Watching a video on N800 VIDEO

[marce_245]

Hi guys. Im trying to buy an N800 but I was wondering about the quality of video playback. I know what you gonna say, that i must search the forums. Ive done that and everybody has a different opinion about this so I dont know what to think. So what I would really like is a video showing an N800 playing a movie or some kind video with perhaps different settings (better res but lower frame rate, etc). Ive seen something on youtube but the quality of the videos is poor so I cannot evaluate if the video is watchable or if it is pixelated or whatever. Could anybody make a highres video for me or give me a link where I can look for this (maybe this has been already done).

Thanks in advance

PS: if youre thinking why dont i go to a store and check the device myself its because I live in Argentina and the N800 doesnt exist here. I have to order it from the states.

[marce_245]

Almost 100 views and no replays, come on guys a really need your help!!!

[superstar]

I don't have a video for you to view but I can give you my word (not that it matters to a complete stranger) that a dvd movie compressed with DVDShrink and recompressed again with N800 Video Converter has no loss or artifacts when viewing with the default media player. There are a lot of factors that you have to take into account if you want to view an N800 in action, your connection speed, the host's connection speed, your video processor, their hardware, etc... so to have the actual experience may vary on a lot of factors. You are in a bind here since there is no N800's around you...

[lad]

There's no way the N800's very hi-res screen will show "pixelation" unless the bit rate is too high for all the motion. Seeing a sample video on a PC will not simulate the sharpness of the N800's screen (nor it's relatively slower processer and 16-bit color).

[mkhopper]

After pouring through the forums here (loads of valuable info for sure), my process for watching video is as follows (assuming a DVD source):

Use DVDShrink to rip the video from the disc. It's important to go into the dvdshrink preferences menu and clear the checkbox that says 'Split VOB files into 1Gb chunks' in the output tab.

Then using the Nokia Media Converter with the following:
Device - N800
Resolution - N800 High Quality (400x240)
Encoder - Xvid
Everything else I leave as default.

(I think that when running the media converter the first time, the 30 sec preview only box is checked. Might want to clear that out.)

Hour long tv shows are compressed from 3.5Gb~ down to 280Mb~. I'm getting 29~ fps, excellent sound, no visible color banding and no stuttering. In other words, excellent quality.
The data rate is approx 64kbs so I could step the resolution up quite a bit, but there's really no need.

Canola2 plays back the videos just fine with no dragging on the CPU at all.

[XM40]

I've been watching movies that are divx encoded on mplayer for about 3 months now. I showed someone my N800 while 'Juno' was running. They said to me "Is this a HD player?". That's how good it is. :D

[marce_245]

Thank you guys for all the info. Now I cant wait to get my hands on the N800. Have anybody tried a little higher resolution for the videos like 500 x 300 (640 x 480 would be to much I think), maybe lowering the bitrate or frame rate. I read that some people have been able to play videos with this resolution but others say its unwatchable. What do you think?.

[Cyker]

How are you guys getting the video smooth?

I have a 320x240 transcoded MP4 of PPOT playing at Breakpoint that I made for my TH55 - In both mplayer and MediaPlayer it jerks, drifts in and out of audio sync and stutters!

The ONLY time it plays okay is if I have just gone through the 1-and-a-bit minute bootup sequence; If I have used MicroB, played ScummVM or OpenTTD or have anything loaded like the File Manager, Notes etc. then the video playback becomes totally awful :(

It's really annoying given my TH55 can play back the video with no stuttering at all despite having 1/4 the CPU and RAM!

[superstar]

How are you guys getting the video smooth?

I have a 320x240 transcoded MP4 of PPOT playing at Breakpoint that I made for my TH55 - In both mplayer and MediaPlayer it jerks, drifts in and out of audio sync and stutters!

The ONLY time it plays okay is if I have just gone through the 1-and-a-bit minute bootup sequence; If I have used MicroB, played ScummVM or OpenTTD or have anything loaded like the File Manager, Notes etc. then the video playback becomes totally awful :(

It's really annoying given my TH55 can play back the video with no stuttering at all despite having 1/4 the CPU and RAM!

DVDShrink (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_shrink.cfm) then N800 Video Converter (http://xoomer.alice.it/sepaolo/n800vc/)

[newf]

!thought i would try this as well. stargate episode downloaded from net. first try was crap on anything but mplayer and even that had audio delay, and mplayer won't let me change audio synch??? then tried video converter for n800, default settings,took 15 mins on a p4 3gig machineaon vista,now video plays fine on n800...on a side note, can not type worth!()(; on this touch screen!

update:canola still not as smooth as mplayer, canola is almost like vsynch is disabled. and media center is still horrible.

so use mplayer.

[superstar]

!thought i would try this as well. stargate episode downloaded from net. first try was crap on anything but mplayer and even that had audio delay, and mplayer won't let me change audio synch??? then tried video converter for n800, default settings,took 15 mins on a p4 3gig machineaon vista,now video plays fine on n800...on a side note, can not type worth!()(; on this touch screen!

update:canola still not as smooth as mplayer, canola is almost like vsynch is disabled. and media center is still horrible.

so use mplayer.

You can use the standard default media player and it will play perfectly with the above combination when converting a file to view on the N800.

[marce_245]

I dont know if this would also aply to the N800, I have a Nokia 6131 cellphone that has a screen resolution of 320 x 240 and it plays videos of 174 x 144 (which is more than half the screen res) and the truth is that it plays like crap even at high bitrate it seems like pixelated, but the same videos on my motorola v551 which has a lower screen resolution plays fine without any pixelation or without being blurry. So I was thinking, the N800 has a screen res of 800 x 480, and plays videos of 400 x 240 (half the screen res), do they really play well?, does what I told about my phones has anything to do with this? (I mean if it would happen the same thing?).

[superstar]

I dont know if this would also aply to the N800, I have a Nokia 6131 cellphone that has a screen resolution of 320 x 240 and it plays videos of 174 x 144 (which is more than half the screen res) and the truth is that it plays like crap even at high bitrate it seems like pixelated, but the same videos on my motorola v551 which has a lower screen resolution plays fine without any pixelation or without being blurry. So I was thinking, the N800 has a screen res of 800 x 480, and plays videos of 400 x 240 (half the screen res), do they really play well?, does what I told about my phones has anything to do with this? (I mean if it would happen the same thing?).

You can't really compare apples and bananas right? those devices have different hardware/specs/OS or firmware
Try this (http://www.seabyrdtech.com/bbvideo) for 320x240 videos, it is compiled with mencoder with an easy to use GUI. Works well for phones.

[ShayneOSU]

I've had my N800 for one day, and I LOVE it. Today, I've watched Superbad and Juno without reencoding them from the original downloads ... and it was great!

Juno was 592x320 DIVX, 23.976fps, 866kbps with 128kbps mp3 audio. Superbad was 608x336 XVID, 23.976fps, 705kbps with 112kbps.

There was some slight stutter in the very fast-moving scenes, but I was extremely impressed with the performance. And, as one of the posters before me mentioned, Juno looked incredible on this screen. It's gonna be my impress-the-hell-out-of-friends video for now.

[marce_245]

Wow thats awesome so it CAN play videos with that kind of resolution, and I think that bitrate is enough for me. But I dont understand why its not working with that res to some people .

[ShayneOSU]

It surprised me, too. I've been reading the forum for a little while, deciding whether or not I would buy an N8x0. Video was a big deal to me, as I'll often be using it as a portable media player.

The only explanation I can think of is that neither movie is very action packed. No big explosions or anything to choke it up. Juno, especially. And they did stutter a few times, but most of the time, they were smooth.

I'd imagine I'll mostly have to reencode movies for the IT. I bought the device with that assumption, so that's okay. But it was neat to see that, at least for SOME movies, it can do higher resolution pretty well.

[mkhopper]

update:canola still not as smooth as mplayer, canola is almost like vsynch is disabled. and media center is still horrible.

so use mplayer.

I've had some issues with mplayer that make me stick with canola.

When listening to music files, mplayer totally locks up, forcing me to kill the process. And after having mplayer load up either an audio or video file, the system as a whole gets really wonky.
PowerLauncher will no longer perform a soft shutdown and it's a 50/50 call for whether or not a full system shutdown will happen. Sometimes the shutdown process locks up in the middle, prompting me to remove the battery in order to get things rolling again. And then if it does shutdown, it won't power back up for about 5 minutes. Pressing the power button does absoultely nothing.

Again, I'm only seeing these issues after mplayer has been run. (version 1.0rc-maemo.24)

[idboehman]

I've had my N800 for one day, and I LOVE it. Today, I've watched Superbad and Juno without reencoding them from the original downloads ... and it was great!

Juno was 592x320 DIVX, 23.976fps, 866kbps with 128kbps mp3 audio. Superbad was 608x336 XVID, 23.976fps, 705kbps with 112kbps.

There was some slight stutter in the very fast-moving scenes, but I was extremely impressed with the performance. And, as one of the posters before me mentioned, Juno looked incredible on this screen. It's gonna be my impress-the-hell-out-of-friends video for now.

That is SO reassuring as I'm getting my N800 next week :D It also reminds me I need to download Juno...:D.

BTW, does anybody know if a 480x270 video might play without re-encoding? The audio is 96kbs formated as mp3 and the video rate is 74kbs at 23FPS

Sorry to hijack the thread :o