I picked up the xtreme tablet at Kmart yesterday for 40.00 - pretty nice

[yoda313]

Yep I got my new tablet yesterday. I was out at 5am and I was like a 70th in line or something like that. But I still got one of the certificates for the tablet and I was happy. (plus got THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA on BLURAY for 10.00 each, not bad ).

It says its a "multicore" processor 1.2ghz. I assume its a dual core then. Its android 4.04. It's official model is eclipse-x. (I have to look it up again but I think it was a cortex processor)

The important thing is even though its an sd screen it plays high def files! Yep it will play the 720p files I've got off the net. Plus it even plays the .ass subtitles files in the default video player! It seems like I won't have to convert any files anymore! Well not as many that is for sure. I'm sure there'll be an upper limit that it won't handle and I'll have to convert some files I run across but I'm happy I won't have to convert everything to get it to play on it.

Plus it has FLASH! I'll be able to stream with playon So i really won't need to convert anything really as long as the buffering is tolerable over its wifi connection.

Only downside seems to be its battery life. I had to recharge it during the day but then again I didn't have it fully topped off so I haven't given it a full "field test" yet.

The only real downside is it doesn't have google play access.

Please see my other thread on tablet emulators. I'm looking to get access to google play so I can download some free apps from the likes of xfinity and whatnot.

So far I'm pretty happy with it. Oh and its 16:9 too. It even has a front facing video camera for chatting. I don't plan to use it but its kinda neat it has it.

So all in all I am definitely happy with it. The fact that it will play my 720p files is worth every penny.

The only thing I need to figure out is how to change the font on the .ass subtitles during playback. The white subtitles were pretty faint on one of the videos I was testing. I'd like to have it darker or have some kind of faint see through background behind it.

[deadrats]

when i googled eclipse-x all i get is links for a cell phone, can you provide a link of the exact tablet they had for $40 and how much was the regular price?

[yoda313]

when i googled eclipse-x all i get is links for a cell phone, can you provide a link of the exact tablet they had for $40 and how much was the regular price?

search for xtreme tablet. i copied it but i dont know how to paste in the android firefox browser.v only negatives - no bluetooth, short battery life, no google play access. but it does work nicely. also there are other android app stores so i can get stuff. i even got the xfinity on demand streaming app to work. i dont know if it is wifi g or n. if its n i might finally upgrade my router.

[budwzr]

Is this it? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2932999

[yoda313]

@budwzr - nope.

Mines android 4.04 and 7" with 1.2ghz processor (says multicore so I'm assuming dual core - it says cortex on the box).

I do still have the ad for the sale. It was originally 69.99 on sale for 39.99. This might be something they only ordered for Black Friday so they might not sell it again.

The full name from the add is x-treme tab 4gb 7". The code number it listed was 5373151. In the android settings it calls itself eclipse-x.

It is a nice little unit. Aside from some missing features like google play and bluetooth it is alright. It has played the videos I want it to which is the important thing.

And so long as I keep it charged up all the time the battery life isn't too much of a problem. Especially since I really don't see using this away from the home I'll always be close to an outlet anyway.

Edit - here we go:

http://www.xtremetab.com/xtremetab-7-resistive/#FAQs

So far as I can tell this is the model I have. there might be a few minor differences and I'm not a 100% sure its the same "xtreme" brand. Its hard to know for sure with off brand knock offs like this.

[budwzr]

The memory is a bit skant, but luckily it's cheap now.

I use mine quite a bit to show photos, short video clips, and artwork, etc. They're pretty handy and work a lot better nowadays. I had several early generation devices that were clumsy and bulky. These newer ones are way better, and cheaper.

[stiltman]

I picked up a Galaxy Tab 10.1 for $139 and a Acer Icona Tab for real cheap too.
Both are running ICS and I'm going to root the Icona Tab

[yoda313]

@stiltman - great deal. I'm sure samsung can use every dollar it can with its battle with apple.

[stiltman]

@stiltman - great deal. I'm sure samsung can use every dollar it can with its battle with apple.

First thing I thought when i started poking around on the galaxy tab, was how much it looked like my iPad

Even after the updates Samsung issued that were suppose to get rid of the patent infringements, it still look a lot like the ipad. The things that looked the closest, was going under settings. WOW, just kept thinking no wonder Apple sued them

BTW, Samsung didn't make any money off the sale. It was a refurb. I can't afford a new galaxy tab

[yoda313]

Well I just found out my little tablet is worth more than I thought.

It plays ripped dvd vob files perfectly!

Yep I just ripped a dvd with dvdshrink (and anydvd running in the background). I ripped it to a single vob - renamed it to the name of the movie - then copied it to my sd card and bingo - worked without a hitch! Plus it worked with the stock video player which is amazing in its own right.

So now since its a 7in. sd tablet (but can play hd files) I don't need top quality on my rips. I can actually do some transcoding with shrink and save storage space.

Next up I need to see if I can stream vob files with my pogoplug nas. It won't let me stream mkv files - they can be downloaded but not streamed.

If it can't do vob files I might see if I can rename it to mpg and see if it takes it that way.

If none of that works then I may finally consider hacking my pogoplug so I can stream mkv and vob files. It does jpgs and mp4s fine enough but if it can't do vobs then it really won't be worth anything.

This is great now all I have to do is start ripping

I'll also be checking out more harddrive sales to load up more storage. WOOHOO

Edit - no go on streaming the vob file from the pogoplug. It read it as a file and when I started it the video player wouldn't do anything. One would load it but only in software decoding and my tablet is not powerful enough for software playback. (I did rename it to mpg but same thing)

I think I will be hacking the pogoplug. It turns out its a dual core (700mhz) arm 6 computer. I'll be putting arch linux on it from this link:

http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/pogoplug-provideov3

It should be an interesting process.

I'll be able to install minidlna or samba on it after that. Now that i have a tablet that can play more video types it will actually be worth doing this.

I don't think I'll do it tonight though. I think I'll save it for this weekend. Now that the Lions season is done and I'm not attached to any other NFL team for the playoffs I wont' be glued to the tv for sports this weekend.

I'll report in with how it goes then.

[yoda313]

I found another great little video player for the tablet - daroon player.

I'm sure some of you know about it.

It lets you play an entire dvd folder as if its a dvd - MENUS AND ALL Yep pretty slick to do that on a tablet.

Though it is of limited use since I really see myself ripping to single vobs more likely. However it could be useful for episodic dvds. That way you wouldn't have to rip each episode to a vob and name that vob. Just shrink it and open the folder and you can pick the episode you want just like the real disc.

Neat stuff.

Still haven't tried a true 1080p clip yet. Though I"m sure it will work just fine.

[yoda313]

Still haven't tried a true 1080p clip yet. Though I"m sure it will work just fine.

Last night I ripped a bluray and used ripbot264 to convert to mkv with profile 3 and IT PLAYED! Yep no problems that I could tell though it wasn't a particularly action packed section I converted (striped out a 5 minute chunk from the ripped disc with tsmuxer - I wanted a trailer but using bdrebuilder the only trailers on it were sd so it wouldn't have been a good test).

Here are the stats it will play on profile 3:

General
Unique ID : 203666415024951075101738227552635199892 (0x9938B98850B230849A4FA8CE188E2194)
Complete name : E:\bluray rip\*******1080p profile 3 test.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 177 MiB
Duration : 4mn 43s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 5 259 Kbps
Movie name : *****1080p profile 3 test
Encoded date : UTC 2013-02-03 06:51:33
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 4mn 43s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 10 000 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core 112 r1867 22bfd31
Encoding settings : cabac=0 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x131 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=22.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=vbr / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 4mn 43s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
------------------------------------------

There was one hiccup during playback but I don't know if there was something going on in the background at the time - I was playing it off the sd card fyi.

Right now I'm encoding the same ripped clip to profile 4 with ripbot and will see if it holds up.

This is pretty exciting to know I can play a true 1080p file with no apparent issues on my tablet. This is a very good tablet for being a cheap no-name knockoff.

If only I could get flixster to work I'd have a perfect tablet.

But anyway I"m off to test my 1080p profile 4 clip when its done encoding. Wish me luck

Edit -

Well it played the profile 4 file. I left everything the same as my profile 3 test except made it profile 4. It was only 4mb larger than the profile 3 file. Here are the stats:

General
Unique ID : 199595146533616555828694806752394191934 (0x9628A07F8E4042D2A74623FB5C4FA43E)
Complete name : E:\bluray rip\******1080p profile 4 test.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 181 MiB
Duration : 4mn 43s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 5 349 Kbps
Movie name : *****1080p profile 4 test
Encoded date : UTC 2013-02-03 16:19:53
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.4.0 ('Die Wiederkehr') built on Oct 31 2010 21:52:48
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 4mn 43s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 25.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core 112 r1867 22bfd31
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=22.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=25000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=vbr / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 4mn 43s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

-----------------------

I watched the entire clip (the profile 4 clip) and there weren't any breakups during playback. It was virtually the same as the profile 3 clip so far as I could tell.

The standard for ripbot was to leave it at 3 reference frames for both profiles. However I do notice that profile 4 does have Cabac enabled at value 1. So my player can actually handle CABAC which is surprising (the stock player is what I used to test both clips).

Now I haven't messed around with reference frames or the cabac setting beyond the stock profile settings in ripbot.

I'm sure there is a breaking point as I have come across some files from the internet that just won't play on the tablet and I have to convert them. I haven't compiled the list yet exactly but thankfully its not too many to the point of becoming problematic. It still handles quite a bit that I've thrown at it.

All in all I"ve been very happy with my inexpensive tablet. Sure it has its issues and such but any device has those quirks that some like and some don't.

[TreeTops]

Good info Yoda, thanks.

[yoda313]

Good info Yoda, thanks.

Sure.

I do have a question though.

Is there any real reason to use a higher profile than 3 if 3 is adequate to my eyes?

I don't plan on eeking out every last bit of space on an sd card so I don't think I'll really need to max out settings on a given video.

For an "average joe" is there any need to go above profile 3 and start fooling around with reference frames and cabac settings and all that "under the hood" stuff I am still learning about?

Suffice it to say I am kind of the in the camp of if its good enough thats all I need. I am not a video snob in the sense it has to be perfect. I don't want obvious artifacts or that blooming or whatever you call it when you have the flaring and halo stuff with bitrate starved videos but I don't necessarily need to have bluray quality on my encodes - dvd level is just fine and even then I can take it down a notch.

So I don't know if I need to keep testing as long as I can make use of a preset am ok with that.

Also I do have another motive for wanting to keep it simple - I would like to make encodings that will play across the widest range of units.

Granted I will keep my originals no matter what so I can always start over or play from the source. But in the end if I can play it on my xbox 360 and ps3 and wdtv media player as well as my tablet all the better.

However I guess that might be a pipe dream. But I might have to try that out some time. I'll have to try my 1080p profile 3 encode and see how it plays on all my units. However right now its in an mkv file so that takes out the xbox and ps3. I'll just have to remux it to mp4 and give it a go.

So in the end is there any real reason to go messing with the encoding parameters beyond the presets if the output looks ok to my eyes? And like I said I'm not looking to get bluray quality on a vcd level file size so I don't need to come up with some kooky kvcd type scheme that wouldn't work anyway.

Thoughts?