Play XviD, DivX videos on Dell Streak with RockPlayer
One of the best ways to enjoy the Dell Streak's 5-inch display is, of course, to watch movies on it.
Video playback has always been a bit of a weakness in Android because of its limited codec/container support, but thanks to the third-party RockPlayer app available in Android Market, the operating system finally has a fantastic media player that supports just about every codec and format known to man.
The user interface won't be in the running for any design awards, but who needs eye candy when you can avoid transcoding your existing videos? Whether your video collection is made up of XviD and DivX movies wrapped in AVI containers or you have a lot of MKV and RMVB content (among other formats – full list below), you can just load them onto the Streak's microSD card as is. There's a 99% chance that RockPlayer will play them perfectly.
When you launch RockPlayer, the contents of the Streak's microSD card will be displayed. Navigate to wherever your videos are, tap on a title, and the video will start to play.
Tapping anywhere on the screen while a video is playing brings up the control panel (second photo above), which lets you change the viewing mode (original resolution, full screen while maintaining original aspect ratio, stretch to full screen), access playback controls, and view file information (third photo above). The current time and battery status can be set to appear in the top-right corner whenever the control panel is displayed, while the red R in the top-left corner is a permanent fixture on the screen.
Other features include automatic resume, SRT subtitle support, and two playback modes (normal mode uses RockPlayer's engine while system mode "invokes" Android's engine; this setting can be accessed by long pressing a video in the file list or in the settings).
Note: RockPlayer wasn't designed for HD video playback. It can sometimes play HD videos decently enough to be watchable, but staying within the range of the Streak's native resolution is recommended and produces more reliable results.
There are three versions of RockPlayer in Android Market designed for different processors. The ARMv7 version is the one for the Streak. The free version of the app usually shows ads beneath the on-screen control (you can see this on G&E, where I first wrote about RockPlayer), but they don't display on the Streak for some reason. The official ad-free version is $9.99.
Full list of supported codecs/containers from the developer's website: AVI, MKV, RMVB, MP4, MOV, WMV, ASF, WMA, WAV, MPG, TS, MPS, DVD, AU, MP3, MIDI, IVF, AIFF, OGM, OGG, CDA, FLIC, D2V, ROQ, FLAC, DRC, DSM, SWF, PLS, PMP, AAC, AC3, DTS, FLV4, LPCM, ALAW, ULAW, MPEG Audio, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, RealVideo, RealAudio, Vorbis, AVC, VC1, XVID, DIVX, SVQ, Theora Bink
