I just got an N2+

You write the image to an SD card (same as an RPi) insert the card to the board (same as an RPi) flip the switch on the front to the right so it ignores petitboot (which does not support extlinux booting) then power on the board. There is nothing to set and it should boot straight into Kodi.

NB: You will probably want to turn hardware decoding off on the N2 (same as all G12A/B and SM1 devices). H264 works well but HEVC isn't so good and anything 10-bit wedges the board.This does limit the board to 1080p, but it works well. If you want 4K support you will need to run a vendor kernel image like CE.

4K requires hardware decoding which isn’t going to work on an N2 due to current issues with the upstream decoding drivers. You’ll need to use CE on the Amlogic vendor/legacy kernel. I can’t say whether that’s laggy or not as I don’t use or track CE (and not that I find RPi4 slow either).

Quote from chewitt

NB: You will probably want to turn hardware decoding off on the N2 (same as all G12A/B and SM1 devices). H264 works well but HEVC isn't so good and anything 10-bit wedges the board.This does limit the board to 1080p, but it works well. If you want 4K support you will need to run a vendor kernel image like CE.

After about 4 hours of tinkering, I could not get my Odroid N2 to work with hardware decoding and then I found your post explaining the situation.

I am also having issues with LE passing-through DTS-HD MA via HDMI as all I can get is a static noise from my AVR. However when I change the audio stream to 5.1 format, my AVR can play it just fine. Is this is another limitation of Odroid N2 where it cannot pass-through HD audio?

Thanks.

I've made some progress in the last week or so with hardware decoding of 10-bit media and I now see a black screen when playing 10-bit HEVC content. That might not sound impressive, but not instantly crashing the SoC when opening the codec is a huge leap forwards since it allows meanginful further testing to be done; and I can now see there is a load of plumbing missing in ffmpeg that's related to V4L2 format modifiers that's needed to complete the puzzle.

I've also replicated the DTS-HD MA issue in recent days. I'm not sure what the source of that issue is, but as the Kodi side of things works with multiple other SoC platforms it's almost certainly something specific to Amlogic chips and suspicion falls on the AXG audio driver and/or the HDMI related code in the DRM layer. I need to run tests with an older S905X or S912 device to see if the same issue is present on them or not?. If not, that probably narrows the issue to the AXG audio driver (as the DRM code is common; although there are different code paths in places) and if it also doesn't work on GXL/GXM boards it could be something missing in both AXG and AIU drivers, but more likely something in common DRM code. I'm a little fixated on the codec work at the moment though so might not get around to that test quickly, and even once it's done all I can really do is flag the issue to the upstream kernel maintainers. So for now .. DTS core is all that works.

I have an S912 box (Nexbox A1 clone) lying around so I decided to test it with latest LE firmware. I used "LibreELEC-AMLGX.aarch64-12.0.2-box.img.gz" on an SD card with 'meson-gxm-nexbox-a1.dtb'. Here is what I found:

-When I tried to specify HDMI audio pass-through options, the DTS-HD MA was greyed out so it could not be turned on. When I played a Blu-ray rip with DTS-HD MA, then only core DTS 5.1 audio played. So I guess DTS-HD MA is no-go with LE 11.x & 12.x on Amlogic S912 & S922x boards.

- When I turned on 'DRM PRIME decoder' option and tried to play a 4K file, Kodi crashed immediately on this S912 box.

-I tried to play a Blu-ray rip (1080p with HD audio) with DRM PRIME decoder' option turned on, but video playback froze after 20-30 minutes.

-I tried to play a Blu-ray rip (1080p with HD audio) with DRM PRIME decoder' option turned off. 1080p did play but the box overheated and froze in about 15 minutes.

- I switched back to other SC card containing "LE 8.2.5 (wrxtasy-kszaq)" and DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD both worked. Also 4K video worked with hardware acceleration. No crashes noted.

Now does anyone know if 'DRM PRIME decoder' and DTS-HD MA pass-through work on an S905X3 chipsets for LE 11.c or 12.x ?

I've done some testing on a VIM2 board this morning. I can get DTS-core PT, but not DTS-HD MA PT, and my AVR is silent; unlike the N2+ that I tested which tried to fly my tweeters with noise. The fact S922X outputs noise and S912 does not is probably down to the different audio card drivers used, and the fact both are affected probably points to an issue in the common DRM layer; I'd guess the HDMI frame packing needs tweaking or some additional register poking to work, or something of that nature. S905X3 (SM1) is a minor evolution of S922X (G12B) hardware so will have the same issue. Comparisons with the legacy codebase are entertaining but have no technical merit as the kernel codebases are completely (100% of code) different.

As a general rule H264 playback is solid and HEVC works 'okay' with adjust-refresh (start/stop) and PCM output. Don't expect HEVC seek to always work (the drivers aren't finished). Don't expect 3D and deinterlacing to work (not implmented) and poorly encoded media stolen from torrent networks will give poor results. The vendor codebase has a ton of hacks in ffmpeg to workaround media issues, and we don't replicate that. As per release notes, AMLGX works for a steadily increasing number of people, but it will not work for everyone.

I have an S905X box (Nexbox A95X clone) lying around so I decided to test it with latest LE firmware. I used "LibreELEC-AMLGX.aarch64-12.0.2-box.img.gz" on an SD card with 'gxl_905x_p212_.dtb'. Here is what I found:

-When I tried to specify HDMI audio pass-through options, the DTS-HD MA was not greyed out. However when I played a Blu-ray rip with DTS-HD MA or Dolby-TruHD, I got only silence. So non of high-resolution audio format worked with GXL-212 board. I guess LE 11.x would be same. I did not test pass-through of Dolby-TruHD on S912 box.

-I tried to play a Blu-ray rip (1080p with HD audio) with DRM PRIME decoder' option turned on, I sometime got flashes and blobs of color and HEVC seek froze the playback.

-I tried to play a Blu-ray rip (1080p with HD audio) with DRM PRIME decoder' option turned off. It worked with 5.1 audio but you are right HEVC seek broke the play back.

- I did not even bother with any 4k video on S905 box.

Question: What are the most functional and stable chipsets to be used for LE 11.x & LW 12.x ? I mean between Rockchip, Allwinner & Broadcom, which one supports video hardware acceleration + Hi-res audio pass-trough + 4k HDR playback?

Thanks.

I don't really see playback issues with 4K HEVC or VP9 media on S905X/S912 devices I have (other than seek). I hit play, occasionally see some garbage in the first few seconds but then it stabilises and plays to the end withouth issue. I am mostly playing self-ripped media though, and I rarely test PT audio because that involves fiddling with settings, and if you rotate through test installs as often as I do that's a chore to avoid. 4K SDR HEVC will work on an S905 box, but no HDR support in the chip (or tonemapping in software) and no VP9 on the chip. The decoders really do need adjust-refresh enabled so media plays at native rates. If you use a monitor that requires everything to be displayed at 60Hz or don't enable adjust refresh things don't run so well. I have no expectations of EGL rendering or any media with DRMPRIME disabled playing .. it's not how the image is intended to be used.

If you want excellent hardware with average software; choose any RK or Allwinner chip we support. If you want something with average hardware and excellent software (hint, this is the better combo) get an RPi5. It lacks VP9, but will software decode up to 4K30 with online streams. Everything lacks AV1 right now. There is no such thing as future-proof.