Can the HDMI output be changed for clearer image? - Motorola Photon 4G

Hi all,
This is my first post, but I have lurked a bit before.
Anyway, I just got a Photon 4G this week and I tested the HDMI output and it doesn't look very good if I were to look at it for a long time.
I think that the reason that it looks bad is that it is interpolating the 960x540 out to a 1280x720 or a 3:4 ratio. Next the monitor is taking the 1280x720 signal and turning it into a 1920x1080 signal or a 2:3 ratio. I think that if it put out the same signal (960x540) that is on the screen that it would look a lot better because it would have a clean 1:2 ratio signal increase and no artifacts from two consecutive interpolations. However, can a standard HD monitor take a 960x540 signal.
I installed Launcher Pro and it showed me the menu called "HDMI Format" which gives the options: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] I really want it to output [email protected] perhaps there is a menu deeper down that allows this, or a simple way to modify some file to get it to work. Of course it may be that this is not at all possible. and the output settings are only those four.
My main purpose is to be able to occasionally use the phone as a desktop replacement. So the better the image the more I will use it. Is this program called webtop something that makes the phone almost into a laptop? would it assist the resolution issue?
thanks

repoman42 said:
Hi all,
This is my first post, but I have lurked a bit before.
Anyway, I just got a Photon 4G this week and I tested the HDMI output and it doesn't look very good if I were to look at it for a long time.
I think that the reason that it looks bad is that it is interpolating the 960x540 out to a 1280x720 or a 3:4 ratio. Next the monitor is taking the 1280x720 signal and turning it into a 1920x1080 signal or a 2:3 ratio. I think that if it put out the same signal (960x540) that is on the screen that it would look a lot better because it would have a clean 1:2 ratio signal increase and no artifacts from two consecutive interpolations. However, can a standard HD monitor take a 960x540 signal.
I installed Launcher Pro and it showed me the menu called "HDMI Format" which gives the options: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] I really want it to output [email protected] perhaps there is a menu deeper down that allows this, or a simple way to modify some file to get it to work. Of course it may be that this is not at all possible. and the output settings are only those four.
My main purpose is to be able to occasionally use the phone as a desktop replacement. So the better the image the more I will use it. Is this program called webtop something that makes the phone almost into a laptop? would it assist the resolution issue?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Webtop uses 1080. Always looks nice and clear.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA

na7q said:
Webtop uses 1080. Always looks nice and clear.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was at the sprint store today and luckily they still had an HD dock and I tested the Webtop. The highest resolution available was 1280x720.
Do you get 1080p on a Photon?

repoman42 said:
I was at the sprint store today and luckily they still had an HD dock and I tested the Webtop. The highest resolution available was 1280x720.
Do you get 1080p on a Photon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This thread may be able to help you repoman42.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1280225:good:

thanks, I have gotten inside of xorg.conf, but I want to tread lightly. I am very much a newbie.
I copied xorg.conf and have it on the desktop to play with.
At least I have nebtop running.

I didn't pay enough attention to the link, that solution if for the Atrix, which is similar to the photon.
I tried it and it made it slightly different, but not much.
Anyone want to have a crack at figuring how to do this on a Photon, not an Atrix?

Related

[Q] Avatar Bitrate/Quality Settings?

Anyone happen to know what the bitrate/settings are of the preloaded Avatar movie? I'm trying to convert my bluray 720p down to a 480x800 friendly size, but it keeps looking like crap. Or, it'll look great, but end up being about 3.5gbs. I played with a Vibrant at the T-Mobile store and the copy of Avatar was crystal clear.
I gave up and ordered a 16gb class 6 micro sd card. Problem solved!
Though, if anyone does happen to find out the details, I'd still love to know.
ericc191 said:
Anyone happen to know what the bitrate/settings are of the preloaded Avatar movie? I'm trying to convert my bluray 720p down to a 480x800 friendly size, but it keeps looking like crap. Or, it'll look great, but end up being about 3.5gbs. I played with a Vibrant at the T-Mobile store and the copy of Avatar was crystal clear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you using to encode? I personally use RipBot with a variable bitrate. I set the encoder to mp4/avc (h.264), res to 800x480,and the average bitrate to 1500. These videos have looked excellent for me and should be more than enough.
Mi|enko said:
What are you using to encode? I personally use RipBot with a variable bitrate. I set the encoder to mp4/avc (h.264), res to 800x480,and the average bitrate to 1500. These videos have looked excellent for me and should be more than enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, I'll try it out. I'm using Any Video Converter free.
Xilisoft Video Converter has been good to me over the past two or three years. It converted from DVD to a format my iPhone would read. Now all the movies I buy mostly have a digital copy so I don't use the software as much any more. My Vibrant plays back everything (MP4/DivX/WMV/H.264/H.263)that plays on the iPhone so no need to convert either.
ShinyBuddha said:
Xilisoft Video Converter has been good to me over the past two or three years. It converted from DVD to a format my iPhone would read. Now all the movies I buy mostly have a digital copy so I don't use the software as much any more. My Vibrant plays back everything (MP4/DivX/WMV/H.264/H.263)that plays on the iPhone so no need to convert either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you put a digital copy on your phone? I bought cop out on blu ray and it came with a digital copy and I just drag it onto my sd card then i try to play it and it says there is a license error or something like that.
ShinyBuddha said:
Xilisoft Video Converter has been good to me over the past two or three years. It converted from DVD to a format my iPhone would read. Now all the movies I buy mostly have a digital copy so I don't use the software as much any more. My Vibrant plays back everything (MP4/DivX/WMV/H.264/H.263)that plays on the iPhone so no need to convert either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still using an N1, at the moment, so it forces me to convert my vids.
mikey7436 said:
How did you put a digital copy on your phone? I bought cop out on blu ray and it came with a digital copy and I just drag it onto my sd card then i try to play it and it says there is a license error or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't use the digital that comes with it. Its meant for iDevices or Windows media devices. I just use Handbreak to convert my videos and use a custom preset with the resolution of the phone and an average bitrate of 1200 and its good.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
oquinones said:
You can use the digital that comes with it. Its meant for iDevices or Windows media devices. I just use Handbreak to convert my videos and use a custom preset with the resolution of the phone and an average bitrate of 1200 and its good.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope when you say resolution of the phone you mean 1280X720, because there is no reason to go any lower unless the original file was not HD.
vortec87 said:
I hope when you say resolution of the phone you mean 1280X720, because there is no reason to go any lower unless the original file was not HD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I say the resolution of the phone, I meant 480 x 800. Unless your gonna output to the TV via DLNA or a Micro USB to HDMI cable, there is no point to have a 720p.
As of right now I found no way to look at the stats for the avatar movie since its a protected file...except that it is around 1gb in size, so by that I'm assuming the bitrate is anywhere from 1500-2000 if that helps...and the size must just be the size of the phone 800x480
ld006 said:
As of right now I found no way to look at the stats for the avatar movie since its a protected file...except that it is around 1gb in size, so by that I'm assuming the bitrate is anywhere from 1500-2000 if that helps...and the size must just be the size of the phone 800x480
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recoded a 4.13gb HD movie down to 2200 bitrate and it turned out 1.52gb... that was 1280x720 though. Avatar is (or should be) 800x480 so it may have a slightly higher bitrate... avatar.dcf is 1.40gb.
The included trailer is encoded at 1300ish kbits so its safe to assume that Avatar is also encoded at this rate.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
oquinones said:
The included trailer is encoded at 1300ish kbits so its safe to assume that Avatar is also encoded at this rate.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then Samsung or whoever must've used a nice compression program, cause all the 1.5GB and under conversions of Avtar I've made look terrible.
ericc191 said:
Then Samsung or whoever must've used a nice compression program, cause all the 1.5GB and under conversions of Avtar I've made look terrible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using the h264 codec? Because mine look fine.
Mi|enko said:
Are you using the h264 codec? Because mine look fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I can drop the bitrate to well under 1000 for a basic DVD rip and it still looks great.
Hm, that could be it. I'll double check.
Update: Yeah, I setup RipBot correctly this time and it came out perfect. Bitrate's about 1350kbps @23fps. 800x450. 1.6gb. I don't think I had the h264 mp4 option selected at the bottom the first time.
ericc191 said:
Hm, that could be it. I'll double check.
Update: Yeah, I setup RipBot correctly this time and it came out perfect. Bitrate's about 1350kbps @23fps. 800x450. 1.6gb. I don't think I had the h264 mp4 option selected at the bottom the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello fellow Android Bros/ Sis!
I was searching through google and XDA and found myself here. I was really interested in the outcome of your video. My question is:
1) Was this video a conversion from a Blu Ray movie or a regular HD movie/ file?
2) What were your Audio Output settings?
Short History: I have both the Captivate and the Vibrant, and wanted to see if i could just use my Blu Ray Movie of Avatar to Rip and Convert for the Captivate since my Vibrant already has it. Plus i also wanted to be more familiar with Handbrake myself (have converted dozens of HD movies so far), but Blu Ray is an issue for me. As far as video, i can transcode no problem. Audio on the other hand, is either slow-distorted-muffled or no sound at all. Regardless of which audio codec i tried.
Thoughts?
WHAT UP, NICE avtar, HOW DID U PUT G.O.W IN YOUR PROFILE?
Avc is a horrible encoder. I had a crystal clear 1.5gig avatar file in aweird format that avc'ed and it came out with 200 megs in the ****tiest quality ever.
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App

[Q] qHD wallpapers?

Anyone know a good source for ready-made qHD wallpapers for the Atrix?
good question, for now i have been playing with the droid x2 wallpapers since it has a qhd screen.
Honestly, I'm not really even sure what qHD means, but the market app HD wallpapers library works perfectly on my Atrix. They all look very clear and are nice and big, etc.
qHD is one quarter HD or 540 x 960, most wall paper is 1080 x 960 so you can scroll left and right, pretty much anything close to a 1.125/1 ratio will work but of course the lower rez ones will not look as good blown up to 1080/960
It will force you to choose(at least I have not found a way around it) a 1.125/1 chunk out of a picture so if you upload something with a more widescreen ratio you will loose some of it.
The rest is mostly ascetics, do you put the object of focus over all the screens, limit it to the center 1/3, have something hiding to the far right or left, a lot of stuff to play around with.
p.s. here are some links most work well for the atrix
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/86834/2/Pictures/Wallpapers?h=5482f5#/
Dang. There are some sweet photos in there. Thanks
My small project might help!
Try My Site I'm uploading new wallpapers every day.
100 qHD Wallpapers
I would like to see some too.
nikidorian said:
Try My Site I'm uploading new wallpapers every day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice wallpapers. thx..
Tao_Man said:
qHD is one quarter HD or 540 x 960, most wall paper is 1080 x 960 so you can scroll left and right, pretty much anything close to a 1.125/1 ratio will work but of course the lower rez ones will not look as good blown up to 1080/960
It will force you to choose(at least I have not found a way around it) a 1.125/1 chunk out of a picture so if you upload something with a more widescreen ratio you will loose some of it.
The rest is mostly ascetics, do you put the object of focus over all the screens, limit it to the center 1/3, have something hiding to the far right or left, a lot of stuff to play around with.
p.s. here are some links most work well for the atrix
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/86834/2/Pictures/Wallpapers?h=5482f5#/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the links.
Is there a way to copy all the wallpapers from the dropbox link that you posted to my dropbox account? I want all of them and saving each file at a time is driving me crazy.
stylus1828 said:
Thanks for the links.
Is there a way to copy all the wallpapers from the dropbox link that you posted to my dropbox account? I want all of them and saving each file at a time is driving me crazy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not aware of a way to get them all in one batch, I just came across those links, never used dropbox much so not sure if there is a work around or not to batch download

Motorola Photon Optimal Handbrake Settings

Can someone post the optimal handbrake settings for handbrake to rip movies to the photon. I ripped movies for my epic and they don't play now on the photon. I assume because of the h264 incompatibility. so for now what settings should i be using ?
I'm also interested in this.
I use just the normal settings, but don't know if that's "optimal"
Why not just use the evo 3D's settings for non 3D movies? Its the same 960x540 settings, same resolution, and same formats.
http://www.knowyourcell.com/htc/htc...deos_and_transfer_them_to_the_htc_evo_3d.html
These settings should be "optimal" for the photon.
kennypowders said:
Why not just use the evo 3D's settings for non 3D movies? Its the same 960x540 settings, same resolution, and same formats.
http://www.knowyourcell.com/htc/htc...deos_and_transfer_them_to_the_htc_evo_3d.html
These settings should be "optimal" for the photon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These should be known as 'the Photon settings' instead of the evo 3D's - because everything else is inferior.
I was putting full size hd videos on my epic and it would scale them down and it looked perfect. i am looking to keep the resolutions as they are so if i plug the phone into the hdmi it will still look great. those settings are way compressed and of not a good quality.
I am still having problems with playback on my photon that i had no problem with on my Epic. Can someone please help !? Search option is worthless it keeps giving me results for the xoom.
justindcarter79 said:
I am still having problems with playback on my photon that i had no problem with on my Epic. Can someone please help !? Search option is worthless it keeps giving me results for the xoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need to clarify your problem a bit more.
Movies that played on my epic will not play on my photon. when i rip movies on handbrake some will play and some won't. I am starting to regret getting the photon due to all the bugs with video playback ! I was wanting to know the settings i should use for handbrake but everyone short answers me and won't give the full rundown like bitrate container and if h264 is even compatible with this piece of crap phone !
The link posted above has all the information you're requesting. I'm not aware of the Photon scaling video on-the-fly and I doubt it'll work properly.
that is bare minimum i am looking for max quality

[VIDEO] Encoding settings for H264 video playback @ 1080p

When I started using my Droid X2 I notice I could not play most of my MP4 files with hardware decoding. (I use MX Video Player which clearly shows you if it is hardware decode.) Using software, the phone is not fast enough to play back 720p or higher.... Even the Droid X had better hardware support as it could play back most of my 480p MP4 files in hardware.
I know the DX2 can play back its own 720p/30fps video files flawlessly and in hardware, so there had to be something going on.
So I dug into what's going on and it turns out the Tegra 2 has a pretty bad video decoder in it. (Thanks for nothing NVidia......) Even the old Hummingbird single core chip in the Galaxy S can do much better!
What I have found is on our phone we can only playback video using the Baseline profile. This is the worst quality profile and pretty much everything out there uses High Profile. (And sometimes Main profile.) Baseline is the easiest to encode and decode -- but really it's not used much anymore because of how inefficient it is with bitrate. (Meaning lower quality in comparison)
As a test I converted some 1080p content to various profiles to test it out ... and then did it again at 720p and then 540p. (The native phone resolution.)
All I could get to play on my phone in hardware was video encoded with baseline.
Now, what was interesting is I created a 1080p/24fps baseline file at about 7.5mbps and the phone had zero problems playing that, even that that high bitrate! Very surprising there....
Now, I created two files -- one using High Profile and the other Baseline profile -- both at the same bitrate so they are both identically sized -- and the quality difference is quite noticeable when playing through VLC on my computer. The Baseline is much more smudgy during lots of movement.... Sucks
NOW, realistically if you only watch video on your phone's screen, then encode at 960x540 and use baseline and it will look really good.
If you connect HDMI, though, then the hardware decoder will send the video to the TV at full resolution (up to 1080p) but then the quality difference really becomes noticeable.
It's a shame really .... This TI OMAP CPU in the Bionic/Droid 3 does not have this problem ... but all Tegra 2 devices like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and so on have the same issue as the Droid X2.
(Although it does appear the newest 3.1 update on the Tegra 2 tablets allows high profile 720p not, I tried it on our phone and it does not work. Not even 540p at high works.) We are using a lower slightly lower end version of Tegra 2 versus the tablets so that might be the difference.
Attached is the Baseline profile settings to use for Handbrake for our phone.
This is why my computers only rock AMD.
could the latest update have done anything? I would really like some higher res movies with out having to go through all the hassle, cause I have no idea how to do all that with baseline and everything lol
fargles said:
could the latest update have done anything? I would really like some higher res movies with out having to go through all the hassle, cause I have no idea how to do all that with baseline and everything lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very doubtfully no, since its really a hardware issue.
Re-encoding is generally pretty simple, especially if someone gives you the right profile/settings you need, as he did above. Grab Handbrake, check his settings, and give it a shot with a short video file. The worst part is the length it can take to transcode something, which is mostly dependant on your CPU.
Thanks for the info man, was going to play around with this when i first noticed it but never had time and forgot about it. I'll be lazy and keep the old Archos 5 going with component out video lol, doesn't look too great, but 120GB and great battery life will help.
ihavenolife008 said:
Very doubtfully no, since its really a hardware issue.
Re-encoding is generally pretty simple, especially if someone gives you the right profile/settings you need, as he did above. Grab Handbrake, check his settings, and give it a shot with a short video file. The worst part is the length it can take to transcode something, which is mostly dependant on your CPU.
Thanks for the info man, was going to play around with this when i first noticed it but never had time and forgot about it. I'll be lazy and keep the old Archos 5 going with component out video lol, doesn't look too great, but 120GB and great battery life will help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely will try that, and the reason I asked was cause at the bottom he sounded unsure that it was a hardware problem... so I thought why not ask lol no harm no foul right?
in my completely n00b opinion if we are using a slightly lower tegra2 than the ones in the tablets it would seem that we wouldn't have such different results. I would think that if we are using slightly lower processors we would get slightly lower results. However I know very little about what I am talking about so I could completely be off base
This phone just keeps getting better and better.
To topic greater what derision of android were you using and what rom? Cause I found that on 2.3.3 using eclipse 0.2.2 I had next to no problems playing any 720p video files using hardware. They were h264 in mkv. Just.get mobo video player and its codec pack. If you trying to watch anime download mkv ripper to rip the subs out so you can still.use hardware. Yes software support make it skips but i rarely need to use software. At least on my dx2. And using software support on 480p runs with out any problems.
Mobo player is the best video player out for android use that instead I tried mx player and it was quite crap. Your.playback of video files depends on the video player itself as well as the phone. And in hardware 720p runs just fine on mobo with very little hickups for.fast.pace action scenes and I know I'm not on baseline.
Sent from my DROID X2 using XDA App

[Q] A/V recording?

I posted this in the General: General thread and got no response, I thought since I'm using the Flyer, I should post here and maybe get better results...
Apologies if this is in the Wong thread, but I thought it would best suit my question.
I'm wondering if anyone knows of an Android app to record what's on screen (video & audio)?
I would love to be able to record my webcam time with my daughter, since we live 2,000 miles away from eachother, and it's the only way I get to see her (until I get the custody I'm fighting for)
If anyone knows of something, I'd love to try it! Thanks in advance!
I'm on the BBY WiFi Flyer, running Globatron's HC leak.
\\Carved into this thread by my RAZR//
http://android-gz.com
I think ShootMe and ashot are some apps that allow for screen cast/video capture, although I don't think audio is supported.
As a standard to record playback videos, you need to achieve decent frames per second playback (20-30FPS), which is definitely recommended to watch/record a video smoothly or else you'll end up with choppiness and missing frames.
I don't know if any app that is able to do that, plus not to mention the limited storage space given on the flyer, recording 1024x600 videos might take up a lot of space depending on how long the footage is.
The simpler, hassle-free solution (as of right now) is to buy the tv-out cables and hook it up to a TV and record from there, or use a camcorder/camera..
kaijura said:
I think ShootMe and ashot are some apps that allow for screen cast/video capture, although I don't think audio is supported.
As a standard to record playback videos, you need to achieve decent frames per second playback (20-30FPS), which is definitely recommended to watch/record a video smoothly or else you'll end up with choppiness and missing frames.
I don't know if any app that is able to do that, plus not to mention the limited storage space given on the flyer, recording 1024x600 videos might take up a lot of space depending on how long the footage is.
The simpler, hassle-free solution (as of right now) is to buy the tv-out cables and hook it up to a TV and record from there, or use a camcorder/camera..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for your help! I hadn't thought of file size, but you're right, an hour on webcam would be a super hefty video file... Guess I'll just try to rig the camcorder.
Thanks again!
\\Carved into this thread by my RAZR//
http://android-gz.com

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