Video conversion :: irony

@Job: But does your video look as if it is scaled down, so do you have quality loss other than the miniplayer screen gives?

@richardg: The problems your havin seem familiar to me. Theyr about the same other people complained about and your explanation of why they are caused is correct as far as I can see by checkin the miniplayer spechs and the ways people get rid of the problems.

@DChronos: What richardg said about how the screen is made up, I also thought that is the way it is done, but I cant bring that together with your explanation. But I have to admit, that Im a total newbie on that subject.

...I think DChronos is making an error in his explanation... i'll try to explain it with his pictures:

So, we all agree that this is the normal video, with no changes:



...now, this is the image I don't agree with:



DChronos, in your image you have rotated only the video, causing the black bars to appear... in my opinion we must consider that the player has a "rotated" display in order to obtain the right image... something like this: a rotated 320x240 video on the rotated display of the miniplayer!


The video conversion software rotates the video because the player has a "rotated" display... i hope you have understood what i mean!


The black bars appear when you convert a video with an aspect ratio different than 4:3, that is the aspect ratio of 320x240... converting a video with a resolution like 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, ecc. results in no bars on the screen of the miniplayer!

(...I hope my english is clear enough! )

OK, now I'm unshure of what's going on. When Meizu says to rotate the video, that doesn't mean that it physically rotates the video sideways, so you're watching the video while holding the M6 turned clockwise 90 degrees?

I'm confused as hell as far as using these encoders goes, using the 2 programs, so I've only done one video. Holding the M6 normally, it's displayed properly, showing with the video width and height as 320x240. It's not rotated, and it shows in on my PC. If it doesn't physically rotate the video, then my explanation IS wrong, though I have never seen a picture or any description of what video's look like "rotated". As far as I see it, saying you have to rotate the video means only one thing: physically rotating the video. If they don't explain it further, that's all anyone else would understand from it, too, and maybe, like me, never even try to rotate because they think they will loose a part of the video, or have it shrunk down to tiny proportions.

Can someone please post a photo of what a video they have looks like when shown unrotated, and what the same video looks like rotated? That will clear everything up.

A 90 degrees rotated video shows as fullscreen on the Meizu. If you don't rotate it, it will still show fullscreen but will require additional resources for it to rotate.

Basically, to get a smoother video it is recommended to rotate it.

As far as I can see it I got the picture, but got confused exactly as DChronos.
Nobody is watchin the videos the wrong way. But exactly that would happen if you turned the video around and made still made it fit the original 320x240 (You would watch the clip as in picture 2 from DChronos).

Maybe in some months or years MEIZU can enhance their programming skills and even show normal Xvid 640x480 videos with 25 fps. The CPU should be fast enough to do so.

I've found out what's going on and understand what's happening now. Apperently, due to the screen being a sideways cell phone type screen, everything the M6 shows is actually rotated via firmware by 90°, since the real top of the screen is apparently on either the left or right side, as seen by us. I'm guessing it's the right side that's the real top, judging by how you have to rotate videos clockwise 90°.

Since this is the case, that means the M6 is rotating videos counter-clockwise 90° on the fly, which is why it lags when you use a normal video, unrotated. Rotating the video makes it so the M6 does NOT have to rotate it on the fly, thus making it run faster. The other stuff from the resource files and text doesn't take much processing power to rotate that, so you don't notice anything is different.

Now it makes a lot more sense what's going on. I have to wonder, though, why they chose this screen to use instead of one that's made to be used the way it is now. Probably because they couldn't find one that was the right shape and size, and didn't have the money to have someone develop that part specifically for the M6.

Originally Posted by DChronos

I've found out what's going on and understand what's happening now. Apperently, due to the screen being a sideways cell phone type screen, everything the M6 shows is actually rotated via firmware by 90°, since the real top of the screen is apparently on either the left or right side, as seen by us. I'm guessing it's the right side that's the real top, judging by how you have to rotate videos clockwise 90°.

This makes a lot of sense DChronos!
Where did you find this info?

I thought about something similar but it made no sense to me... instead, now that you tell me about a "cell phone type screen" it's all much clearer!!

richardg mentioned this, and I thought about it for a bit, then it all made perfect sense to me:

"My understanding of the 320x240 / 240x320 question is that the screen is actually 240 wide x 320 high. (like a mobile phone screen) and data will be transmitted onto it in 320 lines of 240 pixels."

It's not unheard of to modify the usage of parts to fit the design of something by modifying how other parts use it. I also read somewhere about how the screen had a slightly better viewing angle when turned sideways 90°, as if in a mobile phone. I'd have to have someone on the inside to confirm, but I'm sure the screen here really is a sideways cell phone screen.

But yeah, thanks to richardg's hinting, it does make perfect sense now why rotated video is smooth, and unrotated is choppy, because the M6 has to rotate on the fly.

uhh...wasnt this the assumption we started out with??
I assumed that was the reason why videos have to be rotated and not downscaled or anything....