Forums » Android
FireTV Sideload
I have sideloaded VO on my Amazon Fire TV but can not set the graphics resolution.
There is actually an Amazon-store version of VO, sideloading should not be required.
I can't speak to the resolution options though, it's a mixed bag across a lot of Android, as we have to do different tricks on different GPUs and OS versions.
I can't speak to the resolution options though, it's a mixed bag across a lot of Android, as we have to do different tricks on different GPUs and OS versions.
It also depends on which firestick you have. If it is a gen1, you will have the Broadcom VideoCore IV which is OK for watching 1080p movies on, but games are always a big hit and miss. When I did try VO on my gen1, even changing the config files would not allow me to change the default resolution (IIRC it was stuck at something stupidly low like 480x320, maybe not that exact res, but it looked like crap). Basically even if you do get VO running, it will not run very well on this device, even at the low res it decides to use, even mining is a chore.
If you have a gen2, you may have more options, it has the Mali 450-MP4, which is the same GPU that is in a lot of cheaper phones and tablets. It isn't a _bad_ GPU, it just isn't very feature rich compared to some, but you _should_ be able to adjust the resolution using config file edits. I have done this on a tablet I own when hooked up to the TV via HDMI. It isn't perfect, and at higher resolutions there is some visible graphics stutter, but very playable, and considering the size of the device it is quite impressive.
[edit]
Wrote all that, then realised you meant the actual FireTV. Although again if you are using the more recent model, the Mali-T820-MP3 should be do-able, not so much the Qualcomm Adreno 320 in the gen1 though, geez, can they even play 1080p video without stutter?
If you have a gen2, you may have more options, it has the Mali 450-MP4, which is the same GPU that is in a lot of cheaper phones and tablets. It isn't a _bad_ GPU, it just isn't very feature rich compared to some, but you _should_ be able to adjust the resolution using config file edits. I have done this on a tablet I own when hooked up to the TV via HDMI. It isn't perfect, and at higher resolutions there is some visible graphics stutter, but very playable, and considering the size of the device it is quite impressive.
[edit]
Wrote all that, then realised you meant the actual FireTV. Although again if you are using the more recent model, the Mali-T820-MP3 should be do-able, not so much the Qualcomm Adreno 320 in the gen1 though, geez, can they even play 1080p video without stutter?
So I looked at the config.ini and it says the resolution is 1920x1080. There is an option that says tvMode=1. I dont believe it is running at full res as I have to set my mditargetlist to 800x200 to have on the right hand edge of the screen. I'm guessing it is doing more like 1000x800 or maybe slightly less.
I don't think any of the TV-mode stuff runs at full resolution.
The reasons for that are probably mostly performance, but can also be a mixed bag when including things like Mali shader-compiler bugs and other issues. At one point, we were rendering to a back buffer and flipping it on Mali, just to work around a fundamental problem where certain shaders would break on that GPU.
We try to report the issues to ARM, but many devices never get updates, it's only for newer devices, and the same hardware can have both good or bad drivers on different binary support packages (basically the driver version, regardless of the OS install version). And there's no definitive way for us to detect driver versions either, because some big OEMs (eg Samsung) actually remove the driver info strings from their BSPs before pushing them into production.
Short version: Android is a mess! Sorry! We may eventually add more resolution-changing options for TV mode, but it isn't a big focus right this second.
The reasons for that are probably mostly performance, but can also be a mixed bag when including things like Mali shader-compiler bugs and other issues. At one point, we were rendering to a back buffer and flipping it on Mali, just to work around a fundamental problem where certain shaders would break on that GPU.
We try to report the issues to ARM, but many devices never get updates, it's only for newer devices, and the same hardware can have both good or bad drivers on different binary support packages (basically the driver version, regardless of the OS install version). And there's no definitive way for us to detect driver versions either, because some big OEMs (eg Samsung) actually remove the driver info strings from their BSPs before pushing them into production.
Short version: Android is a mess! Sorry! We may eventually add more resolution-changing options for TV mode, but it isn't a big focus right this second.
Thanks Inc. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something in the setup or config files.