S905 builds - general discussion

    Hi kszaq,

    thank you for your amazing work and supporting S905!

    I have tested 001 build on two S905...
    MiniMX:
    - aml_autoscript installation didn't worked... I had to run autoscript manually from bootloader.
    - WiFi worked after disable and re-enable.
    MXQ Pro 4k: aml_autoscript and WiFi works fine.

    Both of the devices:
    - fast boot, no freeze, remote control strange (some situation back button doesn't work, needed to use "back with X")
    - 720p avi and mkv play smooth from my NAS
    - I got a lot of buffering freeze while play on my udp stream (maybe a kodi issue)

    good work!

    gcsuri

    I have the same mxq remote as pictured in mark-aus-51 post (with numeric keypad). i have attached the remote.conf from android which i also confimed again the remote and all buttons are 100% functional in android.

    In LE the back button (right side above the arrow keys but below the blue vol+ key) does not do anything in the UI but during video playback it only shows and hides the last kodi directory.

    The volume +/- go left or right in UI or during video playback vol down seeks back, vol up does nothing.

    Working buttons:
    Backspace/Del button which is on the right side of the 0 (zero) key = works perfectly as the back key.
    Home (house) button = working and goes Home.
    Menu Button which is below the home button = works as the context key aka 'C' key on the keyboard.
    Mute (left side of the 0 key) = working

    Broken buttons (i dont use but may help others):
    Green App button = Launches the Pictures library no matter if in settings, home or video it always opens Pictures. Maybe remap to launch video addons or Programs?
    Red Setup button = Does not do anything in kodi or video playback. Remap to settings?

    remote.conf i used with my custom OE is found here remote.conf

    Edit:

    Just tried the remote.conf from alex github linked above again with 002 and now everything is working 100% including vol+/-, back button. Everything is 100% working, so maybe use that as reference during install instead. The red setup and green app buttons do not do anything with alex remote.conf but i dont use those anyways.

    Quote from kszaq


    Changelog:

    • fixed frame rate automation - now it can be switched in Kodi and with automation turned on 23.976fps videos play smoothly
    • added media drivers from Linux backports - this includes all DVB drivers from 4.4.2 kernel
      Please note: support for DVB drivers is highly experimental, I appreciate your feedback on this
    • small adjustments in Broadcom WiFi driver parameters to improve performance a little bit

    kszaq: superb

    Excellent work Kszaq;) I'm using your build from sd card on mini mx and I've Alex's openELEC on nand:) just a question if I put the .img.gz in the update folder what happens? will I update the sd libreelec or overwrite what I've on nand? So Does this file works on both sd and nand? Then a curiosity wouldn't I need the ".tar" archive for update? (I remember this from your 805 builds Has something changed to allow the update with img.gz?) Thanks for your time and for spending time to answer to my (stupid) question:)

    JonSnow: Thank you for posting so much details. I will look into it.

    Quote from anthontex


    just a question if I put the .img.gz in the update folder what happens? will I update the sd libreelec or overwrite what I've on nand? So Does this file works on both sd and nand? Then a curiosity wouldn't I need the ".tar" archive for update?

    LibreELEC introduced a possibility to update from img.gz instead of tar (you can use both) so if you put img.gz to LibreELEC Update folder, it will update LibreELEC and won't touch internal memory in your case. In short, with LE there is no need for tar Update files as img.gz do the same and they are smaller in size.

    Quote from kszaq

    LibreELEC introduced a possibility to update from img.gz instead of tar (you can use both) so if you put img.gz to LibreELEC Update folder, it will update LibreELEC and won't touch internal memory in your case. In short, with LE there is no need for tar Update files as img.gz do the same and they are smaller in size.

    Thank you very much :)

    Quote from JonSnow


    I flashed back to Android put aml_autoscript and libreelec....update.zip on SD card (without factory_update_param.aml), launched Backup&Upgrade app in android selected the libreelec.zip and proceeded with the upgrade. Box rebooted and started flashing and once complete it booted LE successfully.

    Thanks for that info JonSnow!

    I tried to install on Mk808b Pro but there is something wrong with the reset-button:
    The device won't start as long as I keep the reset button pressed and when I release the button it doesn't enter recovery.
    I tried everything I could think of but nothing worked until I tried the "Backup&Upgrade" tip! great stuff!

    so far LE runs smooth, I'll report later after some testing...

    One of my main issues with OE was ram management, after using a few addons (youtube etc), browing the library and playing a few videos, ram would quickly fill up to about 65%, once playback was stopped it would not release any ram until you rebooted the box. This would result in slow performance and then freezing once ram got to about 85% used which required a hard reboot.

    This is 10x better on LE but ram slowly continues to increase on LE as it did with OE but not as quickly which is better. On my raspberry pi2 running osmc ram is always below 25% when idle regardless of what addon was used or what video was played. This seems like an OE/LE issue vs a box or build issue to me since on osmc i can go weeks or months without rebooting or freezing with pretty much the same configuration.

    I keep the rpi2 on 24/7 and would like to do the same with these s905 boxes and not have to worry about rebooting or freezing, eventually would like to replace the rpi2 for the mxq pro.

    My mxq has 1gb ram 743MB usable, 590MB (21%) free on boot, which is the same on the rpi2. Attached is the log of a fresh install on an SD card with a random bunch of kodi video addons, the box boots up with about 20% ram used and after playing, skipping, browsing different addons you can see ram slowly starts filling up. 52% ram used is when i stopped and grabed a copy of the logs, it will not freeze until it gets to about 85% which will happen in a few days if the box is left on 24/7, but this should be good enough to show what i'm talking about.

    Note: altered some parts to remove ip addresses and replaced with xxx

    Regarding the power off issue from the remote, its actually not going into suspend/standby. Its just turing off the hdmi output to the tv, if you wait about 20 seconds the hdmi signal is restored and everything is normal.


    I have similar experience on Mini MX 1GB RAM, not only kszaq's LE build but also alex's OE build. Memory usage figures are about the same. I tested with 2160p x265 10bit videos (on my 1080p TV), playback won't even start if memory usage is over 50%. If I stopped playback at the middle and switch to another, playback couldn't even started as memory usage was almost 70%.

    Is there any background process running that keep the memory from releasing? Also if I populate my video library, I would never see memory usage below 35%.

    Quote from wkchick


    I have similar experience on Mini MX 1GB RAM, not only kszaq's LE build but also alex's OE build. Memory usage figures are about the same. I tested with 2160p x265 10bit videos (on my 1080p TV), playback won't even start if memory usage is over 50%. If I stopped playback at the middle and switch to another, playback couldn't even started as memory usage was almost 70%.

    Is there any background process running that keep the memory from releasing? Also if I populate my video library, I would never see memory usage below 35%.

    I updated my post with logs maybe you can do the same. This will probably help kszaq much more then us just posting issues without logs.

    kszaq i will start a new thread if you would like as to not clutter this thread.

    Quote from JonSnow

    I updated my post with logs maybe you can do the same. This will probably help kszaq much more then us just posting issues without logs.

    kszaq i will start a new thread if you would like as to not clutter this thread.


    Below is the quote from kszaq when i was testing the Dev builds prior to Public Release.
    He is aware.

    "The memory usage is caused by how Amlogic's video decoder allocates memory for playback in S905 devices: it uses Continuous Memory Allocator to reserve huge amounts of memory and it becomes temporarily unavailable to Kodi."

    Hope this helps you.

    Quote from kostaman


    Below is the quote from kszaq when i was testing the Dev builds prior to Public Release.
    He is aware.

    "The memory usage is caused by how Amlogic's video decoder allocates memory for playback in S905 devices: it uses Continuous Memory Allocator to reserve huge amounts of memory and it becomes temporarily unavailable to Kodi."

    Hope this helps you.

    Thanks, good to know he is aware of the issue. So i suspect this is the same with LE on the Odroid C2 and Wetek Hub?

    Quote from wkchick


    I tested with 2160p x265 10bit videos (on my 1080p TV), playback won't even start if memory usage is over 50%. If I stopped playback at the middle and switch to another, playback couldn't even started as memory usage was almost 70%.

    For better 4K HEVC playback, please try executing the following commands (in autostart.sh or over SSH before playing):

    Code
    echo 8 >  /sys/module/amvdec_h265/parameters/buffer_mode
echo 16 > /sys/module/amvdec_h265/parameters/dynamic_buf_num_margin
echo 1 >  /sys/module/amvdec_h265/parameters/use_cma


    Quote from JonSnow


    So i suspect this is the same with LE on the Odroid C2 and Wetek Hub?


    This I don't know as I have neither. I suspect at this point C2 has the same issues, there is no official LE image for the Hub yet.

    Yesterday I've watched the football match in 4K hevc main10 without problem on a 1080p monitor for me it's ok :) (mini mx)

    Edit: speaking of 2160p@50 hevc main10 channels remember there is also an hardware issue with most amlogic s905 (except of wetek hub for now that ships revision C). So some of these channels will freeze and won't be played.
    An example is Hotbird 4K1 that randomly after minutes stops or Canal+ on Astra.

    Edited once, last by anthontex (July 11, 2016 at 7:57 AM).

    Quote from anthontex


    Yesterday I've watched the football match in 4K hevc main10 without problem on a 1080p monitor for me it's ok :) (mini mx)

    Edit: speaking of 2160p@50 hevc main10 channels remember there is also an hardware issue with most amlogic s905 (except of wetek hub for now that ships revision C). So some of these channels will freeze and won't be played.
    An example is Hotbird 4K1 that randomly after minutes stops or Canal+ on Astra.

    Wonder if the newer MiniMXIII has the same processor, I don't have a 4k TV yet and not planning on getting one just yet but still curious to know since the old mini mx was released just a few months prior.

    Quote from xbliss


    Anyone try this on the Cheapo 25-30$ boxes like the MXP?

    It should work but I advise spend the extra $$ and get the MiniMXIII or at least a device with 2GB RAM to counter the issue few post above.

    Edited once, last by JonSnow (July 11, 2016 at 1:35 PM).

    Quote from JonSnow

    ]
    Wonder if the newer MiniMXIII has the same processor, I don't have a 4k TV yet and not planning on getting one just yet but still curious to know since the old mini mx was released just a few months prior.


    I've asked in our forum to a user that has the miniMXIII and the canal+ video doesn't work. Maybe the newest stocks that will come in the next months or simply new supplies will have the new revision C but for now only wetek hub seems to have that processor. :)

    Edited once, last by anthontex (July 11, 2016 at 1:45 PM).

    Quote from anthontex


    I've asked in our forum to a user that has the miniMXIII and the canal+ video doesn't work. Maybe the newest stocks that will come in the next months or simply new supplies will have the new revision C but for now only wetek hub seems to have that processor.

    I nearly bought one of these a minute ago! Lucky I didn't! I'd love a wetek hub but at around £75 not including shipping I just can't afford it. Will wait and see if any UK seller starts selling the revised version of the Beelink over the next few months. Of course perhaps the reason the one I was looking at was only £33 with shipping was because it's older stock?

    Oh and one question to those that have a miniMXIII, does it handle 29.976fps out of the box or will this only work with a custom ROM such as K's. Apparently the WeTek does 29.976fps as standard which is one good reason to consider it. wrxtasy's review of the hub here: WeTek Hub - 24p HD Netflix - HD Kodi Audio - 10bit HEVC - Lollipop - 4K

    Edited once, last by PatrickJB (July 11, 2016 at 2:32 PM).