Posts by RayW

  • Choosing a S905 / S905X / S905D / S905W / S912 box guide

    Quote from beatwolf

    I've got a Beelink Minix MXIII I, which has performed admirably for the last year or so. But it struggles with some high bitrate 4k files (70GB John Wick 2 for example).

    What would a good upgrade with gigabit ethernet port be? I couldn't care less about wifi and remotes. Just a decent stable box that can stream proper 4k from my NAS :)

    I have the Beelink MXlll ll which works very well but I now have more recently got the Tanix TX9 Pro with its faster Octacore S912 processor, Gigbit Ethernet port, Bluetooth and dual band WiFi. The price for the 3/32GB box is very good too so look for about US$65 to US$70 or maybe less on promotion at times. Works well with the latest LE 8.2.5.1 with UHD, HDR and indeed streams 4K HDR material brilliantly from my NAS Drive too.

    The Voork Z6 box has I am told an identical main board just mounted the other way up so if you want to install the front display panel fix for LE then you have to make sure you have the right vfd.conf file as they are slightly different for the TX9 Pro and the Z6 (see other thread specifically related to this).

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from chewitt

    If they are Bluetooth Low-Energy devices the current LE kernel doesn't support BLE and this PR (which was never merged) is required:

    kernel-backports: add package to support BLE devices by chewitt · Pull Request #2562 · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

    My bluetooth headphoens are in ear pods from QSY so they are certainly low energy as they are run form their internal small rechargeable batteries. Not bad headphones but sorely lacking in volume as I do prefer loud especially for good rock music, but fine for normal movie and TV mainly speech audio. No problem pairing at all with 8.2.5.1 either.

    Sorry to see you are still having problems knfevg but regret little more to suggest. Does Bluetooth show enabled in the Services option screen above the Bluetooth settings screen ?? Or will it not enable the Bluetooth sevice at all ?? If not then it is either the wrong device tree or your bluetooth hardware in your box is faulty I would reckon. Does it work no problem with 8.2.3.1 if so then you know the hardware is fine and it most likely is you have not got the right device tree.

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from wrxtasy

    There is lots of ongoing testing in the AML Linux Kernel with Bit depth & Chroma output and that is exactly why that Kodi settings option is put in there to bypass such issues. I've only seen such Horizontal red video output on S905W boxes with interlaced TV.

    Not sure about 3D support, never use it personally and the only 3D .mkv file I last tested output 1080p. It's definitely not on the high priority list at the moment.

    Thanks for feedback wrxyasy. Yes indeed i have since discovered that somehow my Sytem display settings had changed to 1080i instead of 1080p. Changed that back to Progreessive mode and tI can now switch off the "Disable Deinterlaced Post Processing'' setting without any such tearing now. So seems it relates to interlaced mode wiht some media types.

    Out of interest I also get another weord problem with some UHD files (non 3D) when it is set to interlaced display mode, in that the bottom blank area of a letterbox media screen flashes different blank colours associated with the picture chroma content and when I press the Enter button on the remote I do not get the Play/ Pause, Stop and Subtitles, Settings etc options showing at the bottom. The timing and other usual info is still there at teh screen top however. Switch back to Progresive mode and the problem geos away but it is not with ALL UHD files ????

    Yep appreciate that 3D issues are low importance but just thought it was infor that needed conveying to you adn others here. 3D is important to many folk and would still be for me if they installed 3D facilites in new TVs today as I strongly believe they should. But it is still relevant as I cannot play in 2D my numerous good quality 3D movie files now with this 8.2.5.1 build. I know it worked fine with the old 8.2.3.1 build but have to confess not tested it with any of your recent 8.2.4 builds or even the recent 8.2.5 444 Chroma build.

    Anyway keep up the great work, very much appreicated.

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Using LE 8.2.5.1 latest build on my TX9 Pro S912 box, and have two problems that I wonder if others are having too.

    Firstly for watching UK TV with my IPTV client I have to enable the option in the AMlogic System Settings to "Disable Deinterlaced Post Processing'' or else I get chroma horizontal tearing very badly on my TV. BTW the TV is a 6 month old LG 55SJ850 Super UHD model so is pretty much latest state of the art (although sadly not OLED as could not afford one of those !) so surprised I am gettign this effect. I do not notice the problem in streaming movies or other material but seems only with my IPTV client service ??? Do not get this problem with earlier LE builds BTW.

    Secondly there seems a problem with 3D content. Although my TV sadly does not have a much missed 3D facility, with previous builds like 8.2.2.3 I seem to rememb er I could watch 3D video files in 2D by selecting that option within KODI with no problems. However now I cannot do so and indeed it locks up the display to a black screen with no sound although the video clock shows it is still playing. After this, some but not all of my video content from my NAS Drive and USB Drive will no longer play exhibiting exactly the same black screen no sound problem, BUT a reboot will allow those to playh agfain normally until once again I try to run a 3D movie file ?? Strange that most still play okay but quite a few won't, need to narrow down which format maybe the culprit here.

    Two obscure problems which I would liek to be able to fix if anyone can help. Other than that 8.2.5.1. is excellent though I cannot measure whether I actually get 10 bit and 444 mode on my TV with suitable source material, though I do get the full UHD and HDR which I can check for okay.

  • LED (VFD) Displays in LibreELEC

    I have an important question if I use another bootable SD cards with LE for testing and running both newer and/or older firmware builds on my TX9 Pro box. So now that I have moved the storage to internal memory, what will happen when I change the bootable SD card for a different one that has previously been used, which of course will still have the on-card original storage partition labelled LIBREELEC_DISK. Whcih one will Libreelec use at bootup when seeing two separate partitions both with the same LIBREELEC-DISK label ?? If it tries to use both (doubtful) won't that cause some data corruptions or even a crash. If it uses just the internal storage memory then it will be the wrong strorage area without the settings and add-ons needed for the different bootable SD card's I want to use. Have not tried it yet as I do not want to corrupt my new internal storage partition for my LE 8.2.5 422 Chroma 10 bit firmware build but would appreicate an answer if anyone knows. Probably our good freind The Coolest will have am easy answer.

    Sure I can simply on my PC remove the SD card big second partition label manually to "" but this is not the answer if I want to boot into and retain the storage area settings and addons on the SD card for this differetn sd card set up ??

  • LED (VFD) Displays in LibreELEC

    Quote from The Coolest

    kodiuser1

    You should use the TX9 Pro vfd, I just added it to the repository.

    tanix-tx9-pro-vfd.conf

    But he has the Z6 box in which the mainboard is the same but physically mounted in the other other way up ,and thus why I had the upside down display on my TX9 when usign the Z6 vfd.conf ?? So are you sure that will fix it for his Z6 box as sounds illogical. I have send him my original Z6 vfd.conf file I still had for the Z6 box which gave me the upside down display when I used it on the TX9 Pro.

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Just an update to my previous post here.

    I have now moved LIBREELEC_DISK data storage form my SD card partition to my internal eMMC memory on my TX9 Pro S912 box following Kszaq's excellent instructions. The process was very easy and took only a few minutes and was a very logical easy to understadn process too. Also following the same instructions I moved my storage data across from the SD card to the new /dev/data LIBRELEC_DISK labeled internal memory so I woujld retain all my settings and suite of addons etc. The box booted up as before with nothing lost from my settings and add-ons etc. Truly excellent and yes I DO notice a difference in speed. It is not earth shattering speed differnce but I can say that so far the box is much snappier especially memory intensive procedures. Of course it is still slow with searchign for Server lists from many of the nameless addons and this was expected as that is an internet routing problem which we know is IMHO wrongly impaired by ISPs gettign involvred when theyu should not, and not helped by the removal of teh old US net neutrality sensible rules !!!

    I also tried the reversal procedure and that worked fine too changing the labels back to how they were and of course my data was left untouched on my SD card data partition. Careful with the reversal instructions quoted though as you DO have to also issue the command to rename the SD card partition back to LIBREELEC_DISK again else I believe it will recreate a new data partition on the SD card and y ou would have lost all your original data. You can of course also recopy the up to date data from your internal memory storage to the SD card first too if you want.

    Okay first a probably unrelated problem that has cropped up coincidentally I think and that is I get a reported error on the service "Universal - An Addons Toolkit" which I am not getitng on my other S905x boxes on which I have not moved the data storage to internal memory. As I say probably a coincidence. Has anyone else got this problem though. I do not know what the service addon even is, but assume it is an officlal KODI service ?????

    Now I have an important question. I use other bootable SD cards for testing and running both newer and/or older firmware builds on my TX9 Pro box. So now that I have moved the storage to internal memory, what will happen when I change the bootable SD card for a different one which of course will still have the on-card original storage partition labelled LIBREELEC_DISK . Whcih one will Libreelec use when seeing two separate partitions both withthe same LIBREELEC-DISK label ?? If it uses both (doubtful) won't that cause some data corruptions. If it uses just the internal storage memory then it will be the wrong required storage build of settings and add-ons needed for the different bootable SD card's firmware version. Have not tried it yet as I do not want to corrupt my new internal storage partition for my LE 8.2.5 422 Chroma 10 bit build but would appreicate an answer if anyone knows.

  • LED (VFD) Displays in LibreELEC

    Hi matey

    That is strange because The Coolest rewrote that Z6 vfd.conf to correct it beign upside down on the TX9 Pro. As you established the boxes are identical internally except the actual mainboard is mouinted the other way up to the Z6 on the TX9. So now there is a dedicated TX9 Pro vfd conf file which corrects it but the Z6 one shoudl have remained unaltered.

    So all I can think is the Z6 one was also accidentally modified to be the same as the TX9. If so you will have to ask The Coolest to restore it to it's previous dedicated Z6 state and your display should then be the correct way up for you. I would PM him for such help BTW. I will also take a look at the vfd.conf file and see if I can find the way to fix it as a good challenge for me :-).

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from ukmark62

    [HOWTO] Boot from SD card, use internal memory for data

    I think post #11 on this thread shows an easy way of removing the change. Post #13 reports back that this method works - btw, I have not done this myself as I install LE to internal on all my boxes (have no interest in Android).

    Thanks but I couldnt find it on Page 11 of this thread but found a different thread with the article by Kszaq and a post that shows how to reverse it. Obviously back it up first. So now ready to try it out.

    Thanks but how old is that article ?? These latest Ultra SD cards at 98 MBps (sure sequential reads) are clealry faster than even last years best. My box is a Tanix TX9 Pro not the cheapest but not ridiculously expenmsive either for boxes that will be way out of date probably within a year. So best IMHO always to buy the bestt end of the cheaper boxes as htey still have more than adequate spec for what the streaming that we use them for.

    Anyway will soon test out using the eMMC internal memory instead of teh SD card data partition and will report back once I have tested it out for myself.

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from diplomatic

    What? You're confusing megaBYTES and megaBITS. You mean SD card speeds are 100 MB/s, right? And real-world USB high speed throughput is ~40MB/s. Doesn't matter what the nominal rate is. SD cards are not accessed through USB anyway, so they should be faster on these boxes, unless there's another bottleneck somewhere...

    Thanks for all thjeinfo guys.

    Whoops my mistake, call it a senior moment LOL. Yes I am usually careful of that big difference with MB and Mb and often hammer that point home to freinds and others, as am a retired (15 years ago but try to keep up to date) qualified comms engineer including being very involved with datacomms up to 2003. Yep I know USB2 is around 420 Mbps and thought my SD card was 98Mbps but you are saying then it is 98 MBps or about 800+ Mbps an dindeed just truned up the packaging and indeed is 98MBps SanDisk Ultra Micro SDHC UHS-l. So if this uses the same bus as the eMMC memory there should be little noticeable difference between the SD card and with using the internal eMMC memory, yes ?? I know most reports I have seen in these forums have said that there is no noticeable speed difference betweeen installing LE to internal eMMc and installing and running it off of a fast Class 10 SD card like I have.

    I am willing to try using internal memory from my SD card based LE system, and thus see for myself and report back here what I find, but first I would still like to know if I will be able to easily undo such a change without all the effort of reinstalling the default boxes Android OS and the few APKs I use for the rare times I use Android ?? I have no means these days of measuring speed accurately so can only report back any noticeable speed differences. Also to save a long search can anyone easily point me to the relevant forum post re setting up to use internal eMMC memory when running off an SD card installation. ??

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from Shoog

    You are always going to be limited to USB2 write speeds with SD cards since this is the interface bottleneck on most systems. A decent speed eMMC can have much higher access speeds and should have a much better pathway to the CPU/GPU. For me installing to emmc is always worth it unless you have a particularly crap eMMC.

    Shoog

    Thanks and yes I realise it is faster memory but will it actuially be noticeable. I do want to stay dual boot as it is far better IMHO and easy should anything go wrong with the LE install as easily replaceable. If as it appears I can use the internal eMMC memopry along wihtthe SD card running LE KODI system then seems I could have the benefit of both worlds. but as I say is it really going to show me any real improvements I can clearly see and feel ??

    Let us also remember that USB2 speed is from memory about 420 Mbps but that is far faster than even the very best SD cards (around 100 Mbps) for the time being so USB2 speeds are more than adequate. What is the equivalent data throughput speed of the eMMC internal memory BTW. ??

    If I decide to try using the eMMC internal memory in the TX9 Pro box for faster storage of my SD card running LE system ,then can I revert and return it easily back to how it was before ??

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from wrxtasy

    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.

    Don;t know wrxtasy I just buy the fastest Class 10 16GB SD cards available and with these Sandisc cards they state 98Mbps clearly labeled as a selling point obviously. Don't have the packaging now so not sure whether that is read or write speed, the fastest is always read surely so assume it is that.

    Anyway I am prepared to try using the inteernatl storage if you really think it will improve writing and retrieivng KODI metadata but don;t want to waste time and effort for no perceivable difference. I obvioulsy take your far more knowledgeable based advice my friend. So what do you recommend in my case and others similarly using these so called ultra fast SD cards??

    \I do notice shut down takes some time which inviolves writing changes of co urse and have delays with thumbnails loading sometimes but I think that si because they are downloading from the internet.

  • [8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from wrxtasy

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

    I use a fast 16GB Class 10 98 Mbps SD card so I cannot see moving dat a storage to internal shared with Android imporivng speed noticeably at all. Far rather spend just a couple of dollars more on a faster slightly larger SD card than mess about with using internal memory and potential future problems. My S912 Tanix TX9 Pro 3/32GB is working brilliantely off a sandisk mega fast 16GB Class 10 SD card, so have no complaints about speed other than the usual delays in routing to KODI addon servers to get lists etc. and that is promarily due to teh what I call illegal routing blocking of many KODI linked domains. Getting rid of net neutrality in teh USA is indeed a retrograde unwlecomed change.

    So tryign to get arguably slightly faster memory by using internal I think will yield little noticable performance difference over a fast SD card, as the KODI slowness is primarily with initial routing and nothing to do with the memory speed IMHO. Internet streaming on most of the well known KODI addon linked to servers, once the routing is complete, is usually superbly good and stable these days.

  • LED (VFD) Displays in LibreELEC

    Quote from Asando90

    hi im using 8.2.4.2 test2 on tanix tx3 mini and the front screen just shows boot is there a way around this

    Well read my post #336 on this thread which will link you to The Coolests post #126 on Page 7. Yes it will be possible as I have my later Tanix TX9 Pro S912 box working fine with the front panel display which before also just showed "boot". So get the files that The Coolest page 7 post links to, and follow the instructions. You will have to replace your device tree file with the equivalent replacement one which is modified for the vfd driver. When you set it up you will likely get a Permissions error which will require changing the linux file attributes on the main FD628Service file, but this is an easy ssh chmod 777 <file name> command into your box. I can help you with that too if needed now that I am aware of how it all works.

  • LED (VFD) Displays in LibreELEC

    Yep I thought that was there but your message was timed as 7 hours earlier ?? So looks like just a time zone anomaly with me here in Thailand though the forum threads show my local time okay ??

    Anyway I want to publicly thank The Coolest for his tremendous help as I have now got a fully working front display panel on my TX9 Pro box and a fair understanding now of how it all works. Thanks to all the others here too who have given tips and help with this issue, all so very much appreciated.

    So in return if anyone needs help with getting their front panel displays working with these LE 8.2. builds then I can offer to try to help you too if I can and save The Coolest's valuable spare time better used in his developing these mods further. Of course I am more familiar with the Tanix TX9 Pro box but many other boxes are very similar indeed like the Vorke Z6 for example. The biggest help though is to first read The Coolest's post #126 on Page 7 of this thread and download the required files he links to there.

    A very happy man now with my Tanix TX9 Pro and even now running the latest LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.5-Chroma.422.10bit.img.gz build on it and seems very good fast and stable. Sure I dont now have the Chroma 4.4.4 display output but had problems with ruinning that anyway even though my TV supports it (probably a sub version 2 HDMI cable problem I think) .

  • LED (VFD) Displays in LibreELEC

    Quote from The Coolest

    RayW

    Sorry, as I said I don't provide support for this method. I sent you a PM, read it.

    Now I have bloody embarrassing problem. How can I find the PMs in this forum ? I am sure before there was an icon at the top of the page which showed how many unread PMs there were and clickong on it opened the PMs section, but cannot find such an icon now. Only the Notifications bell and the Conversations balloons icon and neither go to PMs ?? Sounds so silly but spent 20 minutes trying to find your PM ??????????

    Now followed the Readme.txt instructions in the FD628 ZIp file and got the sh install.sh command running via Putty but it gets not found errors for various lines in the vfd.conf file which is the Z6 one i added to .config folder and named simply vfd.conf Then it also gives an error in the install,sh line 27 ... etc with a Permision denied error. Maybe your PM answers all this if only I could find it ??????? Thanks a lot for your patience but I have never had problems so convaluted as this before in all the years I have been playing with various Linux based builds with these Amlogic boxes.