[Fuddyduddy]

Hi,

Complete newbie here, hoping for good news!

Recently bought a Himedia Q5 media player. Hisilicon 3716C, ARM Cortex A9 1GHz, running Android 4.0.3 ICS. Excellent hardware performance IMO.

I'd be delighted if only I could be enabled to use it in conjunction with XBMC, and have been studying this thread:-
-http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=168268 in hopes that it would be the answer to my prayers. Alas, it isn't. Nowhere (according to Search) does Himedia figure, nor the ARM Cortex A9 1GB CPU. I've tried installing four of the latest builds (in descending sequence) then gave up after each had failed to load.

One (apparent) sign of progress at first was that - unlike '12.2-Frodo' which was the only version I'd previously tried to install and which bailed-out every time with the standard error-message that it wasn't compatible with my hardware - they all (bar one) installed without a hitch. However, that was all that they did do: trying to open them only resulted in my being returned to the same screen. Stalemate.

From this experience I take it that at present there's no version of the experimental build so far developed which will work with the Himedia Q5. Has any other owner of this device found otherwise? Assuming this to be a correct assessment, is there anyone (an XBMC person?...) able/willing to hazard a guess as to whether there ever will be such a build?

[Koying]

Well, according to this (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?pid=1281213), the SOC seems non-neon, so unsupported by us at the basic level, not even speaking of acceleration.

There are non-neon builds floating on other sites, but without H/W acceleration, afaik.

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi Koying

Thanks for the response.

There are non-neon builds floating on other sites, but without H/W acceleration, afaik.

Yes, the '12.2-Frodo' I tried was commended as a non-neon build.

Lack of HW support is (if I've understood right) a killer. That's why I had grasped at the (apparent) straw offered in the thread I cited:- "libstagefright is hopefully the answer that many of you have been waiting for: universal support for hardware video decoding in XBMC".

But from your post (quoting a different thread I hadn't previously read),
(EDIT actually I had - I'd temporarily forgotten)
the laudable objective "universal support" seems not to have been attainable!

I gather that I'm on a completely fruitless quest. Would that be your view too?

[Fuddyduddy]

To enlarge slightly on the previous reply:-

noggins's post which you cited is dated December 2012, whereas the thread I cited (holding out the prospect of "universal" support for HW decoding) was started a month later. I suppose I just assumed that the latter overtook the former, and that was why I invested the hope in it which I did.

So, my question (above) still stands.

Regards

[da-anda]

we dropped neon support, so anything with libstagefright in it won't run on non-neon devices. Can't recall though why it has been dropped - maybe because of issues with stagefright - Koying knows best as he dropped it IIRC

[Koying]

Nope, wasn't me

IIRC, it was already dropped when I joined the team, but no idea why.
Might be for performance reason, but libstagefright wouldn't be affected. theUni might tell...

Now, anyway, is it worth supporting it? That's another question...

[Fuddyduddy]

@da-anda

To summarise (as best I can as a non-techie):-

1. I'm attracted to XBMC, as an alternative to WMC plus extender
   
2. I own an Android (ICS) media player, which incidentally doesn't support Neon
   
3. the prospect that libstagefright might provide a way whereby XBMC can work together with it, with HW acceleration, was immediately appealing
   
4. having installed a few different libstagefright builds I found that my device wouldn't load any of them (though neither did it give a "non-compatible" error-message... )
   
5. I'd like to have the developers' opinion on whether this means I should forget the whole idea, or not
   

we dropped neon support, so anything with libstagefright in it won't run on non-neon devices

'Fraid you've lost me there

I'm very grateful for you guys being willing to answer what to you must seem like rudimentary (dam'-fool?) questions. I hope your patience with me will last just a little longer!

[da-anda]

Fuddyduddy - I'll research why we dropped support for non-NEON devices. But atm you unfortunately have no way to run XBMC with libstagefright on your device (only a older Frodo apk should work, but doesn't have libstagefright support)

[Koying]

One of reasons I can see for dropping support would simply be that no devs has a device to test non-neon builds...

[Memphiz]

Non-Neon was treated beeing to slow in general/ui performance (tegra2 platform was the indicator). Its not that we "dropped" it. It was never there. The custom non-neon builds had changes in it (iirc the whole ndk needed to be compiled with non-neon). Thos changes never made it back to mainline because we don't want to support it. IMO get a current device and not that old non-neon crap. Non-Neon ARM cores are as old as Pentium4 (at least it feels like it).

[da-anda]

ah, sorry, then I mixed NEON with 2.x support. Then it was 2.x support that was dropped in favor of libstagefright or something like that (static linking of stagefright headers or something which are located at a different place in Android 2.x)

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi guys

Success!

I finally tracked-down a (unofficial) build that does install XBMC on my Himedia Q5. I found it linked-to on xdadevelopers website, and its (abbreviated) filename is:
xbmcapp-armeabi-v7a-debug-2013-05-14-no-neon-378f4....apk
(no doubt you'll be aware of it).

So far I've done little except install XBMC and start exploring it; it will take me a while to get everything sorted.

I've no idea whether HW acceleration is being used or not, since I have no HD video files of my own to test with. Test-playing a random selection of Chinese live TV channels resulted in mixed results - some stuttery both video and audio, others not at all and with good pq (to my eye); maybe the former were being transmitted in HD (no way of knowing). My TV has 720p/1080i resolution, not "full HD"

Regards and thanks

[unicronic]

Hi,

I also have a Q5 which I'm in a love-hate relationship with.

It certainly should be powerful enough to handle 720p 10bit files without image quality issues but upon searching the official Chinese forums it appears that it doesn't. Also the optical port on the device produces less than stellar results.

But the default media player is a beast and can play any format off the bat.

On topic though I've found the best combo with XBMC to be the relevant non-neon build + MX player Pro w/custom code(I've tried editing the xml file to look for the default video player but it won't work or I'm not doing it right) and it produces great results.

Buying the Q5 however has allowed my to learn much about the world of Android and neon vs non-neon plus much more. I'm now eyeing up the MiniX Neo X7 which is, potentially, a beast of a machine at a reasonable price.

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi unicronic

Have just caught up with your post.

the optical port on the device produces less than stellar results

I'm a bit dismayed to hear that - what are you playing your audio through? (I was/am planning to connect the Q5 to my Meridian 561).

I've found the best combo with XBMC to be the relevant non-neon build + MX player Pro w/custom code

Could you elaborate on that - what is "the (relevant) non-neon build" you've installed, and from where did you download it?

The build I'm using is cited in my post, and having now after a struggle managed to get DVDViewer PVR Add-on to work with it I'm finding the video is disapointingly choppy - presumably meaning that I'm not getting HW acceleration. If you are getting HW accel with another build I'd be very grateful if you could provide me with a link to it.

Regards

[unicronic]

Hi unicronic

Have just caught up with your post.

the optical port on the device produces less than stellar results

I'm a bit dismayed to hear that - what are you playing your audio through? (I was/am planning to connect the Q5 to my Meridian 561).

I've found the best combo with XBMC to be the relevant non-neon build + MX player Pro w/custom code

Could you elaborate on that - what is "the (relevant) non-neon build" you've installed, and from where did you download it?

The build I'm using is cited in my post, and having now after a struggle managed to get DVDViewer PVR Add-on to work with it I'm finding the video is disapointingly choppy - presumably meaning that I'm not getting HW acceleration. If you are getting HW accel with another build I'd be very grateful if you could provide me with a link to it.

Regards

Hi,

No problems, I'm happy to share more insights.

My surround set-up is two-fold. Firstly I have a Samsung 5.1 surround - it is going on 5 years old but it still shakes the room and makes you duck for cover during war movies.

I used my PS3 typically for optical and the combination were exceptional.

I found the Himedia sound reproduction on 5.1 optical to be quiet and often hard to hear whereas when I switch to the phono jacks it was clear albeit stereo. I have my doubts as to whether it can produce real 5.1 surround or not.

The second option I have is a Turtle Beach PX5 surround headset and, again, with PS3 and even portable devices the sound is excellent but it was just ok with my Q5

On to XBMC and non-neon.

I found at the dedicated XBMC Android site. I don't know the relationship between this and that site but the dl is here http://www.xbmcandroid.com/forums/instal.../830-7.htm

I then used MXplayer pro and the custom non neon arm7 codec for good results.

My honest opinion right now is given how good the Q5's default player is, I would just use Mizuu and the default player. XBMC non neon just isn't there yet and given the quality of non neon device default players, XBMC for Android should really offer a list of compatible apps like most Android App do.

My biggest issue (it is a niche issue for most) with the Q5 is that Anime videos are more increasingly being encoded in Hi10p and the Q5 can't handle it - it has the horse power but doesn't know how to decode it and MXplayer doesn't play that nice with the Q5 on Hi10p.

I was of the belief that mobile chips couldn't handle Hi10p but after trying them in S/W mode on MXplayer with my HTC ONE it proves otherwise.

Also I seem to have bought the Q5 (a dual core STB) at a time when quad-core STB's are getting easier to find.

I'm currently eyeing the MINIX NEO X7 but not certain yet.