Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Some while ago, I was able play video clips with 1080p resolution on my N8. Now on my N9 i couldn't play either 1080p or 720p, the 720p worked but with frame lag, even when testing Youtube html 5 trial www.youtube.com/html5 when i set the video 720p the lag is SUPER.

How come is the n8 better than n9 with playback? wasn't the n9 has much CPU power and better GPU!!!

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

really , u dont read the page before N9 only able to watch 480i youtubue video atm, there are bugs in dsp brideg, u should wait pr 1.1 or pr 1.1.1 which contain 3500 bug fix + improvement

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

i'm not talking about the youtube only, also i tried some video like Mp4 720p video clip 84Mb, Supernatural series episode mkv 720p 1.03Gb.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Unless you have a good processor (desktop/laptop class), there is no way you can decode 720p smoothly.
So 720p and 1080p video decoding on ANY mobile, tablet and netbook has to be made by a specific hardware chip. Usually, this chip is part of the GPU, but having decoding for codec X with setting Y is hardware support, and has little to do with power.
It has to do with:
- hardware supporting it
- driver supporting it

N9 currently supports H.264 Baseline profile. It doesn't support Main and High profile yet (and maybe never). I don't know if it supports other codecs (or will).

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Thanks for the reply, but in red part you're wrong i watched every series at 720p smoothly on my n8 like :

Fringe.S03E01.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv 1.09gb
the.walking.dead.s01e02.720p.hdtv.x264-ctu.mkv 1.09gb

And some 1080p video clips and movie snaps

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Yes because the N8 has a Broadcom BCM2727 GPU which support H.264 high profile.
The N8 does not decode video with CPU. Arm and Atom processors are not powerful enough to decode 720p (in general) and above with CPU only.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

^^^
thanks for clearing that out

then there is no chance to play 720p,1080p on N9.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Maybe some driver update can enable it, but it's far from certain, sadly.
What I would do is use handbrake to convert 720p main/high profile to 720p base profile. You shouldn't loose quality (but should take more space), and you will be able to read it on your N9.
Conversion might take some time, though.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Might explain the lack of a HDMI out if playback isn't possible.

Shame.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Really? Proves?

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

sadly i sold my N8, trust me, download any 1080p video from youtube, but you can't transfer a file more than 2.4Gb cuz the hard file system is FAT32

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

currently N9 suppoort :
Wide codec support: H.263, MPEG4-SP & ASP, H.264 BP/MP, WMV9 / VC-1 and Mkv (Matroska)
HD playback support: MPEG-4 SP, H.264 BP
HD capture support: MPEG4-SP

maybe its driver matter atm,

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I digged a little further and found for example that while the iphone 3GS/4 has almost the same GPU as the N9, it has a VXD core that takes all the video decoding (all profiles) (ie GPU + media core). Quite hard to find very precise specs for the N9 or for TI to know what the N9 hardware is capable of. Maybe someone else could tell.

Edit:
@cloud596: thanks for the precisions.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I also have a N8 and he is right. The gpu on the N8 is just beastly, shame the processor isn't quite at the same level...

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Glad my wife went for the N8, its great.
Personally I'm happy to stick with my N900.
The N9 doesn't feel that great at all. Sure, it's a nice linux distro alright, but it comes packaged in something I don't know what it's supposed to compete with.
They hade the chance to come up with a great successor to the N900 with a physical keyboard, but nooooo. Let's screw it up completely and then fix all the stuff that should be there from the beginning to be fixed in the updates.
No wonder the Nokia company is going south,
As a final little joke before falling into the grave they shack up with Microsoft and their newest crappy failure.

Sigh, what am I gonna do, the only good thing out there is still the N900. I better buy a couple of extras in case mine some day goes junk.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

See this thread if you want to keep the N9 V N900 thing going
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=78991
Read the posts before voting in the pole (if you care to vote).

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

OKAY..... This thread is going out of control with the wrong facts.....

N9 uses OMAP 3630 which has a fairly weak IVA 2+ DSP. (same as N900 but faster clock)
http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtb...ontentId=52606

N9 can play 720p videos perfectly fine. It does on my N9. Just make sure it's either encoded in xvid or H264 "base" profile. Unfortunately (??) most "warez scene" x264 mkv releases on the web use minimum "main" profile which the N9's DSP cannot handle. I can confirm that my N9 plays 1280x720p H264 base profile video in mkv/mp4 etc container without any issues. Same for 720p xvid with 6-channel AC3 audio in an AVI container. (container doesn't really matter I guess)

So yeah, N9 can play 720p videos. Just not the ones you find from the torrent sites that's all. =P

BTW, N8 cannot play H264 "High" profile videos. (EDIT: It can play High profiles.My mistake. But it can't handle some encoding setting still so it's not fool proof) I own an N8 also. I've never tried 1080p videos on N8 however. So no idea there. I doubt it can though as Broadcom used on N8 is only good for 720p afaik. But the newer Broadcom GPU used on the new Belle phones can support 1080p in HW. But it seems Nokia only made them capable of 720p just for the sake of not making a Symbian phone the first Nokia phone to do 1080p. =P

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I've just been testing my N9's decoding capabilities with x264. Seems like at least 854x480 video with main profile, but without any bframes plays back just fine. I need to do some more testing if number of bframes and/or reference frames affects it.

I've also asked the experts if they have any insight to this problem.
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=162802

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

But what about this specs page?
http://europe.nokia.com/find-product...specifications

Does that just mean it recognises MP, but can't play it

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

It can play H264 main profile. But that doesn't mean it can handle 720p resolution at it. The spec page doesn't mention what resoltion/bitrate/settings it supports for each codec that it supports. From my testing, it can play lower SD resolution main profile fairly okay. But not when it's a higher resolution. It struggles big time.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I'm pretty convinced that Texas Instruments DSP Decoders have problems with B-frames. Without B-frames 854x480 plays back fine with otherwise Main profile settings (cabac being the most demanding). With B-frames there's small stuttering/dropping of frames.
720p seems to play back smoothly on baseline profile, but there's corruption on some frames.
Main profile is simply too heavy on 720p, if you are lucky, you get 1fps.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Yeah. I have to do a lot more testing also as it seems it can play some 450p main profile H264 while it can't some others with same profile. (It may have something to do with bframes as you mention but not sure right now. Haven't really compared the media info fully)

btw, I am now able to play the same 720p H264 base profile video on my N900 after the recent hack. Very impressed as it plays it perfectly smooth. (even without overclocking the DSP) But yeah, it doesn't look as nice as watching it on the bigger and better N9 AMOLED. =P

Anyways, for those who want universal video playback of everything you find on the internet, N9 is not the phone you want. It's the SGS2 as it's the only phone that can play everything you can throw at. (well, even the SGS1 or the old Galaxy Tab 7" also) Samsung sure knows how to make video watchers happy on their mobile phones. (even their default player has built-in brightness control, child-lock function etc etc) Nokia doesn't seem to really care on the other hand and just makes a bog standard video player.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Yeah, you pretty much need to transcode most h.264 videos for N9. Xvid/Mpeg4 should play back fine at least to 720p. I guess I should test if 1080p xvid works... (although why would anyone want hd resolution video in xvid is beyond me :D )

Oh, if they just would have used an OMAP4 in N9... :(

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I may be misunderstanding this, thanks to a clouded head, induced by no sleep.
But it seems that this user's having success with 720p playback? (w/some artifacts)
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...80#post1110680

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

god damn you... that post alone is making me reconsider my purchase... But the SGS2 is getting old IMO... I think by the time SGS3 comes out, I'm finally gonna bite for Android... But hopefully, we can figure out (or patch updates) to help N9 play smoother HD video

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Ok, I'm confused. I've seen this topic come up again and again, and I can never quite figure out what people are trying to do here. As I understand it, the N9 has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. Therefore, any video encoded at a resolution higher than 854x480:

a) Takes up more space
b) Requires more CPU power
c) Gets down-scaled to fit the 854x480 screen anyway

In other words, trying to use high-def video on the N9 (or, for that matter, any other smartphone) is literally counterproductive. Why do it?

For my N900, I always convert video to 800x480 (via Handbrake) before loading it onto my phone. Saves space, saves time, and improves video quality!

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I believe they're referring to re-scaled 720p, not true 720p.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

This is also my dilema and it is very frustrating.

At the moment I'm thinking N9 Vs Samsung Note Vs Nexus Prime Vs new RAZR

I guess when it comes to video playback the N9 is the weakest.

Can anyone confirm this?
It's not excatly the answer I want to hear but I suppose I should get used to it and accept it. :(

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

If you're asking if the N9 can play a 720p video without it being converted beforehand, then I believe erendorn had the answer earlier in this thread:

"N9 currently supports H.264 Baseline profile. It doesn't support Main and High profile yet (and maybe never). I don't know if it supports other codecs (or will)."

So as long as your video (720p) is using the H.264 baseline profile then yes it should play ok. I say "should" as I don't have mine to test it myself yet!

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Thanks for the reply, if I am being honeest with myself I'm more concerned by the analgoue composite SD video out / lack of HDMI - I haven't even got to the point of wondering what flavour the source might be (btw I am TV editor by trade so I have more than a passing interest in this subject).

Thanks again.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I still get a nervous/angry twitch whenever no MHL/HDMI is mentioned :(
But IIRC, even if it could do 1080p-out via HDMI, it'd prolly be too weak.
I think 802.11an + DLNA will turn-out to be our best option for 720p/1080p-out
(actual playback done on the DLNA client)

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Agreed -- playback of HD video should be pushed to the HD client. The only time I put HD video on my phone is when I'm using it as a USB drive for my TV. (Many modern TVs can handle a decent variety of video codecs -- my Samsung certainly can.)

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

There are many people out there who watch videos on their mobile phone as a primary media consumption device. (during long train/bus commutes etc) There are many who never care about DLNA because of this.

Obviously, many people download their videos off the internet. (even ripping stuff off youtube) Many are HD videos these days. Last thing most people want to do is re-encode it so that their phone can play it. (SD stuff on the net are mostly 640x360 or worse which looks bad on our WVGA+ screens and also is usually coupled with lower bitrate audio which doesn't sound as good) This is the same for Youtube videos. N9 doesn't play 720p youtube videos. (they are high profile H264) So we have to end up watching lesser quality video (with lower bitrate, heavier compression) and worse quality audio (lower bitrate AAC). So you think this is acceptable because our N9 doesn't have HD resolution screen? I think not.

Also, with 64GB on my N9, I can fit more than enough HD videos so who cares if it uses up more space. I just don't want to waste time re-encoding. That's where the N9 fails miserably and is not a good media consumption device for many people out there. Hardware is just way too weak.

Only mobile phone SoC out there which can play everything you can find on the net are Samsung ones from my experience. SGS1, old Tab 7" (and soon 7.7"), SGS2 and Galaxy Note can play everything including high profile H264 with CABAC, some weird combination of video/audio codecs in weird container blah blah. No matter what, they can play it. (Tegra2, all Qualcomm, most TI OMAP SoCs cannot do this) It's not about the CPU/GPU but the DSP they use with it. So it's funny as Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1" which uses Tegra2 is much worse than their other devices for video playback. Not sure if Galaxy Nexus will be able to do it with OMAP4. (I've never tried an OMAP4 phone) Maybe people with LG Optimus 3D can answer this or google to find out.

Samsung's default video player is also awesome. (brightness control within the player, resume, child-lock function etc) N9's video player is not good at all. So I hope the developer does improve it.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

I personally would never use my ph as my primary display upon watch to watch HD content...
But it'd be nice to have the option to stream that content to a DLNA client, that handles anything you throw at it on a massive Plasma/LCD.
Or to switch to mass-storage & have my media-player/DLNA client, play content that's on my phone.
The option to play HD-like content on the ph itself would be handy sometimes too, if I'm traveling etc.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Exactly. Some people do this every day. 2-3 hours a day to and from work or university. It's also more convenient having 1 for all device than carry multiple devices. Nokia is forcing me to possibly get another device for my media consumption needs. Current and even soon to be released WP7 phones can't even play xvid videos so that doesn't make it any better either. :(

I was hoping a successor to N900 would be all that but it ended up being the N9 which isn't any more powerful than the N900 except for the more RAM. (my N900 can play the same HD videos as N9 now and I run it at 1.1Ghz anyways so my MicroB doesn't render web pages any slower) After nearly 2 years of waiting, we get a hardware that isn't that much newer. Bit upset really. Heck, even my N8 is better than the N9 in many ways. e.g. Can play up to certain high profile H264 videos, HDMI out, USB OTG, MicroSD, better Nokia Maps navigation (with traffic, spoken street names etc), better camera with 2 stage button, WhatsApp and widgets etc.

I guess I was expecting Nokia to go out with a bang for their supposedly last Harmattan device. (U8500 SoC etc) I was too optimistic I guess.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

802.11an + DLNA & mass-storage will be a replacement for HDMI for me, albeit less than ideal.
USB-OTG may yet come, although it would've been nice if it was "official".
mSD, outlined previously why it's not as much of a "biggy" as it seems, if one forks-out a bit extra for the 64GB.
Weak DSP for video playback cannot excuse, weak CPU/GPU cannot excuse, Maps omissions cannot excuse.
Power/stand-by button will be remapped as the shutter button...
No widgets mildly sux, there's a potential solution, but it will have to "rely on the community" again.
There seems be lots of room for improvement when it comes to certain shots with the N9's cam.
Hopefully they'll aggressively work on that over the next two or three release.

Yeah I remember when the U8500 was rumored. It baffles me why they didn't just make the leap to OMAP4.
I'm hoping that somehow in the not too distant future, Maemo (or a cousin) lives on in the Razr & the Nexus.
Wishful thinking. Wasn't there work done with MeeGo-Core for OMAP4????

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

A couple things to note: first, the "High-Definition" in HD video relates to the picture resolution, not the video compression bitrate. Indeed, a 720p HD video is still called a High-Definition video whether it is severely compressed to the point of unwatchability or totally uncompressed. (Most of the HD video I find on the net has a bitrate lower than DVDs!)

Second, the resolution of an LCD screen is fixed. If your screen has 854x480 pixels, you will be watching video at 854x480 resolution. A 720p (1280x720 pixel) or 1080p (1920x1080) video shown on this screen will obviously have to be down-scaled, or you'll only be able to see one corner of the picture at a time. Similarly, a 640x350 video will have to be up-scaled, or you will be seeing a tiny picture on just a part of your screen. All this down-scaling (or up-scaling) wastes CPU power (or whatever hardware you are using), and must naturally distort the native video to some degree.

What you want is a maximum quality picture with minimum distortion. Simply cramming data onto the machine that is inevitably going to be thrown away during the down-scaling process is not the best way to do this. The best way is to use a video encoding system to re-encode a high-resolution, low compression source video into the native resolution of your device at the lowest compression level (or highest bitrate) that your device can handle.

Again, I use handbrake for this. I use it both for the HD videos I get from the net (high-res, but heavily compressed) and for my library of DVDs (standard-def, but low compression), to squeeze the best quality I can get out of my source material before transferring it to the phone. Because Handbrake doesn't have to try to decode and re-scale the video in real time, and gives you fine control over the bitrate it will use, it can produce a video optimized for the phone that will, in fact, surpass the quality you would get by trying to run the native source video on the device.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Comparing bitrate doesn't give a fair 'picture' these days.

Modern codecs can do more packaged into less.

You can get compressed but technically lossless etc, whilst a HD video at top spec DVD bitrate (e.g. 7000 to 8000 kbps) might look very very good depending on the codec.

it's worth remembering that these things keep getting better so adequate support for new formats is pretty useful.

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

Wait, my 2yrs old n900 can now play 720p videos and n9 can't? That's kinda hilarious, isn't it?

Re: Video playback epic fail: My N8 plays 1080p My N9 couldn't even play 720p
 

You are hilarious!