[r4nx7]

Its based on the S905 which is very interesting....
Im really hoping for OpenElec official support, does anyone know if this has been officially confirmed ?

And if so, would we be able to port it to other S905 based devices ?
Since the CPU and GPU will all be the same, would it be hard for someone to add the extra WiFi/B/T drivers for other S905 devices ?
I know there is unofficial development of OpenElec for a lot of S based amlogic chips and boxes (like the mxq m8 etc) but it would be great to see this on the newer S905 based devices.

Ive never bought a dev board, like the Pi or ODROID. I know with the Pi, you can buy an attachment which will allow you to connect a SATA HDD. Is this also possible with the Odroid ?
(sorry for all the NOOB questions) - if they have been already answered feel free to just point me in the right direction - I am very intrigued

[wrxtasy]

Basically the new S905's AMLogic v3.14.xx Kernel has a whole bunch of different Display Mode ID's changes, compared to the S8xx series of AML SoC's when using current versions of Kodi Jarvis/Krypton with amcodec. These Mode ID's signal video changes to ensure Hardware accelerated video plays properly.

This breaks OE/Linux/Kodi on S905's as the amcodec decoder basically needs to be scrapped and re-written, which WeTek are currently are in the process of doing. It will take some time. The other alternative is to patch the AML v3.14.xx Kernel, for amcodec compatibility, but not desirable for the wider S9xx community going forward.

Kodi running on Android Lollipop OS is working on the C2, and its pretty snappy. It works well so long as you use the mediacodec(stagefright) Android decoder, as this uses the display mode hooks in the Android OS itself. Use amcodec for 23.976/1080p video decoding with dynamic refresh rate switching enabled and you will end up with a black screen.

Next is mpeg2 Interlaced decoding which appears to be broken across a whole bunch on Google Android OS platforms currently when using Android mediacodec decoding with Kodi. It defaults to ff-mpeg software decoding and lousy software deinterlacing.
The AML S812-H and S905's have excellent Hardware VPU deinterlacing, so software deinterlacing is not desirable at all.

So patience is going to be required at this point to bring amcodec used in AML OE / Linux / Android / Kodi up to date for all S9xx platforms.

[r4nx7]

Thanks for the informative post! Makes sense.
You're right, I did see a YouTube clip of the MINIX U1 (android) in action and it does appear to be very snappy.
I guess everything takes time, and we need to learn to have patience Seems like a big job though..
Its great to see WeTek take on the project so quick, seems like a great company

[sarcoptic]

Thanks for the honest assessment wrxtasy! Definitely keeping an eye out for when things get rolling!

[wrxtasy]

So basically if you don't need to playback Interlaced mpeg2 or h264 (I've now discovered as well), TV Broadcasts You can just use the Android Lollipop OS and use mediacodec only for the decoding.
Refresh Switching and proper video sync works with that combo as the Android Firmware has been given a tweak to enable it all.
HDMI CEC is now working as well after I recycled my TV On/Off.

I use the WeTek Jarvis 16.0 mediaplayer with Android on the C2 as it has a few nice AML specific patches in it, plus its a bit more optimised than the vanilla Kodi version.

The C2 is running Android 5.1.1, API:level22, Kernel Linux v3.14.29

[noggin]

So basically if you don't need to playback Interlaced mpeg2 or h264 (I've now discovered as well), TV Broadcasts You can just use the Android Lollipop OS and use mediacodec only for the decoding.
Refresh Switching and proper video sync works with that combo as the Android Firmware has been given a tweak to enable it all.
HDMI CEC is now working as well after I recycled my TV On/Off.

I use the WeTek Jarvis 16.0 mediaplayer with Android on the C2 as it has a few nice AML specific patches in it, plus its a bit more optimised than the vanilla Kodi version.

The C2 is running Android 5.1.1, API:level22, Kernel Linux v3.14.29

So - at the moment, it's fine for progressive content, but no deinterlacing (irrespective of codec)?

[wrxtasy]

Deinterlacing still produces the usual excellent results with amcodec Hardware decoding and 25/50fps TV Broadcasts. This still works well as video is fed via the VPU using amcodec.

View 23.976fps content and amcodec will try to use the 23Hz mode in the Kernel = black screen.

Its a PITA having to manually switch amcodec On/Off if you want to use amcodec Hardware deinterlacing from the VPU and mediacodec to view progressive 23.976fps content.
mediacodec just does not want use Hardware deinterlacing at all. I don't know if this is a Kodi Android issue or a Android OS problem.

If you turn amcodec off using Android Lollipop / Kodi running on the WeTek Core and use mediacodec, you end up with the same Software deinterlacing occurring. I'm reading reports this happens on the nVIDIA Shield as well using mediacodec and Kodi. Seems to be a common Android issue.

[seba1970]

any chance for proper 3d frame packed output on C2 via KODI

[noggin]

Well my C2 arrived this morning from Lilliput Direct/Liymo in the UK. It's the first box I've owned that properly runs Kodi in 2160/50p :-) Sadly the Wetek Media Player build of Kodi doesn't play my 2160/50p and 2160/59.94p HEVC off-air recordings. They just crash the box entirely. But it's still an impressive little beast. Boots incredibly quickly into Android from eMMC.

[wesk05]

It's the first box I've owned that properly runs Kodi in 2160/50p :-)

What exactly do you mean by this?

[noggin]

It's the first box I've owned that properly runs Kodi in 2160/50p :-)

What exactly do you mean by this?

I've got a Wetek Core and a Chromebox that runs 2160/30p and lower frame rates, and I've got an nVidia Kepler GPU in an x86 box that supports 2160/50p 4:2:0 but Kodi runs at a crawl (or did) at 2160/50p in that when playing video.

The C2 is the first box I've had that will output 2160/50p fluidly. 720/50p and 1080/50i Live TV streams play fine (and the 50i stuff is deinterlaced properly).

Haven't got my 2160/59.94p and 2160/50p HEVC off-air recordings to play yet though...

*** EDIT : However installing the new version of Android and using the built in Movie Player - and they play! *** 2160/59.94p HEVC stuff is playing on a £45 ARM device.

And installing Christian Troy's Wetek Player fork - they play in Kodi(ish) too!

[wesk05]

I've got a Wetek Core and a Chromebox that runs 2160/30p and lower frame rates, and I've got an nVidia Kepler GPU in an x86 box that supports 2160/50p 4:2:0 but Kodi runs at a crawl (or did) at 2160/50p in that when playing video.

The C2 is the first box I've had that will output 2160/50p fluidly. 720/50p and 1080/50i Live TV streams play fine (and the 50i stuff is deinterlaced properly).

Haven't got my 2160/59.94p and 2160/50p HEVC off-air recordings to play yet though...

I see...

[noggin]

I've got a Wetek Core and a Chromebox that runs 2160/30p and lower frame rates, and I've got an nVidia Kepler GPU in an x86 box that supports 2160/50p 4:2:0 but Kodi runs at a crawl (or did) at 2160/50p in that when playing video.

The C2 is the first box I've had that will output 2160/50p fluidly. 720/50p and 1080/50i Live TV streams play fine (and the 50i stuff is deinterlaced properly).

Haven't got my 2160/59.94p and 2160/50p HEVC off-air recordings to play yet though...

I see...

Have updated my earlier post. 2160/59.94p HEVC stuff now playing fine in Christian Troy's Wetek Player fork of Kodi with the new Android update on the C2.

[wrxtasy]

I've never used eMMC v5 flash memory before and I am also surprised by how quick everything runs in combo with Android Lollipop. That OS release has made a big difference to OS speed on Android platforms.

HardKernel don't much around either. They give you the option to set the Performance CPU Governor straight away. Its even set as default in some of their v3.14.xx AML Kernels
That is the benefit of having a little board with a decent Heatsink as part of the standard package when purchased.

I'm still amazed I can run the C2 off a very old iPhone charger without issues via a usb otg cable. Very power efficient these AML S8xx/S9xx boards.

I use WeTek's Jarvis mediaplayer as its got a few bugs fixes and optimisation tweaks in it specific to AML platforms that are not in mainline Kodi.
You can run the Android desktop and Kodi easily at 2160/50p or 2160/60p with fluidity and speed.

The next test would be HD Audio Passthrough in Android Lollipop....as the C2 is running the required Android API Level 22.

---

Decent Firmware and a AML S905 really packs a punch, tech specs wise compared to the recently released RPi3. Particularly the 2GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and the very capable GPU/VPU combined with DDR3 SDRAM speed. The Gigabit Networking I/O speeds on the C2 are impressively quick, no sharing with a USB bus here.

All we need now is the Software support to catch up for full Aarch64 support. !

[noggin]

So far I've managed to get DTS and DD bitstreaming to work (I think I had to go into Android system settings and adjust Media Volume to 100% as prior to that I just had noise instead) I get drop-outs on DTS HD-MA stuff bitstreamed as DTS, but DD seems solid. (Feeding into an Onkyo NR616)

No HD Audio bitstreaming options, and if I select more than 2.0 speakers for PCM multichannel output I get silence.

As an Android solution (albeit without high quality Netflix) the C2 is looking promising, particularly with HEVC stuff (and 2160/59.94p HEVC stuff is very impressive).

It's nowhere near as plug-n-play as the Pi 3 - which is now my favoured player for day to day use - but if the 4.4LTS kernel development happens and/or we get a decent OpenElec port, it could be very promising indeed.