[Touch HD General] tnyynt:
Make sure to read the Wiki on Video Playback basics (credit to Chris Cross) here.

EDIT: My final conclusion on video issue here.

OK everyone, we've takin' it to another level. Follow this thread for

the real HD experience

.

Video playback on Blackstone (as well as on other Mobile devices in general) depends pretty much on many factors:

1. Video Format and Container

2. Video Bitrate

3. Audio Bitrate

4. Combined (general file) Bitrate

5. Video size

6. Processor speed

7. Video acceleration

8. Device/Internal/SD Card Storage speed

Doing some thinking about each of the points above will take you to a conclusion which will give most of you the answer as to why Blackstone (or any other Mobile device) will not - by far - play back video files that your PC or Notebook can (Hint: think about Processor, RAM and Disk Access) and as to why is conversion needed.

We can't really do pretty much with the Processor speed and Video acceleration (well, we aren't talking about overclocking here and we aren't referring to the so much discussed driver issue either), but can tweak Video Format and Container, Video/Audio/Combined Bitrate and Device/Internal/SD Card Storage speed.

1. Video Format and Container

This section refers to what type of video file is generated via conversion (Hint: AVI, MPG, 3GP, etc.) and what codec is used inside that file (Divx, Xvid, FLV, etc.).

Here's a small hint to let you see the differences between these.

* Benchmark has been done on the same file, converted at same audio and video bitrate, but save to different formats and container. Coreplayer was used for both Benchmark and Playback.

SUPER video converter, which is a free and fantastic all in one video conversion solution, was used to convert video files.

We obviously see that AVI format/container with FLV codec is a winner here. We also notice the difference in playback as to SD Card playback is generally slower than Internal Storage playback (we will discuss this at point 7.)

2, 3 and 4. Video/Audio/Combined (general) Bitrate

As you can see in the same chart, playing with the Bitrate offers different results. That is, lowering the bitrate will get you higher benchmark results simply because the amount of data that needs to be processed is less.

5. Video Size

Video size refers to the dimensions of the video canvas, the resolution if you want. Lowering the resolution will also give you better benchmark results. The explanation is the same, the amount of data that needs to be processed is less.

6. Processor speed

Not discussed

7. Video acceleration

Not discussed

8. Device/Internal/SD Card Storage Speed

Fire up your favorite system benchmark application (i.e.: SKTools) and run a benchmark on Device Storage and one on SD Card. You will obviously see that Device Storage is way faster (like more than 3 times faster) than SD Storage. "What the...? I have a Class 6 SDHC Card?" Yes you do! There are also Operating System drivers for that. The thing is, the Operating System is not configured properly to take advantage of that.

Solution: Download my attached cab, install to Device, Soft Reset, run your benchmark again! What do you see?

CONCLUSION:

Taking all these into consideration, after alot of cigarettes and beer spent in front of the PC and my Blackstone, I've came up that the perfect solution for video playback on Blackstone (probably other devices too) is: FLV format in AVI container at 560x304 resolution, encoded at 1200 kbps video and 128 kbps audio. That generates a Combined Bitrate of 1328 kbps. You can probably go even higher, as to 1500 kbps video and keep 128 kbps audio, having a General Bitrate of 1628 kbps. Should be no problem after my SD TuneUp cab, but I personally consider such high video bitrates a waste of space.

I found that going beyond 1200 kbps video has no impact on quality, 1200 kbps reached maximum, but this may depend on your file and your needs.

So, short story:

FLV @ 560x304 pix. @ 1200 kbps video & 128 kbps audio

You can play a little bit with resolution and bitrate, but keep it around there.

Having installed my SD TuneUp cab and using the settings I recommend, you will get fantastic video playback experience on Blackstone in any Media Player (yes, classic Windwso Media Player and HTC Album too).

I upped a converted HDTV trailer here (scores around 120%) and another one here. Go play! :D

EDIT: My final conclusion on video issue here.