Slow To Load Films

[semyaza]

I converted a moooovie to divx which seems to work. Total files size is 699Mb. But it seems to take around 10 minutes to start playing. It's alright when it's started. I can pause, fastforwrd, rewind, etc. I am really confused with this move side of things. I actually did want a gp2x to put occasional films on the SD card to play on the telly so I didnt have to watch them on the 'puter.

Have I missed the point somewhere?


Ta.

 

[oqnet]

I converted a moooovie to divx which seems to work. Total files size is 699Mb. But it seems to take around 10 minutes to start playing. It's alright when it's started. I can pause, fastforwrd, rewind, etc. I am really confused with this move side of things. I actually did want a gp2x to put occasional films on the SD card to play on the telly so I didnt have to watch them on the 'puter.

Have I missed the point somewhere?


Ta.

It might be trying to buffer the files. You could try something like pocketdivx encoder and make it a smaller file it shouldn't take as long. I still notice about a minute load time on longer films.

P.S. if you do try what I said check the forum for the right way to use pocketdivx encoder. I can't remember what option you have to pick off the top of my head.

 

[Megagun]

Well, I don't think downsizing the movie would be any good, since he said he wanted to watch movies on his TV, not on his GP2x screen. Downsizing movies and then displaying them on a TV doesn't really sound like a good idea to me..

Hmm.. What is your SD card speed, semyaza?

 

[craigix]

I've played 700mb files without issue @ 720*480... does it freeze up for 10mins on any other films you have, or only ones you have encoded?

 

[Wite_Noiz]

...it seems to take around 10 minutes to start playing...

...I still notice about a minute load time on longer films...

What?! How long /are/ these films?
I encode my films at 320x240 (or as close as possible) and even 1h30 to 2h films load in well under a minute (though some refuse to resume or skip until you've watched the first minute).

 

[oqnet]

Well, I don't think downsizing the movie would be any good, since he said he wanted to watch movies on his TV, not on his GP2x screen. Downsizing movies and then displaying them on a TV doesn't really sound like a good idea to me..

Hmm.. What is your SD card speed, semyaza?

Good point, it wouldn't look as nice on the tv if you re-encoded it to a lower resolution. I forget because I have a creative zen vision that does it super nice (my tv-out cable that I got when I got my gp2x has never worked even with the plastic incert).

Good luck.

 

[Vimacs]

well, i think 320*240 movies look "fine" scaled for tvout by gp2x, after all vcd's have the same res afaik.

 

[LordFu]

Yeah, 320*240 is fine. Use PocketDivX. I use the iRiver template and select Xvid in the advanced settings, as someone kndly suggested on the board, here. All my movies look and play great with these settings.

I forgot to mention, this produces small files, too. Most movies are less than 200mb using those settings, so I can pack hours and hours of entertainment onto my sd card.

 

[Fishbong]

Huh?
I never had a movie that loaded longer than maybe 20 seconds, and that was a 2 hour movie, mind you...

It seems like the problem is with your SD card or the encoder. You could try encoding a little videoclip and copy it to your NAND to see if it takes as long. And you shouldn't use DivX, XviD is much better !

 

[semyaza]

Thanks for those replies, very useful I dont really know much about video encoding. Just fancied putting stuff on SD cards and output to telly.

I got one of them cheapy viking rebranded cards for £15 so it probably is slow. It's ideal for all the games I have on there. But I dont understand if it was a slow SD card why would it play ok once it had buffered. Why does it need to buffer so much? There is only 64Mb internal memory so it shouldnt take 10 minutes to do that. Is it really this or just a bad mplayer?

I will give re-encoding a go and see if I can reduce the file size. For some reason it didnt scale the video so that's one thing to look at. I am using Linux, btw, so there doesnt appear to be many GUI freindly video apps yet. I have found one or two. I havnt had a chance to look properly for pockedivx. I used ffmpeg and mencoder. I tried to use ffmpeg to convert an flv file of the two ronnies sketch 'Fork Handles' but it had no sound and was missing frames. So I have a lot to learn here.

Have to get back to the tv to 'finish' watching the producers. my god is soooo crap. I hate musicals. It's the missus' choice. Luckily I have my little budy now to see me through the hard times

 

[oqnet]

Thanks for those replies, very useful I dont really know much about video encoding. Just fancied putting stuff on SD cards and output to telly.

I got one of them cheapy viking rebranded cards for £15 so it probably is slow. It's ideal for all the games I have on there. But I dont understand if it was a slow SD card why would it play ok once it had buffered. Why does it need to buffer so much? There is only 64Mb internal memory so it shouldnt take 10 minutes to do that. Is it really this or just a bad mplayer?

I will give re-encoding a go and see if I can reduce the file size. For some reason it didnt scale the video so that's one thing to look at. I am using Linux, btw, so there doesnt appear to be many GUI freindly video apps yet. I have found one or two. I havnt had a chance to look properly for pockedivx. I used ffmpeg and mencoder. I tried to use ffmpeg to convert an flv file of the two ronnies sketch 'Fork Handles' but it had no sound and was missing frames. So I have a lot to learn here.

Have to get back to the tv to 'finish' watching the producers. my god is soooo crap. I hate musicals. It's the missus' choice. Luckily I have my little budy now to see me through the hard times

I could be wrong but I don't think pocketdivx is for linux.