Video choppy using hdmi

[makoti]

Hello to all,

I am trying to play movies converted using DVDCatalyst for the Dorid Bionic through the HDMI onto my tv. They play, sound fine, but the video playback is choppy (audio sounds fine). If I watch the same file on the Bionic itself, they look great - no chop at all.
I can stream youtube vids without a hitch. All pictures look fine. I've tried Mobo, MX, and the stock video player. Phone is new & stock. 5.5.893. The hdmi cable is 15', but everything else through it looks great, so doubt that is part of it. I believe the files are .mp4. I needed to d/l quicktime to play them on my PC.
Any thoughts on how I can get these to play smoothly? I can't watch them as it is right now.
Many thanks. Other than this, I am loving this phone.

 

[aaf709]

I use Act 1 Video Player and it handles .mp4 on HDMI without a problem.

I admit, the .mp4 films that I watch I got from Rifftrax that way and aren't converted movies. I suggest getting an .mp4 movie to isolate the problem as it's possible that it's the settings on DVDCatalyst.

 

[makoti]

Thanks for the reply. I tried the demo of Act 1, and got the same thing. So I tried other vid files (mp4,avi) that were not converted by DVDCatalyst, and they all played without a problem. I tried to re-convert a movie, tried to convert under a NookColor protocol, and all of those had the same lag. So, I think you are right. What I can't figure out is why they look so good on the phone but so annoying through the hdmi. Time to contact them, I guess.

 

[giant25]

Just got an HDMI cable today, and same choppy video here when on the TV, not choppy on the phone. The mp4 I played was converted with Handbrake using H264 Codec.

 

[makoti]

Just got an HDMI cable today, and same choppy video here when on the TV, not choppy on the phone. The mp4 I played was converted with Handbrake using H264 Codec.

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the h264 codec? I tried to convert the mp4 file that was choppy into an avi, and it played without any choppiness. That's the good news. The bad is that it was so pixelated as to be unwatchable.
So, what other formats can we convert into that might play & look good?

 

[giant25]

Handbrake can do mpeg-4 (FFmpeg) listed in the Video tab under Video codec. We'll have to see if it's any better. I'm just surprised that more folks haven't mentioned this...

 

[makoti]

If you could try that & let me know if it's any better that would be great. I don't have handbrake, but if it works I'll get it.

 

[giant25]

If you could try that & let me know if it's any better that would be great. I don't have handbrake, but if it works I'll get it.

Tried it, pixelated, still crappy. I did install MX Video Player from the Market and am trying that out now with good results so far. I've been switching between the HW and SW decoder and I think its SW decoder makes it look pretty good. I've moved these tests to my PC monitor, now to go back to my 55" big screen where I started.

 

[Dave12308]

Oddly enough, audio over HDMI is one of the issues addressed by the 5.9.902 OS that is currently soak testing (according the the changelog posted on the front page here).

 

[makoti]

As a follow-up...got the OTA update & figured I'd try this again. MX video player, still choppy using the HW decoder BUT if I switch to the SW decoder (not the fast one), it settles down. It appears that this is gonna work!
So, if you notice this problem, try the SW decoder (as giant25 mentioned) and I think it should work ok. Not sure if the update helped or if it was the combonation of the update & the SW decoder.