Budget AMLogic S905/S905X/S912 Media Player Options

Doubt Wolly and VidOn will ever come fully clean. They've partially complied with GPL, made claims about their 3D hackery that don't ring true, and their support to users has been lacking. Also, remember them posting on the forum with a bunch of fake usernames? The way they operate seems to be their modus operandi.

GPL is like hand grenades and atomic bombs, it is never 'almost'

Ha ha exactly what I was thinking,

My phrase was - You are never Half Pregnant !

Even though Zidoo backed the wrong Hardware with their Rockchip stuff, their 3D code is now in numerous Kodi devices and for sharing that, thanks needs to be given

Let's see what they can do on AMlogic hardware next.

Can't wait for Koying's MVC hack & HD audio to make its way, working properly, in WeTek Core and Minix U1. It would make VidOn all but irrelevant & maybe then Minix might fully divorce themselves from VidOn ... avoiding a mutated baby w/that half pregnant significant other of theirs !

Question for anyone who might know (was discussing w/movie78 via PM's)... basically wondering if there are other ways to evaluate 3D PQ out of S95 to compare with HiMedia Q5's & RP2's?

Could just watch 3D content & make subjective calls, walking up close to projection screen. Or, is there a way to do a screen cap from Q5, Pi2 and S95 directly? ... then just blow the pics up and take a look at the details?

You could measure their "bitperfectness" with, say a DVDO TPG. If they are bitperfect (chances are they're not), then the PQ would be pretty much identical (plus/minus judder).

Question.

There are two and a half-formats of Top-and-Bottom supported over HDMI AIUI :

1. HTAB flagged as 2D. This is what most non-3D players do when playing 3D HTAB content. They output a 2D 1920x1080 or 1280x720 images with 1920x540 or 1280x360 strips 2:1 vertically compressed with each eye-feed on top of each other. The HDMI flagging is for a 2D source and to display in 3D you have to manually select HTAB mode on your HDTV.
2. HTAB flagged as 3D. Output as above, but with the HDMI signal also containing a flag that tells the display that the content is HTAB and the display can then automatically switch into HTAB mode.
3. FTAB (which I think has to be flagged as 3D). This is 1920x2160 or 1280x1440 HDMI output - similar to frame packed 3D but without the blanking between the two frames. I believe it is a valid HDMI output mode, and whilst not as standard as Frame Packed output it should offer identical picture quality. There is a valid HDMI flag to signal its presence, which would automatically trigger compatible displays into the correct mode.

Do we know what the Vidon.Me solution actually outputs? 1, 2 or 3? The difference between 1 and 2 is obvious - your HDTV will automatically switch with 2 but not with 1. The difference between 1/2 and 3 should also be obvious as you will get double the vertical resolution with 3 (i.e. the same as Frame Packed). This should be pretty clear on a decent display - as you will be going from SD to HD resolution vertically (though you won't see the difference on a 1080p Passive HDTV display as this will be limited to 540p res anyway...)

On another note: I am not familiar (on a technical level) with the downconversion from mvc to sbs. Are they able to at least keep the chroma resolution, or is this downscaled as well? If this downconversion is done in software, then surely the one who is able to keep the chroma res would have the better picture.

Once I get back from CES, I will upload a modified 3D MVC ISO monoscope test pattern that you can use to check the TV Lines of resolution. This would be display dependent, also varies between active/passive 3D, but can be used to compare devices connected to the same display.

(2016-01-09 00:51)noggin Wrote:  Do we know what the Vidon.Me solution actually outputs? 1, 2 or 3?

It is 2. While full SBS is defined in HDMI specs, full TAB is not (to the best of my knowledge). So far, it has only worked with output from graphics card. I will probably have to research on this.

(2016-01-09 00:49)Soli Wrote:  You could measure their "bitperfectness" with, say a DVDO TPG. If they are bitperfect (chances are they're not), then the PQ would be pretty much identical (plus/minus judder).

(2016-01-09 01:50)Soli Wrote:  On a familiar note: I am not familiar (on a technical level) with the downconversion from mvc to sbs. Are they able to at least keep the chroma resolution, or is this downscaled as well? If this downconversion is done in software, then surely the one who is able to keep the chroma res would have the better picture.

I don't think you will see a difference with AVLab TPG. I never considered this possibility. Since I have the unit, I will check into it.

(2016-01-09 01:55)wesk05 Wrote:  Once I get back from CES, I will upload a modified 3D MVC ISO monoscope test pattern that you can use to check the TV Lines of resolution. This would be display dependent, also varies between active/passive 3D, but can be used to compare devices connected to the same display.

Excellent, thanks. BTW, did you get a chance to visit HiMedia's booth? Any other Kodi use media player findings?

(2016-01-09 02:23)hdmkv Wrote:  Excellent, thanks. BTW, did you get a chance to visit HiMedia's booth? Any other Kodi use media player findings?

No, I did not. Actually, I stay away from those booths

Okaaay, but I'd think better to know which options are out there than not.

(2016-01-09 02:06)wesk05 Wrote:  It is 2. While full SBS is defined in HDMI specs, full TAB is not (to the best of my knowledge).

I'm pretty sure only framepacking is an hdmi standard.
(h)sbs and (h)tab is nothing special hdmi-wise. Whether they're handled purely depends on the TV software (and optionally the box to tell the TV what kind of 3d is sent).