[wrxtasy]

Apparently you can install android tv on odors n2 as well. I wonder how Kodi would perform on n2 with android tv compared to coreelec.

I've used the Lineage ATV 9.0 Pie ROM (click) on the N2, it's pretty damn snappy.

vs CoreELEC:
- there is No auto Frame Rate or Resolution switching / matching
- No HD audio
- No Multichannel PCM
- and the usual AMLogic Android Kodi bugs for broken VC-1 playback and poor quality DVD Rips / OTA TV deinterlacing.
- Kodi Netflix Addon simply will not work either with that specific Lineage ROM.

HardKernel's underlying Android release, which all N2 Android releases are built upon, also makes you reboot when changing output Hz and/or Resolution in Android OS settings which is a real PITA.

[ozkhan1]

Guess that’s out of the question.

Corelec looks pretty darn good though. Vp9 so UltraHD youtube, 4gb RAM. O droid N2 has to be pretty good.

@wrxtasy, do you know if it’s upscaling of HD to ultrahd is comparable to Apple TV?

[M4tt0]

Corelec looks pretty darn good though. Vp9 so UltraHD youtube, 4gb RAM. O droid N2 has to be pretty good.

I can confirm that the N2 plays 4k youtube / inputstream, but so far I've been unable to obtain HDR from it in that setting. It should support VP9.2, because 4k HDR (HLG) Live-TV streams are playing correctly. So I'm not sure this is just a configuration problem, or a problem with the youtube app, inputstream, coreelec or the kernel. Anybody, who knows?

[lightsout]

Corelec looks pretty darn good though. Vp9 so UltraHD youtube, 4gb RAM. O droid N2 has to be pretty good.

I can confirm that the N2 plays 4k youtube / inputstream, but so far I've been unable to obtain HDR from it in that setting. It should support VP9.2, because 4k HDR (HLG) Live-TV streams are playing correctly. So I'm not sure this is just a configuration problem, or a problem with the youtube app, inputstream, coreelec or the kernel. Anybody, who knows?

I don’t but was curious how you are viewing 4k hlg TV streams?

[M4tt0]

Astra 19.2E (UHD channels) -> Digibit R1 SatIP Server -> NAS with Tvheadend backend -> Odroid N2 with CE nightly und pvr.hts frontend

[noggin]

Astra 19.2E (UHD channels) -> Digibit R1 SatIP Server -> NAS with Tvheadend backend -> Odroid N2 with CE nightly und pvr.hts frontend

Aren't those HEVC/h.265 HEVC with Rec 2020 and an HLG EOTF (same as the BBC iPlayer UHD HDR HLG stuff) rather than VP9.2?

[M4tt0]

@noggin: You know waaaay more than I do about these things. I just tested those streams, saw the "HLG" flag appearing on my LG OLED, verified the 4k screen resolution and realized that the picture looked great. If there is a way to verify or falsify your hypothesis, please let me know and I'll figure it out...

[noggin]

@noggin: You know waaaay more than I do about these things. I just tested those streams, saw the "HLG" flag appearing on my LG OLED, verified the 4k screen resolution and realized that the picture looked great. If there is a way to verify or falsify your hypothesis, please let me know and I'll figure it out...

VP9.2 isn't in use as a broadcast codec AFAIK.  All the UHD SDR and HDR stuff I've seen being broadcast on Astra 19.2 and 28.2 has been h.265/HEVC.  (The 8K stuff is also in HEVC/h.265)

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?br...ng=en&af=1

If the UHD1 channel is what you are watching on Astra 19.2 then that is HEVC/h.265 Rec 2020 according to digital bitrate (at around 18Mbs - which is quite low)

Compatibility with HEVC/h.265 HLG UHD content doesn't mean the same box will be compatible with VP9.2 HLG UHD content.

It's good news if the N2 running CoreElec is correctly flagging HLG EOTFs over HDMI (i.e. your TV goes into HLG HDR mode automatically when you watch an HLG HDR DVB-S2 service) - until now the RockChip RK3399 was the only platform I had seen that did that.

[M4tt0]

Thanks a lot, @noggin. Yes, UHD1 is an example where this worked. I cannot check right now, but believe that it also worked with RTL UHD and Travelxp 4k. And good to know that this does not allow to make any assumptions on VP9.2 support. Based on what you know now, do you think there is a way to get youtube 4k working with HDR on the N2 as well?

[lightsout]

Astra 19.2E (UHD channels) -> Digibit R1 SatIP Server -> NAS with Tvheadend backend -> Odroid N2 with CE nightly und pvr.hts frontend

Very cool, thanks for the reply.

[M4tt0]

Just searched for some documentation and found this:
https://dn.odroid.com/S922X/ODROID-N2/Da...t_V0.2.pdf

Excerpt:

Video/Picture CODEC

1. Amlogic Video Engine (AVE) with dedicated hardware decoders and encoders
   
2. Support multi-video decoder up to 4Kx2K@60fps+1x1080P@60fps
   
3. Supports multiple “secured” video decoding sessions and simultaneous decoding and encoding
   
4. Video/Picture Decoding:
   

• VP9 Profile-2 up to 4Kx2K@60fps
  
• H.265 HEVC [email protected] up to 4Kx2K@60fps
  
• AVS2-P2 Profile up to 4Kx2K@60fps
  
• H.264 AVC [email protected] up to 4Kx2K@30fps
  
• H.264 MVC up to 1080P@60fps
  
• MPEG-4 ASP@L5 up to 1080P@60fps (ISO-14496)
  
• WMV/VC-1 SP/MP/AP up to 1080P@60fps
  
• AVS-P16(AVS+) /AVS-P2 JiZhun Profile up to 1080P@60fps
  
• MPEG-2 MP/HL up to 1080P@60fps (ISO-13818)
  
• MPEG-1 MP/HL up to 1080P@60fps (ISO-11172)
  
• RealVideo 8/9/10 up to 1080P@60fps
  
• Multiple language and multiple format sub-title video support
  
• MJPEG and JPEG unlimited pixel resolution decoding (ISO/IEC-10918)
  
• Supports JPEG thumbnail, scaling, rotation and transition effects
  
• Supports *.mkv,*.wmv,*.mpg, *.mpeg, *.dat, *.avi, *.mov, *.iso, *.mp4, *.rm and *.jpg file formats
  

It seems that the hardware(!) "should" ™ support VP9.2, too.

[noggin]

Thanks a lot, @noggin. Yes, UHD1 is an example where this worked. I cannot check right now, but believe that it also worked with RTL UHD and Travelxp 4k. And good to know that this does not allow to make any assumptions on VP9.2 support. Based on what you know now, do you think there is a way to get youtube 4k working with HDR on the N2 as well?

I'm afraid I can't make any predictions.  But I wouldn't assume HEVC/h.265 HDR10 or HLG support means that VP9.2 video will also support HDR10 or HLG.  The way the video streams flag their EOTF (HDR10 PQ vs HLG) and colour gamut (Rec 709 vs Rec 2020) could be totally unrelated between the two standards - so a video codec handling one may not automatically mean it handles the other correctly.

It's not just hardware / video decode support that has to be present - the operating system and/or player software also has to support it.

[M4tt0]

Did some more tests and found the following:

The 4k TV streams, which activate HDR HLG correctly, are decoded using am-h254 (HW), Deinterlace-Methode: hardware
The 4k Youtube streams, which do not activate HDR correctly, are decoded using am-vp9 (HW), Deinterlace-Methode: hardware
I've also downloaded that same 4k Youtube video. Trying to play it via the filemanager failed, as videplayer tried to software-decode it, which the N2 (of course) cannot handle

FWIW...

[noggin]

Did some more tests and found the following:

The 4k TV streams, which activate HDR HLG correctly, are decoded using am-h254 (HW), Deinterlace-Methode: hardware

I suspect you mean am-h265 (HW)?

The 4k Youtube streams, which do not activate HDR correctly, are decoded using am-vp9 (HW), Deinterlace-Methode: hardware

Yep - h.265 hardware decode for h.265 streams, VP9 hardware decode for the VP9 streams (these are both progressive sources so the interlace report is a red herring - there is no interlace to deinterlace)

However how the h.265 and VP9 streams flag things like colour gamut (Rec 601 vs Rec 709 vs Rec 2020, EOTF (i.e. SDR vs PQ HDR10 vs HLG HDR etc.) and other stuff like mastering metadata) is likely to be handled differently in the two video standards, and thus handling of HDR content (and Rec 2020 for that matter) in the two codecs will depend on the hardware and software implementations of the h.265 and VP9 decoders and playback chains.

Just because the chain for h.265 hardware decoding and playback supports HLG, there is no guarantee that the equivalent chain for VP9 will - as they depend on different implementations (i.e. the h.265 playback implementation may be more advanced than the VP9 one) It's entirely likely that this can be handled by updated software / firmware rather than hardware (as the underlying video decode is the same - it's just a case of detecting the colour gamut and EOTF flags in the h.265 and VP9 streams and ensuring they are obeyed (if converting gamut and EOTF) and flagged in the HDMI output correctly.

[M4tt0]

@noggin: Yes, it was "am-h265 (HW)" of course. Sorry for the typo. And thanks for your explanations. I understand now. Is there anybody who could know what it would take in the VP9 chain to implement HDR? And is there anybody working on this or is it "out of reach" for the time being?