All iPads A10 chip for 4K playback?

[Perene]

I reported here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/infuse-pro-vs-nplayer-plus.2052537/#post-26527995

That in my IPP 10.5 (256 GB wifi+cel) after I updated to iOS 12 (from 10.3.2) I was able for the first time to play a:

Using: nPlayer Plus

- Matroska lossless file
- Extracted from an Ultra-HD Blu-ray (4K)

It's running smoothly.

So I checked what changed over time and stumbled on this link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/718yfg/ios11_and_hevc/

Apparently only devices with the A10 chip are capable of what I achieved, after Apple added support for HEVC/H.265.

Does that mean I will not be able to play this same file in all these devices?

iPADs:

- All old models up to the Air 2
- The 2017 iPAD (it uses the A9 chip)
- The iPAD Pro 9.7 (2016)
- The iPAD Pro 12.9 (1st generation)

If this is true then only these devices are capable of that:

iPhones:

iPhone 7
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 8
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone X and later

iPAD:

- 2018 iPAD
- iPAD Pro 10.5 (confirmed)
- iPAD Pro 12.9 (2nd generation)

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Not sure what you'd achieve running 4K on an iPad or any iOS device for that matter.

I can test it on an A9X later.

 

[Perene]

Not sure what you'd achieve running 4K on an iPad or any iOS device for that matter.

I can test it on an A9X later.

You will be able to watch the movie in the best quality possible. I know the files are huge, I just didn’t think that was possible for requiring too much CPU. Turns out it was just a matter of being able to play newer codecs. From what I understood only A10 chips are capable of that, so all other devices that don’t have it certainly have playback issues.

What device are you using? I’ll edit this post later today with a 2 minute sample for everyone to check.

 

[muzzy996]

Thats pretty cool . . not something I'd do because with my eyesight 1080p is just fine but I'm happy to hear the support is improving given the fact that as my camera tech is improving I may have the need to view the videos I shoot and import onto the device if needed.

 

[max2]

Sense we are talking about nPlayer plus sorry.

Anyone having a problem with nPlayer not completing a wifi sync of media video files completely?

Could it be my wifi network ? The thing is it happened when i directly connected the iPad to ethernet too.

Anyway to test this ?

 

[Perene]

OK, here's a test file:

- I REMOVED THE LINK -

- 2 minutes
- Size: 855 MB.

This is a Matroska extracted from an Ultra-HD-Blu-ray disc. The original filesize is 64 GB, and just the movie.

Of course if the movie had been reencoded (lossy) it would have 10, 15 GB or less in terms of total size.

Lossless = it's in Matroska, yet the same size from the ORIGINAL disc (I am putting emphasis in this regard and repeating myself to make sure everyone that is reading me understand this is a file that won't run in all possible devices. So this isn't your usual 4K video downloaded from Youtube).

Specs from the video:

**********
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Commercial name : HDR10
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 2 min 0 s
Bit rate : 53.6 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.269
Stream size : 767 MiB (90%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primar : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0020 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 992 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Le : 518 cd/m2
**********

I'll let this sample available for a while.

I suggest using some app to download the whole thing, then copying to nPlayer.

Example: Documents by Readdle:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/documents-by-readdle/id364901807?mt=8

As for nPlayer, this is the free version (with limitations):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nplayer-lite/id1078835991?mt=8

And the paid one (the most complete):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nplayer-plus/id539397400?mt=8

There's also Infuse:

Free: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-5/id1136220934?mt=8
Paid: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-pro-5/id1136220915?mt=8

I recommend buying nPlayer with my eyes closed, it's the best player for videos/audios and has some features that Infuse lacks. However Infuse is excelent, too, and it may have some exclusive options.

Once the file is downloaded and copied to nPlayer/Infuse you can try playing... of course you'll need iOS 11 or newer, even if your device doesn't have the A10 chip.

If your device doesn't play this file (or does that stuttering) with the last iOS version then this is a confirmation of what I said before: only the ones that support the A10 chip are capable of this.

And this will be another confirmation your iPAD/iPhone is outdated.

P.S. Don't try streaming this file. Download all the 855 MB, then copy to nPlayer/Infuse (or download from them) and only after that try to play the video.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

OK, here's a test file:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AzmIW_5bZnuQzwd-Op5Ea3TDRxmbeGVD

- 2 minutes
- Size: 855 MB.

This is a Matroska extracted from an Ultra-HD-Blu-ray disc. The original filesize is 64 GB, and just the movie.

Of course if the movie had been reencoded (lossy) it would have 10, 15 GB or less in terms of total size.

Lossless = it's in Matroska, yet the same size from the ORIGINAL disc (I am putting emphasis in this regard and repeating myself to make sure everyone that is reading me understand this is a file that won't run in all possible devices. So this isn't your usual 4K video downloaded from Youtube).

Specs from the video:

**********
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Commercial name : HDR10
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 2 min 0 s
Bit rate : 53.6 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.269
Stream size : 767 MiB (90%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primar : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0020 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 992 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Le : 518 cd/m2
**********

I'll let this sample available for a while.

I suggest using some app to download the whole thing, then copying to nPlayer.

Example: Documents by Readdle:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/documents-by-readdle/id364901807?mt=8

As for nPlayer, this is the free version (with limitations):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nplayer-lite/id1078835991?mt=8

And the paid one (the most complete):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nplayer-plus/id539397400?mt=8

There's also Infuse:

Free: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-5/id1136220934?mt=8
Paid: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-pro-5/id1136220915?mt=8

I recommend buying nPlayer with my eyes closed, it's the best player for videos/audios and has some features that Infuse lacks. However Infuse is excelent, too, and it may have some exclusive options.

Once the file is downloaded and copied to nPlayer/Infuse you can try playing... of course you'll need iOS 11 or newer, even if your device doesn't have the A10 chip.

If your device doesn't play this file (or does that stuttering) with the last iOS version then this is a confirmation of what I said before: only the ones that support the A10 chip are capable of this.

And this will be another confirmation your iPAD/iPhone is outdated.

P.S. Don't try streaming this file. Download all the 855 MB, then copy to nPlayer/Infuse (or download from them) and only after that try to play the video.

Just tried it on my iPad Pro 12.9 1G on nPlayer free and it actually played OK! (maybe due to it being 24fps? That seemed like an insanely high bitrate file. If it's stuttering I didn't notice it at all, maybe with one of the fight scenes it would be noticeable?)

Out of curiosity I also tried this Sony 4K 60fps sample - http://4kmedia.org/sony-swordsmith-hdr-uhd-4k-demo/ and it was fine as well.

OTOH my 2017 MBP sounds like a Boeing 747 playing both these files.

 

[Perene]

Just tried it on my iPad Pro 12.9 1G on nPlayer free and it actually played OK! (maybe due to it being 24fps? That seemed like an insanely high bitrate file. If it's stuttering I didn't notice it at all, maybe with one of the fight scenes it would be noticeable?)

Out of curiosity I also tried this Sony 4K 60fps sample - http://4kmedia.org/sony-swordsmith-hdr-uhd-4k-demo/ and it was fine as well.

OTOH my 2017 MBP sounds like a Boeing 747 playing both these files.

What iOS you were using?

The iPAD Pro 12.9 1st generation has the Apple A9X chip... on the other hand the iPAD Air 2 uses A8X, and while both are capable of running iOS 11 (or 12) I doubt both (for example) can play a heavy file like this. If they can then that proves this kind of file benefits more from codec support than processing power.

What I can tell is that while I was using iOS 10.3.2 in the IPP 10.5 this won't play at all. It seemed when I tried this was totally related to the CPU not being able to handle.

Or maybe it's not just the CPU, the GPU matters, too.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

What iOS you were using?

The iPAD Pro 12.9 1st generation has the Apple A9X chip... on the other hand the iPAD Air 2 uses A8X, and while both are capable of running iOS 11 (or 12) I doubt both (for example) can play a heavy file like this. If they can then that proves this kind of file benefits more from codec support than processing power.

What I can tell is that while I was using iOS 10.3.2 in the IPP 10.5 this won't play at all. It seemed when I tried this was totally related to the CPU not being able to handle.

Or maybe it's not just the CPU, the GPU matters, too.

iOS 12.0. I did some 5 minutes of reseraching and it seems that A9 and above can hardware decode H265, but I haven't found a definitive response. But everything runs smoothly.

So it's either hardware decoding and everything's fine, or it's software decoding and everything's fine as well.