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HappyStreaming · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-07, 09:32 by HappyStreaming.)

Supported Video Decoding Formats

I notice that Ouya is able to play a lot more videos than Amazon Fire TV, especially on the iLive add-on and HD movies on Navi-X. Could someone confirm my observation?

I did a little research on the Tegra 3 featured in the Ouya vs the SnapDragon 600 used in the Amazon Fire TV.

Tegra 3, according to http://www.ouyaface.com/2012/07/ouya-har...specs.html, supports the following video formats:
H.264 (HP @ 40Mbps)
VC-1 AP
MPEG2
MPEG-4
DivX 4/5
XviD HT
H.263
Theora
VP8
WMV
Sorenson Spark
Real Video
VP6

SnapDragon 600, according to Amazon, supports the following video formats:
H.263
H.264
MPEG4-SP
VC1

The list is a lot less for SnapDragon 600. I'm not sure if I correctly understand the capabilities of these two systems. Can someone set me straight? Should I stick with the Ouya which is currently able to stream from more sources in XBMC or betting on additional hardware decoding updates from Amazon or perhaps a later version of XBMC? I do like the Amazon Fire TV since it is considerably faster and the video quality is better but only when it streams. I'm new to XBMC and hardware decoding / software decoding / video formats, so I would greatly appreciate more detailed explanations.

Thanks a lot!

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2014-07-07, 11:19

Both chips most likely can support the same codecs hardware wise, but in both cases a lot of those codecs are restricted by firmware. For example, the OUYA can't decode MPEG2 in hardware, even though it is listed for the SoC.

As far as XBMC is concerned, it sounds like both Fire TV and OUYA handle the same formats for hardware video decoding.

poplap · 2014-07-07, 15:37

Now I don't know about all the codecs but a quad core cortex-A15 chip @ 1.5ghz should be able to handle a lot of the codecs that are not in hardware at HD and with the cpu being a A15 vs the Tegra's A9 chip it would probably perform better depending on optimization.

Honestly though if it ain't broke don't fix it. The FTV is great and usually stable further improvements will come with updates and what but if the Ouya is still pulling its wait no real need to replace, unless of course you like playing with new tech Wink

jocala · 2014-07-07, 21:09

http://jocala.com/adbfire.html

adbFire V1.0 changelog

Fix for OS X Fire TV root

Application home directory change: “adbFire”

Addition of preferences dialog

Addition of support for XBMC forks (BeyondXBMC, XBMCLauncher, etc)

Pulled files folder preference

Addition of /sdcard/ to list of push/pull folders

Addition of file deletion

Towelroot and SuperSU updated

Database error checks

Reboot Device

Reboot Recovery

Fire TV updates off/on

Mount /system partition rw/ro

Take screen shots

Install/Uninstall Busybox

Help file additions

mute · 2014-07-08, 01:57

I don't think I've seen this mentioned in here before, but it's been annoying me. If I leave Gotham 13.1 running on my ftv, even with my loglevel set to -1 in the advancedsettings.xml, it fills up my /sdcard and I'll have to `adb shell rm /sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/temp/xbmc.log` the log file and restart xbmc to get my ftv back into action.

Has anyone else run into this?

cdkao · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-08, 22:36 by cdkao.)

(2014-07-07, 21:09)jocala Wrote: http://jocala.com/adbfire.html

adbFire V1.0 changelog

Fix for OS X Fire TV root

Application home directory change: “adbFire”

Addition of preferences dialog

Addition of support for XBMC forks (BeyondXBMC, XBMCLauncher, etc)

Pulled files folder preference

Addition of /sdcard/ to list of push/pull folders

Addition of file deletion

Towelroot and SuperSU updated

Database error checks

Reboot Device

Reboot Recovery

Fire TV updates off/on

Mount /system partition rw/ro

Take screen shots

Install/Uninstall Busybox

Help file additions

I love your little app Jocala! Thank you for creating it!

jocala · 2014-07-08, 23:15

(2014-07-08, 22:35)cdkao Wrote:
(2014-07-07, 21:09)jocala Wrote: http://jocala.com/adbfire.html

adbFire V1.0 changelog

Fix for OS X Fire TV root

Application home directory change: “adbFire”

Addition of preferences dialog

Addition of support for XBMC forks (BeyondXBMC, XBMCLauncher, etc)

Pulled files folder preference

Addition of /sdcard/ to list of push/pull folders

Addition of file deletion

Towelroot and SuperSU updated

Database error checks

Reboot Device

Reboot Recovery

Fire TV updates off/on

Mount /system partition rw/ro

Take screen shots

Install/Uninstall Busybox

Help file additions

I love your little app Jocala! Thank you for creating it!

Thank you!

MaxieWagner · 2014-07-09, 04:02

Finally figured out I needed to ditch SAFARI and try the whole process using CHROME.

All I can say is….

BRILLIANT!

aLittletank · 2014-07-09, 05:41

I am considering Fire TV for a secondary tv to run XBMC. My family is used to XBMC on our primary screen (HTPC) using Confluence and thumbnail displays for our movies. Price and ease of use is the reason for considering the Fire TV. I have a couple questions though...

Are there step by step directions for getting XBMC running well on Fire TV?.

Will I have any issues streaming via wifi from my 4TB WD Mycloud to Fire Tv?

thanks for the help!

nickr · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-09, 07:39 by nickr.)

(2014-07-09, 05:41)aLittletank Wrote: I am considering Fire TV for a secondary tv to run XBMC. My family is used to XBMC on our primary screen (HTPC) using Confluence and thumbnail displays for our movies. Price and ease of use is the reason for considering the Fire TV. I have a couple questions though...

Are there step by step directions for getting XBMC running well on Fire TV?.

Read the first post in this thread.

Quote:Will I have any issues streaming via wifi from my 4TB WD Mycloud to Fire Tv?

thanks for the help!

will wifi work? - how long is a piece of string? How many wireless devices are in your area? What appliances do you have which interfere with wifi? Best advice? avoid wifi for an HTPC. Run a wire, get powerline networking, do anything but use wifi!

schwang · 2014-07-09, 17:19

I just have a couple issues with XBMC on the AFTV and I'm wondering if anyone has any solutions:

1) The internal storage space is not adequate for xbmc. Most of my stuff is on external hard drives attached to my computer. With xbmc, it uses the storage of the device to cache all of the artwork and info for my videos, which fills up the aftv in no time. How can you guys be running xbmc this way? (I don't want to root the device if I can help it)

2) I can never seem to get xbmc back up to work properly. It will back up to my computer, but when I choose restore, it never seems to find any files to restore. I've been trying this on different versions of xbmc and still no luck.

I prefer xbmc over Plex, but these are big drawbacks for me.

Any help is appreciated.

putnam_press · 2014-07-09, 17:37

Hi all!
I am about to pull the trigger on the FTV, just making sure that XBMC plays MKV files even though Amazon doesnt list it as a supported codec?

jocala · 2014-07-09, 18:03

(2014-07-09, 17:19)schwang Wrote: I just have a couple issues with XBMC on the AFTV and I'm wondering if anyone has any solutions:

1) The internal storage space is not adequate for xbmc. Most of my stuff is on external hard drives attached to my computer. With xbmc, it uses the storage of the device to cache all of the artwork and info for my videos, which fills up the aftv in no time. How can you guys be running xbmc this way? (I don't want to root the device if I can help it)

2) I can never seem to get xbmc back up to work properly. It will back up to my computer, but when I choose restore, it never seems to find any files to restore. I've been trying this on different versions of xbmc and still no luck.

I prefer xbmc over Plex, but these are big drawbacks for me.

Any help is appreciated.

I use these lines in advancedsettings.xml

Code:
<pathsubstitution>

  <substitute>

    <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from>

    <to>smb://bignas1/media/xbmc/Thumbnails/</to>

  </substitute>

</pathsubstitution>

It offloads my thumbnails to my nas.

I can't speak for the addon backup. I use the backup I built into adbFire. It works fine for me.

schwang · 2014-07-09, 19:36

(2014-07-09, 18:03)jocala Wrote:
(2014-07-09, 17:19)schwang Wrote: I just have a couple issues with XBMC on the AFTV and I'm wondering if anyone has any solutions:

1) The internal storage space is not adequate for xbmc. Most of my stuff is on external hard drives attached to my computer. With xbmc, it uses the storage of the device to cache all of the artwork and info for my videos, which fills up the aftv in no time. How can you guys be running xbmc this way? (I don't want to root the device if I can help it)

2) I can never seem to get xbmc back up to work properly. It will back up to my computer, but when I choose restore, it never seems to find any files to restore. I've been trying this on different versions of xbmc and still no luck.

I prefer xbmc over Plex, but these are big drawbacks for me.

Any help is appreciated.
This is something that I can use. Is there any way you could walk me through it? I don't have the expertise I'm afraid.

I use these lines in advancedsettings.xml

Code:
<pathsubstitution> <substitute> <from>special://profile/Thumbnails/</from> <to>smb://bignas1/media/xbmc/Thumbnails/</to> </substitute> </pathsubstitution>

It offloads my thumbnails to my nas.

I can't speak for the addon backup. I use the backup I built into adbFire. It works fine for me.

DaveNinja · 2014-07-09, 19:38

I havent had a problem with the cache of thumbnails filling the internal memory. I assumed it just used the thumbnails and images from the folder of the tv show or movie, which would be located on a different computer (shared via NFS). Does xbmc copy the thumbnails into its own cache?