Posts by mo123

Quote from myxal

What does that mean? By "software", do you mean the default media player? (No loss there..)

Suppose I'd like to dual-boot Android TV and (legacy) LibreELEC images. Is running both off of 1 storage device possible/viable? The Radxa wiki provides an example image (ubuntu+android), for an older SBC that had onboard NAND. but I don't see any info how to prepare it, or if the process is applicable to the Rock Pi4, and it's quite old at this point.

For Hi10p, the manufacturers also have to modify the Android framework to broadcast to all video players that Hi10p is available, 99% of manufacturers don't implement this. What it means is that Hi10p won't work in any video player like Kodi, VLC, Nova or MxPlayer.

Luckily I fixed it in RockPi 4, Edge-V and RK3328, RK3229 firmwares I made. Without the changes, videos will play in 8-bit color with green, purple color artifacts and the picture will break up.

At the moment you have to use emmc and micro-sd but Rockchip is working on it so you can install 2 OS's on the same storage in future.

Widevine shows L3 so most apps can work. Widevine L1 is only available on closed-source devices with locked bootloaders.

You can also use Magisk to make your device Google Certified or use LibreELEC for 1080p Netflix.

Quote from myxal

mo123 Thanks. Totally forgot Android TV was an option for the SBCs as well. Will probably go for the Rock Pi, the Edge is nearly double the price here, and has lower specs.

Thanks for the tip, though I'll take my chances. User reports suggest that it is indeed working, at least on the Rockchip kernel. Just took a look at the current scene, and it seems most have migrated to H265, so that might become a strong requirement after all.

For Hi10p 10-bit Level 5.1 Anime videos, it is working on my AndroidTV firmware for RockPi with Kodi 18.

Actually Hi10p is supported on most Rockchip CPU's like RK3399, RK3328 and RK3229 but almost no manufacturer implements the software changes needed to play such files. LibreELEC images using the older 4.4 kernel also plays this format hardware decoded.

You can run Android from a micro-sd card or removable emmc storage, I'm also trying to make Android/LibreELEC boot from USB & NVME storage on the RockPi 4.

Quote from myxal

Hi all. Seeing as my shelved A10-based TV box will probably be of little use due to the low specs, I'm wondering if getting a TV box or SBC with a Rockchip SoC (specifically, the RK3399) would make sense now that mainline support is landing, and the recent announcement of new SoCs should be a signal for incoming sales of current/old stock.

• How usable are the boards now/ what's missing (compared to, say, an x86 PC with well-suported hardware components)? (Rockchip's status matrix hasn't beed updated in 8 months... Is anyone tracking the mainline development of Rockchip as well as the sunxi community is tracking theirs?)
• Does any tick all "boxes" listed below? If so, which would you recommend?

My expected use of the box/SBC:

• used as a TV box - controllable using a remote (if not shipped with a decent one, then preferably usable with generic IR (nec encoding), and audio through HDMI

• Playing movies stored on NAS (SMB v2+, Wired Ethernet, preferably gigabit)

• content:

• "typical" H264 (up to 1080p BD quality; alternatively 1080p60 from youtube and the like) ~50%
• mpeg4 (xvid,divx) ~10%
• "Hi10P H264" ~35%
• various sw-decodable SD-or-lower content (flv) ~5%
• H265 - Don't see myself caring about, and (knowingly) getting H265 and/or 4K content any time soon. Unknowingly (through services forcing H265) - I'm currently not subscribed to anything, but am considering Nebula and Curiosity Stream; can't see anyone dropping H264 altogether, not even Youtube. About the only forced-H265 source I can possibly see considering is DVB-T2, (probably streamed into the network from another box), where the resolution will most likely never go beyond 1080i. If the chip can sw-decode such H265 stream, possibly while overclocked, that's good enough.

• Anime, and most movies in non-native language -> (rich) subtitles, and lots of 'em. I think this places additional requirements on the quality/capability of the DRM driver, as it isn't just scaling+scanning out a single plane with the video, but also combining the video plane (may not match display resolution) with display-resolution OSD/subtitle plane at all times. Ie. if the system starts stuttering the playing video when showing OSD, it's no good - just playing the video smoothly with nothing else showing isn't good enough (there's probably a workaround, where the subtitles are rendered into the video plane, but that limits their resolution and on-screen position, so.. "No, thanks.")

• Plex client (server should be capable of transcoding to h264 if needed).

• (maybe) hosting Kodi DB for all home Kodi clients - a non-roaming, passively-cooled TV box is IMHO best suited for the task. Weeks-long uptimes and low tolerance for kernel glitches affecting the DB operation (networking, storage) expected. Probably needs 4 GB of RAM?

• (maybe) WiFi AP (assuming the driver supports it) - the other AP at home doesn't quite reach one room, having an extra AP for better coverage would be nice.

• Case (for SBC): sufficient cooling required - mustn't overheat/throttle under sustained load (à la Raspberry Pi). Shouldn't need to disassemble the case to access sd-card, if the SBC has on-board IR the case mustn't block it (duh).

I took a look at a few SBCs:

- Rock Pi 4: I don't understand the point of putting RK3399 in a Raspberry form factor. RK3399 needs a beefy heatsink, and cools on the bottom, so it's not like I can use any Raspberry cases anyway, I think. Lots of USB ports are nice. No mention of infrared. Can buy some of the models locally for an OK price. Not a fan of having connectors on multiple/adjacent sides, with even the minimal setup (power, Ethernet, HDMI) having cables sticking out of 2 of them.

- RockPro64 Can't seem to find a decent case for it. Doesn't come with infrared.

- Rock960: Has a nice metal case, a bit bare-bones but probably sufficient aside from the missing IR.

Display More

You can also look at the Khadas Edge-V or NanoPi.

But the RockPi 4B and NanoPi have the best cooling with their cases and heatsinks.

RockPi 4B also has the best Android Pie firmware(and Edge-V but the connectors are a problem since you need to remove the HDMI cable every time to access the micro-sd card slot, it only has 2 USB ports and you need to use a fan for better cooling).

NanoPi, RockPro64 only has Android 8 firmware that is very outdated but it's not a problem if you only want to use LibreELEC or Armbian.

For any device, a cheap $10 airmouse wifi remote works wonders.

With LibreELEC and the old 4.4 kernels all those things should work.

But for mainline only mpeg2, mpeg4, VP8, H264 is currently working with H265, VP9, HDR, 10-bit H264 coming later.

Quote from joelones

Thanks for the build.

I tried it today and although I was able to see mpeg4 hardware acceleration on some files, not all used it I noticed. I believe I saw msmepg4(SW) for one file, perhaps an older video format. No biggie.

But what was a showstopper for me on this build, was that I was unable to reboot and get back to the interface. I always had to unplug the power to get it working, was greeted with a "no signal" on both tv's I tried after a reboot. Also, when this happened, I couldn't ping the rock64 over the network. Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but I never experienced this with the official 9.2 build.

I don't want to sound unappreciative, I'm just reporting my findings. Thanks again for this.

Will check if I can do something else.

It would help a lot if you can send me test videos that don't work correctly.

If you still use Android, please check Nova Video Player, it has lots of optimisations for Rockchip devices.

You can also click multiple times on the video decode menu to then choose between several video decode methods, one might fix your problem.

Releases · nova-video-player/aos-AVP · GitHub

Also check Android Kodi if it has the same problem as LE.

Quote from joelones

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. It's really any mpeg4 file as far as I can tell, that exhibits this choppy / low frame rate type of problem.

I've somehow reduced the problem by changing the resolution to 720p but that's not an optimal solution.

I'd totally appreciate your image!

You can try the image I built

feedback for test build LibreELEC-RK3328

Hi

Here are some new RK3328 images but on the older stable 4.4 kernel.

Added Mpeg4 hardware acceleration

Lots of other optimizations and kernel, mpp, rkbin updates

MVR9 with orange/red DPAD remote without numbered keys

MEGA

Bqeel, TICTID remote with numbered keys

MEGA

Rock64

MEGA

ROC-CC

MEGA

Can use it until mainline images have support for for 4K, HDR, 10-bit color & fractional frame-rates.

Quote from joelones

Hello Guys,

Great work on the support for this platform!

I however have an issue with mpeg4 decoding on my Rock64 (2gb). I'm currently using the official 9.2 build from (Rockchip – LibreELEC) and from what I understand mpeg4 decoding is done in software. I need to remain at kodi 18.x , are there any other build that have mpeg4 hw enabled and are at 18.x?

Many thanks for all the hard work...

The rk3229 images posted recently have mpeg4 hardware acceleration added.

I'll try to see if I can build a RK3328 image from that code.

Can you send me a mpeg4 sample video you have problems with then I can test it on rk3229 and rk3328?

Quote from k7k8

I recorded the image with the help of LibreELEC USB-SD Creator, installed the card in the slot, turned on the power and ... nothing.

Then try one of the other dtb files for booting.

If it doesn't work then perhaps your device can't boot from micro-sd cards.

Quote from k7k8

Tell me, please, how to run your assembly of LE on this box? Thanks.

Write it to a micro-sd card with etcher.

Quote from knaerzche

chewitt

I saw you did. As far as I'm concerned RK322x (with the exception of hdmi-ip-block and dram-controller) is a combination of RK3288 and RK3328 and it should be relativly easy to port it - when looking at rk322x.dtsi\dts\boot\arm\arch - kernel/git/mmind/linux-rockchip.git - Linux Rockchip kernel tree most (if not all) work is already done

For me at this point it makes no sense to port it now: current mainline does by far not support as much features as current rk-4.4-tree does. I'm not sure, if its that clever that a distro as LE switches to mainline so early - it's a political decision you made - in contrast to CE. Current LE-master tree is still using an almost 1.25 year old rk-4.4.-tree with A LOT enhancements/fixes from rk missing (my tree is more or less up to date)

Main problem for me at this point: They dropped the driver for dmc-controller in mainline - which means all features for dram-frequency-switching (at kernel time) is no available now and device will always run in the (propably very low) freq, at which it was initialised at boot time

Nevertheless: I will merge Kwiboo's-mainline tree in a branch and see whats happening

mo123

Forget what I wrote about IR-Stuff: I never merged this change in my tree - what you did with ir is perfectly ok. I'm going to merge your changes (with a seaperate dts) in my tree.

Just saw that I have another RK322x-device with ap6212 wifi, I will try to get it working.

Display More

If you can get ap6212 wifi working on your other device, it would be great.

Then most likely only the dts file gpio pin numbers for the wifi will need changing for my device which I already did.

Quote from Fernando

Hi Chewiit.

Thanks a lot for your explanation.

Since your post has been around for a long time, I'd just like to know if anything has changed: I shouldn't find an image for LibreELEC for RK3229, ok?

You can check if the RK322x LibreELEC I built can work on your device.

Wifi and ir remote might not work if your device is different.

Set the UI to 720p for better performance.

It is based on this repo - GitHub - knaerzche/LibreELEC.tv: Just enough OS for KODI

MEGA

Confirmed working

- 10-bit H264/H265 video playback support
- Mpeg2/H264 Deinterlacing working
- Mpeg2, Mpeg4, H264, H265, VP9 all working
- Ethernet support
- IR Remote support
- Auto frame-rate switching support

Quote from knaerzche

Didn't know, that there are people who are interessted in this device besides me

I did this GitHub - knaerzche/LibreELEC.tv: Just enough OS for KODI some days ago ... If you know how to build LE, this is your thing.

Other than current LE buildsystem it uses (almost) latest Rockchip 4.4 kernel and (almost) latest mpp. Currently there are 4 supported TV boxes: a95rx1, hk1mini, d88 (hdmi-stick), v884k and v88mars. If your device isn't listed v88mars build should work on all devices ... LE is working great besides one very anyoing bug: Exactly 10 minutes after startup the screen starts flickering - you'll have to login via ssh a restart kodi - after that its running for days or weeks without interruption. It working soooooo much better and faster than android on these boxes ... comparable to Allwinner H3. Don't expect to much according to HEVC-4k-10bit streams ... its working but almost always the sound isn't in sync. 8bit works great ... and: no HDR at all

See https://github.com/knaerzche/libreelec.tv/tree/master/projects/rockchip/devices/rk322x for build instrucations

Very interesting, must have been a lot of work.

I will try to built it.

I have a AP6255 wifi device so will try to see if an existing dtb works and try to modify it.

Hope you can fix the flickering, maybe updating to the latest kernel, libmali, drm fixes it?

Maybe there are also changes from joern-p that improves things on rk322x?

Joern-P (Jörn Petersen) / Repositories · GitHub

RK322x hardware unfortunately doesn't support HDR or fractional frequencies, otherwise it could have been the cheapest devices to run LibreELEC on with most features available.

Quote from Marius95

I just upgraded my old Raspberry Pi 3 with a new Asus Tinker Board S. I have a problem with some refresh rates.

Video example here (80MB file): tinkerboard-hdmi-flicker.mkv

My hardware:

Asus Tinker Board S, the official power source from RPi 3B+, 1.5m HDMI cable, Panasonic ST50 (plasma screen, 2013).

Latest offcial LibreELEC

It seems that refresh rates 23.976 and 59.94 Hz are not supported on Tinker Board?

- 1920x1080p 60Hz = works

- 1920x1080p 59.94Hz = flickers constantly

- 1920x1080p 50Hz = works

- 1920x1080p 24Hz = works

- 1920x1080p 23.976Hz = blank screen 95% of the time, some very distorted image sometimes appears

- 1280x720p = same as 1080p

I tried:

- changing power source = didn't help

- changing HDMI cable = didn't help

- changing HDMI mode (RGB / Ybr422 / Ybr444) = didn't help. Using 422, the flickering corrupts colors, not just the image.

- change TV (a smaller Panasonic ST50) in another room = didn't help

- reverse power plug, try other wall socket (ground loop?) = didn't help

- put back RPi 3B+ = no problems with the same setup

- other OS = Official Android for TB doesn't have these refresh rates available. Official Debian for TB - I don't know how to change the refresh rate.

Is this problem known? I couldn't find anything about it. Any ideea what causes it?

Thanks.

Display More

The Tinkerboard doesn't support fractional frequencies since it uses a soc that was released in 2014 that doesn't have the hardware support for it.

You will only get 24, 25, 30, 50, 60hz playback support.

You can try to use an advancedsettings xml file to force 23.976hz to 24hz or enable sync to display in Kodi/LibreELEC's settings.

To use fractional frequencies, you need a RK3328 or RK3399 device.

Hi

Testing on RockPi 4 RK3399

Working

- Mpeg2, H264

Not working

- Wifi, bluetooth (Is working on Manjaro Linux with 5.3 kernel)

- 10 Bit Color H264/H265

- Fractional frequencies 23.976, 29.97, 59.94hz not available

- HDR

- SD Xvid/Divx videos have corrupted blocks during playback

What is the new Boot Android from emmc options?

Quote from totalgaara

I come back with some bad news unfortunatly.

Video playback in youtube as ElBoluTony say work fine, like youtube.

The reason why we can"t play 1080p (and 720p, it's not pleasant...) is because the Netflix addons and the Amazon prime video extension use the CPU to "decrypt" windevine DRM protected content.

Our rock64 has only L3 Windevine, while we need L1. So that L1 is "emulated" and use a lot of CPU ressources, because the GPU is in this case : totally useless , that's why the playback is not good, Rock64 is not powerfull enough...

Don't know what we can do more, i love that device, but seriously i start to hate it, we can do nothing on it... Android TV, you can dream to use netflix or amazon prime video app, even if it was, it will be SD video playing because of L1 DRM

Unfortunatly on lLibrelec, we have a chance but the L1 emulation use too much power, don't know if it fixable

Display More

I already posted several LibreELEC builds for MVR9, Rock64, ROC CC with 720p Netflix software decoding support.

But seems no one even uses it. Search for it in the forums.

Devices like the RockPi 4 RK3399 can even decode 1080p Netflix in LibreELEC with my image.

hexxx

Hi

Please test this image for the added audio jack code.

LibreELEC - RockPi 4 - Operating system distributions - Radxa Forum

Quote from hexxx

Hello I have a rockpi4b sbc with libreelec LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-9.1.501-rock-pi-4.img.gz installed. I have problems enabling audio out from the analog 3.5" jack directly from libreelec. I get only audio from HDMI or if I plug a USB dac.

I have tried HDMI, analog and ES8316 analog and nothing seems to work.

if I run allay -lL I get the options indicated in the attached pictures. Please advise to enable analog out.

Regards

Display More

Hi

I fixed the audio jack problem.

You will have to wait until I build a new image in a day or 2, then you can test if it works.

Everyone getting crackling audio

Please post LibreELEC debug logs if you can, then it can help Rockchip to look into the issue faster and determine the cause.

What happens if using interactive governor?