The latest news about RK3288

[Finless]

FYI, word in the "underground" is RK is changing the board again due to HDMI issues!
No ROM can fix this......
I am pretty sure this is why you are not seeing Minix with a 3288 box yet.... Just my guess.

If you ask me this is like the AML s802 release... they change the processor later due to hardware bugs. Thus early buyers got stuck in the past. If this is true with RK, then any early boxes will be stuck in the past too!

Bob

[Javimetal]

Today, talking and testing something with Sunchip guys (included software engineer), we have found a problem.


One of our TVs (a SAMSUNG UHD) can support 4K-25Hz and 4K-30Hz, so we connected the ZERO Devices Z5C Thinko (RK3288 stick) and did not see anything in the screen. It looks like the TV was noticed about something has been connected, but no any signal there...

So we wanted to be sure it is not a Z5C stick problem (this one is the latest version before mass production) and tried to connect a CX-998. Result was same.

Ok, so we also tried another boxes with different motherboards, made by another people. Connected the OTT CS928, OTT CS918II (HTC boards) and some one more. Same result.... all of them did not work with our SAMSUNG Smart TV.

Later we connected the boxes (all of them) to another TV, we did not find any problem. Setted-up the resolution to 1080p-60Hz, connect again to the SAMSUNG and... yes! Working now!

What is the problem?

Our SAMSUNG TV supports 4K-30Hz max. (accord with specifications), but it seems that this TV's hardware is ready for up to 4K-60Hz except the HDMI (it is HDMI 1.4). So, what is happening?

Ok, everything looks correct, why can not watch the image?
Rockchip's SoC and system can "read" the available resolutions from our TV, so our boxes thought 4K-50Hz and 4K-60Hz are some of them. When the box boots it choose the highest resolution, so our boxes tried to use the "4K-60Hz" (provided by the TV), but... the hardware of the TV is not really ready to play this, so we can not see any signal there. Just after set-up a 4K-30Hz or lower from another TV and connect to the SAMSUNG we could watch something.



As can be seen here, we have up to 4K-60Hz, but if we choose 50Hz or 60Hz it will not work.


I think this is a problem of most (or even all) RK3288 products, and we have been talking a bit about this because it is not easy to fix. The TVs will "cheat" the boxes. Probably will need Rockchip's support directly.

Anyway, it's just a software issue and hope can be fixed soon.

[Haba]

I'm looking a little bit around and found these pages (while searching for another information ):

http://www.androidauthority.com/mali-t720-and-mali-t760-312010/

http://community.arm.com/groups/arm-mali-graphics/blog/2014/03/12/the-mali-gpu-an-abstract-machine-part-3--the-shader-core

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8234/arms-mali-midgard-architecture-explored/8

Actually, I wanted to find out if it is possible and if yes, how to determine the GPU FLOPS at Android, but it seams so there exists no way...

I cannot recall where I saw the testing but the results of the RK3288 matched the results that Mali has listed for the T760 with 4 cores.

[Mantion]

Really depends upon the quality of the video. 2015 they are coming out with Blu-ray 4k 100gb disks. A ripped uncompressed file is huge with very large bitrates. I simply see no good reason to not have USB 3 on a new device in 2014.

I agree, USB3 is well worth the minor increase in production cost.

[no_spam_for_me]

MALI

I'm looking a little bit around and found these pages (while searching for another information ):

http://www.androidauthority.com/mali-t720-and-mali-t760-312010/

http://community.arm.com/groups/arm-mali-graphics/blog/2014/03/12/the-mali-gpu-an-abstract-machine-part-3--the-shader-core

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8234/arms-mali-midgard-architecture-explored/8

Actually, I wanted to find out if it is possible and if yes, how to determine the GPU FLOPS at Android, but it seams so there exists no way...

[PolloLoco]

Running the same test on my power hungry desktop computer using XBMC I have similar results. Playing a 720P live stream from my networked tuner, I get a lot of dropped and skipped frames. Also, I noticed that all 4cores of my AMD CPU are running in the 80% and 90% usage range. With this R89 box, the CPU usage ranges between 30% and 40% on all 4 cores. My ADT-1 only uses 2 of the 4 cores and the usage runs between 50% and 70%, but no lost or skipped frames.

Your reports about the ADT-1 aren't surprising, I've been very happy with my Tegra 4 tablet for the last 9 months. Perfect playback of 1080P content. I've read that the Tegra 4 is capable of 4K playback, but I've never tested it myself.

Where the RK3288 might distinguish itself, even if google TV was released at a better price point - is if 4K 60Hz output were possible. I'm curious to see which TV Box will be the first to successfully implement 4K output.

[Haba]

Running the same test on my power hungry desktop computer using XBMC I have similar results. Playing a 720P live stream from my networked tuner, I get a lot of dropped and skipped frames. Also, I noticed that all 4cores of my AMD CPU are running in the 80% and 90% usage range. With this R89 box, the CPU usage ranges between 30% and 40% on all 4 cores. My ADT-1 only uses 2 of the 4 cores and the usage runs between 50% and 70%, but no lost or skipped frames.

PM sent

[clarkss12]

Good news about the ADT-1. Have you looked at a Dual Core Celeron Chromebox/OpenELEC option? Great reports are coming from these units which have the ability to upgrade the ram/usb 3.0/gig Ethernet, proper thermal design and the EPG pops up like it's supposed to. The videos I have watched show low cpu useage.

Running the same test on my power hungry desktop computer using XBMC I have similar results. Playing a 720P live stream from my networked tuner, I get a lot of dropped and skipped frames. Also, I noticed that all 4cores of my AMD CPU are running in the 80% and 90% usage range. With this R89 box, the CPU usage ranges between 30% and 40% on all 4 cores. My ADT-1 only uses 2 of the 4 cores and the usage runs between 50% and 70%, but no lost or skipped frames.

[bluesmanuk]

The problem is likely not with the boxes but the software behind the video decoding and playback.

I've been testing a whole gamut of video files over the past week with my RK28 and they will all play perfectly but only across a range of software.

H265, as I see it has it's most potential serious rival in the form of Google VP9.

[Talas]

so my estimate was not so wrong

O indeed spot on.

[clarkss12]

Good news about the ADT-1. Have you looked at a Dual Core Celeron Chromebox/OpenELEC option? Great reports are coming from these units which have the ability to upgrade the ram/usb 3.0/gig Ethernet, proper thermal design and the EPG pops up like it's supposed to. The videos I have watched show low cpu useage.

No I haven't

[Haba]

From my limited understanding it has something to do with the variable bit rate and determined file size. Mpeg 2 files play without a problem since it has a determined size. The problem is with the TS (transport stream) file, there is obviously no size to determine. I have been trying to get live TV streaming on these boxes since my first dual core boxes. I have 7 different boxes from different CPU manufacturers. I have two different HDHomerun dual ATSC tuners, and my newest one is the PLUS model, which does hardware decoding in the tuner. The output stream is H264 with low bit rate. This will play with most of my boxes without dropped or skipped frames. But that is not what I am looking for, I want a box that can stream mpeg2 TS streams without any dropped or skipped frames. So far, this R89 is doing very well, the 1080i streams without any dropped or skipped frames. Most of the time the 720P has a few dropped frames, but is acceptable, probably most people would not notice it. But since dropped frames is what I am looking for, I notice it.

My ADT-1 Google box streams all of my TS streams without any dropped or skipped frames.

Good news about the ADT-1. Have you looked at a Dual Core Celeron Chromebox/OpenELEC option? Great reports are coming from these units which have the ability to upgrade the ram/usb 3.0/gig Ethernet, proper thermal design and the EPG pops up like it's supposed to. The videos I have watched show low cpu useage.

[clarkss12]

Deeply disappointing... Mpeg 2 is supported according to the specs. Any idea what the problem is with playback?

From my limited understanding it has something to do with the variable bit rate and determined file size. Mpeg 2 files play without a problem since it has a determined size. The problem is with the TS (transport stream) file, there is obviously no size to determine. I have been trying to get live TV streaming on these boxes since my first dual core boxes. I have 7 different boxes from different CPU manufacturers. I have two different HDHomerun dual ATSC tuners, and my newest one is the PLUS model, which does hardware decoding in the tuner. The output stream is H264 with low bit rate. This will play with most of my boxes without dropped or skipped frames. But that is not what I am looking for, I want a box that can stream mpeg2 TS streams without any dropped or skipped frames. So far, this R89 is doing very well, the 1080i streams without any dropped or skipped frames. Most of the time the 720P has a few dropped frames, but is acceptable, probably most people would not notice it. But since dropped frames is what I am looking for, I notice it.

My ADT-1 Google box streams all of my TS streams without any dropped or skipped frames.

[no_spam_for_me]

...
The new 4K Blu-ray drive players will be able to extract data from discs at 82 megabits per second for 50GB discs, 108Mbps for 66GB discs, and 128Mbps for 100GB discs.
...

so my estimate was not so wrong

[Haba]

At this point, these boxes are becoming very capable at playing almost every video available. However, these boxes (RK3288) still struggle with streaming live TV in mpeg 2 TS format @ 720P and sometimes 1080i. If you have a tuner, you can see what I am talking about.

Deeply disappointing... Mpeg 2 is supported according to the specs. Any idea what the problem is with playback?