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AMLogic - try and fix your Audio and Video playback problems.
(2017-04-27, 21:28)danjames92 Wrote:
(2017-04-25, 06:25)wrxtasy Wrote: Now that the Android developer @superceleron has published his modded source code over on the Freaktab website its worth directing users with older (Android Kitkat 4.4.x) AMLogic Hardware that are having Audio and Video problems over to the FTMC (Kodi Jarvis / SPMC) hybrid fork he has been developing:

FTMC for older AMLogic hardware - use AML build

FTMC can be installed alongside Kodi as it uses its own App signature.

What does the removal of this AMLogic code mean for LibreELEC and custom builds like yours and Raybuntu's for the Odroid C2?

AMLogic Hardware decoding (amcodec) has still been retained, and improved upon in the AML/Linux portion of the Kodi Krypton codebase, which is what LibreELEC uses. The custom Android AMLogic hacks have been removed, everything Android has to go thru standard Android API's - Hardware video decoding has to use Mediacodec.

The AML Kodi developers @codesnake and other LibreELEC Kodi devs. - but mostly @peak3d with some of AMLogic's help has done a ton of work for the AMCodec decoder recently.

The improved code is why LibreELEC Kodi Krypton is a least one codebase generation ahead of Android Kodi Krypton on AMLogic platforms.

LibreELEC releases also have tight control over the Linux Kernel used, there is a bunch of bug busting that occurs to produce superior Firmware.
This is why I keep recommending LibreELEC Kodi Krypton to demanding AMLogic Kodi users all the time.

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EDIT - Link removed before people get upset - user will have to go searching themselves....

Its been brought to my attention that MyGica have done a Fork of Kodi v17 Krypton for older Android 4.4.2 devices called MyGicaMC, Google search...

Kodi 17 for Android 4.4 Devices. MyGica Media Center Aptoide

It uses its own Signature so will not interfere with other installed Kodi versions. Its a clean App with no hidden Piracy Addon Payloads.

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On Xiaomi Mi Box - kodi 17.1, i am fairly sure it is not doing bilinear upscale. Anyway workaround for this or prove I am right?
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actually it is not an upscaling issue i am having. Rather h/w deinterlacing seems to be pretty poor.
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I recently dropped s905x LibreELEC Krypton in favor of Android, and have been loving the switch save for a strange issue: in SPMC, the auto refresh rate switching worked but I got an occasional (~1:20min) stutter. I disabled it in favor of the "hdmi self-adaptation" option which also changes refresh rate during playback, but without the stutter.

Now for the strange issue:
I started testing out Kodi Krypton in hopes I could get back to the Krypton skin I really like, but I can't get refresh rate switching working at all, even with setting perms listed in OP. I've tried the "stable" Krypton release, as well as the latest Krypton nightly. Here are the options I've tried on both:

- HDMI self-adaptation disabled, auto refresh switching start/stop: refresh stays 60hz and does not switch.
- HDMI self-adaptation enabled, auto refresh switching disabled (preferred configuration on SPMC): refresh stays 60hz and does not switch.

Again, in SPMC both of these switch the display refresh rate to match the video playback.

Any suggestions? Should I just wait for the SPMC krypton build in hopes koying fixes this issue?
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I would not be loving the switch with those problems Sad

No Kodi Krypton version will fix your issue - its an Android Firmware problem.

Android Kodi Krypton = Mediacodec only video hardware acceleration = Android Firmware patches needed for Kodi dynamic refresh switching
(only companies I know of - MINIX and WeTek have the required AMLogic Marshmallow Android Firmware patches)

Android Kodi Jarvis (SPMC) = Amcodec video hardware acceleration still available (on some platforms) = Kodi dynamic refresh switching still works, but even that can have problems. (black screens when skipping about video)

One solution: run LibreELEC Kodi Krypton from a Samsung EVO or Sandisk Class 10 U1 microSDHC card in a Dual boot setup. Amcodec hardware acceleration is still used for LibreELEC Kodi Krypton. Its far superior.



@ep0ch,

Android Kodi Krypton has poor, and usually broken deinterlacing when used with Mediacodec only video hardware acceleration. Some boxes do not even have Amcodec hardware acceleration available anymore in Android.
For those that still do - use Amcodec acceleration with SPMC (Kodi Jarvis) or use the superior LibreELEC Kodi Krypton where everything (non HDR) works.



Simply - if users want a reliable (non HDR) Kodi Krypton setup with minimal problems they need to be using LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - it's at least one Kodi codebase generation ahead of where AMLogic Android Kodi Krypton is at the moment.

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(2017-05-14, 07:29)wrxtasy Wrote: No Kodi Krypton version will fix your issue - its an Android Firmware problem.

Android Kodi Krypton = mediacodec only video hardware acceleration = Android Firmware patches needed for Kodi dynamic refresh switching
(only companies I know of - MINIX and WeTek have the required AMLogic Marshmallow Android Firmware patches)

Android Kodi Jarvis (SPMC) = Amcodec video hardware acceleration still available (on some platforms) = Kodi dynamic refresh switching still works.

One solution: run LibreELEC Kodi Krypton from a Samsung EVO or Sandisk Class 10 U1 microSDHC card in a Dual boot setup. Amcodec hardware acceleration is still used for LibreELEC Kodi Krypton. Its far superior.



@ep0ch,

Android Kodi Krypton has poor, and usually broken deinterlacing when user with mediacodec only video hardware acceleration. Use Amcodec acceleration with SPMC (Kodi Jarvis) or use the superior LibreELEC Kodi Krypton where everything works.

Well, I switched from LibreELEC because too much didn't work for my media types. However the one benefit LibreELEC had over android was resolution switching..but that's getting off topic and not nearly as important to me as everything else android kodi brings to the table.

I forgot to mention I'm on a minix m8sII with the latest marshmallow firmware, and have been using mediacodec acceleration in SPMC (need surface enabled as well for HDR support). By your explanation above, it would seem that refresh rate switching in kodi krypton should work?

EDIT: I just read your first sentence about the "switch." By "loving the switch," I mean everything works flawlessly in SPMC. I also have TONS of HDR media, tons of bt2020 video, and tons of 10 bit media (some overlaps obviously, but huge variety), and capture my own uhd hdr brays for personal use with some metadata llt tuning for my display. Here's a pro/cons list:

Android Pros/cons:
- HDR works!
- 10 bit output works!
- 4:4:4 output works! Note: this works in LibreELEC with jarvis but not krypton unless you patch it yourself, however some s905(not x) users reported the patch caused problems for them at 4k resolutions.
- automatic colorspace switching works!
- upmix with ac3 transcoding works (passthrough took a bit of work to get working properly without clipping)!
- No resolution switching, so can't use TV's internal upscaler (not a big deal since all my media is either 1080p or 2160p).
- Can't use Krypton due to refresh rate switching bug.

LibreELEC pros/cons:
- Only send partial HDR metadata.
- No 10 bit output! Krypton also has worse color banding with 10 bit media (cut to 8 bit) than Jarvis in LibreELEC using test images and real media.
- No 4:4:4 output support (see above for note)
- no colorspace switching, and if you force an AVR or display to switch colorspace, the reproduction is very poor.
- passthrough audio works flawlessly without futzing, however upmix with ac3 transcoding is no go.
- resolution switching...but this isn't a huge deal because of my library.
- Can use krypton, but don't like to because of bad color banding.

Edit2: btw, the refresh rate switching is the only thing I can't get working in kodi krypton. Everything else including audio passthrough works for me on the latest minix android 6.0 firmware.
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Yours I would consider an Edge use case scenario - not many Android users at all would go to that much trouble and expense of UHD HDR Bluray manipulation, let alone even using HDR for anything but test clips.

I agree for anything HDR you need to use the Android OS.

But even that has issues with no Auto Resolution switching for top quality 1080p > 4K video upscaling - that is better done by a 4K TV - not a media player if you want superior quality. Its a PITA manually switch Android Resolutions for the majority of normal Kodi 1080p/4K users.
AMLogic Hardware produces "Soft" quality 1080p > 4K upscaling picture outputs, same complaints as nVIDIA Shield owners report.

Everyone is different - for me Android Kodi is a no goer - deinterlacing is to badly broken with Kodi Krypton AND I cannot stand 3:2 pulldown judder with 23.976fps video playback when AMLogic Android Kodi dynamic refresh switching does not work on some platforms.

Best solution is an easy Dual boot setup - you don't compromise too much with either OS then. Smile

BTW: No such thing as a minix m8sII !
MINIX do not have that model designation in their lineup Wink

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(2017-05-14, 08:18)wrxtasy Wrote: Yours I would consider an Edge use case scenario - not many Android users at all would go to that much trouble and expense of UHD HDR Bluray manipulation, let alone even using HDR for anything but test clips.

I agree for anything HDR you need to use the Android OS.

But even that has issues with no Auto Resolution switching for top quality 1080p > 4K video upscaling - that is better done by a 4K TV - not a media player if you want superior quality. Its a PITA manually switch Android Resolutions for the majority of normal Kodi 4K users.
AMLogic Hardware produces "Soft" quality 1080p > 4K upscaling picture outputs, same complaints as nVIDIA Shield owners report.

Everyone is different - for me Android Kodi is a no goer - deinterlacing is to badly broken with Kodi Krypton AND I cannot stand 3:2 pulldown judder with 23.976fps video playback when AMLogic Android Kodi dynamic refresh switching does not work on some platforms.

Best solution is an easy Dual boot setup - you don't compromise too much with either OS then. Smile
I don't feel I'm compromising much, and have been happy with Android. I'm definitely an edge case, but nearly everything I'm buying now is UHD HDR...just got Planet Earth II, La La Land, and now Logan (with the HDR Noir edition pack) is just around the corner Smile. I've finally gotten to a spot where there are no distinguishable changes between the internal player PQ, UHD bluray player PQ, and kodi android PQ when dealing with this type of media. I agree about the pulldown, but I've been able to get refresh switching working in SPMC on all my media on a few different (up to date) android firmwares.

I don't have any interlaced material, and have disabled deinterlacing globally using the sysfs interface which has improved the PQ on some file formats it was still trying to deinterlace (amlogic bug).

I'm comfortable flashing new firmware using the amlogic usb tool because I have a few devices which make testing quick and painless. Is there any firmware you can recommend for Krypton automatic refresh switching? I'd just recently tried the minix firmware because I'd seen posts like yours which claim the refresh rate switching works for Krypton's mediacodec implementation.

Edit: BTW, those libreelec issues aren't only true for HDR material since with hevc, 10 bit encoding is more efficient.

Edit2: Replying to @wrxtasy 's edit: I meant "mini m8sII," but I've tested minix based firmware Wink. Also, I'm an idiot...I had to reboot to get refresh rate switching working in Krypton after modifying those playback options. So I tested another box with an android TV based 6.0 firmware, and was also able to get it working in Krypton after modifying those settings and rebooting. There should definitely be a notice in that settings menu that a reboot is required...but not surprising given china.

tl;dr: I flashed multiple roms (including modifying my own) just because I was too dense to reboot after modifying a setting.

Edit3: if anyone's in the same position I am (doubtful), you need to disable hdmi self-adaptation, enable in refresh rate switching in kodi, and then reboot for the self-adaptation change to take effect.

Thank you for your help.
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(2017-05-14, 08:32)realjohngalt Wrote: I don't feel I'm compromising much, and have been happy with Android. I'm definitely an edge case, but nearly everything I'm buying now is UHD HDR...just got Planet Earth II, La La Land, and now Logan (with the HDR Noir edition pack) is just around the corner Smile. I've finally gotten to a spot where there are no distinguishable changes between the internal player PQ, UHD Bluray player PQ, and Kodi android PQ when dealing with this type of media.

Nice info - I've been waiting for someone to do some comprehensive LibreELEC / Android Kodi 4K HDR testing on AML S905X platforms. I would expect the (S905X) Xiaomi Mi Box would give very similar results.

All that refresh switching when using MM AML Firmware is highly dependant on the quality of Android Firmware used in the first place - as you have discovered, I do not know what AMLogic specific patches are used in Android for that with mediacodec only Kodi Krypton.

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(2017-04-28, 05:31)wrxtasy Wrote: AMLogic Hardware decoding (amcodec) has still been retained, and improved upon in the AML/Linux portion of the Kodi Krypton codebase, which is what LibreELEC uses. The custom Android AMLogic hacks have been removed, everything Android has to go thru standard Android API's - Hardware video decoding has to use Mediacodec.

May I ask why this is different for the Xiaomi Mi Box? It also uses the AMLogic chipset and users report a good experience with Kodi Krypton in Android.
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(2017-05-14, 08:32)realjohngalt Wrote:
(2017-05-14, 08:18)wrxtasy Wrote: Yours I would consider an Edge use case scenario - not many Android users at all would go to that much trouble and expense of UHD HDR Bluray manipulation, let alone even using HDR for anything but test clips.

I agree for anything HDR you need to use the Android OS.

But even that has issues with no Auto Resolution switching for top quality 1080p > 4K video upscaling - that is better done by a 4K TV - not a media player if you want superior quality. Its a PITA manually switch Android Resolutions for the majority of normal Kodi 4K users.
AMLogic Hardware produces "Soft" quality 1080p > 4K upscaling picture outputs, same complaints as nVIDIA Shield owners report.

Everyone is different - for me Android Kodi is a no goer - deinterlacing is to badly broken with Kodi Krypton AND I cannot stand 3:2 pulldown judder with 23.976fps video playback when AMLogic Android Kodi dynamic refresh switching does not work on some platforms.

Best solution is an easy Dual boot setup - you don't compromise too much with either OS then. Smile
I don't feel I'm compromising much, and have been happy with Android. I'm definitely an edge case, but nearly everything I'm buying now is UHD HDR...just got Planet Earth II, La La Land, and now Logan (with the HDR Noir edition pack) is just around the corner Smile. I've finally gotten to a spot where there are no distinguishable changes between the internal player PQ, UHD bluray player PQ, and kodi android PQ when dealing with this type of media. I agree about the pulldown, but I've been able to get refresh switching working in SPMC on all my media on a few different (up to date) android firmwares.

I don't have any interlaced material, and have disabled deinterlacing globally using the sysfs interface which has improved the PQ on some file formats it was still trying to deinterlace (amlogic bug).

I'm comfortable flashing new firmware using the amlogic usb tool because I have a few devices which make testing quick and painless. Is there any firmware you can recommend for Krypton automatic refresh switching? I'd just recently tried the minix firmware because I'd seen posts like yours which claim the refresh rate switching works for Krypton's mediacodec implementation.

Edit: BTW, those libreelec issues aren't only true for HDR material since with hevc, 10 bit encoding is more efficient.

Edit2: Replying to @wrxtasy 's edit: I meant "mini m8sII," but I've tested minix based firmware Wink. Also, I'm an idiot...I had to reboot to get refresh rate switching working in Krypton after modifying those playback options. So I tested another box with an android TV based 6.0 firmware, and was also able to get it working in Krypton after modifying those settings and rebooting. There should definitely be a notice in that settings menu that a reboot is required...but not surprising given china.

tl;dr: I flashed multiple roms (including modifying my own) just because I was too dense to reboot after modifying a setting.

Edit3: if anyone's in the same position I am (doubtful), you need to disable hdmi self-adaptation, enable in refresh rate switching in kodi, and then reboot for the self-adaptation change to take effect.

Thank you for your help.
Can you send me link to that rom (minix based)?
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Quote:Can you send me link to that rom (minix based)?
It was something buggy I threw together for testing, and I don't recommend it since the roms on freaktab are far better. In other words, my testing showed there was no real benefit to it (and many issues due to how poorly I "ported" it). If you still want the image, I can upload it.

I'm getting another HDR capable TV for my office/game room, and flashed another s905x clone box from LibreELEC over to android...but this one would only flash a Dolamco firmware that refresh rate switching didn't work in Krypton on.

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but https://github.com/jeff2900/Kodi.AmLogic...y.switcher worked very well for me (grab latest zip from release page).

The settings I'm using: in Krypton set refresh rate change to "start/stop," set the delay to a few seconds (in system kodi settings -- I'm using 4), set "hdmi self-adaptation" to "on" in android playback settings (in settings app), and then install and setup that addon. I now have stutter free refresh rate switching working on a box with otherwise poor krypton support.
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(2017-05-15, 20:28)realjohngalt Wrote:
Quote:Can you send me link to that rom (minix based)?
It was something buggy I threw together for testing, and I don't recommend it since the roms on freaktab are far better. In other words, my testing showed there was no real benefit to it (and many issues due to how poorly I "ported" it). If you still want the image, I can upload it.

I'm getting another HDR capable TV for my office/game room, and flashed another s905x clone box from LibreELEC over to android...but this one would only flash a Dolamco firmware that refresh rate switching didn't work in Krypton on.

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but https://github.com/jeff2900/Kodi.AmLogic...y.switcher worked very well for me (grab latest zip from release page).

The settings I'm using: in Krypton set refresh rate change to "start/stop," set the delay to a few seconds (in system kodi settings -- I'm using 4), set "hdmi self-adaptation" to "on" in android playback settings (in settings app), and then install and setup that addon. I now have stutter free refresh rate switching working on a box with otherwise poor krypton support.
i want to try Wink pm me ,tnx
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(2017-05-15, 20:28)realjohngalt Wrote:
Quote:Can you send me link to that rom (minix based)?
It was something buggy I threw together for testing, and I don't recommend it since the roms on freaktab are far better. In other words, my testing showed there was no real benefit to it (and many issues due to how poorly I "ported" it). If you still want the image, I can upload it.

I'm getting another HDR capable TV for my office/game room, and flashed another s905x clone box from LibreELEC over to android...but this one would only flash a Dolamco firmware that refresh rate switching didn't work in Krypton on.

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but https://github.com/jeff2900/Kodi.AmLogic...y.switcher worked very well for me (grab latest zip from release page).

The settings I'm using: in Krypton set refresh rate change to "start/stop," set the delay to a few seconds (in system kodi settings -- I'm using 4), set "hdmi self-adaptation" to "on" in android playback settings (in settings app), and then install and setup that addon. I now have stutter free refresh rate switching working on a box with otherwise poor krypton support.

If you did get refresh rate switching working by porting from the minix rom, I would also like a look at that rom (even if if has bugs).

Cheers
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AMLogic - try and fix your Audio and Video playback problems.3