VLCBenchmark
VLCBenchmark is an open-source benchmark application focused on testing Android devices’ video capabilities using the VLC for Android app.
It rates Android devices according to their capacity to play videos, and publishes the results on the VLCBenchmark website so people can consult devices’ scores. The app is developed by Videolabs, a company founded by VideoLAN’s president to have full-time developers work on VLC.
Why?
There isn’t currently any Android benchmark application focused on video, with the expertise that VideoLAN can offer.
This benchmark is either for professionals in fields related to smartphones, or regular users who want to thoroughly test their device.
Furthermore, getting hardware decoding to work perfectly on all the different Android phones out there with VLC for Android can be quite difficult without specifications from the manufacturer. Having specific results on their devices may provide incentive for Android manufacturers to work with Videolabs and VideoLAN, and help improve VLC on their devices.
How does it work?
The benchmark plays video samples using the VLC for Android app, as it is a widely used media player on Android. It is a requirement to install VLC for Android to run the benchmark.
A list of video samples encoded according to many different parameters — such as codec, resolution, fps and bit depth — is hosted by VideoLAN. The app runs each sample using VLC for Android in software and hardware decoding, testing playback, playback speed and image quality.
You can find the video samples on the VideoLAN streams server and the specs on this spreadsheet.
Tests
- Playback — looks for problems while playing the sample (slow, stuck, etc.).
- Image Quality — looks for imperfections in the image (artifacts, green lines, etc.).
- Speed — converges on the maximum playback speed.
These tests are then summed up to rate the Android device. Once finished, the results can be uploaded and shared on bench.videolabs.io.
The website
At bench.videolabs.io you can find benchmarks uploaded by users — results from many models and brands. Users can browse the benchmarks they uploaded, with the test results and information about their devices. It is also possible to get average results for a specific model.
Download
You can find the app on the Play Store.
