XBMC - Hardware Accelerated Decoding - What works and what doesn't.

[Abducted]

I tested both local from SD card and streaming from an FTP server.

BTW when i leave my governor at interactive (the default one) i still get a few dropped frames. Apparently it just doesn't scale fast enough. So i suggest you install something like no frills cpu control and lock the CPU speed to 816Mhz. Or you can use a scaling governor but set the lowest speed to 816mhz. That way it should always be fast enough. I have it setup that way but that is with a 1080p kernel. Not sure if i also had dropped frames when using a 720p kernel and didn't change the governor or lock the speed to 816mhz.

Maybe you should also run a few tests with local files to see if that works to see if it's an addon problem or a general decoding problem. I have some test file available if you need them.

[SSKY]

Abducted can you tell me what is the governor and how I can use it? What are its effects? I have mk808 with Finless 1.7c rom and xbmc from xaf.

Thanks

[Maxhenri]

I tested both local from SD card and streaming from an FTP server.

BTW when i leave my governor at interactive (the default one) i still get a few dropped frames. Apparently it just doesn't scale fast enough. So i suggest you install something like no frills cpu control and lock the CPU speed to 816Mhz. Or you can use a scaling governor but set the lowest speed to 816mhz. That way it should always be fast enough. I have it setup that way but that is with a 1080p kernel. Not sure if i also had dropped frames when using a 720p kernel and didn't change the governor or lock the speed to 816mhz.

Maybe you should also run a few tests with local files to see if that works to see if it's an addon problem or a general decoding problem. I have some test file available if you need them.

Rejoice! I have achived success! I installed no frills cpu control as you suggested. Instead of locking the CPU speed to 816 Mhz, I followed an advice I believe you gave in some other thread to someone else. I set the governor to hotplug! I can now stream the 1980x800 video with 23.98-24.04 FPS constantly now Thanks a ton!

[Abducted]

Abducted can you tell me what is the governor and how I can use it? What are its effects? I have mk808 with Finless 1.7c rom and xbmc from xaf.

Thanks

I dont know if you're familiar with Intel and AMD CPUs but it's kind of like Intel's speed step and AMD's cool 'n quiet.

A governor manages CPU speed (Or rotor RPM for RC helicopters, am i right Bob? ). Different type of governor modes are build into the kernels. With an app like "no frills cpu control" you can change your governor setting (on a rooted device, which all these sticks are i think)

For instance if you select "powersave" it will only use the lowest CPU speed available, no matter if you stress the CPU or if it's just doing nothing.
If you select "performance" it will only use the highest CPU speed available, again no matter of you stress the CPU or if it's just doing nothing.

Then there are scaling governors like "interactive", "ondemand" and "hotplug". Those governors change the CPU speed according to the CPU load. So if it's just doing nothing (your reading a website for instance) it will set the CPU speed to the lowest speed. When your start an app or maybe play some music or watch a video it will (or should) set the CPU speed to a higher speed, fast enough for the music or video to play smooth.

What the difference is between these 3 scaling governors i dont know (al tough i think interactive only goes up to 1000mhz or something?). But it seems, when watching a video in XBMC, it doesn't scale fast enough (or high enough). But apparently hotplug does the job a little better since i have basicly no dropped frames when i use that one. (compared to interactive and ondemand)

@Maxhenri: Excellent!

[SSKY]

I dont know if you're familiar with Intel and AMD CPUs but it's kind of like Intel's speed step and AMD's cool 'n quiet.

A governor manages CPU speed (Or rotor RPM for RC helicopters, am i right Bob? ). Different type of governor modes are build into the kernels. With an app like "no frills cpu control" you can change your governor setting (on a rooted device, which all these sticks are i think)

For instance if you select "powersave" it will only use the lowest CPU speed available, no matter if you stress the CPU or if it's just doing nothing.
If you select "performance" it will only use the highest CPU speed available, again no matter of you stress the CPU or if it's just doing nothing.

Then there are scaling governors like "interactive", "ondemand" and "hotplug". Those governors change the CPU speed according to the CPU load. So if it's just doing nothing (your reading a website for instance) it will set the CPU speed to the lowest speed. When your start an app or maybe play some music or watch a video it will (or should) set the CPU speed to a higher speed, fast enough for the music or video to play smooth.

What the difference is between these 3 scaling governors i dont know (al tough i think interactive only goes up to 1000mhz or something?). But it seems, when watching a video in XBMC, it doesn't scale fast enough (or high enough). But apparently hotplug does the job a little better since i have basicly no dropped frames when i use that one. (compared to interactive and ondemand)

@Maxhenri: Excellent!

Thanks bunch Abducted. I do know about over clocking and all that just didn't know you can do that to android sticks. Anyway good writeup in your sticky, I followed your process to install lewey's rom on my friend and it was smooth except for an annoying message that the "android app has stopped working". Does nothing but have to click to make it go away. :-(

[Abducted]

Well it's not really overclocking unless you use a kernel that will allow you to overclock. With the stock kernels you can go as high as 1.2Ghz (or some stock kernels 1.4Ghz) but not higher. So it will scale between about 250mhz and 1.2Ghz (or 1.4Ghz). When you get a kernel that will allow you to go higher like 1.6Ghz or even higher. In that case you would be overclocking.

Well for the RK3066 1.6Ghz is acctually within specification, but still since most of these sticks dont come with a heatsink and are limited to 1.2Ghz anything higher can be considered overclocking.

Also the kernels that allow you to set the CPU speed higher will also run the GPU (graphics) at a higher speed. This is the most important thing for XBMC with hardware (GPU) accelerated decoding.

[chris1]

xbmc-android xaf just released new version: http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-android/downloads/list its much faster, but navi-x is gone

[Abducted]

It uses an external player, this thread is mainly about XBMC with it's native player. But thanks for the heads up.

[strix]

Does XBMC for android support playing from rar files??

[Abducted]

Does XBMC for android support playing from rar files??

I haven't tested it, but i think it should since it's a direct "port" from the other versions.

[strix]

Can you please test it and se if it works.

I haven't tested it, but i think it should since it's a direct "port" from the other versions.

[Abducted]

I haven't used this feature in XBMC under windows for a LONG time, but if i'm not mistaken it would just play from the rar files (extracting it on the fly).

Under Android it does see the rar file (as a folder) when you enter the folder and select the video file inside it tells you it needs to unpack a large file and asks you if you want to continue. So it'll extract the whole file before playing it. Probably not what you're looking for.

[john3voltas]

All this 720p/1080p is a bit confusing to me.
I thought that all these RK3066 sticks did 1080p without up/down scaling.
I wonder why a 1,2Ghz ARM device can't do 1080p while an Asus HDP-R1 @400Mhz can easily do 1080p.
Also I'd be glad to understand another point: does this 1080p issue have anything to do with the lack of hardware decoding? For instance, if I get these RK3066 based sticks doing HW decoding will they play 1080p without the need for overclocking, etc?
Now, if the only way to workaround this issue is OC, will an MK808B be ok with OC without having to add a heatsink?
What about XAF builds? Can they play 1080p without up/down scaling?
BTW, I pretend to use the MK808B to play my 1080p MKV files with external subtitles through DLNA server (minidlna). Can the XAF builds read external subs and play them along with the MKV's?
Sorry for all these questions .
Cheers

[Abducted]

These sticks can use 1080p output, the kernel just has to be setup for it. These sticks can't change their (internal/real) resolution on the fly like with a normal PC. All it can do it change the way the TV/Monitor receives the signal. So it can upscale or downscale it's internal/real resolution to whatever you select in the settings menu. WHen you use a 1080p kernel it will really use 1080p, not just 720p upscaled.

Asus HDP-R1 vs Android Sticks = Apples and oranges

These RK3066 devices can play 1080p AVC/H264/x264 video perfectly fine without overclocking IF you use a player like MX player. The problem is XBMC (for android) works in a different way. This makes it quite a bit slower but also allows for extra features and a nice OSD. So for XBMC (with hardware acceleration) to play 1080p movies when using a 1080p kernel you will need an overclocked kernel. If you use a 720p kernel it will play 1920x816 movies at stock speed, but 1920x1040 or 1920x1080 will be too much.

So far there is no overclock kernel for the MK808B. There is one for the MK808 that will work on the MK808B but WIFI and BT will not work anymore so you will need to use an USB ethernet adapter or a WIFI dongle to get a network/internet connection.
I recently got a MK808 with the green PCB, on the PCB it says MK808B but the WIFI chip used is the RK901 so it is an MK808. There is also the (older?) MK808 with the blue PCB. For some reason my green PCB MK808 runs much hotter compared to the blue PCB version. I know people with the blue PCB version running very overclocked kernels with the stock heatsink and it's not even getting that hot. My green PCB MK808 with bigger heatsink gets bloody hot with the overclock kernel and i'm pretty sure it would die or at least be VERY unstable with the stock heatsink...

The XAF build uses an external player, so if that external player can handle external subs it should work. However i dont have any experience with those XAF builds so i can't tell you much about them.

So... if you dont need/want to use XBMC you can playback 1080p movies without overclocking if you use player like MX player. If you want to get the full detail of an 1080p movie you will need to use a 1080p kernel.
If you want to use XBMC with it's internal/native player you can play movies up to 1920x816 using the 720p kernel at stock speed. A 1080p kernel at stock speed can only playback 1280x720 videos, 1920x800 is way too much.
You will need an overclocked kernel for full 1080p on 720p or 1080p kernel.

[john3voltas]

WHen you use a 1080p kernel it will really use 1080p, not just 720p upscaled.

Cool, that's a good start

Asus HDP-R1 vs Android Sticks = Apples and oranges

I know that. But both can play media files. One is ancient and slow and the other is new and fast.
So why would the new/fast do less stuff than the old/slow, right?

These RK3066 devices can play 1080p AVC/H264/x264 video perfectly fine without overclocking IF you use a player like MX player.

OK. There's another nice point. So all I have to do is load a XAF build and it will be able to do 1080p because it uses ext. player MX player, right?

The problem is XBMC (for android) works in a different way. This makes it quite a bit slower but also allows for extra features and a nice OSD.

Can't see why...
When the movie starts to play only the OSD will eat up more cpu/gpu than a standard MX player, right?

So for XBMC (with hardware acceleration) to play 1080p movies when using a 1080p kernel you will need an overclocked kernel. If you use a 720p kernel it will play 1920x816 movies at stock speed, but 1920x1040 or 1920x1080 will be too much.

Don't know if I can follow your ration here.
So, if I try to use libstagefright (instead of XAF, right?) and I play a 1080p movie I will need to overclock?
Well, I don't necessarily need to use libstagefright, I can live with XAF (external player).
Will XAF allow playing 1080p movie without up or downscaling and without overclocking?
You said you're not an expert on XAF but when compared to me you're a rocket scientist and I'm a caveman. I haven't even bought the stick and I haven't ever played with xbmc.
Thanks for answering.
Cheers