Minix XBMC beta release

[Molle]

Mmm... MPEG2 behaves the same way as any, there. This far off, it's just pictures to XBMC.
Did you adjust the "View type" in the in-play video options and clicked "Set as default"?

The "View type" is set to 'Normal' by default and this setting works nicely with all my 4:3 and 16:9 MP4s/MKVs.

It's only these MPEG2 format recordings which play with an incorrect aspect ratio. I can correct it on a video-by-video basis by changing the "View type" to 'Stretch 16:9'. A thing to note here is that the thumbnails next to the file list show the selected frame of 16:9 clips with the correct A/R.

I thought the fact that this being the first MINIX-specific release with MPEG2 support might have something to do with this issue.

[xes]

I have a question is there a way to choose minix xbmc as deafult player for movies played locally and streams. Because now if I choose some video to play using es file explorer there is no minix xbmc on list of players.

[Koying]

The "View type" is set to 'Normal' by default and this setting works nicely with all my 4:3 and 16:9 MP4s/MKVs.

It's only these MPEG2 format recordings which play with an incorrect aspect ratio. I can correct it on a video-by-video basis by changing the "View type" to 'Stretch 16:9'. A thing to note here is that the thumbnails next to the file list show the selected frame of 16:9 clips with the correct A/R.

I thought the fact that this being the first MINIX-specific release with MPEG2 support might have something to do with this issue.

Haven't your mpeg2 vids black borders, both horizontal and/or vertical? That'd would explain it...
Otherwise, just provide me a sample.

[Koying]

BTW, I kept beta 2 "easy" to hack, waiting for Minix to release firmwares with a more modder friendly way to lock the app on Minix hardware.

So the changes from beta 1 should apply to beta 2 for Finless.

[Molle]

Otherwise, just provide me a sample.

I just sent you a PM with a link to a short clip.

[Flumpster]

BTW, I kept beta 2 "easy" to hack, waiting for Minix to release firmwares with a more modder friendly way to lock the app on Minix hardware.

So the changes from beta 1 should apply to beta 2 for Finless.

Cheers mate.

The version I placed above is still locked to minix hardware but it will work on finless rom instead of stock.

I left the rest of the apk alone this time for you so there is no confusion.

[Koying]

I left the rest of the apk alone this time for you so there is no confusion.

Thanks

[ptiper21]

So after 1 movie and 1 episode of my favorite tv show, i have to say that this is the best version of xbmc in minix x7 box.

Only issue was in the movie. 2 times when i pressed pause for 10 minutes, xbmc stopped buffering after 1-2 minutes of play and then i was back in the links display ( icefims addon with 720p movie 5.1 dolby ) . Pause issue , addon issue or something else? I would like little more buffering time and speed.

Koying and MiniX thanks for the best, untill next, version of xbmc!

[Flumpster]

Thanks

I think I prefer the splash in black mate. What do you think?



or



or maybe this one.

[Koying]

I think I prefer the splash in black mate. What do you think?

Yeah, I prefer black, too, but customer is king .
Minix provided me with the gfx. You may propose yours on the minix forums, though.

[FiShBuRn]

the last one is great!!!

[Flumpster]

Yeah, I prefer black, too, but customer is king .
Minix provided me with the gfx. You may propose yours on the minix forums, though.

They are both full size if you right click on them and open in new tab.

If you would like to offer them he is more than free to use them. I am not a member over there so cannot post them.

[MinixCrazy]

Koying, this beta 2 works very well. I didn't have much time with it last night but I like what I see so far!

Thanks,
Frank

[tltester]

As pointed out in the Minix forums, you have to use "Optical" for passthrough, even for HDMI.

This is due to the fact that the passthrough "hack" doesn not allow real HDMI multi-channel passthrough.

Koying: 2 things:

1. A BIG thanks for your work, as it already works much better than I ever expected from Android TV box (almost as good as XBMC on my prev. Windows-based streamer, may it rest in peace ).

2. Can you please explain the passthrough stuff a little bit more? I was under impression that I'm getting the "real" full 5.1 passthrough with the propper hack and XBMC. Actually, I can see my HDMI - connected receiver going to dts mode and I can hear the sound coming out from all 5 speakers.

What you say is I'm actually getting only 2 channel and the other speakers' output is probably just a receiver magic trying to emulate a "real" 5.1? If that's the case - do you know if a real 5.1 HDMI passthrough is possible to achieve at all with our boxes? And, if it is possible, are you and Minix are going to implement it in firmware and XBMC?

Again, thanks for your work!

[Koying]

Koying: 2 things:
2. Can you please explain the passthrough stuff a little bit more? I was under impression that I'm getting the "real" full 5.1 passthrough with the propper hack and XBMC. Actually, I can see my HDMI - connected receiver going to dts mode and I can hear the sound coming out from all 5 speakers.

Bear with me, I'm not a audio specialist either

The only difference between IEC958 (i.e. optical) and HDMI is that the optical cable does not have enough bandwidth to allow uncompressed multi-channel audio.
So, the audio frames are compressed on 2 channels, send thru and decompressed on the receiver side.

From an user perspective, I don't think it matters for AC3 and DTS.
The only difference is that you cannot pass higher quality audio this way (e.g. 7.1, TrueHD, ...). Those have to be decoded on the XBMC side, then re-encoded with AC3 or AAC and sent as a simpler 5.1 on 2 channels thru optical.

As I said earlier, the passthrough hack only allows 2 channels, optical-like, audio passthrough.
So I disabled HDMI to avoid the users to mistakenly think they can send TrueHD because they are using HDMI, when only optical-grade will work.

Hope it makes a bit more sense