Enhanced Video Performance with Flash Player 10.3 and Android 3.1

Posted on June 1, 2011 | 1 comment

The mobile and tablet landscape is a demanding fast pace environment. People want great experiences, especially good high quality video experiences with low battery impact. I was asked to create a video showcase the latest video performance with Flash Player 10.3 and Android 3.1 (using Motorola Xoom devices). Check out the video here:

Enhanced Video Performance with Flash Player 10.3 on Android 3.1

It is also an area of discussion by industry leaders like Tim Siglin. Tim published a white paper recently titled:

The Right Fit? Video Playback Performance on Android Handset and Tablet Devices Using Adobe Flash Player 10.2 and 10.3

Tim used a half dozen devices using Flash Player 10.3/10.2 on different Android OSes (up to 3.1) resulting in some interesting conclusions. Tim tested away with the focused on the idea of finding a consistent media for Android with high quality and great performance. The highlights (full quote at the end of the post) include Flash Player’s strength of media player experience, high FPS, low battery impact, and codec flexibility. With specific gains on the newer devices making use of GPU improvements and devices running Flash Player 10.3 and Android 3.1.

A big part of this enhanced video experience is the work around the StageVideo APIs. You can also experience great video performance on Desktop with the latest Flash Player.

The Flash Player also runs great across supported platforms, like the PlayBook. One thing I love about the PlayBook is the video experience of running 1080p HD videos through the HDMI out of the PlayBook on a large TV screen. It looks really nice with high quality and all without draining the battery at a crazy rate. Don’t take my word for it, check out this blog/video post:

Taking HD Video and Mobile Apps to a New Level on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Quote from Tim Siglin’s white paper:

Our testing builds on our initial report on six Android handsets using Adobe Flash Player 10.1. Now our tests use Flash Player 10.2 (FP 10.2) on five Android handsets, as well as FP 10.2 and FP 10.3 on Motorola Android-powered Xoom tablet (using Android OS versions 3.0.1 and 3.1, respectively).

Our current testing finds that FP 10.2 on handsets and 10.3 on the Xoom:

• Provide a more consistent media consumption than Android’s built-in apps and services.
• Plays content at better frame rates than built-in apps and services, with minimal battery impact, yielding significant frames-per-second performance gains.
• Generate performance gains with the proper combination of Android OS and Adobe Flash Player.
• Plays content that some Android devices could not play unless a Flash Player plug-in is present.

In addition, we found dual-core-equipped devices with robust graphics processor units (GPUs) will perform significantly better—with much lower overall battery impact—than standard handsets.

Finally, we were impressed by Motorola’s Atrix, a handset offering stellar performance, albeit with a tendency to warm up quickly when the GPU was heavily utilized. The Motorola Xoom also gets high marks, generating large performance improvements when using FP 10.3 and Android OS 3.1.