How Well Will The Pandora Run Video?

[BudhaCronX]

I have been wanting to buy a laptop and maybe even an iPod. But the more I think about it this is what I want:

a great battery life
plays audio
plays any video I throw at it
basic internet stuff
possibly even replaces my GP2X

That would shrink all the gear in my bag WAY down. Making me a very happy boy. But my main concern is the Video. I want my podcasts to work on it as well as anything I might download. If VLC gets ported, I'm sure that won't be a problem, though.

 

[fischju2000]

It certainly is powerful enough to play every popular codec at SD res, and with some DSP help up to 720p.

 

[marshal]

It certainly is powerful enough to play every popular codec at SD res, and with some DSP help up to 720p.

The OMAP3525 can decode HD video (MPEG-4 SP, 720p) at 30fps according to spec.

And yeah it shouldn't have a problem handling most video at SD resolution.
The pandora should meet all your criteria. You'll have to wait a bit to be able to order one though.

 

[DynaMight]

Hopefully the devs have full access to all the accelerated hardware making Xvid/AVI etc playback a doddle for the Pandora, so can therefore be downclocked and therefore increase battery life

 

[AireTamStorm]

It was also mentioned/demonstrated that the heavier cousin of MPEG-4, h.264, would work at 720p as well.

 

[BudhaCronX]

The pandora should meet all your criteria. You'll have to wait a bit to be able to order one though.

It's ok, I'll be broke for a bit before I can! lol

 

[fusion_power]

I hope, the Player(s) onto the Pandora support more formats. I have many .avi files but the GP2X doesn't play all. Videos with AC3 Ausio are completely fail onto the GP2X, same for MPEG etc...

But I think VLC will help alot to expand the "playability" of Videos, IF it gets propper ported for the Pandora.

 

[Alpha2]

I need it to play 720p MKVs because that seems to be the new hottness for anime fansubbers, MP4s as well.

The ipod and numerous other random "MP4 players" ar incredibly picky about what formats you want to use. AVI? sure as long as it's encoded with divx and mp3 audio, if you've got H264 and AAC? you're shit outta luck. Mpeg? what are you insane? FLVs only play on every 3rd thursday in years divisble by 3.

 

[cb88]

@alpha2 waht! in my experience about 2/3 of FLVs are playable by mplayer and the rest can sometimes be reencoded with ffmpeg

or perhaps you are talking about the MP4 players and not the Pandora X.x I can' tell

 

[marshal]

I need it to play 720p MKVs because that seems to be the new hottness for anime fansubbers, MP4s as well.

The ipod and numerous other random "MP4 players" ar incredibly picky about what formats you want to use. AVI? sure as long as it's encoded with divx and mp3 audio, if you've got H264 and AAC? you're shit outta luck. Mpeg? what are you insane? FLVs only play on every 3rd thursday in years divisble by 3.

For 720p you will very probably need the DSP because the processor alone will not have enough power. Beside this it will be flexible. Mplayer will be ported if it isn't already and VLC is also coming. So don't worry everything should be fine.

On my nokia internet tablet (running maemo linux) and mplayer it can basically playback most type video file. As on the pc version as far as I know. MKV file with h.264 video and ogg audio ? no problem, it can play it. The internet tablet is not powerful enough to play it back at a proper speed but that's another story.

 

[Fishbong]

VLC does everything in software on the PC. Even scaling. I doubt it will be a good option for the pandora, especially with highres videos.

 

[Alpha2]

@Alpha2 waht! in my experience about 2/3 of FLVs are playable by mplayer and the rest can sometimes be reencoded with ffmpeg

or perhaps you are talking about the MP4 players and not the Pandora X.x I can' tell

Yeah I'm talking about other players that arnt the Pandora since I dont have mine yet of course. The whole point of wanting a decent player is to not have to spend the time re-encoding. The PSP would be a great player if it wasnt for the fact that you have to re-encode EVERYthing you want to watch on it. I have an Onda 787 that should be able to play dozens of different files but can barely manage half of what their claims were because file containers may be supported but the codecs INSIDE those containers are ignored.

 

[Username]

All I ever need at home is VLC and CCCP. I wonder if that's open source, I imagine not.

 

[fischju2000]

All I ever need at home is VLC and CCCP. I wonder if that's open source, I imagine not.

You know that VLC doesn't use any external codecs (like the ones provided by CCCP) right? MPC however does, and gives better image quality in my experience.

 

[adamorjames]

MPlayer is kind of like CCCP for Linux.

 

[Yod4z]

Mplayer with some neon optimisations are already available for Beagleboard (same OMAP of the Pandora).

 

[Alpha2]

So running on a beagleboard with linux and such you can confirm that it'll play the formats in question? Because it's getting harder and harder to download anything other than 720p MKV files in all manner of codec configurations.

 

[Mr devil45]

m4a and m4p? i want my itunes stuffz on panda!

 

[Prometheus]

m4a and m4p? i want my itunes stuffz on panda!

Not happening if that stuff happens to be DRM'ed (I believe that applies to the stuff with the "p" added, no?). If it's not, though, maybe you'll be in luck.

 

[conso]

m4a and m4p? i want my itunes stuffz on panda!

don't the itunes m4as and m4ps contain drm? how should that be available on pandora? you would probably first need to find a tool to remove the drm and i don't know if that would be legal in your country.

Well, that's the problem with all this convenient drm-stuff. it all seems to be so comfortable until you try to do something different then they planed you to do.