Draco AW80 - Multimedia playback and XBMC issue & feedback here

[trebor]

Howdy.
Curios to your file locations, Nas, stick or sata on Draco, wifi or ether ?
All info you lot have been testing excellent, I have been following thanks.

My files are on a WD DUO Nas not noted for speed (green drive) using 5g Wifi
Have a sound bar only with optical out from tv sound bar (sony 36 inch)

Using Finless rom with original build prop at present.
Only issue is Netflix and the on screen controls while playing movies a know issue.

Using Kodi/b3 little to no dropped/skipped frames but a lot more testing to do.

Well done All

I think the libstagefright codec may be part of the issue with XBMC stutter on this box. I turned it off in Settings/Playback/Acceleration and did the 45mbps jellyfish video test again. (You must have your Settings mode at Advanced or Expert level to access the acceleration tab).

Major improvement in smoothness, now nearly equal to how smoothly the file plays in MX Player.

Would like to know what others see. Try the 45mbps file here as a baseline.

http://jell.yfish.us/

Update: just streamed two full 1080p movie segments from Navi-X. Both were problematic before. Both played almost perfectly with libstagefright switched off...

I think this is the start of a permanent solution!

[MAS]

this is from a bd iso, on an usb powered external hdd
libstage off, there is a lil stutter but im 99% happy with playback

[Zahir]

Hi Trebor, nice to see you around.

I myself have tended to focus on XBMC video issues (as if that wasn't obvious!), so my I/O sources have been Ethernet, WiFI (both equally superb), NAS drive (the highest home network speeds I've had - up to 15mbs), and SD card.

Have not done much with USB or SATA yet.

[Zahir]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8856[/ATTACH]


this is from a bd iso, on an usb powered external hdd
libstage off, there is a lil stutter but im 99% happy with playback

Good for you. Those are the kinds of excellent results I'm getting with the libstagefright fix too; not perfect, Tronsmart should not get complacent - but will do for now till we get the new firmware.

[MAS]

Good for you. Those are the kinds of excellent results I'm getting with the libstagefright fix too; not perfect, Tronsmart should not get complacent - but will do for now till we get the new firmware.

noticed? only 2 cpu's...

[trebor]

Thanks Zahir

Great, wanted to be sure so I could pace with your findings on XBMC.
Have not used XMBC a lot so a learning curve as well.
Did years ago with the first Xbox when this software as created
so easy then. composite video out into a telly/monitor

Cheers and watching

Hi Trebor, nice to see you around.

I myself have tended to focus on XBMC video issues (as if that wasn't obvious!), so my I/O sources have been Ethernet, WiFI (both equally superb), NAS drive (the highest home network speeds I've had - up to 15mbs), and SD card.

Have not done much with USB or SATA yet.

[Zahir]

noticed? only 2 cpu's...

Don't worry about the number of cpu cores. Mine tend to fluctuate - the box has a mind of its own. I've had one, two, five and then back to two.

Is that what BIG.Little is all about?

[Finless]

Take a look in the files

init.rc and amlogic.board.rc

Seems there are all kinds of CPU related setups that can be modded. I just don't know what they all are yet!

Bob

[Zahir]

Take a look in the files

init.rc and amlogic.board.rc

Seems there are all kinds of CPU related setups that can be modded. I just don't know what they all are yet!

Bob

Nice! - Let's look..

[Zeggi]

Guys, libstagefright was a complement for forcing some devices to use GPU for playback.what I see you guys doing is turning of GPU accelerated playback and instead using CPU for playback...its all wrong

I guess the CPU is so powerful that it can handle smooth playback but still you want the GPU to run instead..

I guess our SOC needs some tuning for XBMC use.

[Zahir]

Guys, libstagefright was a complement for forcing some devices to use GPU for playback.what I see you guys doing is turning of GPU accelerated playback and instead using CPU for playback...its all wrong

I guess the CPU is so powerful that it can handle smooth playback but still you want the GPU to run instead..

I guess our SOC needs some tuning for XBMC use.

Yes indeed, turning libstagefright off puts the load on the CPU - that's clear from the debugs. But what else does one do when calling up libstagefright produces unacceptable frame skips and video hitching?

This is only a workaround until Tronsmart, Allwinner and the XBMC team coordinate to produce performance from the PowerVR chip consistent with its stated capabilities.

Early adopters of the Fire TV were handed the same poor bargain until XBMC expressly catered to their GPU.

[Zeggi]

Yes indeed, turning libstagefright off puts the load on the CPU - that's clear from the debugs. But what else does one do when calling up the GPU produces unacceptable frame skips and video hitching?

This is only a workaround until Tronsmart, Allwinner and the XBMC team coordinate to produce performance from the PowerVR chip consistent with its stated capabilities.

Ofcourse you are right there is no other option in this case unless you can make xbmc to use mxplayer to playback the video. there are some xml tweaking that you can do so that mxplayer is used in stead.

Could you check what temps you get now by using CPU for playback and also compare what temps you get when using mxplayer for both CPU and GPU if its possible.

Im still waiting for my unit, i placed a pre-order of the 4gb version

[Zahir]

Ofcourse you are right there is no other option in this case unless you can make xbmc to use mxplayer to playback the video. there are some xml tweaking that you can do so that mxplayer is used in stead.

Could you check what temps you get now by using CPU for playback and also compare what temps you get when using mxplayer for both CPU and GPU if its possible.

Im still waiting for my unit, i placed a pre-order of the 4gb version

1. The box shows no evident sign of heating up with the CPU taking the load. I'd know it if there was a significant build-up; there isn't.

Besides, Mediacodec remains in place to engage the GPU, so the latter may still be helping out.

2. MX Player: as you know, there are several ways to have XBMC hand off to an external player, all based on putting a tweaked playercore.xml into XBMC's userdata folder. The most elegant may be SMB Wrapper from the Playstore. But several major add-ons, including YouTube, Navi-X etc, will not work with MX Player. Compromises everywhere at the moment!

I've tried using MX Player in this way and video results are not as smooth as when using XBMC without libstagefright. At the moment, the crown jewel is that CPU. A lot else needs optimizing.

[Zeggi]

Thanks for the info

[BTR11]

Allwinner A80 xbmc/kodi hardware video codecs and smooth 1080p (or higher --> 4K) video performance

1. The box shows no evident sign of heating up with the CPU taking the load. I'd know it if there was a significant build-up; there isn't.

Besides, Mediacodec remains in place to engage the GPU, so the latter may still be helping out.

2. MX Player: as you know, there are several ways to have XBMC hand off to an external player, all based on putting a tweaked playercore.xml into XBMC's userdata folder. The most elegant may be SMB Wrapper from the Playstore. But several major add-ons, including YouTube, Navi-X etc, will not work with MX Player. Compromises everywhere at the moment!

I've tried using MX Player in this way and video results are not as smooth as when using XBMC without libstagefright. At the moment, the crown jewel is that CPU. A lot else needs optimizing.

Zahir thanks for all your findings and analysis, but being you the first testing the device because your shipment was really expedite, it would be good that you report this directly by PM to Koying regarding to the problem of "libstagefright" on the new Allwinner A80 SoC, and as well to "geekbuying" (eric) which must have a support comminment with us regarding to these situations; sure geekbuying can manage the situation with Tronsamrt/Allwinner to get a soon proper fix and not a shortcut as is this setup with libstagefright "off". Ideally we should get to running smoothly the content on any future kodi-helix update beyond beta3 or SPMC 13.3.3 now 13.3.4. Tronsmart and specially allwinner must be involved in the solution of this downside of the SoC.
Just as a side note going back with my Minix Neo X7 - Rk3188, I was struggling a lot with several HD content at the beginning due to the fail on the XBMC, and however different setup were tested at that moment with Hardware accel codecs "on" and "off" at the end the solution to the problems (specially 10 min mark freeze HD video content) was provided by koying implementing fixes further that updating the hardware codecs on SPMC 13.2.1 if I remember well, then implemented on the new kodi; now the HD content play very well on Minix Neo X7 with the hw accel codecs "on" being at this time a device older thant 1 year for me. Hopefully we can get the best from Draco AW80 because now it´s our device.
BTW Zahir are you using still the stock rom or you had changed to the first realese from Bob?. Some can say that however the xbmc/kodi/spmc can be optimized if the tv box firmware is not optimized we all have problems playing video content, it´s clear from the early comments that the stock firmware it´s not good or at least is poorly optimized with mistakes like that with dpi set to 160 for a 1080p UI. Thanks again.