Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

Serge,
What is recommended settings for DVX encoding for best playback Mplayer?

I set for 320x340 ( I think) and 30fps... It didnt like it at all.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

320x340?? Are you sure? Usually it is 320x240.
Try with 400x240 (exact quarter of the screen). Don't change the frame rate of the source, mplayer can handle the 30fps and some encoders do not handle frame rate modification in a nice way. Select a video bitrate between 700kb/s and 1Mb/s, depending on the content energy (from slow movie to basketball match), the final content size limitation and the expected quality. No absolute rule here, make some tests.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

The onboard hardware is more than sufficient for playing video unfortunately the built in players and add -ons such as mplayer are not quite there yet. This screen size is perfect for a portable movie/video solution. Being that this is an internet tablet I am a little disappointed that the video on the device is less than spectacular heres hoping for a nice upgrade soon.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

Ive given up on it. Its a bummer. I tried all different file types. The ones that do play are choppy.
MPLAYER works ok but:
I get the digital Tiling (tearing)
Takes to long to start up a video
Cant shut it off without rebooting

This is on a E800.

Hopefully next version of mplayer will resolve the issues. I appreciate their hard work on it. Glad someone enjoys playing with those issues.

Ive tried Divx (cccc)-XVID(4444)-MP4..

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

Jazz

I have been struggling with the video on the 800 as well, the divx formats that used to work for me on the 770 just won't play on the 800, it doesn’t matter what player is used, Mplayer, the delivered one or canola. I finally got the 800 working by creating files out of a product called DVD Catalyst in the 3GP format, the playback is acceptable compared to not working at all. Keep trying it's all about finding the right format, frame rate, screen resolution. Unfortunately all those things need to line up at the same time, very tricky.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

Yes, that's a known issue caused by some problems in the current kernel framebuffer driver implementation :( I hope that it will be fixed by firmware update.

I can reduce tearing effect to about the same level as can be observed in the standard player, but performance will have to be sacrificed. But that should be ok for watching transcoded video, maybe it could work as a temporary solution.

Gui may take a lot of time to start up if you have many files on your memory cards. Launching mplayer to watch video also takes some time as it is quite a large executable which has a lot of codecs compiled in. Also it fills cache on start, so this also slows down startup time somewhat.

Thanks. It took me quite a long time trying to imagine how you could screw up shutting off mplayer (some more details would be definitely welcome) before I realized that you could possibly try to press [x] icon in the top right corner of mplayer window. Apparently this forces the window manager to shut down mplayer forcefully without it having a chance to do a clean exit, so framebuffer video planes remain in enabled state and overlap your desktop. I'll try to fix this issue ASAP. Too bad, nobody cared to report this problem for more than a month :(

A proper way to exit from mplayer is to press ESC hardware button (third from the bottom), you should have no problems using it. If this is not the case, please try to explain how you get your problems with a bit more details.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

Very strange, I can open up webpages at 1 bar at a small speed of maybe 600-900 Kbps, but at 2 bars I email larger files fairly quickly at around 1000-1600 Kbps. I think it depends on the quality of the network you are using or if the network you are connecting to has itself connected to the internet.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

I use the Sandisk V-Mate to record movies to my SD card. It's easy and simple to use. It connects to any video source: tv, vcr, dvd player. It even works like a tiivo as you can schedule recordings when connected to cable or satellite. I use 3gp format at BEST setting and it works flawlessly with the 800. I have 7 full featured movies in my 2 GB SD. RecordIng takes awhile as it only records in 1x speed but I'm very satisfied with the results. Sandisk V-Mate costs $129.99 at Circuit City and as low as $85 online.

Hope this helps.

Re: Is N800 capable of playing videos?
 

Just a progress report, this 'quit' problem is now fixed in the latest version of MPlayer. Please note, it is very important to report bugs so that they can be fixed. Reporting them you are doing favour not for me, but for yourself.