xbmc

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on XBMC for Linux on AllWinner A10 Devices? It Works! (Sort of)

XBMC for Linux on AllWinner A10 Devices? It Works! (Sort of)

Following the lack of support by AllWinner for the video engine libraries (CedarX), I had more or less given up on hope XBMC for Linux would ever run properly on AllWinner A10/A13 hardware. But recently, I found out some progress had been made using existing libs, and saw the Pengpod Tablet video showing XBMC running in Linux fairly smoothly. So I decided to cross-compile XBMC by following the instructions available at http://linux-sunxi.org/XBMC and trying to run it in Linaro ALIP 12.04 rootfs in my Mele A1000. Finally, I managed to cross-compile XBMC, but the performance was very poor in the GUI (6 to 12 fps) and I was unable to play videos and my serial console was flooded with messages like:

[Update: I managed to have XBMC Linux running & playing videos on Mele A1000 by using j1nx image (rootfs + kernel). I would first exhibit the exact same […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments on Crowdfunding Initiative to Open AMLogic AML8726-M3 STB Source Code

Crowdfunding Initiative to Open AMLogic AML8726-M3 STB Source Code

J1nx (Peter Steenbergen) has spend a lot of time together with XBMC developers to try to bring XBMC (Linux) to ARM based set-top boxes, and initially AllWinner A10 processor seemed like a good candidate, unfortunately due to the lack of proper video engine libraries for Linux, progress on this SoC has been extremely slow. Then when Pivos and XBMC announced Pivos Xios DS set-top box based on AMLogic aml8726-M(1) would support XBMC natively, and the kernel and bootlooader (u-boot) source code was made available both on Pivos github account and AMLogic open source website, AML8726 series of processors appeared to be an ideal solution for this purpose. Instead of AML8726-M (aka AML8726-M1) which is limited to 512 MB, it was decided instead to use a faster processor AML8726-M3 that supports 1 GB RAM. The STB of choice is based on “MBX – f16ref” which should be some kind of development […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 53 Comments on Droid Stick A2 – AMLogic AML8726-MX Dual Core Android 4.1.1 mini PC

Droid Stick A2 – AMLogic AML8726-MX Dual Core Android 4.1.1 mini PC

Since it was first announced in August, Rockchip RK3066 dual core mini PCs have been popping up everywhere, and AFAIK those are currently the only low cost (sub $100) dual core Android TV Sticks available. But according to a recent Kimdecent announcement, this is about to change with the release of the Droid Stick A2 based on AMLogic AML8726-MX Dual Core Cortex A9 processor with 1GB RAM and 4 to 8 GB Flash running Android Jelly Bean. Here are Droid Stick A2 specifications: CPU – Amlogic AML8726-MX Dual Core Cortex A9 @ 1.5 GHz GPU – Mali400 Dual Core, 2D/ 3D/ OpenGL ES2.0/ OpenVG1.1. System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 4/8 GB Nand Flash + microSD card slot (up to 32GB) WiFi – 802.11b/g/n Video Output – HDMI (1080P) Video Decoding – Supports up to  1920x1080p@60fps Video Encoding – Supports encoding in H.264. 1080p@60fps, 720@100fps USB – 1xUSB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments on $86 ZAP-A10 Android 4.0 Set-Top Box Powered by AMLogic AML8726-M3

$86 ZAP-A10 Android 4.0 Set-Top Box Powered by AMLogic AML8726-M3

You may already know that XBMC has been working on the Pivox XIOS DS set-top box based on AMLogic AML8726-M3. Pivosgroup has sponsored the development of XBMC for Android and Linux on their new media player, and it costs about $115 on sites like Amazon, but it’s not available worldwide right now. If you’re looking for an alternative AMLogic AML8726-M3 device, and are a bit adventurous, you may have a look at the ZAP-A10, an Android 4.0 networked media player featuring AML8726-M3 Cortex A9 processor, with 1GB RAM and 4 GB Flash. Here are the specs of this set-top box: SoC – Single core Cortex A9 @ 1GHz (AML8726-M3) with Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 4GB Flash & SD card slot Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n USB – 4x USB Host port Video Output – HDMI and component (YPbPr) Video Containers – M2TS / […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on MPEG2 and VC-1 Codecs, H.264 Encode and HDMI CEC Are Now Available for the Raspberry Pi

MPEG2 and VC-1 Codecs, H.264 Encode and HDMI CEC Are Now Available for the Raspberry Pi

Many people appear to have bought the Raspberry Pi in order to use it as a cheap media player by installing distributions such as Raspbmc or OpenElec. The only problem is that this low cost board was primarily designed as an educational platform, so the Raspberry Pi foundation only paid for H.264 licensing, which means you could only playback H.264 videos, and all other video codecs could not be played (by hardware) making it a rather poor media player. But things have improved, as the good people at the Raspberry Pi foundation have worked out a deal with the licensing organizations and now offer support for 2 new codecs: MPEG2 license key – 2.4 GBP (~3.8 USD) VC-1 license key – 1.2 GBP (~1.9 USD) Once those 2 codecs are enabled you should be able to play your DVD rips and most HD wmv files smoothly. The way it work […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments on XBMC for Android With Hardware Video Decoding on Telechips TCC8925 Processor

XBMC for Android With Hardware Video Decoding on Telechips TCC8925 Processor

Taehyun Kim, a developer working for Inisoft (Korea), has been working on video hardware acceleration on Diceplayer for Telechips TCC8925 processor (The one used in CX-01 and Zero Devices Z900) and call this player from XBMC. He has uploaded a video to demo his progress and that’s pretty impressive. You can try it yourself by downloading and installing the following apps: xbmckor-armeabi-v7a-20120821.apk (Korean version). [Update: Kim has also uploaded the English version]. Diceplayer – Free app via Google Play You’ll also need to create a file called playercorefactory.xml in /sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata directory with the following content: <playercorefactory> <players> <player name=”MPC-HC” type=”ExternalPlayer” audio=”false” video=”true”> <filename>com.inisoft.mediaplayer.a</filename> <hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc> </player> </players> <rules action=”prepend”> <rule video=”true” player=”MPC-HC”/> </rules> </playercorefactory> I’ve tried it in Zero Devices Z900. The default language is Korean, but you should manage if you’re familiar with XBMC interface. When you play videos, you lose the usual XBMC interface, as those are played in […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on XBMC For Android on ODroid-X Development Board (Video)

XBMC For Android on ODroid-X Development Board (Video)

I’ve tried one the latest nightly builds for XBMC on Android on the ODroid-X development board based on Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 processor, and more exactly that file. Currently XBMC only supports 2 cores, so it’s still not optimized for this platform, but there has been a lot of progress since last month, when I tried XBMC on the Mele A1000, and it appears to be fairly stable. The UI is very smooth (about 55 fps) and responsive on the ODroid-X  board. 1080p video playback is not perfect yet, but once XBMC can make use of four cores, it should be possible to handle 1080p software video decoding. Most of the things I tried work almost perfectly: video playback, picture display, audio playback, weather… There are still some bugs however, such as the lack of timezone support as you can see on the picture above, and the plugins […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on XBMC For Android Nightly Builds

XBMC For Android Nightly Builds

Last month, XBMC developers announced they were working on XBMC for Android. The app is still being developed, and is not available on Google Play store yet, but the source code is available, so you can try it out by building it yourself, or try one of the apk available. The goods news is that you don’t need to build it yourself anymore (unless really want to change the source yourself), as kemonine96, Xda-developers forum member, has setup nightly builds for XBMC for Android. XBMC for Android can be installed on devices with Android 2.3 and greater and 2 versions are currently available: “NEON” devices “non-NEON devices” – Mainly those based on Tegra 2 processor This will work on many different devices such as smartphones, tablet, mini-PC, set-top boxes, etc…, although this type of apps works best on large screens. Bear in mind this is mainly for evaluation for now, […]