeah! Me! It is absolutely best movie/video player for palm os! It will play a lot smoother than any other player example mmplayer or th55 build-in player.

For example using betaplayer for palm os:

-ripped: from my 2 fast 2 furious dvd using pocket dvd
-video resolution: 432x272
-audio: 44100Hz 80kbps stereo
-fps:15 frames per second
-settings: 100% zoom, little a bit more brightness, speed little a bit slower, orientation landscape,
-my comments: it will play quite smooth all the time and the graphics are amazing! i can't still believe that my th55 will play this kind of movie clip so smooth :D NOW my friends ARE jealous :p...

[madmaxmedia]

Thanks, that's great to hear! Can anyone provide details on FullMoviePlayer?

[jjesusfreak01]

Thanks, that's great to hear! Can anyone provide details on FullMoviePlayer?
You can find FullMoviePlayer here (http://www.aibohack.com/clie/fullmovie.htm). It allows you to play movies fullscreen using any of the codecs on your Clie. It has customizable controls also. If you download the "VZ" codecs, you can play MP4 videos also, which I believe look a little better at lower bitrates. You can encode them at 320x240 also, if you really dont want the higher resolution.

[CliePet]

Comments on FullMoviePlayer (FMP) and regular Movie Player specific to your constraints
Installing the VZ90 codecs on a UX or TH doesn't change the resolution capabilities, it only adds CLIE .MP4 format support (MPEG-4 with very specific settings)

Already the TH55 has .MQV (Quicktime wrapped MPEG-4 video) built in. No extra Codecs required. FMP and regular Movie Player will work with those too.

> 1. What resolutions will it play at full screen?
The screen is 480x320 (3:2 ratio). Most sane video sizes will work, but to fill the screen perfectly requires the source video to be a specific size.
The video player can play back the video directly (1X), or scaled (4/3X, 2X, 8/3X, 1/2X or 1/4X). This is done at a very low level and appears to be very efficient.

> 2. If it will play 320 x 240 at fullscreen, how is the scaling?...
Short answer - it will be exactly like your old UX50 pixel-wise, but easier on the eyes because the TH55 screen is bigger (ie. bigger pixels)

320x240 videos are no the right aspect ratio to scale to fill the screen (4:3 not 3:2)
Scaling 320x240 videos by 4/3 gives you 426x320 so there is left over space on the side.
One big difference between FMP and regular MoviePlayer is how that extra space is used. With FMP the extra space is left blank/black. With the regular movie player, that's where they put the status bar and other controls.

----
> 3. Has anyone tried using the new BetaPlayer? How are results on the TH with that?

I like it for existing DIVX videos (like those I've previously encoded for my Archos player)
The performance on the TH55 is not great. ~320x240, 30fps videos run at about 1/2 frame rate (last version I tested). Also that's running the CPU full speed.
BetaPlayer does a good job dropping frames to fit into the slower CPU, but you probably want to stick to 15fps video.

When you have existing videos that BetaPlayer can handle (and FMP can't), then use it.
====
My general advice is that if you are going to compress the videos afresh, then compress them using Image Converter (1 or 2) to the 320x240 resolution. That way they can play on your CLIE (and the PSP if you use ImageConverter 2)
The videos should play smoothly (no dropped frames) at 30fps.

> I would rather encode at 320 x 240 (at around 250 kbps)
The standard Image Converter settings give you options of 384kbps and 192kbps. Both of these use 15fps (for size reasons, not because the player can't handle it).
Also, although I haven't measured it, I suspect you will get much longer play times (ie. less CPU used, longer battery life)

[madmaxmedia]

Thanks for the detailed info Cliepet! I have a Mac, and will be using ffmpegx based on info from various threads...you answered my questions perfectly.

The one thing I don't like about ImageConverter is that it doesn't seem capable of 2-pass encoding, which in my experience can significantly improve image quality. Fortunately there are other options now...

I assume the scaling in Clies is done in hardware, because it doesn't reduce performance and looks better than scaling in other programs. For example, MMPlayer ends up with a blocky picture with even small upscaling. OTOH, the Clie built-in movie playback looked great on the UX50 with a 320 x XXX file. As a result, I prefer this resolution since you can use a more reasonable bitrate and keep file sizes a little smaller. I know other people don't care (they must have multiple 1 GB memory sticks!), so encode at 480 x XXX 30 FPS, at >768 kbps.