ASUS Transformer Prime: Video playback shootout (and bonus update on the evolving Inisoft saga!)

So does the Tegra 3 have your back for video playback,
or do we have another failed generation of Android
tablet video playback to look forward to?

...a new day, a new Transformer Prime video. Sounds fair right?

This time we're bringing you our standard video playback test, running our wide gamut of test files at the Transformer Prime. While you'll see many other reviews saying "yeah this played everything we threw at it", the truth is many of them have a pretty narrow spectrum of test files to try out. We've tried to gather a range that encompasses a wide variety of resolutions, bitrates, subtitle types, and video and audio encoding formats - our hope is that if there is an archilles heel in the video playback capability of a device we'll be able to uncover it.

This shapes up to be a pretty big test for the Transformer Prime, since the video playback deficiencies of the Tegra 2 based Android tablets (AKA virtually all of them) are quite well known. If that sentence has you scratching your head, here's a precis: Tegra 2 devices can't play high profile video files, support a small range of codecs natively, and can't play 1080p files smoothly. The result? Video transcoding hell, where you have to convert all your space-preserving MKVs into something the Tegra 2 can get on with.

So the big question on my mind is can the Tegra chipset handle video properly this time around? The spec sheet suggests yes, since high profile video is clearly mentioned...             ...but then up until today the spec sheet also said the Prime has GPS, so I guess we'll just have to see now won't we?

Because we like to keep things transparent and above here at AndroidNZ (you hear that Phonedog?), you can grab a link to a Media Info text dump of all the properties of the videos that we ran through our test.

Although my sample set is a lot more taxing than what most other reviewers are using, I've no doubt it could be better - if you think I’ve missed a vital codec for your use, please send me a sample that I can add to the test batch in the future (obviously the sample should not have swearing/violence/nudity etc, and should not be a full movie).

You'll note in the video that once again I am using Dice Player, which still ranks as the best wide-codec video player for Android in my opinion. While the stock player here is head-and-shoulders above it's Tegra 2 brethren, you're still going to need Dice Player for the best video playback experience, and therein lies the rub.

You may recall I wrote a rant about Google unceremoniously and without explanation suspending Inisoft's Google Checkout account a month ago, which meant at that time that it was not possible to purchase Dice Player on the Android Market any longer. Well, in the intervening time nothing has changed (apart from Google saying they would fix it and then doing nothing of the sort).

Not all hope is lost though, and hopefully people who hadn't cottoned onto Dice Player previously will be able to get their hands on it very soon. You see I've had some communications with Inisoft over the last several weeks, the most recent of which outlined their plans to release an ad-supported version to the Market, and also to release Dice Player onto alternative app markets (they've mentioned Amazon and SlideMe).

If you want to keep up with the latest developments on this story, keep an eye peeled here, or alternately follow the @inisoft Twitter account (and while you're there give them a supportive shout out, it's not easy losing all your income over Christmas right?).

So that's all for today. I've got another Transformer Prime video lined up for readers tomorrow showing a few things most people won't have seen yet, so if the Prime has taken your fancy be sure and stay tuned for that.