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Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding
#31
(2013-01-10, 17:20)Darjk Wrote: Hey,

Just about to receive my ATV1200 that I ordered and just wanted to clarify a few things from this thread.

So running the 20120918 firmware, hardware acceleration works but only in older versions of XBMC (not the latest v12 rc3)?

Running 20121210 has no hardware acceleration, but runs the latest version of XBMC - does this include XBMC builds with AMLPlayer since its using the AML8726-MX chipset, or is it only referring to the standard android build of XBMC?

If running the the AMLPlayer build on android, slre noted that it only has PCM audio output - but if you plug it the box to a audio receiver and enable DTS playthrough, that should solve that problem, yeah?

Lastly, whats the max storage size of an external USB HDD that its capable of reading? I've tried emailing Geniatech with no reply and can't find the answer anywhere on Google. I would assume it would at least support a 2TB HDD, but has anyone tried it with a 3TB HDD?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions!

with 20120918 you can use an AMLPlayer enabled XBMC image and it works, you can find the link in the first post, latest 12RC3 also works but no hardware decoding
with 20121210 AMLPlayer enabled XBMC images don't work, latest 12RC3 works but no hardware decoding

I also got new firmware from Geniatech 20120108, but did not have time to test it yet, here is the link for anyone that would like to try it
http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/a71oA...OZD%2Bajbg
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#32
Update on the new 20120108 firmware... it seems to be a step back from 20121210

AMLPlayer XBMC builds crash when trying to play a video

Latest XBMC RC3 nightly works, but the annoing NAV bar removed in 20121210 is back

So, back to square one, I flashed back to 20120918, but I have to admit latest RC3 nightly works well on 20121210 with slightly visible stutter while streaming, and thats without hardware decoding.

I found it strange that Androind Movie Player or MX Player, will not play my 1080p BDMV files without stutter on the ATV1200, but Android Movie Player on my Pivos XIOS plays them without a problem. The same files play OK in XBMC with AMLPlayer on the ATV1200, but stutter on the latest Pivos XBMC release.
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#33
do you seen the ethernet dropping out with any of these ?
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#34
(2013-01-10, 17:20)Darjk Wrote: Hey,

Just about to receive my ATV1200 that I ordered and just wanted to clarify a few things from this thread.

So running the 20120918 firmware, hardware acceleration works but only in older versions of XBMC (not the latest v12 rc3)?

Running 20121210 has no hardware acceleration, but runs the latest version of XBMC - does this include XBMC builds with AMLPlayer since its using the AML8726-MX chipset, or is it only referring to the standard android build of XBMC?

If running the the AMLPlayer build on android, slre noted that it only has PCM audio output - but if you plug it the box to a audio receiver and enable DTS playthrough, that should solve that problem, yeah?

Lastly, whats the max storage size of an external USB HDD that its capable of reading? I've tried emailing Geniatech with no reply and can't find the answer anywhere on Google. I would assume it would at least support a 2TB HDD, but has anyone tried it with a 3TB HDD?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions!

Where did u buy it?
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#35
(2013-01-11, 06:00)davilla Wrote: do you seen the ethernet dropping out with any of these ?

I am on WiFI, and noticed with 20120108 there is a lot of buffering, and WIFi signal is weaker.

I don't see any buffering on the 1080P BDMV files with other builds, just video stutter or slow motion video
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#36
With 20120918 and 20121210, my custom builds of xbmc run my stress test 1080p h264, fine wired over smb shares... for about an hour, then system ethernet goes pop and I stall, needs a reboot to get it back. Have not tried 20120108 yet.
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#37
Wow so the atv 1200 isnt tough guy with hi def videos huh
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#38
(2013-01-11, 06:00)davilla Wrote: do you seen the ethernet dropping out with any of these ?

I've added a second usb Ethernet adapter and it always works (had to add a start-up script to configure it dough)
The built-in Ethernet, for some reason loses the gateway connectivity after a while - it sees the rest of the network, but can not ping the gw.

I've solved this with is simple daemon script, which pings the gateway a couple of times every two minutes - it's not elegant but it works.
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#39
So my ATV1200 arrived today, plugged it in and started playing around with it and now have a clear picture of what everyone was referring to.

The stock firmware that came with it (think it was dated around October) was very slow, even for keyboard input but for the most part did everything as expected. Updated to the 20121210 and had issues with video playback (crashing) as people have noted, though it wasn't just for XBMC but MX Player and others as well. Though weirdly enough if I went through a file manager / explorer, and used open with 'MX Player' it would play the files perfectly. There seems to be an issue with this firmware in regards to the "internal sd card" not mounting correctly which screws with a lot of apps.

Installed a minor update 20121213 that was suppose to fix the issue, no dice. I then reset the device, erasing all data, etc back to default then used 'Automatic update' to re-flash the system (according to device/kernel info etc its still using the 20121210 firmware and 20121213 kernel). After that, everything was working perfectly, HW acceleration in all media players including XBMC, audio pass through enabled and working correctly as well, sd cards mounting correctly. Only issue I currently have is that even though android is displaying in 1080p, when playing 1080p videos in XBMC, the aspect ratio seems off. Even though I change the aspect ratio in the movie settings, it has no actual effect. Wondering if this is due to the XBMC build I'm using (which compile date is 21st of december), in which case is there an XBMC v12 rc3 with amplayer build available to download, as that might potentially fix aspect ratio issues?

As for where I bought it from, ordered it from http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/...70328.html - took longer than I would of liked for the order to be processed and shipped but it was over the new year holidays so I can't blame them.

Thanks for sharing the latest firmware.
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#40
(2013-01-11, 13:43)Darjk Wrote: Only issue I currently have is that even though android is displaying in 1080p, when playing 1080p videos in XBMC, the aspect ratio seems off. Even though I change the aspect ratio in the movie settings, it has no actual effect. Wondering if this is due to the XBMC build I'm using (which compile date is 21st of december), in which case is there an XBMC v12 rc3 with amplayer build available to download, as that might potentially fix aspect ratio issues?

/sys/class/video/axis must have r/w permission Smile change it and your aspect ratios will be correct.
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#41
(2013-01-11, 13:43)Darjk Wrote: HW acceleration in all media players including XBMC, audio pass through enabled and working correctly as well

Do you suggest here, that if one buys this machine, put its in auto update and installs a recent nightly... everything works
out of the box? Including HW accelleration within xbmc (called dvdplayer i believe).

I am especially suprised that a HW accel. would work out of the box since I thought this was removed out of builds
(closed by Pivos).

Please enlighten me!

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#42
Thanks again Davilla, will give it a try next time I hook it all back up - put it back into the box as I intend to give it as a gift, just the person I'm giving it to isn't tech savvy so wanted it all working and running correctly first. I should be able to change those permissions within Root Explorer shouldn't I?

Menno, not quite as it still needs to be tweaked and configured properly.. or maybe thats just me being pedantic? Though I will say that automatic update did seem to fix a few issues - just not sure how exactly as the firmware version seems to be identical to the 20121210 thats floating around. I'm hoping the new firmware released the other day might solve the video playback issues from the last firmware.

I also had to install 'Startup Manager (free)' to disable some system apps, OOBE or whatever it is was probably the most annoying as every time the device started up it presented you with "Welcome to Enjoy TV Box" setup screens. Also disabled contacts, PreloadInstaller, etc. Disabling 'Phone' seems to change the interface layout which in some aspects I actually preferred as it removed the extra slide frames from the launcher. Still tossing up whether to remove Phone.apk and Telephoney.apk completely as they shouldn't be needed on a set top box. So far with the last few firmware versions I tested, I had no issues with the status bar displaying. Did have that problem with the MK808B though running XBMC v12 rc3. So definitely recommend the Geniatech android boxes over the MK80x sticks.

Also the nightly builds of XBMC don't include amplayer by default (or at least I didn't think they did?) - which is why I'm using the XBMC build available from this thread "MYGICA 25-DEC - xbmcapp-armeabi-v7a-debug.zip" - http://www.futeko.com/forum/index.php?mo...ad&id=5877 Its an older version of XBMC that was compiled on the 21st of December according to the System info within the app. There is also the latest XIOS build of XBMC that was released the other day http://www.pivosforums.com/viewtopic.php...c2ee60b179 - I installed it before and it was running fine, just crashing when trying to play videos but I that was due to the buggered firmware, so that might be a better build of XBMC to use. I kind of stopped changing and testing stuff once I got it to a point of everything working haha Smile Might unpack it again tomorrow to try out the latest firmware combined with the XIOS build of XBMC.

All in all, I think any android box you buy with either a Amlogic 8726-M3, M6, or MX chipset and you should be set. Personally I think the Droid-U2 is a better option for devices but it gets pretty expensive to buy when including all the bits to attach to it plus shipping, plus its not very aesthetically pleasing to have sitting next to a TV.
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#43
Also finally got a reply from Geniatech and this is what they said about external HDD support.

"We tested 4TB external USB HDD on ATV1200, it works ok.

Best Regards.

Judy"

So not sure what the go is. I don't have a 3tb drive to test unfortunately.
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#44
(2013-01-11, 07:00)davilla Wrote: With 20120918 and 20121210, my custom builds of xbmc run my stress test 1080p h264, fine wired over smb shares... for about an hour, then system ethernet goes pop and I stall, needs a reboot to get it back. Have not tried 20120108 yet.

are there any links for these custom builds Smile
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#45
(2013-01-11, 15:36)davilla Wrote: /sys/class/video/axis must have r/w permission Smile change it and your aspect ratios will be correct.

Just checked an it already had rw-rw-w permissions, set it up rw-rw-rw.. aspect ratio is still off, the 1080 width is correct, but its stretching the vertical to fullscreen and not keeping the black bars at the top and bottom.

About to try the XIOS build of XBMC.

Edit:
Installed latest firmware which I can confirm what PeterK said about video's crashing in the 20130107 firmware. Can't find any XBMC build that will play video's without crashing. MX Player however is still working fine. Only difference is they've removed a lot of pre-installed apps like Facebook, Angry birds as far as I can tell. Running more tests to try and find a working solution for this firmware.

2nd Edit:
Automatic update is pointing towards http://geniatech.net/down-eng/upgrade/stvmx/update.xml which contains
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Response ErrorCode="00">
    <Versions >
        <Version Updated="2012-07-04T19:42:00">
            <!--
            <Spi
                id="spi20120704"
                name="SP20120704.img"
                verrec="V1.0.0-3-g61a9f15-dirty(20120704.000000)"
                verubt="V1.0.0-3-g6482b5a-dirty(20120628.192537)"
                verhw="MC4"
                memsize="1024M"
                boardname="stvmx"
                customerId="0xCD000001"
                MD5="56de920f02b988cc0d49ae0d9faa8b3b"
                SizeInKB="2467"
                URL="http://www.geniatech.net/down-eng/upgrade/stvmx/Spi/20120704/update_spi_mx_20120704.zip"
            />
            
            <Basic
                id="V1.03.01MX01_20120705"
                name="PR20120705.img"
                customerId="0xCD000001"
                version="V1.03.01MX01_20120705"
                MD5="fd8092ba66936994417a72f4f2908641"
                SizeInKB="108236"
                attribute="importance"
                URL="http://www.geniatech.net/down-eng/upgrade/stvmx/Firmware/V1.03.01MX01_20120705/update_V1.03.01MX01_20120705_OS40_normal.zip"
            />
            
        </Version>
        
            <Version Updated="2013-01-11T13:00:30">
                <Spi
                id="spi20121210"
                name="SP20121210.img"
                verrec="26a77ab(20121210.164819)"
                verubt="56a5de5(20121210.165348)"
                verhw="MC4"
                memsize="1024M"
                format="media"
                boardname="stvmx"
                customerId="0xCD000001"
                MD5="4c60bc2d4e1e7a7a12c3d7be68a6f174"
                SizeInKB="2614"
                    URL="http://www.geniatech.net/down-eng/upgrade/stvmx/Spi/20121210/update_spi_mx_20121210.zip"
                />
                <Basic
                    id="V1.03.04MX01_20121210"
                    name="PR20121210.img"
                    customerId="0xCD000001"
                    version="V1.03.04MX01_20121210"
                    MD5="cc28c1f99def16b9c0b8c69cf4d856ce"
                    SizeInKB="228970"
                    attribute="importance"
                    URL="http://www.geniatech.net/down-eng/upgrade/stvmx/Firmware/V1.03.04MX01_20121210/update_V1.03.04MX01_20121210_OS41_normal.zip"
                />
            </Version>
-->
    </Versions>
</Response>

Which is the same as the other 20121210 firmware so not sure why it made a difference. About to downgrade from the latest firmware back to the 20121210 with the 20121228 kernel

Last Edit (posting under android):
Okay so after a lot of testing tonight I've concluded that the latest firmware simply does not work what so ever with XBMC. To get XBMC working fairly well do the following.
1) Go into recovery mode (reset + power on)
2) Install the 20121210 SPI update
3) install the 20121210 Firmware update
4) Install the update_patch_xbmc.img (download from http://www.oketuf.com/update_patch_XBMC.zip and rename from *.zip to *.img)
5) Reboot (may need to reboot twice)
6) Install Mygica build of XBMC (version 12 Beta 3) (http://www.oketuf.com/MYGICA%2025-DEC%20...-debug.zip)
7) Should now be able to play HD movies in XBMC with hardware decoding. Still having issues with my aspect ratio though? Will post screenshots soon.
8) Change permissions on /sys/class/video/axis from rw-rw-r to rw-rw-rw (thanks Davilla) to enable changing the aspect, this still doesn't fix the above issue though as even if you zoom out it seems to be cropped.
Optional-----
9) Install Startup Manager (free) - Under user: Disable Youtube. Under System: disable OOBE, Contacts, preload installer, Phone, and anything else you don't need. Under Custom, add XBMC if you want it to boot straight into it.
10) Install Build Prop Editor, tweak settings such as the status bar at the bottom, set hw.nophone to true, etc.....

Time to research this aspect ratio problem. Hopefully this feedback is of some use.
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