MK808/B FAQ's, includes XBMC Guides, Fixes, Benchmarks and more (new users read this).

[ididmytime]

The Pi performance will depend on SD card speed and Distro being used.

OpenElec and a class 10 card (or installing it to USB) will be pretty snappy, not as fast as the rk3066 for the GUI, but for playback they are unmatched, night and day difference. You can also overclock them, but I haven't since it's not needed, and the Pi is running off my TV USB and an overclock may be unstable unless you use a dedicated power supply.

If he is upgrading to the mk808 for XBMC then he will be seriously disappointed, as without fixes and tweaks it would run worse then whatever performance his Pi is getting.

As for why some devices work better than others, it is entirely dependent on if that device has open sources, for example:

Dual core Samsung/Exynos with Mali 400: Flawless playback.
Dual core Rockchip with Mali 400: Ok playback.
Dual core Allwinner with Mali 400: Unsupported (no GPU decoding at all).

It is confusing, but that is just how it is sadly at the moment, not to mention the Android version of XBMC isn't as mature as other versions, so will have inherent issues. Rockchip has support for XBMC out of the box, it's just pretty poor at the moment, with overclocks needed for high res/bitrate files, would be fixed if sources were released (won't happen) or someone does major work which will take an extremely long time.

[dankec]

Is there any miniPC device like mk808 with Samsug instead of Rockchip?
What about quad core Rockchip? The same disease like the dual core one regarding video play?

[ididmytime]

The new quad's have big issues, not to mention you will still have XBMC problems.

The Odroid U2 uses the Samsung/Exynos, most of them are in tablet/phone form.

If you want it for XBMC you can check out officially supported devices

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Supported_hardware

There are other devices like the Ouya which will have full XBMC support too, it's all about looking and researching.

[dankec]

The new quad's have big issues, not to mention you will still have XBMC problems.

The Odroid U2 uses the Samsung/Exynos, most of them are in tablet/phone form.

If you want it for XBMC you can check out officially supported devices

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Supported_hardware

There are other devices like the Ouya which will have full XBMC support too, it's all about looking and researching.

I'm not so crazy about XBMC despite the fact it's a great piece of software. I would be completely happy with ANY player/miniPC which doesn't have micro-stuttering problem like mk808b has even with MX player and even with SD material. I just wanted a miniPC with smooth reproduction... Am I looking to much? I guess... yes

[freakkid]

....anyone know how to setup the middle mouse button to bring up the context menu in XBMC...it works in the 4.1 uhost2 roms but I get ocassional freezes and reboots with their firmwares..I only use finless roms with my uhost2........maybe a mouse file from uhost 2 rom that I can replace with one of finless 1.7 rom??

[dankec]

I sold my mk808b today... Agony is over.

[dankec]

They claimed here: http://apk.veryhd.net:8080/res_detail_516_3_1.html
that there's RK3066 version of XBMC.
Anyone tried?

[tboheeren]

First of all, thanks a lot for this thread Ididmytime. It helped me on several points and can help a lot of new users.
I would like to ponder a bit about your second Q regarding the compatibility of the mk808b as a whole. Rockchip won't release what is necessary to have a full HD support but I suppose this is also the whole android fragmentation problem?
I believe the hardware itself is more than capable of performing ultrasmooth because it is simply faster then the Rpi. Is it possible to completely bypass this problem in the future with libstagefright or not?
What exactly is the reason why Rockchip wont release the proper drivers?

[ididmytime]

I doubt that XBMC will fix anything, seems to be the test version which is listed on the FAQ. You will still need an advanced settings file to fix things. I will download it at some point just to make sure.

Rockchip won't release the sources, like a majority of Chinese manufacturers, because they believe it is intellectual property for the company, despite the fact it is based on open source, and in breach of the GPL. A few well know dev's which have ties to the people with sources have all tried, and they simply won't budge. It is a shame really.

It can play HD right now, you will have to jump through some hoops though, and overclock to get 1080p on a 1080p kernel in the native XBMC player. You may also not be affected by the micro stuttering or audio sync issues.

I do prefer my mk808b to my Raspberry Pi, but I know there will never be any issues in playback using the Pi as a media player. It may be possible one day to bypass the libstagefright with a ground up port, but realistically if it does happen it's not going to be for a very long time, especially when sadly people like me still wish we can get custom kernels for the mk808b, and it is simply a driver problem which nobody can seem to solve without source code.

[ididmytime]

....anyone know how to setup the middle mouse button to bring up the context menu in XBMC...it works in the 4.1 uhost2 roms but I get ocassional freezes and reboots with their firmwares..I only use finless roms with my uhost2........maybe a mouse file from uhost 2 rom that I can replace with one of finless 1.7 rom??

Did you get this issue sorted?

I would of suggested altering the keyboard.xml in XBMC, failing that, changing the generic.kl.

[vijayar]

Many thanks for this very helpful post. Nice pre-read for anyone new to MK devices and XBMC.

I have installed Finless 1.7c on my MK808 original, XBMC test build with HW (Feb 19 release). Add ons using latest XBMCHub wizard. No issues so far while watching / streaming (barring add ons which are broken..I guess). Few queries...

1. Finless 1.7c already includes libstagefright.so ; is your file link an updated one or the same that Finless BOB has used in the rom.
2. I havn't put the advancedsetting.xml file ; not sure what I am missing but so far I did not face any problems while watching anything on XBMC. Can you elaborate little here ?
3. There are few add-ons in XBMC (like LiveTV etc.) that install correctly but do not work - get an error 404 or script error or blank pages on opening the add on - Are these broken add-ons ? Do these add-ons check the source IPs and then work ; there are sites like Netflix etc that work only on US IPs. Would be great if you can share any inputs here. I do keep checking both xbmc & xbmchub sites but not much success on getting this clarified.

Thanks

[xes]

There is new official xbmc with HW


[UPDATE 3/06/2013]
Build updated to Gotham alpha4
Corrected PR link
Removed "fulldebug" build

http://mirrors.xbmc.org/test-builds/android/xbmc-20130603-6f59621-Gotham_alpha4SF-armeabi-v7a.apk

[tboheeren]

Small corrections made Koying upload another GothamAlpha4:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=152005&page=69

Any experiences already with this version on mk808B? Better playback?

[freakkid]

Thanx for the link...tried it on my uhost 2, stock rom (April), it felt a tiny bit snapier, video playing and quality the same, couldn't find where they put the libstagefright setting...ichannel worked but kept getting "could not connect to remote network" with hulu..back to 2/19 xbmx build.

[xes]

You cant find libstagefrigh setting because they are hidden in GA4 read about it in xbmc main site