Kikat - Wasser Firmware for Beelink R89

[Mario023]

Wasser is the best!

[BTR11]

Why ?

The Audio-Mute bug seems to be gone. I watched for 4-5 hours and left the box on overnight...so far it didn't mute.

I had decided to give a try to 2.0.8 coming from v2.0.4a which was working a little better than the other versions, and in my case, now I had suffered a couple of times the "mute bug", it´s present on v2.0.8; in my simple setup R-89 to TV through HDMI port I had not suffered before the mute bug, but now I have it with 2.0.8 randomly.

All the Streaming Apps i tested (Stream Box, Videomix, ect.) work fine. SPMC works fine but still the occasional micro-stutter like with the past Versions. All other Apps work fine too.

I´m basically using kodi or SPMC; in the v2.0.8 kodi 15.0 beta 1 (nigthly builds) is not working properly, heavy stutters and systems microfreezes, not working properly with any of the hardware acceleration codecs, whilst in v2.04.a was working fairly good, never great. SPMC 14.2 is working acceptable, some few micro-stutters and drop frames, but only with mediacodec "on"; libstagefright and rkstagefright must be turned "off". For streaming YouTube and cloudtv in my case is working good

For me its the best Firmware for now. Still I hope that Rockchip gets up from their lazy butts and fixes the remaining Problems with a new SDK.

EDIT:
After all the testing without the bug yesterday i got the audio bug twice today. Im sure wasser will fix it in some future version though.

Really difficult to say it; this platform Beelink R-89 / RK3288 & rockchip SDK, must have something really wrong and undiscoverable/illegible, because it´s not normal that after all of the efforts and dedication of wasser to produce all of these continues releases, looks like it´s not being worthy the effort, getting regressions in one aspect or on another; not yet get any of these FWs qualifying as the best firmware.
But Wasser your dedication it´s admirable, specially considering that this device looks like had been forgotten or abandoned from the manufacturer in a very short time.

In my concept the worse of the bad symptoms of the R-89 it´s the never been solved the systems micro-freezes leading the micro-stutters of the Kodi or SPMC, or some other tasks.

Thanks wasser for giving us hopes on this device on the base of your firmwares development, and not get yet the conclusión that this device had unsolvable hardware deficiencies.

[clarkss12]

I really had a bad taste for rockchip after being burned with several of their 3188T devices. I SWORE that I would NEVER purchase another device with a Rockchip CPU. Anyway, Oman from BeeLink honored me by giving me one of the R89 test boxes. In the beginning that box had severe problems, but he was always there to help resolve those issues that his resources allowed him to do. However, it is my understanding that Rockchip stopped the debugging on there end, so now that box is about 90% to 95% complete, and will always be that way. I have tried most of the firmwares posted on these forums, but none of them have solved all the problems, and probably never will. I do appreciate all the work that the devs have put into solving these problems.

[bloodgnome]

Today I got two crashes while watching Magine (A Stream TV App for German TV). Never had a crash with 2.0.7....

[wasser]

Today I got two crashes while watching Magine (A Stream TV App for German TV). Never had a crash with 2.0.7....

Could you please post the logcat from the crash so i can have a look?

Thanks

[wasser]

Why ?

The Audio-Mute bug seems to be gone. I watched for 4-5 hours and left the box on overnight...so far it didn't mute.

All the Streaming Apps i tested (Stream Box, Videomix, ect.) work fine. SPMC works fine but still the occasional micro-stutter like with the past Versions. All other Apps work fine too.

For me its the best Firmware for now. Still I hope that Rockchip gets up from their lazy butts and fixes the remaining Problems with a new SDK.

EDIT:
After all the testing without the bug yesterday i got the audio bug twice today. Im sure wasser will fix it in some future version though.

could someone please give me a simple testcase how i can always reproduce the audio-mute bug?
Does this bug happen in my previous firmware? if not which Firmware version?

It's really strange that i cannot reproduce it

Thanks
Wasser

[slyger]

Noob question, if you are on an earlier version of the ROM can you update to the latest version or do you need to do a clean install? If you can update, what are the steps? If you can't update, are people just relying on Titanium Backup to restore their apps/settings after a clean install or is there another option?

Thanks,
slyger

[bluesmanuk]

Noob question, if you are on an earlier version of the ROM can you update to the latest version or do you need to do a clean install? If you can update, what are the steps? If you can't update, are people just relying on Titanium Backup to restore their apps/settings after a clean install or is there another option?

Thanks,
slyger

You do have to carry out a clean install.

Restoring Titanium backups does the trick for me.

[amclean123]

could someone please give me a simple testcase how i can always reproduce the audio-mute bug?
Does this bug happen in my previous firmware? if not which Firmware version?

It's really strange that i cannot reproduce it

Thanks
Wasser

The easiest way to replicate is to use HDMI bitstream output using an AV receiver.
Open Youtube and play a stereo video . Don't stop or pause it
Right click on a mouse to exit Youtube while the video is still playing.
Open SPMC with passthrough correctly set up
Play a DTS MKV video. Make sure that your receiver detects the 5.1 DTS audio
Let this play for an hour
Pause it
Wait an hour (If an hour doesn't work let it sit overnight)
Right click on the mouse to exit or swipe up with the mouse and hit home
Go back to Youtube and the audio will be muted since Youtube doesn't use passthrough.

Unfortunately all of your roms have had the muting issue on stereo audio feeds. The muting doesn't affect the 5.1 DTS passthrough audio HDMI bitstream in SPMC or MX Player. The muting only affects stereo audio like Youtube, Pandora, Vevo, iHeartRadio, PBS kids, Youtube Kids...

I was also able to reproduce this with SPIDF passthrough too. FYI when I use SPIDF or HDMI bitstream audio output none of the normal Android OS beeps and sounds ever heard. I doesn't bother me but just an observation.

I haven't tried yet to replicate the muting issue with my R28 hooked directly to my TV via HDMI or SPIDF. I've always used a Yamaha or Pioneer AV receiver.

I don't know if this helps but when the RK3188 roms had a similar muting issue some fix was made to allow the default output to handle HDMI bitstream.. You had to know to pick the default output and not choose HDMI bitstream.

[torbvea]

I tried to download the v2.0.8 now, but it seems like the server is down. Do you know when it will work again wasser?

[martijn156]

Can anyone upload the V2.0.8 file for me?? the links are down for already 2 days.
Hope the randomly mute problem is fixed in this version, yesterday 4 mute's in 1,5 hour movie.

Thx a lot

[wasser]

The easiest way to replicate is to use HDMI bitstream output using an AV receiver.
Open Youtube and play a stereo video . Don't stop or pause it
Right click on a mouse to exit Youtube while the video is still playing.
Open SPMC with passthrough correctly set up
Play a DTS MKV video. Make sure that your receiver detects the 5.1 DTS audio
Let this play for an hour
Pause it
Wait an hour (If an hour doesn't work let it sit overnight)
Right click on the mouse to exit or swipe up with the mouse and hit home
Go back to Youtube and the audio will be muted since Youtube doesn't use passthrough.

Unfortunately all of your roms have had the muting issue on stereo audio feeds. The muting doesn't affect the 5.1 DTS passthrough audio HDMI bitstream in SPMC or MX Player. The muting only affects stereo audio like Youtube, Pandora, Vevo, iHeartRadio, PBS kids, Youtube Kids...

I was also able to reproduce this with SPIDF passthrough too. FYI when I use SPIDF or HDMI bitstream audio output none of the normal Android OS beeps and sounds ever heard. I doesn't bother me but just an observation.

I haven't tried yet to replicate the muting issue with my R28 hooked directly to my TV via HDMI or SPIDF. I've always used a Yamaha or Pioneer AV receiver.

I don't know if this helps but when the RK3188 roms had a similar muting issue some fix was made to allow the default output to handle HDMI bitstream.. You had to know to pick the default output and not choose HDMI bitstream.

Sadly i don't have any AV receiver at home. could it be that this issue only appears by using ac receiver? I really want to fix anoying issue, but i need a simple testcase which allows me to reproduce this issue!

Thanks,
Wasser

[ManxYessir]

Firstly, many thanks to Wasser for his continued efforts - much appreciated.

My Tronsmart R28 Orion is connected to my TVs by HDMI - no AV receiver. I am also getting the random mutes after the update to v2.0.8 when streaming content through SPMC 14.2. In addition, I now get no sound when the box is connected to one TV (Sony KDL46X2000) but the sound is fine when connected to my other TV (Sony KDL22E5300). Looking at the specs for the two TVs, the only difference I can see is that the KDL22E5300 (which is newer) has 1080/24p (as well as 1080p) whereas the KDL46X2000 has 1080p only. The video / sounds settings on my R28 are all auto. I've tried different cables, changing the HDMI input socket etc. none of which measures have had any effect.

I'd stress this is not a big deal but thought I'd share on the off chance that either someone has a fix or it might help to narrow down what is causing the muting bug.

[torbvea]

Sadly i don't have any AV receiver at home. could it be that this issue only appears by using ac receiver? I really want to fix anoying issue, but i need a simple testcase which allows me to reproduce this issue!

Thanks,
Wasser

I think it should appear if you use normal audio output aswell. Play a film on Youtube, pause the film and just wait.. the volume should be on the lowest after some time. It is really random how long it takes befor the audio mute, everything from an hour to a whole day.

Is it some way I can help by recording a log?

Do you think you can fix the download link for the new v2.0.8. Really want to test if the audio dropout is fixed when using HDMI Passthrough now! Thanks for all the hard work.

[jacquebauer1518]

I have the same problem as manero mentioned in a previous post, I no longer have sound over HDMI in 2.0.8. Worked in 2.0.3 and 2.0.7. Going back to 2.0.7 for now.