VIDEO + UPDATE 1.2 = FAIL !

[thundersnow528]

All of my video (12 movies) have been bad since the update  - using the standard Nook Color settings for video convertion in DVD Cat4.  They were working fine before, now I get the jittery frame drops - about every second of video played.

But my whole Nook has been slow since the update - getting slower actually - from start up screens (all of them) to book cover loading, to navigating.  I'm thinking of going back to 1.1, letting it download the update automatically (sideloaded the first time) to see if that makes a difference.....

If not, then Gingerbreading/CM7ing and never looking back.....

[ImmortalBeloved]

I have three films in my NC that I used DvdCatalyst to convert and I watched a few minutes of each one and no stuttering.

When I converted them I didn't choose the highest quality. I also deinterlaced them and made them full screen. They look the same as before the update as for picture quality and they don't seem to stutter at all. The dialouge and picture match when the actors speak as well.

[Pokey1]

@ DVD Catalyst - I downloaded your sample file, but my Nook won't open it. It gives me a "unsupported file format" message. It's a zip file, seems to me that prior to the big U that we could open zip files. Has anyone else had this problem.

[dvdcatalyst]

Sorry,

The NOOKcolor doesn't handle zip files at all. You will have to use your computer to download.

While I could create streaming links for the videos, I wanted to make sure nothing else would affect the playback of the files, so the files need to be extracted from the zip file on a computer and then copied over.

[Savoir_Faire]

I convert mine using high quality video and sound, I want to be able to enjoy them on multiple devices and would prefer not to have seperate rips for NC, PS3, PC, etc.. If this was a limitation of the NC from the start I would have adjusted accordingly but given these files played without a hitch before 1.2 there is no reason ( from a hardware capability standpoint ) that should not be the case now. Likely there are more processes running in the background now that don't terminate when they should or the video engine has been altered. Whatever the cause, there should be a solution of some sort ( short of me lowering my standards, of course ;-) ).

[k2nax]

DVDCat,

I don't think you should abandon all hope just yet.  As you know I have 100s of converted MP4s with DVD Catalyst and so far they all play beautifully on 1.2.  Just for kicks, last night when you were having this discussion, I ripped and converted a set of astronomy classes and sideloaded them.  Sure enough, this morning they play just fine.

Infact, version 1.2 fixed a bug I was having handling the larger MP4 files.  When I played an MP4 and stopped it part way through, I was not able to switch files and play another MP4 without rebooting the NC.  Version 1.2 fixed this bug.

[tricespencer]

Not only do the videos stutter but the mouths move and then the words are spoken.  Not good.  I also have a problem where turning the page to a book seems to take forever.  I did shut down and reboot but it didn't do any good.

What B&N provided in the update is not worth the aggrevation to me.  Think I am going back to the last software version.

[cindylee60]

I'm also not ready to abandon the update...this is the kind of thing that B&N is likely to release a maintenance patch for pretty quickly.

I'm going to give it at least a month before I roll back....

[TomMewborn]

DVDCat, Another quick question, would you recommend running CM7 from a class 4 SD card or would you flash the ROM?

Thanks,

Tom

[Savoir_Faire]

Agreed, I'm certainly not "up in arms" or in panic mode. I think it is fixable and hopefully they will address the issue in a reasonable time frame ( as in I don't want to wait another four months ).

[dvdcatalyst]

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k2nax wrote:

DVDCat,

I don't think you should abandon all hope just yet.  As you know I have 100s of converted MP4s with DVD Catalyst and so far they all play beautifully on 1.2.  Just for kicks, last night when you were having this discussion, I ripped and converted a set of astronomy classes and sideloaded them.  Sure enough, this morning they play just fine.

Infact, version 1.2 fixed a bug I was having handling the larger MP4 files.  When I played an MP4 and stopped it part way through, I was not able to switch files and play another MP4 without rebooting the NC.  Version 1.2 fixed this bug.

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Oh, I haven't given up hope on the NOOKcolor, I just know it can do better, because it did do better before.

Maybe I am being to harsh, because my wife doesn't see any problems, but for me, I pretty much live and breathe video, and because one of the important things I deal with with dvdcat is to make sure video plays as good as possible, which involves looking specifically for these kinds of issues.

The Battlestar clips are done using 4 different low quality settings. 2 different screensizes, and 2 different formats, which gives a good range for testing. Some older devices have limitations regarding pixel-count in video, so higher resolution video will result in more stutter. I didn't notice a difference in that. The 2 formats I used, both are handled by the video acceleration chip of the NOOKcolor. H264 is the most demanding of the 2, but the mpeg4 ones require little to nothing in terms of horsepower in order to play, but again I didn't notice a difference in playback smoothness, ruling out things like running processes/apps in the background etc, which basically points to issues on how video is actually handled on the device, the codecs.

In order to fix this, B&N should restore the original 1.1 video codecs.

[dvdcatalyst]

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TomMewborn wrote:

DVDCat, Another quick question, would you recommend running CM7 from a class 4 SD card or would you flash the ROM?

Thanks,

Tom

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Try it on an SD first, and if you like it flash it to rom.

Just make sure you read on how to get back to stock before you do the actual flashing

[AuroraRory]

I have the same video issues -- played great before, now all videos are grainy and slightly stuttery. It's the same not only for videos I've converted using Noteburner, but also for my own home videos originally in mp4 format, which I didn't need to convert.

It makes me sad cause I used to show off the video player to family and friends to show them how great the video playback was on my Nook; now I won't do that because they don't look good anymore. 

I hope someone is taking notice and working to fix the problem. 

(By the way, for those of you who are having no video problems, that's great and I'm happy for you. But that doesn't mean the rest of us are too "picky" or techie. I'm no computer "know-it-all," but the diminished video quality on the same movies I watched on my NC before is obvious.)

[Serolf_Divad]

FWIW, one of the developers of the Nook Color CM7 port says that he saw the same behavior when he tried to integrate the 1.2 codecs into CM7. Instead he stuck with the codecs they were using.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13210403&postcount=3

[SkinnyDennis]

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cindylee60 wrote:

I'm also not ready to abandon the update...this is the kind of thing that B&N is likely to release a maintenance patch for pretty quickly.

I'm going to give it at least a month before I roll back....

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Don't hold your breath waiting, B&N doesn't have a good record with timely updates.

I'll bet dollars to donuts they knew about the video problem in the first place.

[WingnutC150]

It's a no win deal for me ladies and gents. I'm writting the clockwork card with 1.1.0 as we speak. My guess is that somewhere down the line a decent autonooter will pop up for 1.2 but for now, the lack of apps to replace the ones I had just isn't going to cut it. I'm a pilot and I was using this thing everyday, especially for weather and approach charts. The replacement weather app, while beautiful, just isn't going to cut it. Now that I'm sure the video issue is real and not something I'm imagining from delerium induced by hypoxia I'm pretty much done. The prospect of flash was great but one down side that I think most of us also failed to realize that there are a TON of flash based adds that we were inadvertantly avoiding by not having flash in the first place.

So it's back to known roads until someone gets an autonooter with the android market rolling on this thing. Till then, happy landings.

[k2nax]

So this is something I don't get.  How can some people be having major video playback issues and others having minor (one frame/second) issues that DVDcat is describing (which are not percievable most of the time.) 

In system engineering speak, the one frame/second symptom is not the root cause of the major video problems.

[Kumasdad]

So........, in you humble "unbiased" opinion should I purchase cat4, wait to purchase anything and see if bugs get worked out or buy something else to put videos on the NC?

[Kumasdad]

Boy....I sure messed up my last post! That was a question for DVDCatalyst. Sorry.

[Serolf_Divad]

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Kumasdad wrote:

So........, in you humble "unbiased" opinion should I purchase cat4, wait to purchase anything and see if bugs get worked out or buy something else to put videos on the NC?

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The problem isn't DVD Catayst 4. The problem is the update.