Posts by wrxtasy

It's no about data thruput...

LE Kodi likes superior Random 4K R/W speeds. NOT the "As advertised" sequential performance.

eMMC storage is usually superior for 4K Random R/W performance.

That is what you use day to day, especially when Scraping (and reading) Kodi metadata for TV Shows and movies.

If you have not already done so, have a read of this thread:

The Best microSD Cards: Reviews by Wirecutter | A New York Times Company

I've never reverted back to using SD cards for storage to be honest. I only use them now for booting, and then you can buy dirt cheap ones for that purpose.

You should always do a LE Kodi .tar backup before doing anything.

Quote from RayW

I use a fast 16GB Class 10 98 Mbps SD card so I cannot see moving data storage to internal shared with Android improving speed

Which speeds specifically are you basing SD card purchases on exactly.

Is it Sequential R/W performance ?

I'm talking about LE device speeds when writing and retrieving Kodi Metadata, such as movie covers, thumbnails, artwork etc from device storage.

Quote from diplomatic

How is it that the LE interface is so exceptionally fluid and Android is like a slide show?

You will find S905 AMLogic Android boxes run the Mali-450 GPU at 500MHz or even lower, using a GPU load scaling Mode of 1 - which means a 1080p interface or worse 4K is drawn onscreen pretty slowly. RAM quality and speed also makes a difference.

Even worse is AMLogic Android devices seem to artificially constrain the Max. GPU limit to 666MHz with the device trees they use, when the max AMLogic marketed limit is actually 792MHz. We modify the device trees we use in LE to use 792MHz

If you have not already had a look on LE Kodi > Settings > System > AMLogic > you can crank the GPU up to 792MHz

Next we use a CPU Performance Governor by default vs the stupid Hotplug Governor Android media players use, which in reality is designed for battery life on mobile devices.

Hotplug makes no sense on a mains powered media player. Maybe it's also for SoC heat control which is poorly implemented on cheap ARM devices, especially cheap AML S912's that have lots of Cores.

The Android OS is a resource hog that runs comparatively slow on low powered ARM devices. It's gotten a bit better with Android Oreo now Google have gotten off their asses and started optimising a few things, to appeal to a wider Android TV media player / TV audience.

The fairly modern (buggy) v4.9.x Linux Kernel in AMLogic S9xx Android Oreo likely helps.

Having said all that, it's a real pity we do not have Native Linux GPU drivers for the Mali-T820 GPU in the S912's.

Tickle the GPU MHz in Android on those and they are pretty damn snappy because of the included ARM tech in the more modern GPU, that also has better memory bandwidth.

This Kodi ARM Tech Article makes for interesting reading:

Kodi's Dirty Regions - ARM GPU Tech - improving Kodi rendering performance

Great news !

Out of interest does your AVR report on the audio bit depth of LPCM when LE / Kodi decodes FLAC ?

is it showing 16 or 24bit ?

Quote from diplomatic

So, long story short, I ended up fixing the 2g DT by comparing the 1g and 2g DT blobs from my device and applying the changed bytes to gxl_p281_1g.dtb. There were only 3 or 4 instances that needed to be applied. In the end, it worked like a charm. I'm attaching my gxl_p281_2g.dtb here.

Nice clever Sherlock work there and thx for the heads up regarding the same .dtb's

I have a Bluetooth - 2GB S905W ABOX A4 and simply used the A95xr2 .dtb

Thanks for the 2GB S905W .dtb I will replace the erroneous ones in Mega and Google Drive with yours.

For 1080p usage the Widevine L1 - S905W's are surprisingly decent, especially if you need Android TV - HD Netflix in a Dual boot configuration and get one with a USB Wireless Mini dongle remote for easy Dual OS usage.

S905W's are thermally stable too with the CPU's clocked in at 1.2GHz Max, that makes a difference.

For a faster LE that still retains dual boot, also do this mod:[HOWTO] Boot from SD card, use internal memory for data

You can speedup Android TV as well on any such Android device, by simply having a Rooted Box and doing THIS (click) GPU clock mod.

Only Passthrough Audio can bypass Kodi's volume control, PCM cannot I believe.

I would also make sure these Kodi Settings > System > Audio options are disabled first:

Number of Channels > whatever you Sound equiptment supports. SPDIF only supports 2.0 LPCM channels.

Output configuration > Best Match

Maintain Original Volume on Downmix > OFF

Boost center channel when downmixing > 0DB

Here is a OSMC Vero 4K thread that will interest you regarding AMLogic S9xx Linux & FLAC 24bit:

Can Vero do bit-perfect playback? - Vero 4K / Vero 4K + - OSMC Forums

The AMLogic Linux Kernel audio mods @graham8 talks about over there are also in the AML S9xx LE 8.2.5 releases found here:

LE Google Drive Folder

I do not know enough minute detail about Kodi audio to be of any further help.

Default LE options:

https://github.com/libreelec/libreelec.tv/blob/libreelec-8.2/distributions/libreelec/options

ODROID C2 specific options:

https://github.com/libreelec/libreelec.tv/blob/libreelec-8.2/projects/odroid_c2/options

in conjunction with:

LibreELEC.tv/package.mk at libreelec-8.2 · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

Yes LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.5-Chroma.422.12bit.tar has everything in it for S912 users inc. the Kodi dirty regions Subtitles stuttering workaround.

I do not use SMB file sharing so never encounter the SMB Subtitles crashing issue. I use NFS only.

EDIT:

I have had a look and reverted a CIFS/SMB update in the Kernel and will be putting out S905 / S912 SMB.Subtitles.test .tar's in the following:

Google Drive Folder

Quote from adolph7899

wrxtasy I suggest Google drive is a good choice! Thanks so much!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1p6wmq6o9ts08yow3dnmax6tytsp445pb

Which version, be specific ?

LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.5-Chroma.422.12bit.tar may have had some USB Kernel patches in it.

Hard to test anything without actual hardware when developing Software and going on a wild goose chase to support DAC's is not going to happen when using an old v3.x Linux Kernel.

Be aware the Android TV version of Prime Video only works on select devices that have Microsoft Playready DRM, you have to be really careful which devices you choose that have that included.

The only 4K HDR device that has reliable Frame Rate Matching for Apps like Netflix, Prime Video, iTunes, Infuse, MrMC and other Apps is the Apple TV 4K:

https://support.apple.com/en-au/ht208288

That is it.

Amazon are attempting to add Frame Rate Matching to their Fire TV 4K Gen 3, not sure how well it works yet:

Explanation of the new Frame Rate Matching feature on the Amazon Fire TV and how it works | AFTVnews

Apparently that device is not a very good mixed use SDR / HDR device due to all content being output in the wrong colorspace once you view HDR video.

However if you run Android Kodi Leia on a platform with Widevine L1 DRM and one that has working Android Kodi refresh switching like the MINIX U9 you can do this:

MECOOL KM8 Google Certified Android TV Box with Voice Remote - S905X Android 8.0 2/16GB VP9 HDR10 Dolby Audio YT 4K - FreakTab.com

For day to day Apps usage, personally I would use the ATV 4K all the time vs anything else.

Demanding Kodi usage, then it's LibreELEC Kodi Krypton on Gigabit equipped hardware.

Quote from SliceOfPi

I would mainly use it for watching HD and UHD films ripped from Blu-rays but a bonus feature would be something that could run other streaming apps such as Netflix, iPlayer, Amazon Prime if it was ever possible in the future?

Regarding these dual boot AMLogic devices...

For 1080p Netflix you need a device that has HDCP 1.x and Widevine L1 DRM in Android Firmware

For 1080p Amazon Prime you also need Microsoft Playready DRM

Amazon it seems have relaxed their restrictions on devices that can now run the 32bit ARM Amazon Prime App

A bunch of MECOOL devices have Android TV ROM's available that will give you 1080p Netflix, but careful research has to be done for devices that have Microsoft Playready DRM also in Firmware. I suggest the Freaktab Website for detailed research on that.

Having said all that the U9 I have dual boots into a Marshmallow Android TV ROM and 1080p Netflix and 1080p Amazon Prime Video works on it with 5.1 DD+ passthrough audio. All that is needed for DD+ audio passthrough is my correct audio Framework which the U9 ATV ROM's have.

The U9 is my go to 4K HDR Kodi device at the moment simply because of it's integrated, Wireless Mini Keyboard remote that works in both LE and Android seamlessly. The Mini Keyboard comes in real handy for Kodi keyboard shortcuts.

I also get HDMI-CEC - TV / AVR - Off / On functionality all from that single remote. And it's fast and smooth - plus never overheats due to it's far superior heatsink vs any other AMLogic device on the market (except the MINIX U1).

Not enough people pay attention regarding day to day usability IMHO with a single Wireless remote - this make a BIG difference long term.

Personally I do not care much if Kodi Linux / LE support stops at Kodi v18 Leia, because even the current LE Krypton handles pretty much everything I throw at it - from a user point of view. That is virtually all types of audio and 4K HDR video.

If you need long term Kodi support buy a Gigabit Ethernet equipped S905D - but pay careful attention to heat management if you want bulletproof reliability.

Be aware there is no Kodi User Interface rendering at 4K. It's all upscaled from 1080p. I've no idea about 4K Picture viewing support in any LE Kodi, even when the user interface is run in 4K.

If you want Gigabit Ethernet for reliable 4K HDR Bluray REMUX streaming AND long term AMLogic Kodi Linux support the best platform at the moment is the S905D.

Which just so happens to be the internals of the new Gigabit Vero4K+ as well, minus the TV tuner.

Otherwise the cheap S912's will get you as far as Kodi v18 Leia with a decent bit of snappiness at the moment, unless workaround GPU drivers can be found/hacked again to progress further than Leia. I again suggest Gigabit equipped S912 devices if you do not need to dual boot.

By the release of Kodi v19 M, likely a year or more away from this point in time, tech will be cheaper again or something new and faster will be released. Intel 4K HDR Linux might even be viable by then - maybe !

Quote from yatoya

Version 8.2.5 for S905 crashes trying to play file with external subtitles.

Yes that is correct it still crashes, and it's not only this release it seems but other LibreELEC forks on other Linux platforms:

LibreELEC Kodi 17.6 crashes when opening a file that only has external subtitles using Direct Paths · Issue #510 · croneter/PlexKodiConnect · GitHub

It's under investigation, will see if the Intel Linux guys have any answers.

This is NOT CoreELEC support forum.

Please take all CoreELEC questions and answers to the CoreELEC forum.

Current S9xx versions are LE 8.2.5 found in the following folder:

LE-Krypton-AML

Current versions inc. such LPCM audio mods are LE 8.2.5 found in this folder:

LE-Krypton-AML

Quote from hundrakg

If I am going to boot from a microsd card and run latest stable Libreelec on them, does the brand even matter? And does the version of android matter, if it is 6, 7 or 8?

The Antutu score in the Android TV Box chart from Chigz tech reviews gives a good indication of the speed of RAM and eMMC Flash storage of various AML S9xx boxes that can be used for LE:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ebg4trtmgaf-zxukg1ycotxoerwrocyd-du2shjuc6o/edit#gid=0

Usually the more up to date Android 7.x Firmware - the better the Bootloader which is also used by LibreELEC.