[EXPERIMENTAL] CoreELEC 22 · samurihl DV build (20260714111053)

⚠️ 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.

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What's changed in this update

This is an incremental update to the previous experimental build
(v22.0-samurihl-20260712143939).
See that release for the full rundown of the Dolby Vision / audio / playback
features and install instructions. This update is a post-release-review fix
round plus one new experimental feature, rebased onto the latest upstream
CoreELEC-22 nightlies.

⚠️ Still experimental and completely unsupported — see the disclaimer above.
Back up your current install before flashing.

Dolby Vision still requires dovi.ko (the CE22 5.15 build) installed on your
device — it is not bundled; install it yourself as on stock CoreELEC 22.

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🐛 Fixed: the VSVDB override now actually applies (DV displays)

Previous builds had a real bug here: the injection flag was written with the wrong
value, so the kernel replaced the patched capability block with a canned
"source-led" preset (~1450 nits) — the override changed the picture, but always
to the same canned block, ignoring the nits you set.

Fixed in this build, and improved while at it:

• The patched block (your display's own v2 VSVDB with only max-luminance and,
  optionally, primaries changed) is now what the DV core actually sees.
• It applies live — on a setting change during playback the EDID is re-read and
  re-parsed, no HDMI replug needed. (Verified on hardware: the injected block shows
  up in dv_cap immediately and clears back to the panel's genuine block.)

⚠️ Scope, unchanged: the VSVDB override patches the DV capability block your
display already advertises, so it only functions on a DV-capable display. On
a non-DV panel (e.g. Samsung HDR10/HDR10+) there is nothing to patch and the
setting does nothing. For non-DV panels, see the new target-luminance controls
below — that is the mechanism that actually steers VS10 conversion output.

🧪 New (experimental): VS10 tone-mapping targets — reference black + peak

First build to carry a (small, GPL-source) kernel patch: the Dolby DM targets
used when VS10 converts content (DV/HDR10 → HDR10 or SDR) were hard-coded —
DV→HDR10 always tone-mapped to 1000 nits, and the target black floor couldn't
be adjusted at all. Field reports show VS10 HDR10-processed output clipping
everything below code ~80 (raised reference black) where passthrough sits correctly
at 64. Both knobs are now exposed:

• "VS10 target minimum luminance (reference black)" (Settings → CoreELEC →
  Dolby Vision, level Standard+): target min in 0.0001-nit units. 0 keeps the
  Dolby default (50 = 0.005 nit). If VS10-converted output clips near-black detail,
  try lowering values (e.g. 30, 10) and re-check a black-clip pattern.
• Display peak luminance (existing setting) now also steers the target max
  for HDR10-converted output — so DV→HDR10 tone-maps to your panel's peak instead
  of a fixed 1000 nits.

Both apply at playback start, on a live setting change, and via the VS10 keymap
actions; they reset on stop and are inert (zeroed) for bypass and native-DV output.

🔬 Status: plumbing verified on hardware, picture effect needs YOUR testing.
The values demonstrably reach the Dolby core (kernel + Kodi wiring verified
end-to-end on an AM6B+), but whether — and how far — they move the visible black
clip point and highlight handling needs eyes on real displays. If you can test:
play a 4000/10000-nit black-level clip pattern via VS10 HDR10 output, sweep the
reference-black setting, and report where near-black patches appear. Same for
DV→HDR10 with different display-peak values.

🔧 Fixed: release tags now build THIS Kodi

The distro source tags previously still pointed the Kodi package at stock
CoreELEC/xbmc — anyone building from a release tag got vanilla Kodi with none of
these changes (the published images were unaffected). Tags from this release on
fetch the actual SamuriHL/coreelec-xbmc
commit being shipped.

📋 Carried over, with honest labels

• Profile 7 FEL reconstruction on non-DV displays remains 🧪 plumbing
  verified, reconstruction unconfirmed: clean FEL playback is confirmed on a
  Samsung HDR10 panel, but a screenshot can't distinguish FEL-reconstructed output
  from base-layer-only. It stays experimental until someone compares frames against
  the same title on a DV display or a known-good FEL reference.
• Everything else (VS10 per-source output modes, Smart CMv4.0, L5 active-area,
  LAV audio A/V sync, hardware vsync clock) is unchanged apart from the upstream
  rebase.

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Install

• Clean install: flash the Generic *.img.gz (SD/USB via balenaEtcher, or the
  Amlogic USB Burning Tool for eMMC).
• Update in place: drop the *.tar in /storage/.update and reboot.
• Verify your download against the SHA256 sums below before flashing.
• On other Amlogic-no boards (Odroid / Khadas / Radxa): use the *.tar update, or
  your board's own image.

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Source

• CoreELEC (distro): SamuriHL/CoreELEC tag v22.0-samurihl-20260714111053
• Kodi: SamuriHL/coreelec-xbmc tag v22.0-samurihl-20260714111053

Checksums (SHA256)

9cd93ec4a28ea11342a680b0fa86e0bde667ac61066b2c6f9ddb105345ab4f70  CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers-samurihl-EXPERIMENTAL_20260714111053.tar
6fd9bd3dca397186d737d6abf79315ce6b25e9b55cdc2e62805493cc66c3f570  CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers-samurihl-EXPERIMENTAL_20260714111053-Generic.img.gz

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🐛 Known issue in this build (2026-07-14)

• SDR/HDR → "Dolby Vision" via the VS10 picker gives a blank screen on TV-led
  setups (the default DV output mode). The conversion forces the player-led
  low-latency tunnel regardless of the TV-led/player-led setting. Workarounds:
  set DV output to Player-led, or use a different VS10 output for those sources.
  Fixed in v22.0-samurihl-20260714181459 — update to that build.