hello_hello
12th March 2012, 21:57
Anyone know how devices such as smartphones handle refresh rates according to the frame rate when playing video?
I ask, because I've been playing around with my new smartphone (Motorola Razr) to put it through it's paces, and when trying video of varying frame rates (23.976, 24 and 25 fps), so far there's only a few types of video which don't seem to play perfectly smoothly (no judder), but that seems to be due to hitting the decoding limits and not because of the refresh rate.
While I'm asking, I thought I'd post some details regarding the Motorola Razr's video playing capabilities in case anyone is interested, because it's impressed me a little due to the fact it works quite well.
The video player I'm using is the MXVideo player, because aside from the fact it was obviously the best of all the players I tried, it was the only one which supported anamorphic MKVs.
Xvid/AVI:
-The hardware decoder is fairly jittery when playing SD AVIs with a packed bitstream. AVIs with an unpacked bitstream are smoother but not perfect. The hardware decoder will play anything up to 720p. Best as I can tell, it doesn't like GMC or DivX3.
-The MXVideo software decoder will play anything but it does seem to struggle a little with 1080p, so basically if you stick with the software decoder any Xvid/AVI up to 720p will play perfectly smoothly.
h264/MKV:
Not much to say here as the hardware decoder seems to play anything up to 1080p smoothly, regardless of the frame rate, as long as it's DXVA compliant. It doesn't care about the AVC level, just the number of reference frames. As a result I didn't mess around with the software decoder much, but it seems to play anything up to 720p fine, while it struggles with 1080p a little.
The hardware decoder doesn't like AC3 (or DTS if I remember correctly) but fortunately the MXVideo player will let you use the hardware decoder for video and the software decoder for audio, and it's really easy to pick which as you're playing a video, so between the two of them you can play pretty much anything.
I ask, because I've been playing around with my new smartphone (Motorola Razr) to put it through it's paces, and when trying video of varying frame rates (23.976, 24 and 25 fps), so far there's only a few types of video which don't seem to play perfectly smoothly (no judder), but that seems to be due to hitting the decoding limits and not because of the refresh rate.
While I'm asking, I thought I'd post some details regarding the Motorola Razr's video playing capabilities in case anyone is interested, because it's impressed me a little due to the fact it works quite well.
The video player I'm using is the MXVideo player, because aside from the fact it was obviously the best of all the players I tried, it was the only one which supported anamorphic MKVs.
Xvid/AVI:
-The hardware decoder is fairly jittery when playing SD AVIs with a packed bitstream. AVIs with an unpacked bitstream are smoother but not perfect. The hardware decoder will play anything up to 720p. Best as I can tell, it doesn't like GMC or DivX3.
-The MXVideo software decoder will play anything but it does seem to struggle a little with 1080p, so basically if you stick with the software decoder any Xvid/AVI up to 720p will play perfectly smoothly.
h264/MKV:
Not much to say here as the hardware decoder seems to play anything up to 1080p smoothly, regardless of the frame rate, as long as it's DXVA compliant. It doesn't care about the AVC level, just the number of reference frames. As a result I didn't mess around with the software decoder much, but it seems to play anything up to 720p fine, while it struggles with 1080p a little.
The hardware decoder doesn't like AC3 (or DTS if I remember correctly) but fortunately the MXVideo player will let you use the hardware decoder for video and the software decoder for audio, and it's really easy to pick which as you're playing a video, so between the two of them you can play pretty much anything.