Cayin Smp-webplus User manual

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CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

ByCAYINTechnicalDocumentCenter

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DISCLAIMER..................................................................................................................................................1

1.ABOUTDIGITALVIDEO.........................................................................................................................2

2.ABOUTDIGITALVIDEOFILES................................................................................................................4

3.COMPRESSIONMETHOD(CODEC).......................................................................................................6

4.OTHERFACTORSTOINFLUENCETHEMEDIAPLAYER..........................................................................8

5.SOMEUSEFULSOFTWAREANDTOOLS..............................................................................................10

6.FAQ–REGARDINGVIDEOPLAYBACK.................................................................................................11

7.APPENDIX1:SUGGESTEDVIDEOCODECANDBITRATEFORSMPPLAYER........................................12

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Disclaimer

Thisdocumentisonlyforyourreference.Althoughwestrivetoprovideinthisdocumentthe

latestdevelopments,wedonotwarranttheaccuracy,effectivenessandsuitabilityofany

informationcontainedinthisdocument.Thedocumentmayincludetechnicalinaccuraciesor

typographicalerrors.CAYINTECHNOLOGYreservestherighttomakeadditions,deletionsor

modificationstotheinformationatanytimewithoutanypriornotification.

ThisdocumentiscopyrightedbyCAYINTECHNOLOGY.Youmaynotmodify,alter,orcopythe

contentofthisdocument.

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NOTE!

Allthedescriptionsofdigitalvideointhisdocumentaresimplifiedforbetterandclearer

understanding.PleaserefertotheMPEGWebsite(http://www.mpeg.org/)fordetailed

information.

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CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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1. AboutDigitalVideo

Video,alsocalledmotionpicture,comprisesaseriesofstillimagesdisplayedinrapid

successionataconstantrate.Asdigitalvideoisgettingpopularnowadays,ithasbecomeanew

andcrucialtechnologytocompressandstoredigitalvideofilesintodigitalmedia.

Digitalvideohasthefollowingattributes:

Numberofframespersecond(frame/sec,orfps):

Alsocalledframerate,thisisthenumberofstillimagesthataredisplayedpersecond.

Generally,ahigherframeratewillbringsmootherandbettervideoqualitywhile

increasingamultimediaplayer’sloading.Forexample,thePALstandarddelivers25fps,

whiletheNTSCstandarddelivers29.97(usuallyimplementas30fps).Earlymoviesbefore

thedigitalagewereusuallyfilmedat24fpsorlower.

Resolution(pixels):

Digitalvideousuallyusespixelsastheresolutionunit.Theframesizeconsistsofthe

width(W)andheight(H)ofthepixels(forexample,1280(W)x720(H)).Other

abbreviationsarealsoused,suchas720p(meaningtheresolutionis1280x720)or1080i

(meaning1920x1080)torepresentresolution.

The“p”representsprogressscan,whichmeansallpixelswillberefreshedwhenplaying

eachframe.Ontheotherhand,“i”representsinterlacedscan,whichmeansitwillrecord

theimageinalternatingsetsoflines–theodd‐numberedlinesarescanned,andthenthe

even‐numberedlinesarescanned,thentheodd‐numberedlinesarescannedagain,and

soon.Theselineswillberefreshedbyturnsinordertopresentthemotioneffects.

Forthisreason,sometimestherapidmovingareaininterlacedvideowillshowsome

jaggedlines.Tosolvethisissue,multimediaplayerscanuseade‐interlacingalgorithmto

smooththosejaggedlines.Usually,playinginterlacedvideowillcauseaslowerloading

processthanwhenplayingaprogressone,butade‐interlacingalgorithmwillhelp

increasetheprocessloadingforamediaplayer.

Compressionmethod(Codec):

Thedatasizeofdigitalstillimagesisusuallyveryhuge.Forexample,thedatasizefor10

minutesof720p(30fps)uncompressedvideocanbecalculatedasfollows:

1280*720*3(bytesperpixels)*30(fps)*600(sec.)=46.35(Gigabytes)

Thatmeansyourgigantic500GBharddrivewillsoonrunoutofspacefromjust100

minutesofuncompressedvideofiles.Inresponsetothedemandfordigitalvideostorage,

videocompressiontechnologynowadaysplaysacrucialrole.Videocompressionmethods

havebeendevelopedforalongtime.FromearlylosslesscompressiontotheMPEGfamily

anditsvariants,newtechnologyiscontinuallydevelopingtoenhancethecompression

efficiency.However,atthesametime,thismakesitamorecomplicatedjobformedia

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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playerstodealwithvariouscodecs.

Pleaserefertothefollowingsectionsforamoredetailedintroductionandthecodec

informationsupportedbyCAYIN’sSMPplayer.

BitRate(bps):

Videoisusuallysavedaftercompression.Ifwedividecompresseddatasize(inbit/s)by

videolength(inseconds),wewillgetbitrate(bitspersecondorbps)forthisvideo.Takea

30‐secondvideofile,forexample.Thefilesizeis6Mbytes(=48Mbits).Ifwedon’tcount

thedatasizeoccupiedbythefileheaderandaudio,wecansaythatthebitrateofthis

videofileisabout1.6Mbps(48/30=1.6).

Ifweusethesamecompressionmethod(codec),usuallythehigherthebitrateis,the

greaterthevideoqualitywillbe,aswellashigherdecodingloading.Accordingtoeach

differentcodec,thenumberofbits(dataamount)canbedifferentforeachframeor

videoclipwithinavideo.Thus,videocompressionmethodscanbedividedintotwo

categories:CBR(constantbitrate)andVBR(variablebitrate).ForCBR,thecompression

rateanddataamountforeachclipisrelativelythesame.Onthecontrary,thebitrateof

VBRvideowillbeadjustedbasedontheactualvideocontent.Higherbitrateisreally

appliedtodynamicvideoclips,whilelowerbitrateisusedformorestaticones.Thelatest

codecsandvideomostlyadoptVBRasthecompressionmethod.

SinceVBRwillusedifferentcompressionratesfordifferentvideoclips,thebitratefor

VBRmethodisusuallycategorizedintotwotypes:averagebitrateandpeakbitrate.For

theaveragebitrate,wedividethetotalvideodatasizebythetotalplaybacklength(time)

togetanaveragenumber.However,peakbitratereferstothemaximumbitratewithina

certainperiodofthevideo.Aspreviouslymentioned,theaveragebitrateofthe6Mbytes

videofileisonly1.6Mbps.However,duringsomeperiodoftime,thepeakbitratecould

be8Mbps.Underthecircumstances,ifamediaplayercanonlysupportabitrateof5M

bps,youmayseethevideoplayingsluggishlyduringthe8Mbpssegment.

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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2. AboutDigitalVideoFiles

Normally,digitalvideoisstoredintoamediacard(suchasanHDDorCF)intheformatof

digitalfiles.Thecompresseddigitalvideodatawillbeconvertedintosomepopularfileformats,

suchasAVI,MPEG‐PSorMP4.Thesefileformatsarealsocalledencapsulatedformatsor

containerformats.Somecontainerformatsarenamedthesameascodec(ex.,WMV,MPEG),

sousersmightgetconfusedwhentalkingabouttheseterms.

AVIisakindofcontainerformatthatwillconvertvideo/audiocodec,respectively.

Acontainerformatcould,insomecases,convertwrapmultiplekindsofvideodatacompressed

bydifferentcodec.However,thisisnotalwaystrue.Somecontainerscanonlyconvert

video/audiodatacompressedbyspecificcodec.

Acontainerformatcanhelptheprograminamediaplayertolocatetherightcodecof

video/audioandprovidenecessaryorextrainformation(suchaslengthofvideofiles,frame

rate)inthefileheaderfordecompressingfiles.Italsocanhelpamediaplayerprogram

synchronizeatimestampforbothvideoandaudiosothatvideoandaudiocanplay

synchronously.

Somecomplicatedcontainerformatscanprocessmanytasksandprovidelotsofcodec

informationtomediaplayers.Onthecontrary,somecontainers,usedinspecialapplications,

aresosimplethattheyprovideonlybasicinformationforaudio‐videosynchronization.For

example,MPEG‐TS,thecontainerformatfordigitalbroadcasting,isquitesimple,becausethis

taskrequiresplayingstreamingvideofromanysegmentofit.Thissimplecontainerformatcan

reducethecomplexityofthefileheader,whichenablesmediaplayerstostartorresume

playingvideo(orstreaming)filesfromanysegmentwithoutstartingfromtheverybeginningof

eachfile.

CAYIN’sSMPplayerssupportthefollowingcontainerformats(fileformats):

MPEG/MPG/VOB:MPEGProgramStream(MPEG‐PS)andMPEGTransportStream

(MPEG‐TS).MPEG‐PSisusuallyusedforMPEG‐2filesorDVD.MPEG‐TSisastandard

digitalbroadcastingformatfordigitalTVandalsoisusedinCAYIN’sCMSserver’sRTB

function.

MP3:Mpegaudiocontainerformat

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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MP4:MPEG‐4Part14,formallyISO/IEC14496‐14:2003,isthecontainerformatcreated

withMPEG‐4ISO.

WMV/WMA:Microsoft’scontainerformat(withthesamenameascodecWMV/WMA)

packsvideoinformationforWMV.ThisformatcanpackA/Vdatacreatedbynon‐WMV

codec,butitisrarelyusedinthisway.

AVI:AnearlyreleasecontainerformatfromMicrosoftthatisstillwidelyusednow

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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3. CompressionMethod(Codec)

Compressionisaverycomplicatedbutkeyprocessforreducingthesizeofvideodata.From

earlyVCD(MPEG‐1)toDVD(MPEG‐2)andthelatestblue‐raydisc(MPEG‐2orH.264),video

compressiontechnologyisconstantlydevelopedtolowerbitratebutatthesametime

increasetheoverallquality.

Thewordcodecisacombinationoftwowords,coderdecoder,whichmeansanencoderwill

convertthemotionpictureintoadigitalfileandadecoderwillthenconvertthedigitalfile

backintomotionpicturesforplayback.

Videocompressiontechnologyusuallyappliesthefollowingmethodstocompressvideodata

andachievethebalancebetweenfilesizeandvideoquality:datacompressionalgorithm,still

imagecompressionmethod,andhighsimilaritybetweenstillimagesinvideoframes.Most

earlycodec(orencoder)methodsusedCBRtocompressdatasothefilesizewasbigger.Most

ofthelatestcodecmethodsuseVBRsothefilesizecanbesmaller.

CAYIN’sSMPplayerssupportthefollowingcodec:

MPEG‐1/ M P E G ‐2:MPEG‐1iswidelyappliedinVCD,whileMPEG‐2iswidelyappliedin

DVDanddigitalbroadcasting.Theyarebothmaturetechnology.

MPEG‐4ISO:AlsocalledMPEG‐4part2orMPEG‐4ASP(advancedsimpleprofile),

MPEG‐4ISOisdefinedbytheMPEGorganization,whichaddsanewcompressionmethod

andprinciple.Manypopularcodecs,suchasDivXorXvid,areoriginatedfromMPEG‐4

ISO.

WMV/WMA:CreatedbyMicrosoft,WMVmainlyusesVC‐1algorithm,andWMAisthe

audiocodecformat,whichwasdevelopedsimultaneously.

RAWDV:AnuncompressedcodecthatisusedforearlyDVCamcorder,thefilesizeishuge

andisseldomusednow.

H.264:AlsocalledMPEG‐4part10,AVC(advancedvideocoding)orMPEG‐4AVC,this

codecstandardwascreatedbytheMPEGorganizationandITU‐Tandiswidelyusedto

processseveralhigh‐definitionorstreamingcontents.

MPEG‐Audio:AlsocalledMP3,thisaudiocodecwasestablishedbytheMPEG

organizationandiswidelyusedtoincorporatewithvideofiles,aswellasapopularcodec

formatforMP3playersnow.

PCMorLPCM:PCMandLPCMarebothusedtodigitizeandstoreaudiodata.Theyboth

canquantizeandsaveuncompressedanalogaudiofiles.Sincethedatasizeofaudiois

relativelysmallerthanthatofvideo,occasionallyvideofileswillbestoredinaudiofiles

throughthisuncompressedformat.

Comparisonforsystemresourceconsumption:

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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Whenamediaplayerdecodesanykindofcodecformat,thealgorithmthatcodecusesplaysan

importantroleinsystemresourceconsumptionofthemediaplayer(suchasCPU,memoryand

graphics).Generallyspeaking,onthepremiseofthesamebitrate,systemloadingofthefour

popularcodecsMPEG‐2,MPEG‐4,WMVandH.264willbeasfollows:

H.264>WMV>MPEG‐4>MPEG‐2

Withthesamebitrate,thevideoqualityaftercompressionwillfollowthesameorderasabove.

Sincethesystemresourceconsumptionsarenotthesame,differentbitratelimitswillapplyto

theSMPmediaplayerbasedonthecodecofvideofiles.

NOTE!

PleaserefertotheappendixortheSMPusermanualforsuggestedcodecandbitrate.

PatentLicensing:

Mostvideo/audiocodecisprotectedbypatent.CAYINTECHNOLOGYisanofficialmemberof

MPEG‐LA,Audio‐MPEGandSisvel,whichguaranteethelegalusageofCAYIN’sproducts.

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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4. OtherFactorstoInfluencetheMediaPlayer

Whilereadingvideofilesorreceivingnetworkstreaming,amediaplayerneedstodecodeit

firstandthendisplayitonascreen.Theprocessisverycomplicatedandrequirestheright

combinationofresources,includinghardware,softwareandsystemcapabilities.Forexample,

theCPUisresponsiblefordecodingandotheroperations,whilememoryprovidesthestorage

spacesneededbeforeandafterthedecode.Graphicchipssupportthedrawtothescreen

display.Thespecialhardwaredesignofgraphicchipsoffloadsdecodingandoutputtingimages

tofreeupCPUresources.However,thesehardwarecomponentsarealsousedbyother

non‐videoplaybackprogramssimultaneously.Therefore,dependingonallocatedhardware,

softwareandsystemresources,thesecandetermineandaffectthevideoplaybackquality.

ScreenResolutionofSMPPlayers

Whenamediaplayercompletesdecompressingvideo,eachvideoframewillberestored

toitsoriginalimagedataandthemediaplayerwilldrawimagesintoaspecificareaof

“window”throughX‐Windowsystem’sAPIandgraphicdriver.Then,thegraphicICwill

transmitsuchinformationtothescreenthroughadisplayport,suchasVGAorDVI.The

computingpowerofthegraphicICanddriverwilldeterminetheefficiencyoftheabove

processwhenamediaplayerplaysbackvideo.

Generallyspeaking,thehigherthescreenresolutionis,themoretimethegraphicchip

willtaketoprocess.Thus,ifyouincreasethescreenresolution,theperformanceofthe

graphicICmaydropdown.However,thankstotheevolutionofgraphicchipdesign,this

issueisbecominglessobviousfornewgraphicICs.Forexample,highscreenresolutions

(e.g.,1920x1080)havelittleimpactonSMP‐WEBDUO’sperformance.However,sinceit

stilltakesmoreCPUresourcesandmorememorytoprocessforhighscreenresolutions,

westillrecommendusingsystemswithhigherperformance.

Indigitalsignage’sapplication,youmightnotplaybackfull‐screenvideoallthetime.Thus,

whenvideoisonlypartoftheelementscomposedonthedisplay,thesmallerthevideo

areais,thelesserresourcesthesystemneedstoconsume.Thatequatestosmoother

videoplaybackorhigherbitrate.

PortraitMode

SMP‐WEB4,SMP‐PRO4,SMP‐WEBPLUS,SMP‐PROPLUS,andSMP‐WEBDUOallsupport

portraitmode,whichmeanstorotatethescreen90or270degrees.Sincethe

communicationprotocolsbetweenadisplayandadevice(PC)donothaveaso‐called

“rotationmode”,alloutputsignalsneedtobeprocessedbythedevicebeforetheycan

actuallybedisplayedonthescreen.Thismeansthegraphicdriverneedstocalculateand

relocatememorysothatuserscanseetheportraitmodeaftertheprocessedsignalsare

outputtedonthescreen.Comparedtothelandscapemode,suchanextraprocessing

workloadinportraitmodewillreducethedisplayandplaybackperformance.

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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Inportrait(rotation)mode,thesystemneedstomaptheactualdesktopmemorywiththe

graphicoutputwhenevertheSMPplayerrefreshesthescreen.

OtherPlaybackElements

TheSMPmediaplayerdoesnotplayvideoonly.Intheapplicationofdigitalsignage,the

SMPwillplayvideofilesandothermediacontentsatthesametime,suchasFlash,HTML,

TickerandImage.Inthesecases,hardwareresourceswillbesharedbyallrelevantmedia,

influencingoneanotherinevitably.

Forexample,Flashisapowerfulcontentcreationtool,but,ontheotherhand,Flash

contentdesignersmaynotknowtheresourceconsumptionofCPU,DRAMandgraphics

correspondingtothecomplexityofdifferentFlashanimation.Thus,whenusersplaya

Flashfilewithvideoandotherprogramssimultaneously,sometimesitmayreducethe

overallsystemperformance.

Unfortunately,thereisnoexistingtoolordatatomeasurealltherequiredhardwareand

softwareresourceswhileplayingFlashcontents.Usershavetopre‐testtheplayertoknow

ifitworksornot.

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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5. SomeUsefulSoftwareandTools

Thefollowingaresomevideotoolsforyourreference.

NOTE!

CAYINDOESNOTproduceorsellthefollowingtools.WeDONOTinanywaytakeanykindof

responsibilityforusingthem.

GSpot:

Thissoftwarecanreadthefileheaderandshowyousomeusefulinformation,suchasthe

codecthatthevideo/audiouses.Pleasenote,GSpotwillonlyreadtheinformationinthe

fileheader,butnotanalyzeandreadtheactualplaybackdataofaudio/videocontent.If

theinformationinthefile(container)headerisincorrectorinaccurate(suchasbitrate),

theinformationGSpotretrievesfromthecontainerheaderisonlyforyourreference.For

example,GSpotcannotshowthecorrectpeakbitrate.

VideoFormat&CodecConverter:

“FormatFactory”,“MicrosoftVideoEncoder”,“CyberlinkPowerDirector”and“WinAVI”

areusefulvideoformatandcodecconverters.Thelicensingandusagearedifferentfrom

eachotheraswell.Pleasecontacttheauthororcompanyforproperlicense.

PowerPoint(ppt)toVideoConverter:

“WondersharePPTtoVideo”isaneasyandsimplePowerPointtovideofileconverter.

PleaserefertoCAYIN’s“HowtoConvertPowerPointtoaVideoforSMPSeries”

documentationfordetailedinformation.

Office2010canexportPPTtoWMVvideodirectly.

VideoLAN(VLC):

Akindofmulti‐platformplaybacksoftware,theVLCplayer(Windowsversion)canbe

installedbyuserstotheirpersonalcomputer.TheVLCplayerprovidesaUIforyoutosee

theactualbitrateandcodecofeverysegmentwhenplayingvideofiles.

CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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6. FAQ–RegardingVideoPlayback

Videowillstopordoesnotplaysmoothly.

UsuallythisisbecausethevideofileexceedsthemaximumlimitofthisSMPplayer,orthe

SMPplayerisplayingotherelementsatthesametime(suchasFlash).Wesuggestyou

checkthevideocontentorotherrelativecomponents.Ifvideobitrateistoohigh,other

components’performance(suchasTicker)willbeinfluencedaswell.Trytofindout

whichcontentreducestheoverallplayperformance(i.e.,usesthemostplayer

capabilities).Ifyouplaymorethanonevideofileatthesametime(SMP‐WEBPLUS,

SMP‐PROPLUSandSMP‐WEBDUOseries)withoutusingportraitmode,forabetterresult,

playthehighbitrateandhighresolutionvideofilesinthefirstmultimediazone

(SMP‐PROseries)orasthe“video/main”(SMP‐WEBseries).Youcanfindmoredetailed

explanationsinthefinalFAQon“SuperMonitorandOverlay”below.

Cannotplayvideo,thevideofilesareskippedorshowingblackarea.

ItisprobablybecausetheSMPplayerdoesnotsupportsuchcodecorformat.Pleaseuse

GSpotorVLCtoconfirmtheA/Vcodec.

Videoareaismissing.

Itisprobablybecausethecompresseddataofthevideofileisdamagedorincorrect,

whichcausestheSMPmediaplayertostop.Wesuggestyourecompresstheoriginal

sourcevideoandsaveitasanSMP‐compatiblevideofile.



CAYINSMPPlayerVideoPlaybackGuide

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7. Appendix1:SuggestedVideoCodecandBitRateforSMPPlayer

SMP‐WEBPLUS/SMP‐WEBPLUS‐T/

SMP‐PROPLUS

(P/N:LB‐300&LB‐500)

SMP‐WEB3/WEB3N/SMP‐PRO3/

SMP‐PRO3N(P/N:LB‐400/LB‐400N)

SMP‐WEBDUO

(P/N:LB‐600)

SMP‐WEB4/SMP‐PRO4

(P/N:LB‐700)

VideoSpec. VideoResolutionandSpecification

maydifferfordifferentoutput

methods,supportingupto720p

(1280x720);bitrateupto:10~12

Mbps(MPEG2),8~9Mbps(MPEG4),

4~8Mbps(WMV),3Mbps(H.264)

[Landscape,25fps,singlevideo

playback]

Toavoidsystemrunninginlow

performance,wesuggestyoudonot

usethefollowingscreenresolutions

whenSMPplayerisplaying720pHD

video:1920x1200,1920x1080,

1600x1200,1280x1024(75Hz)or

similarhighresolutionssetinthe

“Userdefine”mode.720pHDvideo

isalsonotsuggestedtobeusedin

theportraitmode.

Supportupto480p(720x480)

Supportvideobit‐rateupto5Mbps

(codecdependent)

Supportingupto1080p(1920x

1080);bitrateupto:20Mbps

(MPEG2),10~12Mbps(MPEG4),8~1

0Mbps(WMV),5~8Mbps

(H.264,720ponly)[Singlemode/

Landscape,25fps,singlevideo

playback]

VideoResolutionandSpecification

maydifferfordifferentoutput

methods.PleaserefertoSMP‐WEB

ManualChapter6‐4fordetails.

VideoResolutionandSpecification

maydifferfordifferentoutput

methods,supportingupto720p

(1280x720);bitrateupto:10Mbps

(MPEG2),8~9Mbps(MPEG4),4~8

Mbps(WMV),3Mbps(H.264)

[Landscape,25fps,singlevideo

playback]

Toavoidsystemrunninginthelow

performance,wesuggestyoudonot

usetheportraitscreenandhigh

resolutionwhenSMPplayeris

playinghighdefinitionvideo.

NOTE!

Themaximumbit‐rateandresolutionmightbedifferentbasedonyourfileencodingmethods.Weacknowledgevideoplaybackresultsmaybeinfluencedbymanyfactors,suchas

codec,bitrate,screenresolutionorothercomponentsplayingwithvideoatthesametime.PleasetestthevideoonSMPplayersinadvance.CAYINDOESNOTGUARANTEEEVERY