Currently running recent stock firmware on AML S905. Worth moving to LE?

1st Official Post

    Hi folks,

    I'm currently running recent stock firmware on what I understand is an AMLogic S905 (MXQ 4K Pro) but I'm hitting some weird performance and memory issues that I figure are because my library is getting too big (20+ TB of episodes and movies stored on remote NAS). So I'm thinking of switching to LE but I'd just like to make sure it won't be a step back in terms of functionality.

    Right now I'm using the most recent build of the RKMC fork of Kodi, which works reasonably well except for slow performance in menus and some limitations to zooming on content. If someone can confirm whether the following features will work either as well or better if I switch to LibreElec I'd really appreciate the advice:

    - Passthrough audio for DD5.1, DTS etc working through HDMI out.

    - Hardware decoding of HEVC X265 content up to 1080p (I don't have a 4K display)

    - Support for the USB FLIRC dongle that I use my favorite remote with

    - Decent operation with SMB shares from my NAS and Windows desktop PC where I store my video and movie content (hopefully not getting "function not implemented" when browsing the WORKGROUP network group)

    If the above are possible (and performance is likely to be snappier, especially in menus and navigation) then I'll waste no time in switchin to LibreElec. Anyone able to share information about their experience will be very helpful.

    Thanks in advance folks, and thanks also for taking the time to read my ramblings.

    Why don't you try it by yourself? If you don't like LE just remove the card and you are back to android.

    Not so much people has >20TB media...

    Quote from wrxtasy

    I have to ask the obvious question...

    Why a Rockchip Fork of Kodi on an AMLogic box ?

    Makes no sense whatsoever.

    because I'm an idiot. and partially because it was the first build i ran across that allowed me to zoom in on content with smaller frame sizes.

    For generic S905 Android boxes SPMC and FTMC (from Freaktab website) offer far better hardware decoding support than what you were using in Android.

    Ultimately LibreELEC Kodi Krypton slays all of them !

    Hint: Fastest microSDHC cards for AML devices are Samsung EVO, Sandisk and Lexar 300x Class 10 U1

    So as it turns out using the Rockchip fork RKMC wasn't so stupid after all, since my box actually has the RK3066 chipset rather than the S905. But now it doesn't look like I can go any further on LibreElec because I don't see support for the Rockchip chipsets. Ah well...

    • Official Post

    There activity on supporting RK chips, but efforts are focussed on their current generation devices like RK3328 and there is low appetite for trying to accommodate their older ones. Things are also dependent on the Kodi Leia codebase so there's nothing that we'll show in public for a while yet.

    Quote from Zefrem23

    Thanks very much for your help, everyone, and particularly wrxtasy, both for the help and for building this awesome project :)

    I'm only one very minor spoke in the much larger LibreELEC / Kodi - Ferris Wheel - which is very much a collaborative open source team effort with hundreds if not thousands of contributors.

    So I ordered an S905x box and the LibreElec install I'd made and tried to get working on the Rockchip box (obviously it didn't work) worked 100% fine on the very first try. I just had to drop a different DTB.img file on to match the hardware, and it booted perfectly. Wow, it's SO MUCH FASTER than the Android versions I've used!

    Thanks to everyone who's weighed in on this thread.