Fix for kodi 15.2

[cwh060]

Thanks Doggyofone. Yes, Netflix is sideloaded. Version 3.16.0 build 5294 seems to be worse than the others, so I've rolled back. On this box, I do not use Netflix through Kodi. I'll search around for tutorials on buffering, this mostly happens with NextPVR as that was my inital goal. The Kodi forums indicate version 3.5.8 may or may not help.

[AlexJ]

Thanks AlexJ. The box auto updated to 106L1 yesterday. Haven't noticed any problems with it, so still in the test phase. I agree with your assessment of Lollipop. I may give the Tronsmart rom a try. Can you confirm that it supports the wifi/broadband chipset on the MXIII-G? One of my favorite add-ons, Pulsar, is incompatible with Lollipop.
Thanks for the links.
CWG060, have you tried running Netflix sideloaded onto the box rather than through Kodi? It runs great that way for me. With regards to stutter, I haven't really seen it yet on the MXIII-G yet. From what I've read the stutter is a problem when watching 1080P. If you dial Kodi back to 720P the playback may be better.
FYI, I have been running and testing Kodi on a bunch of devices; Beelink MXIII Plus - works OK. I have had to run audio through SPDIF vs HDMI, as the HDMI skipped. I'm running RemiX 115K4 on this device and really like the Rom - both WIFI and Broadband work fine. Beelink S82 Plus - DOA and returned - still hasn't been received by Beelink and I don't expect it to ever show up as a credit. My last purchase from Gearbest. Raspberry Pi2 running OSMC/Kodi - this box seems to work great. The only downside so far is that I can't run a VPN on it. MXIII-G so far good. I haven't seen any buffering or stutter yet, but haven't tried any 1080P.
Have you done any troubleshooting on the buffering? I found some tutorials on the web that resolved it for me. I also run Kodi off of 2 Windows 10 devices - PC and Laptop. Pretty much flawless on those.

@doggyofone

I can confirm that the 316k4 Tronsmart rom supports the wifi/broadband chip set on the MXIII G. With regards to Pulsar I cannot comment. Im actually waiting to have a stable unofficial OpenELEC release to run on the MXIII G 2G and I will ditch Android altogether. At present I am running OpenELEC 5.59.5.2 my old MXIII 2G with Kodi 15.2 rc3.

I mostly use Kodi etc and cannot wait to get rid of Android and put OpenELEC 6 with Kodi 15.2 on the MXIII G which I purchased back in August. Ive tried all the ROMs and my personal opinion is the 316k4 KitKat is the best one out for MXIII G 2G. One feature I do not like with Lollipop 106L1 and all versions to date... is that the hard power off feature does not work (hold the power button for 4/5 seconds to switch the box off completely - no red light). I always like the idea of being able to safely power off a device completely using the old skool power/off method similar to PCs etc I don't believe in having to pull the power cord out to kill the power for the red light to go off ;( Its just not stable for me power wise.

The hope the info above is of help

[Doggyofone]

CWH060, I'm not sure why Netflix is a problem for you. It has been working OK for me. I know it can be a hog on wifi, but I've been OK with broadband. Maybe setting the box to a lower resolution might help ie: 720p, 1080i, etc.
Thanks AlexJ. Will give 316k4 a shot. I'm not sure why the boxes were rushed to Lollipop. Kitkat was more than adequate for the boxes and there were plenty of nice alternate roms to use. My MXIII Plus is on RemiX 115K4 and it has been a great rom. Bloat free and fast. I tested broadband speeds on both boxes and the RemiX box was marginally faster without having the gigabyte chipset. Keep an eye on OSMC. They don't support Android boxes yet, but there is a lot of interest in them doing so and they are growing as a media software. Runs great on the Pi2
Cheers guys and goo luck.

[Dandroid534]

how do you know if the scrips are running were can i check

Download a 1080p video which includes audio. If it is out of sync then script is not running. Also, you can press o, and if 1080p is skipping a lot of frames it is not working wither. If play back is smooth then its running

[AlexJ]

CWH060, I'm not sure why Netflix is a problem for you. It has been working OK for me. I know it can be a hog on wifi, but I've been OK with broadband. Maybe setting the box to a lower resolution might help ie: 720p, 1080i, etc.
Thanks AlexJ. Will give 316k4 a shot. I'm not sure why the boxes were rushed to Lollipop. Kitkat was more than adequate for the boxes and there were plenty of nice alternate roms to use. My MXIII Plus is on RemiX 115K4 and it has been a great rom. Bloat free and fast. I tested broadband speeds on both boxes and the RemiX box was marginally faster without having the gigabyte chipset. Keep an eye on OSMC. They don't support Android boxes yet, but there is a lot of interest in them doing so and they are growing as a media software. Runs great on the Pi2
Cheers guys and goo luck.

@Doggyofone

Could not agree with you more That RemiX rom is the best... I had that on my MXIII 2G (now OpenELEC 5.95.2) a fantastic build without doubt. My only issue was running it on my fairly new MXIII G 2G with the gigabyte chipset knowing wifi drivers would not work instead of the alternative 116k4 or 316k4 preferred KitKat. Not bothered really as I use ethernet as a standard with these boxes anyway, but main concern was the chipset drivers etc, but the hardware seems to accept the s802 RemiX rom on the s812 chipset minus wifi so far with impressive results as you mentioned regarding playback and broadband speeds.

Took your advise and had a look at OSMC... looks like a very decent setup there, whilst they seem to be gathering pace with their project and hopefully will create a large mass community to support it and use it on a wider scale supporting different hardware. Im gonna keep my eyes and ears on that one for the future.

Thanks for all your help and friendly advise, much appreciated.

Stay Lucky

[cwh060]

Well after a number of tests and various ROM's tried. I finally have a suitable combination on my MXIII box. Looks like 106L1 with SPMC 14.2 will work best for NextPVR. With SPMC14.2 the CHMOD is applied each time it runs. I also managed to modify some buffering settings in the advancedsettings.xml.

Netflix is still not working great (I lowered the res to 720). I compared a movie between my old Minix-X7 and this MXIII box, and the Minix playback is far superior. The MXIII has lots of playback issues and pixelization.

Playing a 1920 file off the SD card or through my network yields very good results as well. The CHMOD, I'm never sure if it's applied or not. The file playback works great whether Universal Init.d is on or off. (106L1)

I tried the Remix Rom, Ethernet would not enable, the Tronsmart 316k4 build worked ok but SPMC playback was not as smooth. So I reverted to the 106L1.

Probably sell the MXIII anyway and just purchase another Minix, far less grief and screwing around with various combinations. The amount of time invested to try and get this thing to work properly just isn't worth it.

cwh

[robbouk]

For those that have applied the script and it improved things, can I ask what codecs you have enabled under Hardware Acceleration please?

I have an M8S (Amlogic S812) and I have to disable amcodec otherwise pause doesn't work correctly (when I un-pause the audio continues but video is frozen) so I only have libstagefright and mediacodec enabled.

I am trying to find out if this script helps with choppy playback when the libstagefright and mediacodec codec is used?

Appreciate any help.

[robbouk]

Further to my last post, I realised my device was already rooted so decided to run the following command...

chmod 666 /sys/class/display/mode

...and playback is now a lot better.

When I hit o to view the stats should I see 0 dropped and 0 skipped frames? Or is some acceptable?

By the way which codecs do you have enabled under Hardware Acceleration please?

[Doggyofone]

Further to my last post, I realised my device was already rooted so decided to run the following command...

chmod 666 /sys/class/display/mode

...and playback is now a lot better.

When I hit o to view the stats should I see 0 dropped and 0 skipped frames? Or is some acceptable?

By the way which codecs do you have enabled under Hardware Acceleration please?

robbouk, can you please explain how you ran that command? And is it just pressing the lower case "o" on the remote that you are pressing during playback?

[2Old2Slow]

I too am interested in what codecs ppl have enabled as I can't get the AMlogic HW accel to work. It really stuffs up and exhibits by dropping all frames to the TV, which looks like the device has gone off line...after a while...a long while the box comes back but every time I try to view any vids with the Amlogic codec on I get grief. Only received my Tronny MXIII Plus yesterday, with 106L1 FW, and updated the RC Kodi vers to stock 15.2...was running SPMC 14.2 on the RK3288 before I managed to blow that up...BTW TV is a 4K set if that makes any difference.

BTW I am pretty much an Android novice, so please bear with me...thanks.

[itsmeedoofer]

robbouk, can you please explain how you ran that command? And is it just pressing the lower case "o" on the remote that you are pressing during playback?

You will need a rooted device, then look for a Terminal Emulator on the play store, install that and you can then run the command listed, HOWEVER it will get re-set on each reboot, look a bit deeper and you will find how to make it permanent...

[Doggyofone]

You will need a rooted device, then look for a Terminal Emulator on the play store, install that and you can then run the command listed, HOWEVER it will get re-set on each reboot, look a bit deeper and you will find how to make it permanent...

Thanks itsmedoofer. What I was trying to confirm was whether or not a single command would fix the problem. I tested my 1080p via a downloaded Star Wars trailer played off a USB stick and an ethernet streamed 1080p movie via KODI 15.2. I did this after the Andoid update from 103 to 106. I saw no issues with the playback of either file. So maybe 106L1 fixes the issue?

[ultimatexbmc]

Thanks for this

[Doggyofone]

I ended up with the same issue, choppy playback with 106L1 firmware on an MXIII-G. I tried working with the instructions on XDA forums, but was unsuccessful. I did manage to write the script Dandroid supplied (thanks) per the instructions on XDA. Just search out Enable Init.d in Google. After more searching for a solution I found Init.d Toggler on the play store and installed it. I chose the option to enable Init.d and checked playback. Everything now looks great, with smooth playback and no skipped frames so far.
Root Browser will allow you to set permissions for the folders, but Init.d Toggler seems to have done that for me.
Thanks guys.

[ChrisR132]

What exactly does this fix? lol....I have a MXIII-G 2gb it seems I am having quite a bit of problems with constant buffering even though I have a 20Mbps connection which should be plenty....