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.

[Mandami]

@uliwooly "I disagree with you"
with which of my statements ?

@uliwooly "but if you think that's the problem then go ahead and contact Sony with your feedback"
Thank you for the link; I'll write to Sony about the problem.

@uliwooly "Do you experience the same issue while playing 480p videos?"
I know I copied some old clips, and there were no problems. Today I made some tests with 4 clips recorded with my dashcam: 2 of them at 1280x720 (30 and 60fps) and other 2 at 1920x1080 (30 and 60fps).
With these clips I could use the Album, Movies and media widget (I don't know what is its original name) Sony apps without crashing my phone. The clips were displayed with some problems:

From what I see, in order to avoid restarting my phone by accident and play my 2560x1080 video clips I have to uninstall Album, Movies and that media widget.

[xperiaperson]

@Mandami
Like uliwolly said earlier. No use of such files on a low resolution screen like this. Just drains your battery dry faster and no better visually than 720p.
But if you must use them don't open the sony album and movies app or they'll freeze again, also the file commander. Put them in a folder you won't access with your file manager and use MX Player, Quickpick is a good alternative for picture viewing, and hope Sony looks into it in a future update.
You could also put a .nomedia file in the folder with those videos, then it won't be scanned and you can use album and movies (not absolutely sure about that one though, but worth a try).

Edit:

Read this, the E4g chipset supports up to 1080p playback, so it's fine although I don't know why it completely crashes the phone. Again, MX has it's own codecs and software/hardware decoding solutions so it might get over this limitation.

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

I don't have this phone, I can't test it myself, but perhaps @Johan could add more info, still it's an overkill to play such videos with a lower resolution screen. 

[Mandami]

@xperiaperson "You could also put a .nomedia file in the folder with those videos, then it won't be scanned and you can use album and movies (not absolutely sure about that one though, but worth a try)"
Thank you for this idea; it partially solves the problem: the Movies application doesn't see anymore the files, but the Album app still makes some thumbnails from my movies which crashes my phone.

@uliwooly "it's an overkill to play such videos with a lower resolution screen."
No, not really; I'll not watch this kind of movies on my phone, but it may be necessary to play them.

[xperiaperson]

@Mandami

That's weird. My album app doesn't show anything where a .nomedia file is present. Maybe it's the old thumbnail remains. Try deleting all thumbnails wherever they're stored, and clearing album data.

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

I dont' understand the logic, your phone's display can't play the videos on HD resolution. 

[Mandami]

I bought this phone couple months ago but I haven't use it. With January I installed a SIM card and after two weeks the screen turned grey; nothing displayed on it. The only way to shutdown the phone was using Power+Volume buttons. I installed a new firmware hopping it will solve the problem, and then another one, and using the Sony software, but it was in vain. The only way to recover the phone was to remove the battery.

Since then everything worked smoothly until last Thursday when it turned grey again. This time disconnecting and reconnecting the battery didn't solve the issue immediately.

Today, it happened again. Even though I removed the battery the screen remains grey. Searching on Internet it seems this issue is quite common to all Sony phones.:smileyangry:

Does someone have any idea how to resurrect my phone ? Thanks !

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

If PCC doesn't solve the problem, contact your Local support to get your device inspected

software repair

PC Companion (PCC)

Bridge (for Mac)

Alternatives on How to backup Xperias

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/36355

[Mandami]

PCC didn't solve the problem, time did; after two days it started as nothing has happened.

Anyway, after reading on Internet it seems that not my phone is the problem but Sony itself. It's amazing how low quality are Sony's products today. Personally I'll never buy any other Sony product again. I learnt my lesson, and I know that I'm not alone: many other users who have bought Sony phones have similar problems.

[Uliwooly]

@Mandami

have you contacted Sony yet? Local support