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Hi,
I have a problem with a zgemma star h9.2h with SoC HI3798MV200 (ARMv7) and video scaling. I installed latest openPLi v7.0 (build date 2019-01-16) with kernel v4.4.35 and from menu->system information the gstreamer version is unknown.
I have some video IPTV streams AVC 1920x1080 25p that work well (menu->channel information). I have other video IPTV streams AVC 1280x720 60p that are not correctly played (black screen audio only). I think that is something related to video scaling and gstreamer.
Indeed, I have also a zgemma star h5 with SoC BCM73625A0 and in this case with latest openPLi v7.0 (build date 2019-01-16) with kernel v4.10.12 and gstreamer v1.14.4, all streams work well.
Do you have any idea? Why does gstreamer is not correctly recognized? Why does a new device use old kernel?
Thank you
Veranderd door andrearossidec1, 17 januari 2019 - 15:33

The manufacturer delivers us the needed drivers. The drivers are only working in a specific kernel version. So we have to choose this kernel version and cannot change it.

On HI... boxes there is a special library available which is used for media playback. This library is not based on gstreamer. So maybe because of this no gstreamer version is visible. The can’t change that library. It’s closed source like the box drivers.
But I think it’s somehow possible to use the gstreamer library. But i don’t know how.

 

The manufacturer delivers us the needed drivers. The drivers are only working in a specific kernel version. So we have to choose this kernel version and cannot change it.

On HI... boxes there is a special library available which is used for media playback. This library is not based on gstreamer. So maybe because of this no gstreamer version is visible. The can’t change that library. It’s closed source like the box drivers.
But I think it’s somehow possible to use the gstreamer library. But i don’t know how.

Thank you for the reply. So what do you suggested to do? For what I understand even by changing the distribution, it does not improve the result. I do not think that the problem depends on the kernel version. I think that it is related to transcoding software.
Veranderd door andrearossidec1, 17 januari 2019 - 19:21

You can try to install other images. Maybe there are newer drivers available which we don’t use (yet).

And maybe someone else can write whether it’s possible to disable the hisilicon lib which is used for media playback.

 

You can try to install other images. Maybe there are newer drivers available which we don’t use (yet).

And maybe someone else can write whether it’s possible to disable the hisilicon lib which is used for media playback.

I'm an old user of openPLi since release 3.0. I like it and the fact it is open source.
Do you recommend any other image?
Thank you
Veranderd door andrearossidec1, 18 januari 2019 - 12:39

Recommending a specific alternative branding is like pointing to Volkswagen by the Opel dealer. I guess it would be arrogant if I would say ‘pointing to BMW by the Mercedes dealer’.
I guess you are aware what images support the H9 so you can make your own choice.

No real recommendations from me. Users are different and some like this image and others say same image is very bad.
ATV uses in normal cases latest drivers. So you could flash ATV and test it to see whether it’s a driver issue.
Veranderd door betacentauri, 18 januari 2019 - 13:23

 

Recommending a specific alternative branding is like pointing to Volkswagen by the Opel dealer. I guess it would be arrogant if I would say ‘pointing to BMW by the Mercedes dealer’.
I guess you are aware what images support the H9 so you can make your own choice.

 
Of course, but I'm interested on understanding if other images have different drivers or have different gstreamer version that works. So I can report the results here and maybe you can solve the problem.

 

No real recommendations from me. Users are different and some like this image and others say same image is very bad.
ATV uses in normal cases latest drivers. So you could flash ATV and test it to see whether it’s a driver issue.

 

I will try it. Thank you

Afraik we are the only one image maker that releases stable images, most others only release daily builds from whatever the state of the code at that moment is. Stable images will always lag behind bleeding edge images.

 

And the reason we don't publish bleeding edge images anymore is simple: we got inundated with support posts on this forum because of the inherent instability of bleeding edge images, so we had to spend more time answering questions that actually working on the image.

I tried latest openATV 6.2 image that comes with kernel v.4.4.35 and gstreamer v1.15.0 (dev version, next stable v1.16.x https://gstreamer.fr.../releases/1.16/) and all IPTV streams work well.
Moreover, I found also some interesting features as miniDLNA server and openVPN client preinstalled.
Unfortunately, I do not have enough knowledge of openPLi and free time in order to port gstreamer to it. Is there any expected release 7.x to see the new version of gstreamer?
Thank you
Veranderd door andrearossidec1, 18 januari 2019 - 21:41

We don't do dev versions,so that depends on when 1.16 is released.

 

Also, we are not in the xmas-tree business, we don't pre-install anything that isn't required, it only makes the image bloated and less stable. 99.999% of users don't need OpenVPN and miniDLNA.

 

We don't do dev versions,so that depends on when 1.16 is released.
 
Also, we are not in the xmas-tree business, we don't pre-install anything that isn't required, it only makes the image bloated and less stable. 99.999% of users don't need OpenVPN and miniDLNA.

 
Ok thank, 1.16 will be released on January/February 2019.

That means it MIGHT be in OpenPLi 8.

One can uninstall HiSilicone Service either manually from: /usr/lib//enigma2/python/Plugins/SystemPlugins/ServiceHisilicon

or via command line, like so:

opkg remove enigma2-plugin-systemplugins-servicehisilicon --force-removal-of-dependent-packages

To install it back:

opkg install --force-reinstall enigma2-plugin-sytemplugins-servicehilsilicon

Test and see if there is a change (playback and streaming)...

 

The video aspect issue is there and there are no solutions to it yet...

 

johnharris says:

 

No matter the choice, either with long press green button or ratio on remote nothing change.
Full and Bestfit only avalaible on remote, not in green menu

Full choice on remote
No change on screen

 

root@zgemmah9s:~# cat /proc/stb/video/policy
letterbox
root@zgemmah9s:~# cat /proc/stb/video/policy2
full

Bestfit choice on remote
No change on screen

 

root@zgemmah9s:~# cat /proc/stb/video/policy
letterbox
root@zgemmah9s:~# cat /proc/stb/video/policy2
bestfit

 

Try PurE2, please:

 

 SW recap info in PurE2.jpg   68,11K   2 Aantal bijlagen

 

Try it with and without HiSilicon service, then go back to OpenPLi and compare, removing it and putting it back (it's fast), please. I did with v. 7 OpenPLi RC. Let's see what's what and this will be helpful to send to the manufacturers.

 

We should choose the Audio-Visual files to test with

 

-playback from NAS/laptop/USB attached HDDs (NFS and CIFS)

 

-streaming from the net, like HbbTV, FNC plugins, E2iPlayer, Kodi, YouTube (Taapat) etc.

 

-satellite TV is OK, by and large, minus PowerVu on 4.8E (apparently, card reader issue has been solved).

Good luck!

I tried to remove HiSilicon Service, but it did not work. I'm quite sure that the problem depends on gstreamer. So, I installed gstreamer v1.14.2 from repository and the IPTV streams still do not work as expected. We have to wait for gstreamer v1.16.x.

In OE-A images you can remove it.

 

However, it's not down to that.

 

It's the structure and who does what...

 

There is a part that is strictly down to HiSilicone, which is closed and not open to adding stuff. The general structure and HW level codecs support is down to HiSilicone, I presume.

 

The scond part is the one that Zgemma developers do. Drivers and kernel, I suppose, are down to both of them but I don't know how much is down to each side...

 

Our community could fix many problems (streaming and playback, i.e. containers and codecs, verification issues on various sites etc.) if the structure was open to the Open Source community - but it isn't.

 

And they keep pointing a finger at each other, instead of owning up, changing it all accordingly and having a success story...

 

In OE-A images you can remove it.
 
However, it's not down to that.
 
It's the structure and who does what...
 
There is a part that is strictly down to HiSilicone, which is closed and not open to adding stuff. The general structure and HW level codecs support is down to HiSilicone, I presume.
 
The scond part is the one that Zgemma developers do. Drivers and kernel, I suppose, are down to both of them but I don't know how much is down to each side...
 
Our community could fix many problems (streaming and playback, i.e. containers and codecs, verification issues on various sites etc.) if the structure was open to the Open Source community - but it isn't.
 
And they keep pointing a finger at each other, instead of owning up, changing it all accordingly and having a success story...

Even if I'm a supporter of open source and free software, in this case I do not think that the problem is related to closed source driver.
I tried with other image (openATV 6.2 that provides gstreamer 1.15.0) and all works well. So I think that openPLi need to provide new gstreamer v1.16.x (stable branch) and all problems will be solved.

No, not all, as I wrote, having tested a lot... Some yes but...

i don't know if it will add much to topic,

openpli 7.0 latest update; h9s

im using streaming to VLC player to second device over internet;

so minimum resolution accepted on h265 is 640x360 can't go lover;

higher easily accepted

 

i do have this symptom that no picture only sound when trying go lover with resolution, below 640x360

i testet this on ZgemmaH9twin:

remove ServiceHisilicon and Youtube streams run correctly.

 

codec AVC correct recogniced