Flash video playback test - PLEASE do this test for me?

[fredphoesh]

Hello guys,
One of the things I most want to do on my android box is to play flash videos from Tennistv.com.
My Nexus 10 and Nexus 5 play full-screen flash video beautifully using Dolphin.
My CS918 plays about 20% of the time but my S89 standard never plays full screen and flash always crashes.

There is something very different about this s89 box, the way it plays netflix, the slow ethernet, but this flash thing is the one that bothers me most as it is a prime reason for getting this box.

PLEASE DO THIS TEST:

1/ go to tennistv.com, then
2/ on the top left, click the menu to choose VIDEOS choose a video to play, and
3/ on the bottom right of the video, click the full screen icon

I would VERY much appreciate your input.

Does it play full screen?
Is it very smooth and HD?
Thank you...

Mark.

[mitchell4you]

Does it play full screen?
Is it very smooth and HD?

Well..
Using 'Browser'
Fullsc... Yes
Smooth.. Yes.. But some ghosting

Dophin..mine doesn't do flash.. it seems
Puffin.. Vid seems to stutter/no fullsc

Cheers

[fredphoesh]

Well..
Using 'Browser'
Fullsc... Yes
Smooth.. Yes.. But some ghosting

Dophin..mine doesn't do flash.. it seems
Puffin.. Vid seems to stutter/no fullsc

Cheers

Hi Mitchell, thanks for that.
By "Browser" what do you mean? I dont have an app by that name. I have tried about 4 other "flash compatible" browsers, bought Puffin but it's stuttery... and the others either crashed a LOT or did not work. Some use servers in the USA, like Puffin does. I am surprised your dolphin does not work, have you installed the flash 11.1 apk? It is the best of all the browsers I have tried on my nexus 10... which is perfect, but too small to watch tennis.

Mark.

[no_spam_for_me]

Puffin Web Browser v3.7.0.177 does not work at my rk3188 and it is smaller (1,5 MB less) than the v3.5.11554 ...

Maybe also try v3.5.11554... use google 'puffin 3.5.11554' to find a place to download it
(first uninstall v3.7.0.177 and accept at v3.5.11554 the message that there exist a new version but use the v3.5.11554 ... )

[zoelechat]

I tried as well with default browser and videos are played with no problem (+fullscreen)
-Videos are HD in case you consider 720p is full HD (good quality though)
-As smooth as you can expect of any 25p video (it means visible stuttering, but watchable)
-I've had flash player installed, I disabled it and videos still play well (I think they're simply not Flash)

[Finless]

Let me just say... the days of flash working on Android are limited! It is well known due to the BIG 3 powers that be, that the licensing and support of flash on Android will not happen.

Adobe has stated CLEARLY that no new development on flash will happen on Android PERIOD!

So on KK if it works at all, feel lucky!

Android is stuck on such an old version of flash that soon, it will not even be viable. HTML 5 is the answer but not all content delivery sites will move to HTML 5.

This is not in our control! The BIG 3 are fighting and we are the losers of content!

Bob

[tlchuan]

Yap when money involve this is what happen

send from asus fonepad 7

[fredphoesh]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies

I tried as well with default browser and videos are played with no problem (+fullscreen)
-Videos are HD in case you consider 720p is full HD (good quality though)

I DID find the default browser, and playback is smooth, but really bad, definitely not 720... probably not even SD quality. It is also very milky and over exposed. I'm pretty sure it is flash because if you turn the flash off on dolphin or puffin, it does not play on any device I have.

Finless: Let me just say... the days of flash working on Android are limited! It is well known due to the BIG 3 powers that be, that the licensing and support of flash on Android will not happen.

It's bizarre since so many huge sites like ATP's Tennistv.com use flash, so does NetFlix, Amazon Prime etc... I do wonder why my Nexus10 is fine and this box is really bad, worse than my CS918 rockchip.

no_spam_for_me - Puffin Web Browser v3.7.0.177 does not work at my rk3188 and it is smaller (1,5 MB less) than the v3.5.11554 ... Maybe also try v3.5.11554...

I will try it, but Puffin uses servers in the usa to decode flash sites or something... so I doubt it will play smoothly. On my CS918 it plays full screen, but not smoothly.

I am just very disappointed in my decision to buy another Android TV box... clearly not up to what a PC home theatre can do, but I was hoping I could sell my old Asrock 330HT HTPC as it has a terrible graphics card and cannot play the tennis at 25fps. I dont mind paying more but I cannot accept this level of poor quality netflix, ethernet, and tennistv... just not ok for me. Maybe Mad Catz MOJO with Tegra4 would be better, but who knows about it's ability to play flash sites!?

Thanks again for your testing guys.
Mark.

[Nowandlayda]

From what I have read kitkat has issues with flash. On the xda-developer forums a developer modded flash player to work ONLY with Dolphin Browser with Dolphin Jetpack. Puffin Browser is nice and fast (because of cloud compression), but last i checked flash is only available between certain hours on the free version, and having hardware acceleration on (which I'm assuming most of you do) causes Puffin Browser to crash. Sorry if someone already has said this. Crunched at work so didn't read all replies :/

Source:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/guide-how-to-play-flash-video-android-4-t2548001

[fredphoesh]

From what I have read kitkat has issues with flash. On the xda-developer forums a developer modded flash player to work ONLY with Dolphin Browser with Dolphin Jetpack. Puffin Browser is nice and fast (because of cloud compression), but last i checked flash is only available between certain hours on the free version, and having hardware acceleration on (which I'm assuming most of you do) causes Puffin Browser to crash. Sorry if someone already has said this. Crunched at work so didn't read all replies :/

Hey there mate,
well, on my Nexus10 which is on KitKat, it works VERY well, smooth, HD, full screen... so I do not know what the difference between my N10 and EVERY Android TV box I have researched. (I asked about this on the Mad Katz MOJO forum on XDA and flash playback on dolphin does not work). Puffin KINDA works, but is about 10fps... so not satisfying. I paid for Puffin, so I can access anytime, but it's always lousy.

So, I have ordered a 5 meter micro HDMI cable to output from my N10 to the TV for when I watch tennis... bummer, but it should work well...

tx
Mark.

[Nowandlayda]

since I was extremely busy at work and was reading the wrong thread I forgot to mention the main aspect to hd playback on other devices. That is, you have to spoof your device. Finless, with help from others, have modified android build.prop to trick the play store to think you are running a nexus 10. netflix for some reason only allows hd on certain devices to stream hd. there are device spoofers in the play store which may work for you (havent tested on kitkat or the device this thread is talking about. but build.prop modding is a relatively easy hack to do. there are many threads on here and on xda about it. just make sure you save your origional file just in case. (also you must restart to take effect). search on freaktab xda and google and you will learn how. also the play store has build.prop editors so you can easily find the you widh to change instead of oppening a text file in your text editor app.

[Nowandlayda]

find the line you wish to change* sorry now I'm just sleepy

[fredphoesh]

you have to spoof your device. Finless, with help from others, have modified android build.prop to trick the play store to think you are running a nexus 10.

Hey there, tx for the response.
Most the browsers like Dolphin, Opera, FlashFox all have the ability to choose how the site "sees" the device... and as you say, the s89 is spoofed as a nexus 10, but yet, my REAL nexus 10 is way better at playing both Netflix and tennistv.com...

There are some really odd and varied characteristics when comparing all these browsers and flash playback. Dolphin does a great job, but not at full screen, it plays and takes up most of the screen, but when you press the full screen icon, it goes black and the audio continues and there's a "flash is not responding" popup... Other browsers react differently, but as yet, no full screen, decent quality/framerate playback on my two.Android TV devices.

I will report back when I get the micro HDMI cable to connect N10 to the TV, cheers,
Mark.

[Decisivegj]

Actually this is a common bug that v11 Flash has with Android TV box that has the bottom system/status bar. If your system bar is hidden and you press fullscreen flash. The flash will crash and hang until system prompt you to close. Someone said it is because the flash detect and try to hide the system bar but it can't find it. If you want to see full screen flash, you have to make sure the system bar is not hidden first before you click full screen and it will be fine.

Btw can any dev resolve this flash system bar conflict without the need to unhiding system bar? Doable?

[goldenrod]

Here are the results of my test:

Tronsmart S89:
Browser -- Plays full screen and in decent quality -- probably not HD, but acceptable.
Chrome Beta -- Plays full screen and in decent quality -- probably not HD and some frame skipping.
Firefox Beta (using Phony to spoof a desktop browser and Flash 11.1 installed) -- Video does not load at all.
Dolphin (UA switched to desktop) -- Video loads but plays extremely choppy.

Windows 7 desktop:
Chrome -- Video plays full screen and in HD quality, but there are some frame skips.

Nook HD+ (CM11 installed):
Chrome Beta -- Video plays full screen and in decent quality -- probably not HD, but acceptable.

iPad 3:
Safari -- Video plays full screen and in decent quality -- probably not HD, but acceptable.

Fire TV:
Firefox Beta (with Flash 11.1 installed and Phony set to desktop browser) -- HD quality, with some slight frame skips.

The Fire TV and Chrome on a desktop play this the best. That is the Flash version of the video. There is also a non-Flash version, but the difference is that the quality of encoding on the non-Flash version is not as good. That's why it doesn't look great on the Tronsmart and other devices, as far as I can tell.

The Fire TV with a specific version of Firefox Beta and Flash is the only acceptable experience I have playing Flash on a current Android device, but it's prone to crashing at times.

I think Finless is right that Flash on an Android device is pretty much a lost cause these days.