RKMC - Rockchip is preparing their own official app based on KODI?

[longo213]

Hello

Just stumbled upon this post on Zidoo user forum, claiming that RockChip is working on a KODI fork.

But Rockchip is working on their own official Media Centre app based on Kodi which will be updated regularly, so people don't have to worry about Kodi support being limited and Zidoo also supports their own ZDMC, don't know if they will use Rockchip's version or still adapt their own ZDMC in the future but you have 2 companies providing support.

http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thre...ge-3#post-9161

Does anyone know more details about it?

[mo123]

Yes, they are still making improvements so it might take a while.
Just make sure you have an RK3288/RK3368/RK3229 with regular firmware updates from the manufacturer otherwise it won't work on old firmware.
I can't reveal more.

[bluesmanuk]

I'll believe it when I see it.

Rockchips support of it's own SOC's has been poor and they have been down this very path before, without success.

[longo213]

Yes, they are still making improvements so it might take a while.
Just make sure you have an RK3288/RK3368/RK3229 with regular firmware updates from the manufacturer otherwise it won't work on old firmware.
I can't reveal more.

Can you at least specify how "new" the firmware should be? A modified version from other player would work too?

[Ben.Efrati]

I'll believe it when I see it.

Rockchips support of it's own SOC's has been poor and they have been down this very path before, without success.

https://github.com/JamesLinEngineer/RKMC

[longo213]

Ah, the cat is out of the bag

[scooter2014]

Still no pull or test version and no comments or updates for weeks yup that must be Rockchip development. (you can telk its them because no work in progress

[mo123]

Can you at least specify how "new" the firmware should be? A modified version from other player would work too?

The firmware should be from next week, so anything earlier won't work.
So everyone has to wait a while until manufacturers include the patches into their firmware.

[longo213]

So if I understand it correctly, Rockchip is preparing a new reference firmware which vendors needs to use as a base for their updates. With so many clones and near clones on the market, would modified firmware do the trick as well?

[mo123]

So if I understand it correctly, Rockchip is preparing a new reference firmware which vendors needs to use as a base for their updates. With so many clones and near clones on the market, would modified firmware do the trick as well?

Modified firmware should also work for some users.
People should never buy cheap devices otherwise they will always have problems afterwards.
If you buy Rockchip devices from a respectable company you never have to worry about things like this.

[bluesmanuk]

Looking on the Kodi site and seeing their call for Android devs, illustrates how Rockchips decision to make their own app version completely counter productive.

It just means adding more builds to the mix, which doesn't help anybody.

What Rockchip and other SOC manufacturers should be doing is providing dev support directly to the Kodi team to help them integrate things into the original.

That then satisfies all interests.

Where this may require access to sensitive and proprietary code then NDA's could be signed to protect intellectual property.

With more devices being introduced to the market, especially from some of the big guns such as Nvidia and even Amazon (not to mention the Intel competition) and at prices that are becoming more appealing to the masses and with greater support and stability, Rockchip and others put themselves at risk of having an ever decreasing market share, which, from a business perspective, is not good at all.

It may well be that if Kodi don't get the support they need then they may be forced to drop Android support altogether, which would result in manufacturers having to provide continual support, something which history and experience tells us does not happen very often.

They know that if there is one app that is likely to be at the top of any users list it will be Kodi, so to miss such an opportunity will spell certain doom in the medium term for SOC manufacturers.

[mo123]

Kodi is now also dropping support for any Android version lower than Lollipop.
So a lot of smartphones and Intel dual-boot tablets that was released last year with Kitkat firmware won't be able to run Kodi 17 anymore.
You just get an error message when you try to run Kodi.
Lots of Kodi developers also have a hatred towards Android and don't want to see it supported.
I can only think that piracy is the main reason.
Kodi Team will also drop AMLogic and all other Android device specific code from Kodi 17.

[scooter2014]

Can ya blame them moe? The only problem dropping support is for box sales. It would kill the "Clone market" I know people would scream losing the free tv market so what who cares. Its a smart move they will also be going approved apps at some point too. Anyone because of gpl can make a off spin but the kodi brand wont allow it. Do i use kodi yes can i live without it on my andriod device hell yes.

[markedman]

Zidoo has had this for awhile: zdmc-x6-16.0.apk Not specific for Rockchip, but it seems they just might come up with other forks... and of course THAT one will work for Rockchip with some tweaking if needed. Personally I think Kodi is going in the wrong direction with it's RERO policy, and the result will be more and more forks. Right now I have seen roughly 10, so far. Perhaps this will help keep Kodi itself more secure if things get more heated about third-party piracy addons Globally, or...will it? I'm almost more inclined to think that if one goes down, then all will be targeted and go down. Everyone tends to forget that much of this Piracy content is available directly off the www, and each Country seems to have their own rules about that. UK..illegal, EU in General, perfectly fine. Then there is South America and Mexico...........
It's a mess and a great deal of money would be needed to end it everywhere. My view is that if you buy a DVD player, than pop in a pirated disc; it's hardly the fault of Sony, or Technics, or RCA that you did that. It's YOUR fault, and so only you should be responsible. Kodi is A Media Player only, same as that DVD media player, and how does that make Kodi liable for what YOU do? I'm sure legal battles are coming, but that too will be a mess with no clear victors, again Globally. Might be too little too late for Kodi to steer clear of this.

Anyway , expect more hardware specific forks, either from the chip makers, or the bigger sellers of that hardware. Already happening.

[scooter2014]

Rockchip needs to start playing ball do you blame kodi?? The code is the same for all..... I have a shield its andriod it works fine pass througb works because Nvidia applied the api and then worked with google. Rockchip needs to get thier asses out of the clouds and make the changes to the api. Period. This has been re hashed million times on other sites. This is NOT a Kodi issue its 100 percent ROCKCHIP and thier attitude towards doing whats needed.