[User 231261]

so finally
there isn't a box really open

never ending story

nuc it's just a little bit expensive but it's open

the box is open if you load the xbmc.org package and not the factory released hacks.
In which case it would do what your nuc does.
It might take a couple of weeks for a xbmc compliant release with hevc HW decoding, framerate sync, and HD audio bitstream to AVR.
We could well be into October before all that is sorted...

[nero12]

But does rockchip hold the necessary licenses for the DTS-HD and True-HD Sound ?

[shomari]

Decided to test the playback potential of the masked hw decoding capabilities in the modded non-compliant XBMC.

It handles 4K HEVC video in RK3288 with more than plenty room to spare. Not a single sputter or strain.

[nickr]

But does rockchip hold the necessary licenses for the DTS-HD and True-HD Sound ?

What most people want is to pass through these codecs to their smart AVR which will decode it with the license you paid for when you bought your AVR. I don't believe a license is required to pass through these codecs, only t decode them.

TL;DR red herring mate.

---

Decided to test the playback potential of the masked hw decoding capabilities in the modded non-compliant XBMC.

It handles 4K HEVC video in RK3288 with more than plenty room to spare. Not a single sputter or strain.

And this indeed is a powerful reason to like these machines! There is nothing in the x86 world that does hardware HEVC playback, although nVidia will do so soonish (for some definition of soon, and for some definition of $$, noise and heat for the right card).

Let's hope that they (Rockchip and/or their manufacturing partners) are in fact using the code that jstebbings developed openly, and that these machines won't fall over the moment someone wants to install a version of XBMC that the manufacturer can't be bothered supporting.

[jjd-uk]

It's not quite that simple.

If you buy a DTS licence in order to decode it, then licence explicitly forbids the passthrough of DTS-HD unless you pay for an upgraded licence. This is why many devices only decode Dolby Digital as there's no such restriction on the HD variant from Dolby, and not having a DTS license for decode allows passthrough of both DTS & DTS-HD.

[shomari]

But does rockchip hold the necessary licenses for the DTS-HD and True-HD Sound ?

What most people want is to pass through these codecs to their smart AVR which will decode it with the license you paid for when you bought your AVR. I don't believe a license is required to pass through these codecs, only t decode them.

TL;DR red herring mate.

---

Decided to test the playback potential of the masked hw decoding capabilities in the modded non-compliant XBMC.

It handles 4K HEVC video in RK3288 with more than plenty room to spare. Not a single sputter or strain.

And this indeed is a powerful reason to like these machines! There is nothing in the x86 world that does hardware HEVC playback, although nVidia will do so soonish (for some definition of soon, and for some definition of $$, noise and heat for the right card).

Let's hope that they (Rockchip and/or their manufacturing partners) are in fact using the code that jstebbings developed openly, and that these machines won't fall over the moment someone wants to install a version of XBMC that the manufacturer can't be bothered supporting.

...agreed on all points. This machine only cost me $95, to boot.

[nickr]

It's not quite that simple.

If you buy a DTS licence in order to decode it, then licence explicitly forbids the passthrough of DTS-HD unless you pay for an upgraded licence. This is why many devices only decode Dolby Digital as there's no such restriction on the HD variant from Dolby, and not having a DTS license for decode allows passthrough of both DTS & DTS-HD.

Yeah that is all fucked up isn't it.

Better to simply not have any bloody licenses and pass the lot through.

Another example of why this sort of bulldust doesn't work in practice. Make it hard for people to use their media and they'll turn to illegal downloads, licenseless decoding and everything else the industry calls us pirates for.

EDIT: rant over

[jjd-uk]

Well you always need to decode Dolby Digital as a minimum otherwise you've never get audio out of anything with 5.1 from any of the analogue connections such as line out or headphones socket. It's also complicated that in the ARM world most SoC vendors won't unlock decode abilities unless you can provide the licence, another reason the x86 ecosystem is better as you're not so restricted by this licence crap.

[shomari]

These we know pass DD/DTS 5.1 via SPDIF; just don't know how it handles uncompressed high bandwidth streams via HDMI, etc. Much of the other audio related info is still not confirmed.

Wish I had an appropriate receiver. I have a test firmware that uses a non-default audio configuration that looks very promising, but I don't have the equipment to fully test it.

[jjd-uk]

Well on Android you've no chance of TrueHD or DTS-HD unless Rockchip have hacked Android to allow it, and without being provided the detail of any hack there's no way we can support it.

[Roby77]

chinese and the words respect for intellectual property it's very sarcastic

[nero12]

Well on Android you've no chance of TrueHD or DTS-HD unless Rockchip have hacked Android to allow it, and without being provided the detail of any hack there's no way we can support it.

No android devices yet can playback true HD or DTS HD. However the latest AM chip (e.g. minix x8) had rumoured it could playback DTS-HD but not sure to what extend this is true.

DTS-HD must be licensed, and rockchip must purchase this license.... If they purchased license, i don't believe there is any problem with playback of DTS-HD content on android device. (but am no expert her to judge this).

I got no DTS-HD receiver to test this on

[nero12]

I will test the non-compliant XBMC tonight and see if there is any noticeable improvements.

[jjd-uk]

Well on Android you've no chance of TrueHD or DTS-HD unless Rockchip have hacked Android to allow it, and without being provided the detail of any hack there's no way we can support it.

No android devices yet can playback true HD or DTS HD. However the latest AM chip (e.g. minix x8) had rumoured it could playback DTS-HD but not sure to what extend this is true.

DTS-HD must be licensed, and rockchip must purchase this license.... If they purchased license, i don't believe there is any problem with playback of DTS-HD content on android device. (but am no expert her to judge this).

I got no DTS-HD receiver to test this on

Not true, for example vidon.me has Android on their boxes and they support hd audio such as DTS-HD, however they are one of the rare ones.

While chip must support HBR audio the important thing is that Android as released by Goggle does not support passthrough audio in any format. In order to get passthrough each chip manufacturer must supply firmware running a modified version of Android which has the passthrough support hacked in, each of these hacks can be specific to a particular chip, this is why success with passthrough is so variable with Android as there is no standardised way of doing it that everyone uses.

However if you're someone for who video & audio quality is important then simply avoid any Android based box as none of them will work as well as a Linux device.

[luksol]

I know that this is a thread for Android devices, but I just wanted to ask if there is any linux rom for rk3288 with XBMC being developed?