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0 pointsSunspark4y ago0 comments

Fair, but in this case I think the tablet should be usable. Sure it's old and only a dual-core cpu, but checking the list of hardware accelerated qualcomm decoder codecs it supports, it lists: vc1, divx, divx311, divx4, avc, mpeg2, mpeg4, h263.

Surely AVC which is h.264 should still be supported..

Maybe it gets tripped up trying to use the software google decoder codecs instead?

That said, I am not able to test it anymore. The tablet is on kitkat and I'm not able today to find a site hosting a minsdk older than lollipop. It's not a big deal, but it's disappointing to see apks for services that used to work just disappear. They always gobble on about "security". Why is it a problem for everyone else except Netflix? Netflix loves supporting devices.

0 comments

plorkyeran4y ago

"Supports AVC" doesn't mean a great deal on its own. H264 has a number of different profiles (over 20, although only 3 are commonly used), and 20 different levels. Most of the potential combinations aren't relevant, but supporting the full range of hardware decoders while also sending something reasonably close to the best quality that the device supports can mean encoding ten different versions.

If it's a particularly low-end/old device, Amazon may have simply decided it's no longer worth encoding a version supported by your device's hardware encoder, while Netflix still does.

nopenopenopeno4y ago

Can you recommend any resources for learning about video codecs?

the_only_law4y ago

Not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but this popped up a while back: https://blog.tempus-ex.com/hello-video-codec/

astrange4y ago

This is vaguely okay but makes the common mistake of overemphasizing that codecs use an IDCT. That's just a component of intra-prediction, it isn't necessarily important or used, and in H.264+ it isn't even a real IDCT when it is used. It's a simpler transform that isn't mathematically accurate but is bit-exact, which is more important.

nopenopenopeno4y ago

This is perfect! Thank you!

SunsparkOP4y ago

doom9 has a lot of good discussion.

dylan6044y ago

I remember back in the day when doom9 was blocked at the corp firewall level because it had posts on how to circumvent things. Nevermind it was the unofficial support for things like AVISynth, x264, etc. Even the nascent days of ffmpeg were there. It took a lot of cajoling and back and forth with legal depts, but eventually, was allowed to be granted access on an individual basis

I owe a lot of what was accomplished to folks like DG and the other troopers from the bad ol' days of VFW based apps. It was like monkeys throwing rocks at the space ships compared to whats now. Remember when 2 cores was fast?

For the person up thread talking about learning things, I wish I was in that position today with them rather than 20 odd years ago where everyone was in the dark, and thank the heavens for sites like doom9 that shone lights in dark places!

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nopenopenopeno4y ago

Now we’re talkin! Thank you!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsSunspark4y ago0 comments

Surely AVC which is h.264 should still be supported..

Maybe it gets tripped up trying to use the software google decoder codecs instead?

0 comments

plorkyeran4y ago

If it's a particularly low-end/old device, Amazon may have simply decided it's no longer worth encoding a version supported by your device's hardware encoder, while Netflix still does.

nopenopenopeno4y ago

Can you recommend any resources for learning about video codecs?

the_only_law4y ago

Not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but this popped up a while back: https://blog.tempus-ex.com/hello-video-codec/

astrange4y ago

nopenopenopeno4y ago

This is perfect! Thank you!

SunsparkOP4y ago

doom9 has a lot of good discussion.

dylan6044y ago

1 more reply

nopenopenopeno4y ago

Now we’re talkin! Thank you!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse