RanmaCanada 494 Posted October 15, 2016 Posted October 15, 2016 I've used S905/X for a while longer now and I've now reached the conclusion it is inadequate for MPEG2 direct play. It's really, really, really close but close doesn't cut it. Watching live TV especially, it will occasionally pause a few seconds and then resume on its own. It happens often enough that it is bothersome. I'm looking at alternatives but the price looks to be NVIDIA Shield-like at minimum. It's cheaper/easier to change my HD HomeRun CONNECTs to HD HomeRun EXTENDs. How's about a chinese S192 box? http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_428522.html?wid=21 They are supposed to be faster. Or you could try a RK3368 box http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_211701.html?wid=21 I use gearbest because I have had good luck with them, and they are active on the freaktab forums. I haven't had to warranty anything, yet haha.
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 15, 2016 Posted October 15, 2016 I did research on S912 and what I discovered was that, on the GPU side of things, the only major change is adding support for OpenGL, DirectX, and Vulkan. That said, I haven't tried an S912 box. Mali-450 in S905/X: http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/mali-gpu/ultra-low-power/mali-450.php Mali-T830 in S912: http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/mali-gpu/high-area-efficiency/mali-t820-t830.php I haven't tried the RK3368. I can't find many details on the GPU other than it is a PowerVR SGX6110. I would not recommend buying from GearBest. Their return policy is horrifying (you literally have to ship it to China if you want a refund) and it takes ~30 days to receive the item after purchase. They also sell products with unlicensed operating systems (especially Windows 10). I got to thinking that the problem with the live TV periodically pausing might actually still be a bug in HD HomeRun CONNECT rather than the S905/X chip. Regardless of the cause, it's a problem.
RanmaCanada 494 Posted October 15, 2016 Posted October 15, 2016 i usually get my items within a week from Gearbest, as I send them to the states, and the beautiful epacket system is subsidised by the US government. Where would you suggest I direct order my boxes from? Amazon boxes usually add 10 bucks or more.
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 15, 2016 Posted October 15, 2016 (edited) The $10 premium buying it from Amazon is worth it, in my opinion. I'm out $70-80 because of Gearbest from a single purchase. Not to mention the weeks of aggravation dealing with their support. The package went from China, to Netherlands, sat in customs at Chicago for at least a week, then finally arrived. I believe it was 28 days between order and delivery. Edited October 15, 2016 by FordGT90Concept
Macburp 112 Posted October 25, 2016 Author Posted October 25, 2016 Here's a review of the Xiaomi from Android Police. Not the most positive..... http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/10/23/xiaomi-mi-box-review-the-best-deal-around-for-android-tv-for-what-its-worth/
mastrmind11 722 Posted October 26, 2016 Posted October 26, 2016 Here's a review of the Xiaomi from Android Police. Not the most positive..... http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/10/23/xiaomi-mi-box-review-the-best-deal-around-for-android-tv-for-what-its-worth/ Not sure what you mean. Aside from not being that great for gaming, the review spoke quite highly of the box.
Amber77 0 Posted October 26, 2016 Posted October 26, 2016 Anyone have any experience setting up the Mi Box at an external location and using SPMC plus the Emby Add-on to connect to a home server. What minimum internet speed would be recommended at the external site? I ran into some issues trying to stream and think my girlfriend's internet connection is too slow. She is using the $15 Time Warner internet package which I think is 3 down 1 up. My server is located at my house on a FIOS 75/75 connection and don't have issues streaming from other locations. SPMC error said cannot Direct stream (Media title.MKV) Any tweaks I can try while I wait for the USB to Ethernet adapter?
epayson85 72 Posted October 27, 2016 Posted October 27, 2016 Anyone have any experience setting up the Mi Box at an external location and using SPMC plus the Emby Add-on to connect to a home server. What minimum internet speed would be recommended at the external site? I ran into some issues trying to stream and think my girlfriend's internet connection is too slow. She is using the $15 Time Warner internet package which I think is 3 down 1 up. My server is located at my house on a FIOS 75/75 connection and don't have issues streaming from other locations. SPMC error said cannot Direct stream (Media title.MKV) Any tweaks I can try while I wait for the USB to Ethernet adapter? Its because you are trying to direct stream. You need to let the app handle the video locations instead of direct streaming and login using emby connect. This will also allow for transcoding which you are going to need for 3mbps down... and honestly with 3 mbps down you are going to want to set that thing down to like 1 mbps down and if you are lucky get 720p quality. I honestly wouldn't use SPMC in that case. The emby android app is MUCH better at handling transcoding in my opinion. The only real benefit to SPMC is it will cache all of the images on the server so browsing the movies won't be as slow. However... as I'm sure you know... the emby add on constantly has to update titles and that will take FOREVER on a slow connection like that. And any time that update is taking place you can't touch the freaking box because if you do anything else spmc will freeze up and you will have to start from scratch on where ever the scan was taking place.
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 Here is my video I made last week, testing Emby server running on my low powered Pine64 board, Play back was on my Mi Box. 3
the1legend 45 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 Here is my video I made last week, testing Emby server running on my low powered Pine64 board, Play back was on my Mi Box. Thanks for sharing. How do you like that Tronsmart box, it seems interesting.
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) I love my Tronsmart Ara X5, The1legend. Obviously, it is not a power house, but makes a good all-in-one media player. It can be a basic server, but can not do any transcoding on the fly. They also have created a Linux OS that will run on it also, which I have not used, but sounds very interesting, since I am just getting into Linux. Occasionally, you will see them on sale for less than $100 US with free shipping. It comes with an official, activated, version of Windows 10. http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Tronsmart-Ara-X5-Windows-10-TV-Box-Cherry-Trail-Z8300-Quad-Core-1-8G-Gen-8-Graphics-2G-32G-2-4Ghz-5Ghz-351938.html There are other micro computers using this Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 with more memory and ram which makes it nice. Example. http://www.geekbuying.com/item/MINIX-NEO-Z83-4-Fanless-4G-RAM-Windows-10-Licensed-MINI-PC-372395.html To be noted, I do not work for or receive any special privileges from Geekbuying or anyone else. I just like to spend my $$$$ money on that site. I have/had about 2 dozen different Android boxes/sticks that I have purchased in the last 3 or 4 years. Here is another Windows 10 box using the Intel Cherry Trail SoC. http://www.geekbuying.com/item/K6A-Intel-Z8300-MINI-PC-Windows-10-4G-64G-WIFI-1000M-LAN-Bluetooth4-0-HDMI-VGA---Black-365764.html Edited October 28, 2016 by clarkss12 1
Macburp 112 Posted October 28, 2016 Author Posted October 28, 2016 I love my Tronsmart Ara X5, The1legend. Obviously, it is not a power house, but makes a good all-in-one media player. It can be a basic server, but can not do any transcoding on the fly. They also have created a Linux OS that will run on it also, which I have not used, but sounds very interesting, since I am just getting into Linux. How well does this box run as a client, with (say) Emby Theatre? Amazon have one of these on sale with 2Gig of ram in the UK for £87, add in a FLIRC remote dongle and the remote of your choice and thats a possible solution, at least hardware wise. Is that enough ram for Windows 10?
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) X5-Z8300 cannot display MPEG2 1080i (extremely choppy, and I mean extreme as in don't bother) but it can transcode one MPEG2 1080i to h.264 540p stream (I think it was) as a server (50-60% CPU load) I didn't try displaying h.264 but I suspect it works fine because it has hardware acceleration capabilities for that. 2 GiB RAM is the bare minimum for Windows 10 Home 64-bit. In fact, I had to delay-start the Emby Server service or else it would crash (service stops and doesn't restart). Edited October 28, 2016 by FordGT90Concept
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 X5-Z8300 cannot display MPEG2 1080i (extremely choppy, and I mean extreme as in don't bother) but it can transcode one MPEG2 1080i to h.264 540p stream (I think it was) as a server (50-60% CPU load) I didn't try displaying h.264 but I suspect it works fine because it has hardware acceleration capabilities for that. 2 GiB RAM is the bare minimum for Windows 10 Home 64-bit. In fact, I had to delay-start the Emby Server service or else it would crash (service stops and doesn't restart). You have an X5?? I use my X5 to play 1080i live mpeg2 TS streams without any issues??
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) Verify it is direct stream. It might be transcoding on the server or in your tuner (e.g. HDHomeRun EXTEND). MPC-HC (File -> Properties) is great for figuring out what is actually being played. Alternatively, can check the Emby Server for ffmpeg logs. I tried it with a HDHomeRun CONNECT. Edited October 28, 2016 by FordGT90Concept
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 I do have an Extend, but I always turn off the transcoding. I also have an older HDHR3-US.
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) From what I tested, EXTEND is only capable of sending out h.264 either 1080i as 720x540p, 720p, or 480p. It is incapable of sending MPEG2. You can verify this yourself by copying the URL to the stream from the devices web page to MPC-HC. Example URL:http://IPADDRESS:5004/auto/v4.1 Where v4.1 is channel 4.1 and IPADDRESS is the IP address. HDHomeRun CONNECT: Video: MPEG2 Video 1920x1080 29.97fps [V: mpeg2 main, yuv420p, 1920x1080] Edited October 28, 2016 by FordGT90Concept
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 Going to test now. I did check the settings and it did show transcode enabled. I disabled the transcode and tested one HD 1080i channel and it was bad. Since I am just testing Emby, I will be testing more. Thanks for the instructions to test.
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 Opened channel 4.1, 1080i. fVideo: MPEG2 Video 1920x1080 29.97fps [V: mpeg2 main, yuv420p, 1920x1080] Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 6ch 384kbps [A: English [eng] (ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, 384 kb/s)] Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 192kbps [A: Spanish [spa] (ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s)] 1
clarkss12 304 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 My Tronsmart plays my live TV streams very well. If you look at some of my videos, I use different players on my Ara and they all play well, even using my older tuner. My TVHeadend server uses my older tuner. https://www.youtube.com/user/clarkss12/videos
Dragonslee 0 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 Its because you are trying to direct stream. You need to let the app handle the video locations instead of direct streaming and login using emby connect. This will also allow for transcoding which you are going to need for 3mbps down... and honestly with 3 mbps down you are going to want to set that thing down to like 1 mbps down and if you are lucky get 720p quality. I honestly wouldn't use SPMC in that case. The emby android app is MUCH better at handling transcoding in my opinion. The only real benefit to SPMC is it will cache all of the images on the server so browsing the movies won't be as slow. However... as I'm sure you know... the emby add on constantly has to update titles and that will take FOREVER on a slow connection like that. And any time that update is taking place you can't touch the freaking box because if you do anything else spmc will freeze up and you will have to start from scratch on where ever the scan was taking place. Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize I posted under my so's account I created for her. Anyways I installed the Emby Theater App and would only get connection failed messages from what I think is because it is timing out. I am not sure what settings to use in the Emby Add-on for Kodi/SPMC to not Direct Stream. I tried a few things I found but nothing worked to get a file to play. I also grew impatient with UPS delivering my USB to Ethernet adapter so I went and got one at Best Buy. The Insignia USB 3.0 to Ethernet doesn't work for me. The adapter had a green light but nothing I could find on the Mi Box indicated it was using Wired networking. Anyone have any experience with this Adapter or any adapter in general? Will the Mi Box show its using a Wired Connection like the Nividia Shield?
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 (edited) Opened channel 4.1, 1080i. fVideo: MPEG2 Video 1920x1080 29.97fps [V: mpeg2 main, yuv420p, 1920x1080] Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz 6ch 384kbps [A: English [eng] (ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, 384 kb/s)] Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo 192kbps [A: Spanish [spa] (ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s)] Suprising. I guess that proves the drivers in mine were FUBAR and I couldn't find a solution. Good to know. Edited October 28, 2016 by FordGT90Concept
clarkss12 304 Posted October 29, 2016 Posted October 29, 2016 Suprising. I guess that proves the drivers in mine were FUBAR and I couldn't find a solution. Good to know. Do you still have your Tronsmart X5 or did you have a different brand? I could not be more pleased with this microPC.
FordGT90Concept 97 Posted October 29, 2016 Posted October 29, 2016 It is a Beelink and it is currently being used as an Emby Server at another location.
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