[avlzll]

I too am interested in buying the C1, but have a couple of concerns.

1. Is there a video or a picture somewhere that shows the performance of the C1 when playing somewhat 'heavy' h264 rips (~30 mbps)?
2. Do i need a card reader to flash an sd-card or is it possible to connect the device to my pc via a usb cable?
3. How do i turn on/off the c1? Hardkernel sells an ir remote which according to the description is capable of that but i'm not 100% sure here. (Speaking of this remote, does it work with openelec?)

Ultimately, i want a device that's capable of playing h.264 1080p 30/60fps ~30-35mbps videos on openElec.

[noggin]

1. Is there a video or a picture somewhere that shows the performance of the C1 when playing somewhat 'heavy' h264 rips (~30 mbps)?

I've had good results with home-made 1080/50i H264 encodes that go over 30Mbs made using x264 in Blu-ray compatible mode. Can't speak for other levels and sources. It's also played Blu-ray rips that haven't been re-compressed.

2. Do i need a card reader to flash an sd-card or is it possible to connect the device to my pc via a usb cable?

Yes - you will need an SD card and adaptor or a uSD card interface to flash the uSD card, or an eMMC if you go that route (probably not worth using an eMMC for OpenElec)

3. How do i turn on/off the c1? Hardkernel sells an ir remote which according to the description is capable of that but i'm not 100% sure here. (Speaking of this remote, does it work with openelec?)

To be honest I think most people leave it on as it draws so little current. I'm not sure whether the IR remote will trigger a power up from shutdown.

[wrxtasy]

I too am interested in buying the C1, but have a couple of concerns

Ultimately, i want a device that's capable of playing h.264 1080p 30/60fps ~30-35mbps videos on openElec.

From ODROID forum, when i was testing OpenELEC....

Also impressive is 120Mbps / [email protected] / H264 video playback of the Jellyfish test file over local NFS without a problem:
http://kodi.wiki/view/Samples

BIG TIP: And as I keep banging on about. Buy a usb FLIRC IR receiver for extremely easy setting up.
Lirc and the C1's inbuilt IR receiver are currently not happy companions. There is a bug somewhere. The HardKernel remote works in Android and Ubuntu once configured however.

[maratonomak]

Hi.. Let's start another way, that is what do you want out of a media player ?


OpenELEC ? YES

What I can say is that C1+ CEC control is not as comprehensively supported in regards to AVR's and some TV as the RPi. It uses a different method to the RPi.

As of now I'm running openelec in RPI2 from a USB stick. So, just OE is fine for now. Not interested in Android as I already have the Fire Stick. Any advice on xu4 ?
Thanks,

[noggin]

Hi.. Let's start another way, that is what do you want out of a media player ?


OpenELEC ? YES

What I can say is that C1+ CEC control is not as comprehensively supported in regards to AVR's and some TV as the RPi. It uses a different method to the RPi.

As of now I'm running openelec in RPI2 from a USB stick. So, just OE is fine for now. Not interested in Android as I already have the Fire Stick. Any advice on xu4 ?
Thanks,

U and XU series nowhere near as good for OpenElec as the C1. They use Samsung Exynos rather than AMLogic SoCs - which are far less well supported in Kodi. The Samsung VPU/MFC which does hardware acceleration etc. isn't as well supported. I've used a U2 in the past, and basic stuff like no deinterlacing make it a non-starter for me...

[maratonomak]

Hi.. Let's start another way, that is what do you want out of a media player ?


OpenELEC ? YES

What I can say is that C1+ CEC control is not as comprehensively supported in regards to AVR's and some TV as the RPi. It uses a different method to the RPi.

As of now I'm running openelec in RPI2 from a USB stick. So, just OE is fine for now. Not interested in Android as I already have the Fire Stick. Any advice on xu4 ?
Thanks,

U and XU series nowhere near as good for OpenElec as the C1. They use Samsung Exynos rather than AMLogic SoCs - which are far less well supported in Kodi. The Samsung VPU/MFC which does hardware acceleration etc. isn't as well supported. I've used a U2 in the past, and basic stuff like no deinterlacing make it a non-starter for me...

Thank you. Seems like my list is reduced to Chromebox and C1+

[wesk05]

Think the issue with the ODroid C1 is that it doesn't appear to output multichannel PCM - so although you may be able to decode DTS HD MA as well as Dolby True HD, you can't output them in more than PCM 2.0? So passthrough of the DTS / Dolby core/secondary stream is the only solution I can see to getting surround from a C1? Or am I missing something?

You are absolutely right! The current generation of Amlogic SoCs only have PCM 2.0 output. I was told that the SoC actually supports 6 channel PCM, but it has been disabled!!

[noggin]

Think the issue with the ODroid C1 is that it doesn't appear to output multichannel PCM - so although you may be able to decode DTS HD MA as well as Dolby True HD, you can't output them in more than PCM 2.0? So passthrough of the DTS / Dolby core/secondary stream is the only solution I can see to getting surround from a C1? Or am I missing something?

You are absolutely right! The current generation of Amlogic SoCs only have PCM 2.0 output. I was told that the SoC actually supports 6 channel PCM, but it has been disabled!!

Right - so unless someone finds a way of enabling HD Audio bitstreaming/passthrough - then HD Audio is a no-go on this platform, and any FLAC, AAC etc. 5.1 or 7.1 audio will need to be transcoded to Dolby Digital.

That's a real pity - and a major limitation for some. Definitely an area where the Raspberry Pi 2 has a major edge.

[wrxtasy]

I not really that up with Audio and AVR's. Still trying to understand it all.

So when 5.1 or 7.1 Audio is transcoded to Dolby Digital what do you end up with on the resultant AVR, do you still get surround sound in OpenELEC ?

[noggin]

I not really that up with Audio and AVR's. Still trying to understand it all.

So when 5.1 or 7.1 Audio is transcoded to Dolby Digital what do you end up with on the resultant AVR, do you still get surround sound in OpenELEC ?

If you start with a multichannel format that can't be bitstreamed, then Kodi can transcode it to 5.1 Dolby Digital, which is a compressed lossy format, and which can't carry 7.1 discrete audio, but which can be bitstreamed over SPDIF-quality links. (It appears that the C1 currently only supports SPDIF quality 1.5Mbs max audio over HDMI in current implementations - so 2.0 PCM or lossy 5.1 Dolby/DTS and the relatively rare lossy 6.1 DTS-ES, but that is very seldom used)

If you enable pass through then DTS HD MA/HRA should be bitstreamed in DTS Lossy (it has a core of DTS and an additional signal to make this lossless), if not they will be decoded to PCM 2.0
If you enable pass through then Dolby True HD should be bitstreamed in Dolby Lossy (it has a secondary 'hidden' Dolby Digital stream for these situations), if not they will be decoded to PCM 2.0

If you enable transcoding to Dolby then PCM multichannel lossless, FLAC multichannel lossless, AAC multichannel (as used on Freeview HD in the UK) will be decoded to PCM within Kodi, and then re-encoded to lossy Dolby Digital 5.1. You won't get 7.1 if the track was in that format, and you won't get lossless decoding, you will get lossy Dolby Digital (so a quality drop potentially).

If you disable passthrough and have the right build then DTS HD-MA, Dolby True HD, FLAC and PCM multichannel will be decoded losslessly, but down mixed to stereo (so you won't get multichannel but you shouldn't get audio compression artefacts) Older builds will decode the DTS/Dolby cores to PCM 2.0 (so you will get lossy, down mixed audio)

Because the Pi 2 supports PCM 5.1 and 7.1 output, DTS HD-MA, Dolby True HD, FLAC and PCM multichannel can all be decoded losslessly in Kodi and output in multichannel 5.1 or 7.1 PCM (DTS HD-HRA is a very high quality lossy format and will decoded to maximum quality - but isn't lossless) The only caveat is that the very rare 192kHz 5.1 and 7.1 tracks won't be output in 192kHz. (Though 2.0 192kHz can be)

So the bottom line - C1 is currently limited to DVD quality audio, Pi 2 can handle Blu-ray quality audio.

[wrxtasy]

Ok just trying to make a 5.1 Audio summation for the C1+ currently using OpenELEC:

Audio Output > ODROID-HDMI/SPDIF with:
==============================
Passthrough Enabled:
DTS HD MA/HRA > lossy 5.1 DTS (or 6.1 DTS-ES)

Dolby True HD > lossy 5.1 Dolby (Digital)

Please correct me if I'm wrong

---

The big question is, would you be able to hear the difference between PCM 5.1 lossless vs 5.1 Dolby lossy if a user does not have high end Audio Equipment. ?

[noggin]

Ok just trying to make a 5.1 Audio summation for the C1+ currently using OpenELEC:

Audio Output > ODROID-HDMI/SPDIF with:
==============================
Passthrough Enabled:
DTS HD MA/HRA > lossy 5.1 DTS (or 6.1 DTS-ES)

Dolby True HD > lossy 5.1 Dolby (Digital)

Please correct me if I'm wrong

---

The big question is, would you be able to hear the difference between PCM 5.1 lossless vs 5.1 Dolby lossy if a user does not have high end Audio Equipment. ?

That about covers it. From memory I think there may be a situation where Dolby True HD tracks can have their Dolby lossless "hidden" secondary stripped away (as it is irrelevant for True HD and only there for compatibility) and then they wouldn't play. DTS-HD/HRA relies on the DTS Lossy core as the basis for its audio, and adds a 'helper' track to recreate the lossless original, so will always have a DTS lossy core stream to passthrough if HD passthrough isn't possible.

As to whether you can hear the difference - I'm not going to enter into that debate... That's like asking if you can see the difference between a native Blu-ray and a lower bit-rate re-encode...

I would say that you don't need high end audio equipment to hear good quality audio. Decent amps and speakers are not hugely expensive nor high end, and with those you can definitely hear good audio from bad. I'm not saying that 640kbps AC3 (though at lower bitrates it doesn't sound great) or 1.5Mbs DTS is bad either. I suspect most people would be very happy with 1.5Mbs DTS. However if you have access to lossless audio, why listen to compressed?

[wrxtasy]

Yes agreed. If you've got the lossless audio data and the AVR equipment why not use it.

Informative text added to my file named "Noggin's Knowledge" - growing larger by the week.
Thanks.

[polo_joe]

Any chance we get official oe support on C1(+)?
Has there been contact between zalaare or wrxtasy and oe dev team?

[wrxtasy]

No no contact, I'm not sure you even need official support as I've pretty much ironed out all issues I've had with the OpenELEC version I'm packaging. Its nice and fast and works well and is stable.

The OpenELEC team have done a fantastic job providing a nice minimal Linux XBMC/Kodi packaging system thats reasonably easy to use once you work it all out. Zalaare's github Repo certainly helped and there are a bunch of very knowledgable Linux guys on the ODROID forum providing tweaks.

Any limitations are now AMlogic ones, such as no HD Audio to Multichannel PCM. I doubt OpenELEC will be able to do anything about that. They could possibly work with AMlogic in some way I suppose if it came to that and really push the platform to its absolute limits.

HardKernel regularly update the underlying Linux Kernel as well and have been very receptive in fixing video drivers issues. Their support is really good considering this is a cheap $37 device.