[Smiff]

Couldn't find a good thread for this box discussing possible firmware OR kodi compatibility (not sure) issues?

Model s806 (Chipset is AMlogic S812) 2GB RAM
Kernel 3.10.33
Android 4.4.2
Build 20141211

Here's quick summary of what i've found so far:

12.3 Gotham included build: hardware video playback works ok
14.1/14.2rc1 Crash on startup, no log generated - not sure how to debug?
15.0 alpha1 and nightly Mar14th - runs, but hardware video is messed up, picture is shown in lower right corner of screen, messed up scaling. colour is ok. disabling hardware accel it works ok but obviously slow. BBC iPlayer content plays ok on hardware so not ALL video content is messed up.

I noticed on the messed up streams, the video info has ridiculous DAR and SAR numbers like:
SAR 807:808 DAR 240:101
SAR 265:264 DAR 80:33

whereas on correctly displayed streams like iPlayer
SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9

I'm not sure how Kodi calculates SAR and DAR, or where exactly this is likely to be going wrong, as i said software video works ok...

I guess there's a few Qs:
1) why doesn't Helix work at all on this box? I know it works fine on an S805 box I tried.
2) why does Isengard have hardware decoding issues on this box?
3) Are these known issues?
4) Are these firmware issues?

I'd be happy to do any tests to help determine this, i'm around most of this weekend.

I haven't yet tried a standard Gotham build to check if that works properly, or if someone has hacked that to work!

Any thoughts please? Not sure whether to return this box (not just for this, concerns about support in general, and for newer Kodi builds than 13.2). Cant find any newer firmware than 20141211 and unsure if Kodi issue?

Many thanks.

[Smiff]

done some more fiddling about, think there may be a (fairly small) bug in Kodi here, possibly in the way XBMC settings are migrated?

the default was amcodec+libstagefright+MediaCodec all enabled.

so i disabled amcodec+libstagefright+MediaCodec. this fixed scaling in 15.0 , but CPU usage was high (no surprise).

then i tried disabling only libstagefright+MediaCodec and turning amcodec on - now it seems to be working right, CPU usage lower..

here's where it gets weird. then i enable all 3 hardware options again, and now it still works ok! seems to be using hardware, although this box is fast enough that 1080p h264 on cpu is ok anyway, so i'm going by the usage counters. tried rebooting and testing again with all 3 enabled, still ok!

the SAR and DAR numbers are still messed up looking, but the picture is ok now. weird.


Could this be caused by the migration of settings from old XBMC on my box? no idea. also the original XBMC setup was NOT fresh, there's some custom config supplied on this box which can't see how to clear (nor can i see how to run Kodi without importing old XBMC settings?)


Which accel types should be enabled or used on the S812? i thought Amlogic chipset meant Amcodec only?

performance in general is extremely good on this box. not sure about the image quality, may just be the crappy h264 compression settings being used on the streams i'm watching though.

[Smiff]

real basic Q: how do you tell Kodi Android NOT to import XBMC settings? google gives me plenty of info on backing up/importing etc, but i can see nothing on stopping it, crazy.

if these issues (the Helix crash, 15.0 video hardware) are both settings related, there'll be others with this box running into same issues i'm sure so i'll leave this topic regardless.
thanks.

(it's not possible to uninstall XBMC 13.2 on this box without using root functions and if returning i didn't want to get into that).

[wrxtasy]

To stop XBMC settings migrating to Kodi upon the first run, rename or delete the folder named .xbmc found using the Wiki:

http://kodi.wiki/view/Userdata

Once you have done that successfully also delete the .kodi folder.

If you cannot get access to the .xbmc folder, delete .kodi/userdata/guisettings.xml to start Kodi in a fresh state.
There are other folders such as - addons that my also need to be deleted if you are having further problems.

[Smiff]

Thanks, now i've got some addon issues sorted this box seems like it might be a keeper. Would have been a lot easier if the box didn't come with (already old and broken!) stuff already installed.

I will probably use something like this https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...mapp&hl=en to rip it out, but need to figure out how to make nandroid backups first (anyone know? please post! compatible custom recovery needed?) or at least find a copy of the original firmware. There seems to be several variants of this box with diff wifi modules?

edit: here's the box and this site has some other useful info
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/01/04/c...12-tv-box/
Anyone know how to check the AP variant? w/o opening it.

firmwares are often posted here http://blog.geekbuying.com/index.php/201...-20141201/
or here http://chinagadgetsreviews.blogspot.ro/2...ck_85.html
but watch out! i don't know which version is correct, and none of the dates match mine
(there' some old ones with S802 chipset, and 3 S812 variants of the Wifi/BT module apparently).


Logitech Harmony config for these, anyone know one? My old box Sumvision box worked great with Pivos Xios config, this one doesn't, not sure there's anything similar in the database or not? the included remote is a joke, much like the one that comes with the Cyclone X4, just thicker.

[Smiff]

anyone getting intermittent hanging on this box, while seeking in Kodi, requiring pulling power?
MAY be related to Kodi audio settings, passthrough/DTS? in particular. still trying to figure this one out, difficult because it won't do it when i'm watching!

update: yeah was audio related, seems to be stable now. still running the 15.0 nightly from late March.. this box is very good (apart from supplied config).

[Cwhit]

Hey I just bought the same adnroid smart tv box s806 you did when you were writing this thread. I am having an issue with updating the xbmc to kodi like you were. But I am new to xbmc/kodi and tv boxes. So a lot of the stuff you were explaining I was not able to follow to well. If at all possible could you post a step by step of what you did in order to get Kodi to work on your box.

Thank you.

[machinist]

Hi Smiff

I also have a box with this chipset...mine is the Mobie Dazzle 4K bought from Amazon.
My issues are:

• Install apps via Google Play Store but they are not available to add to the home screen. Annoying - do you experience this?
  
• No support pages with latest firmware. My worry here is if I screw something up on the box, I have no way of re-flashing the firmware. Do you know of any links and processes to do this?
  
• I'm happy with the box overall!
  

Cheers

[Smiff]

Sorry guys difficult to give an exact reply since it was a while ago, i did manage to get the box stable in Isengard by careful tweaking of options, including not enabling passthrough digital audio out, not sure if this is an issue in general but it was causing hangs for me, normal audio over HDMI is fine.

I always replace the stock launchers, usually either Apex or a Win7/8 style launcher.

It's a shame this is a good box ruined by the amateur prebuilt image. if they supplied it clean Android 4.4 it would be much better. It is rooted so
using root apps to freeze/remove system apps would be the way to go i think?


edit: Play Store is fine but one serious issue is some Android apps simply don't work, silently fail, i'll post back when i remember which. nothing too important yet. anyone know how to debug apps failing to launch? but i've noticed this on other boxes too e.g. Sumvision X4, so it's not specific to this box either. most people probably don't notice this because they don't run many apps on these boxes.


edit2: there is a newer firmware from March here
http://blog.geekbuying.com/index.php/201...-20150319/
i don't dare install since mine (November 2014) is working fine!
Also 1 commenter says XBMC is gone (good!) but Kodi doesn't work (bad! if true).

edit2: there's also a March 2015 update build on the official page!
http://www.instabox.tv/phantom-2/
but Windows only, and no changelog other than it comes with 14.x :/