[shomari]

If this is all true then does it make the GPU a Mali T624 and not a Mali T764?

.

GPU is an ARM Mali T76X w/ 4 cores - Mali T764; that part I no longer question.

[shomari]

I was told by the factory that XBMC handles HEVC hardware decoding on the RK3288 tv box.

I didn't believe it, so I've always deleted the included XBMC build and installed a nightly Kodi instead.

Today I decided to test the factory's claims due to this ongoing thread. Look at the difference in CPU utilization between the two builds (built in XBMC vs Kodi nightly)

Just at a glance, could this be just a standard deviation, or something more? Playback states were identical, nothing running in background and file was the same. Notice the built-in XBMC player identifies the video information as amc-hevc and the Kodi build player identifies it as ff-hevc.





The Kodi build eventually maxed out at 100% core utilization on all cores. That's what made it even more strange.

[jjd-uk]

There's a definite difference in the decoders used going by the P lines. Bottom image shows ff-hevc so this is the software ffmpeg hevc decoder in use, which makes sense as hevc support was added in Helix via ffmpeg, however the top image shows something called amc-hevc in use so ffmpeg is definitely not in use on that build.

[User 231261]

20% vs 80% CPU is not a standard deviation... looks to me like HW decoding of h265 which the chip claims it can do.
Is the factory xbmc different from the public release or is it advanced configuration?

Ha.. the plot thickens...

[Milhouse]

Based on the information in the following graphic:



the RK3288 has a GPU with a triangle fill rate of 300 MTriangle/s.

I know it's only Wikipedia (and it's missing the fill rate information for the T-6xx, which seems quite hard to come by), but with the Mali 400 at 55 MTriangles/s, and T-760 at 1066 MTriangle/s, the GPU in the RK3288 looks a lot more likely to be a T-624 than a T-764.

Of course it's entirely possible that the numbers in the above graphic are just wrong, as Rockchip seem to have difficulty quoting anything with any certainty...

[shomari]

20% vs 80% CPU is not a standard deviation... looks to me like HW decoding of h265 which the chip claims it can do.
Is the factory xbmc different from the public release or is it advanced configuration?

Ha.. the plot thickens...

Both factory version XBMC and public version Kodi were set up as 1:1 as possible before testing. There were minimal differences, mostly due to build versions - the factory modded distribution is 13 alpha-x while Kodi is of course much newer.

[nickr]

I was told by the factory that XBMC handles HEVC hardware decoding on the RK3288 tv box.

I didn't believe it, so I've always deleted the included XBMC build and installed a nightly Kodi instead.

Today I decided to test the factory's claims due to this ongoing thread. Look at the difference in CPU utilization between the two builds (built in XBMC vs Kodi nightly)

Just at a glance, could this be just a standard deviation, or something more? Playback states were identical, nothing running in background and file was the same. Notice the built-in XBMC player identifies the video information as amc-hevc and the Kodi build player identifies it as ff-hevc.



The Kodi build eventually maxed out at 100% core utilization on all cores. That's what made it even more strange.

Can you please ask whoever you got this machine from for their xbmc source code?

[shomari]

I was told by the factory that XBMC handles HEVC hardware decoding on the RK3288 tv box.

I didn't believe it, so I've always deleted the included XBMC build and installed a nightly Kodi instead.

Today I decided to test the factory's claims due to this ongoing thread. Look at the difference in CPU utilization between the two builds (built in XBMC vs Kodi nightly)

Just at a glance, could this be just a standard deviation, or something more? Playback states were identical, nothing running in background and file was the same. Notice the built-in XBMC player identifies the video information as amc-hevc and the Kodi build player identifies it as ff-hevc.



The Kodi build eventually maxed out at 100% core utilization on all cores. That's what made it even more strange.

Can you please ask whoever you got this machine from for their xbmc source code?

...fat chance. I'll try to beg and plead (seriously), but it's not likely to get me anywhere. It's a chinese software house and as far as I can tell modded versions of XBMC have started shipping with RK3288 as early as this week. Someone gave the OK to abandon compliance and distribute modded versions of XBMC straight from the factory.

I unfortunately have no way of telling what other devices may be shipping with these modded builds. So far I know of two devices currently shipping with this build.

[User 231261]

If you take a official release 13 alpha x with the configuration of the factory release and run the same test what results do you get?
could it be that the ff-hevc in the nightbuilds makes it ignore HW decoding as in SW ff-hevc being default on.

[jjd-uk]

It's the sellers responsibility to provide the source code upon request I believe, as your purchase contract and support is with them, so go to whoever you bought from.

[shomari]

If you take a official release 13 alpha x with the configuration of the factory release and run the same test what results do you get?
could it be that the ff-hevc in the nightbuilds makes it ignore HW decoding as in SW ff-hevc being default on.

...hmmm. We have a thinker . . . I'll go try a 13.x release pre-ffmpeg HEVC build phase. Although I'll note, they've done this with full knowledge and intent, as I was specifically told that the built-in XBMC was modded to allow HEVC decoding. I'll post the results of the test using the above methods.

And to be clear, I didn't use advancedsettings.xml in any of the tests. I ran the builds using their default vanilla configurations, except to enable hw acceleration via mediacodec as I always do with my android xbmc/kodi setups.

[jjd-uk]

Both factory version XBMC and public version Kodi were set up as 1:1 as possible before testing. There were minimal differences, mostly due to build versions - the factory modded distribution is 13 alpha-x while Kodi is of course much newer.

I'm curious what is shown in Settings -> Video -> Acceleration on the factory build, could you grab a screenshot?

A debug log taken with both builds should also show if it's the standard internel dvdplayer they are using.

[shomari]

If you take a official release 13 alpha x with the configuration of the factory release and run the same test what results do you get?
could it be that the ff-hevc in the nightbuilds makes it ignore HW decoding as in SW ff-hevc being default on.

Negative. Ran a test with XBMC 13.2 stable and the file didn't even initiate video playback; only audio was rendered.

Modded build:



Official 13.2 stable:



Don't get me wrong, it was a good and idea and worth the try. I appreciate the thought.

[User 231261]

did you compare advancedsettings.xml between factory and public release...?
If no difference then they must produce the source code of their release.
Can't believe they done it without the Chip manufacture...

Official 13.2 stable shows kodi 14.0 in the right bottom corner?

[shomari]

Both factory version XBMC and public version Kodi were set up as 1:1 as possible before testing. There were minimal differences, mostly due to build versions - the factory modded distribution is 13 alpha-x while Kodi is of course much newer.

I'm curious what is shown in Settings -> Video -> Acceleration on the factory build, could you grab a screenshot?