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View Full Version : Which VGA PPC for DIVX/XVID playback, 640x300 at >1Mb/sec?


KuroNeko
01-27-2005, 08:54 PM
I saw the comparison page where the performance of betaplayer is measured between various VGA PPC.

The best 2 seem to be the Ipaq 4700 and the new Dell 50v. The 4700 has the old ATI chip, the new Intel graphics chip powers the Dell, and now that Betaplayer is optimised/being optimised for this, it seems better than the Ipaq.

But from that page it is difficult to judge the real-world performance of divx/xvid playback; I believe they use a bench to do these tests.

So please tell me your experiences with high bitrate and high res divx/xvid movies. Are your standard movies/fansubs playing without need of re-encoding? How well do they play? Please do of course mention the PPC you're using.

Neko

ADBrown
01-27-2005, 10:29 PM
Axim all the way. The 2700G, which is supported in BetaPlayer, uses real hardware decoding rather than antiquated 2D acceleration. This means that even desktop video files are perfectly smooth. I've successfully played a 350 MB, 42 minute XviD file over WiFi without a single frame dropping.

vansu
01-28-2005, 12:47 AM
I have a hx4700 and encode DivX movies at VGA resolution at over 1.1 mbps and sound in CD quality 44.1khz 128kbps stereo, @23.976 fps. I have no problems playing it back in Betaplayer without losing any noticeable frames or missing sounds. The video seems smooth and the sound is clear and crisp. After watching Spiderman 2 (which is over 2 hours) at full brightness and almost max volume through the headphones, I have about 45% battery left with 72 hours standby. The reason for my encoding in VGA resolution is that I want to be able to view it back on my computer in full screen and have as clear a picture as possible so I don't have to encode 2 copies of the same movie. Also, I find that encoding DivX's at 320X240 with 22khz 64kbps mono created a file size of about 500MB for a 90 minute movie. For the VGA resolution moive and CD quality sound it is only 800-900MB. With the price of SD and CF memory dropping, I can afford to live with the larger size movies that are more clearer in detail.

For those of you who want to encode DivX movies from a DVD I would recommend 2 programs and involves only about 2-3 steps. I've tried DVD Studio, FlaskMpeg, Auto Gordian Knot and even DivXEncoder, but the best and easiest way to do it with very high quality movies is DVD Shrink 3.x for ripping the movies and Dr. DivX for encoding. Both these programs are very straight forward and can complete a DivX movie from ripping to encoding the final product in a little over 2 hours (HP Laptop with P4 3.0Ghz HT, 512MB RAM, 64MB Nvidia FX Go5200 Video, 60GB HD 4200RPM, External DVD burner).

0X

Menneisyys
01-28-2005, 04:55 PM
The Pocket Loox 720, playing from a flash ROM card, also plays >1 Mbps videos flawlessly. It's only Microdrives and USB hard disks that it has buffering problems with sometimes.

DeathTheSheep
01-31-2005, 03:36 AM
While the HX4700 does reasonably well at medium bitrates, the X50v blows it out of the water in terms of sheer video rendering performance. With the complete onboard MPEG-4 ASP video decoder integrated into the 2700G itself, benchmarks of over 150% have reported at 208mhz with files of well over 1mbps. Truthfully, no PPC on the market today can even compete with its sheer divx/xvid rendering power. None. But in terms of other things besides video, you might want to consider a different model (coughEmulationCough)

PhilH
02-05-2005, 11:48 AM
I don't doubt the Dell's video performance, but I've watched the Matrix Reloaded encoded at 1.5Mb on my hx4705 and it was flawless. BetaPlayer reported 0 frames dropped.

Fantastic quality, it really was.








Shame about the movie.

KuroNeko
02-05-2005, 12:16 PM
PhilH, thanks for your report. Could you tell me what codec was used (DIVX or XVID) and what resolution the movie was in?

Thx

Neko

kozak
02-05-2005, 05:57 PM
I played a 1.4 gb Xvid file, encoded at DVD resolution without dropping any frames on my Dell X50v.

Fishie
02-05-2005, 08:15 PM
Even the old Toshiba e800 has no problem with that.

ch_thom
02-06-2005, 12:43 AM
I think what's missing from this debate is the screen quality.

After all both the x50v and the 4700 can play video back, but is it worth watching?

I don't think anyone can argue that the 4700 has the best screen on the market at the present.

ADBrown
02-06-2005, 02:44 AM
I think what's missing from this debate is the screen quality.

After all both the x50v and the 4700 can play video back, but is it worth watching?

I don't think anyone can argue that the 4700 has the best screen on the market at the present.

I don't know about that. The 4700 is a bit contrastier than the X50v, but that's not neccessarily a plus when watching video, because it can wash out the darker scenes. Other than that, there's not a big difference in the screens.

MitchellO
02-06-2005, 10:15 AM
I have an iPAQ 4350, and I can run a 350MB, 40min episode of Enterprise of a 1GB Lexar SD and it plays perfectly. And it has only a 400Mhz processor and no graphics hardware.

I have seen the iPAQ hx4700 and it is truly a fantastic looking machine, and the screen is gorgeous. However, i would pick the Dell, because of its better GPU, and it is smaller.

ch_thom
02-06-2005, 03:36 PM
ch_thom wrote:
I think what's missing from this debate is the screen quality.

After all both the x50v and the 4700 can play video back, but is it worth watching?

I don't think anyone can argue that the 4700 has the best screen on the market at the present.



I don't know about that. The 4700 is a bit contrastier than the X50v, but that's not neccessarily a plus when watching video, because it can wash out the darker scenes. Other than that, there's not a big difference in the screens.

Guess I was wrong then when I said no-one could argue about the screen quality :lol:

The thing is everyone will root for their own device. I have a 4700 so I favour that. But I bought it after seeing BOTH a 4700 and an x50v side by side at work. The real life screens made the the 4700 the only one for me after that, especially as the screen is physically bigger. It's harder to compare online, but a good comparison picture is included in this review:

http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2301&review=HP+iPaq+hx4700+Review

The downsides of the 4700 for most peope are in my opinion price, overall size and the trackpad. None of these were issues for me and I've grown to love the trackpad.

As an IT develoment team leader I review LOTS of documents from my team members and by coupling the 4700 with the Think Outside Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, as well as the HP Deskjet 450wbt I've got a complete mobile office that's smaller and more flexible than my laptop, which now mostly stays at home. I honestly dont' think I could achieve this with a smaller screen PDA. I also of course use it extensively for movie playback, as an MP3 player and an ebook reader.

lorettaboy
02-06-2005, 07:53 PM
While the HX4700 does reasonably well at medium bitrates, the X50v blows it out of the water in terms of sheer video rendering performance. With the complete onboard MPEG-4 ASP video decoder integrated into the 2700G itself, benchmarks of over 150% have reported at 208mhz with files of well over 1mbps. Truthfully, no PPC on the market today can even compete with its sheer divx/xvid rendering power. None. But in terms of other things besides video, you might want to consider a different model (coughEmulationCough)

Every x50v owner will tell you that their unit blows others out of the water w.r.t. video performance. And yet, the only solid data on this, that I have seen, shows poor performance by the x50v. I assume these tests were done before the usablility of the graphics chip. I am not discounting the units speed, but is there any real evidence that this is true? A link would be nice?

One question I wanted to pose was: can you really tell the difference
between the video playback of 2 high-end Pocket PC's? I mean, I was happy with videos on my 4150. Should I really be that concerned with maximizing the quality of the picture beyond a certain point?
It just seems to me that such a thourough analysis and comparisson, is quite useless for the majority of Pocket PC users.

ADBrown
02-06-2005, 11:05 PM
Guess I was wrong then when I said no-one could argue about the screen quality :lol:

The thing is everyone will root for their own device. I have a 4700 so I favour that. But I bought it after seeing BOTH a 4700 and an x50v side by side at work. The real life screens made the the 4700 the only one for me after that, especially as the screen is physically bigger. It's harder to compare online, but a good comparison picture is included in this review:

http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2301&review=HP+iPaq+hx4700+Review

I'm vaguely familiar with that review--I wrote it. :)

The 4700 definitely has better color saturation than the X50v, but I've found it to be a matter of degrees. The X50v is light-years ahead of all QVGA screens, and I find its colors to be wonderful. The 4700 may be a bit better, but frankly I don't let it keep me awake at night.

Lorettaboy, check the threads on Aximsite. People are getting 144% benchmarks on BetaPlayer, playing a 640x480 1500 Kbps file, with the processor clocked down to 208 MHz.

http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=59008&page=23&pp=25

KuroNeko
02-06-2005, 11:09 PM
Thanks all for the great info!

Guess I'll have to chose between the X50V or the 4700. Although it seems Dell may have made that choice for me: the Axim is no longer on the local Dell websites, and hasn't been there for the past few weeks.

Maybe a new model coming already? Not sure I can wait for this and the 4700 is now in the same price range as the X50V (street prices, 4700 costs about 40 Euro's more)

Neko

ADBrown
02-07-2005, 09:21 AM
I wouldn't expect a new Axim yet, the X50v is yet young. My understanding is that due to high demand, they've sold out the current stocks for the European market, and are shipping more over there. They should be back in a few days, maybe a week.

Menneisyys
02-07-2005, 11:35 AM
The real life screens made the the 4700 the only one for me after that, especially as the screen is physically bigger. It's harder to compare online

I recommend DesLock's comments and comparative pics at http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35630&start=20

Menneisyys
02-07-2005, 11:37 AM
Thanks all for the great info!

Guess I'll have to chose between the X50V or the 4700. Although it seems Dell may have made that choice for me: the Axim is no longer on the local Dell websites, and hasn't been there for the past few weeks.

Maybe a new model coming already? Not sure I can wait for this and the 4700 is now in the same price range as the X50V (street prices, 4700 costs about 40 Euro's more)

Neko

If you're in Europe, why don't you get the Pocket Loox 718/720? It's cheaper (no customs because it's an European product), it has a great screen and a lot of functionality.

KuroNeko
02-07-2005, 12:15 PM
Cause the Loox is more expensive (for me, maybe you get better prices), and has slower CPU and GPU. It's still a great nifty little machine, but for my main purpose - video watching - I think the other 2 are better.

A friend just suggested another option: a PSP. Not sure about compatibility on that machine though :D

BTW, as far as screen quality goes (except resolution) - I currently have an Ipaq 3970. Would you say the X50v and 4700 both have better quality picture than this?

Neko

Menneisyys
02-07-2005, 12:33 PM
BTW, as far as screen quality goes (except resolution) - I currently have an Ipaq 3970. Would you say the X50v and 4700 both have better quality picture than this?

The hx4700: definitely. The 3970 has a great, well-saturated screen. The x50v IMHO is more washed-out than the 3970.

Menneisyys
02-07-2005, 12:38 PM
Cause the Loox is more expensive (for me, maybe you get better prices)

If it's not confidential: where (which country) are you living? I've checked the Austrian/German prices of the three devices; the loweest prices:

hx4700: 640 euros - http://geizhals.at/a113177.html (amazon.de and a lot of other resellers)

x50v: 505 euros - http://geizhals.at/a131421.html (only one reseller in Vienna)

PL720: 535 euros (amazon.de for 578 euros) - http://geizhals.at/a113984.html

PL718: 518 euros (amazon.de for 557 euros) - http://geizhals.at/a133978.html


So, the Pocket Loox 718 is only 13 euros more expensive than the x50v and some 123 euros cheaper than the hx4700.

KuroNeko
02-07-2005, 12:57 PM
I'm in Belgium. I prefer to buy here or in the Netherlands, because I want an English language OS, and in Germany they almost always put a German language OS on them. But the prices are about rigth except for the 4700 - it can be had for about 550 Euro's in the Netherlands.

Neko

KuroNeko
02-14-2005, 04:58 PM
I wouldn't expect a new Axim yet, the X50v is yet young. My understanding is that due to high demand, they've sold out the current stocks for the European market, and are shipping more over there. They should be back in a few days, maybe a week.

2 weeks onwards and no sign of X50v. According to Dell customer service: somewhere Q2...

Yeah, right, while it is available in the US. Something's fishy...

Neko