2019-09-16, 03:19
(2019-09-16, 02:23)hdmkv Wrote: Hi @wrxtasy, is this the Android TV ROM you were referring to?
Yes for the UGOOS AM6
(2019-09-16, 02:23)hdmkv Wrote: Hi @wrxtasy, is this the Android TV ROM you were referring to?
(2019-09-27, 13:03)Mount81 Wrote: Questions emerging:
Will they do proper HDR meta passthrough? I know the new Odroid and VIM with CE can finally do, but what will be the case on Android?
Quote:Will there be proper HDR->SRD conversion, or that we can still forget on the Amlogic SOC line in general?
Quote:Google Certified - Android TV Pie 9.0 inc. Chromecasting & legit DRM-> What will it mean in practice? YT 4K / HDR? Also for their pay-for-stream content?
Quote:MINIX NEO T5: NO CoreELEC / LibreELEC Kodi possible at all in a dual boot setup. -> That's odd, but only if CE would have some worth to mention advantages over the stock Android Player (like PQ, format support, etc...).
Quote:Previous MINIXes had always used their own special KODI fork for playback. What will be the case this time? Official KODI?
Quote:I guess there still will be no real FHD 3D MVC support... (As it's still some AML SOC limitation).
Quote:MINIX NEO U22-XJ: SoC licensing for DolbyVision-> Sounds great, but what would it mean in practice? Some partial support, only for single layer (demo) local videos and no real double layer DV support, like on the ATV 4K? I would be really surprised if it would turn out with full function as it never happened before with any Media Boxes.Android Pie does not even support DV. That comes with Android Q, then you need DV streaming Apps support.
Quote:Dolby Audio Licensed: What makes this particularly important to mention? All serious Boxes have full SD/HD audio passtrough capabilities, including all kind of Dolby formats. I would naturally expect the same from all kind of newer non-noname Boxes.
Quote:What do you call "proper" ?I would call proper what any other serious Boxes, with different chipsets can do, like HiMedia or Zidoo. I know that there's no "perfect" HDR->SDR conversion as there's no standard method to do this, but at least these Boxes can result in quite seamless conversion. I can compare the original FHD SDR and the UHD HDR video versions converted to SDR on my setup (Himedia Q10 Pro, FHD SDR TV) and most of the time they're quite similar looking. And that's where we know Amlogic Boxes have failed so far with any OS implementation, as their conversion results are far from unnoticeable and much worst. That's where I hoped that the new Amlogic chips, or maybe the OS kerner have developed.
I'm yet to see ANY device that can do "proper" HDR > SDR colourspace conversion and produce that same picture quality as a SDR release of the same material, when viewed on a SDR TV.
People need to buy a HDR TV if they want HDR video output to look half decent from HDR source material.
Quote:YouTube 4K HDR and very likely 4K HDR Google Play movies can be output in HDR because the S905X2 chipset can support Google's VP9 profile 2I guess both HiMedia and Zidoo supports that codec, as local VP9 videos with HDR are playing fine. But there's still no way to get HDR working on them directly with YT apps at all. Guess it need some special permission from Google to be able. So the question remains.
Quote:There are LOTS of advantages when running CoreELEC Kodi vs Android Kodi on recent AMLogic Android devices. Like HD audio, inc. Atmos, properly working deinterlacing, much better legacy video decode support (VC-1 for example). Auto Frame Rate and Auto Resolution switching, and I could go on...I'm a bit confused by this answer, as it suggests that you except that these new Minix boxes would lack all of these features with their original Android OS and player. Specially as these (except maybe the auto res switching) are working fine on their previous U9 and U1 Amlogic based Players with Android. But I can see you really don't. Maybe you meant other noname "cheap" Brands Boxes, but that's so obvious, and my question particularly concerned only these new Minix Boxes.
Quote:I'm yet to see any AMLogic Chipset device running anything Android support a Dolby Audio Licence properly - in the same way you can get FireTV and Apple TV devices remixing / downmixing all audio into highly compatible 5.1 DD to support older DD only audio equiptment. Even copy protected Apps streaming and 5.1 SPDIF audio output is non existant.Oh, so you meant under the licencing and the proper support is that the Player can convert any other audio formats to SD DolbyDigital 5.1 and passthrough from streaming apps?
Proper Dolby Audio support on ALL Android TV media player platforms is pathetic.
(2019-09-28, 06:04)Mount81 Wrote: I guess both HiMedia and Zidoo supports that codec, as local VP9 videos with HDR are playing fine. But there's still no way to get HDR working on them directly with YT apps at all. Guess it need some special permission from Google to be able. So the question remains.
Quote:There are LOTS of advantages when running CoreELEC Kodi vs Android Kodi on recent AMLogic Android devices. Like HD audio, inc. Atmos, properly working deinterlacing, much better legacy video decode support (VC-1 for example). Auto Frame Rate and Auto Resolution switching, and I could go on...
Quote:I'm a bit confused by this answer, as it suggests that you except that these new Minix boxes would lack all of these features with their original Android OS and player. Specially as these (except maybe the auto res switching) are working fine on their previous U9 and U1 Amlogic based Players with Android.
Quote:No you are wrong for U1 / U9....I didn't know that. I mean in the case if you mean that these also apply to their special XBMC fork and not just to the original KODI..?? I was expecting, that these popular, modern Boxes have these basic playback features working like charm with at least their own kind of (modded) playback application. (I know the vanilla KODI has dropped AMlogic specific support a long while ago, so that's not the surprise and I wasn't expected it to fulfill.)
Android Kodi Leia deinterlacing (mpeg2 especially) does not work properly with Mediacodec hardware decoding. VC-1 decoding is not working properly.
(2019-09-28, 09:00)Mount81 Wrote:Quote:No you are wrong for U1 / U9....I my case, the lack of these two basic features would be an absolute deal-breaker.
Android Kodi Leia deinterlacing (mpeg2 especially) does not work properly with Mediacodec hardware decoding. VC-1 decoding is not working properly.
I have many older DVD's and also interlaced FHD videos, that are sometimes even coded in VC-1.
So buying an U9 for example would have been a big disappointment in my case...? (Except if I would use it with CoreElec, but lets just first stick with the "original" Android capabilities).
(2019-10-19, 09:11)imcrazyz Wrote: Hi wrxtasy, I've always wondered if 2GB DDR3 RAM (Minix Neo T5) is sufficient for streaming purposes on android 9.0 (ultimately the future OS comes with larger size).
Seeing that we have few boxes out there, e.g. Mecool KM3 that is equipped with 4GB DDR4 RAM, what is your advice/suggestion on this?
(2019-10-19, 12:14)wrxtasy Wrote:Too bad that the new 905X2 cheaper Boxes still have crappy, unpredictable Android FW's. Minixes will be reliable for sure, but I still wonder how usable and stable is the Android on the N2 and on the WIM3. (For general purposes and NOT for local video playback, as CE will do that job).(2019-10-19, 09:11)imcrazyz Wrote: Hi wrxtasy, I've always wondered if 2GB DDR3 RAM (Minix Neo T5) is sufficient for streaming purposes on android 9.0 (ultimately the future OS comes with larger size).
Seeing that we have few boxes out there, e.g. Mecool KM3 that is equipped with 4GB DDR4 RAM, what is your advice/suggestion on this?
Actually the opposite is true.
Each subsequent Android TV OS release is being further optimised to run on low RAM devices.
2GB RAM is just fine for Oreo and especially Pie devices these days.
More important is high quality fast DDR4 RAM and a modern ARM GPU for a graphics intensive snappy Android TV device.
(2019-10-19, 12:36)Mount81 Wrote: Too bad that the new 905X2 cheaper Boxes still have crappy, unpredictable Android FW's. Minixes will be reliable for sure, but I still wonder how usable and stable is the Android on the N2 and on the WIM3. (For general purposes and NOT for local video playback, as CE will do that job).
(2019-10-19, 16:10)wrxtasy Wrote:Still waiting for a cheap "miracle" version Amlogic Box. A friend of mine would pay like max 40$, but only if it also have a reliable and stable Android system, mostly for YT, Browsing and for such general apps. I've been around this for a while, but most of the time I've been informed regarding the current best-buy Boxes, that their Android won't jump the expectations. I guess that won't change that much in the future, and Minixes, tho' still the most affordable, are in a completely different price-range.(2019-10-19, 12:36)Mount81 Wrote: Too bad that the new 905X2 cheaper Boxes still have crappy, unpredictable Android FW's. Minixes will be reliable for sure, but I still wonder how usable and stable is the Android on the N2 and on the WIM3. (For general purposes and NOT for local video playback, as CE will do that job).
Well I've had been playing around with LineageOS 16 - Android TV Pie ROM - based on Hardkernel's Android Pie 9.0 release on the Odroid N2 and it's pretty stable as far as I'm concerned for Android usage. Really snappy when running from eMMC flash.
I don't think there really is a lot of change vs Oreo 8.0, and that has been out for quite a while.
AMLogic have had a long time to bed down the underlying v4.9 Linux Kernel for Android Oreo & Pie.
There should not be many OS surprises really here from MINIX I would think - they will no doubt add extra personal tweaks.
(2019-10-19, 17:17)Mount81 Wrote: Still waiting for a cheap "miracle" version Amlogic Box. A friend of mine would pay like max 40$, but only if it also have a reliable and stable Android system, mostly for YT, Browsing and for such general apps.
Quote:I've been around this for a while, but most of the time I've been informed regarding the current best-buy Boxes, that their Android won't jump the expectations.
Quote:I guess that won't change that much in the future, and Minixes, tho' still the most affordable, are in a completely different price-range.
(2019-10-19, 12:14)wrxtasy Wrote:Thanks for your reply!(2019-10-19, 09:11)imcrazyz Wrote: Hi wrxtasy, I've always wondered if 2GB DDR3 RAM (Minix Neo T5) is sufficient for streaming purposes on android 9.0 (ultimately the future OS comes with larger size).
Seeing that we have few boxes out there, e.g. Mecool KM3 that is equipped with 4GB DDR4 RAM, what is your advice/suggestion on this?
Actually the opposite is true.
Each subsequent Android TV OS release is being further optimised to run on low RAM devices.
2GB RAM is just fine for Oreo and especially Pie devices these days.
More important is high quality fast DDR4 RAM and a modern ARM GPU for a graphics intensive snappy Android TV device.