Which tablets can play HD content?

S

Scotch77

Gawd
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Jul 27, 2005
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Now before you say that they all can, I know for a fact they can't. Even some with HDMI ports can't actually play real 720P or 1080i mkv files.


So which tablets can actually play 1080i movies without hiccup. I would settle for 720p as well but if it can do 1080 then it can do 720.
 
Nothing with a Tegra 2 can play 1080 high profile. Anything with a Samsung Exynos with pretty much play all files.
 
The Transformer Prime with the Tegra 3 can play them on it's native screen, not sure about an external display. I have a several Windows tablets and the only one that can play everything thing I've thrown at it, including native Blu Rays on a 1080P screen is the Samung Series 7 with an i5 Sandy Bridge and HD 3000.
 
heatless the x200t cant?


anyhow my HP Touchpad did stagger on some 1080p rips, fixed it with just going to native resolution :D

windows side, my 2470p has no issues with 1080p
 
W.Feather said:
heatless the x200t cant?


anyhow my HP Touchpad did stagger on some 1080p rips, fixed it with just going to native resolution :D

windows side, my 2470p has no issues with 1080p
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The x220t has no problem as well, same GPU as the Series 7 just faster.
 
thought so, wondered if you just forgot about the poor thing (ill take it off yer hands ;).....though i've got a 2nd 2740p almost up and running for $350 total.....)
 
W.Feather said:
thought so, wondered if you just forgot about the poor thing (ill take it off yer hands ;).....though i've got a 2nd 2740p almost up and running for $350 total.....)
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Nah, I really love the x220t, just the accuracy of the pen at the edges is the only issue I've had with it and the Series 7 is much better for inking anyway.

Congrats on the 2740 job, that's a hell of machine to get for $350, I'd be happy to take that off your hands as well.;)
 
Archos Gen9 and the Transformer Prime are the best ones out right now. I'll be getting one as soon as they become localy available.
 
Ipad2. I have transcoded many blu-ray movies to 1080p and they all play great. It was tricky to get them to play on my Acer Iconia tab a500, but with the right settings in handbrake, the encodes work great there too. Of course, worrying about hd on a tablet is lame, but if you want to use the same files on desktop, laptop, and tablet, one needs to worry about this.

Btw, I rip to mp4, not mkv.
 
AQ_OC said:
Ipad2. I have transcoded many blu-ray movies to 1080p and they all play great.
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How did you transcode them? Most native BD rips won't even fit on an typical iPad, did you lower the bit rate, lower the resolution, both?
 
Will most tablets play 720p smoothly if they've got a 1280x800 native resolution?

I just ordered the 32GB Lenovo Ideapad K1 with the Tegra 2 for $244 and I'm planning on using 720p compression for it. I will just have two collections; though the second collection at 720p will not be my full collection.

Also, what speed class rating for the SDHC cards is required? Would a class 4 be sufficient for 720p playback? Do you have to store the movie on the built-in system memory for smooth playback?

The 32GB speed class 10 cards are a little spendy if the speed classes 4 or 6 would work.
 
Class 4 is fine.

720P should be fine as long as the bitrate isn't too high.
 
heatlesssun said:
How did you transcode them? Most native BD rips won't even fit on an typical iPad, did you lower the bit rate, lower the resolution, both?
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The two i specified should run any video format you can get off... certain unmentionable sources with the jolly roger flag... without needing to transcode further. Not sure about the prime, but the guys that managed to get the Gen9 are playing high profile 1080p, the prime should be able to do the same. If the tablet needs to be run through a transcoder specifically for it, it's a fail as a media tablet.
 
J Macker said:
Will most tablets play 720p smoothly if they've got a 1280x800 native resolution?
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Doesn't matter, it'll just stretch to fit.

1080p playback capability is a plus, since you only need to have one copy of the video in your archives. In my case i had three. One 1080p h264 for the desktop, 720p h264 for the Tegra2, and a 480p divx for the ipod/phone. A tablet capable of 1080p would mean a big chunk of harddrive space freed, and no time wasted on transcoding.
 
Yes, but we would need much more storage on tablets to playback 1080p.

What bitrate can the Tegra 2 handle? will it have smooth playback at 15 Mbit/s?
 
That's why the Archos Gen9's have 250gig models :D And the Transformer tablets have two memory slots in addition to the onboard one (64Gig+32Gig+32Gig).
 
heatlesssun said:
How did you transcode them? Most native BD rips won't even fit on an typical iPad, did you lower the bit rate, lower the resolution, both?
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Lowered the bit-rate, but not the resolution. I have a boat load of 1080i vids that I ripped back over the summer. My goal was for them to play on both Android and iPad, as well as Google TV. I got the first two nailed, but google TV is a total dud.

I found the main setting I used here...someone discovered them for the Asus Transformer and I copied them for the Iconia. The iPad 2 played everything I gave it, but the Tegra on Android was the picky one. IIRC, the main setting that make it work had to do with the audio.
 
It's a big mistake to talk about 720 or 1080 only...the bit-rate matters much. It determined the file size way more than the number of horizontal lines. Most of my 1080 rips are on the order of 2GB...some a bit more, others less.

Why are people worried about these resolutions on tablets, anyway? If you don't plan to view them on a larger screen, I'd stick with lower res.

BTW, I've abandon the entire business about ripping for tablets. While I have over 100rips that work on my tablets, most of my collection is ISO and MKV and full-bit perfect rip from BD.
 
The resolution does matter when your viewing a 10" tablet from 12". 1080P will look a hell of a lot better than 720P or 480P.

But bitrate matters as well. Macroblocking FTL.
 
Most people can't tell 720 from 1080 on a big screen. I bet you can't double blind tell the difference on a 10-inch screen from any realistic distance.
 
AQ_OC said:
Most people can't tell 720 from 1080 on a big screen. I bet you can't double blind tell the difference on a 10-inch screen from any realistic distance.
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Resolution doesn't really matter as much as compatibility. If your 800p tablet supports 1080p, then it should be compatible with whatever's in your archives without needing to transcode for it.

There's no point in turning your 1080p high profile mkv, into a 1080p low profile mkv if you're just going to play it on an 800p lcd. You may as wel just go for 720p.

I have 2 terabytes worth of videos in my to watch folder and i definitely will not want to have to transcode all that.

I've had enough practice leaving my computer overnight so i'll have something to upload to my ipod the next day. When i got the Archos Gen8, i really appreciated the fact the i just had to copy and paste files into it right from windows explorer straight from my archives. No mess, no fuss. But it only supported 720p. Fact, the Transformer can't play as many videos as last years ArchosGen8, i have both, i'm hoping the Prime will do better.
 
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AQ_OC said:
Most people can't tell 720 from 1080 on a big screen. I bet you can't double blind tell the difference on a 10-inch screen from any realistic distance.
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There's a lot of depends with this though I agree with you overall. The best Blu Rays, yeah there's a difference there on a good big screen. With small under 1080P screens not so much.
 
AQ_OC said:
Most people can't tell 720 from 1080 on a big screen. I bet you can't double blind tell the difference on a 10-inch screen from any realistic distance.
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This isn't the Occupy Wallstreet forum. We are talking about the 1% here. If you can't tell the difference between 1080P and 720P then you need glasses.
 
danman said:
This isn't the Occupy Wallstreet forum. We are talking about the 1% here. If you can't tell the difference between 1080P and 720P then you need glasses.
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I have glasses. Again, in a DB test I'd bet money you can't tell the difference on a 10-inch tablet screen. You just think you can.
 
AQ_OC said:
What is the Samsung Series 7 Slate?
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1366x768. It's very much like a widescreen iPad. It's almost exactly the same size in along the narrow dimension but longer the wide dimension, if that made sense. But this might be a device some could tell the difference between 720 and 1080, Blu Rays just pop on this screen, it's fantastic, a bit better than the iPad I think.

As far as video viewing on a tablet goes this thing incredible.
 
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heatlesssun said:
1366x768. It's very much like a widescreen iPad. It's almost exactly the same size in along the narrow dimension but longer the wide dimension, if that made sense. But this might be a device some could tell the difference between 720 and 1080, Blu Rays just pop on this screen, it's fantastic, a bit better than the iPad I think.

As far as video viewing on a tablet goes this thing incredible.
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I wish I could see one in person. Do you know if any B&M stores carry it? I'm thinking about the Transformer Prime. I'm really enjoying the tablet format these days (I was an early adopter with the Samsung Q1). I do think it would be so much better when Windows 8 lands. MS had better hurry up...I saw an article the other day saying how Windows Tablets are doing well in the minds of potential customers, or something along those lines.

That reminds me...I have Windows 7 running on that old Samsung...I would if the developer edition of Win8 could run on that thing? Hmm.... :)
 
Brick & mortar Microsoft Stores have them but I don't know of anywhere else offhand.
 
AQ_OC said:
It's a big mistake to talk about 720 or 1080 only...the bit-rate matters much. It determined the file size way more than the number of horizontal lines. Most of my 1080 rips are on the order of 2GB...some a bit more, others less.

Why are people worried about these resolutions on tablets, anyway? If you don't plan to view them on a larger screen, I'd stick with lower res.

BTW, I've abandon the entire business about ripping for tablets. While I have over 100rips that work on my tablets, most of my collection is ISO and MKV and full-bit perfect rip from BD.
Click to expand...


Most I have are 20GB for 1.5 hour movies
 
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