This is a firmware cobbled together from the D5, D32 and HPH NT-N8 (courtesy of Mo123)
The key working element is auto framerate adjust that works with stock, MX and Kodi (appropriate version with RKMC codec) players. There are also some additional display options that may be of use.
As usual, it won’t be bug free, it may have some fiddly areas and may not fulfil your expectations.
Use is also, of course AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Note that at this point, TWRP recovery will not work because the tool I use creates an EXT3 system partition and TWRP requires EXT4.
Flashing is, as normal using Android tool 2.33 or 2.35, erasing the nand before flashing the firmware.
On initial boot up you will asked if you want Google security to check installations, select accept so that the background process of initial app installation and population can proceed without continual prompting. If, for any reason on the first boot you find that you do not receive the prompt and things are stuck on installing apps for 5 minutes or more then pull the plug and restart the box and things will then proceed correctly.
The process should take 5-10 minutes before you reach the mediabox launcher (Nova is also provided if you wish to use it).
You will notice that there are 3 settings apps. The first gives you access to the general default Google settings, the second to the more box based ones and the third (pulled from the HPH) another set.
You may need to use the first and third to get some settings to work.
The first gives you access to the display settings, including the autoframerate and HDMI colour mode.
However, if you attempt to access the sound settings it will crash the settings, so if you are setting something such as HDMI Bistream passthrough then use the third HPH interface.
With these boxes generally having only 1Gb RAM, optimisation is required to get the best out of them, so using the All in one toolbox (or your choice of startup manager) I would advise running the boost speedup option and disable all user apps from running on startup, as well as the following listed system apps. Bluetooth share, System update, Youtube, Music FX, music, Gmail, Gallery, Wireless update and any others that you don’t need.
After a reboot you should have more memory to play with for video playback apps.
WiFi is also switched on by default, so if like me, you have a preference for ethernet then turning WiFi off will also save a little resource.
I have found that the version of Kodi that is bundled does work with auto display refresh rate, although it is not quite as smooth as I would personally expect. Stock player, MX player etc does show better results. To this end you might want to test other options such as RKMC, FTMC or even NTMC to see if you can obtain better results from the Kodi experience perspective. Note that refresh rate adjustment will probably not work with Kodi 17.
Remember to enable the setting in Kodi (settings, video, playback, adjust display refresh rate (turn on) and also set the pause during refresh rate change to somewhere between 4 and 6 seconds to allow your TV to process the change before playing the video).
The primary reason for this firmware was the auto frame rate adjustment, for which the goal seems to have been achieved, so I don’t expect to carry out any more mods unless I feel that I have more to give that makes a real difference.
If you wish to get an idea of the difference between how the frame rate adjustment will look when using your stock firmware and this one then download this zip file that contains 2 sample video files.
https://mega.nz/#!6tomDaRK!4tNMHlzKJbL_MFqlf2AvMcNUCA8AWXIEJdD6_E5 nYQM
When played using stock player on the original firmware, MX etc you will see noticeable signs of stuttering, particularly during the start of the rotation test sample.
With frame rate adjust set to on (video resolution priority setting seems to work best for me) you will see a much smoother playback. Note that it will still take 4 to 6 seconds for stock players to make the change so you may have to back up the video to the start to see the full effect.
A big thank you to Trebor for carrying out some testing on the prior to release.
Firmware link is:
LINK NO LONGER WORKING DUE TO SCREW UP BY MEGA RESULTING IN ALL STORED FILES BEING DELETED
Enjoy!
The key working element is auto framerate adjust that works with stock, MX and Kodi (appropriate version with RKMC codec) players. There are also some additional display options that may be of use.
As usual, it won’t be bug free, it may have some fiddly areas and may not fulfil your expectations.
Use is also, of course AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Note that at this point, TWRP recovery will not work because the tool I use creates an EXT3 system partition and TWRP requires EXT4.
Flashing is, as normal using Android tool 2.33 or 2.35, erasing the nand before flashing the firmware.
On initial boot up you will asked if you want Google security to check installations, select accept so that the background process of initial app installation and population can proceed without continual prompting. If, for any reason on the first boot you find that you do not receive the prompt and things are stuck on installing apps for 5 minutes or more then pull the plug and restart the box and things will then proceed correctly.
The process should take 5-10 minutes before you reach the mediabox launcher (Nova is also provided if you wish to use it).
You will notice that there are 3 settings apps. The first gives you access to the general default Google settings, the second to the more box based ones and the third (pulled from the HPH) another set.
You may need to use the first and third to get some settings to work.
The first gives you access to the display settings, including the autoframerate and HDMI colour mode.
However, if you attempt to access the sound settings it will crash the settings, so if you are setting something such as HDMI Bistream passthrough then use the third HPH interface.
With these boxes generally having only 1Gb RAM, optimisation is required to get the best out of them, so using the All in one toolbox (or your choice of startup manager) I would advise running the boost speedup option and disable all user apps from running on startup, as well as the following listed system apps. Bluetooth share, System update, Youtube, Music FX, music, Gmail, Gallery, Wireless update and any others that you don’t need.
After a reboot you should have more memory to play with for video playback apps.
WiFi is also switched on by default, so if like me, you have a preference for ethernet then turning WiFi off will also save a little resource.
I have found that the version of Kodi that is bundled does work with auto display refresh rate, although it is not quite as smooth as I would personally expect. Stock player, MX player etc does show better results. To this end you might want to test other options such as RKMC, FTMC or even NTMC to see if you can obtain better results from the Kodi experience perspective. Note that refresh rate adjustment will probably not work with Kodi 17.
Remember to enable the setting in Kodi (settings, video, playback, adjust display refresh rate (turn on) and also set the pause during refresh rate change to somewhere between 4 and 6 seconds to allow your TV to process the change before playing the video).
The primary reason for this firmware was the auto frame rate adjustment, for which the goal seems to have been achieved, so I don’t expect to carry out any more mods unless I feel that I have more to give that makes a real difference.
If you wish to get an idea of the difference between how the frame rate adjustment will look when using your stock firmware and this one then download this zip file that contains 2 sample video files.
https://mega.nz/#!6tomDaRK!4tNMHlzKJbL_MFqlf2AvMcNUCA8AWXIEJdD6_E5 nYQM
When played using stock player on the original firmware, MX etc you will see noticeable signs of stuttering, particularly during the start of the rotation test sample.
With frame rate adjust set to on (video resolution priority setting seems to work best for me) you will see a much smoother playback. Note that it will still take 4 to 6 seconds for stock players to make the change so you may have to back up the video to the start to see the full effect.
A big thank you to Trebor for carrying out some testing on the prior to release.
Firmware link is:
LINK NO LONGER WORKING DUE TO SCREW UP BY MEGA RESULTING IN ALL STORED FILES BEING DELETED
Enjoy!
so the wifi speeds will be the same on both boxes? because unfortunately i have to rely on wifi sometimes..
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