Nero ShowTime Mobile Teaser Release

[victorypoint]

I just tested Nero ShowTime Mobile Teaser Release 1.0.0.2 on a Dell Axim X50v PPC. Here's my quick review.

The UI is beautiful with screens for audio EQ, VU meter, playlists, playback controls, config, and full screen with control overlays. The config screen is pretty basic ("scale video" and "scale video proportional" are the only options). I tested ASP and AVC movies encoded with Recode2 (500MB size encoded at 400kbps video VBR, 96kbps 48kHz stereo audio). Movies encoded using the high definition ASP profile played back sluggish. There appears to be no Intel 2700G graphic chipset support for the X50v. The same ASP movies play great in Betaplayer 0.9 (which has 2700G support). AVC encoded movies play extrememly sluggish and video does not appear. The audio sounds good though. The EQ and VU screens during playback are a nice touch with 7 built-in EQ settings (rock, disco, jazz, pop, etc) and a custom setting. Unfortunately there's no way to save custom EQ settings. Playlists can be created but there appears to be no way to browse or add media on network shares. Playback pauses when the player is minimized.

-AJ

[Irwin]

Where you download it?

[Ivan Dimkovic]

Many thanks for testing of Nero ShowTime Mobile. Your feedback is very important to us.

Please take into consideration that this is a beta product, and we are in the process of optimizing it to make it as fast as possible (as well as make it very easy to use). Some features are also still missing, but they will definitely make it in the final release.

As for the encoding - please try to use "Mobile" and "Portable" (incl. AVC) profiles in Recode, to make sure the encoder will optimize videos for portables in a best possible way.

Also, although this beta version was released for Win-powered PDAs (and smartphones) only, final product will be also running on other operating systems for mobile phones and portables - i.e. Symbian OS.

All suggestions and comments are more than welcome, and feel free also to send them to my e-mail: idimkovic (_at_) nero dot com :)

[Atlantis78]

I'm interested too: where is it?
:)

[Ivan Dimkovic]

It is free for registered Nero retail/full users. Registration is also now available on the website.

[Atlantis78]

Thanks Ivan

[DeathTheSheep]

Cool--I was always looking for an AVC player for this thing! And it came out before the VP6/VP7 player, too. Nice.

Uh, problem is, will it ever play back files with the AVI/MKV/OGM extention, or will it only support MP4 until its release?


Supported audio formats:

Nero Digital™ Audio (MPEG-4 Audio), AAC, HE-AAC, HE-AAC v2, MP3, WAV

What on earth is HE-AAC v2?


Thanks.

[Atlantis78]

Originally posted by DeathTheSheep
What on earth is HE-AAC v2?

HE-AAC + PS (parametric stereo, for lower bitrate)

[DeathTheSheep]

First impressions:
---------------------------------
It has a cool website. Takes a little time to register, though.
Well, I've tested it. I love the cool GUI. It could definately use a counter/timer, though, because it's sometimes a bit hard to navigate around the video. The options menu (I presume the hammer icon leads to options) is a bit... bare at the moment. ;-)

Performance (using an X30H Turbo-624mhz 312mhz FSB 154mhz RAM):
----------------------------------
I quick compressed a 20minute episode under the "Portable AVC" category with 16kbps sound (32khz 16kbps) at 320*240 resolution. It ran at 23.976fps, the original.

Lacking a more simplified "Open file..." option, I was forced to open the playlist modifier. It took quite a while to scan through my entire device, and I feared a lockup. However, it eventually worked, and I navigated through the billions of files on my PPC (perhaps extention recognition should be implemented...) and loaded it up.

It played like a charm, except in high motion scenes, where it once skipped 2 frames in a row trying to portray a scene in which trees flew past. In scenes with slightly lower (or more abrupt) motion, it seemed to play every frame.

The controls worked, the file played, and everything was good.

A closer look
----------------------------------
I then decided to see what types of files played. It seems to me like B-frame implementation is very poor, for my files utilizing B-frames often crashed the player, leaving the top of the red screen permenently implanted into the screen, requiring a soft reset.

ASP implementation worked like a dream, from what I could tell. However, I haven't tested it thoroughly (only with a 15 second clip).

[Andrey]

Great news, Ivan.
Thanks to Nero team again :) :)

BTW, are palms planned to support ?

[victorypoint]

Originally posted by Ivan Dimkovic
As for the encoding - please try to use "Mobile" and "Portable" (incl. AVC) profiles in Recode, to make sure the encoder will optimize videos for portables in a best possible way.

Thanks for that Ivan. I encoded at 640 x 480 because the Dell Axim X50v has a VGA screen. I find that 320 x 240 video scaled to fit VGA tends to look a bit pixely and compression artifacts are more evident. What portable encoding settings do you recommend for VGA devices?

-AJ

[Ivan Dimkovic]

Hello,

AVI file support: yes, this is planned :)
Palm support: planned as well
More speed optimizations: definitely, yes :)


Thanks for that Ivan. I encoded at 640 x 480 because the Dell Axim X50v has a VGA screen. I find that 320 x 240 video scaled to fit VGA tends to look a bit pixely and compression artifacts are more evident. What portable encoding settings do you recommend for VGA devices?

At the moment, I would suggest either to stick to default Portable resolution, or to try some intermediate resolution for a specific device (i.e. 400x300, etc...)

We are working on this issue - but please understand that AVC is a very complex codec - and without hardware optimization it will be very hard to run 640x480 realtime clips on 600 MHz machine, even without thinking about advanced audio.

[victorypoint]

Originally posted by Ivan Dimkovic
At the moment, I would suggest either to stick to default Portable resolution, or to try some intermediate resolution for a specific device (i.e. 400x300, etc...)

We are working on this issue - but please understand that AVC is a very complex codec - and without hardware optimization it will be very hard to run 640x480 realtime clips on 600 MHz machine, even without thinking about advanced audio.

Okay, thanks Ivan. Is support for the Intel 2700G graphics chip planned (e.g. Dell Axim X50v)?

I just noticed that when encoding with Recode2 using a portable profile, the audio levels are much lower than normal (e.g. compared with the same video encoded to WMV9). Is this a know issue?

-AJ

[Ivan Dimkovic]

Okay, thanks Ivan. Is support for the Intel 2700G graphics chip planned (e.g. Dell Axim X50v)?

It is - as well as support for some other major multimedia accelerator chips for mobile/portable market.

I just noticed that when encoding with Recode2 using a portable profile, the audio levels are much lower than normal (e.g. compared with the same video encoded to WMV9). Is this a know issue?

I'll forward this message to the concerned team.

[victorypoint]

Originally posted by Ivan Dimkovic
I'll forward this message to the concerned team.

Ivan, any news on the low audio levels issue in Recode2?

-AJ

[DeathTheSheep]

Oh, I also had some problems with low audio levels. What I did was encode it well, rip it out and raise the volume with Nero WAV editor, and stick it back in at lower bitrate. Worked like a charm.

[victorypoint]

I would prefer to not add any extra steps to the encoding process and just have a fix for the low-audio level problem. Is there a workaround or perhaps a configuration change that can be set before encoding with Recode2?

-AJ

[Ivan Dimkovic]

Ivan, any news on the low audio levels issue in Recode2?

We are working on it :)

[victorypoint]

Originally posted by DeathTheSheep
Oh, I also had some problems with low audio levels. What I did was encode it well, rip it out and raise the volume with Nero WAV editor, and stick it back in at lower bitrate. Worked like a charm.

How did you rip out the audio and stick it back into the mp4 file? What software did you use? Can you provide a quick run-down of your method?

-AJ

[DeathTheSheep]

Sure.
First get MP4UI.
Open the MP4 with it.
Select the audio track and click the export button.
Open the resulting AAC in Nero WAVE editor.
Select the whole audio file (CTRL+A).
From the Volume Menu, click "volume change."
Raise the volume by a certain dB amount so that the waves in the graph nearly touch the top of the graph.

[victorypoint]

Awesome! Thanks very much for that. Hopefully they'll add a audio normalize or amplify function to Recode2 soon.

-AJ

[Sharktooth]

I really hope they have it ready for the next version. It's a pain in the ass expecially if you choose 5.1 audio. The volume is ridicolously low...

[victorypoint]

So now that we've got a workaround for the low audio levels in Recode2, how about doing inverse-telecine on NTSC DVD movies in Recode2? Is it done automatically (e.g. does it detect the telecine pattern and convert to 24fps film) or does it ignore it and convert straight to 30fps?

-AJ

[seanyseansean]

Originally posted by victorypoint
Okay, thanks Ivan. Is support for the Intel 2700G graphics chip planned (e.g. Dell Axim X50v)?

I think betaplayer supports that hardware. Have you tried the same clips in that player?

[victorypoint]

Originally posted by seanyseansean
I think betaplayer supports that hardware. Have you tried the same clips in that player?

Yes, I currently use Betaplayer to play mp4 encoded files (ASP profile). It can playback fairly high bitrate mp4 files and I assume this is due to the Intel 2700G graphics support. I was asking if Nero Mobile will support this graphics chip in future versions so mp4 ASP and AVC playback is optimized.

-AJ

[Ivan Dimkovic]

Intel 2700g optimization is in the works - so, no reasons to worry - it will definitely be in :)

[victorypoint]

Originally posted by DeathTheSheep
Sure.
First get MP4UI.
Open the MP4 with it.
Select the audio track and click the export button.
Open the resulting AAC in Nero WAVE editor.
Select the whole audio file (CTRL+A).
From the Volume Menu, click "volume change."
Raise the volume by a certain dB amount so that the waves in the graph nearly touch the top of the graph.

Okay, I just tried this method. I was able to export a soundtrack to AAC, boost the volume in Nero Wave Editor, but can't figure out how to stick the boosted audio track back into the MP4. Do I save as WAV or MP4 (AAC audio)?

I can also open the MP4 directly with Nero Wave Editor (skipping the MP4UI extract step). Should I be doing this?

-AJ

[Numer0bis]

Hi @all

I also tested the Teaser Release of Nero Showtime Mobile on my Dell Axim X30 High. Files which where encoded with mobile and portable profile play smooth but as soon as I encode with AVC codec it begins to stutter.

Well Results for my X30 High

Mobile Profile --> Works fine
Portable Profile --> Works fine

Mobile AVC Profile --> Works, plays smooth
Portable AVC Profile --> Studdering, audio plays smoth, Video stutters

greetz Numer0bis

[victorypoint]

They're apparently adding Intel 2700G chipset support to the next release. Hopefully this should fix the playback studdering problem.

-AJ

[victorypoint]

Last week I noticed the release of Nero ShowTime Mobile Beta2 at
http://www.nero.com/eng/Nero_ShowTime_Mobile.html. It looks like there's alot of great improvements (including Intel 2700G chipset support) but I can't download it - I registered my serial number to download Beta1 several months ago but for some strange reason you can't register the same serial number to download Beta2. I've emailed Nero tech support twice about this problem but haven't received a response. Can anyone help out?

-AJ

[Irwin]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=98116 you have been late 9 days

Ivan says " If you cannot download NSTM with your serial, please contact our tech-support team, so they can help you."

and full 2700G support is not yet finished...

[victorypoint]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=98116 you have been late 9 days

Ivan says " If you cannot download NSTM with your serial, please contact our tech-support team, so they can help you."

and full 2700G support is not yet finished...

And what if haven't received any response from tech support in 9 days?

-AJ

[Irwin]

try on http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php ask Garf or Ivan Dimkovic

[victorypoint]

try on http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php ask Garf or Ivan Dimkovic

Thanks Irwin, I took your suggestion and posted on Hydrogenaudio. No response yet - I wish the Nero folks would take care of this!

-AJ

[bond]

moved, i think this better belongs to the hardware forum

[victorypoint]

Okay, I'm not sure why this thread was moved to the "hardware players" forum... it's a software player for PPCs that uses Nero Digital H.264 codecs. How about moving it back?

Anyways, I finally have Beta2 downloaded and installed. Here's the results of some testing.

Nothing has changed in the UI between betas. I found the Playlist options a bit confusing. It needs an "Open File" option rather than scanning through all the files on my Axim before I can add media. ASP and AVC movies encoded with Recode2 (500MB size encoded at 400kbps video VBR, 96kbps 48kHz stereo audio) play back much better than Beta1 but are still sluggish when played from a CF card. No Intel 2700G graphic chipset support yet but appearently it's in the works. For comparison, the same ASP movies play smooth in TCPMP 0.66 from a CF card (AVC not supported yet).

Still no way to save custom EQ settings. Still no way to browse or add media on network shares. They fixed the playback pause problem when the player is minimized. No option to use system volume. It doesn't have customizable hotkeys, file associations, and advanced settings like TCPMP but overall a good improvement from Beta1. I'll keep using TCPMP (although it looks like TCPMP has dropped AAC support in the latest builds).

-AJ

[bond]

Okay, I'm not sure why this thread was moved to the "hardware players" forum... it's a software player for PPCs that uses Nero Digital H.264 codecs. How about moving it back?well all in all the topic is the player and not only the specific decoder (that is also able to play all compliant mpeg-4 streams, not only nerodigital ones) and players are normally discussed in the software/hardware players forums

and i would not see it as the typical "pc software player", but one targeting at specific hardware, therefore i thought that the hardware player forum fits best, as i would say too for any other pocketpc player related topics