Asus PN50 challenge

1st Official Post

    Hi everyone,

    I've recently acquired a Asus PN50 with AMD APU 4500U and I would like to collaborate with the the forum with the single purpose of having a stable LE image for everyone that make the same choice I did!!

    My setup:

    Asus PN50: Mini PC PN50｜Mini PCs｜Displays / Desktops ｜ASUS Global + 4Gb DDR4 2400Mhz + 128Gb SSD. BIOS UPDATED.

    SmartTV: TV UHD Premium UE75MU7005, Smart TV, 2300 PQI | Samsung FR

    test subject 1:

    1 - Installed the stable Generic image from main site. Error: GPU not supported - Cannot install LE

    2 - Installed image LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-9.80-nightly-20201214-8a6ca28.img @ Index of / SOLVED

    Solution: For those who have CPU/GPU not supported. Try the test GENERIC images until we don't have a stable version compatible with this particular system.

    After this process...

    Test the system, the main features works fine. No glitches reproducing videos, music, etc. Could navigate all the menus with an external keyboard. I have a soundbar connected to the SMARTV via optical. No problems here either with the bypass.

    Special Note: I plugged an XBOX one USB TV TURNER and the card was identified by the system. To be more precise, at some time the system asked me to configure the PVR. Further testing will be executed after configuring TV channels DVB-C service.

    3 - Issues found:

    3.1 HDMI-CEC not working - This image doesn't have installed the HDMI-CEC. I've read in this forum that the generic versions doesn't have the HDM-CEC pre-configured at all. I would like to know how may I help you with testing to enable and stabilize this feature. Heads-up. I've already enable it on BIOS, please let me know if you need more details regarding the BIOS HDMI-CEC configuration. Accordingly with the product page. It's possible to manage the SMARTV with a single remote. Identical feature That LE provides with the RPi/Amlogic variants.

    3.2 The system does't shutdown or reboot. I'm having issues every time I try to shutdown or reboot the system. The system freezes and I need to force the shutdown manually.

    :arrow:Request. Can someone provide me a image that has HDMI-CEC enabled, so I can test on my side:?:

    If its possible, also provide the necessary configuration or update to fix the shutdown/reboot issue./shrug

    Thanks in advance for the help.


    Edited once, last by karpediemrsi (December 16, 2020 at 11:44 AM).

    Quote from Klojum

    Could be a kernel thing. Linux 5.10 was released days ago, perhaps that will solve something.

    Hi Klojum. thanks for the quick reply.

    The image installed is  LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-9.80-nightly-20201214-8a6ca28.img and I've checked the kernel version:

    LibreELEC:~ # uname -r

    # 5.9.11

    Perhaps I need to wait for an updated and compiled version with the new kernel. Can someone point me to a changelog of the test versions please?

    I know that in the past Milhouse did this procedure and it was very clear all the changes/updates made in the process.

    Once again. Thanks

    Hi (again)

    update to the last test Generic image LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-9.80-nightly-20201215-8a6ca28.img and still no luck regarding HDMI-CEC and shutdown/reboot issue.

    Did some investigation to be able to trace the issue the best I can and obtain the following result:

    LibreELEC:~ # cec-client -l

    libCEC version: 4.0.7, compiled on 2020-12-15 03:47:30 by jenkins@prometheus on Linux 4.15.0-118-generic (x86_64), features: P8_USB, DRM, P8_detect, randr

    Found devices: NONE

    It seems that libCEC is a default service but it doesn't recognize the PN50 HDMI-CEC "driver"? Similar to pulse8 driver?

    thanks

    I think it's about time I replaced my old NUC5CPYH, and was looking at the ASUS PN50 (the Ryzen 3 version probably)

    1. What's the status of support 3 months after the OP? Would I have to go with a test/nightly build?

    2. @ karpediemrsi Have you tested the IR receiver? Is it supported out of the box on libreelec (like the NUC ones) ?

    I fear karpediemrsi has given up the challenge to get the PN50 to work.

    Pity!

    I would have liked to ask him a few questions:

    • Is Audio Passthrough for DTS HD MA or Dolby TrueHD working?
    • Is HDR working?
    • Can one use the built-in IR receiver for switching on the device?

    Well I think I'll be hijacking this thread. My new PN50 just arrived, so...

    • I can confirm latest stable refuses to boot. Managed to boot LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-10.0-nightly-20210307-7932f3f.img successfully.
    • System did shutdown successfully on nighty v10. Didn't test reboot yet
    • Haven't tested IR yet.

    Deezle Audio passthrough for TrueHD seems to work after a quick test. I'll try to report in detail in the following days

    Quote from beredim

    Well I think I'll be hijacking this thread. My new PN50 just arrived, so...

    • I can confirm latest stable refuses to boot. Managed to boot LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-10.0-nightly-20210307-7932f3f.img successfully.
    • System did shutdown successfully on nighty v10. Didn't test reboot yet
    • Haven't tested IR yet.

    Deezle Audio passthrough for TrueHD seems to work after a quick test. I'll try to report in detail in the following days

    Thanks a lot for your answers to my questions.

    Looks promising.

    I can hardly wait for your detailed test results.

    Which exact PN50 model do you have? Which CPU does it have: a Ryzen 3, 5 or 7 CPU?

    In Germany, where I live, it‘s pretty hard to buy anything else than a PN50 with a Ryzen 3 CPU. I am wondering wether it‘s fast enough for viewing high-res pictures. My RPi4 decodes them fast enough but changing into a directory with a few hundred or even more pictures in it is a nightmare. It takes ages until it‘s ready creating the thumbnails. :(

    Edited 2 times, last by Deezle (March 8, 2021 at 7:18 PM).

    Deezle, thanks for showing me this thread. I'll be following it for a bit to see. i'm assuming any Ryzen will be lightyears ahead in speed (especially since you can also use an NVMe drive on it) compared to an RPi4.

    My biggest concerns are does it do 10bit 4k HDR properly? Does it do HD Audio passthrough properly. We have an intel custom build that I got 4k HDR working on but only with decoded audio. Passthrough has issues.

    It's the Ryzen 3 4300 model. Did a build with a Kingston A2000 nvme, and 16GB of 3200Mhz ram.

    A bit overkill on the specs for LE, but I figured if I weren't satisfied with the experience, I'd still have a well spec'd machine for some other workload.

    pletopia:

    I know. My RPi4 is only my last resort as long as don‘t have a fast machine for Kodi. I assume a Ryzen 3 is way fast enough for video and audio, but I wonder wether it‘s fast enough for picture viewing.

    One of the first results of beredim is that passthrough of Dolby TrueHD works. So assume that passthrough of other HBR audio formats might be possible.

    But we have to be patient until beredim posts detailed test results.

    As I have written earlier I can hardly wait for them. ;)

    HDR is another question. I hope beredim can provide us an answer to it. :/

    Edited once, last by Deezle (March 8, 2021 at 7:24 PM).

    Quote from beredim

    It's the Ryzen 3 4300 model. Did a build with a Kingston A2000 nvme, and 16GB of 3200Mhz ram.

    A bit overkill on the specs for LE, but I figured if I weren't satisfied with the experience, I'd still have a well spec'd machine for some other workload.

    Can a machine ever be too fast? ;)

    Quote from Deezle

    Can a machine ever be too fast? ;)

    No it can't .. but there is a price vs performance factor also to look at ;)

    And yes, prelim showed Dolby TrueHD worked .. but my question is does it work "properly". Under intel both DTS MasterHD and Dolby TrueHD "work" but when passthru audio is enabled every few minutes the audio cuts out for a split second.

    Quote from pletopia

    No it can't .. but there is a price vs performance factor also to look at ;)

    And yes, prelim showed Dolby TrueHD worked .. but my question is does it work "properly". Under intel both DTS MasterHD and Dolby TrueHD "work" but when passthru audio is enabled every few minutes the audio cuts out for a split second.

    As far as I can see your goal seems to be same as mine:

    A machine with

    • flawlessly working audio passthrough for HBR audio like DTS HD MA or Dolby TrueHD
    • working HDR. At least HDR10, but better would be nice though. 😉

    So let‘s see what a PN50 Ryzen 3 can deliver. 8)

    beredim

    Thanks in advance for your testing. I am pretty happy and grateful for it.

    Quote from pletopia

    My biggest concerns are does it do 10bit 4k HDR properly?

    Current work-in-progress HDR code from lrusak's git repo (which I use for my LE builds) does not work on AMD. No idea when or if it will ever work.

    But the biggest concern should be AMD's linux GPU driver quality, which is kinda crap. I encountered some nasty issues when testing LE on Athlon 200GE APU with Vega graphics.

    The audio passthrough issues on Intel are nothing compared to general crappiness of AMD drivers.

    Quote from smp

    Current work-in-progress HDR code from lrusak's git repo (which I use for my LE builds) does not work on AMD. No idea when or if it will ever work.

    But the biggest concern should be AMD's linux GPU driver quality, which is kinda crap. I encountered some nasty issues when testing LE on Athlon 200GE APU with Vega graphics.

    The audio passthrough issues on Intel are nothing compared to general crappiness of AMD drivers.

    That‘s a real show stopper for me. Thanks for sharing the insight. I hoped that the PN50 could be a decent machine for Kodi particularly in regard to HBR audio passthrough and HDR.

    Do you expect that the audio passthrough issues on Intel (e.g. NUC11PAHi) will be solved in the near future? Within the next three months or so?

    May I ask you which machine you own yourself or plan to purchase?

    smp uses a gemini lake i believe .. i have one of those also lying around. He doesn't use passthru audio though so its a perfect (and fairly inexpensive solution compared to newer intel nuc's and even this amd "nuc") option for him and others that don't use passthru