[pyrodex]

I am considering on of these boxes to replace a RPI3 on my 4K TV and I use the Milhouse LE9 nightlies since Leia is getting more and more stable. Is there a "tuned" build for this box with the latest Leia version on it so I can use all the perks? I don't need Android so LE is fine with me for this box. 

NOTE: I use a shared MYSQL DB so it versioning is important.

[heyneighbours]

hi guys.

i'm a noob at this. i just ordered a minix u9-h and it should be here tomorrow. i've set up my SD card already with the .gz and dtb files.
i'm wondering what the first steps should be when i first get the box? do i boot up LE with the SD first and then update the firmware? or am i supposed to boot it up in android first to update the firmware before i boot LE?

thanks in advance!

[wrxtasy]

I would suggest you firstly update to NEO U9-H FW007A (20171020) (click) manually by downloading the USB.zip update package and using Android Recovery install the USB.zip file. (see MINIX instructions)

Do not allow it to do an Auto FW008 update. It seems users are having numerous problems with that FW008 release.

@DragonQ has LE install instructions in this POST (click)
Stick with LE 8.2.x releases unless you want to be an AML LE Kodi Leia experimental guinea pig (or have a 4:2:2 only projector)

[movie78]

I would suggest you firstly update to NEO U9-H FW007A (20171020) (click) manually by downloading the USB.zip update package and using Android Recovery install the USB.zip file. (see MINIX instructions)

Do not allow it to do an Auto FW008 update. It seems users are having numerous problems with that FW008 release.

@DragonQ has LE install instructions in this POST (click)
Stick with LE 8.2.x releases unless you want to be an AML LE Kodi Leia experimental guinea pig (or have a 4:2:2 only projector)

@wrxtasy  Thanks for the heads up.

Just finish configuring my device, went through the installing process carefully.
Everything seems to working except when I play UHD files it plays for few second the no sound just picture with image skipping, and idea why?

[heyneighbours]

Thanks @wrxtasy

I was reading some forums and saw many complaints about the auto update to FW008. Is there an easy way to prevent this? From what I've read, it downloads and installs without the user's consent.

[wrxtasy]

Just finish configuring my device, went through the installing process carefully.
Everything seems to working except when I play UHD files it plays for few second the no sound just picture with image skipping, and idea why?

My response to that detailed post is "you must be holding it wrong !".

The highest bitrate UHD 75Mbps+ play fine here even after skipping around thru video.

Try disabling Audio passthrough to see if it's an audio issue.

[movie78]

Just finish configuring my device, went through the installing process carefully.
Everything seems to working except when I play UHD files it plays for few second the no sound just picture with image skipping, and idea why?

My response to that detailed post is "you must be holding it wrong !".

The highest bitrate UHD 75Mbps+ play fine here even after skipping around thru video.

Try disabling Audio passthrough to see if it's an audio issue.  

Going through SETTING---> PLAYER SETTINGS and changing the DISC SETTING from PLAY MAIN MOVIE to SHOW SIMPLE MENU seams to work better now.
Wondering what is causing that.

Works much better with Audio pass-through disable.

[true_devil]

Hi all,

been devouring the thread and I have a couple question:

As background, I have been using the shield for a while now and have a 4k TV with 8 bit HDR. Im really tired of the lack of support from shield in keeping up with what the users are demanding so I am moving to a different box now.

I have narrowed my choices to Apple TV 4K or the Minix u9 running LibreElec for 4K HDR content at its best. I am really leaning toward the LE option however the question is, I have also noticed that the Zidoo X9s has 4K HDR support and I was wondering how that compares to the U9 as I really enjoy 3d content and have a 3d tv so the zidoo would be a good choice for that too?

I am happy to keep multiple boxes to get the best viewing experience so thinking of the ATV 4K as my main regular content box (Amazon Netflix etc) and the U9 (or ziddo x9s) as my 4K HDR ATMOS etc box.

Hope that makes sense...would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

p.s will be moving to a high quality 10BIt HDR tv as well.

[marko-mb]

I have FW008 and kodi 17.6, and a lot of playback problems.
I tried many settings and no luck.
playback is jittering on 1080 and 720 (h264 and 265)
HW acceleration does not work on kodi. CPU is jumping to 100% when playing movies.

What can I do to get normal playback of movies?

Just wanted a box to play movies and bought this ...

playback from wired network NAS and from fast USB direct in minix is same...

read about this problems a lot with no solutions. Is it possible HW is bad?  or what to do?

thanks

[wrxtasy]

I believe FW008 has been withdrawn due to multiple issues. Your hardware is perfectly fine.
You will have to do a full system image reflash of FW007A using instructions from....

NEO U9-H FW007A (20171020) (click)

Or simply use LIbreELEC Kodi Krypton running from a microSDHC card, which will give you a superior Kodi Krypton experience without all the Android headaches.

[crea]

I finally troubleshot slow wifi in Kodi Android. Kodi 18.0 Leia alpha1 has same read speed from NFS share as LE.
It looks like Kodi Krypton on Android is not optimized for AC wifi at all, and they fixed it in Leia. Unfortunately it's very buggy at the moment and crashes all the time.
With all their praised support Minix could not even provide a fix for Kodi Krypton 17.x which everybody is using and is going to use for a long time.

[maxHDR]

Hi!

I am running "LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.4-Subtitles-ff.img.gz" on my U9 Box. I have few questions/issues:

1) I am still puzzled about 4K HDR and the "4:4:4 10-bit Community option". I have an LG OLED for which I found in a review "4:4:4 color is only shown properly when the input's icon is set to 'PC' (aka PC mode).". Therefore, I am not sure if it is a good idea to send 4:4:4 to the TV to the standard Inputs. My media files are anyway only coded in 4k 4:2:0 10-bit. So its still required/recommended to turn on the "4:4:4 10-bit Community option"?

2) I am mounting cifs shares on the OS level of LibreElec, not using Kodi's smb shares to increase the network performance. However, I just get only reading speeds from my server between 10-15 MByte/s. The MINIX U9 is connected via an Ethernet cable not WiFi. If I plug the same LAN cable into my NUC running also LibreElec using the same OS level mounts, I get reading speeds from my server between 45-50 MByte/s. Therefore, I do not think the low speed using the U9 is a result of my connection or my server but really a problem of the U9 itself. Does anyone has an idea how to improve the network performance of my U9 - different LibreElec image, USB-to-Ethernet adapter, ...? NFS mounts are unfortunately not possible with my server.

3) I guess "LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.4-Subtitles-ff.img.gz" does not do auto updates on new releases. Can someone please point my to a place where to find always the latest stable image for the U9.

[noggin]

Hi!

1) I am still puzzled about 4K HDR and the "4:4:4 10-bit Community option". I have an LG OLED for which I found in a review "4:4:4 color is only shown properly when the input's icon is set to 'PC' (aka PC mode).". Therefore, I am not sure if it is a good idea to send 4:4:4 to the TV to the standard Inputs. My media files are anyway only coded in 4k 4:2:0 10-bit. So its still required/recommended to turn on the "4:4:4 10-bit Community option"?

Yes - I think some clarity would be really useful on this.

https://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_2...q.aspx#146 Is always worth referring to. There are a lot of assumptions made about supported formats and HDMI 2.0/2.0a - this helps clarify them a bit.

There are a couple of issues :

1. <30Hz and >30Hz 2160p have very different RGB/YCbCr format support... (RGB is always effectively equal bandwidth 4:4:4)
2. Different RGB/YCbCr formats have different supported bit depths at a given resolution and frame rate...

I assume "4:4:4 community 10-bit" edition ensures YCbCr 4:4:4 output rather than RGB (which is also 4:4:4 bandwidth) at 2160/30p or below, but doesn't tell you what it does for 2160/50p and higher (as 10-bit 4:4:4 isn't supported at those frame rates)


Looking at the HDMI 2.0/2.0a standards - not specifically the functionality of any specific Kodi platform. 

For 2160/23.976p, 24.000p, 25p, 29.97p and 30.00p you have the options of :

• 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit RGB or 4:4:4 YCbCr
  
• 12-bit 4:2:2 YCbCr (but YCbCr 4:2:2 is not suported at any other bit-depths, AND 4:4:4 / RGB are also supported at 12-bit)
  

For 2160/50p, 59.94p and 60.00p you have the options of :

• 8-bit RGB, YCbCr 4:4:4 and YCbCr 4:2:0 (the latter fits into an HDMI 1.4 bandwidth connection - hence it was added to allow HDMI 1.4 hardware to be compatible with HDMI 2.0...)
  
• 10-bit YCbCr 4:2:0 (the only 10-bit format supported)
  
• 12-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 or YCbCr 4:2:0
  
• 16-bit YCbCr 4:2:0
  

So to precis a different way:

• RGB and YCbCr 4:4:4 is supported at all bit depths for 2160/30p and lower (so this is fine for HDR at 2160/30p or lower), but only at 8-bit for 2160/50p and higher. (So not good for HDR at 2160/50p or higher)
  
• YCbCr 4:2:0 is supported at all bit depths for 2160/50p and higher, (so this is fine for HDR), but is not supported for any 2160/30p or lower format.
  
• YCbCr 4:2:2 is only supported at 12-bits at any frame rate - but is supported at all frame rates and is fine for HDR at all frame rates.
  

Although RGB and YCbCr 4:4:4 are equal bandwidth some TVs handle them differently. Most consumer electronics gear is YCbCr not RGB - so Blu-ray players, satellite receivers etc. may output YCbCr 4:4:4 not RGB. As such if a Kodi box outputs RGB this may cause issues. I guess the "4:4:4" is short hand for YCbCr 4:4:4 output to differentiate from RGB?

[muya]

after 23,976fps playback issues with my RK3328 boxes (Zidoo X7 and Bqeel TR9N) i ordered the U9 and all my problems are gone, stunning. no matter if playback on android or LE/CE
have to test if i will find some issues :-D

[wrxtasy]

Hi!

I am running "LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.4-Subtitles-ff.img.gz" on my U9 Box. I have few questions/issues:

1) I am still puzzled about 4K HDR and the "4:4:4 10-bit Community option". I have an LG OLED for which I found in a review "4:4:4 color is only shown properly when the input's icon is set to 'PC' (aka PC mode).". Therefore, I am not sure if it is a good idea to send 4:4:4 to the TV to the standard Inputs. My media files are anyway only coded in 4k 4:2:0 10-bit. So its still required/recommended to turn on the "4:4:4 10-bit Community option"?

I been playing around with 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 outputs this afternoon. I had to because my new Yamaha YSP 2700 soundbar produces black screen video output if Kodi auto refresh switches to a 24p mode and 4:4:4 Chroma is used. I now use 4:2:2 for 4K HDR content.

I'm wondering if this is a recent Yamaha - DV / HLG Firmware update bug ?

Those like @hdmkv with a 4:2:2 only projector might like to read the following post for a bit of a workaround:

Projector owners - pay attention (click)

@noggin, yes YCbCr is the standard colorspace with all AMLogic hardware. It's why I never mention it.