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Android Sony Bravia Smart TVs (2015) based on Android TV
(2017-06-23, 08:18)Koying Wrote: Unfortunately, adding "tweaking" gui options is one of the things which is generally rejected in Kodi, a lot of members strongly believing in the "automagic" motto, rather than the "let the users help themselves" one.

I do not share this point of view.

Kodi has to run on many platforms and devices and it should be configurable as much as possible as to the performance to allow the best tweaking. The hardware acceleration is an example.

The cpu power of sony tv is low compared to other android devices and the software coding of xvid files of 720 stresses the cpus a lot. There is no reason to not use the hardware decoding that was included in the soc to overcome the lack of cpu power.
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(2017-06-23, 20:36)Oibaf Wrote:
(2017-06-23, 08:18)Koying Wrote: Unfortunately, adding "tweaking" gui options is one of the things which is generally rejected in Kodi, a lot of members strongly believing in the "automagic" motto, rather than the "let the users help themselves" one.

I do not share this point of view.

Kodi has to run on many platforms and devices and it should be configurable as much as possible as to the performance to allow the best tweaking. The hardware acceleration is an example.

The cpu power of sony tv is low compared to other android devices and the software coding of xvid files of 720 stresses the cpus a lot. There is no reason to not use the hardware decoding that was included in the soc to overcome the lack of cpu power.

and i don't share you point of view

The HW in the Sony is crap. Get a decent device. There's no reason we as volunteers should "fix" the totally retarded view of a big ass company like Sony to save a few bucks and put in the crappiest CPU they can find.
Other option is to convert your xvid videos to something supported.
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The point is not to fix a lack of Sony, the point is to make Kodi more flexible to run on as many devices as possible.

There are a lot of economic devices (e.g. low cost smartphones or tablets) with low power cpus which could exploit the hardware coding if the cpus can not keep up with the software coding.

In any case, the fact of limiting the configuration options is a Kodi team choice which I can understand even if I do not share it.
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I agree with Koying and Martijn.

Sony a supposed premium Brand have equipped their TV's with the cheapest possible Mediatek SoC - that is just good enough to stream video from DRM Apps and provide a ATV user interface that does not "lag too much".

It's quite obvious Mediatek does not care about Apps like Kodi and providing, bug free, legacy media playback support thru standard Mediacodec API's. Hence you get some compression formats that need to be Software decoded - and the Sony / Mediatek combo is too weak to do that reliably.

You are not buying a dedicated Kodi media player, like a dirt cheap AMLogic box that can run a highly optimised LibreELEC Kodi Krypton really well - but a TV that happens to run a side order of the Android TV OS.

@CiNcH review is worth reading - The Sony Android TV Experience (2017)

and why Kodi Krypton uses standard API's:

Welcome to Android MediaCodec standards

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I know very well that document. After reading that document I started to test kodi and the TV features.

I do not care to speak up for Sony but from my tests and also reading from the @CiNcH's document I found an issue only in the VC1 codec in the Full HD TV socs.

This is the list of the 2015 Full HD Sony TV codec:

- MPEG2: It works in hardware.
- H263: It works in hardware.
- AVC/H264 : It works in hardware.
- HEVC/H265: It works in hardware.
- MPEG4 part 2 (MP4V-ES): It works in hardware with SMPC and with Kodi for files with a width higher than 800 since the Kodi code disables the hardware acceleration for small files.
- VP6: It works in hardware with SMPC but not with Kodi since Kodi wrongly forces the use of the VP8 hardware codec (I opened a bug report for this).
- VP8: It works in hardware.
- VC1: It does not work in hardware. According to the mime description, WVC1 (Advanced profile) is not implemented in the soc. Only the simple profile and main profile is implemented (WMV3) but Kodi fails to render the video and it goes into an infinite loop.
- MJPEG: I does not work in hardware since it is not in list of codecs which Kodi renders in hardware.

The big issue is the one reported by @CiNcH on VP9 codec which does not support VP9.2 profile for the 4K TVs.
It is a Sony's big mistake to sell HDR TVs without a codec which youtube is going to use for the HDR 4k videos.
I have a Full HD TV and I do not complaint about this (the Full HD TVs does not have this codec).

I agree with you that Sony could make a bigger effort to put more powerfull CPUs in the TV.
The CPUs is bearly sufficient for the Full HD Tvs as mine but not for the 4k Tvs.
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For the price you pay for sony TVs you'd certainly expect better. I mean for a $40 android box, you expect cost cutting, for a $1000 plus TV you should get better.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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(2017-06-25, 01:49)nickr Wrote: For the price you pay for sony TVs you'd certainly expect better. I mean for a $40 android box, you expect cost cutting, for a $1000 plus TV you should get better.
No kidding. I've had only sony TVs for the past 20 years, and I feel like a total schmuck for getting this one. It's less responsive than a raspberry pi 2, comes with buit in ads, and crashes constantly.
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(2017-06-25, 01:49)nickr Wrote: For the price you pay for sony TVs you'd certainly expect better. I mean for a $40 android box, you expect cost cutting, for a $1000 plus TV you should get better.
You don't pay for a good Kodi experience, but for the display and picture processing.
I guess the number of people who use Kodi on their tv is far less then one percent. Most people use their Sony just as what it is, as a tv or a display for other playback devices. Also it is really sad that there are so much problems with Kodi that derive from bad driver and api implementation of the manufactur, i can understand (but don't favor) why they don't care. That's just business :-(
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You pay for working android though, if that means paying $20 instead of $10 for a decent soc, sony should just do it.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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Quote:You don't pay for a good Kodi experience, but for the display and picture processing.
I totally disagree. After releasing their TVs with the Android operating system, sales went up quite considerably (mostly because of all the bad reviews I would assume). You should deliver what you are advertising for. Same is true for the tuner integration which is hardly usable. Even major services like Amazon Video totally suck (jerky playback most of the time). Sales went back by 10% last year. Android is not an argument anymore, thanks to Sony's/MediaTek's bad integration, and I really hope that the market regulates itself.

What is Android's app centrism good for if APIs don't work? Why would you deplay Android then? I actually think that people care much more about functional aspects, at least in Europe more and more people are looking for solutions which integrate everything. This might be different in the U.S. When I look at my family and friends, non of them cares about 4K and they can only discern image quality of mid-range from high-end TVs when watched side-by-side...

So indeed, people should only consider Sony TV if their only motive is image quality. But even then I wouldn't buy Sony again. Just because of their attitude. Even people who only use the HDMI inputs complain about crashes...

Quote:- VP6: It works in hardware with SMPC but not with Kodi since Kodi wrongly forces the use of the VP8 hardware codec (I opened a bug report for this).
Seems to be fixed now in latest nightly. @Koying pushed the fix to mainline.

Quote:- MPEG4 part 2 (MP4V-ES): It works in hardware with SMPC and with Kodi for files with a width higher than 800 since the Kodi code disables the hardware acceleration for small files.
Why is that? Sounds like a workaround for some hardware which Kodi devs claim not to do Wink ...
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(2017-06-25, 08:05)CiNcH Wrote:
Quote:- MPEG4 part 2 (MP4V-ES): It works in hardware with SMPC and with Kodi for files with a width higher than 800 since the Kodi code disables the hardware acceleration for small files.
Why is that? Sounds like a workaround for some hardware which Kodi devs claim not to do Wink ...

Quite the contrary, it's part of the "automagic" motto Wink

It's there since a long time.
Don't forget "MPEG4" is generic for a range of codecs (divx / xvid / MSMPEG4) all with their peculiar options. Back in the days, there were (and probably still isn't) no hw codec able to decode *all* options of *all* codecs.
As people using shitty codecs in sub-HD resolution probably only care about having *a* picture on screen (rather tha a black one), and that mpeg4 is s/w decodable by anything, I went for the path of least support Wink
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(2017-06-25, 08:05)CiNcH Wrote:
Quote:- VP6: It works in hardware with SMPC but not with Kodi since Kodi wrongly forces the use of the VP8 hardware codec (I opened a bug report for this).
Seems to be fixed now in latest nightly. @Koying pushed the fix to mainline.
Thanks to Koying for fixing the code.


Quote:It's there since a long time.
Don't forget "MPEG4" is generic for a range of codecs (divx / xvid / MSMPEG4) all with their peculiar options. Back in the days, there were (and probably still isn't) no hw codec able to decode *all* options of *all* codecs.
As people using shitty codecs in sub-HD resolution probably only care about having *a* picture on screen (rather tha a black one), and that mpeg4 is s/w decodable by anything, I went for the path of least support Wink

It seems a good choice to me.

From my video tests with SMPC, the software decoding seems smoother than the hardware one and also the "problematic" videos are correctly decoded.

As to Sony TVs, the cpus have enough power to software decode the sub-HD MPEG4 (part 2) videos (but also the full HD ones) without any issue.
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Ok, so I tested SPMC this week and can confirm a few things.

1. Video playback fo the MPEG-2 video was smoother BUT not as smooth as VLC...
2. Playing with the settings produced mixed results. The default seemed best, but again, it wasn't 100% smooth.
3. I had a lot more options in SPMC for hardware acceleration, and codecs... which probably explains why it was smoother.

I really don't see this as a hardware issue. The hardware is clearly capable of playing these videos because it works in VLC, and if VLC is using its software to play these, then it's simply a case of Kodi (and to a lesser extent, SPMC) not being configured correctly.

I hope Kodi fix this issue, I doubt it though.
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Hi there I have a Sony KD55x8500d TV - apart from the Opera Apps, can I install any other Apps like Kodi?
What if I use some kind of sideload launcher, is that possible?
I was wondering if Apps can be installed on the TV in the 1st place, there must be a way to install more?
Thanks for your time in advance!
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(2017-07-01, 07:20)[email protected] Wrote: Hi there I have a Sony KD55x8500d TV - apart from the Opera Apps, can I install any other Apps like Kodi?
What if I use some kind of sideload launcher, is that possible?
I was wondering if Apps can be installed on the TV in the 1st place, there must be a way to install more?
Thanks for your time in advance!

Kodi is on the Play Store, it doesn't need to be sideloaded!
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