Posts by RayW

Quote from yatoya

I was experiencing similar problem but it was related to Keymap editor addon. For some reason the OSD during playback stopped responding and I had to wait for about a minute before the remote control did work again. Uninstalling Keymap editor did not help so I had to install LE from the beginning but before that I copied conf file created by Keymap editor and paste it back when new LE instalation was finished.
The freezing OSD problem was gone and my personal remote configuration was working as expected (without Keymap editor addon).
I dont think it was related to vertical sync setting in my case.
There can be some minor differences between those boxes. I own a Tanix TX5 Pro.
I am impressed what kszaq did with those builds.
Android Kodi is stable but no support for changing refresh rate is painful. There are some workaround to enable it with fswitch script but its buggy and doesn't work well with HEVC videos (stuttering during playback, seek problems).
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Hi Yatoya

Are you sure that it was not due to the Vertical Sync being enabled ? Reason I ask that is that of course when you installed a fresh LE7 by default KODI 16.1 will have the Vertical Sync option set to Let Driver Decide, which then would AFAIK automatically elimate this temporary loss of control problem when running up video streams.

Cheers
RayW

Quote from yatoya

Yes. Refresh rate works perfect. I just changed vertical sync to "always" in system video settings. Otherwise playback was jerky.

Very odd that as it was this very setting being always enabled that caused me so much problem with losing all control when many video streams started playing where I had to wait several seconds to several minutes or even to wating for the video to finish playing to finally regain control with the remote or keyboard/mouse. Only way other than sometimes to have to wait for video stream to finfish was to hard power off reboot.

That vertical sync setting set to teh default "Let Driver Decide" cured this problem that I had completely, as I stated in an earlier post. Can you check this out too with your having it now set as "Always Enabled", and can others check this too to see if they get this loss of control when some video streams start playing ?

Have to say my MXQ M12CX S905X 1Gb/8GB box is working brilliantly with the latest LE7.0.3.012j build. There is absolutley nothing to complain about so far with this excelletn build, so all credit to Kszaq. At the price and the look feel this great littel box is certainly IMHO a recommended one for LE7. However, there just seems to be some problem with availability for some odd reason even though it is a fairly new model.

Have a Beelink Mini MXIII II S905X 2GB/16GB ordered (could not source at a good price any lower memory versions as frankly 1GB/8GB is enough for LE7 IMHO) and now on it's way to me for testing, so will see just how good it is as members here have reported. I see it has dual band WiFi and Bluetooth included which is not in the MXQ M12CX box's spec, so may be worth the small extra cost anyway. Will more importantly check out just how well it performs with normal online and local video streaming as compared to the so far faultless MXQ M12CX box.

RayW

Quote from Fredouye

Hi Ray

sorry, I didn't know that

NP Fredouye. Many things I also still do not know too, but this community thrives by our helping each other with those bits on information we do end up knowing a little about and sharing that info of course.

Cheers
RayW

Quote from Fredouye

Hi

'installtointernal' will copy your .kodi directory, but not the content of .config (where is stored remote.conf).

Can you try copying .config/remote.conf by hand ?

Actually the installtonand command can also copy all your userdata including the .config directory. When you run the installtonand ssh command, you will see when it finishes copying all the system files etc over, then it asks whether you wish to also copy all the user data over too and if you answer with a Y then of course it does just that.

With the device running from the boot SD card I set up all my configurations, like a suitable remote.conf, KODI settings, etc etc and in my case a special font file that supports Thai sandscript characters for subtitles, and indeed all the add-ons I want all set up too and then stored on the boot SD card. Once it is all to my liking I can install all of that to nand easily and quickly simply using PuTTy and the installtonand command adn allowing it to copy all the user data across too. It works like a dream.

Excellent system indeed which I have to say I am still remain most impressed with.

Cheers
RayW

Great news I have fixed the problem with the temporary loss of keyboard and remote control when playing back a video or streaming video. I just knew it was going to be something simple and easy and a detailed search in the KODI forum found me the answer. It was simply a matter of disabling the Vertical Sync option in the KODI Settings, or preferably setting it back to the default Let The Driver Decide option. For some strange reason, and clearly a hiccup on my part, this was set to Enabled right from when I first set up LibreElec 7 on my S905X MXQ M12CX box some weeks ago now.

Now everything on this box works brilliantly, and is extremely fast and reliable too, so no complaints whatsoever as htis is as close to perfection as I could have wished for. IMHO this MXQ metal cased M12CX S905X 1G/8G box is truly a winner with LibreElec 7. It is a pretty good price for a box that to me both appears and feels to be a good solid build and quality, and indeed the metal case is of course also a great aid to heat disipation. I had maintained confidence that the problem I had was going to prove to be casued by some small silly error and not by the box hardware itself. Now I have also updated it to 012i too and all 100% for me Thansk Kszak for his brilliant work on these stunning Linux based builds, will surely be donating more to this very worthwhile cause.

Furthermore, thanks to the article in this forum about making your own remote.conf file usign SSH and the dmesg -c command. The standard remote supplied with this MXQ M12CX box is now functioning perfectly and I have even been able to program the 3 redundant (or duplicated) keys for PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN functions and the @ key to bring up the full power down menu option which I find useful as both Power Down, Suspend and ReBoot all work well with LibreElec 7 and this box. Teh normal red power button still simply switches the box off and back on as normal giving me a useful choice. If anyone wants the remote.conf file for this or for other boxes with this same remote layout then please let me know. I will try and make it available soon in the appropriate place here when I get a moment and/or in my Dropbox for anyone that requests it by PM.

I am a very happy guy now and wish to thank those here who have offered help and come up with suggestions to assist.

Quote from kostaman

I've got some bad news for you Ray.
MXQ IS NOT A BRAND. Period !
Read this link #22
None of these boxes except maybe Beelink are consistent with their Hardware and Software.
The Wetek, Odroid boxes fall into a different Quality Category.

Where on Earth are you reading and believing this stuff.
I think you need to read and not believe everything you read on the internet Ray.
Especially Paid Bloggers and Reviewers.

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Hi Kostaman. Appreciated your feedback.

Well first of all I considered MXQ a brand simply because that is the name they print on the case and I have heard that there has been some legal battling going on in China about use of the MXQ "brand" name. Sure I am not disagreeing with you about inconsistency with the hardware, as I indeed did point out that with the MXQ S805 cheap plastic cased M12 box we found at least 4 main board variants and why I used the metal cased M12 S805 box because the boxes were pretty consistent and seemed to consistently use a different mainboard that worked and was compatible with EmbER at the time. This is why I opted to try out the S905X MXQ M12CX metal cased version hoping for the same reliable result with LibreElec, and maybe that could still be true if an inconsistency is traced and fixed. Can but hope hmm.

As to the Enybox X1 well my words I used I stand by as I said they were "promoted" as being better and that the spec "seemed" to indicate this in comparison to the MXQ 4K Pro box which was on the list of LE working boxes in the thread you referred to. I was not saying that this was a written in stone fact of course. As I said I am old enough (way too old) and wise enough to totally agree with you of course in not believing all you read on the internet. I am though at least going to try one of those boxes out and will feed back my findings, if they work well then they may end up as a good buy, IF of course they then remain of consistent quality.

Regarding my MXQ M12CX S905X box problem, well I step by step stripped off all the add-ons until just one left, a very well known live TV streaming add-on beginning with the letter F, which most of us probably have installed. The problem with the remote control access delay was still there although of a much shorter duration as the number of add-ons left installed got closer to 1. So I have to conclude it seems to be neither network cache nor any rogue add-ons causing the particular problem. Reluctantly then it has to be these particular boxes having some incompatibility with the LibreElec 7 firmware, but still want to know why and whether there may be an easy enough fix. Maybe needs a different Device Tree file, but I am honestly grasping at straws here, so now have to leave it at that unless anyone has any positive feedback.

Sorry for taking up so much forum space with this issue but can only hope that the discussion may be of some small help to others here.

Cheers
RayW

Quote from Poida

I vaguely remember the 'merits' of the metal cased boxes being pushed at all continuously by someone at the 'Ember' forum, a couple of years back. Perhaps Ray was influenced by this (or, indeed, may be the person who was so convinced this was a sign of quality)

No of course a metal case does not necessarily denote quality and I agree with that statement beign a retired senior Electronics and Comms engineer (though that does not mean I even think I may know as much as many of you talented guys here). Just pointing that out to clarify I am not a green naive youngster, just a geriatric old git

The previous S805 MXQ M12 metal cased box was very reliable indeed and worked extremely well with EmbER whereas the plastic cased cheaper alternative was flawed with so many cheap nasty copies and at least 4 different main boards discovered but with only one of them compatible with the EmbER firmware. So in this case the metal cased units were synonimous with consistency and better quality overall and as I say worked extremely well. Certainly not the cheapest of boards by MXQ which are a pretty well known brand and indeed were recommended by the EmbER developers themselves based on quality and reasonable good price, so will defend them on that score. This new MXQ M12CX has a great spec it seems and other than this weird problem I have perform extremely well with LibreElec 7. Yet to try to elimate maybe an add-on I have installed that is causign the problem though I am doubtful of this as yet.

I do buy my boxes direct from China and can get virtually any box brand as long as they are in production. The Enybox X1 is promoted as a superior box to the MXQ 4K Pro and the spec seems to indicate this. Still we shall see soon. I can also get teh Nexbox A95X too of course which is one recommended here with the only caveat that it does not look anywhere near as good which as you rightly say is not a problem if it works much better and is in fact slightly cheaper than the MXQ M12CX too.
Well firstly the BBC iPlayer is down for all of us so it is nothing to do in this case with you not upgrading your box to the latest EmbER firmware, although I highly recommend it. It looks like BBC blocking it as they clearly do not want Brit Expats to watch BBC TV and the intolerably give us no legal way to do so !!! So we need proxy servers and hacked ways to view as there are no other legal alternatives. I loathe their policy on this as they should issue Internet TV licenses for Expats at an appropriate price with an encrypted service via KODI or PC for such license holding subscribers, and that would also help their financial woes too so a win/win situation. Alas they are too bloody ignorant and stupid to do this. So for now we have to wait for Mikey1234, the writer of the BBC iPlayer add-on, to hack this and and update the add-on to get this much needed service to function again for us all. You should though still have full access to live UK TV channels through add-ons like FTV Guide and FilmOn of course

All I want is the same as you guys to help get LibreElec workign well on as many of the new S905X boxes as possible and identify and eliminate any apparent bugs. The more choice of boxes we have that work for this community then the better for us all of surely

Cheers
RayW

Quote from kodiuser1

Hi Ray,
I would try a different brand of box and see if that fixes it. I think you are the only one with that specific box. It seems no-one else is experiencing this problem.

Hi Ed

Trouble is I already have several folk here with this MXQ M12CX box now and want to help them too with this problem. The box is such a great looking and well constructed metal cased box and works in all other respects so it would be a shame to not have this one fully working. IMHO one of the best looking and well priced boxes available on the market that I have seen and read about and available in 1/8GB, 2/8GB and 2/16GB versions, though personally I only use the 1/8 GB on the basis that LibreElec is so efficient that more memory should really not be needed. So IMHO the larger memory versions are of course only truly beneficial for those still using Android bloatware. Sure this is a brand new model box but like its predecessor S805 versions it should end up a popular box.

As I said I have ordered an Enybox X1 1/8GB which also has a metal case, but nobody here seems to already use one for LibreElec though they are being well promoted online and again a great price for a nice looking good spec box. We will see when I get my sample box if it solves this annoying problem I am suffering with. Maybe Ed it is because I need a 2/8 GB version as you have, but cannot see why that is needed with this highly efficient LibreElec firmware

Today I am going to spend more time trying to fix it by first backing up my system and then removing add-ons selectively until hopefully the problem goes away, as it sure as hell no longer seems to be a netwrok cache problem unless the settigns for that are super critical. I will report back on my findings though of course sadly cannot name here any culprit add-ons I may find. Have to say that all the add-ons I use are primarily just the standard popular ones that most folk seem to be using.

I really desperately need a fix for this problem on the MXQ M12CX S905X box

Cheers
RayW

Hmm spoke a little too soon. I found the advancesettings figures I used slowed down getting listings etc way too much and the problem reappeared on some streams and even off of my NAS drive too. I changed it to the one below which seemed to give me the best overall results :-
<advancedsettings>
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>104857600</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>20</readbufferfactor>
</network>
</advancedsettings>

One thing I have noticed is that the problem almost disappears for a while after a reboot (like I have to do of course when I change the advancesettings.xml file). That is why I thought earlier the problem was as good as solved but after a while (minutes rather than hours) the problem starts to get more noticeable again and even if I try to run the same video stream from scratch a second and third time. So it seems like I may somehow be leaking memory, though cannot see any real sign of that looking at the System|System Information figures for Storage, and anyway I thought that was an old now solve problem with the release of the 32 bit builds. Sometimes even with the improvements using the various network cache advanced settings I can get a stream that makes me wait about 5 minutes before I can get remote control back again, clearly a significant and real serious problem, such a shame for such an otherwise superb V7 series of builds.

So it still seems this maybe some kind of bug within the system that I have never seen before with previous Linux builds. Any suggestions from anyone and does any one else here get this problem too ?? Would some type of log file help here ??

Cheers
RayW

Quote from glitch

I've responded to you previously.

Read what I've already suggested in the linked response above. Also, make sure you're wired over Ethernet and not using WiFi. The bandwidth on most of these boxes is limited to 26mbps Wifi, which is not enough for high bandwidth streams with advanced audio.

Outside of that, if it's really only "catchup addons" that are causing problems, they're not supported. Stop reporting it here, and find the developer add-ons forums to reach out to them for help. It's an add-on issue and not a Kodi/LibreELEC issue.

Hi Gltch

Well first many thanks for your help and indeed your initial response which somehow I seem to have missed or overlooked. Sorry about that, clearly a senior moment in my old age. I must have appeared rude in not replying to you with a thank you so sincere apologies for that.

Anyway firstly I had not installed more and more add-ons as from the beginning with LibreElec 7 I just used my basic suite of add-ons that I have developed and edited over the years removing dead add-ons and adding new ones that I feel are good enough keeping the total add-on count to a reasonable level. I did not though restore a back up from my S805 Ember based box either but freshly installed the Repositories and add-ons to avoid any incompatibility issues. So the add-ons were not the problem and of course I did a check for background resource hogging add-ons and settings too. Indeed I have an almost identical suite of add-ons and settings as I have on my S805 MXQ M12 box running registered Linux EmbER 4 firmware, and for which I have no such problem with this delay in regaining remote access when running up a video stream.

Although junior on this forum and recent to LibreElec firmware I have been a KODI power user going all the way back to XBMC 11, and prevalent on other KODI forums for some time helping many new comers into the world of KODI and Linux firmware, so I am pretty familiar with the way it operates but always much still to learn. However so far, by either luck or judgement, I have never had the need to obtain and upload a logfile and thus why I was unsure of this operation and the need or value for it with my particular current problem.

Well the network cache settings were indeed it seems the problem, so you have hit the nail firmly on the head. I was simply using the default network cache settings as installed with the LibreElec V7.0.3.012h and earlier firmware and with the correct S905X 1GB Device Tree. I took your suggestions and here below is the Advancedsettings.xml file I have used. This has virtually totally removed the problem with only at most so far 2 or 3 seconds delay, and now often no apparent delay, in regaining remote access and this is perfectly acceptable for anyone of course. I cannot thank you enough for your great help here "glitch" and the excellent informative links related to this issue that you pointed me to. Early days yet but appears to have cured this problem, or at least has sufficiently eliminated it to be no longer considered a problem.
<advancedsettings>
<network>
<buffermode>1</buffermode>
<cachemembuffersize>104857600</cachemembuffersize>
<readbufferfactor>4</readbufferfactor>
</network>
</advancedsettings>

Yes understand the forum rules so only mention catchup add-ons and not by name of course. The problem by the way was also prevalent with pucker KODI add-ons like YT with video streaming and indeed even playing local video files sreamed from my local NAS drives. But this was not an add-on specific problem as it turns out, and was indeed present to differing extents on all video add-ons I used.

I was unaware that these boxes are restricted to only giving about 26 Mbps on Wireless connections which is odd as they supposed to be able to use 802.11n WiFi at 150 Mbps at least, and these days most of our WiFiAPs support 802.11n of course. Normally with 802.11g after security encryption you only in theory get about 35 Mbps max to share between all other active WiFi clients from the specified 54 Mbps, so I can accept how a standard g WiFI connection can end up only giving you 26 Mbps. However in my case I use an Ethernet connection via a hard wired gigabit switch from my 200Mbps internet fibre optic downlink coming via my router with gigabit Ethernet ports too.

Once again many thanks to you glitch for your invaluable help.

Cheers
RayW

Quote from atreyu

Hi Kzsaq,

i think this latest 'h' build is the best one yet for playback.
Really fast switch times for LiveTV, practically no stutters, plays everything great.

However, in the latest builds (dont know exactly since which one) Bluetooth is broken for the buildin module, at least for the M8s Mini and MiniMX devices.
BT devices are detected, but if you connect/pair the device is always 'disabled' or 'temporary unavailable'. Not one connect ever succeeds.

I think this might be the result of your efforts to help other BT devices function, but i would love to have BT back on the latest builds.

Thanks for all your efforts,

Atreyu

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Yes the h build is good but I still have this problem I have reported a couple of times before and it is far worse with live TV and catchup material than with other moves and TV series content. That is I have to wait sometimes several minutes before I get any remote control workign again and often have a frozen, sometimes a ghost translucent "working" icon bottom right, sometimes no icon at all but still no remote access (or keyboard either BTW). When that icon goes out then remote and keyboard control is back available again. Have had this problem with one catchup add-on where sometimes remote control access des not come back and have to power off the box and reboot.

This is the same on several boxes we have here all MXQ M12CX 1GB/8GB as I have reported before with no response at all ??. I am using the correct 1GB device tree "gxl_p212_1g.dtb" As I am fairly new here I am worried that I am doing something wrong or need to report this in a different thread ??? Surely others here must be gettign this problem as I can see nothing in the settings that would likely cause this problem. The probelm has been there with all V7 versions I have tried and certainly all 012 releases from c to now h though the later builds are better in so far as remote control access returns generally much quicker now. Can anyone help?? There is no other problems at all and certainly none with booting or flashing to nand etc so cannot see how one of those error logs would help here, but correct me if I am wrong. Are there any others here getting this problem and if so which box and which build/device tree ??

I have an Enybox X1 1GB/8GB S905X sample box coming from China for testing so maybe the problem wont be present with that box, we shall see but will have to wait a week or so for delivery of course. Anyone else successfully using one of these smart designed great priced Enybox X1 metal cased units ?

Cheers
RayW

Quote from krimskrams

Hi,
I installed 7.0.3.012g on my brand-new Minix Neo U1, booting from SD card, and using device tree gxbb_p200_2G_1Gbit_OTG_Port and most stuff is working fine.

The only thing a cannot get to work is audio output through the 3.5mm analog output. I did select ALSA:AML-M8AUDIO,PCM as audio output device under System -> Settings -> System -> Audio Output

And the audio output is still through HDMI to the crappy speaker in my monitor .... under the Minix Android OS I can get the analog audio output to work (FW011).

Any hints? Thanks, krimskrams

kodi.log is available: MhgN

Use the HDMI audio output either via a modern home theatre AVR unit wiht HDMI ports for best sound or if you want to use an ordinary cheap stereo amp then you can buy very cheaply a little box that passes through the HDMI signal to your TV and has either phone Red/While output sockets or a stereo mini jack socket so you can feed the sniffed off audio to your amp's analogue audio input.

Another and better sound quality way is to have an amp or AVR with a Fibre Optic digital audio input usign a pretty cheap Toslink cable, as most these KODI boxes do have a fibre optic audio ouput port on them which is supported in LibreElec from my recent experience.

Using the sound system on even the best TVs is for me a no go as the quality is never good enough IMHO.

Cheers
RayW

Have updated my MXQ M12CX S905X 1g/8G box now to 012g and all is good except the old problem I have had with all the S905X V7 builds (starting as I did with 012c) of the delay in getting remote control access back after running up some video streams, particualrly noticeable with the TV catchup add-ons where they use an inbuilt dedicated proxy. The new version 012f and 012g are much better with much shorter delays in returning control to now usually only a few seconds, and it does not usually end up needing a power down reboot after skipping forward and/or back as was the case with those TV catchup add-ons I of course sadly cannot name here.

So it still seems that the slower the stream from my end to the distant end servers (logically made worse when a built in proxy is used) is a pivotal factor. But this never happened with my MXQ M12 S805 box with another Linux firmware build, and was not present when I tried the otherwise awful Android KODI 16.1 on this S905X box before thankfully upgrading it to Linux with LibreElec. So has kszaq or anyone else got any idea what is the cause of this problem ?? Everything else with the latest LibreElec 7 build (012g) on my S905X box is superb and very fast so I am delighted with it.

So do I need to send any log files ?? If so let me know and which ones, and also how I can get them and send them as never had to do that before after many years of using Linux based XBMC/KODI boxes.

Not treid the V8 betas yet as been too busy but maybe this fault will not be present with this build and KODI 17.

Quote from ram.khakurel

So do i put correct .dtb file from kszaq build version i am using and put in update folder as dtb.img and reboot?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From all I have read and done here as a relative newbie I can say confidently that you must not change tree file name to dtb.img for updating. Just put the correct downloaded DTB file into the Update folder AS IS along with the build and reboot.

You only change the correct and relevent DTB file to DTB.IMG on the prepped bootable Libreelec SD card, so repeat do not change the name when copying to the update folder prior to rebooting.

Cheers
RayW

I see there is a 012f version with temperature sensor disabled. I remember seeing somehtign somewhere about this here on the forum but a search on "sensor" and/or "temperature" gives me no relavant results. So do I need the temp sensor disabled build for my MXQ M12cx S905X 1G/8G box ??

On my V 012e the temperature does show (60C reported but it is always pretty hot here in Thailand) in the KODI System Information/Hardware screen. What problems would I get anyway if I should use the disable sensor build and I use the ordinary build ??

Cheers
RayW

Now I have had the time to test it i can say that I too have the same WiFi connection problems as others have reported here on my MXQ M12CX S905X box with the new 12e build. Fine with 12d if I revert back to it.

As I use Ethernet on my main box the main thing is for me that the remote/keyboard control freezing for sometiems several minutes when starting a video stream is much better now with 12e, taking a fraction of the time as it did with 12d and earlier to restore control.

Cheers
RayW

Quote from Zatserkovnyy

delete the file xml and restart:
~/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/service.libreelec.settings/oe_settings.xml

Thanks a lot Zatserkovnyy that has fixed it straight away after a reboot.
Cheers
RayW

Quote from kszaq

The answer is quite simple: if the installtointernal script works you don't have to worry about this. If it fails finding internal memory you will see errors but nothing bad will happen.

Thanks a lot kszaq and indeed I have had no problems with that command and all went smoothly. I did however look up this MXQ M12cx box on ebay and could not find any but searched elsewhere and found all the spec and indeed it confirms 8GB eMMC memory.

Only recently found this particualr very nice metal cased MXQ M12cx box so must assume it not being available in many places yet, which seems to indicate it is a brand spanking new model.

Cheers RayW