MPEG Codes for sansa

[jdoe]

I've tried playing some MPEG2 files on my sansa but the video is very sluggish and is lagging behind the audio. I've heard about an .mpeg4 chip in the sansa and i was wondering if there is any work being done to utilize it, and also if there is any way to fix the lagging mpeg codec?

[Llorean]

MPEGplayer is in a very early state, and still could do with a lot of optimization.

[dan_a]

I've heard about an .mpeg4 chip in the sansa and i was wondering if there is any work being done to utilize it

As far as I know, there is no hardware decoder.  Everything is done on the PortalPlayer processor.

[jdoe]

well, is there any way to diminish or eliminate the lagging?

[Llorean]

Wait until the plugin is optimized, or optimize it yourself.

[dan_a]

well, is there any way to diminish or eliminate the lagging?

Try setting the options "limit FPS" and "skip frames" - that should help, but at the expense of smooth video.

[linuxstb]

Wait until the plugin is optimized, or optimize it yourself.

Or accept that the Sansa's CPU isn't powerful enough for 30fps full-screen video and encode your files at a lower framerate...

[saratoga]

The PP5024 is quite slow.  If you want to watch video, buy a Gigabeat.  

[Llorean]

If you want to watch video, don't buy a device sold primarily as an Audio Player.

[markun]

If you want to watch video, don't buy a device sold primarily as an Audio Player.

... If you want to watch video, buy a Gigabeat.  

These advices contradict eachother

[Nate!]

Sometimes it's funny the responses that Llorean gives to people.  Makes one think long and hard before posting.  lol  

I do think his advice is more accurate.  If you want to watch videos, then we probably all should have waited and purchased Portable Media Players.  (like the X5 or iPod Videos)  But, since many of us have purchased Digital Audio players we have to just wait for the plugin to get finished.

All though I love my Gigabeat and from what I gather it has a faster CPU, it still was marketed as mainly a Digital Audio player.  (Unless you count JPEG viewing.)

[digerati1338]

The sansa is designed to work as a video player and can play fullscreen video just fine in the original firmware.  Use that until the plugin is optimized.

[jdoe]

I would,

but it only takes files converted from its own media converter. Those files regularly exceed 100mb (even for a five minute video), the conversion software if awful

[TheCox]

Depends on which version of the converter you have. There is an ArcSoft one and an Interplay one. But neither one are awful. You might just have a slow computer, or something else could be interferring with it.

The software itself is not garbage. Just a little FYI.

[ruster]

Either way, the files are usually going to be five to siz times larger. In my case, i converted a 20min tv episode (about 30mb MP4 and 50-60mb MPEG) and came out with a 500mb file on the high quality conversion, and a 130mb file on the lowest quality conversion.