Please I need help. I have just purchased at an extra about $30 cost the uGoos X4Q Extra box with the S905X4-J processor which is advertised as such to support DV which is why I paid extra for this otherwise excellent model.
I have installed a bootable ultra fast SD card with CoreElec 20.5 -ne with correct device tree and all working fine except importantly no DV ?? I get a warning message after boot up to say I need Linux Firmware Version 5.4.210 or later and this box with the latest uGoos firmware update is only version 5.4.125 date October 23.
Would I get the same requirement warning if I changed to using the CE 20.5 -ng DV version instead, as do not want to waste time if I would get the same problem. I have chatted online with uGoos but cannot seem to get past the Sales section and end up going round in circles trying to find our where I can get this 5.4.210 firmware for this box from???
Thanks in advance so any help appreciated on this problem.
Is there somewhere that explains why the functionality of coreelec depends on the android version? Particularly given the new approach of placing a dovi.ko in the /storage folder
dovi.ko is a propriety file licensed by Dolby to various manufacturers to enable Dolby Vision playback. To avoid legal trouble, dovi.ko is not included in CoreELEC. However, CoreELEC looks in various places for dovi.ko including in the root of the flash drive and in android folder. The dovi.ko is specific to the linux kernel.
The reason that RayW can’t play Dolby Vision is because their version of dovi.ko is compiled for an older version of the Linux kernel. The version is from the Kinkhank G1 that seems to work in CoreELEC
The reason that the Ugoos AM6B+ and Minix need a dovi.ko placed in /storage is that the version included in the android version on these boxes is compiled for an x32 architecture making it a real pain to support. Furthermore, it only supports CMv2.9. The new dovi.ko is x64 and supports CMv2.9 and CMv4.0.
It may just be me not understanding licensing, but what makes you say it is a propriety file? When a use modinfo on the dovi.ko I extracted from the google sabrina firmware linked in this post it reports a GPL license
It’s the driver for the Dolby Vision core. I say that it’s proprietary because Dolby does not release the source code for it and provides it as a closed source blob.
So if we copy that 64-bit dovi.ko to a location CE can find on the Ugoos AM6B+, do we then need the Android installation at all? Can it be removed from the eMMC and CE + dovi.ko and cpm’s patch written to the eMMC instead?
Wow what a great number of useful replies. Particularly Astrotrain as this dovi.ko small file works perfectly At first I thought I put this file in the root of the bootable SD card alongside the dtb.img device tree file, but then realised it needed to go in the root of the /storage folder. Once I did this and rebooted then no more DV warning message and now streams with DV content come up in all the DV glory. My TV pops a short Dolby Vision logo at the top right of the screen alongside the Dolby ATMOS logo where that is appropriate too. Thank you so very very much for this so now my investment in the X4Q Extra box was worth it.
Portishe yes I realised that my friend but surely uGoos, who I thought supported CoreELEC, should ensure that they ship their new X4Q Extra S905X4-J box with Android Linux Kernel 5.4.210 or later else it is a bit wrong advertising this box as supporting DV. Anyway great work on CE supporting DV now, no absolutely no reason to ever boot into the awful not fit for purpose Android interface. Well not quite as I need Android still to run the Belin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall app which is not available in KODI sadly but wish it was with ATMOS support.
While I am here Portische I can report a slightly annoying bug with 20.5 -ne as now on two different uGoos boxes (one an X4 Pro and the other this new X4Q Extra) when I first power on boot up it sticks on the S905X4 AV1 logo and I have to use the remote to power down and reboot again and then it always boots up okay into CoreELEC 20.5 -ne. This does not happen with 20.5 -ng BTW. But appreciate it is early days yet with-ne but let me know if you need any log files for this little bug.
Glad it worked. Would you mind testing out the FEL capabilities of this device?
You need to
Download BL_EL.mkv from the link below.
Set the Dolby Vision output to Lossless. Setting - Player - Video - Dolby Vision compatibility mode. It’s an Advance setting so, make sure that you see Advance at the bottom.
Try playing the file. If a woman appears around 80 seconds in, then it can support FEL.
No idea what FEL is but willing to learn. Have downloaded this file and will try to do that test for you and let you know. Just give me time as busy right now but hopefully later today or over the weekend.
All I do know now is that I am so happy that DV is working wonderfully now on my X4Q Extra box and indeed viewed a couple of streamed videos with DV and the colours and HDR effects were to me indeed noticeably better than the usual HDR10 effect I had before and looked superb. Now looking for DV content as an important parameter to what I choose to watch.
One question is that there is a lot or reported DV content on YouTube but none of it I have tried so far actually has DV enabled so is there anything I need to change in my YouTube addon setup??
Well I was impatient to try this out and can say that all I get with this Lossless setting with this file is a blank black screen with just the TV briefly reporting that it is seeing Dolby Vision, but I also have no control to stop the video playing. Sometimes it returns to the File Manager screen and other times it crashes the box requiring a power down reset.
When set back to Profile 8.1 I do see the video file playing okay and the clock counting with the colour areas rotating but no face appearing and do have full control again to stop or pause the video. BTW which of these settings is best to use and what to they do. The Minimal EL produces a psychedelic effects but again with no control working and then crashes the box. All other modes seem to work but not sure which will be best in general use.
The box crashing MAY be because of the extreme heat here today with my TV room at about 35C I am about to put a small USB printer fan in the cabinet where my uGoos X4Q Extra box lives. This box seems to get hotter than my old X4 Pro box.
Thanks for testing it out. It seems that Dolby Vision P7 FEL does not work with this box. This is really interesting because it seems to indicate that either the -J suffix does not guarantee support of FEL or that FEL is broken in kernel version greater than 4.9. As they say, the mystery thickens. However, it rules out purchasing a S905X4-J box if FE support is important.
BTW, which version of CoreELEC are you running? 20240327 completely broke support for FEL. 20240322 is the last known good version for Dolby Vision, but it also has problems.
What is FEL BTW and is it important. ?? How about those other setting other than Lossless and Profile 8.1. default which I am using.
There is also another Dolby Vision setting in the CoreELEC settings page that says Use Player Led which also refers to DV. I have left that at default DIsabled same as the option immediately above about Disabling DV support of course.
I am running simply the latest CoreELEC 20.5 -ne Generic the last stable build. I am not currently running nightly builds though I did before but will likely not bother until I move onto Omega. IF you reckon it would be useful for me to run the nightlies then I have no problem doing so
Dolby Vision is not a single standard, but a series of different profile that each have to be supported separately.
To understand, P7 FEL think of it as a stack of three layers that have to combined together into one image.
For the FEL video, the stack has three layers: the base layer contains just the color; the RPU layer contains the psychedelic colors; the EL layer contains the background images including the woman.
A MEL video only has two stacks: the base layer and the RPU layer. When playing a FEL as Profile 8.1 or Minimum EL, the EL layer is discarded so that you don’t see the woman. You only see the background colors and psychedelic colors.
Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL is used on some UHD. It’s extremely important because barely any device can play it. It’s the holy grail of Dolby Vision decoding.
The decoding of FEL is currently broken, but I’ll let you know when it get fixed if you want to retest.
Yes thanks bazzle, but I do already know that. Mine is running at 60C to 65C and maybe hotter during running video when of course I cannot check it only immediately after stopping the video playing. I am going to put a more powerful printer fan in the cabinet to blow air through the many air vents in the X4Q box. My X4 Pro box ran at around 50-55C in the same cabinet so this X4Q Extra does run hotter.
At first I thought I put this file in the root of the bootable SD card alongside the dtb.img device tree file, but then realised it needed to go in the root of the /storage folder. Once I did this and rebooted then no more DV warning message and now streams with DV content come up in all the DV glory. My TV pops a short Dolby Vision logo at the top right of the screen alongside the Dolby ATMOS logo where that is appropriate too. Thank you so very very much for this so now my investment in the X4Q Extra box was worth it.