IPTV66 Help here!
Kens, your post refers to Android issues. The HD NFPS channels are also playing poorly. Freezing, and video glitches on all the new HD channels I watch.
Rocket is also the same freezing and skipping
alot the last week. Hopefully they will have it fixed like they always do. andkaal
Most Android STB's will not be able to watch these channels because Most Firmware for these STB's have not implemented MediaCodec api modules, or other patches to handle passing the decoding video load over to the GPU (Hardware Acceleration).
Without Hardware decoding, the main Processor has to use Software to decode the video, and h.264 -mpeg4 @ 1920 x 1088 will bottleneck your CPU's, causing the problem.
Some Hi-end STB's have proper android API based Firmware that works, but most ARM, Rockchip and other Generic stb's Wont handle this well.
Here is a Post snippet from the Kodi Developer Forum;
Welcome to Android MediaCodec standards
One of the last custom implementation we had was Amlogic related code which was the device were it all started with Kodi on Android. We had to resolve to this custom implementation back then to access certain hardware parts which Android officially couldn’t yet. Due to this legacy and how we had things implemented we couldn’t switch this off just yet in past releases. ....
The decision was made that from Krypton onwards there are no longer any custom Kodi code hacks, for both Video as well as Audio. Rockchip hacks were the first to go and now AMLogic. Every Chipset vendor now has to use standard Android Application Programming Interfaces (API's) in their Android OS implementation. This decision was made to ease the burdon on Kodi developers with code maintenance. Its all about standardisation across the Android Kodi software.
There is not even a regular Kodi Android code maintainer anymore.
So its bye bye Amcodec and hello standard Google Mediacodec.
If Audio and Video features no longer work with Android AMLogic Hardware its because the Firmware is too old or is rubbish, its not following proper Android API implementations or has poor Mediacodec video Hardware acceleration support. Its why time and time again in the hardware START HERE thread I strongly warn users against buying cheap, unsupported devices with rubbish, buggy Android Firmware.
You could say all the Chickens have now coming home to roost for various Hardware platforms since Kodi Krypton has been released. Android TV's like Philips, Sony and dirt cheap AMLogic devices have been stripped naked and been found wanting in their implementations and support of Mediacodec. And for Audio, the Google IEC Audio standard.
All we can say is users of such rubbish Firmware platforms need to bug the hell out of the Seller or Hardware Chipset vendors for bug busted Firmware updates (good luck !) or get real familiar with the Freaktab Website and DIY Firmware installs. There is nothing Kodi can do. The custom code hacks have gone the way of the dinosaur and Android Kodi Krypton onwards is now using standard programming API's, the way Google intended.
Normally I would say, ditch Android all together and use LibreELEC Kodi on AML S8xx/S905 hardware (still has Amcodec Hardware acceleration), but the S912 has issues with no proper Linux GPU drivers available leading to Kodi interface tearing. Cheap unsupported, AML S912 Marshmallow boxes are the worst combo for a getting a decent, reliable Kodi Krypton implementation going out of the box.
Don't Shoot the Messenger...
/kens