[Steve_10]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a A95X MAXII  and installed Kodi 18.9.
I've used this on a Sony Android TV (KD-43XD8088) with no problems.

I'm only using Kodi to play from a couple of ext HD (1xWD 4tb and 1WD 5tb), so no addons installed.

The same drives connected to the TV play faultlessly, no frame drops.
Through the A95 no matter what format  I play I'm getting frame drops every couple of seconds? (SD through to 4k,).

I bought this box because all the reviews I'd watched showed a perfect playback of everything with Kodi...
I've tried tweaking all settings for video that I can find in the Expert menus and nothing helps.

Can anyone suggest what I need to do to get rid of this problem?

Many thanks...

[JBA6]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a A95X MAXII  and installed Kodi 18.9.
I've used this on a Sony Android TV (KD-43XD8088) with no problems.

I'm only using Kodi to play from a couple of ext HD (1xWD 4tb and 1WD 5tb), so no addons installed.

The same drives connected to the TV play faultlessly, no frame drops.
Through the A95 no matter what format  I play I'm getting frame drops every couple of seconds? (SD through to 4k,).

I bought this box because all the reviews I'd watched showed a perfect playback of everything with Kodi...
I've tried tweaking all settings for video that I can find in the Expert menus and nothing helps.

Can anyone suggest what I need to do to get rid of this problem?

Many thanks...

Are these two drives hard drives and if so are they only powered from the USB socket on the A95X Max II?
I have the previous A95X Max model and mine plays reliably from a 120GB USB 3.0 SSD powered by the one USB 3.0 socket into which it is plugged. I have also tried a hard drive fitted to the internal compartment and that too played reliably but made just enough mechanical noise to be audible where I sit across the room from my TV so I took it out. I suggest you try playing some of your media files from a USB flash drive instead and see if that works reliably. By the way I'm also using Kodi 18.9 because the Transparency skin which I prefer is not compatible with Kodi 19.

JB

[mo123]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a A95X MAXII  and installed Kodi 18.9.
I've used this on a Sony Android TV (KD-43XD8088) with no problems.

I'm only using Kodi to play from a couple of ext HD (1xWD 4tb and 1WD 5tb), so no addons installed.

The same drives connected to the TV play faultlessly, no frame drops.
Through the A95 no matter what format  I play I'm getting frame drops every couple of seconds? (SD through to 4k,).

I bought this box because all the reviews I'd watched showed a perfect playback of everything with Kodi...
I've tried tweaking all settings for video that I can find in the Expert menus and nothing helps.

Can anyone suggest what I need to do to get rid of this problem?

Many thanks...

That device doesn't support auto frame-rate switching, used to remove stutter.
Try to see if there is a CoreELEC version available for your device and use that.

[JBA6]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a A95X MAXII  and installed Kodi 18.9.
I've used this on a Sony Android TV (KD-43XD8088) with no problems.

I'm only using Kodi to play from a couple of ext HD (1xWD 4tb and 1WD 5tb), so no addons installed.

The same drives connected to the TV play faultlessly, no frame drops.
Through the A95 no matter what format  I play I'm getting frame drops every couple of seconds? (SD through to 4k,).

I bought this box because all the reviews I'd watched showed a perfect playback of everything with Kodi...
I've tried tweaking all settings for video that I can find in the Expert menus and nothing helps.

Can anyone suggest what I need to do to get rid of this problem?

Many thanks...

That device doesn't support auto frame-rate switching, used to remove stutter.
Try to see if there is a CoreELEC version available for your device and use that.

I can confirm that my A95X Max works perfectly with CoreELEC v9.2.6 running from a MicroSD card (not yet tried the latest legacy build which is 9.2.7). My A95X Max has an S905X2 SoC whereas the OP's box has an S905X3 SoC. A CoreELEC build is available for the S905X3 so chances are it would also work well. I would add however that installing CoreELEC and getting everything working reliably including having the box shut-down and not reboot when you use the power button to switch off along with getting the front panel display working is not straightforward. Some other boxes and single board computers like the Odroid N2+ are much easier to setup and configure with CoreELEC.

JB

[Steve_10]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a A95X MAXII  and installed Kodi 18.9.
I've used this on a Sony Android TV (KD-43XD8088) with no problems.

I'm only using Kodi to play from a couple of ext HD (1xWD 4tb and 1WD 5tb), so no addons installed.

The same drives connected to the TV play faultlessly, no frame drops.
Through the A95 no matter what format  I play I'm getting frame drops every couple of seconds? (SD through to 4k,).

I bought this box because all the reviews I'd watched showed a perfect playback of everything with Kodi...
I've tried tweaking all settings for video that I can find in the Expert menus and nothing helps.

Can anyone suggest what I need to do to get rid of this problem?

Many thanks...

That device doesn't support auto frame-rate switching, used to remove stutter.
Try to see if there is a CoreELEC version available for your device and use that.

I can confirm that my A95X Max works perfectly with CoreELEC v9.2.6 running from a MicroSD card (not yet tried the latest legacy build which is 9.2.7). My A95X Max has an S905X2 SoC whereas the OP's box has an S905X3 SoC. A CoreELEC build is available for the S905X3 so chances are it would also work well. I would add however that installing CoreELEC and getting everything working reliably including having the box shut-down and not reboot when you use the power button to switch off along with getting the front panel display working is not straightforward. Some other boxes and single board computers like the Odroid N2+ are much easier to setup and configure with CoreELEC.

JB

Thanks.  I've spent the morning getting CoreELEC 9.2.7 working and it's plays back perfectly.
But yes, I see that power off just reboots the box. I'll look in to that.
I'm not concerned about the display, I sit too far from the box to see it anyway.

If it becomes a problem I'll just get a Odroid N2+ to replace it, but at the moment the smooth playing of the videos was the most important thing...

[Steve_10]

That device doesn't support auto frame-rate switching, used to remove stutter.
Try to see if there is a CoreELEC version available for your device and use that.

I can confirm that my A95X Max works perfectly with CoreELEC v9.2.6 running from a MicroSD card (not yet tried the latest legacy build which is 9.2.7). My A95X Max has an S905X2 SoC whereas the OP's box has an S905X3 SoC. A CoreELEC build is available for the S905X3 so chances are it would also work well. I would add however that installing CoreELEC and getting everything working reliably including having the box shut-down and not reboot when you use the power button to switch off along with getting the front panel display working is not straightforward. Some other boxes and single board computers like the Odroid N2+ are much easier to setup and configure with CoreELEC.

JB

Thanks.  I've spent the morning getting CoreELEC 9.2.7 working and it's plays back perfectly.
But yes, I see that power off just reboots the box. I'll look in to that.
I'm not concerned about the display, I sit too far from the box to see it anyway.

If it becomes a problem I'll just get a Odroid N2+ to replace it, but at the moment the smooth playing of the videos was the most important thing...

Ok, so I read that the box won't switch off if the display isn't working!  Great, could you post a link to a fix?  I've tried for the last couple of hours to find one without any luck. . .

[JBA6]

I can confirm that my A95X Max works perfectly with CoreELEC v9.2.6 running from a MicroSD card (not yet tried the latest legacy build which is 9.2.7). My A95X Max has an S905X2 SoC whereas the OP's box has an S905X3 SoC. A CoreELEC build is available for the S905X3 so chances are it would also work well. I would add however that installing CoreELEC and getting everything working reliably including having the box shut-down and not reboot when you use the power button to switch off along with getting the front panel display working is not straightforward. Some other boxes and single board computers like the Odroid N2+ are much easier to setup and configure with CoreELEC.

JB

Thanks.  I've spent the morning getting CoreELEC 9.2.7 working and it's plays back perfectly.
But yes, I see that power off just reboots the box. I'll look in to that.
I'm not concerned about the display, I sit too far from the box to see it anyway.

If it becomes a problem I'll just get a Odroid N2+ to replace it, but at the moment the smooth playing of the videos was the most important thing...

Ok, so I read that the box won't switch off if the display isn't working!  Great, could you post a link to a fix?  I've tried for the last couple of hours to find one without any luck. . .

I've not seen the suggestion you mention that the box won't switch off if the display isn't working and as I first installed CoreELEC some time ago when CoreELEC builds did switch off reliably I already had the display working when v9.2.3 and later builds introduced that problem.

Anyway the fix that works on my box is to replace the 9.2.7 dtb.img file with the one that was included with version 9.2.2. This has worked on my box for all builds from 9.2.3 to 9.2.7 to which I've updated today. In case you wondered I haven't tried any of the CoreELEC 19 builds and don't plan on doing so due to the incompatibility of the Transparency skin which for me provides a perfect UI for music playback with synchronised lyrics (I use this feature a lot). I would add that my box does sometimes takes more than a minute to switch off (feels like forever) but with this mod it always does switch off eventually.

Follow the links on the CoreELEC website to find the older versions (click on Assets at the end of the release notes for the relevant version):
https://github.com/CoreELEC/CoreELEC/releases/

JB

[Steve_10]

Thanks.  I've spent the morning getting CoreELEC 9.2.7 working and it's plays back perfectly.
But yes, I see that power off just reboots the box. I'll look in to that.
I'm not concerned about the display, I sit too far from the box to see it anyway.

If it becomes a problem I'll just get a Odroid N2+ to replace it, but at the moment the smooth playing of the videos was the most important thing...

Ok, so I read that the box won't switch off if the display isn't working!  Great, could you post a link to a fix?  I've tried for the last couple of hours to find one without any luck. . .

I've not seen the suggestion you mention that the box won't switch off if the display isn't working and as I first installed CoreELEC some time ago when CoreELEC builds did switch off reliably I already had the display working when v9.2.3 and later builds introduced that problem.

Anyway the fix that works on my box is to replace the 9.2.7 dtb.img file with the one that was included with version 9.2.2. This has worked on my box for all builds from 9.2.3 to 9.2.7 to which I've updated today. In case you wondered I haven't tried any of the CoreELEC 19 builds and don't plan on doing so due to the incompatibility of the Transparency skin which for me provides a perfect UI for music playback with synchronised lyrics (I use this feature a lot). I would add that my box does sometimes takes more than a minute to switch off (feels like forever) but with this mod it always does switch off eventually.

Follow the links on the CoreELEC website to find the older versions (click on Assets at the end of the release notes for the relevant version):
https://github.com/CoreELEC/CoreELEC/releases/

JB

As I understand it, the problem with the display and shutdown is the firmware isn't talking to the display at all (it just shows 'boot' all the time). When the unit attempts to power off it can't close down the display so just reboots.  At least that's what appears to be happening with mine. . .

Ok, just to show that I'm new at this...  I can't find the dtb.img file??  I've downloaded both the generic builds for 9.2.2 I've opened them with 7zip and searched through the dir tree and I can't see it?  I've even burned one to another sd and I still can't find it!
I know I must be missing something obvious ( and I don't have a problem with stuff like this as a rule), but where in the dir tree do I find it??

[JBA6]

We might be overstaying our welcome in an Android forum with this discussion of CoreELEC, however in the COREELEC partition of the of the SD card that you've burned you'll find the device_trees folder. The file I use for my A95X Max is the g12a_s905x2_4g_1gbit.dtb file which when copied to the root folder I rename to dtb.img to replace the default one. Your problem may be that there is no s905x3 file which supports the newer SoC on your box. Which .dtb file did you initially use?

FYI I use the free Redo Rescue v3.02 bootable Linux distro, which I run from a USB stick, to backup my MicroSD card to an image file. This takes only a couple of minutes to either do the backup or to restore it to the card and makes it really easy to get the card back to where it was before when experimenting. CoreELEC sometimes complains when I next boot from the card after a backup/restore and wants to repair the file system but if it does just wait until it's done, then it'll reboot again and all should be back as it was.

The other thing worth mentioning is that to get the display working was quite easy on my box. It was just necessary to copy the appropriate vfd.conf file to /STORAGE/.config/ (which is a hidden system folder so I used a Linux distro to get at it) on the microSD card (there may be other ways to get at this folder). Your problem again is that there may not be a compatible vfd.conf file for your newer box. You can read more about this in the following discusssion but as you'll see it's a very long discussion.
https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/how-to-...re-vfd/427

JB

[Steve_10]

We might be overstaying our welcome in an Android forum with this discussion of CoreELEC, however in the COREELEC partition of the of the SD card that you've burned you'll find the device_trees folder. The file I use for my A95X Max is the g12a_s905x2_4g_1gbit.dtb file which when copied to the root folder I rename to dtb.img to replace the default one. Your problem may be that there is no s905x3 file which supports the newer SoC on your box. Which .dtb file did you initially use?

FYI I use the free Redo Rescue v3.02 bootable Linux distro, which I run from a USB stick, to backup my MicroSD card to an image file. This takes only a couple of minutes to either do the backup or to restore it to the card and makes it really easy to get the card back to where it was before when experimenting. CoreELEC sometimes complains when I next boot from the card after a backup/restore and wants to repair the file system but if it does just wait until it's done, then it'll reboot again and all should be back as it was.

The other thing worth mentioning is that to get the display working was quite easy on my box. It was just necessary to copy the appropriate vfd.conf file to /STORAGE/.config/ (which is a hidden system folder so I used a Linux distro to get at it) on the microSD card (there may be other ways to get at this folder). Your problem again is that there may not be a compatible vfd.conf file for your newer box. You can read more about this in the following discusssion but as you'll see it's a very long discussion.
https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/how-to-...re-vfd/427

JB

Yes, I had missed something obvious!   I miss read your post and assumed (you should never assume...)  that what you were saying was that you were using the latest CoreELEC wrapper with the older version of Kodi and that's what the image file was!  So I was looking for an actual image file!  Dho.  I've only been at this a few days and haven't gotten all terms straight in my head yet.
I can remember which file I used to start with (I've reformed the sd).. I tried g12a_s905x2_4g_1gbit.dtb and the box wouldn't even boot. I'm using sm1.x905x3_4g and that boots the box but no display still. I'll try a few more and see if I get a better result.
I'll go through the other link as well, but it'll take a while!

Yes, I guess that this it the wrong forum!  I'll post on the CoreELEC form now on.

Thank you for all your help, it's appreciated...