Login at Kodi Home

**Tinwarble** · 2014-11-30, 18:44

(2014-11-30, 17:09)popcornmix Wrote: I know nothing about MX Player, but would assume it doesn't render video with GL (and I would assume most media players wouldn't use a 3D engine for rendering 2D video).

Well, it's not just MX Player, even the ES Media Player (in ES File Explorer) renders correctly.

However, be that as it may and just from reading the pages here, it seems that it being a FW isn't definitive, although I may be miss reading the situation. So how can it be proved that it is a FW issue not and issue just with Kodi?

And if it is an issue with the FW, then there's no reason to believe that it's something Amazon will ever fix, nor would I count on anyone getting root to work so a custom ROM can be flashed.

So that really leaves, fix it in Kodi or editing the playercorefactory.xml to use a external player (which doesn't seem to be working, at least not for MX Player on Helix).

harrybuckman · (This post was last modified: 2014-11-30, 18:51 by harrybuckman.)

(2014-11-28, 20:35)harrybuckman Wrote: This is what I am going to do to fix the video quality issue on the FireTV stick.

I am going to have XBMC launch MX player for videos. The hardware acceleration on MX player is far superior than that of XBMC on android.

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Use_externa...on_Android

Note: as of the last mx player build AC3/dolby/dts is no longer supported due to licensing issues. You will have to get the updated codec to support this at XDA here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-...t-t2156254

FYI I am running the fire stick as I posted above. Video quality is perfect, cpu usage is lower. Only downfall is 2 channel audio.

we either need the video fixed in kodi or ac3 passthrough fixed in mx player

**Tinwarble** · 2014-11-30, 19:02

(2014-11-30, 18:48)harrybuckman Wrote:
(2014-11-28, 20:35)harrybuckman Wrote: This is what I am going to do to fix the video quality issue on the FireTV stick.

I am going to have XBMC launch MX player for videos. The hardware acceleration on MX player is far superior than that of XBMC on android.

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Use_externa...on_Android

Note: as of the last mx player build AC3/dolby/dts is no longer supported due to licensing issues. You will have to get the updated codec to support this at XDA here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-...t-t2156254

FYI I am running the fire stick as I posted above. Video quality is perfect, cpu usage is lower. Only downfall is 2 channel audio.

we either need the video fixed in kodi or ac3 passthrough fixed in mx player

What version of Kodi are you running, because as far as I can tell the use of external players has been broken since Gotham, and there have been quite a few posts about it not working.

Also, if you set audio="false" Kodi should still be handling the audio so pass-through should still work.

harrybuckman · (This post was last modified: 2014-11-30, 20:14 by harrybuckman.)

I have been using TVMC. I think it may be based off of gotham 13.2 (even though it says it kodi based)

I have audio= "false" set but for some reason mx player still handles the audio

**Tinwarble** · 2014-11-30, 23:35

(2014-11-30, 17:09)popcornmix Wrote: I know nothing about MX Player, but would assume it doesn't render video with GL (and I would assume most media players wouldn't use a 3D engine for rendering 2D video).

Ok, so this may put a damper on the OpenGL theory, I just tested with VLC beta set to Video Output=OpenGL ES 2.0 and the video quality was as it should be or at the least much better than video output using Kodi.

I don't know what this means, but IF VLC is rendering correctly with GL, then so should Kodi. Right?

harrybuckman · (This post was last modified: 2014-12-01, 00:03 by harrybuckman.)

(2014-11-30, 19:02)Tinwarble Wrote: Also, if you set audio="false" Kodi should still be handling the audio so pass-through should still work.

Unfortunately the "audio" atribute refers to "audio only material" or at least thats what the wiki reads

Really wish I could get MX player to handle the video and xbmc to handle the audio.

**hdmkv** · 2014-12-01, 00:35

So, to use MX player (I assume free version will do?), you just sideload MX player onto FTV Stick, then use playercorefactory.xml file? That's it? 2.0 works? DD/DTS is downmixed? What about MKV's and ISO's that have TrueHD and DTS-MA?

**Tinwarble** · (This post was last modified: 2014-12-01, 00:58 by Tinwarble.)

(2014-12-01, 00:35)hdmkv Wrote: So, to use MX player (I assume free version will do?), you just sideload MX player onto FTV Stick, then use playercorefactory.xml file? That's it? 2.0 works? DD/DTS is downmixed? What about MKV's and ISO's that have TrueHD and DTS-MA?

No, if you're using an official build of XBMC (Gotham or Helix) external players don't work. You'll get a never ending loop of "Select OK when playback is done" or some such wording and no playback.

They're using a non official build TVMC, which is probably why it's working for them.

harrybuckman · 2014-12-01, 02:24

(2014-12-01, 00:35)hdmkv Wrote: So, to use MX player (I assume free version will do?), you just sideload MX player onto FTV Stick, then use playercorefactory.xml file? That's it? 2.0 works? DD/DTS is downmixed? What about MKV's and ISO's that have TrueHD and DTS-MA?

need to use TVMC ,use MX player 1.7.32 (anything above that need the codec updated for AC3, you can get it at XDA) , use the playercorefactory.xml,yes 2.0 audio works, yes DD/DTS is downmixed, not sure about how MX player handle true hd.

ilovemymac · 2014-12-01, 06:50

I have a fire stick and I have played 1080p with no issues and 720p no issues. I'm not sure why you're having pixelation issues because I haven't seen it on my fire stick other than running a tad slower I don't really notice any difference from the fire TV I just have both hardware accelerations checked it seems to work fine

lowridin_guy · 2014-12-01, 15:33

What size TV are you using?

I have an OUYA, Raspi, MiniX Android box and now a FireTV stick. Picture quality is the same on all units exept for the stick. It's not that the image quality is absolutely terrible, but it looks like there is a filter applied making the image not as bright/crisp and it appears faded or blurry.

harrybuckman · (This post was last modified: 2014-12-03, 17:03 by harrybuckman.)

There is a solution right now that will work to have clear video and passthrough. It is to use TVMC with Amazons video player as the external player (I believe it is name bueller in the apps data).
If you point the palyercorefactory.xml
to the amazon player it will play crisp video and output up to DTS/ dolby 7.1. I have not tried it yet but people are already doing this with PLEX to get passthrough.

Just need to fix the external player capability of Kodi/Helix

lowridin_guy · 2014-12-03, 17:28

Thanks for the info!

I'll have to read up on how to enable the external player and have it point to the Amazon player.

Of course if someone could post the already configured .xml file that would be great as well!! Smile

John1234 · 2014-12-03, 17:32

(2014-12-03, 17:02)harrybuckman Wrote: There is a solution right now that will work to have clear video and passthrough. It is to use TVMC with Amazons video player as the external player (I believe it is name bueller in the apps data).
If you point the palyercorefactory.xml
to the amazon player it will play crisp video and output up to DTS/ dolby 7.1. I have not tried it yet but people are already doing this with PLEX to get passthrough.

Just need to fix the external player capability of Kodi/Helix

That does not work if your media resides on an SMB share (as mine does on an Unraid server). The only way to accomplish that would be to mount the SMB share using something like CifsManager (like this). But that requires root which we don't have. If someone knows how to accomplish that, I would really like to know.

harrybuckman · (This post was last modified: 2014-12-03, 18:38 by harrybuckman.)

(2014-12-03, 17:28)lowridin_guy Wrote: Thanks for the info!

I'll have to read up on how to enable the external player and have it point to the Amazon player.

Of course if someone could post the already configured .xml file that would be great as well!!

I will post mine once I do it. Most likely won't be untill tomorrow.