Does Overclocking Xoom help fix choppy HD Video Playback?

[weaverng]

I've tested Handbrake and DVD Catalyst 4 (with several recommendation from other posts on settings) to encode movies in 720P format and all of them seem to have this slight choppy effect. The choppy effect seems to show up more on fast motion video (action movies). I tested the video on a computer to make sure it was not the video itself and it plays very smooth on my computer. At this point, I assume that there is no optimized video player (QQplayer, Rockplayer, or Movies player within the gallery) that works with the Xoom hardware. So has anyone tested HD video playback on an overclocked Xoom to see if it works any better for HD video playback?

 

[ArtVandelay]

I hope so because I also notice a laggy effect. Should NOT be happening!

 

[doctorlove316]

Nope. Sure doesn't. I'm overclocked to 1.5 and still choppy. Right meow it's more about getting the video sized and converted just right, not about CPU speed. I've heard that an update (software) will fix it and I've heard it won't. Time will tell.

 

[PaulG1488]

Strange I'm oc'd to max speed and successfully converted 2 blu rays using handbrake and luckily havent had any issues

 

[weaverng]

Hey PaulG1488. Since you successfully encoded a movie without any choppy side effect, can you upload a small 1 minute video some where so we can test out our Xooms to make sure they are working correctly. This might be a defect in individual Xooms or we might be using the wrong setting to encode the video. Please tell us what software and setting you are using to encode 720P HD videos. Thanks.

 

[PaulG1488]

All I did was get my video file and I followed everything in this video here hopefully it works for you guys

YouTube - How To: Encode 720p HD video for Motorola Xoom & Apple iPad 2

I've been successful watching my videos using the stock player and I also tried them on the full version of rockplayer 1.6.3 although I have been reading people have been getting mixed results good luck

 

[EpicRavensFan]

Great find. Will see if this works better than dvd catalyst. Thanks.

 

[doctorlove316]

Thanks! Definitely gonna try that out. I was just just saying that the OC doesn't have anything to do with the videos playing or not. If you were to use those same videos and watch them on the Xoom with 1.0 instead of 1.5, they'd still play fine.

 

[weaverng]

Thanks for the info PaulG1488. I followed the links directions, downloaded the presets for handbrake and re-encoded the sample video (Windows 7 Wildlife sample video : Microsoft endorsed by LOL science : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive). There was a very very very small delay when the horses run along the beach. Otherwise, it was perfect. There was no other delay in the video. I will test this out further with another video and post the results.

 

[doctorlove316]

I'm waiting for Handbrake to finish mine still. Almost 4 hours to convert?!?! Wondering how big this filesize is gonna be. Hope it works.

 

[ScottAtlanta82]

All I did was get my video file and I followed everything in this video here hopefully it works for you guys

YouTube - How To: Encode 720p HD video for Motorola Xoom & Apple iPad 2

I've been successful watching my videos using the stock player and I also tried them on the full version of rockplayer 1.6.3 although I have been reading people have been getting mixed results good luck

I just tried the sample project as shown in the youtube video and it worked great in the stock vid player! Working on trying some more challenging ones now....particularly a 1080p source....let's see how good THAT looks

 

[weaverng]

I found a solution

I tested both Handbrake 0.9.5 and DVD Catalyst 4.0.2.7 for the last week. Using DVD Catalyst with the XOOM HQ2 1080p preset, I was able to get very smooth HD video with no choppyness. In addition to the Xoom preset, I set it to 4500 kbps and 2 passes. With Handbrake, I could not get the smooth HD video. Enjoy your HD videos Xoom owners.

 

[ScottAtlanta82]

I tested both Handbrake 0.9.5 and DVD Catalyst 4.0.2.7 for the last week. Using DVD Catalyst with the XOOM HQ2 1080p preset, I was able to get very smooth HD video with no choppyness. In addition to the Xoom preset, I set it to 4500 kbps and 2 passes. With Handbrake, I could not get the smooth HD video. Enjoy your HD videos Xoom owners.

So I just tried out DVD Catalyst and I have to say, it is fantastic! And right now it's only $10!!

 

[weaverng]

I also noticed that the default XOOM HQ2 1080p preset for DVD Catalyst can be used to converter 720p video as well. Just set your resolution to 1280x720 before you encode. At the 4500 kbps rate, James Cameron's Avatar Extended Edition came out to about 6 GB. So, play around with the Kbps and see what works best for your movie. I used the "Gallery" stock movie player to play the movie and I did notice some choppyness due to CPU usage. It seems to happen more if you are multitasking other stuff in the background. So, turn off all your background tasks (I use Advanced Task Killer) and enjoy the HD videos.

 

[rz22g]

One issue is each persons perception of smooth playback. I wish someone that has converted a video, in HD, that they feel is smooth, would upload it for comparison. Especially panning video. I have yet to see one that does not have a jittering pan... except on my friends I pad 2. I do not say that to start an argument. I just have yet to see a did on my Xoom that holds up against it.

An example of each persons idea of smooth playback.... I saw a guy at the toyota place while waiting to get car serviced. I acted as if I had not seen the Xoom but had heard video was not smooth. He said it was fine and pulled up a video he had on his Xoom. I did not say anything but it was not smooth.

 

[fast1fred]

I've been pretty frustrated as well with the jittery panning. I've tried about 10 different combinations on DVD Catalyst including the recommendations above, with no luck - it still feels jittery to me. rz, you're right, this is a very subjective thing. I've showed the video samples to a friend and he doesn't notice anything wrong. It just seems that the framerate drops when the panning and fast-moving scenes come on, to me.

 

[whiteshadow001]

I noticed that too when I had the xoom. Also watching movies on that screen was ok but I feel like we were cheated on the screen, it could be better for the price

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[rz22g]

I've been pretty frustrated as well with the jittery panning. I've tried about 10 different combinations on DVD Catalyst including the recommendations above, with no luck - it still feels jittery to me. rz, you're right, this is a very subjective thing. I've showed the video samples to a friend and he doesn't notice anything wrong. It just seems that the framerate drops when the panning and fast-moving scenes come on, to me.

I recently posted a video review on Amazon that was mostly about the playback. Another person said there was nothing wrong with playback and gave me a link to a bunch of HD trailers for the Xoom. He also said if I was seeing issues it was the built in player and that third party players do not do it. So I tried because I want this to work but the results were the same using the videos he suggested and 4 different players he mentioned.

I'm afraid this is going to be a hardware issue that players will not be able to correct. Hopefully for the people that do keep their Xooms and also see this issue, it can be fixed with and OS / Driver update. I can't see myself keeping this past my return period to find out later that it can't.