Kodi Community Forum - Amlogic 912 Questions on DRM and 50Hz

I have a Tanix TX9 Pro box with Android 7.12 attached to a Samsung NU7100 series TV. This box has a 912 AmLogic CPU. It came with a version of Kodi 17 that worked very well until I came up against some DRM issues on Australian FTA. After some reading I decided to update to Kodi 18.2 to get the DRM ability knowing that the resolution switching would be lost. The loss of switching is not an issue as I am only interested in 50hz content.

After installing 18.2 I see that the DRM issue has indeed been solved but I am stuck with a Whitelist with only 1920x1080 60Hz. There is no option to add to the Whitelist, either. It seems that in my research I misunderstood the ability with no switching. I thought I could choose a single resolution and stick with it, but it seems that is not the case. To remedy this I have tried to edit GUIsettings.XML whitelist and resolutions to 1920x1080 50 Hz while having the TV box set to a 3840x2160 50Hz or 1920 x 1080 50Hz resolution and Kodi still starts with the GUI Whitelist showing 1920x1080 60Hz. So They Whitelist data must be overriding the GUIsettings.xml or that data is stored in more than one location.

So I have a couple of questions:

1. I see that the whitelist gui resolution is white font. If I click on it it becomes green font... What is the significance of this font colour change?
2. I am happy with the box in general. Having said that, can anyone offer me a solution to have either 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 50HZ and DRM working? If I need to go back to a previous Kodi install, I am happy to do that.

Thank you in advance.

I thought I best say that I installed 18.2 through the Play Store and I have kept the default skin.

Also, could I trick the system through AdvancedSettings.xml and do something like:

xml:


<advancedsettings>

<adjustrefreshrate>



<override>

<fpsmin>49.00</fpsmin>

<fpsmax>60.10</fpsmax>

<refresh>50.0</refresh>

</override>



</adjustrefreshrate>

</advancedsettings>

Any thoughts?

(2019-05-26, 04:06)Bracketmounts Wrote: [ -> ]2. I am happy with the box in general. Having said that, can anyone offer me a solution to have either 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 50HZ and DRM working? If I need to go back to a previous Kodi install, I am happy to do that.

Thank you in advance.

CoreELEC Kodi Leia running from a Class 10 U1 microSDHC:

https://coreelec.org

(2019-05-26, 18:49)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]
(2019-05-26, 04:06)Bracketmounts Wrote: [ -> ]2. I am happy with the box in general. Having said that, can anyone offer me a solution to have either 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 50HZ and DRM working? If I need to go back to a previous Kodi install, I am happy to do that.

Thank you in advance.

CoreELEC Kodi Leia running from a Class 10 U1 microSDHC:

https://coreelec.org

Thank you but that is not an option for me for various reasons. I am aware of that option and it does not suit. I need specific Android Apps for other uses and dual booting is not something I would like to entertain.

Do you have any comments on my specific questions on why the whitelist change is not being read in Kodi, or about my AdvancedSettings options?

Well I found the answer on the refresh rate and I will post it here if anyone else is looking for a real solution rather than adopt a new OS.

In Android settings
Under Settings > Display turn off Auto Switch to Best Resolution and then set the resolution you want.
go to Playback > Auto framerate mode and set to On (Level 2).

In Kodi System
Player > Videos turn off Adjust Display Refresh Rate and Sync Playback to Display
PVR and Live TV > Playback set Fallback Framerate to 50Hz
System > Display set the Whitelist of 1920x1080 60Hz to green colour.

Works like a charm. I will check the scaling of the Android box set to 1080 and letting the TV upscale to 4k. I will then test the Android box at 4k and see what is the better result. But I currently have silky smooth playback on fast moving sports.

On a side note, I did try the CoreELEC but it wasn't perfect. A lot of messing around with getting some things running. It might be suitable for some people but if you need Android and you are happy with a single resolution, there are answers to have DRM and refresh switching no matter what others have written over the web.

Further to my earlier posts, I have done some testing and found that setting the Android Box to 2k is actually better than my TV upscaling which I found surprising. YMMV based on your TV. I'm seeing Australian FTA feeds at 25 Hz with fast moving sports are a little jittery. True 50Hz are buttery smooth. I will play around with the AdvancedSettings.xml to try and force 25Hz to refresh at 50Hz.

I can confirm that with the Android settings I noted above for auto framerates does change to 24Hz, 25Hz and 50Hz respectively when fed those streams. I haven't tried any 60Hz yet.

I notice Android is offering me 10 bit 422 as well. I will look further at this with regard to 8 bit 444 and RGB 8 and 10 bit.

Also took a look at the cooling on this box. Got a slightly bigger area (40mm square, same height) heat sink and used 1mmx40mmx40mm thermal pads under the sink and then 4mmx40mmx40mm above, drilled a few holes in the side, top and bottom of the case and noticed about a 5 degree drop in temp.

I've got an 11mmx40x40 heat sunk that I will try soon. This will allow me for one x 1mm thermal pad under and 1 above the sink.. I suspect I might get a further reduction in temps.