FEL is only possible when using the 4.9 kernel.
All newer devices are running on 5.x where support for it was removed.
there are multiple aspects to this (technical is a part of it),
but imho the main one: if Dune has any official DV certification, they will get in trouble if they add FEL support on their own, as FEL is only meant for physical media and Dolby will not license it to them for non-disc playback use-case and might punish/revoke if they defy this.
Forgive me, iâm not familiar with the CE / Amlogic stack. Are you referring to the Amlogic Kernel?[quote=âTheCoolest, post:763, topic:50953, full:trueâ]
FEL is only possible when using the 4.9 kernel.
All newer devices are running on 5.x where support for it was removed.
[/quote]
I understand the licensing and legal element of it but I donât mean for Dune to add support in themselves. I am more interested in the technical elements at play here 
for technical aspects â what @TheCoolest said:
the only kernel that has working FEL support is 4.9 (+ necessary dovi.ko module).
Most of the manufacturers have moved on to newer kernels 5.x where this support was removed/blocked/broken/whatever (not possible anymore).
Yes. We refer to the 4.9 kernel version as NG, to 5.4 as NE and 5.15 as NO.
So, FEL is only supported in NG based builds.
But DV without FEL is supported in NE and NO too.
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for FEL-capable boxes with android 9 (and kernel 4.9) there was a short-lived effort to make FEL work with a couple of functional test builds, but then the author got spooked or smth and disappeared (no sources left behind), but at least we know that it was technically possible. I personally prefer CE and havenât booted the android for ages, itâs so much snappier in everything.
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Okay that makes sense! So is there no way to have Android OS with Kernel 4.9?
Oh, that is interesting, I didnât know about that. Who was the author? And do you know if there are still boxes with Android 9 and Kernel 4.9, is it possible to create an OS image that has Kernel 4.9 with Android (x)?
Most of the Amlogic NG devices shipped with Android 9, and some early s905x4 devices also shipped with Android 10 (kernel 4.9). But itâs not enough to just have Android with kernel 4.9, the media player has to be also have the ability to make use of the AML DV FEL playback. None did, except for one custom build of Kodi that went under the radar.
Technically itâs possible. My TV has 4.9 kernel and Android TV 10 (not the same as normal 10, but close enough). But afaik no one is making boxes with old kernels and newer OS, there is no point in it (and no support from the SoC manufacturer).
The author was âmonsoonsâ on official kodi forum, and he just vanished, posts deleted, I still have one of the builds and it was working (with quirks) for the movies I tried.
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Ugoos AM6B+ still have Android 9 and kernel 4.9, but itâs just better to use CoreElec for media playback and in my case I use slimBOXtv (Android TV) for IPTV and SmartTube.
Not completely true. DV-P7 FEL can be reproduced in Androidâs Kodi, using other Kodi versions apart from â@monsoons versionâ, as I explained before; here is how I got true FEL working on my AM6B+ klick
I see, good to know. I stopped looking into Android side of things once discovered the âmagicâ of CE)))
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Yes, use CE, since everything works much better than in Kodi on any Android.
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Where can one find that specific build of Kodi, either monsoons or the one you linked?
Do you have a link to the build? Iâd love to take a look to see if I could use it as a starting point to introduce Android support. What were the quirks if you remember?
This makes sense, Kodi / CE is in general faster than the Android on the boxes. Iâm mostly asking so I can get FEL support while retaining the BDMV Menu support of one of the good players with the Media Organiser solutions like Home Theatre Poster Wall.
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Canât you look at some earlier posts in that topic yourself? I wrote all that is needed in post #474
A good place to start is Chromecast with Google TV (CCwGTV), Android TV 12 + 4.9 kernel + FEL.