Posts by ukmark62

Tanix TX6 (H6 Soc w/ 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM) - very quick testing and initial observations.

After initial testing of playback, I have to say I'm very impressed with video quality. I would say the video is better than both Rockchip and Amlogic, not by much, but I think the Allwinner is doing well. This is always very subjective, but that's my view.

Resuming playback most often results in a hanging screen and I have to press "back" on remote to stop the hanging.

But overall as a quick first test, I'm very impressed - frame rate switching works well, skipping forwards and backwards whilst playing video works well and have yet to notice any stuttering during playback of different frame rates. About 30% of my stuff is 25p, 65% is 23.976p and 5% is 24p. All of my videos are 720p and vast majority are HEVC in mkv container, with some MP4, x264 files.

The GUI is responsive. I found that rebooting does not seem to work (just hangs) and CEC is not working, the TV does not turn on when the TX6 is turned on. As we know, on-board wifi is not working, but USB wifi adapter is (RTL8188EU chip).

The most important thing for myself, is video playback quality - and that seems really good.

Quote from jernej

ukmark62 Can you test this update? libreelec-h6.arm-9.1-devel-20190619170922-d72b297-tanix_tx6.tar

It contains a possible fix for a long standing issue, where YUV color space is not correctly converted to RGB, but I'm not sure if that will make colors brighter.

Anyway, Android kernel probably uses automatic image post processing, which may or may not make video look better. I don't have a plan to implement that in kernel driver.

Please note that DRMPRIME Kodi renderer is still young, so it's still missing some functionality, like brightness adjustment.

Sorry, having HDMI cable issues with the TX6 - can't get any to work even though they all work under Android with the TX6. I've ordered some new monoprice hdmi cables...

The difference is very noticeable, details in the darker scenes are removed (with or without limited output). The original picture is very good. Good job in getting that comparison!

The good news is that the H6 is capable of the original picture (from running under Android). Did you use kodi under android or the stock media player?

Does anybody know the specific steps needed to add on-board wifi drivers from Amlogic LE 8.x to LE 7.x?? Or is there a link to a tutorial somewhere showing how this is done.

Reason I ask is that LE 7.x is perfect for my use case (local playback from USB drives), and later LE versions have introduced other problems such as micro-stuttering on 25p content, stuttering when overlaying playback with info details etc. I'm waiting for Kernel 5.x images to be stable but until then LE 7.0.3.012l is the best for myself.

I have already cloned kszaq's repo, backported Kodi fix PR11713 (this sets the playback resume point correctly) and re-compiled the image. I have tried (in the past) to copy the relevant wifi driver folders (package, patches etc) from the LE 8.x repo, and then modify the LE "options" file, under the "projects" folder to include the new drivers. The image does compile and the new drivers get compiled, but the wifi is not detected. I'm guessing that I have to do something with the kernel image or the device tree in order to detect the new drivers?? I'm hoping that I've done most of the steps, but am missing (hopefully) a few steps.

If anybody has done this before and would share the knowledge, I would be very grateful.

I do use a USB wifi adapter to get wifi, this is just something I would like to accomplish.

Quote from ilchenko

Hi, i have drictly conntection. When I get home after work I will try to take a photo of the TV to show the difference

Actually, I have just noticed the same darker picture. In my case, I also have an Amlogic S905X box, and video playback (using same TV brightness, colour, contrast settings and HDMI port etc) is darker with Tanix TX6 (this also uses H6 SoC).

It's most noticeable in dark scenes - the S905X retains the details but the Tanix TX6 does not. If needed, I can also capture images to show the differences.

Quote from jernej

That would suggest improper HDMI PHY configuration. However, it shouldn't be all that different to Android. However, HDMI driver will certainly get improvements in future.

Thx - at least it's out there in case anybody else comes across this.

jernej

balbes150

Done some more testing on HDMI cables etc.

I have 3 different HDMI cables attached to my 4k TV (New model 2018) in three different HDMI ports on the TV. As I said previously, all 3 cables work properly with Amlogic and Rockchip boxes I have, and a Humax box and Blu Ray player I also have attached. These 3 cables can all be swapped to the different devices and all work.

Only 1 cable works with Tanix TX6 running LibreELEC - the other 2 cables give no picture. However, all 3 same cables work with Tanix TX6 running Android. That suggests to myself it is an issue with LibreELEC and/or Kodi. Doesn't appear to be the TX6 box itself (as all 3 cables/ports work under Android?!). Is that how you guys see it?

I've never experienced this before - as I said previously, it's usually that the cable works or it doesn't work - now it seems that we have a mixture of circumstances but only with TX6 running LibreELEC.

Bit of a head scratcher.

Quote from jernej

It probably has to do something with HDMI PHY settings or electrical properties. Does it work with Android? How long is your non-working HDMI cable? Sometimes longer cables (for example, 5m) can be problematic since they need to be driven with higher power.

It's 1 to 1.5 metres long. I always thought HDMI cables worked 100% or didn't work at all (i.e no picture whatsoever). I didn't realise there were varying degrees of working or not working. Once you got a picture, then everything should work 100% - that's what I used to think - but now.........

Quote from ukmark62

pp_009149785586.html?wid=1433363

This is the one I bought (it does state 100M ethernet)

I'll try the image again, but the same HDMI cable and TV work perfectly with Amlogic S905, S905x and Rockchip RK3328 devices. I can change resolution/refresh rates and playback 4k without any faults.

On board wifi (in Android) is very fast.

Well - blow me down with a feather!

Changing HDMI cable did the trick. Does anyone know why the other HDMI cable works with Amlogic and Rockchip boxes but not with Allwinner?

Quote from balbes150

It was sent to me as Gigabit, but now I carefully examined it , there 100Mbit.

By the way, you saved my TX6 from the trash where I wanted to send it (I only need Linux-enabled devices).

pp_009149785586.html?wid=1433363

This is the one I bought (it does state 100M ethernet)

I'll try the image again, but the same HDMI cable and TV work perfectly with Amlogic S905, S905x and Rockchip RK3328 devices. I can change resolution/refresh rates and playback 4k without any faults.

On board wifi (in Android) is very fast.

3gb of ram is plenty for LibreELEC.

Tried the new image. Audio is working. However, cannot play any video and cannot change resolution. The list of available resolutions now includes up to 4k, but if I try to select 1920x1080p for example, the screen blacks out for some seconds, then comes back at the old resolution (which is now defaulting to 720x480p @60hz). Also when playing a video, the same happens, screen blacks out for a long time and have to press remote buttons to get the screen back.

Also, notice crackling coming from TV during boot and 4k resolutions above 30hz are not available.

Debug logs attached. Thx

kodi.change.resolution.debug.log

kodi.playback.debug.log

This is not at all urgent - maybe wait till you get the TX6 box.

Quote from jernej

ukmark62 please test this image: libreelec-h6.arm-9.1-devel-20190615175620-0b86f08-tanix_tx6.img.gz

It should have proper U-Boot already, so you just burn it on SD card and try right away. I also fixed resolution detection and HDMI audio. STB has additional pin which has to be enabled in order to correctly read EDID.

USB3 also doesn't work yet. Anyway, if this works as intended so far, I'll stop right here until I receive my box.

If you are curious, I uploaded LibreELEC changes here: Commits · jernejsk/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

Thanks much.

One more thing I noticed was that the RAM in Kodi shows as 3gb. I remember you saying there was some limit on RAM, but there was a hack to get it to show/use 4gb RAM??

I'll try the new image now. Thx again!

Quote from jernej

I'll fix this with next image, which will also have proper U-Boot included.

Image will have at least two issues - no wifi and no ethernet. I will fix ethernet after I receive my box, but wifi will be hard. Apparently, there are two variants of the box. One with Realtek SDIO wifi module with no open source drivers and another one with PCIE wifi module. PCIE on H6 is quirky and driver may never be properly included in mainline Linux.

I would think that if a USB wifi adapter works then most people would be happy with that.

Do you need me to send you any files?

Quote from jernej

ukmark62 Can you test this image?

libreelec-h6.arm-9.1-devel-20190615163837-0b86f08-tanix_tx6.img.gz

Correct DT is already included, but you still need to overwrite U-Boot. I disabled frequency scaling in GPU driver. It usually requires adjustable GPU voltage regulator, which is not present in this box.

Aye Aye Captain,

We have lift off! Well done sir!! Amazing how quick you got the box running. Wifi via USB adapter is working (on board wifi not detected). HW decoding is active on few HEVC and H.264 files I have tested so far - playback looks good although not smooth due to no refresh rates being available (see 1 below). GUI is responsive and skip forward, backwards,fast forward, rewind while watching videos is very responsive. Great stuff!

I have done some quick testing and there are 2 noticeable issues:-

1 Display resolution is limited to 1024x768 and below. Only 60hz frequencies available

2 No sound (I notice on initial bootup that a "FAILED:Pulse Audio Driver not installed" message showed up. However it has not shown up since I've rebooted again. However, still no audio.

I SSH'ed into box and Kodi log is attached kodi.log

Quote from jernej

It is, thanks! GPU driver is not correctly loaded for some reason. I'll take a look.

All I know is that the GPU is Mali-T720 MP2

Quote from jernej

unfortuantely, that doesn't help much. Can you try using cat instead? I need full log.

Hope this one's better:-

Here is kodi.log. Lines are truncated.

This is output from "dmesg" (or rather "ddmmeessgg"