[ciquta]

Ciquta do you have a link to that Genaitech XBMC apk? Or to the website you grabbed it off? I'm using the XBMC that came with the Mygica FW, I think it's 12.0. And I'm wondering when you go to "Settings-About" what's your 'Android version' and Build #' listed there?
Thanks

I can't find the link I used with all the versions listed, but i've found another link where you can download the same file :
http://www.mygica.de/download/ATV1200/xb...130330.zip

and here's my build:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1onRa8s...sp=sharing

[jatho]

I've got the ATV520 (3 actually) and have tested quite a bit on them, the Geniatech apk I suspect is not actually theirs but rather the one from Pivos which they've just re labeled, I've tested both and they seem identical. The latest nightly builds also seem to do hardware decompression and handle 1080p playback fine although I haven't spent too much time testing it. Going to test the snapshot release on it soon and can provide feedback.

Geniatech have actually changed the ATV520 and it now comes with an external antenna instead of the integrated antenna so I suspect it was a common issue, the new model is the ATV520E, identical in terms of hardware with the only difference being the antenna.

[saddie]

@ciquta - thanks for the links. Your build and apk are identical to mine which is good to know. Consistency is always reassuring

@jatho - hmm that's interesting. Those wifi fixes were off of pivos' site too so I assume pivos might come out with an external antenna. Modding this little guy to use an external antenna would be fairly trivial anyways, but I've always tried to avoid wireless and video as it is.
I'm sure a few people here would be interested in your results with the nightly builds. I've had almost no bugs with this device, just an occasional freeze up which I bet is skin related.
Cheers

[tienlequoc]

Testing Huawei MediaQ M310 with wifi analyzer: dual MIMO anttena 5Ghz

I think Huawei M310 have best wifi of Android box

[Ned Scott]

Bandwidth with wireless-n and only one antenna is the real issue, not reception (though that can also be poor on these boxes). Wireless-N with two antennas is a must if you want to do HD video playback.

[jatho]

@jatho - hmm that's interesting. Those wifi fixes were off of pivos' site too so I assume pivos might come out with an external antenna. Modding this little guy to use an external antenna would be fairly trivial anyways, but I've always tried to avoid wireless and video as it is.
I'm sure a few people here would be interested in your results with the nightly builds. I've had almost no bugs with this device, just an occasional freeze up which I bet is skin related.
Cheers

Yes, I'd imagine they'd come out with an external antenna too. I think what should have been done was to change the antenna connector from a u.fl to something like an MMCX connector and had a look at rebuilding the internal antenna and possible adding a dual band wireless chip and use the 5Ghz band for media streaming although this might push the price up. I agree though, wireless shouldn't be used for media streaming but some people may only have this as an option for connectivity but if the manufacturer includes wireless it should work properly.

It turns out the nightly builds aren't doing 1080 playback, I may have installed the incorrect version and thought it was a nightly, there are claims that it does 1080 playback so maybe I'm doing something wrong but I'll definitely scratch deeper. I've tested with the test build, nightly & alpha release and none handled 1080 playback.

[ciquta]

Geniatech pushed out a new firmware and I've tried it: now it's a different device!

It has a new launcher metro-style much more remote-friendly than the stock one (which you can still use).

The biggest improvement i can see is about wifi: with the old one i wasn't even able to fetch the list of my movies from my SMB share.
Now i have been able to stream a whole HD movie via wifi and it played smooth.

Of course it wipes your device, so you have again to setup everything (google account, network, etc...), but it worth my while.

[saddie]

Nice! I will have to try and update the FW when I get back home. With all of these FW wipes I'm going to have to start backing up my xbmc configs to save time. Anyone had any luck with the Backup addon on Android?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:XBMC_Backup

Will have to give it a try..

[jatho]

Geniatech pushed out a new firmware and I've tried it: now it's a different device!

It has a new launcher metro-style much more remote-friendly than the stock one (which you can still use).

The biggest improvement i can see is about wifi: with the old one i wasn't even able to fetch the list of my movies from my SMB share.
Now i have been able to stream a whole HD movie via wifi and it played smooth.

Of course it wipes your device, so you have again to setup everything (google account, network, etc...), but it worth my while.

Did you run this upgrade on the ATV520?

I installed this on an ATV1200 yesterday and the upgrade went smoothly, also wiped all the data but this is how the updates are released, when doing the update on the ATV520 it picked up the same upgrade version / release etc... but after the upgrade it wasnt the same as then ATV1200, for example there was no XBMC included which is strange, I manually installed it and it worked just found it weird that the same upgrade had different behavior on the two different models. To make sure it was on the same versions I checked this under the system settings, I also checked for an update on both boxes and both said no new update found.

---

Nice! I will have to try and update the FW when I get back home. With all of these FW wipes I'm going to have to start backing up my xbmc configs to save time. Anyone had any luck with the Backup addon on Android?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:XBMC_Backup

Will have to give it a try..

I can confirm that this works, configure the app on your current XBMC unit and select an external backup path for obvious reasons, once you've upgraded copy the folders back to your XBMC directory. It backs up both the userdata and addons directory from "storage_drive"/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc.

You could also manually copy these two folders onto an external drive and then manually put them back afterwards.

I'd probably also start and then close the XBMC app prior to restoring the backup.

[ciquta]

Did you run this upgrade on the ATV520?

I installed this on an ATV1200 yesterday and the upgrade went smoothly, also wiped all the data but this is how the updates are released, when doing the update on the ATV520 it picked up the same upgrade version / release etc... but after the upgrade it wasnt the same as then ATV1200, for example there was no XBMC included which is strange, I manually installed it and it worked just found it weird that the same upgrade had different behavior on the two different models. To make sure it was on the same versions I checked this under the system settings, I also checked for an update on both boxes and both said no new update found

Yes, ATV520.

Fun, because mine came with no XBMC preinstalled, and now it's included in the new firmware (Frodo 12.2).

Even if i try to uninstall it, it always reinstall after reboot, cos it's included in a folder containing all the stock apks: the boot checks if some is missing from your apps and in case it will reinstall automaticly.
So if you want to try a different version of XBMC or uninstall a app permanently you need to delete the default apk from that folder

[saddie]

So if you want to try a different version of XBMC or uninstall a app permanently you need to delete the default apk from that folder

Weird.. so are Android apps stored as straight monolithic APK files, sort of like DMG files on a Mac? And Ciquta do you know which folder they're getting stored in? I guess I could just do a SSH search but I'm lazy

Thanks
Saddie

[ciquta]

I shot a video showing performance in 1080p and menu browsering with my ATV520

[saddie]

I've just updated to the latest Genaitech FW on my ATV520 today, using the 'Update' app.

Under "Settings:About":
Android Ver:4.1.2
uboot ver: 20130805
Recovery Ver: 20130808
Kernel #3.0.8
Build #:1.03.04MX_01 20130805

It automatically installed XBMC Frodo v12.2 upon first boot up. I ran XBMC once, then used the XBMC backup app to restore my previous settings. I haven't tested it out yet with videos but Wifi seems to be reliable.

Thanks for all your inputs everybody! Now I just have to find a cheap keyboard remote!

[Greyleaf]

I picked one of these (MyGica ATV520) up the other day specifically for a cheap XBMC solution and have been pleasantly surprised. I was not crazy about the default setup, but once I got the Geniatech firmware (20130805) installed it has done everything that I needed it to do.

1) Runs XBMC without issue.
2) Plays 1080p without issue. (wired of course - wireless maxes out at 65Mbps sitting next to the router)
3) Passes DTS to my receiver. (actually passed through HDMI to my LG TV, which passes it through optical out.)
4) Is small enough that my wife hasn't even noticed that I bought another new gadget. (Yet)

If I had to pick a weakness, it would have to be the wireless....but it is no weaker than any other box I have seen in this price range.

I have had only one issue with it so far. For some reason, I am getting small audio dropouts that make it sound like a bad cell phone connection when playing audio files (flac,mp3) across wired network. It plays the same files from microSD or external HD without issue. The issue seems to be with XBMC (v12.2) as I am not having the same issue with the installed generic media player. I'll have to do some more testing to see what is causing the issue.

[saddie]

Strange Greyleaf. Have you tried switching the default player from PAPlayer to DVDPlayer? Have you tried opening these mp3s through the file manager vs the library mode? What file system are you streaming off off? Can you stream them wirelessly with no issue? And do videos stream wired with no problem from the same source? Any issues with streaming internet radio? Here's another thread happening on some possibly similar issues. http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php?...&pid=74206 I bet you it's got to do with the protocol you're streaming through.
A debug log posted to pastebin would be of use. The developers here are very kind!