DivX on Android? (Spica)

[Paul22000]

the Galaxy Spica features an AMOLED touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera, DivX support (a first for Android), 3.5mm headphone jack and an 800MHz processor.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/...y-spica-i5700/

Why only on this phone? Does anyone know if DivX support is software-based or hardware-based (meaning it will never come to G1)?

[coina]

Surely its just a software codec?

Noone uses divx anymore anyway :P

[Paul22000]

Surely its just a software codec?

Noone uses divx anymore anyway :P

Yeah, I would normally think it's software. But it if is, how the heck have we had Android for more than a year now and no one has been able to get DivX support yet aside from these guys? It just leaves me scratching my head... Seriously...

(And DivX versus Xvid etc; it doesn't matter to me. I just want SOME way to be able to play avi files without have to do all the ridiculously annoying conversion crap.)

I'm betting it's a hardware thing. Otherwise, why hasn't someone done this earlier?

Anyone know for sure how Samsung is doing it?

[coina]

well even if android supported divx you'd still need to convert the videos to the native screen resolution or smaller.

so there are two issues - software (codec availability) and hardware, i.e. having the cpu spec to down-res files with a spatial resolution greater than the devices screen.

i'm betting just because this handset supports divx playback, it doesn't mean it will play all your downloaded tv and movies without you needing to manually downconvert for a smaller spatial resolution.

[Paul22000]

well even if android supported divx you'd still need to convert the videos to the native screen resolution or smaller.

so there are two issues - software (codec availability) and hardware, i.e. having the cpu spec to down-res files with a spatial resolution greater than the devices screen.

i'm betting just because this handset supports divx playback, it doesn't mean it will play all your downloaded tv and movies without downconverting spatial resolution.

Not really, it should play automatically regardless of screen resolution.

My old Samsung SCH-i730 played any avi files I threw at it, regardless of size. Looked great on PC, looked great on my phone.

Man, that's the one thing I miss so badly about Windows Mobile. I could drag and drop ANY video file I had and BAM, played instantly.

[coina]

it is the hardware specs of the g1 preventing playback of files that have a larger spatial resolution than that of the handset itself.

[Paul22000]

it is the hardware specs of the g1 preventing playback of files that have a larger spatial resolution than that of the handset itself.

Are you saying that the G1 is not powerful enough to play these files adequately (meaning, it could run but with low framerate etc), or that there's something intrinsically not present in the G1 hardware wise (hardware video decoder etc) so that it will never be possible to even OPEN these types of files?

[coina]

i can't answer that with authority until the divx codec is running on a g1 and you try to play a scene release sized avi i guess?

but yeah, i am pretty certain that regardless of what codec a video is, it won't play if it's above the g1 screens native res.

[JaceMan]

but yeah, i am pretty certain that regardless of what codec a video is, it won't play if it's above the g1 screens native res.

Not so. Simply watching YouTube videos in HQ disproves that theory.

[coina]

youtube hq and youtube hd are different, and you can't play youtube hd on g1. youtube hq is the same spatial resolution as normal youtube but with less compression, its not any larger in a spatial respect like youtube hd is.