R89-Multimedia playback and XBMC feedback here

[Stevew70]

Have We Found A Solution?

Guys,

Didn't have a lot of time last night but tried 3 different movies for 10-15 mins with smooth stutter free playback using the following:

Running Wasser's 2.0.4a ROM
SPMC 14.1.0 beta 1 with...
RKlibstagefright disabled and
libstagefright & mediacodec enabled

My setup is:

Ethernet with Static IP Address
Gigabit Network
Files fed from a NAS
HDMI Passthrough enabled going to Onkyo Receiver

Videos were all MKV container, H264 with DTS.

Will try more formats over weekend and post back results

[Damac10]

I do play some 4:3 content but I can't change to 16:9 now because it's missing from the video settings during playback.
I would not say it's irrelevant.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Has this been resolved....4:3 is not cute...

[RudyB]

Experiences of a new Ubox R89 + Kodi user (with a few questions)

Yesterday my new Ubox R89 arrived. Time to put it to the test!

The Ubox came with firmware 110 installed. In Android settings I selected audio SPDIF passtrough, because my Denon receiver is connected via an optic cable.

1. Play 1080 video from USB with any of the three standard available video players:
Video is fluent, no stutter. Audio DTS and AC3 pass through is OK.


Then fired up Kodi. System info said it was version 14 alpha. Uninstalled it and installed stable version 14.1. In Kodi audio settings I chose pass through with all 3 tick boxes selected. In video acceleration settings I chose hardware with both libstagefright and mediacodec selected.

2. Play 1080 video from USB with Kodi 4.1:
Video stutters every second. Not watchable. Audio pass through of DTS and AC3 is OK.

EDIT: No video stutter when Kodi audio pass through is disabled. Stereo sound is still sent to SPDIF because of the Android settings. So I have a choice now: video wiythout stutter, but with stereo downmix OR video with stutter and DTS / DolbyD sound. Well ... that is an easy choice. I still prefer using one of the Android video pplayers that work fine.

3. Play 720 streaming video via Genesis:
Video is OK, no stutter, but most streams have only stereo sound.
Kodi crashes when attempting to scroll forward with the slider, or fast forward 2x, 4x etc.

EDIT: Also this issue seems to disappear for 90% after audio pass through is disabled in Kodi. Slider or fast forward can be used with much less crashes (but still every now and then).

4. Remote control with iPad XBMCRemote or Constellation:
This works perfect with Kodi on Windows, but with Kodi on Android I can not get it to work. No connection can be made, despite the fact that both WiFi and Ethernet are on and all the settings are according the apps descriptions.

EDIT: Got this to work after I disabled Ethernet and had only WiFi connection enabled. When both are enabled I can't get it to work.


It is somewhat disappointing that a device that is advertised and sold as an 'XBMC player out of the box' is not useable to play 1080 video, while three standard installed Android video players seem to have no issues with that?


My questions now are:

1. I read about Wasser firmware and that it helps eliminate the video stutter with Kodi, or SPMC? After unzip I have an .img file ... no idea what to do next. Could someone please point me to (a link to) a step by step instruction how to install new firmware from an .img file?

2. After install of Kodi 14.1 the big XBMC button in the middle of the Ubox User Interface does not start Kodi anymore. Is there a way to get that button to work again?

3. Does someone know if, and how, XBMCRemote and/or Constellation iPad apps can work with Kodi on Android?

[lingam]

My questions now are:

1. I read about Wasser firmware and that it helps eliminate the video stutter with Kodi, or SPMC? After unzip I have an .img file ... no idea what to do next. Could someone please point me to (a link to) a step by step instruction how to install new firmware from an .img file?

Description in the first post:

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?16490-Beelink-R89-UBOX-ROM-Tools-release&p=219458&viewfull=1#post219458

[RudyB]

Thx Lingam for pointing that out. I just read that thread and found that 'kaefert' installed all that, but alas he still has video stutter. It makes me a bit wary to even start the process (which seems to involve quite some steps with drivers and software to install first ... and 'if it does not work' even open the box and mod some hardware?)

[lingam]

I've a Ubox R89 too. I never open the box. For me worked without opening.

[RudyB]

@Lingam. OK, that at least is reassuring. We have the same Ubox R89? Did you have video stutter before, and now with the Wasser 2.05 firmware no more? Do you use Kodi or SPMC? Or are there maybe any settings that I may have overlooked that are important? If you can reassure me that it helps ... well ... thenI think I'll take the plunge

[RudyB]

Just now did some further experimenting with settings. I found that when I disable audio pass through in the Kodi settings, the video does not stutter anymore. As soon as I enable audio pass through it stutters again, not only with 1080 video, also 720.

This is reproduceable. So ... the temporary workaround is to have 2 channel audio, which the Ubox still channels through my SPDIF because that is in the Android settings. The drawback is that I lack the DTS or Dolby D sound. I have my Denon use Dolby Pro Logic 2 to create surround, which is worse, but not too bad.

I'll post this somewhere on the Kodi forum or file a bug report, have to figure out how to do that.

Edit: tried fast forward and use the slider with a movie streaming ... a lot less crashes when audio is NOT in pass through mode! Seems to me the pass through currently is a source of problems.

[lingam]

@Lingam. OK, that at least is reassuring. We have the same Ubox R89? Did you have video stutter before, and now with the Wasser 2.05 firmware no more? Do you use Kodi or SPMC? Or are there maybe any settings that I may have overlooked that are important? If you can reassure me that it helps ... well ... thenI think I'll take the plunge

With the stock rom I had. I used Wasser 2.04. The video playback was ok with SPMC and Mplayer too, no stutter, but this rom cannot mount correctly my 2TB Wd hdd, so now I use the Open Hour Chameleon firmware.
The standard usb ports doesn't like any controller (it make system laggy), plug in the usb otg port (microusb)!