version 1.0.27 is available now for a day or so for your confirmation. If no major issues are found it will be released to public this weekend.
The changes in this version are:
#9. UI density doubled to 320dpi
Giving effective 2x scaling at logical 960x540 (but of course true 1080p). Please let us know your feedback whether we should release it to public or not. Internal feedback is divided, where people prefer 240dpi (UI looks like approx 720p), but I think integer 2x scaling is better and more standard (e.g. FireTV and Philips Screeneo S4/S6 use this scaling).
#9b. Settings, File Manager and Autofocus UI has been scaled for 2x. #32. Launcher is updated, now shows some apps that were invisible before, but there’s still a bug where not all previously-hidden apps can be launched yet. #13. Low battery warning dialog is added. #26. 3rd party apps now have read and write permission to external media. #6. Brightness/contrast of internal Android is now matched to HDMI (This hack is no longer required – please let me know whether you have to click Reset in this screen to get normal colour). #28. And Kodi supposedly works fine on this build but I have not tested yet.
I’m excited to test!
Just to be clear about the brightness/contrast, what’s the expected behavior if we already applied the workaround? Should it be changed by the update or should we reset the color to get the intended settings in the update?
Thanks!
Hmm… Kodi showed HW decoding when using the STRG-O overlay already in older FW versions. Videos came out quite choppy anyway. - Do you know what exactly has been changed here in 1.0.27 to get better Kodi performance ? Will verify it soon…
Just did some tests with 1.0.27beta. Some observations.
I reset the tweaked contrast settings in the hidden advanced video setting menu, since the tweak should not be needed anymore. All the normal video settings I set to 50. I must say, that colors/contrast between internal video playback and HDMI Input are still not the same. I’m not really convinced that the fix makes the tweak obsolete.
Regarding Kodi, I still can see choppy playback on several movies or by using Kodis PVR client whereas with the FireTV Stick 4K it is smooth an colors are more pleasent. I have seen HW support for video playback already enabled on older FW versions, so I wonder what has been fixed here.
I’m using german language settings, and now I can see the UI clock showing 24h format. i.e. 14:23. - If I go to the settings menu, it shows again only 12h Format i.e. 2:23. - Even worse it shows the date and the time + seconds and the status row seems to jump every second, since it seems to be alligned to the right edge of the screen. Going to english language just shows hours and minutes, to the status bar is not jumping and also shorter due to missing date.
PPMax Kodi app had performance issues. Choppy video playback. More prominent on 1080p.
It’s expected that it should have been fixed with this update. If not then @Philips_Support_P the issue would still remain open for fixing in next critical update.
Regarding the “launcher not showing all programs” issue. I have a vice versa problem.
I installed 1x ePSXe and it is shown twice (two Icons).
One just opens the app, and the second one just crashes the launcher (the launcher goes to black and starts again).
I love the new scaling. Everything is easier to read and navigate. Only thing I did not like much is the browser because the tabs navigation on Brave/Chrome becomes harder to do but it’s still fine. If possible and trivial to do though, I would add a settings for changing the scaling as I can see some people not liking that everything is bigger.
The low battery notification is too much. I’m fine it being dismissable and not automatically dismissed so that you won’t miss it but it’s in the CENTER! and BIG! I think it’s better to put it somewhere at the top or bottom or sides just not at the center and that BIG Also, I would add 5% notification as well. 15% notification is not enough for me. I can’t assess how much longer it’ll last so my PPM died before I plugged in
I think the mouse cursor is too big now. Perhaps a little smaller would be better .
I agree with @kugiigi, the DPI increase is a massive improvement but having an adjustable font size would be the best situation. You could put it in the image settings section. A slider from 1x to 2x in increments of 0.1x would be awesome.
I find I still have to keep the colour hack to have a good picture. If I reset the hack then the blacks basically get crushed so I moved the sliders back to where they were as per the hack and the picture seems better. It might be my eyes though so I will attempt some calibration this weekend to see how it is.
Also, after the update my netflix app icon is now the default android head icon. The app launches fine but it looks weird on the launcher. Its not the full banner it used to be.
Cant comment on the rest of the stuff as I havent been using Kodi or the Screeneo launcher
My Netflix app is fine. Perhaps you can reinstall it. I forgot to mention, Kodi seems to be the same. Still not smooth navigation and playback.
As for the contrast/brightness fix, it seems that it just defaults everyone with the settings in the workaround fix. I wonder though if the update override my own settings because I wasn’t sure if I set them exactly how Philips want
Do you mean brightness/contrast is set by default to the tweaked settings in the hidden video settings app ? So resetting them to middle values results in the same problem as before ? At least that was my observation when testing it…
It seems that’s how it is. It would be better though if the settings with everything at 50 would be the “ideal” settings instead of what it is right now. Just to remove confusion and for people not to reset the settings by accident.
Yeah, that was my expectation, that resetting the advanced video setting values, + the video setting values to 50 will result in a perfect picture. Obviously, it’s not, and you need to keep those sliders to the settings shown in the tweak.
We will probably skip this from public release due to the numerous issues. But luckily most are known:
launcher issues are known, WIP
the brightness/contrast sliders: engineer confirmed to me he overlooked something
kodi: also WIP
And finally, there’s no immediate plan for a DPI slider since this change needs to be done in the system image, it’s not easily configurable without rooting (yet).
I want to quickly get some feedback in, I filmed a whole lot of stuff that I have to edit first before uploading it privately.
Battery warning size is big (partially due to DPI change) but serves its purpose well. I would like to have it appear at 10% and 5% though, 15% is too soon for my liking (perhaps have two or three configurable warning times?)
1b. Would it be possible to flash the LED on the unit itself to indicate a low battery warning? Flashing frequency of 1Hz = 15%, 2Hz = 10%, 5Hz = 5%?
DPI change is an improvement in a lot of places, but there are some where it renders the interface almost unusable. I’ve had a few login screens not be shown completely and not scroll up properly, where the on-screen keyboard got in the way. The only way I could get rid of it to complete the dialog box was to press ESC on the connected physical keyboard. Perhaps something we / the developers can have a thought about how to deal with.
2b. Mouse pointer size is fine with me, makes it easier to find the pointer sometimes.
I remembered (after already upgrading) that I had read somewhere how to see if Kodi was using HW decoding by pressing O while playing, which I believe is only possible if you have a keyboard connected (physically or via Bluetooth). I did it and it confirmed that Kodi is using HW decoding on FW version 1.0.26. Playback seemed the same to me, perhaps I’m less observant / more forgiving of choppy / sloppy playback but it felt the same to me, I didn’t see any issues nor improvements, but perhaps it was using HW decoding already? In any case, Kodi has always worked fine enough for me, on 1.0.25, .26, and .27.
(Known issue): The Synology DS Video app I had previously installed but which wasn’t visible in the launcher now showed up on the screen, but crashed (out to) the launcher. Once uninstalled and reinstalled it did start perfectly though from the launch screen.
I haven’t played with the image settings but it all looked the same before and after the upgrade. So I don’t think anything has changed (but apparently something was indeed overlooked)
I’ll update the post with my video later on, once I manage to edit and upload it.
I like the 2x scaling but it still doesnt make sense for me to use the inbuild operation system. The picture quality when using f.e. Prime or Netflix is still miles away from my attached FireTV4K Stick. BTW: I didnt use INFO: How to improve internal video picture quality? and dont want to use such manually optimization in a “plug and play product”.
I think it’s better to put it somewhere at the top or bottom or sides just not at the center and that BIG 
Also, I would add 5% notification as well. 15% notification is not enough for me. I can’t assess how much longer it’ll last so my PPM died before I plugged in 
In any case, Kodi has always worked fine enough for me, on 1.0.25, .26, and .27.