[wolfgar]

Just a little update :
I have made great progress in understanding how to use the VPU in my own code.
As I planned to do, I am now integrating my own code as a new videocodec for dvdplayer : Still some work but I am not so far from being able to release a proof of concept I think...

Stephan

[wolfgar]

Hi,

That's it : I have just watched the first minutes of a H264 (AVC codec) video decoded with dvdplayer using my videocodec implementation !
Everything is not yet perfect (I still have a strange chroma issue, all codecs are not yet handled) and my code requires a lot of polishing but it is very encouraging.
If the WE to come is rainy, odds are high that I will be able to publish the first version on Sunday...

Regards
Stéphan

[Trozmagon]

Hey guys, I just stumbled across this, it's fantastic news. I'm curious if there would be a chance to incorporate this in to an openelec distro or even just a xbmcbuntu type disrto?

Thanks for your hard work guys .

[wolfgar]

Hi Trozmagon,

Of course yes : On my side I plan to release a dedicated minimal distro built with yocto which will be xbmc focused
As I will release all source code it will also be possible to integrate xbmc in an ubuntu image (I guess mtx aims at doing this) or in openelec distro if someone wants to ...

Regards
Stephan

PS : chroma issue solved ! now a few sync issues but I will investigate them later ... time to rest

[Trozmagon]

Great news .

I have an idea for cooling using 2 eBay 30x30x10mm fans and a custom made 3D printed case for them with a sleeve for the GK802 to slip in to but I'm trying to figure out a way to power the fans using the GK802 5v rail. It would also increase the size quite a lot which might not be for everyone.

Would be a hacky solution and maybe a bit pricey but I'll let you know what I come up with.

As for help with building the distro, unfortunately I'm not very good with coding in Linux so I might leave that one up to you guys .

[mtx512]

Hi,

That's it : I have just watched the first minutes of a H264 (AVC codec) video decoded with dvdplayer using my videocodec implementation !
Everything is not yet perfect (I still have a strange chroma issue, all codecs are not yet handled) and my code requires a lot of polishing but it is very encouraging.
If the WE to come is rainy, odds are high that I will be able to publish the first version on Sunday...

Regards
Stéphan

Thats good progress, I'll retest your old build (gstreamer) on my new latest Xubuntu build as I've made a few tweaks to reduce overheating under load.

[mtx512]

Here is a lightweight Xubuntu rootfs that seems to work well with your xbmc build. XBMC can be launched from within it so possibly a good way to test.

[wolfgar]

Hi

Thanks a lot for your image : It will enable easier tests on X11 side (for now I am developing on my pure fb image)

Regarding the development, the video decoding is mainly working (of course still rough on some aspects but globally it is OK, at least on the H264 samples I tested...)
My main challenge before releasing a first alpha version is related to combining the 2 planes (the video one and the gui one)

It should be pretty easy as the iMX6 Display Processor is able to handle this task by itself very efficiently and these functions are made available through ioctl on /dev/fb devices...

Yet, for some reasons the color keying does not work for now. (while global alpha blending works just fine)
Also there is another defect : If I render the video on /dev/fb0 then a strange green flickering effect appears on the black borders
When I render the video on /dev/fb1, everything is fine...
I checked with gstreamer : the same behavior occurs if you ask to keep aspect ratio (to get black borders) and to render via /dev/video16 (which is directed to fb0)
(last element of your chain would be : "mfw_v4lsink force-aspect-ratio=yes device=/dev/video16" )
I guess some uninitialized data are responsible for this behavior but I fear the root cause hides in the kernel drivers...

I hope to come back soon with good news regarding these last annoying issues...

Best regards
Stéphan

Edit : color keying issue solved : We are close to the proof of concept release ;-)

[ColtB45]

Any update?

[wolfgar]

Hi,

I have a first working version for h264 (AVC) decoding.
I can decode 1080p videos with less than 20% CPU load on one core (the 3 other cores being idle).
In these conditions, the core temperature remains acceptable : about 70°C after one hour of video decoding.

For now, the only strange issue I am aware of is that for a specific sample (every other videos I have just work fine), I am faced with a weird SYNC issue : the player is always ahead of time... I grabbed a lot of info and I will ask core developers if they have any idea because it is not an issue in the decoding itself but an issue with pts as they are handled by the player itself... Anyway a first version can be released while this issue is being investigated...

Yet, I really have to address another problem which is not related to xbmc at all before releasing this first demo image : I have no sound
Well in fact I never got sound and for now I did not care about it ...
But now I obviously want HDMI sound to work
I don't know if my device is defective : I have to switch back to the default android image and/or to mtx ubuntu image to check if I have sound with these ones (In fact I don't remember if I already get any sound out of my GK802 device lol)

I hope I will tackle this problem very fast and be able to public a first image which will demonstrate xbmc with VPU decoding
(My work in progress source code is already available on github : For now the code is pretty crappy but I will polish it as soon as I have first working release)

Regards
Stephan

[mtx512]

Yet, I really have to address another problem which is not related to xbmc at all before releasing this first demo image : I have no sound

Sound should be working on the xubuntu image, well at least for 720 and 1080p.

If you can supply a link to your github, then I can build & test.

[wolfgar]

Hi,

The wip is on the imx6 branch here
Yet I still have to properly add iMX vpu libraries detection in autotools (for now I tweak 2 or 3 Makefiles after configure to be able to build)
Tonight I will add this support so that build should be easier for you : I will send an update here to say that you can give it a try
Yet there is another restriction : For now I have developed the whole thing for EGL rendering (on FB) : We have to expect a few minor additions to get it to work properly on X11 (of course, all the decoding stuff is OK whatever the rendering is)

Regards
Stéphan

[wolfgar]

Just added the "--enable-imx" option for configure and related stuff so that the imx vpu codec is properly compiled in xbmc
You don't have to explicitly add the option if you have the libraries libfslvpuwrap.sp and libvpu.so (and related header imx-mm/vpu/vpu_wrapper.h) as it will be autodetected...

Check at the end of configure that you get the output :
" iMX VPU: Yes"

I will give a try at your xubuntu image to check if I get sound (which kernel source do you use in this image ? the HEAD from https://github.com/imx6-dongle/linux-imx ?)

Regards
Stephan

[mtx512]

I will give a try at your xubuntu image to check if I get sound (which kernel source do you use in this image ? the HEAD from https://github.com/imx6-dongle/linux-imx ?)

HEAD is ok and you can use imx6_gk802_defconfig.

[wolfgar]

OK thanks a lot for your answer
Unfortunately with xubuntu image, I don't get any sound neither.
The exact same behavior as with my image : the alsa driver is OK, everything seems to work just fine but I don't get any sound (while I can see the volume meter which is indicating that something is being played in the volume control window)...

Hmm time to check cables and to try on another screen I guess...

Edit : the android image is able to play sound so at least my device is OK.
Edit2 : I was still using my own uboot so I switched to the one packaged by mtx but no better sucess : (it boots properly and everything else works) but no sound on HDMI while I know for sure that my device is able to play sound on HDMI as it works with my original android image...
@mtx do you confirm that HDMI sound works for you on your xubuntu image ? Are you aware of different gk802 revisions that would somehow differ at a hw level ?