Xperia X1 will not play video

[raymccarthy]

Hi,
I have been waiting for my X1 since March and I was delighted when it finally arrived last week. However, the delight was short lived. I was certain that I had read that the X1 would support DIVX out of the box, it does not.

I downloaded Coreplayer to address this problem, only to find that there were massive amounts of dropped frames. Having run a number of Coreplayer benchmarks, the best I can get (after a hard reset) is 95% frame rate. The worst I am getting is about 80% frame rate.

I just got off the phone with Sony Ericsson in Sweden and they tell me this is natural because of the large screen size and the amount of processing required. Incredible, this is supposed to be a multi media phone. BTW, it even has trouble playing the James Bond trailer that is supplied! I am to receive a Hancock film on MicroSD next week, I wonder what I am supposed to do with it??

Also, for those who are interested, the bluetooth support is terrible. It turns itself off, it doesn't connect to my HSB-DS980 headset. And worst of all it doesn't support the media remote control profile. It also does not display the name of the incoming call on the headset display. And this is a SE headset! All of this worked perfectly on W880i.

It is still a wonderful toy, with lots to play with. It still rates a positive review overall, but these issues are quite annoying. I am assuming and hoping that SE will issue a firmware fix for this very very soon!!

/Ray

[Reggie3]

Thanks for posting - does sound like teething issues that will be addressed by SE. Did you try to use MS Media player because since this phone runs on MS op system I would expect that they fully tested this application

[raymccarthy]

Yes, exactly the same issues with Media player playing WMV files. However, I can't get a benchmark from WM player so it is more subjective as to the number of frames being dropped.

I am sure that SE will fix this in the coming weeks...

[Walter E Kurts]

Wow. They better fix it if they want some good reviews on it. I know the screen is large with a good res, but skipping frames is inexcusable. What was the res of the file you were trying to play?

[bloob]

Contrasting with some of the other X1 users from Sweden that posted in other forums, it seems like they didn't experience the video and bluetooth problems that you described above. How about a general reset of your X1 and trying again?

[Rudegar]

media player never supported divX or m4v or other better codecs so
since the sony player is based on wmp
those options are absent
so programs like core player and the like will be required for media exp
much like with all other wm devices
too bad sony dident make their own player..

[raymccarthy]

I had exactly the same thought so I hard reset the device this evening and retested. I had exactly the same result. The amazing thing is that it can't play back it's own video. If I record VGA at 30fps on the Xperia, it plays perfectly on my PC. When I try to play it on the Xperia, it drops 40% of the frames.

I had actually expect this because SE talked about it during the press conference in mid September. When Magnus was asked about frame rate, he said something like 'you shouldn't concentrate too much on frame rate.' I can't remember the exact quote.

So, it won't play wmv, it won't play 3gp and it won't play divx. The divx file I was trying to play was 624x352 at 24fps.

SE has recommended returning the device for service, but as far as I can see, this is a software issue. I would really appreciate other peoples experience as I too have read the Swedish comments about how good video playback is. Is it possible that my Swedish friends are not spotting the dropped frames :-)

My device info is:_

Rom Version 1.02.936.3
Rom Datum 08/29/08
Radio Version 1.06.25.29
Protokollversion 52 43 25 24H

Programvaru-ID 1213-2274
Programvaruvers R1AA017
Anpassnings-ID 1215-3315

Anpassningsversion R11A

/Ray

[Rudegar]

i blame the qualcomm cpu's they never did performe well compared to the mhz
the reason everybody use then is because it's 3g, bluetooth, wifi, gps on chip along with the cpu thats a cost saver big time for companys

maybe when nvidia chips and atom or nano will be used in phones things will change

[duldi]

oh noooo. My bad nightmare seems to come true. I doubted the 30fps video performance when i saw the James Bond Trailer running on the X1 in the first webcast.
If it's still like that in the Release Version then I can only say: "EPIC FAIL! That's absolutely inacceptable. Shame on you Sony Ericsson. Shame on you!"
(Still hoping that you have special issues raymccarthy)

[raymccarthy]

Have done some more investigating and found that this is HTC Qualcomm problem that was raised in February:-

htcdriver.com for porblems, downloads, issues and more for your HTC Pocket PC or PDA

It seems like they have been improving over time, but it is still far from perfect!!!

/Ray