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Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - Printable Version

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Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-02

I've been asked to update the first post to keep it relevant. So here is what I recommend you do to your ATV1200 once you receive it:
1) Upgrade to the latest FW version 20130115 - here is how:
http://www.geniatech.com/news/mx-atv1200-atv520-android-4.1-20130115-upgrading-instruction.asp

2) Install the latest Pivos XBMC apk from here (012913)
http://update.pivoscdn.com/XIOS_DS/XBMC/xbmc-XIOS-Android-012913.zip

2b) Alternatively you can install the Geniatech XBMC build - they claim it has hw audio decoding capability, but YouTube and DTS do not work for me with this build (I am guessing other plugins might be problematic too), from here:
http://www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/xbmcapp-armeabi-v7a-debug.zip


Here are some suggestions what to install on your ATV1200 besides XBMC:
- Super SU - so you can grant root access to android apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.supersu

- SSHDroid - so you can access the box command line interface from your PC
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=berserker.android.apps.sshdroid

- ScriptManager - so you can run scripts to correct some of the issues
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=os.tools.scriptmanager

- TotalCommander - a file manager
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander


If you have an Android Phone or Tablet I recommend using Yatse as the remote for the XBMC:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.android.yatsewidgetfree

Also if you would like to use your phone or tablet as a remote mouse, keyboard and RC - this works quite nice with our box:
http://www.everbesthk.com/8-download/mygica/RemoteIME/remoteime.htm

If you use Logitech Harmony then set-up your device as Pivos XIOS DS, most of the controls work much better then if you try to learn them from the supplied remote with the box.

I've tested 720p, 1080p video output on HDMI and Component. Have not tested analog audio or composite video (but some other members have and are reporting everything working).
I use optical SPDIF for audio.

You should also know that the GUI is always rendered at 720p and then upscaled to 1080p, but video is output at 1080p.

What works great (for me anyway):
- Video (network, disc, plugins): x264 (h264) and MPEG2 (DVD) @ SD, 720p, 1080p
- Audio: mp3, AAC, AC3 (HDMI, SPDIF)
- Plugins - practicly everything I tested works great (1080p YouTube no problems at all)
- NFS works with with XBMC native NFS client, but you have to change permissions on the NFS server.
- All other network protocols work also, best performance as expected is via HTTP/Webdav

What I have problems with:
- XVID video @ 23.9/24fps - I see frame skips on XVID videos on any quality level (not just in XBMC but in any android video player, native, MX...)
- DD TrueHD and DTS-HD downsampling on 1080p - I experience audio skips
- DTS in combination with 1080p also can be problematic with audio skips

What others are reporting:
- Problems with the wired Ethernet connection (I use two Ethernet adapters, the additional one for streaming video and have not had any problems)

What I hope to see:
- better Android FW
- pure Linux-XBMC build running on the SD Card


These were mine initial impressions:
Quote:Hi all,

since I've recently bought this box from http://www.mixeshop.com/atv1200-dual-core-android-jelly-bean-41-tv-box-with-15g-wifi-external-usb_p1784.html for $110 with shipping, and information is hard to find, i'd like to share my experiences.

First of, I got the KR32 remote - http://www.geniatech.com/img/remote-control-list.jpg - I am guessing the cheapest there is - just a IR remote with the least amount of buttons Sad The problem is you can not input text with it, so have a usb keyboard or mouse ready.

The build on the box was dated 20121121 - and this is the root of the problem - with that build the amplayer enabled xbmc builds do not work! I've found this out the hard way, trying everything I could find, and at the end messing up the box and having to do image flashing - and the only available build is:
http://www.geniatech.com/news/mx-atv1200-android-4.1-upgrading-instruction.asp

So what you do is put this on an sd-card, press reset button and power-on the box - you get greeted by the good-old-recovery, through which you can flash this great downgrade Smile

Once the downgrade is done, you can download the wonderful XBMC RC2 build with the amplayer enabled from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?l5jawloag86o1wg - you can say thank you to the guy who made it here: http://androidtvbox.us/topic/xbmc-12-26-2012-build/

And there you have it! Your $82 dual-core ATV1200 will now work with XBMC with hw decoding.

Ok, so here are my impressions (so far) - first the good:
- XBMC runs fast (in comparison with Raspberry Pi)
- XBMC Plugins work (the once that I tested)
- box boots fast
- benchmarks show that the chip is rather capable (better the last years dual-core exynos found in GSII and Note I)
- the box comes rooted
- the play store is available and working

Now the bad:
- video out on the TV says 1080p, but XBMC and the Android interface are beeing rendered in 720p
- the Remote control is awful, thank God there is Yatse
- XBMC crashes (more then on the R Pi)
- the pre-installed android launcher is rather cheesy (there is a bouncing android figure for app launcher)

The ugly:
- kernel does not have nfs support (so NFS shares do not work)
- Android networking is a mess - you can not have WiFi and Ethernet active at the same time (in two different networks)
- The command line DNS does not work (it's related to the way busybox is built) - which happens to screw the Subtitles add-on - you will have to fill the hosts file with the ip address and urls of you favorite subtitle sources if you want them to work
- I am not getting DTS/AC3 through optical out - XBMC says Passthrough output device: Error no devices found, and I decided to go with this box exactly because it has both coax and optical audio out...
- nobody wrote this tutorial for me (wife was bitching the whole way through)


The bottom line:
- Android is not Linux - Linux is way, way better Smile
- If You want XBMC, and price is not an issue, buy a box that works with Linux builds
- If You want XBMC, and price is an issue - go with the somewhat slower but much cheaper Raspberry Pi
- If You want this box and no other - well read this tutorial
- If the optical/coax audio out does not get fixed in future builds then there is hardly any reason to go with this, and not with some cheaper box with analog audio out

Hope this helps



RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - stardust - 2013-01-02

Thank you very much for your info!

(2013-01-02, 01:20)srle Wrote: - I am not getting DTS/AC3 through optical out - XBMC says Passthrough output device: Error no devices found, and I decided to go with this box exactly because it has both coax and optical audio out...

This is really bad Sad
I ordered the same box for the same reason.
Hope there will be fix for this or there will be way to run Linux on this box.


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-04

So here is a small update - the guys from geniatech sent me an email with links to a more recent firmware:

"Please update our latest testing firmware for ATV1200, and then, install blow XBMC.

www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/update_spi_mx_20121210.zip SPI
http://www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/update_MX_20121210.zip firmware

Download and don't unzip, copy them into SD card or USB disk, connect to the box and run upgrade->local update, choose SPI file to upgrade first, then, do the sam step to upgrade the firmware.

Then, download and install blow XBMC www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/xbmcapp-armeabi-v7a-debug.zip


Best Regards,"

So I am just now downloading the updates, and I will post the results once done

The only thing I would not recommend is their xmbc build, cause it's a rather old Beta 3 build.

Best regards


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-04

So the new firmware they sent me is nice, has some nice feature, but unfortunatelly xbmc does not work on it...

Here is the crash log of xbmc:
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: SECTION:LoadDLL(libamplayer.so)
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: Loading: /system/lib/libamplayer.so
12:33:36 T:1542609056 WARNING: Unable to resolve: libamplayer.so audio_set_delay, reason: Symbol not found: load_library[1093]: Library 'libmaliinstr.so' not found
12:33:36 T:1542609056 ERROR: Unable to resolve exports from dll libamplayer.so
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: CSoftAE::Suspend - Suspending AE processing
12:33:36 T:1542609056 NOTICE: CAMLPlayer: Opening: smb://10.120.1.17/wd/Serije/lol.mp4
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: CRenderManager::UpdateDisplayLatency - Latency set to 0 msec
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: LinuxRendererGL: Cleaning up GL resources
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: SECTION:LoadDLL(libavutil-51-arm.so)
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: Loading: /data/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/lib/libavutil-51-arm.so
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: SECTION:LoadDLL(libswscale-2-arm.so)
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: Loading: /data/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/lib/libswscale-2-arm.so
12:33:36 T:1553064928 NOTICE: CAMLPlayer:Tonguerocess
12:33:36 T:1553064928 DEBUG: CAMLPlayer:Tonguerocess: URL=smb://10.120.1.17/wd/Serije/lol.mp4
12:33:36 T:1553064928 DEBUG: player init......
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: ------ Window Init (DialogBusy.xml) ------
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: Window DialogBusy.xml was already loaded
12:33:36 T:1542609056 DEBUG: Alloc resources: 0.05m

I am guessing this build of amplayer is not compatible with xbmc... to fresh?

Anyway, if you want the box to work with xbmc stick with the first post.


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - Leema - 2013-01-04

Can you try if DTS passthrough works with stock player?


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - peterk77 - 2013-01-04

Thanks for the info 'srle'

Were you able to find a way to hide the NAV Bar with XBMC active?


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-04

(2013-01-04, 17:45)peterk77 Wrote: Thanks for the info 'srle'

Were you able to find a way to hide the NAV Bar with XBMC active?

yes, hidebar works ok
http://ppareit.github.com/HideBar/


the latest firmware ( which does not work with xbmc) does this automagicaly Smile
(2013-01-04, 17:04)Leema Wrote: Can you try if DTS passthrough works with stock player?

I'll test and report back. The latest android firmware had sound settings - pcm pr hdmi passthrough or spdif passthrouh. Looks promising, but since xbmc did not work I went back to that older build.

This box needs CWM badly Smile


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - davilla - 2013-01-04

CWM, nah Smile you will lose the custom AMLogic drivers. CWM is not the magic bullet.




RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-04

I forgot to add recovery after CWM Smile just for backups and quick restore Smile

once there are a lot of these boxes out there we should presure them to open source the bootloader

openelec on this box would be a dream


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - davilla - 2013-01-04

(2013-01-04, 22:25)srle Wrote: I forgot to add recovery after CWM Smile just for backups and quick restore Smile

once there are a lot of these boxes out there we should presure them to open source the bootloader

openelec on this box would be a dream

you don't need to open source the bootloader, pivos/linux shows how to do this using the existing uboot.


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-05

(2013-01-04, 17:04)Leema Wrote: Can you try if DTS passthrough works with stock player?

first the good news - XBMC using DVDPlayer outputs AC3 and DTS through SPDIF.
now the bad news - this is the non hw accelerated player and can work only with sd content (but works fine)

the AMLPlayer only outputs pcm.
at least it's just a software issue

on the older firmware that I reverted back to the stock android player also outputs only pcm

(2013-01-04, 23:36)davilla Wrote:
(2013-01-04, 22:25)srle Wrote: I forgot to add recovery after CWM Smile just for backups and quick restore Smile

once there are a lot of these boxes out there we should presure them to open source the bootloader

openelec on this box would be a dream

you don't need to open source the bootloader, pivos/linux shows how to do this using the existing uboot.

Once I have a bit more time I plan to dive in and try to fully understand and perhaps test booting a linux kernel

If you have any docs or wiki you can point me to I would me more then thankful

A dual boot (android from nand and linux from sd) would be the best option


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - frankseu - 2013-01-05

(2013-01-04, 12:15)srle Wrote: www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/update_spi_mx_20121210.zip SPI
http://www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/update_MX_20121210.zip firmware

Download and don't unzip, copy them into SD card or USB disk, connect to the box and run upgrade->local update, choose SPI file to upgrade first, then, do the sam step to upgrade the firmware.

Hi there,

I did the update also. After the spi update my ATV1200 rebooted. Then i did the firmware update and now my mox only shows the android "robot" and nothing happens any more...
Can anyone help me please?

regards
Frank


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - davilla - 2013-01-05

make sure /sys/class/audiodsp/digital_raw is wr for all.


RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - srle - 2013-01-05

(2013-01-05, 17:51)frankseu Wrote:
(2013-01-04, 12:15)srle Wrote: www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/update_spi_mx_20121210.zip SPI
http://www.geniatech.com/down-eng/androidtvbox/update_MX_20121210.zip firmware

Download and don't unzip, copy them into SD card or USB disk, connect to the box and run upgrade->local update, choose SPI file to upgrade first, then, do the sam step to upgrade the firmware.

Hi there,

I did the update also. After the spi update my ATV1200 rebooted. Then i did the firmware update and now my mox only shows the android "robot" and nothing happens any more...
Can anyone help me please?

regards
Frank


Frank, unpack those files so you have .img files
copy the img files to the sd card
unplug all usb devices insert the sd card
unplug the power cord. press reset button at the back (with a pen) plug in the power cord while pressing reset

you should be in recovery mode
flash both img files from sdcard
remember if you want xbmc to work with hardware decoding use the firmware from the first post (news link)



RE: Geniatech ATV1200 and XBMC hardware decoding - frankseu - 2013-01-05

@davilla

(2013-01-05, 17:57)davilla Wrote: make sure /sys/class/audiodsp/digital_raw is wr for all.

Is this in answer to the dts/pcm - xbmc crash or the not working update?
THX
Frank