Xperia E4g crashes/restarts when playing video

[Mandami]

As the title says, the phone stops responding and it restarts. If, somehow, it doesn't restart, I have to it manually because it becomes extremely laggy.

These videos are recorded at
Bit rate                    : 18.0 Mbps
Width                       : 2 560 pixels
Height                      : 1 080 pixels
Codec ID                 : H264

This happens when playing the videos using Sony's "Movies" and "Album" applications. If the videos are opened using MXplayer (and every HW option is disabled), they play smoothly without any problem.

Here is a video sample if you want to test: https://copy.com/Q3OjmIjML4GArZ4P (the name of the file is "Selection.avi", 75MB)

I checked on both firmwares E2033_Customized FR_1293-6961_25.0.B.1.28_R6A and E2033_Customized FR_1293-6961_25.0.B.2.14_R8A

Does my phone have some problem, or it's "normal" ? Testing the same video on a Lenovo tablet, its default video player couldn't open the video, BUT it didn't restart the tablet.

Update: I tested the Sony's Movie app on my Lenovo, the app crashed when trying to open the file BUT it didn't restart the tablet.

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

That's an over kill, think about it, the screen on your phone is only 540 x 960 pixels and you want to play a video with higher resolution than WQXGA

[Mandami]

Thank you for the answer, but there are two things I don't understand:

- why with MX Player the video plays without any problem ?

- why on my Lenovo (whose resolution is 600 x 1024) the Sony app Movies crashes (when trying to play the video) but it doesn't restart my tablet ?

For me the question is: why it restarts my phone (crashes my phone) ? should I sent it back ?

If the cause of the problem are the apps com.sonyericsson.album 7.2.A.0.6 and com.sonyericsson.video 8.0.A.1.16 then maybe Sony will propose some update.

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

the Sony app it's for Xperia phones, perhaps MXPlayer downscale the video's resolution

[Mandami]

For sure the MX Player is smarter than Sony's Movies app, but why my Lenovo didn't crash when using Sony's Movies app ?

And more anyong: if by any chance I have a video file and I open the Sony's Album app, the phone will restart (or in the best case it will become slow, unreponsive). I couldn't install Album app on my Lenovo.

[Uliwooly]

Where are the videos stored?

[Phy]

Try booting on safe mode and see if you experience the same restarting issue.

How to boot on safe mode.
http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/FAQ/How-to-boot-your-phone-into-safe-mode/m-p/348008#U348008

[xperiaperson]

It's a software issue. Probably with the media server app that deals with media. I put 4k video on my sd card out of curiosity. Every time I open album, video or the preloaded file manager (File Commander) same happens. Phone freezes and restarts when the file is attempted to be read (thumbnail generating). Mx player uses its own media scanning software so it doesn't happen with it. Looks like anything beyond 1080p is causing this but not sure, only tried that one video. Maybe certain codecs are to blame. Just delete those files and everything's back in order.

[Mandami]

@uliwooly

The phone is brand new; there is no SD card or even SIM card. Before starting using it I wanted to see how it plays my media files. Not only that it doesn't play my media files, but it restarts when trying to do that.

@Phy
"If you run your phone in safe mode for a while and you don’t experience any problem, the problem you’re having is most likely related to a third party app that you’ve installed."
My phone crashed without installing any other new application; the phone is brand new. It crashed because of Sony's original apps or maybe it has some hardware related problems, I'm not 100 % sure.
You can check by yourself opening the video sample in my first post.

@xperiaperson
"It's a software issue."
For the moment I'm not 100% sure, but I hope it is.

"I put 4k video on my sd card out of curiosity. Every time I open album, video or the preloaded file manager (File Commander) same happens. Phone freezes and restarts when the file is attempted to be read (thumbnail generating)."
If you want to try it again, here is a video sample https://copy.com/Q3OjmIjML4GArZ4P (the name of the file is "Selection.avi", 75MB). That video is recorded by my dashcam. It's sort of a 2K resolution, 2 560 x1 080.

"Just delete those files and everything's back in order."
I'm afraid I can't do that. If, indeed, it's a software related problem and not hardware, the only solution to avoid this is to delete every Sony application (e.g., Album, Movies, widgets apps) from my phone. I don't mind if the Sony's apps crash, but I don't want to forcedly restart my phone.

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

I disagree with you, but if you think that's the problem then go ahead and contact Sony with your feedback

http://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/contactUs/

Do you experience the same issue while playing 480p videos?