Kodi Community Forum

Since the other thread about SPMC was mainly regarding it being on Amazon's app store (which is no longer there), and it was a very long thread, here's a new thread.

Old thread: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=201783

SPMC (wiki) - http://spmc.semperpax.com

SPMC is an unofficial fork of Kodi for Android created by Team Kodi developer Koying. While technically unofficial, it contains various "experimental" fixes and settings that can sometimes help users when the normal Kodi for Android doesn't work on their specific hardware, and is sometimes used to test new features.

SPMC has a different app ID from Kodi, so both can be installed side by side at the same time.

Feedback welcome.

Ned, maybe you could put the first post from that thread as the first post here too?

The one that said SPMC is now on the amazon app store? o.O

Ok, maybe without the first paragraph

SPMC v15.0 has finally redesigned the minimize feature that would throw you out of Kodi if pressing the back key too many times or longpressing it on the Fire TV. Thanks for this as it makes for a more enjoyable Kodi experience on the Fire TV.

(2015-07-28, 17:36)mjbxx Wrote: [ -> ]SPMC v15.0 has finally redesigned the minimize feature that would throw you out of Kodi if pressing the back key too many times or longpressing it on the Fire TV. Thanks for this as it makes for a more enjoyable Kodi experience on the Fire TV.

I was excited to hear this as I really liked the minimize feature and wanted to see it fixed rather than just allow the option to disable it. But it looks like the more common case of pressing the back key too many times (e.g. to exit deep menus) will still minimize Kodi by mistake.

Hopefully this can be addressed in the next point release. From what I recall of the code when it was added, I think it should be straightforward with some "interlock" logic, roughly like:

Code:

[HOME] -- (KEY_BACK and KEY_REPEAT) --> [HOME + "Press again to minimize"] -- (KEY_BACK and not KEY_REPEAT) --> [KODI MINIMIZED]

Basically, from the home screen one would hold down the BACK key to bring up the "minimize" notice, and then press BACK once again to minimize Kodi. Since both a single press and long press of BACK is needed, one can't accidentally minimize Kodi by doing either alone. Just my thoughts...

@Koying, does this seem feasible to implement and does it solve the problem? Thanks once again for making SPMC available, and pushing out this latest release.

Thank you so much for this awesome app, i can confirm now after extended tests that this is the one to have on JXD 7800b devices that has the Rockchip RK3188 it is the smoothest playback i have had in this particular device, just tried the latest Kodi Isengard and the 23.976hz movies were stutterring all over, tried Beyond XBMC and this one achieved a better playback but SMPC is still the clear winner,, im using it with a main dlna server (normal Isengard for Win7) over wifi and i can tell you that wow, im impressed, just smooth and clean playback its like going to the movies but having that theater on your android device, thanks a lot for the great mind(s) over this awesome and renovated version of Kodi.

From the old thread:

(2015-07-28, 00:42)watson007 Wrote: [ -> ]amlogic-support doesnt work in spmc 15
high bitrate videos are stuttering in spmc 15 with amlogic S802
hardware acceleration is activated but seems not to work with amlogic S802

and pvr iptv simple client has a little audio dropout every 30 seconds

I too can definitely confirm that using SPMC version 15.0 on my CS918ii box (looked down upon by so many on these forums) has been a revelation.

Everything works better than with Kodi and that is in no way intended a slur on Kodi, of which I am a huge fan.

I've said it before but he deserves it again, Thank you, Koying for your hard work - it is very much appreciated.

Been so long since I updated, which link do we want? Latest Helix build is: 15.0.0 link
APK: link
launcher APK: link
X86 APK: link

?

Just the APK link?

(2015-08-01, 23:37)gizbug Wrote: [ -> ]Been so long since I updated, which link do we want? Latest Helix build is: 15.0.0 link
APK: link
launcher APK: link
X86 APK: link

?

Just the APK link?

I may be wrong but I think the term Helix as used in your post and as taken from the SPMC website is a typo.

Regarding which link, you should know whether your box contains ARM or X86 chipsets. If the former then try the first APK link - that worked for me.

Some bugs in SPMC 15.

From several users on Freaktab forum

When using Mediacodec only and seeking backwards/forwards in a video the framerate feels slower eg 2-5 frames per second.
Audio is also out of sync more than with RKStagefright.
With RKStagefright it plays smooth after seeking backwards/forwards.

After exiting SPMC on a RK3288 TV Box, I get a message 'The app has stopped responding' and I have to click okay.
On SPMC 14.2 there was no such error message after exiting SPMC.


RKstagefright : color banding in h265 playback , it can be enhanced by setting the color black level to high with a terminal command to use RGB color instead of YUV color + lowering the brightness a bit from android settings
But the final result still doesn't match the desktop PC output (regarding the banding)

According to my experience the mediacodec still suffers from a major bug that still exists in all Kodi/SPMC builds :
If you seek multiple times to a previous video position while the video is running the video plays at 20-22 fps and stays that way which produces major stuttering
That lasts as long as the video file is playing , until you stop the video file and start it again , this bug exists in both h264 and h265 files.

In addition all video codecs (mediacodec-rkstagefright-libstagefright-native player) suffers from another major video bug in 4k playback:
Any video that contains fade to black sections or sections with mostly black area and small text or objects the video stutters immediately
In some cases it is sever like the LG 4k demo here (look when the oil starts to split shot):

http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=62

Or the elysium trailer here with many fade to black sections:
http://4ksamples.com/elysium-4k-trailer/

Other users have problems with TVHeadend

Also pausing a video and coming back a few minutes later, SPMC freezes and can't resume video or go back, have to press the home button and close SPMC.

Koying
Please look at these problems.
I think some of the problems might be fixed after Mediacodec is merged with official Kodi
If you need further information from the users, I'll ask them to post logs.
All users use RK3288 boxes.

Koying I love your work and have been using SPMC since it's inception, I just have a small request, I love version 14.2, it does everything I want however, can you please apply the screen issue bug fix to the 14.2 version. Whenever, I use my MxQ on a tv that supports 720p max the picture is bigger than the actual screen, it doesn't fit the screen. It's remedied by disabling amcodec however, that has it's own issues as 1080p video stutters and is not smooth. This issue has been fixed in the latest version 15 however, some of my favorite addons are not compatible with the new version yet. If you could please apply the same fix to 14.2 SPMC it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Koying, I'm currently using SPMC v15 on AFTV. I've noticed a problem where multiple log uploaders and viewers I've tried will fail with errors. The issue seems caused by the add-ons hard-coding the log file as 'kodi.log', as I've seen in the source for XBMC Log Uploader. It appears SPMC changed it's log file name to 'spmc.log' for reasons I'm unsure of.

Digging a little, I see there's a way to determine the log file path using the special locator 'special://logpath', but I don't find anything for the log file itself. Is there a programmatic way to determine the log file name, so that log-related add-ons can work across Kodi variants?

Since the SPMC installation root (e.g. com.semperpax.spmc) is aleady distinct from stock Kodi, is it really necessary for SPMC to also change the log name to 'spmc.log', given the problems it causes?

Thanks again for your work on SPMC and Kodi.

Is SPMC dead ? just not seeing any potential update news etc.