The M8/M8N Video Interlacing Issue Megathread

[RockSteady]

So I hope the powers that be do not mind in my attempt to drag all the conversation about the video interlacing problem into one place.

At present, discussion of this issue - which is perhaps the biggest issue with these boxes - it scattered across various firmware and general threads. By getting all chat into one place, we can share experiences a lot better.

So I'll start.

This is an issue in every single firmware I've tried thus far with the exception of a late April build from ******. Now unfortunately, this particular firmware build has some terrible app crashes and random reboots throughout - it's unusable. But the interlacing issue does NOT seem to be present.

I've tried just about everything from stock roms by AceMax, ENY and ****** all the way through to random custom firmwares by Bob, JustMe, Stane, Lifeforce and some other firmwares I've found from random retails (which are nearly always one of the above ripped off).

I am about to try the Linux build tonight in the hope that finally a firmware that does not have the issue is found, my concern however is that will significantly reduce - in fact, nullify - the "smart tv" features that my family love via running Android.

I've got to say as an avid Amlogic 8726 user for a long time before the M8 arrives, that I was so excited about this device - the reality is for video quality in XBMC, the 8726 Dual Core model is the best on the market - if you can dodge the clone PCBs.

I hope that I;ve missed a thread somewhere and that this is in fact fixed in a rom I've yet tested - if not, let's keep this going. In reality, it's the one thing stopping this unit from being "the one"

[sentry23]

..

I hope that I;ve missed a thread somewhere and that this is in fact fixed in a rom I've yet tested - if not, let's keep this going. In reality, it's the one thing stopping this unit from being "the one"

Currently running the Justme 109k4 1.2 in which I haven't had any trace of interlacing yet. (read through its thread before flashing, as toothpick flash doesn't work with the latest version)
If your box keeps crashing/rebooting, you might want to look into cooling issues.

[servo386]

To be clear, what you're referring to is the slight stutter you get from refresh rate issues with videos when they're panning, right?

I'm glad this thread exist. Thanks for making it.

[sentry23]

To be clear, what you're referring to is the slight stutter you get from refresh rate issues with videos when they're panning, right?

At least in my case I was replying on the issuein a few firmware revisions where images looked (slightly overdone) like this sometimes:

http://www.doom9.org/images/Interlace.jpg

rewind/forward would fix that issue, but it was still anoying.

What you are referring to is called 'judder' which can be solved in most current firmwares by setting screen speed to 1080p 24Hz (as most movies are 23.976/24 fps)

[Pedronam]

M8N

I purchased a Keedox M8 Amlogic S802 a couple of weeks ago, where the unit appears to have one of the latest M9&M8_V1.0 PCB (dated 2014/07/07) with Samsung memory chips installed (link to unit available on Amazon.co.uk:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/QUAD-CORE-OC...ords=keedox+M8).

The firware (ROM) pre-installed on this unit was the M8N - 201409, dated 27th Aug 2014; this includes installation of XBMC Gotham 13.2.

Using this setup, I was continually getting interlacing issues when streaming media from the internet through XMBC; not always the case but it would take a few attempts to locate a suitable stream in order to overcome it (or just use the "best" available stream).

Since experiencing this, I have been looking around for fixes and tried a few options within XBMC to try and overcome the issue, but nothing cured it (zero caching and external SD card made the biggest difference, but this only stopped some stuttering on odd occassions which caused the audio/video stream to go slightly out of sync and instigated the interlacing issue on what initially appeared to be a good stream).

The troubleshooting lead me to look at the firmware, where I considered installing one of the custom ones available here at Freaktab. Since there appears to be minor issues with all custom firmares, I considered my options and decided to install Justme's 1094K_V1.2_Final firmware.

After installing this and testing it for the last couple of days, the interlacing issues appear to have gone away all together and the image quality is much clearer / more crisp.

Main downside to this custom firmware, for me, is the fact that bluetooth is not available since I purchased a bluetooth keyboard / touchpad to use in place of the remote provided; even with this though the viewing experience with the box using this setup outweighs the downsides.

Thanks goes out to Justme (and all others involved in getting this firmware produced); you have made me enjoy the box and the options it now gives me after having many a night trying to overcome a frustrating issue. I hope you have continued success in overcoming the other issues identified within this firmware and I would certainly recommend it to anyone using a similar unit.