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[EXPERIMENTAL] CoreELEC 22 · samurihl DV build (20260711195422)

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@SamuriHL SamuriHL released this 12 Jul 00:06
v22.0-samurihl-20260711195422
c98e6e7

⚠️ EXPERIMENTAL · UNSUPPORTED · USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

This is an unofficial, experimental CoreELEC 22 build. It is NOT an official
CoreELEC release and it is NOT a supported CE22 port. I am not a CoreELEC 22
port maintainer, and I will not be providing support, bug fixes, updates, or
ongoing maintenance for this build.

The only purpose of this build is to give Amlogic AM9 Pro-class users a more
complete Dolby Vision experience than stock CoreELEC 22, by carrying a set of
custom Kodi features I built for my own device. That is the entire scope.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU FLASH ANYTHING

  • USE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. There is no warranty of any kind, express
    or implied. It may fail to boot, misbehave, break Dolby Vision, or do nothing
    useful on your hardware.
  • BACK UP YOUR CURRENT INSTALLATION FIRST. Take a full CoreELEC backup
    (Settings → CoreELEC → Backup) and/or image your existing boot media before
    you install anything from here. Assume you may have to restore it.
  • Prefer a SEPARATE SD card or USB stick you can boot from, instead of
    overwriting a working internal (eMMC) install.
  • Do NOT report problems with this build to the CoreELEC team or forums.
    This is not their build; it is not their responsibility. Do not ask them to
    support it.
  • I am also not offering support. If it breaks, you keep both pieces.

By downloading or using any file in this release you accept all of the above.

Install

  • Clean install (recommended): flash the *.img.gz to an SD card or USB with
    balenaEtcher (or the Amlogic USB Burning Tool for eMMC), then boot from it.
  • In-place update: copy the *.tar to the /storage/.update folder on an
    existing CoreELEC install and reboot. (Back up first — see above.)
  • Verify your download against the SHA256 sums below before flashing.

What's in this build

This is a custom CoreELEC 22 (Amlogic, aarch64) image that adds a set of
Dolby Vision, audio, and playback features on top of stock CoreELEC 22 — aimed at
giving Amlogic AM9 Pro-class users a more complete Dolby Vision experience. The
features are native Kodi 22 code and need no custom kernel patches.

Dolby Vision still requires dovi.ko. As with any CoreELEC 22 install, Dolby
Vision playback needs the standard CE22 dovi.ko (the 5.15 build) present on your
device. It is not bundled in this build — install it yourself the usual way,
exactly as you would on stock CoreELEC 22. Without it, the DV features below have
nothing to drive.

⚠️ Experimental and completely unsupported — see the disclaimer at the top of
this release. Back up your current setup before installing.

Unless noted otherwise, the new options live under
Settings → CoreELEC → Dolby Vision (set the settings level to Advanced or
Expert to see them all).

Dolby Vision

VS10 engine — per-source output mode

Choose what the Dolby Vision engine outputs for each type of source
(SDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision itself): leave it native, or convert it
to SDR / HDR10 / Dolby Vision. This lets you, for example, watch HDR10 or SDR
content processed through the DV engine, or force a specific output your display
handles best.

  • Per-source-type options (VS10 for SDR8/SDR10/HDR10/HDR10+/HLG/DV).
  • Live switching while a video plays via remote/keymap actions
    (Original / SDR / HDR10 / DV) if you map them.
  • Default: native/passthrough (no conversion), so behaviour matches stock until
    you change it.

Smart CMv4.0 metadata

Dolby Vision profiles authored with older CM v2.9 metadata can be upgraded on
the fly to CM v4.0, which many displays tone-map better.

  • Modes: Off / Append when no L2 / Always / Smart.
  • Smart is the interesting one: it upgrades to CM v4.0 per frame, except when
    a scene's peak brightness is higher than your display can show (by a configurable
    margin) — in that case it keeps the original CM v2.9 L2 trims, which handle
    that case better. Best of both, decided frame by frame.
  • Configurable: display peak brightness (nits) and the Smart threshold (%).

Display peak luminance + VSVDB override

Tell the Dolby Vision engine your display's real peak brightness — useful when a TV
or projector reports the wrong value and DV tone-maps too bright or too dim.

  • Display peak luminance (nits) — one value that feeds both the tone-mapping
    target and the Smart CM v4.0 threshold. 0 = auto-detect from the display's EDID.
  • Force peak onto display (VSVDB) — inject that peak into the display's Dolby
    Vision descriptor so the engine actually maps to it.
  • Colour space (VSVDB) — optionally also force the primaries
    (Display / DCI-P3 / BT.2020 / BT.709).
  • Adjustable live during playback — change the value and the picture updates
    without restarting the video (most visible in player-led mode).

Level 5 active area (letterbox handling)

Controls the Dolby Vision Level 5 active-area (letterbox/pillarbox) metadata,
which tells the DV engine where the real picture is so black bars stay true black
instead of being lifted to grey.

  • Source (default) — use the stream's own L5 as authored.
  • Zero — treat the whole frame as active (the old "override level 5 to zero"
    behaviour; helps displays that mis-crop DV).
  • Auto-detect — for titles that ship with no/zeroed L5 but have bars baked into
    the frame, a quick background scan finds the bars and supplies the offsets, so the
    bars mask to black. If a title already carries correct L5, that is respected.
  • Show OSD/subtitles over letterbox bars — when the bars are being masked, this
    temporarily lifts the mask while the on-screen menu, info, or subtitles are
    showing, so overlays in the bar region stay visible.

Audio

LAV Audio A/V sync (always on)

An audio/video sync path derived from Hendrik Leppkes' LAV Filters that keeps
audio locked to video across all audio output — both bitstream passthrough (Dolby
Digital, DTS, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc.) and decoded PCM — correcting the slow
audio/video drift that can otherwise build up over a long title. For bitstreamed
TrueHD it additionally fixes audio dropouts at seamless-branch points (some
seamless-branching discs/remuxes). It is always on for normal playback; the only
exclusion is live/PVR streams. No setting — it just works.

Playback

Hardware vsync reference clock

Uses the display's real hardware vertical-sync as the playback reference clock for
smoother, more consistent frame delivery (less judder), with a safe fallback if the
signal stalls.

  • Setting: Use display as clock (on by default).

Requirements & notes

  • dovi.ko required (not included): Dolby Vision needs the standard CoreELEC 22
    dovi.ko (5.15) installed on your device — install it yourself as on stock CE22.
    This build does not ship it.
  • Device / image: the attached .img.gz is the Generic Amlogic image
    (S922X / G12B / SM1), which is what AM9 Pro / Ugoos-class boxes use (with the
    right device tree). Flash it for a clean install, or drop the .tar in
    /storage/.update to update an existing CoreELEC 22 install. Other Amlogic-no
    boards (Odroid, Khadas, Radxa, …): use the .tar update, or your board's own image.
  • Dolby Vision output works in both TV-led and player-led modes; the VSVDB and
    L5 features have the most effect in the mode where the box does the tone-mapping.
  • The Level 5 Auto-detect and OSD/subtitle un-mask options are the newest
    additions in this build — if you use letterboxed Dolby Vision content with
    subtitles or the on-screen menu, those are the settings to try.
  • Verify your download against the SHA256 sums in this release before flashing.

Credits

  • LAV Audio sync — based on LAV Filters by Hendrik Leppkes (Nevcairiel).
  • Dolby Vision features — native Kodi 22 reimplementations, informed by the
    CoreELEC Dolby Vision community work (notably the pannal/p3i and avdvplus
    builds) and built on libdovi (quietvoid) for RPU handling.
  • Built on CoreELEC and Kodi. Thanks to both teams.

Source

  • CoreELEC (distro): SamuriHL/CoreELEC tag v22.0-samurihl-20260711195422
  • Kodi: SamuriHL/coreelec-xbmc tag v22.0-samurihl-20260711195422

Checksums (SHA256)

13bf460a49b03cd3c4187177cf43261b97f7d75696a51652cd385a2da0d8e927  CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers-samurihl-EXPERIMENTAL_20260711195422.tar
03194a9017c892a07245ec7681069be4b583dd9e4d9d09bf54c688579f8f808d  CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers-samurihl-EXPERIMENTAL_20260711195422-Generic.img.gz
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