[mythtv-users] Mobile Video Player Recommendations (MPEG4)

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Fri Jan 26 14:39:56 UTC 2007


On Jan 26, 2007, at 4:29 AM, Nick Rout wrote:

>>
>> So to play a video that was made on a Myth system you will either
>> have to have Myth create a file that has sub-optimal resolution for
>> display on a home TV set or reduce the resolution of the Myth file to
>> "fit" on your player.
>
> I don't actually agree with this. I don't have such a device, but I  
> do a bit of research from time to time. I don't believe that the  
> portable devices have any problem playing a resolution that is too  
> big - providing it isn't so big that it runs out of CPU to od the  
> job - but thats not a resolution issue its a CPU issue. In other  
> words a HD stream is unlikely to work, but a typical SD resolution  
> xvid file would look fine. It  will simply be scaled down to fit  
> the screen.

You're probably right, at least for modern devices. It was several  
years ago that I was playing with this on my Zaurus and I was using  
full-resolution DVD rips and they were causing pauses and audio sync  
problems, probably due to CPU limitations as you indicated.

This was also MPEG-2 not MPEG-4, although MPEG-4 takes more  
processing power there is less data that has to be moved processed,  
the Zaurus had some problems with transfer speed to and from the SD  
card.


>
> By the 9way I have heard good things about the Creative Zen Vision  
> W which has a 16:9 aspect screen @ 480x272
>

Sounds interesting. The truth is these little devices are fun to play  
with but I have found that I really don't want to watch a video on a  
tiny screen when away from home - a book is more entertaining and  
doesn't have the battery life problems of a video player :-)


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