Hi,
I've just bought an android TV Box with Kodi pre-installed and having issues with what I can surmise is Kodi related.
The box is an M8S, running andriod 4.4.2, Kodi 14.2, connected via LAN. I connect to my server via UPnP. If using the Android media player itself it's via DLNA.
First off, I bought the device as it has a faster CPU and memory than a WDTV box and thought it would play ISO files better. However, it won't find any ISO files whatsoever! Can find MP4, MKV, MPG not worries. Any thoughts on what I can check? Am I missing an add on?
The second issue is that in Kodi it will not play MPEG files without freezing and spluttering. These were recorded using Magix and played fine on the WDTV box and also on the android media centre player (although wrong aspect ratio) included with the android box.
Another issue is that Kodi will not play anything recorded on live TV. I capture these with an AverTV USB dongle onto a Seagate Central NAS and then try and play back with Kodi. The files are visible but will not play. They'll play again on the android Media Centre player (again with the wrong aspect ratio), on a PC but not on Kodi.
I there something I'm missing here? I've read though some of the FAQ and nothing seems to fit.
After playing around with this for the last few days I'm at a stand still I'm thinking Kodi and/or Android really isn't ready for the market yet.Is this the case?
Thanks
Pete
the box you have has issues with those formats if you want the best IMO android machine (possibly even the best non pc kodi device) right now is the nvidia shield tv as it plays all the formats you have mentioned with no problem and can work with live tv turner PERFECT the m8 boxes are all over these forums with problems
mpeg4 is very likely disabled in the version of Kodi you are using.
mpeg2 in .vob files found on ISO's will not play properly on any AMLogic platform
Upgrade to Kodi 15.2 and if that still does not work, you have rubbish Firmware which is very common on these cheap M8 boxes.
You may be able to fix Kodi 15.2 if you can follow this:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2123163
EDIT: Fixed by Koying, just recently.
Don't buy a nVIDIA Shield if you plan on watching any sort of live or recorded TV. It uses basic blurry Bob deinterlacing.
The RPi2, AMLogic and Intel platforms give superior results for TV viewing.
(2015-11-15, 14:41)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]mpeg4 is very likely disabled in the version of Kodi you are using.
mpeg2 in .vob files found on ISO's will not play properly on any AMLogic platform
Upgrade to Kodi 15.2 and if that still does not work, you have rubbish Firmware which is very common on these cheap M8 boxes.
You may be able to fix Kodi 15.2 if you can follow this:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2123163
Don't buy a nVIDIA Shield if you plan on watching any sort of live or recorded TV. It uses basic blurry Bob deinterlacing.
The RPi2, AMLogic and Intel platforms give superior results for TV viewing.
just so you know live tv looks perfect on my nvidia shield tv using hauppauge pvr 100% perfect you must not have it setup right if it doesnt look good
It may play perfect, but the picture quality difference between blurry Bob software deinterlacing for SD content and the more Advanced deinterlacing you get on the RPI2, AMLogic and Intel Platforms is visually quite easy to spot. Bob video, especially SD, will be a bit dull and soft around the edges of any video played and the others will show bright sharp pictures with crisp edging.
If your happy with Bob software deinterlacing that's all that really matters, especially if you're watching HD content where the blurriness does not show up so much. I put up with it for years and years.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys
(2015-11-15, 14:41)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]mpeg4 is very likely disabled in the version of Kodi you are using.
mpeg2 in .vob files found on ISO's will not play properly on any AMLogic platform
Upgrade to Kodi 15.2 and if that still does not work, you have rubbish Firmware which is very common on these cheap M8 boxes.
I'll see if I can upgrade the unit and see how it goes.
Sorry, typo in the original post. MPEG4 files play fine - generally. It's mainly the recorded off TV MPEG2 files that seem to have the issues only in Kodi. The media player included with the android box plays them (although sometimes at the wrong aspect ratio).
As for ISO files, the unit can't seem to find them when you browse the folders - neither in kodi or the included media player of the M8S box.
I did a bit more reading and turned off the amlogic codec in Kodi. Kodi then started playing the MPEG2 files for a while then would either not fast forward correctly through the file or would just crash. Then I disable the libstagefright codec and it was about the same. Now when I enable libstagefright it's not playing the files again
Thanks guys
(2015-11-15, 17:21)rontonomo Wrote: [ -> ]just so you know live tv looks perfect on my nvidia shield tv using hauppauge pvr 100% perfect you must not have it setup right if it doesnt look good
This mpeg2 TV issue has been fixed by Koying just recently with an Android revert to allow mpeg2 to Hardware decode again for TV viewing purposes.
(2015-12-09, 12:52)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]mpeg2 TV issue has been fixed by Koying just recently with an Android revert
Sorry, what do you mean by this? What do I have to do to my AMlogic box to fix the MPEG2 issues? Thanks
(2015-11-15, 14:41)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]mpeg2 in .vob files found on ISO's will not play properly on any AMLogic platform
There is currently no fix anywhere for playing back this very Specific combo on AMLogic devices.
You can try turning Amcodec Hardware acceleration off in the Video - Playback settings menu and then it just uses ffmpeg Software decoding for playback. You will probably get mixed results.
mpeg2 Live TV playback is fine, its just mpeg2 in .vob containers that is the issue.
So any idea why my android box won't find any ISO files at all? The WDTV unit I also have can see them, but chokes when you load a big file into them. That's why I thought I'd buy the android device as it was suppossingly quicker and more memory? I think I'm regretting the purchase. Cheers
Throw OpenELEC on it and a whole new world will open up. Its very likely you can just plug a micro SDHC card with an OpenELEC image into this device (if possible) and it will autoboot straight into OpenELEC Kodi:
http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-supp...tv-players
Ok - thanks. Yeah it's got a slot in the side for an SD card. I'll give it a whirl.
You have to use FTP server to access iso (all) files from your personal cloud storage and put the correct path of your files folder.
For example
Add network location
protocal : Ftp
Server address : (Your personal cloud ip) Ex.192.168.1....
Remote path : (your folder path) Ex. admin/download/......
Port : 21 (default)
Username : ..........
Password : .........
If you cannot access to the path then you have to forward port from your router to your personal cloud storage device (default for ftp is 21)
Thanks for the help Guys,
Six months seems like a long time, but it somewhat sorted itself out eventually.
After the android box got sat in the naughty corner for a few months, I decided to have another go.
Firstly I buggered off the TVaddons install and just went with the latest kodi Jarvis. This seems to have made even the android box behave less erratically and more stable - especially with playback of MPEG-2 files (disabling Amlogic acceleration helps even more). This is really an interim thing where I'd planned to re-encode all files into x264 eventually as I have time. But at least they play.
I also decided to stop stuffing around recording programs using USB plugin dongles. Seems the streams are just too erratic for any player so I bit the bullet and bough a new TV set top box that records live TV and I can copy the files off it if I want to keep them. The files produced seem to play back more to the liking of kodi and the android box.
I've also been working hard getting emby up and running on the QNAP and now that they have their addon for Kodi working, it integrated nicely with kodi! I'm not too concerned with the other servers now, just use the QNAP as the main and the others are a backup of content if something goes astray (like a few missing video files for some reason).
Can't seem to get emby to play ISO's but that's another issue. At the moment I'll just rip them using MakeMKV and convert to MP4 as I get the time. At least I can rip the main movie and extras. While it would be nice to just rip to ISOs I don't think the hardware and software have caught up to each other just yet. But I'm about 90% happier than I was!