Costco Gingerbread VTAB's

[Stringrazor]

FYI once you let Vizio start to update your Tablet "Over The Air" you are screwed because their software only gets worse and worse especially if you ever ever go to web sites with embedded youtube videos. More at:

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/vizio-tablets/36106-any-way-undo-honeycomb-upgrade-2.html#post203266

I'm trying to decide to update to HC or not and have been asking opinions on that. Most others who have replied seem to disagree with you. I've read about your frustrations with Flash. Can you summarize the reasons that you think GB is better?

 

[Roger2008]

Can you summarize the reasons that you think GB is better?

First: I have two Vizio tablets one is Honeycomb and the other is still GB and I'll try to summarize what is on the page I linked to earlier.

1. The Honeycomb version has lost 9.5% of the screen in landscape mode because Vizio moved the buttons into the screen. And if you watch youtube videos that are formatted for 4x3 then to keep the 4x3 aspect ratio Vizio has to also remove 9.5% of the sides of the screen meaning (doing the math) you end up with only 88% of the screen that you started with.

2. If you ever watch Youtube videos without the Youtube application and you have a good network connection the Honeycomb version will quit playing the youtube video in less than 3 minutes. Vizio's answer to youtube problems is to have you always use the youtube application for watching youtube videos but you can't always do that because some web sites have embedded youtube videos.

3. And if you choose to use the Youtube application then it buffers a lot and stops and starts whenever you change the orientation of the tablet. And to make matters worse, if you are ever watching a "playlist" then it will reset to the first video in the playlist when you change the orientation.

4. Back to watching youtube videos without the youtube application. It ignores a lot of taps and I'm working on a youtube video to show exactly what I mean there.

5. While this particular problem does not always show up, the Honeycomb version of the tablet can not connect to all the WiFi hotspots that the Gingerbread version can. There is even a thread on this site that addresses that issue and I've been given permission to send my Honeycomb Tablet in for an exchange but I told them I wanted to finish documenting other problems I have with it first.

As for anybody that says they like Honeycomb: They must not use Youtube or the Flash player in the browser much, do not have any WiFi problems now and don't care about the missing 9.5-12% of the screen in landscape mode.

 

[james23p]

I have not had any issues watching youtube videos from the browser and I use the stock browser. Next the youtube app since I updated to HC seems to work better and buffer less and my WiFi is average at best I have att dsl extreme which is nothing to rave about.

As far as the screen I don't miss the real estate since the bezel buttons were never responsive and were a headache the buttons in HC are spot on and as I said before it's still bigger than a 7 inch.

Another HC benefit is the tablet is faster more responsive and the biggest benefit is the ability to move Apps to the SD card. Having used the GB version and the HC version the HC Vtab wins hands down imho.

Jim

 

[cheapersleeper]

The ability to easily and cheaply add a big chunk of usable memory via SD cards trumps the issues that some are complaining about.

 

[Roger2008]

I have not had any issues watching youtube videos from the browser and I use the stock browser.

Maybe we are running different build numbers. I've got "Build number" 2.3.31 or "Android version" 3.2.1 HTK55

I can watch short youtube videos in the browser without a problem too but the problems show up when I try to stop and restart youtube videos in the stock browser or try to watch youtube videos in the browser that are over 5 minutes long like the following video:

Vizio vtab1008 honeycomb Benchmark - YouTube

Try the above link and for the first 3 minutes of the video make sure the video does not stop to buffer data or just try to stop it and restart it by tapping right in the middle of the video. You could do that with the GB tablet but it is a lot harder to do with the HC tablet.

TIA

 

[james23p]

I have the same build but mine played thru 3 times before I got the white screen. I tried two other long videos one a 10 minute animation uss Iowa vs ijn Yamato and it played straight thru. So I tried your link again and it stopped after the second time so I have no idea what causes it to freeze. Could it be the small flash adds in the videos?

Jim

 

[Roger2008]

I have the same build but mine played thru 3 times before I got the white screen. I tried two other long videos one a 10 minute animation uss Iowa vs ijn Yamato and it played straight thru. So I tried your link again and it stopped after the second time so I have no idea what causes it to freeze. Could it be the small flash adds in the videos?

Thanks for trying that and it is strange because mine always gives me the "White Screen of Death" in less than 3 minutes and it will do that every time even after a "Factory reset" unless if I am on a WiFi connection where it stops to buffer up data.

So now can you please try a quick test to see if your Flash player is ignoring taps? All you have to do on this test is try to stop and then restart the following video a few times.

Jacqueline Mannering - Raining Thanks.

I decided I'd try the above test on a Gingerbread VTAB1008 and it worked just great then I decided I'd try one more thing on my HC VTAB, holding down the back button and ended up with the video being played in the bookmarks as the following screen shots proves:



Note, the above screen shot taken from my bookmarks page caught the screen being updated and that is why it looks like there are 4 lines through it.

 

[james23p]

Taps seem to not respond unless I go full screen then all the appropriate taps seem to work. I can also reproduce the video in the history section of the stock browser. Very strange since I'm running flash 10.3 I wonder if those who have side loaded the most recent have the same issues.

Jim

 

[Roger2008]

Taps seem to not respond unless I go full screen then all the appropriate taps seem to work.

Thank you for trying that out for me and you are right the taps will work in full screen but there is a way to get taps to work without going full screen and that is to simply tap off of the video but still on the page somewhere and then the next time you tap on the video it will respond.

I can also reproduce the video in the history section of the stock browser.

Thanks for checking that out too and the trick to getting the video to play in the history section of the stock browser is to tap the power button and then when you come out of stand by and unlock the tablet the video will be playing in the history/bookmarks section.

Very strange since I'm running flash 10.3 I wonder if those who have side loaded the most recent have the same issues.

I have side loaded Adobe Flash Player 11.1 etc and it makes things better for the Dolphin Browser HD but in the stock browser you might not see the video until you go full screen and then in full screen the video is not very smooth so I went back to 10.3.

What you just saw with the ignored taps was my biggest frustration with the HC VTAB until I started seeing that "White Screen of Death" that you don't see as much as I do.

Now back to my Costco Gingerbread VTAB. I just looked at the receipt and I have 90 days to return it from when I bought it so I might hang on to it a little longer and try to document more of the changes between the GB and HC VTABs.

 

[10amla]

Still had VTABs at Costco Los Feliz(Glendale/Los Angeles) on Monday.

 

[Stringrazor]

They restocked them in Cypress too.