Help with An App called Hotstar and Memory Optimisation.

[rohan.l]

Hi Guys,

Firstly, amazing forum, the wealth of information here is just brilliant.

I have two problems, which I want you guys to help me problem solve/guide me

First one:

I have two devices, one an Android Dongle with OS version 5.1.1, powered by a Rockchip RK3066 with 1 GB of Ram.

There is an app called Hotstar which is quite famous in India, it runs flawlessly on this Dongle, I have installed Cool Tool to monitor the ram consumption and even after continuous usage, the ram figures remain in the greenzone with the app consuming at the most 150 mb ram.

Now on the other hand I have an Android Media Box running on Amlogic 905X, it runs on Marshmallow, has 1 GB ram and when I run Hotstar on it, as I start scrolling the app, the ram starts decreasing alarmingly and the box goes into a low ram state, the app hangs and crashes.

Why such different behaviour of the same app on different boxes? What can be done to fix this on the Amlogic 905X box?

Second:

The amlogic 905x seems to be running out of ram pretty soon, at the same time the same rockchip works like a charm on the 1gb ram with 500 mb arounds always free for apps, it even shows available ram as 996 mb as compared to the 818 mb shown by the amlogic.

Can you give me pointers on how I can make the the amlogic 905X work like a charm. I have this mini project and with your kind guidance I will be able to fine tune it to work at its best.

Thanks,
Rohan

[neomode]

Hello and Welcome,

I think the difference here is the Android System. Android 4.x has a different Memory Manager as Android 6 does.
That's the reason why your S905x Box runs out of memory.
Let me ask you did you use an old Version or an Updated Version?

Neomode

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[rohan.l]

Hello and Welcome,

I think the difference here is the Android System. Android 4.x has a different Memory Manager as Android 6 does.
That's the reason why your S905x Box runs out of memory.
Let me ask you did you use an old Version or an Updated Version?

Neomode

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Hi Neomode,

But should Marshmallow not be better than Lolipop

Also, one more thing I discovered during my testing was that:

The rockchip dongle's user agent is "Galaxy 3" while the User agent of the Amlogic S905 is "Box", could this be the reason the same app is running differently on both the devices as hotstar has no TV or box version of any app, it must be either a phone version or a tablet version?

Should I post the link of the app I am talking about here and maybe someone can check it out and let me know please? I am just confused and irritated at not being able to find the cause

Link--> https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....hotstar&hl=en

Thanks in Advance

[bluesmanuk]

Perhaps it will be worth minimising the amount of RAM that is used by the S905x box by keeping background processes at a minimum.

On boxes with 1Gb RAM it is of particular importance to reduce them.

I use this app, which has the ability to prevent any all apps from running at startup and also the ability to select unnecessary system processes from loading.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=imoblife.toolbox.full&hl=en_GB

Whilst a stock Android 6 may be more efficient at memory management, these boxes do come with additional apps and processes that may not be as efficient when it comes to memory usage.

[rohan.l]

Perhaps it will be worth minimising the amount of RAM that is used by the S905x box by keeping background processes at a minimum.

On boxes with 1Gb RAM it is of particular importance to reduce them.

I use this app, which has the ability to prevent any all apps from running at startup and also the ability to select unnecessary system processes from loading.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=imoblife.toolbox.full&hl=en_GB

Whilst a stock Android 6 may be more efficient at memory management, these boxes do come with additional apps and processes that may not be as efficient when it comes to memory usage.

Thank you for the reply

I did, still the available ram is shown in the 270 range which I feel is too less, it should atleast be in the 450 range I feel.

I tried using the app you mentioned, even though it is a rooted box, it was not allowing access to root

I had one more idea, in the rockchip the total ram is shown as 996 which means the entire 1gb, it has not allocated anything to the GPU as in my Amlogic 905x, its showing total ram as 818, is there anyway I can free up the RAM allocated to the GPU?

Also, two more issue, with the earlier image, I had a problem with Netflix throwing up error 5.2 and not working, now its throwing up 0013 and not working, any solution to this?

Youtube Mobile which I downloaded from the playstore has a unique problem, when a video is played, the side peripherals take time to load is the first issue, secondly the audio plays for say 15 seconds before the video starts playing, until then its stuck at a standstill, any pointers on this too

Thanks a ton guys, your insights are proving to be very valuable

[Tonian]

id guess the Rockchip is using 32bit whereas the Amlogic will be using 64bit.
64bit requires more ram

[bluesmanuk]

The AmLogic SOC will be 64 bit but the firmwares that are created are still 32 bit in nature.

There are very few (if any at all) true 64 bit firmwares for the s905x.

[Tonian]

Difference between usage 450-270 = 170
Difference between total Ram 996 - 818 = 168

whether using a few apps or not, the difference between the devices stays at roughly 170mb. suggests that it isnt apps or background resources requiring more ram on 1 device over another.

id guess the firmware isnt detecting/utliising the entire ram probably (try a few other firmwares and look for any difference in total ram).

i worry that its more a hardware issue in whichcase the is very little you could do.



Android Boxes really need a minimum of 2gb ram to operate nicely IMO.

[rohan.l]

id guess the Rockchip is using 32bit whereas the Amlogic will be using 64bit.
64bit requires more ram

The Amlogic ia also 32 bit as shown in the system

The AmLogic SOC will be 64 bit but the firmwares that are created are still 32 bit in nature.

There are very few (if any at all) true 64 bit firmwares for the s905x.

True, this is a 32 bit firmware

Difference between usage 450-270 = 170
Difference between total Ram 996 - 818 = 168

whether using a few apps or not, the difference between the devices stays at roughly 170mb. suggests that it isnt apps or background resources requiring more ram on 1 device over another.

id guess the firmware isnt detecting/utliising the entire ram probably (try a few other firmwares and look for any difference in total ram).

i worry that its more a hardware issue in whichcase the is very little you could do.

Android Boxes really need a minimum of 2gb ram to operate nicely IMO.

So I have had some new findings which are really interesting and eye opening too.

Firstly I optimised the system to kill apps in the background whenever we exit the app, this led to the available ram in the box to go upto 330 range from the earlier 250's

I changed the DPI in the amlogic box from 240 to 160, what a wealth of difference it made to how hotstar works, it consumes way less ram, loads much faster, is able to sustain for a longer time and is basically very usable on the Amlogic box, the system too seems to be working faster, but on the downside the content looks smaller on apps like hotstar, playstore etc.

Now I have just one problem to solve which if I am able to, I would have reached a good benchmark and I need the help of you guys in doing it.

Hotstar on the Rockchip dongle with the DPI set at 160 looks exactly at the same size as hotstar looks on the amlogic 905x with the DPI set at 240

When I reduce the DPI on the Amlogic 905x to 160, hotstar becomes smaller and the screen starts showing a lot more content, why is that?

The images shown in hotstar at 160 DPI is of lower quality, at 240 DPI the images shown in hotstar in Amlogic is of higher quality, but the playback quality which matters is the most is the same on both the devices.

How can I make all the apps load at a normal size ( I am okay with lower image quality) but at a dpi of 160 in Amlogic, please help me in doing this.

Thanks,
Rohan

[bluesmanuk]

I wonder if this may offer some pointers.

http://sebastien-gabriel.com/designers-guide-to-dpi/

[Tonian]

i know some rockchip devices dont do native 1080p but upscaled 720p whereas Amlogic do support native 1080p.
could this affect your image,dpi etc?

[hvemasan]

Recently released version has lot of optimizations. You can download the latest version of Hotstar from here -

Hotstar Download for PC