yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xoom General] jparker36:
dvd rips worked fine too. I don't have any blu-ray rips that aren't downloaded, but so far every mp4 video i've tried had worked without issue.
[Xoom General] modru2004:
as others have said im pretty sure this is just a software issue. so hopefully we can get it fixed :)

you can have the greatest hardware in the world, but without the proper software its meaningless.

if you install a $500 video card in your desktop and don't install the drivers for you what do you get? sure the card will work with generic windows drivers, but good luck playing a game with it.

so i still hold out some hope that this will be fixed in a timely manner.

also someone said the adam recently resolved this. being we both run almost identical hardware its logically that we might be able to get a fix from there worst case.
[Xoom General] redbullcat:
Well, VLC should hit Android soon :) I'd wait for that if I were you :)
[Xoom General] muyoso:
This seems to be a hardware limitation. Tegra 2 does not support high profile h.264 decoding from what I have read, and 99% of what is available for download is high profile. Its not exactly clear what Tegra 2 does support, but we know it supports baseline profile which no one uses. Basically, you can't just dump videos on here and know that they will work, which is beyond dissapointing seeing as though my Epic4g supports high profile h.264 and plays anything i throw at it.

I sure hope that this is remedied or that I am completely off base, because if not then I will have to wait for a competent SoC to be released before I can switch to an Android tablet.
[Xoom General] jparker36:
at the end of the day, it sucks that it doesn't work. but for the joy of having high-def videos with me at all times, i'll make sure I rip/encode so that they play. anyone know a preset for handbrake that will work?
[Xoom General] galtom:
Well, if what you say is true (that Tegra does not support h.264 codec) than spending so much money on this device is pure madness. There is few other bits of hardware like this that will be able to help with web surfing...

All I can say is that I really hope you are wrong.

Is there any chance that someone (respected in the community) could simply ask about it at the source: Motorola, Google and Nvidia - is is just an issu or it will never work?
[Xoom General] dudeimgeorge:
dude i am so saddened by this. i converted a tv show and a movie both 720p

they were originally mkv files. slaughtered on the rockplayer. nothing happened.

moving them over to avi. played so jaggedly it was like i was seeing a picture slideshow with carnival music.

i will be so happy if anyone here, especially the dude who is saying everything is working fine to explain what he uses, as i call bluff.

Shoot me in my face.
[Xoom General] :
Have ask this question i many tines now.

Does of you that have problems. WHAT AUDIO DO THE FILE HAVE? stereo or multichannel.

Android 2. Canr handle multichannel audio. I was hopping HC 3.0 should have fixed this problem, but maybe not?
[Xoom General] muyoso:
If it was an audio issue the audio simply wouldn't play. There is a reason that Boxee dumped the Tegra 2.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/13/boxee-box-ditches-nvidias-tegra-2-for-intel-ce4100-pre-orders/

This is ridiculous that no one is calling Nvidia out on this publicly and getting some real answers from them.
[Xoom General] :
Can only speek feom my experience whit SGT. When a movie have multichannel audio it doesn't play at all. Some times it can play but the picture lagg and do not play smooth.

Really easy to find out. You guys who have the xoom, take a movie that doesn't work and look the files spec and give it to us. And then take a HD movie that works and write down the spec and post it
[Xoom General] galtom:
And than lets ask Nvidia & Co. - are you guys having a bubble (bath=laugh ;-) :-)?
[Xoom General] jparker36:
I checked the vids I was using - none are high profile. So it is a hardware limitation, but if you encode in main profile, they play flawlessly. Also, the standard HC player works better than rockplayer for my vids.
[Xoom General] galtom:
I know I can display file properties... but how will I know if video is high or non high profile? Also... what should I encode/decode it and to what format?

I was so hoping I will be able to ditch my Asus 1201N and have something lighter for late night movie watching in bed (via NAS drive) seems to me all my hopes just went down in flames :-(
[Xoom General] jparker36:
as for streaming from a nas, i have lots of vids on a nas, and I can't get it to stream - if you know a method pls share.

Knowing the format of the video, I have to check on my pc and use software called mediainfo.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
You can download something like:

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Then drag your media file into the window and it should display all of the details. It will display something like this:

English, 4 905 Kbps, 1280*720 (16:9), at 23.976 fps, AVC (High@L4.1) (CABAC / 9 Ref Frames)

The (High@L4.1) tells you that its high profile running at level 4.1. This video would not function on the Xoom most likely.
[Xoom General] galtom:
Thanks guy +1 to both of you. Since I am in Poland I can not buy Xoom yet... and after reading link muyoso had sheared I do not think I want to... any Tegra 2 based tablet for that matter. If I can not have the same entertainment and quality time I do have now with my Asus netbook... why would I? I want to watch HULU (for free) as I can now, I want to watch movies form my NAS drive in bed without having to spend extra time to prepare them (I do not have that time!).

I was hoping (for something that is almost twice as expensive) to get the same fun, same web browsing experience but better battery life and more mobility.

:-(

So it begins... I waited through 2010 to buy a tablet that will do stuff my netbook can and iPad did not and now I will wait through 2011 :-( (and it is only a Feb.) :-(
[Xoom General] MichaelWestin:
Man, I could not agree more. There are some people who say "just re-encode it" and yes, I could. It probably wouldn't even take that long. But this thing after taxes is almost a freaking grand, and seriously, it can't play a 720p mkv file? When a 399.99 Laptop from Newegg can? (Yes I swear, I just got an e-mail from them yesterday). Yeah Yeah. You get form factor, lightweight, wireless access, blah blah blah. But come on. Millions of iPads weren't sold because people wanted to work all day on them, it's because they wanted something to play with. That's why I bought the Xoom, and anybody who I've spoken to who is remotely interested in it is for the same reason. I can't believe Samsung is the only company to figure this **** out.
[Xoom General] Slimgym20:
Maybe this will help. Found it on Motorola's Xoom forum:

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/63258/kw/video/p/7901,7906,
[Xoom General] keitht:
Thanks for the link. That seems to confirm what I feared.
[Xoom General] gogol:
I made a post in Xoom official forum:

https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/45753
[Xoom General] galtom:
One more thing... there are sites with videos that instead Flash use Ms Silverlight. Is this supported by Tegra and Honeycomb? Has any one tried to stream stuff.

vod.onet.pl is one example but you need Polish IP in order to watch :-(
[Xoom General] BBruin66:
I am wondering if this wasn't done on purpose to combat piracy? My PS3 doesn't play .MKVs just for this reason. However a simple and quick program, mkvtovob (free, btw) remuxes the file to play (I do it streaming using Tversity, but copying to the HDD works too). It can even encode to AC3. My xoom hasn't shipped yet otherwise id help troubleshoot this, but I'm wondering the performance results people might get from converting with this program?

P.s. I know it defeats the purpose of no native playback but its very quick and easy to do.
[Xoom General] parrotheadmjb:
Yea in was thinking that the other day, I'm going to try remuxing some mkvs the same way I do for my 360. Splits video and audio into their own files, reencodes only the audio into 2 channel aac then combines the video and new audio into the mp4 container. Then ill pop that in the stock player on the Xoom. Remuxing is fast since only the audio is reencoded.
[Xoom General] MichaelWestin:
Used Mkv2Vob to change containers to mp4 and avi, didn't work. Didn't expect it to, but thought I might get lucky.
[Xoom General] gogol:
Are we expecting too much?

Because I found iPad is not able to play high profile video either:

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/87921/ipad-as-video-device-not-so-much/

The iPad can only play back video files in .mp4, .mpv, and .mov file formats with H.264 video at Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps/48kHz. In other words, the iPad basically plays back video in the iTunes format and really nothing else.

So, the situation is still the same.

There is no tablet from any manufacturer that you can throw any HD videos and expect to view it flawlessly.

And don't even think the upcoming iPad2 will change this.

I bet on Xoom 2 with Tegra 3 Quad core.
[Xoom General] galtom:
What about Windows 7 based tablets...?

Oak Trail should be out in a moment...
[Xoom General] parrotheadmjb:
Use something like XenonMKV that actual remuxes it instead of just changing the container. It splits the x264 from the ac3, converts the ac3 to WAV, then converts the WAV to a 2 channel aac. Then addes the x264 and aac into an mp4 container

I just did it and it played better in RockPlayer. Though it was still laggy. I might try and restart the Xoom to see if that does anything at all

It was a little laggy, but if the video was at a little lower bitrate it would have been fine.

Frame width:1280

Frame height 532

Data rate: 6008kbps

Total bitrate: 6178kbps

Frame rate: 23 frames/second

also had the xoom plugged into my pc, windows may have also been trying to access the drive while the video was playing.. idk ill post back later
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
I just wanted to point out to everyone that the Notion Ink Adam is able to play All 720p videos and all 1080p videos (not high profile as that is limitation of current chips. IN FACT no chip currently available will allow you to play 1080p High profile unaltered in a tablet device)

the reason the xoom cannot currently play the video is due to codecs. This is true because the notion ink adam has same ram and same processor and CAN play these files...

Actually the first firmware that came with NI adam had trouble playing files, and the new update fixed those issues.

People should realize that sooner or later the XDA community or even moto/google will update the codecs... and all will be fine again.

Of note the snapdragon qualcomm processor coming out may be able to to High profile, but that has not been confirmed to my knowledge.
[Xoom General] paulshields:
Yes, the iPad is probably not a good comparison. That is artificially restricted based on Apple's need to control media. It probably could play high profile media, but that would only be if such media is offered via iTunes. In contrast, the problem here seems to be purely down to hardware capabilities rather than restrictions on formats. The Galaxy Tab plays high profile mkv files without issue due to hardware acceleration. It seems that the Tegra 2 chipset has a physical limitation. Nvidia did announce their quad core Tegra 3 (Kal-El) recently which can certainly handle such high def video. Probably won't be available until latter part of this year though.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
The iPad was released a year ago and if you jailbreak it and install XBMC it plays high profile 720P fine. A dual core cpu and an eight core GPU made by the leading consumer graphics card company in the world should be able to play 720P video. You can throw any video on a Galaxy Tab as long as it doesn't have DTS surround sound and it will play flawlessly. Same thing with all Galaxy S phones.

I for one am waiting for a tablet that uses the Powervr SGX line of GPU's as they seem to be the only ones capable of performing in this area.
[Xoom General] galtom:
My question is... since Tegra 2 on its own will not do it. Is there a physical way for manufacturers to add a chip to this design that will help? Something like extra GPU that will decode video and sound....

I am thinking that if 1st Galaxy Tab was able to do it than Samsung would take a real step back if Galaxy Tab 10.1 would not....
[Xoom General] muyoso:
Look for a tablet running a TI OMAP4430 with a PowerVR SGX540 GPU clocked at 300mhz. Its a BEAST and will be capable of playing any media you could throw at it.

Take a look at this phone running it:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4179/ti-omap4-and-lg-optimus-3d-tested

Look at those benchmarks too, WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!! Tegra 2 WHAT???
[Xoom General] paulshields:
Can't answer the first question, but yes it would be a big step backwards if the 10.1 can't handle video as well as its 7" sibling... Will be interesting to see when it actually comes out :).
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
nowhere has it been listed that the TI OMAP will be able to decode high profile 1080p.
[Xoom General] galtom:
Well, from my point of view I have to say that I do not really care about 1080p since screen on Xoom is not Full HD any way. But most of the stuff over the net is now 720p (most of that being high profile). This has to work on a mobile device like tablet... if it doesn't than it is just one more device that will do some of the thing required.

So, what... do I carry tablet with me for web browsing but when I want to watch the movie (on the go) I need netbook (with good old Atom inside)?

As much as I like the look and feel of Honeycomb this on its own is not enough for me to spend (and justify this expenditure) almost $1000 (in Europe) on device that will do only what old iPad can + Flash. :-(

I was so much hoping for all-in-one to go... I do not need to work with Photoshop on the go, work on dwg files, etc... for that I got PC.

What I needed is entertainment on the go (like on the PC), web browsing experience (like on the PC) and mobility (not like on the PC). :-(

Please SAMSUNG - if you read it, add SD slot on your Galaxy Tab 10.1, sort out video playback and you got my $1000! :-)
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
Again, this is a codec issue and NOT a hardware issue. The Notion ink adam plays 720p high profile and 1080p up to main profile.. it didnt at first.. but after the appropriate updates it now does..

Nvidia tegra 2 is ABLE To play all video files up to 1080p MAIN PROFILE (max of 20Mbps) - just because the zoom is stuttering right now does not mean its hardware...
[Xoom General] muyoso:
The Galaxy S series uses the exact same GPU, the Powervr SGX540, except clocked at 200mhz. It can do high profile 720P without even trying. There is no reason to think that bumping the clock speed up 50% will render it unable to play high profile h.264.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
I hope so.
[Xoom General] Srikar_NBK:
If its an issue with Tegra 2, I guess the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would also end up with the same limitation. I feel its pointless to buy such a costly device, which doesn't play a pretty common format. :(
[Xoom General] modru2004:
Well that's good news. Most of my stuff is 720 high profile.
[Xoom General] vcarvega:
You're going to have to wait for players optimized for Tegra chips ;-). This will pretty much be resolved anyway once Flash 10.2 is released... then you can use PlayOn to play any of the media you have stored on your pc.

I do agree though... for this type of device, Google should have a premium movie player installed by default.
[Xoom General] galtom:
Well, I am not convinced. After reading that Boxee dumped Tegra 2 because of this... I do not see how codec will help. (link again: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3912/boxee-box-the-inside-story)
[Xoom General] Phylar:
From the article:

So it can't play 1080p high profile for sure, but from the motorola support page (there was a link back here somewhere in the thread) and from reports that the notion ink adam can play 720p high profile, that it can be done. Big difference between 720p high profile and 1080p high profile, namely most TV show torrents are in the former :P really 1080p or i is silly when you're device is native 720p.

That's all I want is 720p high profile... I think we need to get the notion ink adam player or grab some codecs off of it.
[Xoom General] galtom:
Can anyone help with the idea above?
[Xoom General] tr1pp1nout:
id stick with less media playback support on an htc or moto device than have to deal with samsungs pathetic firmware support stateside
[Xoom General] muyoso:
Yea, its not good, but I would still buy Samsung over Motorola with their locked bootloaders or HTC with their 30 iterations of the exact same phone all underpowered and running crappy snapdragons with washed out LCD screens. Just me though.
[Xoom General] galtom:
Bad news,

Just spoke to a friend of mine who had Notion Ink Adam for review...

He says 720p High Profile mkv was unwatchable :-(

This means that it is the platform issue and no software patching will help :-(
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
I mean washe completely updated and running edenx or r utopia? There have been A few people who said it works great. I can't confirm myself.
[Xoom General] gogol:
So, no device out there can play 720p high profile?

Well, if that's the case then we should "accept" the situation and start creating workaround (like found the BEST way, step-by-step, fool-proof instruction how to convert 720p/1080p high profile to Xoom friendly format).

Enjoy the Xoom and wait the next tablet with Tegra 3 next year or so :D

PS: I am waiting the iPad 2 that will be announced next March 2. See what it brings.
[Xoom General] galtom:
@Flaunt77: i have not asked (about all taken steps), he had it for over a week to play (made his pre order few months back) and said that no matter what he did it just did not play :-(

@gogol: I can not accept it :-( I got over 500GB of video materials (play without a glitch on my Asus 1201N) and simply I do not have time to do it (nor the will). I was hoping that device costing twice the price of my netbook it will at least do as much (+ extra batt. life + touch screen + lighter weight). At this moment it looks like I would just throw money out of the window since I would have to carry netbook around anyway :-(

I do hope there is 10" Playbook coming as (it is not confirmed yet) 7" will be able to play what Tegra 2 can not. My hopes that Samsung will add an extra bit (chip) to help with video decoding are rather small :-(
[Xoom General] dudeimgeorge:
honestly

everyone doubting this will be able to play 720p is out of their minds.

as for that dumb article about boxee dropping tegra 2...apparently noone takes underconsideration the price they shaved off? F this horrible unofficial nonsense.
[Xoom General] DarkDvr:
I'm positive that Tegra2 can easily handle 720p high profile.

All we need is a codec/player that will use hardware to accelerate video decoding. Just simple logic works - thing about games - they run in high-rez with tons of gfx content to process. Yes, Xoom uses gfx cores to process that, and it can easily use those for video processing as well, just need to "teach it".
[Xoom General] labbbby:
The most information I have found on Tegra2 video decode are extracted from their slides from over a year ago. They mention 1080p Normal profile decode.

Now if we could find the technical paper for the video decode, we could settle this definitively although I am almost certain this chip can do 720p High Profile.

Now the Software/Codec side of the story is something else!
[Xoom General] galtom:
Could (maybe) a Senior and respected member of XDA community simply ask Nvidia, Moto and Google about this? (and Samsung since we are on the subject)

I would love to see you Guys (who say it can) proven right as I really want to buy tablet like Xoom (or Xoom) :-)
[Xoom General] muyoso:
All it will take to prove everyone wrong is for someone to play this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPTH4NoI4sY

on a Tegra 2. That is the introduction to the first episode of planet earth. If the device can play that bird scene in 720p, then it can play anything in 720p. Also, if the device can play that bird scene in 1080p, then it can play anything in 1080p.

So someone download the first episode of planet earth in 720p high profile, and record on video any tegra 2 tablet playing that scene smoothly and then the debate is over. Its that simple.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
OK, I went ahead and isolated the 720P clip that I would love any owners of Tegra 2 devices to test.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9502388/Pla...to.Pole.2006.720p.HDDVD.x264-ESiR (1)-001.mkv

My Epic4g can play that file fine. If Tegra 2 can play that 720P high profile clip, then it can play any 720p high profile movie. Would love to see someone video tape their device playing it through. The bird scene is the stress test.
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
Whoever tries it should do it with Software decode and then try it again with Hardware decode - that way we get an idea about the actual hardware decoding portion of the chip and of the processor in general.

Of note, I still think honeycomb lacks optimization and the necessary software to utilize the tegra 2 hardware decode - which is why the ADAM can run it and Xoom cannot.
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
Thanks for your info man. Im sure the Life would have played too - im assuming that x.264@L4.1 is high profile? The tegra can play 1080p at a max of 10Mbps bitrate and 720p at max of 20Mbps so this seems to match your test.

You are right though, it can only get better with new codecs and overclocking.

Do you mind trying that 720p bird test that was posted in the last two posts?

+1 for the info
[Xoom General] MichaelWestin:
I'll be getting home in like an hour and a half or so and will try it out then. As for the x.264@L4.1 being high profile, I'm assuming it is based on it playing choppily in the mkv format before conversion. I'm gonna try re-encoding life at the same settings with 9000 kbps as the bitrate, and see how that goes.

Also, later this week I get my HDMI cable and I'll see how that works as well. I never bothered to get it for the Evo, and an app for mirroring just came out two days after I ordered!

BTW, for what its worth, battery life has been amazing. I played Dungeon Defenders for three hours today (freaking addicted), watched 20 min of video, listened to music while going through powerpoint slides for 40 min, and the battery is at 55%, from 100% at 9 AM and its almost 8:30 PM now. I'm pretty sure most of that stuff is hardware intensive and would be considered heavy use. Awesome. I like this thing more and more as I used it, and the THD apps are still yet to come.
[Xoom General] jparker36:
you're going to have to re-encode that file... 6 ch audio track. we already know that multichannel audio won't work.
[Xoom General] Flaunt77:
the 6 channel audio worked on the 720p file apparently. it played with no problems
[Xoom General] muyoso:
Plays fine on my Epic4g.

Are you saying that the video I posted played fine on the Xoom? If so then I am wondering how people are possibly claiming that 720P files are stuttering at all on the Tegra 2, since the file I posted is about the highest quality 720P that you can get.
[Xoom General] keitht:
It doesn't play. Failed to load is the error. This is in stock player. The mkv files I converted to baseline play fine.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
I posted the file in the Notion Ink forums to see if someone over there could test it and see if it will play. If it plays on there then we know its not a Tegra 2 issue and just a software issue. Their forums seem to be a lot slower than the Xoom's so it could be a while before I get an answer.

Curious though, can you play other mkv files using the stock player?
[Xoom General] keitht:
I have only been able to play 720p mkv files converted with Handbrake or DVD Cat 4. All those would not play without conversion. I even had tried qqplayer, vplayer and rockplayer and no go. I removed those players since they did not work. Stock player is capable of mkv, It is either codec or tegra 2 issue at this point.