[liquidblueocean]

I'm a new coder to xbmc and can't seem to find any architecture docs except for what's on wikipedia

My question concerns subtitles. When a video is being played, is it the job of the PAPlayer to render subtitles, or is there an overlay and the xbmc GUI performs this?

Specifically, I'm working on an Android device that uses the amlplayer. So, if I want to fix some formatting problems stemming from if lilbass is being used or not, which built executable should I be looking towards? The amlplayer or xbmc?

[davilla]

PAPlayer plays audio files.
DVDPlayer plays audio files, video files and handles subtitles.
AMLPlayer plays video files and handles subtitles but not as many types of subtitles as DVDPlayer.

PAPlayer, DVDPlayer and AMLPlayer are all part of XBMC. Libamplayer is not part of XBMC, it's an AMlogic library that embodies hardware audio/video playback.

Now that we have that clear, what do you mean by "Android device that uses the amlplayer" ?

[liquidblueocean]

Gotcha. You've given a pretty clear description of what I'm looking at. I didn't realise there was a split, into AMLPlayer and Libamplayer.

The device I'm looking at is the G-Box Midnight.

Thanks!

[davilla]

AMLPlayer uses Libamplayer.

But before you start down an abandoned path, you might take a look into https://github.com/Pivosgroup/xbmc, there, AMLPlayer is only used for two protocols and dvdplayer/amlcodec replaces it. To turn it on;

--enable-codec=amcodec

The main reason for this was the inability of AMLPlayer to handle all what DVDPlayer handles ( like subtitles), so rather than replicate a bunch of code, CDVDVideoCodecAmlogic/CAMLCodec was created.

[liquidblueocean]

Sounds like a much better plan.

My understanding though was that Pivos builds aren't quite right for the G-Box Midnight? Or are they okay now that Pivos have an m3 product? Or, instead of building a new one myself for the Midnight, might the newest Pivos builds now actually work properly on the Midnight?

[liquidblueocean]

Forgot to mention...

I'm also an engineer in the industry, developing devices that deliver and produce media. I know how often people can ask many questions or just complain about products.

So, just wanted to add that the work you've done has personally assisted heaps of us out there - thanks, it's much appreciated!

[davilla]

Pivos builds will work under the G-Box Midnight if you take the time to self-compile and adjust for G-Box Midnight firmware capabilities. I just made a change that makes this super easy to do since gbox devs could not seem to figure it out (hint, look close at xbmc/cores/amlplayer/DllLibamplayer.h ).

Do not try to use Pivos binaries on the G-Box Midnight, they are incompatible. Do not use Pivos libamplayer.so on G-Box Midnight, they are incompatible and will break in very subtile ways.

Note, there might be regressions with CAMLPlayer usage, I'm tracking strangeness there.

[liquidblueocean]

Thanks heaps for all your help, I've got a build running on the Midnight now!
http://androidtvbox.us/topic/built-xbmc-...or-ya-all/