best phone for handling different media types.

[Nvidiaguy07]

I have been patiently waiting for a decent android to come to att and I'm very happy to hear about the galaxy. But the main reason I'm upgrading is so that ill be able to watch videos in my down time between classes.

Besides the antenna issues that the iphone4 has it looks pretty awesome. I'm generally not an iphone person, but the fact that the camera is really good and it has a really good browser is all I'm really looking for. Can it handle different file types like mkv mpeg wmv? I'm not even sure if any android phones can. Does every phone need its videos to be converted?

The galaxy looks awesome on paper, but the fact that it might not receive future updates is a big turn off. (I know it'll get 2.2 but 3.0 I'm not sure about)

As an att customer (I'm stuck) what would you do if you were in my shoes?

 

[gorcorps]

iphone is very picky about its format, so many things will need to be converted. HOWEVER, there's a very awesome app called "Air Video Server" that can come in handy if your school has free wifi or something. What you do is leave the server running on your PC and point it to the videos you want to share. You can then watch all of those videos on your iphone via the internet, which works best if you're on wifi although 3G works too (at a bit of a quality drop). Best part is this program transcodes all of these videos on the fly into a format the iphone can play, and it does a pretty awesome job.

If for some reason you can't do that or don't want to leave a PC running, then Android may be the better choice. It's still quite limited in its core formats, so you have to rely on 3rd party devs to support more which as I understand it don't work as well as the native format.

Handbrake is a program that will convert any video you throw at into another. It's made more for the apple products, but also accepts custom setups for Android, 360, PS3, etc...

 

[TheWart]

I use handbreak to convert most of my files so I can play them on my iPhone, and it is pretty painless. Also, Air Video is awesome, as gorcorps pointed out.

 

[Sheep]

Android has a beta app called RockPlayer that can play AVI/DIVX without conversion (SD quality only as far as I can tell). It works well for those files and WMV, but choked on the WMVHD (choppy framerate) and MPG files (video looks fine but audio was a static-filled mess) I just tried throwing at it. I don't have any MKV files to test out.

Otherwise, it's Handbrake all the way. Great, easy to use program.

 

[theeedude]

I can play xVid natively on my Zune HD, so there shouldn't be a reason why a smartphone with a fast enough CPU shouldn't play it as well.

 

[secretanchitman]

i use streamtome on my iphone - its basically the best app. it converts sd and hd videos (a huge list of formats are supported, including mkv, ts, wmv, mpeg) on the fly from any computer (download and set up a free program by the same author, mac and windows) as long as you have edge, 3G, or wifi. not even joking you, my iphone has become my everything device

edit: http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/ - theres the link. the author just updated the app so its ios4 compatible, complete with 960x640 resolution and high-res icons. http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/support_file_formats.html - for the supported formats as well.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

i use streamtome on my iphone - its basically the best app. it converts sd and hd videos (a huge list of formats are supported, including mkv, ts, wmv, mpeg) on the fly from any computer (download and set up a free program by the same author, mac and windows) as long as you have edge, 3G, or wifi. not even joking you, my iphone has become my everything device

edit: http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/ - theres the link. the author just updated the app so its ios4 compatible, complete with 960x640 resolution and high-res icons. http://projectswithlove.com/streamtome/support_file_formats.html - for the supported formats as well.

does android have the same type of program? If this is only available to iphones then that sways my decision heavily towards the iphone. Is the iphone4 worth it? even with the antenna issues?

 

[aceO07]

WM6/6.5 with TCPMP or CorePlayer will play most formats, no conversions needed.

I just tested with AVI, MKV, OGM. I remember XVID does work also. It can handle the WMV, WMA since it's WM.. It handles MPEG, MPEG4, flash, FLAC and probably others. TCPMP also handles subtitles.

I just stream videos directly from my file server onto my HD2 to play on its nice 4.3" 800x480 resolution screen.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

im currently using a blackberry bold 2. watching vids on it realy sucks because the screen is so small, but is there any way to stream whats on my pc to my blackberry like the other methods listed here?

 

[CTrain]

If you're stuck on ATT, iphone 4 is your best route.

 

[Tom]

WM6/6.5 with TCPMP or CorePlayer will play most formats, no conversions needed.

I just tested with AVI, MKV, OGM. I remember XVID does work also. It can handle the WMV, WMA since it's WM.. It handles MPEG, MPEG4, flash, FLAC and probably others. TCPMP also handles subtitles.

I just stream videos directly from my file server onto my HD2 to play on its nice 4.3" 800x480 resolution screen.

hardly anybody on this forum wants to know what the most powerful phone os is capable of..

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

If you're stuck on ATT, iphone 4 is your best route.

even considering that it looks like ATT is getting what on paper looks to be a great android phone? and with the antenna issue?

 

[gsaldivar]

even considering that it looks like ATT is getting what on paper looks to be a great android phone? and with the antenna issue?

Unlike Sprint & Verizon, AT&T prohibits non-market apps on their android phones.

So, if you need to install an app that isn't on the market, you must root or circumvent that limitation for your device.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/01/att.thinks.android.market.limit.needed.for.users/

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Google-android-ATT-App-Piracy,news-7084.html

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06/17/att.going.back.on.promises.of.open.os/

 

[preslove]

Are you grandfathered in on their unlimited data? If not, you should avoid the streaming apps...

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Unlike Sprint & Verizon, AT&T prohibits non-market apps on their android phones.

So, if you need to install an app that isn't on the market, you must root or circumvent that limitation for your device.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/01/att.thinks.android.market.limit.needed.for.users/

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Google-android-ATT-App-Piracy,news-7084.html

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06/17/att.going.back.on.promises.of.open.os/

goddamn ATT.... well let me ask this then. when the galaxy is rooted, will it even make a difference that ATT has blocked them? i thought rooting kinda makes the phone stock?

Are you grandfathered in on their unlimited data? If not, you should avoid the streaming apps...

i think i may have 5GB on my data plan. isnt that the same pretty much anywhere?

 

[gorcorps]

goddamn ATT.... well let me ask this then. when the galaxy is rooted, will it even make a difference that ATT has blocked them? i thought rooting kinda makes the phone stock?



i think i may have 5GB on my data plan. isnt that the same pretty much anywhere?

ATT has switched so the most you can get is 2gig included at $25, and an extra fee for each gig over that. Verizon still has the "unlimited" use (which I believe is 5gig) but are claiming they may have to lower their data plans like ATT has done.

 

[TheWart]

goddamn ATT.... well let me ask this then. when the galaxy is rooted, will it even make a difference that ATT has blocked them? i thought rooting kinda makes the phone stock?



i think i may have 5GB on my data plan. isnt that the same pretty much anywhere?

If you are a current ATT customer and are paying $30/month then you are on the 'unlimited' plan, which has a soft cap around ~5gb.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

can anyone confirm if rooting will fully eliminate the problem of ATT locking out some apps?

 

[Xellos2099]

n900 play mkv like it is nothing.

 

[aceO07]

n900 play mkv like it is nothing.

The OP (like most people) is really looking for the best phone (excluding WM or Maemo). Unfortunately the best phone to easily handle the most multimedia formats is not Android or iPhone..

The N900 is pretty nice. I went for the HD2 since it had a bigger screen to read ebooks/website on.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

The OP (like most people) is really looking for the best phone (excluding WM or Maemo). Unfortunately the best phone to easily handle the most multimedia formats is not Android or iPhone..

The N900 is pretty nice. I went for the HD2 since it had a bigger screen to read ebooks/website on.

I actually really like the HD2 and dont think winmo is all that bad, but knowing that windows 7 phones are coming out so soon, if i was really set on getting one, id wait until 7 comes out.

As for the N900, i really havent given it much thought. I've always been kinda set on getting an android once a decent one came to ATT (the captivate is coming out on the 18th!) I've always kinda thought that it was kinda over my head and it might be too advanced for me. I have played around with linux and use it on my laptop, but still kinda suck in the terminal and mostly rely on GUI to install and use things. Id feel like i dont know enough to fully take advantage of the N900. Or am i wrong for thinking this? should i give the N900 a try? It does seem that the hardware is kind of being left behind on it though. Plus how is the video recording and camera?

-----

edit - also i forgot to mention one of the biggest reasons I want an android is because of its google voice features. kinda pissed the iphone still doesnt have an app....

 

[aceO07]

People either think great things about WP7 or bad things.

I'm leaning towards WP7 being potentially bad (expect the worst, hope for something decent). WP7 UI and apps will be better, but I think it will also become like Android or iPhone. WM has been around for a long time so it has a lot of apps/mods/hacks out there. Though they're unpolished compared to other newer OSes apps. WM allowed the programmer to do a lot with it. CPU power has finally gotten fast enough that WM doesn't feel slow.

It's too bad that Google hasn't released apps for their stuff on all phones. I also have a voice account I'm not using since there's no app for it.

My needs are pretty simple and WM6 already fits them. Phone, email, web browsing, ebooks reading, file storage, google maps.. I used to play games on my Android phone (G1) and sometimes web browse. With the bigger HD2 screen I find myself reading more, which was what I wanted to do on the G1. Also the HD2 won't kill the browser (and its tabs) because it's low on memory, which the G1 used to do often..

 

[metalmania]

Coreplayer. Period. No matter what phone you have, oh, iphone excluded.

 

[aceO07]

Coreplayer. Period. No matter what phone you have, oh, iphone excluded.

Coreplayer supports Android now too?

 

[metalmania]

Coreplayer supports Android now too?

Sorry, my bad. Not supported yet but I think Android is definitely going to get one.

I am a Nokia user.