OLD - USE NEW POST - MK808b FAQ's, includes 1080p

[ididmytime]

Well, amazingly my usb to ethernet came today, I only ordered it late in the day yesterday, so was itching to try out some overclocked mk808 kernel's on the mk808b, haven't had long, so it's not going to be an extremely informative post.

I bought the cheapest, most generic looking one that seems to be everywhere (it's blue) and it seems to work fantastic, zero issues, apart from the problem with reconnecting after reboot/power I think it is a very good alternative to Wifi issues, or if the B version doesn't get kernels.

Started out on Hybrid 2.2.0, flashed Omegamoon 1080p, does not display the correct frequencies (says you are always using 252mhz) and XBMC was around 35fps, was massively unimpressed, as that is far from what has been reported.

Flashed 2dark4u 1080p 1.4, didn't work... it absolutely hated it, would get to the boot logo and reboot.

Flashed Finless 1.7, flashed 2dark4u kernel, worked fine, correct cpu frequencies, and XBMC was around 60fps.

Flashed Hybrid 2.2.2 (was before the fix, actually worked fine for me), then flashed the Finless boot.img and 2dark4u kernel, works, XBMC is running at around 37fps.

So... yeah... it's quiet the mess. I have no idea how the performance is until I actually do some proper testing but a general breakdown is this.

Finless 4.2.2 fixes ethernet on boot
Finless 1.7 overclocked and XBMC runs vastly superior to the hybrid firmware.
Hybrid fixes the SD video corruption.

Update: I believe the libstagefright.so in the hybrid rom has been modified by Lewy20041 to fix the video corruption for XBMC (biggest giveaway is there is an original libstagefright.so). This is the only file from the libstagefright library that is different from Finless 1.7.

I am pleased to report that a manual placement of this file will fix the video corruption in Finless 1.7.

[xes]

mate can you upload modified version of libstagefright.so from hybrid version. I want to test it in finless 1.7c

[AlbaJoe]

likewise would appreciate it if you could link us to the file.

Can you also please advise how and where i put it

[ididmytime]

Place in /system/lib/ using a file manager with root permissions, like this one.

Original included.

libstagefright.zip

[AlbaJoe]

Place in /system/lib/ using a file manager with root permissions, like this one.

Original included.

libstagefright.zip

much appreciated will give it a go btw can it be used for any finless ROM?

[ididmytime]

much appreciated will give it a go btw can it be used for any finless ROM?

There is no reason to use lower versions than 1.7.

4.2.2 is unsupported.

MK808 users I believe now have a near perfect setup for XBMC.

A patched 1.7 with the 2dark4u kernel will net you this result.

I tried my benchmark video on this setup, which is rated 10mbps, there is a VAST improvement on an overclocked kernel 1.7 rom compared to an overclocked hybrid rom, it is still very slightly dropping frames, but it actually plays better then using the stock kernel at 720p. I fully expect external players to handle with it ease, and go much higher. Something has either been broken, or the kernel just isn't allowing the rom to overclock the GPU well, it clearly still is overclocking, but we are talking 37fps to 62fps.

So... what was I saying about the hybrid rom being the best choice for XBMC usage?

That 720p kernel will be disturbingly fast.

[Abducted]

Nothing wrong with 62FPS in XBMC but i assume you do know that's openGL performance and doesn't have much to do with the video decoding performance as far as i know. If you remove the libstagefright patch you'll still end up with 62FPS but video decoding will suck. A screenshot with the onscreen video specifications and no (or very little) dropped frames would say a lot more if you ask me.

BTW what file are u using to test because right now the 1920x1080 files i try all play perfectly. (sometimes a few drops at the start, but i even have that on my overclocked quad core HTPC )

[ididmytime]

Nothing wrong with 62FPS in XBMC but i assume you do know that's openGL performance and doesn't have much to do with the video decoding performance as far as i know. If you remove the libstagefright patch you'll still end up with 62FPS but video decoding will suck. A screenshot with the onscreen video specifications and no (or very little) dropped frames would say a lot more if you ask me.

BTW what file are u using to test because right now the 1920x1080 files i try all play perfectly. (sometimes a few drops at the start, but i even have that on my overclocked quad core HTPC )

I'm using the 'Monster' test video, I have posted a link somewhere in this thread. I doubt any XBMC will be able to decode to 'Bird' test anytime soon.

As mentioned, using the same kernel, with the same XBMC tweaks/patches 1.7 not only runs the GUI better, but is faster decoding. I was curious to see, despite the hybrid rom running nearly 25fps slower, if it would make a difference in video, it clearly does. I only mentioned the patched version since I would of course still use XBMC on the hybrid rom if there was no fix for the video bug.

I probably should of taken screenshots, but really we are talking a night and day difference here, ones watchable, the other is almost slideshow-esq.

[Abducted]

Oke i downloaded those test files too. Right now im still testing stock 720p kernel to see what it's max resolution is. (So far 1920x960 and still going stong...)

Monsters of course at stock speed wont play without dropped frames, but still it's not even that bad.
Birds however doesn't even play for me and even crashes XBMC??? Hot sure why that would happen.
I'll try another "raw" bluray trailer (m2ts) and see if that works.

[AlbaJoe]

There is no reason to use lower versions than 1.7.

4.2.2 is unsupported.

MK808 users I believe now have a near perfect setup for XBMC.

A patched 1.7 with the 2dark4u kernel will net you this result.

I tried my benchmark video on this setup, which is rated 10mbps, there is a VAST improvement on an overclocked kernel 1.7 rom compared to an overclocked hybrid rom, it is still very slightly dropping frames, but it actually plays better then using the stock kernel at 720p. I fully expect external players to handle with it ease, and go much higher. Something has either been broken, or the kernel just isn't allowing the rom to overclock the GPU well, it clearly still is overclocking, but we are talking 37fps to 62fps.

So... what was I saying about the hybrid rom being the best choice for XBMC usage?

That 720p kernel will be disturbingly fast.

Please correct me if i am wrong but i thought we couldnt flash kernels on our MK808b 's ? or did i pick up wrong on one of your earlier posts?

[Abducted]

You can, you will just loose wifi and bt. Thats why he's using an USB ethernet adapter for his internet.

[AlbaJoe]

You can, you will just loose wifi and bt. Thats why he's using an USB ethernet adapter for his internet.

ah righto ... that rules it out for me then as i need the wifi

[pilot]

Hi, Im using XMBC XAF and for some reason whenever my stick is rebooted, I lose my XMBC settings-everything reverts to the defaults (skins, etc). How do I prevent this?

[dankec]

Based on this article:

http://www.armtvtech.com/armtvtechforum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1732&start=10#p12036

especially:

"everybody with an RK3066 based HDMI TV stick seems to have that problem. The stuttering is somewhat subtle, not _really_ annoying but annoying enough that it can be noticed quite frequently. I mean, I can still watch documentaries / movies / TV shows on Netflix, but once in a while I will see a video hiccup."

and

"however at this point I am 100% sure that 100% of the RK3066 devices have a sync / other problem in the HDMI driver that causes this. I really don't think it's related to CPU speed either -- the RK3066 is more than fast enough to decode video & render simple opengl at 60fps smoothly."


we could conclude that RK3066 is a faulty product and we could never expect a smooth video performance.
What a disappointment!

[ididmytime]

Based on this article:

http://www.armtvtech.com/armtvtechforum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1732&start=10#p12036

especially:

"everybody with an RK3066 based HDMI TV stick seems to have that problem. The stuttering is somewhat subtle, not _really_ annoying but annoying enough that it can be noticed quite frequently. I mean, I can still watch documentaries / movies / TV shows on Netflix, but once in a while I will see a video hiccup."

and

"however at this point I am 100% sure that 100% of the RK3066 devices have a sync / other problem in the HDMI driver that causes this. I really don't think it's related to CPU speed either -- the RK3066 is more than fast enough to decode video & render simple opengl at 60fps smoothly."


we could conclude that RK3066 is a faulty product and we could never expect a smooth video performance.
What a disappointment!

It's not an article, it's a post on a forum.

I think it's a pretty poor statement to blanket every RK3066 device with microstuttering affecting 100%, because if that is the case, then 95% of the people arn't seeing it.

No device is equal, I saw a 0.150ms delay in audio sync with XBMC, which nobody else has. The only other person I can find who has a delay is using 0.380ms, completely different to mine. I can tell you right now, if there was any performance issues on my setup I would have seen it by now.

Hi, Im using XMBC XAF and for some reason whenever my stick is rebooted, I lose my XMBC settings-everything reverts to the defaults (skins, etc). How do I prevent this?

Does it keep 'reinstalling' after every reboot?, after a reboot, check the XBMC data is still there in /android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata.