AFRd Auto Frame Rate Daemon Works with 64-bit Amlogic Processors

[trebor]

Automatic frame rate switching in TV box ensures video output matches the video frame rate in order to avoid skipped frames (judder) from time to time, and makes the videos much smoother to watch, especially to trained eyes.

The problem is that the feature is not always implemented, and/or does not work for all apps. AFRd auto frame rate daemon aims to solve this issue by automatically switching video output to match the video framerate ? e.g. 23.976 fps or 59.94 fps ? on Android TV boxes powered by one of Amlogic 64-bit processors, be it S905, S905X, S905X2, S912, S905W and other more recent Armv8 processors from the company.



Developed by Andrey Zabolotny (anpaza), AFRd is Linux daemon can be linked to either bionic for Android, or glibc for Linux operating systems, and the source code can be found on Github.

It relies on two techniques to detect the video frame rate, and adequately change video output (HDMI) frame rate:

• Kernel uevent-based notifications available in AmLogic 3.14 kernels up to Kernel 4.9 used in Android 7 and 8. Example of uevent when a 29.976 fps movie is started (FRAME_RATE_HINT contains the info):

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change@/devices/virtual/tv/tv ACTION=change DEVPATH=/devices/virtual/tv/tv SUBSYSTEM=tv FRAME_RATE_HINT=3203 MAJOR=254 MINOR=0 DEVNAME=tv SEQNUM=2787

• In newer kernels or when uevent notifications are not generated, video decoder notifications emitted at the start and end of playback are used instead. Example of video start:
  

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  add@/devices/vdec.25/amvdec_h264.0 ACTION=add DEVPATH=/devices/vdec.25/amvdec_h264.0 SUBSYSTEM=platform MODALIAS=platform:amvdec_h264 SEQNUM=2786

  Since the frame rate is not shown in the data, the daemon will check /sys/class/vdec/vdec_status when the event above is detected:
  

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  vdec channel 0 statistics: device name : amvdec_h264 frame width : 1920 frame height : 1080 frame rate : 24 fps bit rate : 856 kbps status : 63 frame dur : 4000 ...

  Frame dur is used is not zero, otherwise frame rate data is selected with 23 fps meaning 23.976 fps, 29 is 29.970fps and 59 represents 59.94 fps.

The installation will be easily in Android, as Andrey provides an apk (ru.cobra.zap.afrd-0.3.2.apk) which you can install in your rooted TV box. Click to Enlarge
Then you can enter the app to enable/disable auto frame rate, and adjust other settings such as preferred frequencies. It?s also possible to directly edit AFDR configuration, and/or control the daemon through an API as explained in details in the Github page.

Source:
CNXsoft
https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/07...gic-processors

[zamakhshary]

this is really nice work !!

i had a problem with the youtube on beelink GT1 , there was screen flickering and green flashes when you choose any quality heigher than 720 P
but now all fixed

on the down side the screen is going black every time there is a change in the rate which is annoying , but overall nice work

thx

[Satelly]

I have a Mini M8S II and a Mecool M8S Pro W and have tried AFRd on both. Both a rooted and I can run the program.

On the Mini M8S II, the green turns green and then appears to lose connection with the TV with loss of HDMI signal. The power light on the Mini M8S II is still on, however there is no response to the remote and I have to reboot it.

On the Mecool M8S Pro W, the media plays but the frame rate is not correct and still flickers. It doesn't appear to change the TV refresh rate.

Just hoping to see if other people have these devices and managed to get AFRd to work.

Otherwise, wonder if it would be a good idea to create a list of devices that do work with AFRd

Thanks