How do I fast forward Videos when using android?

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

I am able to play videos/movies via subsonic & its great, I love it! My only question is that if I am watching something for 10 minutes, close it out, then go back later to watch, I cannot fast forward.

I have to rewatch that first 10 minutes again. Is there a way to fast forward? On my PC i have no issues scrolling the indicator over to start a movie in the middle.

on my android 2.2 evo phone with flash, I cant move it.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rich

[stozher]

Preencode your files at MPEG-4 H264/AVC format and use qt-faststart or http://www.datagoround.com/lab/ to fix files. After this don't use any transcoding row in SS for this files - stream directly. You need to play around video options of H264 format (google and test). For example max bitrate of sound at MPEG-4 AAC is a 160 kbps for some smartphones.

[RichTJ99]

I think you went a little over my head. I did encode the videos at: HD Video 720p: H.264/AVC, 4500 kpbs; Audio: MP3, 256 kbps.

When I open the video I have choices of 200 Kbps to 2000 Kbps. However when I hit play at say 200 Kbps, I start playing, zoom in on the screen.

I then slide the indicator on the bottom to the right & it will slide, but when I let go, it goes back to the same point its currently streaming.

However, it will let me slide to the left to start it over.

Is the problem the files are too 'high quality'? I dont get it that it works & plays just about any file fine but it cant fast forward.

How do I choose not to use transcoding in SS? I dont really see many options for Android.

Again, it works perfect via PC.

Thanks,
Rich

[RichTJ99]

One other thing, I have LOTR on it & it says the name of the file:

LOTR
( mkv > flv)

Is the issue that flash doesnt fast forward? Can I stream it to another format that the phone can handle?

[stozher]

Android Supported Media Formats

[RichTJ99]

Does that mean if i transfer a file to mp4 (a default android format), that it should stream directly to the video playing app vs using the JW player that subsonic uses?

I am still having issues fast forwarding on any video I changed to mkv format.

The watching videos is great, but it isnt so great that I have to start at the beginning each time I watch the same movie.

Any ideas for a newb would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich

[GJ51]

I format all my video for mobile playback to flv at the resolution I want it to playback on the device. No transcoding needed. By doing thisd, playback performance is limited only by the connection speed. I have 2 videos. lowresflvWildlife and lowresmp4Wildlife on my public siter avasilable for testing.

[RichTJ99]

Are you able to fast forward watching movies?

I also have an evo & am using AVS to convert.

What settings are you using?

[GJ51]

I use AVS converter as well, and have an EVO. Videos perform well and you can seek if the video has the information. My flv's usually work. You can also look at the Udvay-Hazy videos on my site. They are camera 720p video we shot and converted toflv files with AVS. They work fine on Wifi, but in order to get good 3g performance I'd have to lower the reolution a bit as my 3g speed sucks where I am. You really have to play around to find the sweet spot for your particular setup. If you get good 3g bandwidth on your phone, or better yet 4g, then the 720p video flv files can play well. If your 3g is spotty you'll have a lot of buffering to get the video to play. It's hit or miss on 3g. I can sometimes play dvd quality movies on 3g, then other times lowres flv have problems. My site has good upload speed, about 25kbps on avg. so it's a good place to test your EVO with the posted video.

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

Ok so your video file is 'fast forward'able'. What settings did you pick for AVS?

The worst quality I can do is:

FLV - Least Quality - (H.263, 480kbps, 176x144, 15fps: MP3, 24kbps)

What settings did you use, or are they custom?

Thanks,
Rich

[RichTJ99]

I use AVS converter as well, and have an EVO. Videos perform well and you can seek if the video has the information.

When you say that the video has the information. How do you give it the info, or is the problem that my 1+ gb files are too large for the full file to be streamed?


Meaning, is the problem that my files are too large, or that before you can fast forward, the entire video needs to be on the phone?

[GJ51]

Some video files have the seek info at the end of the file and need to be fully loaded before you can do any seeking. There are utils out ther for some formats that can fix the problem. With all the video formats out there, some behave better than others. For me it's just been a trial and error process, but I'm sure the details are available on the web if you want to hunt them down. Or, if you get lucky, someone like Stozher might point you in the right direction.