[Atrix 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Girgizzlemuf:
Hlep!! Video sucks on my Atrix HOW2FIX?!?!?!​

The Atrix is a peculiar beast when it comes to video and audio. While it is a very powerful device for certain things, it does lack in a few others. One of the most pronounced is video compatibility.

Please make note that this guide was made for Froyo-based (2.2+) firmwares, NOT the latest Gingerbread (2.3+) releases. However, the settings contained within play very nicely with the stock media players on the phone regardless of firmware.

FIRST:

The Atrix does not play *.mkv files out of the box.

SECOND:

Even with a media player from the market, *.MKV runs poorly.

THIRD:

This guide will tell you how to fix these issues

​

So the Atrix will play 3 major video containers right out of the box. *.MP4, *.AVI, and *.3GP. The Stock media player will only translate stuff from those types of containers.

Audio works out of a boatload of containers. *.mp3, *.mp2, *.m4a, *.wav, *.wma, *.amr, *.ogg... those are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head.

But you don't care about what it'll play, you just wanna make it work.

How to make stuff play on your Atrix

Transcode with Megui walkthrough: Here.

Transcode with Handbrake: Here.

Transcode with CLI with FFMPEG: Here. (Thanks relaxed!)​

*NOTE: My preference on media transcode programs leans very, very heavily toward Megui. Megui (found here) gives a level of video control that you can not obtain with many (read as 'any) other transcode programs. If you take the time to set it up, you can get the results you want every single time with just a couple of clicks.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR BRICKING YOUR PHONE/COMPUTER/INTERNET CONNECTION/WHATEVER WITH THE USE OF THIS GUIDE. THIS GUIDE IS ALMOST EXACTLY WHAT I DO TO MAKE MEDIA WORK ON MY PHONE. IT WORKS 99% OF THE TIME, THE OTHER 1% OF THE TIME I MESS SOMETHING UP TWEAKING THE SETTINGS, IN WHICH CASE I FOLLOW THE STANDARDS LAID OUT IN THE GUIDE TO FIX IT!​

Here is a list of supported codecs and containers that the Atrix plays that most people will be concerned with. As these are just containers, most of what you can put into them is almost unlimited. You can have h.264 video and flac audio in an AVI container, but it most likely will not work with any player due to the restrictions on said container. (Container first, with codec possibility laid out next to it):

1. MP4

Video Codec possibilities: h.264 baseline, h.264 main(*), h.263, xvid/divx

Audio Codec possibilities: AAC(**)​

2. AVI

Video Codec possibilities: xvid/divx, h.263, mjpeg

Audio Codec possibilities: MP3, AC3(**), PCM(**)​

3. MKV (ONLY WORKS WITH THIRD PARTY PLAYERS!)***

Video Codec possibilities: h.264 (***), xvid/divx(***)

Audio Codec possibilities: MP3(***), AC3(***,****),AAC(**)

Subtitle Possibilities: SRT(plain text)​

(*)Main profile x264 will achieve better compression results. However, you must disable weighted B-frame/P-frame prediction. If the conversion software of your choice does not have the option for profile based encoding, then you must DISABLE weighted B-frames, and P-frames. More information on what these settings are can be found at the x264 main site, http://x264.nl. It should also be noted that any resolution at or below 1080p at any bitrate can be played, withstanding the speed of your sd card as long as you use the settings aformentioned.

(**) Due to limitations of the phone, audio tracks that are encoded in mono (1.0 channel) should be converted to joint-stereo or stereo for the best compatibility. If audio tracks have more than 2 channel stereo (IE 2.1, 3.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 or any combination thereof) they need to be downsampled to stereo, Dolby Pro Logic, or Dolby PLII to eliminate the 'echo' effect that these files will produce. AAC does this nicely. AC3 to my knowledge will not play at all if the channel set is anything but 2.0. NeroAACenc is recommended for AAC compression, more info here.

(***) Using QQPlayer, I have managed to achieve a playable MKV with soft subtitles. The video inside the MKV *MUST* be xvid, compressed with 2 pass with a bitrate of LESS THAN 1700kb at FILM framerate (23.976FPS) and NO MORE THAN 848x480 resolution. Any resolution lower than those numbers will work, with any other aspect ratio also. QQPlayer can read the aspect ratio properly, so watch your video tags inside the MKV. The audio *MUST* be MP3 (stereo or j-stereo) below 192kbps. Any sampling frequency works. The subtitles must be SRT plain text. H.264 as a video codec inside the MKV WILL NOT WORK WELL. Anything but MP3 audio in the container WILL NOT WORK WELL.

TO SUMMARIZE THE MKV:

XVID@ <=1700kb 2 pass @ 23.976 fps, resolution <= 848x480

MP3 @ <=192kbps (44.1khz or 48khz will work)

SRT Plain text subtitle track​

**** After examining a file I encoded using High Profile 8-bit h264 and AC3, I found that no matter what media player I used (stock/mx/qq/rockplayer) on my installation of CM7 weekly3, there was no sound. I cannot promise AC3 will work, and if anyone knows how to make it work (kernel dependence maybe?) please let me know. I will probably be doing an update on the whole guide when I get some more information

Special thanks to relaxed and kmiller8 on IRC for proving me wrong on a few things in this post.