[Q] Cannot play HEVC files on my RK3288 - MX Player

Hi everyone,
Hoping someone can help
I just bought an Android TV Box featuring the RK3288 SoC and I cannot get MX Player to play the standard HEVC's (Sintel, Kazu, Tears of Steel etc).
They are just resulting in a black screen with audio only using the HW decoder, I tried activating the HW+ decoder but it says it's not available.
Any ideas? The files play fine in HW mode on Kodi.
Thanks,
Steve

I dont know about tv box. HW is not supported for HEVC. SW Decoder can play HEVC in my mobile. Have you switch to sw decoder?

SW is too stuttery to be of any use. The weird thing is I know that others can playback HEVC on theis SoC on MX Player so there is obviously something I'm missing...

It depends.
H/W decoder uses android's mediaplayer API to play the video. In short it will be similar to stock player. Some devices natively support HEVC. So, they can play HEVC in H/W decoder.
In some cases, the SOC may support HEVC decoding. But, the OEM may disable it to avoid patent issue or to save licensing fees.
If it's not natively supported, S/W decoder is the only option. But, in this entire decoding will be done on CPU. So, the performance will be purely depends on CPU power. It may be laggy on HEVC/HD videos.

Related

[Q] Codec supported by HW/HW+ Decoder

I just wondered about some of my videos not being played by the HW decoder. I figured out the issue must lay upon the codec, so I thought I do some research, since some HD Videos are going well with the HW decoder.
I would be really glad if someone can actually give me some advices how to convert the videos and which codec I should use for the best outcome.
The SW decoder is such a batterie consuming beast, I wish all videos could make use of the HW decoder.
Which converter are you using?
Try using basic convertion. You can reduce bightness so battery can extend a little bit.
About supported codecs:
HW decoder should support all codecs that are supported by your device. The best (and most common) codec is AVC (H.264), it's supported by your device for sure. It's the only codec worth caring about (for now).
However this doesn't end at codecs, because codecs have profiles and levels. Basically they are set of restrictions (like "to be able to play this video you need to be able to do this"). They are needed to ensure that if decoder supports particular profile/level, then it would be able to play any video with that (or lower) profile/level.
I believe that your device should support at least High Profile L4.1, which means that it should be able to play most H.264 videos.
However there's one special case - videos that use High 10 Profile (hi10p, 10 bit depth). It's commonly used on anime sources, becauses it preserves gradients well. There're no hardware decoders that support it.
Unfortunately manufactures usually are very vague about codecs/profiles/level support ("1080p HD video" is all what qualcomm says, lol), so you should test by yourself to find it out.
The first thing you need to do if you want to know why you can or can't play some video using h/w decoder is to check it's codec, profile and level (using MediaInfo or any other similar tool, usually media players have it built-in).
About conversion:
Try Handbrake, by default it should produce files playable by your device (no need to touch presets). You can play with "x264 Preset" to control speed/size and Quality to control quality/size.
Converting with Handbrake into x264 mp4 would be the most universally acceptable format for all devices, and work with HW decoding.
That should be no problem with your stock Nexus 4.

MX Player Decoding

I have an Amlogic S905X Android Box.
I'm wondering if there is anyway I can get HW decoding to work on it?
I use the app IPTV to watch stream links with MX player. However recently it has stopped working and the links won't play. I use the exact same app to watch the same streams on my android phone and they work fine.
I looked at the android phone settings and it uses HW decoder. But on the android box it tries to use SW decoder. I tried changing it over to HW decoder but it said "HW decoder not supported".
Does any one know what I can do to get it working properly on the android box?
Thanks.
ktsamy said:
It's depends on the device. HW decoder uses androids mediaplayer api to play the videos. In other words, it's just mx wrapper to the system decoders available in your device. If the device doesn't have the codecs for the specific format it can't be played in HW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the device I have ebay.com.au/itm/4K-Android-5-1-Quad-Core-Smart-TV-BOX-Media-Player-S905X-Fully-Loaded-KODI-XBMC-/262711771966?hash=item3d2ad7833e:g:rLQAAOSwXeJYDfOy#shpCntId

4k playback and device support

Hello all,
I am trying to make my new Philips TV play 4k HEVC videos but am having no luck with smooth playback.
MX Player seems to do the best job but stalls eventually. HW+ decoder kicks in to do the playback.
Short version of TV specs:
SoC Mediatek MT5596A
CPU ARM Cortex-A53
GPU ARM Mali-T860 MP2
Android 6
I collected MX player logs while the video was choppy and can send if required.
Can anyone tell me if my device is supported or am I wasting time on MX Player ?
Thanks
sexy_lady said:
Hello all,
I am trying to make my new Philips TV play 4k HEVC videos but am having no luck with smooth playback.
MX Player seems to do the best job but stalls eventually. HW+ decoder kicks in to do the playback.
Short version of TV specs:
SoC Mediatek MT5596A
CPU ARM Cortex-A53
GPU ARM Mali-T860 MP2
Android 6
I collected MX player logs while the video was choppy and can send if required.
Can anyone tell me if my device is supported or am I wasting time on MX Player ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about HW decoder?
HW & HW+ decoder basically uses system decoders which are built into the firmware.
If HW decoder doesn't work and HW+ lags, probably your system decoders couldn't decode the video at that particular encoding profile. Can you share the logs here? We may have to look at the logs in order to understand the issue better.
Thirumalai.K said:
What about HW decoder?
HW & HW+ decoder basically uses system decoders which are built into the firmware.
If HW decoder doesn't work and HW+ lags, probably your system decoders couldn't decode the video at that particular encoding profile. Can you share the logs here? We may have to look at the logs in order to understand the issue better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello and thanks,
The thing is that built-in TV video player does not work with x265 videos. I have tried VLC which performs terribly. I guess it uses SW decocoding and can't even play 1080p smoothly with x265 encoding.
Archos is really slick and works well with 1080p x265 but lags on 4K. The speed of 4K playback with Archos is the same as for MX Player with HW decoder. Only HW+ will play smoothly but it eventually stalls to a point of 1 frame per seconds as if some error is encountered (always at the same point in movie). Any attempt to rewind will kill 4K playback smoothness and menu operations often result in MX Player crashing.
Here is my report file
*h*t*t*p*s://1drv.ms/u/s!Av9g--Caxs7ogzkI5M_WUWgfOp3D

Low video quality unsing HW+ decoder

hi,
I have an Minix U9-H box (android 6.0) and when I play full HD streaming files from my ip tv provider using HW+ decoder, the video quality is poor. It's working fine with HW or SW decoder (The codec used by mx player is ARM V7 NEON).
I checked also in perfect player and when using HW+, it seems the player downgrade the video resolution to SD format.
Any clue ?
Chris
rusukof36 said:
hi,
I have an Minix U9-H box (android 6.0) and when I play full HD streaming files from my ip tv provider using HW+ decoder, the video quality is poor. It's working fine with HW or SW decoder (The codec used by mx player is ARM V7 NEON).
I checked also in perfect player and when using HW+, it seems the player downgrade the video resolution to SD format.
Any clue ?
Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be a bug in the system decoder. In HW+, MX Player passes the frames to the system decoders to directly decode. Probably, the resolution of the decoded frame might be low. We have encountered a similar issue in the past especially when the stream is interlaced. If it's the root cause, then it has to be fixed on the firmware. You will notice similar issues with all major video player apps which makes use of similar technology.
rusukof36 said:
hi,
I have an Minix U9-H box (android 6.0) and when I play full HD streaming files from my ip tv provider using HW+ decoder, the video quality is poor. It's working fine with HW or SW decoder (The codec used by mx player is ARM V7 NEON).
I checked also in perfect player and when using HW+, it seems the player downgrade the video resolution to SD format.
Any clue ?
Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HW and HW+ uses GPU for H.264 decoding. They performance much better from SW which uses CPU for decoding. HW can perform better than HW+ in most of the Cases, but there is a chance it does not work smoothly on many devices.
Same
Same problem. SW is better than HW and HW+. (Android tv 8.1 - Mibox 3s)
lighthousehn said:
Same problem. SW is better than HW and HW+. (Android tv 8.1 - Mibox 3s)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may happen when the Hardware Accelerated Decoders implemented on the device itself is buggy. Can you please contact us with screenshots of the playback on HW/HW+ and SW along with a bug reported collected from MX right after playing the file? It will help us to confirm the same.
There is no error, just low quality. HW and HW+ is same. SW is good.
The problem only occurs when viewing iptv (multicast - udp), watching the file on the hard disk is ok
lighthousehn said:
There is no error, just low quality. HW and HW+ is same. SW is good.
The problem only occurs when viewing iptv (multicast - udp), watching the file on the hard disk is ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is one of the known issues on Xiaomi's TV boxes with Oreo and Nougat firmware. Based on our past investigation, it has been found that the hardware accelerated decoder's output resolution of the video frames is much lower than the actual frame size. As both HW and HW+ relies on the decoders shipped with the device, you can notice the issues on both. Request you to contact the device manufacturer so that they can fix the same on their firmware.
If it is possible, kindly share a link with us on PM or at [email protected] so that we can also escalate the same from our end.
I also tried on my phone (Mi Mix 2s - Android 9, MIUI 10) and it gave same results.
multicast links on private network, so you can not access it: https://textuploader.com/dlohs/raw
lighthousehn said:
I also tried on my phone (Mi Mix 2s - Android 9, MIUI 10) and it gave same results.
multicast links on private network, so you can not access it: https://textuploader.com/dlohs/raw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please try any non-xiaomi device and check again? Can you also check whether it happens if you copy the stream to a file using FFmpeg? Without a sample clip or a link, we may not be able to seek the assistance of the Xiaomi team.
MXPlayer said:
Can you please try any non-xiaomi device and check again? Can you also check whether it happens if you copy the stream to a file using FFmpeg? Without a sample clip or a link, we may not be able to seek the assistance of the Xiaomi team.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a non-xiaomi device. These are sample files. I saved them with VLC
http://www.mediafire.com/file/71cnwgwzsgw674b/test.ts/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/wjhcmec367uhwxr/test1.ts/file
Let me guess a bit: The format of the service provider is 1080i, this issue relates to the deinterlacing algorithm. With HW decoder, resolution halved.
maybe recode your video?

MX player not supporting hevc h265 and hw+ not working with h264 and h263 1080p video

Please create support for hevc(h265) which highly effective and efficient codec video format for video and has gain lots of popularity. There is also issue for hw+ not supporting and compatible with h264 and h263.
ragXcoder said:
Please create support for hevc(h265) which highly effective and efficient codec video format for video and has gain lots of popularity. There is also issue for hw+ not supporting and compatible with h264 and h263.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on the device. Most of the modern devices can play HEVC Main profile videos in the HW & HW+ decoders. We will be able to assist you better if you can share a bug report from the MX Player help menu.
IN general, HW & HW+ decoders make use of the hardware acceleration provided by your device chipset. If the chipset doesn't support hardware acceleration of HEVC or it is not implemented by the manufacturer, there is no way to play the same in the HW or HW+ decoder. It is your hardware limitation. The only way to play is to use SW decoders. But, it may lag if your CPU is not powerful enough to handle the decoding load.
MXPlayer said:
It depends on the device. Most of the modern devices can play HEVC Main profile videos in the HW & HW+ decoders. We will be able to assist you better if you can share a bug report from the MX Player help menu.
IN general, HW & HW+ decoders make use of the hardware acceleration provided by your device chipset. If the chipset doesn't support hardware acceleration of HEVC or it is not implemented by the manufacturer, there is no way to play the same in the HW or HW+ decoder. It is your hardware limitation. The only way to play is to use SW decoders. But, it may lag if your CPU is not powerful enough to handle the decoding load.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you analyze my report file?
I think most devices now support h264 decoding. I know for sure my Fire Stick 4k supports 264 and 265 decoding by hardware, and it starts playback fine....but then after a while it jumps from HW to HW+ to SW, saying not supported.
I'm very happy to see that MX Player now streams 1080p HEVC 10-bit MKV flawlessly to my Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2016! I have literally tried to get it to work for years. HW+ option did not bring better results (stutters and hickups), heck, even transcoding from my Synology Disk Station was a pain in the a. I am curious to know what you changed in the recent version 1.10.51 (I will archive it forever and keep it in my heart) or if I was just too stupid or my device was too slow.

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