[EXPERIMENTAL] Unofficial CM12 for WeTek Play with Kodi & TVH Live TV

[adoga]

Thank you

I think I'll buy a wetek play

From my own point of view, you will not regret it. I had a one week old Beelink R89 (quad core CPU and octal core GPU) and a 24 months old Dreambox 800HD, I sold them after I got this box because this box is All-In-One ("its all inside" according to WeTek) and Dual boot with Android and OpenElec - the choice is yours.

Though the CPU seems discouraging at first, but WeTek combined with Troy's efforts shows that its not just how much horse power but how much the power is utilized - OpenElec and CM11 by Troy showed me that. Even if the Android UI is a bit laggy some times when android is performing some work, you will not hate it.

It is also important to note that this box can do descrambling if coupled with OSCam. OpenElec runs excellent while the CM11 runs almost as good as excellent. Support is fantastic - that is what is more important compared to other boxes. When I ordered mine it took less than 24 hoursand for that price its unbeatable.

Here I will summarize the benefits:
- Dual booth with OpenElec and Anroid
- Dual LNB
- Power Off / Standby (Adroid)
- TVHeadEnd (Android CM11 and OpenElec 5.0.5)
- OSCam (Android and OpenElec)
- Kodi 14.2rc1
- 720p and 1080p up to 60Hz

[adoga]

Because amlogic video libraries don't use adaptive playback that is what is required for youtube 1080p.

The power menu doesn't blink, it's just that the remote spawns commands one after the other and you can't do anything about that, it's how Android input system is done. If you try to keep pressed the power button on the box you will see that it doesn't happen.

I don't have any problem navigating in the power menu, only the reboot type (normal or recovery) can't be chosen but if you press OK it will reboot, if you press MENU it will reboot to recovery.


edit: tried both Vevo and Ted, they don't work because they don't use any of the Android Media APIs (MediaPlayer or Stagefright), but use a proprietary media player (Vevo for example uses something called "NexPlayer") that, obviously, has no hw acceleration.
It's an app problem.
There should be some Vevo and Ted Talks addons for Kodi if I'm not wrong.

About the Menu. I really don't think so because I had a T-R42 once and was using Wasser's mod(on freak tab) and holding the button down for more than a second brings up the menu and it doesn't blink. I think there is a bug there, and I think its not trivial, its a matter of canceling successive keys once the menu appears. Like I said its not important because I stop pressing when it starts flashing. Navigating the menu with a remote is not possible and I also think its not a big issue so I can live with that.

About Vevo and TED Talks, they played in other boxes just fine. I can also live without them on the box because I use my tablet to stream them to tv so they are not important.

The most important app that should run without qualms is Youtube and yes it does.

I am using the "Code Red" Launcher app and it displays youtube subscription videos, trailers, videos from Facebook etc. One can just click on one of the videos for playback. It wasn't working at all on the stock firmware - don't know why but on you mod it plays fine. I just love that Launcher.

When I have time I will flash your recent updates but I'm not sure if I will use the real 1080p because I really don't understand the advantages over the normal one.

[adoga]

Just for your info. There is a TVHClient app in App store that streams videos from the tvh. I use in on my tab to watch tv when I am not using kodi. It works too on your CM11.

[scooterbuk]

I have installed CM12 but there is no play store, what am I missing?

[ChristianTroy]

I have installed CM12 but there is no play store, what am I missing?

gapps?


@adoga
Amlogic has its own video playback library, if apps don't use it (or don't use Android APIs) then it won't kick in. Probably you were running it fine on other devices because they were more powerful and the soc could just sw decode them properly.

If you have a keyboard (even a bluetooth one) you can bring up power menu by pressing F4 button.

I still don't understand why you turn it off every time. Now that you discovered that you can connect to tvh using 3rd party apps (I use that app to schedule recordings on my HTPC or to consult EPG) you will understand why I use that different suspend method, so I can connect from my PC, for example, and listen to a radio station with the Play in standby.
Or you could run a torrent daemon, an oscam server, etc.

[adoga]

gapps?


@adoga
Amlogic has its own video playback library, if apps don't use it (or don't use Android APIs) then it won't kick in. Probably you were running it fine on other devices because they were more powerful and the soc could just sw decode them properly.

If you have a keyboard (even a bluetooth one) you can bring up power menu by pressing F4 button.

I still don't understand why you turn it off every time. Now that you discovered that you can connect to tvh using 3rd party apps (I use that app to schedule recordings on my HTPC or to consult EPG) you will understand why I use that different suspend method, so I can connect from my PC, for example, and listen to a radio station with the Play in standby.
Or you could run a torrent daemon, an oscam server, etc.

About the first issue, you are probably right, my T-R42 (quad core) is more powerful than the Play. It played everything fine but not out-of-box (even mx player and youtube were jerky).

Second issue, I don't like the idea of keyboard not even mouse, when I want a good experience. Keyboards are ok for setting things up and that should be it. Typing can be done with the air mouse. I would have preferred support for harmony remotes to make use of all functions available on a media system but thats not the case because they decided not to send the keys through the IR. Thats one thing about a universal remote, you don't have to hold 2 in your hands. Though it works through CEC but not all features are supported. I think wetek should do more here.

About power off mode - I actually use both modes, suspend and power off. If I suspect I won't be using the unit the next one week power off is what I prefer. I don't actually schedule any recording but when I do I will use the suspend mode. Actually I do use the suspend mode when streaming to my tab or mac if the tv is being used by family member. I don't like wasting energy when it is not required. Since you do record alway, it complete shutdown isn't necessary but I don't, sometimes I don't even touch the boxes I used to have for weeks because of engagements.

But I'm glad both modes are working, its better having an option more, its just like dual boot you know.

[robimo]

From my own point of view, you will not regret it. I had a one week old Beelink R89 (quad core CPU and octal core GPU) and a 24 months old Dreambox 800HD, I sold them after I got this box because this box is All-In-One ("its all inside" according to WeTek) and Dual boot with Android and OpenElec - the choice is yours.

Though the CPU seems discouraging at first, but WeTek combined with Troy's efforts shows that its not just how much horse power but how much the power is utilized - OpenElec and CM11 by Troy showed me that. Even if the Android UI is a bit laggy some times when android is performing some work, you will not hate it.

It is also important to note that this box can do descrambling if coupled with OSCam. OpenElec runs excellent while the CM11 runs almost as good as excellent. Support is fantastic - that is what is more important compared to other boxes. When I ordered mine it took less than 24 hoursand for that price its unbeatable.

Here I will summarize the benefits:
- Dual booth with OpenElec and Anroid
- Dual LNB
- Power Off / Standby (Adroid)
- TVHeadEnd (Android CM11 and OpenElec 5.0.5)
- OSCam (Android and OpenElec)
- Kodi 14.2rc1
- 720p and 1080p up to 60Hz

There're a lot of android box more powerfull and even cheaper than wetek, but without support.
I've readed in this forum and in the wetek's forum about the support and I've already used the CT's rom with an ainol aurora until I broke it, so I decided to order one.

PS. What is Oscam ?

[adoga]

There're a lot of android box more powerfull and even cheaper than wetek, but without support.
I've readed in this forum and in the wetek's forum about the support and I've already used the CT's rom with an ainol aurora until I broke it, so I decided to order one.

PS. What is Oscam ?

Welcome on board!

I don't know if such is allowed to be discussed here. Just look in google. So trust me, if you don't know it, you don't need it.

wait see this forum: oscam is discussed here.

[ChristianTroy]

This zip will give you a 3 seconds window for the power menu popup

[adoga]

This zip will give you a 3 seconds window for the power menu popup

That sounds good. I will try it on the weekend.

[ChristianTroy]

ROM (CM11) 2015-03-16 - Real 1080p output (r1)

* Disabled iptables socket tagging (the thing that gives you fancy network stats usage on Android, since it stats loopback interface too I wanna see if disabling it leads to a less cpu usage with Tvheadend)
* Now when you invoke Power Menu action by keeping pressed remote's power button you will have a 3 seconds window where only one dialog will be spawned, the previous behavior was spawning dialogs like if there was no tomorrow

[adoga]

Is it possible to add some kind of configuration to the settings in android or OpenElec to control the power led so that one can set it to High, Medium, Low or completely turn it off? The other two leds are ok, its just that the Power led is a bit too bright - if I need a lamp I would buy one. Its not important though because I can just tape it.

I don't know if its possible, but if it is then its gonna be kicka**!

[ChristianTroy]

No, the power led can't be controlled but to be blue or red, can't be turned off. You have to put some tape on it (that's what I did)

[ChristianTroy]

Kodi 14.2rc1 WeTek_mod_v2

Fixed detection of removable storage (sd card and connected USB drives) on Kitkat and Lollipop as you can see from the screen below:



I remind you that Android's vold has some limitations (Android is not meant to be flexible like a Linux distro) like:
- it mounts only the first partition of the connected drive (so if your drive has multiple partitions only the first will be mounted)
- if you connect multiple hard drives to the same physical usb port using an hub only the last drive connected will be shown
- support for linux ext2/3/4, fat, exfat and ntfs file systems

Download

[adoga]

No, the power led can't be controlled but to be blue or red, can't be turned off. You have to put some tape on it (that's what I did)

I thought I saw a code snippet yesterday, after I suggested it, in one OE (Linux stuff) forum where I noticed a method used to set color and the brightness. There should be a method in the wetek kernel too that controls the light - maybe overloaded method.

You can ask WeTek team, I have also suggested it on the WeTek official forum and I hope they get this to work or at least get rid of that bright light on the next version or provide settings for it like its done on my tv. I turned it out on my tv because the brightness is very intrusive. Those big lights at the front like on S82 boxes really turned me off - I read in may forums and found out many people feel that way too. Its just not good for the eyes when watching in a completely dark room.

Blocking the bright light with a tape makes the box look inferior unless its done with special tapes I guess. This can be totally avoided if there is a better way. For me the LAN led is just enough if it can turn orange when in sleep mode - take a look at Apple TV, they know not to imposed such big lamps.