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QNX® SDK for Apps and Media 1.0: Release Notes

Electronic edition published: Monday,  May  12,  2014

Target OS: This SDK produces software that's compatible with ARMv7 targets that are running the QNX Neutrino RTOS 6.6.

Host OS: You can install this package on one of the following development hosts:

  • Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, or XP Professional SP3
  • Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 64-bit or Ubuntu Workstation LTS 12.04 32- and 64-bit

See also the release notes for the QNX Software Development Platform 6.6.

What's in this release?

The QNX SDK for Apps and Media extends the QNX Neutrino RTOS and tools provided by the QNX Software Development Platform by adding the following:

  • full HTML5 SDK and browser
  • application-management framework
  • multimedia support
  • video capture
Note:
  • The QNX SDK for Apps and Media is supported only for these ARMv7 targets:
    • TI OMAP4 Panda 4430
    • TI OMAP5 uEVM (ES2 silicon)
    • Freescale i.MX6Q SABRE Lite
  • Recent versions of U-Boot include important fixes related to hardware initialization. If you're using a Boundary Devices IMX.6 SabreLite board, either use the QNX IPL or update to U-Boot release 2013.10 or newer. (Ref# 609844)
  • We don't support video playback on the OMAP4.
  • In order to run the Cordova creation, packaging, and build tools, you must have installed Java on your development host.

Supported media devices and file formats

The QNX SDK for Apps and Media currently supports the device types, filesystems, codecs, and video formats listed in this section.

Device types
  • USB
  • SD
  • iPod
Filesystems
  • DOS FAT16/32
  • Power-Safe filesystem (fs-qnx6.so)
  • QNX 4
  • MAC
  • EXT 2
  • iPod
  • ISO-9660, including Joliet (for peripheral devices, such as optical drive CDs or DVDs)
  • UDF 2.00 and 2.01 (for peripheral devices, such as optical drive CDs or DVDs)
Codecs/containers
The QNX SDK for Apps and Media 1.0 supports the playback of the following:
  • AAC
  • MP3
  • WMA9
  • WMA10
  • WAV
Video formats
  • MP4/MPEG4 Part 14
  • H.264/MPEG4 Part 10
  • DIVX/XVID
  • VC-1

Known issues

This release contains known issues in the following areas. Not all items listed are bugs or problems.

General

  • Applications with IDs longer than 48 characters can't be started because the Launcher can't create the associated directory in /accounts/1000/appdata/. (Ref# 190345, J240678)

    Workaround: Ensure the app ID is less than 48 characters long.

  • The disk space requirement quoted in the Linux installer is incorrect. The correct information is listed in the installation note. (Ref# 259685, J393514)

iPod

  • Only iPod iOS v5.1 was tested in this release. (Ref# 267777, J400955)
  • If an iPod is connected to a hub on the USB host port (EHCI) on a PandaBoard, network connectivity can be lost due to conflicts with the SMSC driver. (Ref# 244798, J400850)

    Workaround: Use a type "A" USB cable to connect the hub to the USB OTG port.

  • Audio files without ID3 tags aren't synchronized with the database. This is an expected limitation when working with iPods that have operating systems older than iOS 5. (Ref# 147194, J400539)
  • Album art isn't available for iPods that have operating systems older than iOS 5. (Ref# 267838, J392405)
  • When you play a song from a connected iPod, the HMI may display the wrong album art for that song. (Ref# J571196)
  • To enable iPod album art, uncomment the following lines in the /etc/system/config/md.conf file:
    #[plugin]
    #dll=mm-mdp-ipod.so
    
    (Ref# 267751, J400954)
  • Enabling multiple iPods on the TI OMAP5 uEVM platform:

    To play tracks on multiple iPods concurrently on OMAP5, you must set a high enough value for the num_itd option passed to the USB stack (io-usb). For each iPod, you must increase the num_itd value by about 150, on top of its default setting of 256. For example, to support 2 iPods, modify the arguments specified for io-usb in car2-source-repository/etc/slm-config-platform.xml as follows:

    <SLM:component name="usb">
        <SLM:command>io-usb</SLM:command>
          <SLM:args>-vvv -c -dehci-omap3 ioport=0x4a064c00,irq=109,num_itd=512 -d sevm-omap5-xhci ioport=0x4a030000,irq=124<SLM:args>
    

    (Ref# J502397)

Multimedia

  • If you seek back to an earlier video while playing a playlist of videos, the playback might not resume correctly. (Ref# 263180, J583674)
  • While playing the QNX CAR Jeep video, if you set the playback speed to anything other than 1000 (normal speed), playback might stop. (Ref# 263209, J400946)
  • If you try to play 4 or more videos concurrently on an OMAP5 board, some might get stuck at position 0. (Ref# J611884)

    Workaround: Stop the stuck video and then restart it without the other videos running.

  • To use the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) with usblauncher, mm-sync, or mm-renderer, you must make a number of changes:
    1. In the Multimedia section of the BSP_directory/src/hardware/support/appsmedia-sample/appsmedia-sample-common.build file, add the following:
      /lib/dll/iofs-pfs.so
    2. In the ${QNX_TARGET}/etc/usblauncher/rules.lua file, remove the start and end comments ("--[[" and "--]]" , respectively) from the following section:
      -- generic MTP rule should proceed generic MSC (mass storage) rule so that it is tried first.
      --[[
      -- example commented out
      device() {
              ms_desc("MTP") {
                      driver"io-fs-media -dpfs,device=$(busno):$(devno):$(iface)";
              };
      };
      --]]
      
    3. In the ${QNX_TARGET}/etc/mm/mm-md.conf file, remove the comment ("#") character from the following lines:
      #[plugin]
      #dll=mm-mdp-mediafs.so
      ...
      #mtp=mediafs
      
    4. Run make appsmedia-sample to rebuild the image.
    (Ref# J616410)
  • The PLA playlist type, used by some MTP devices, isn't supported in the current release. However, an entry may be added to the playlists table but no entries will be added to the playlist_entries table. (Ref# J617111)
  • On the i.MX6Q SABRE Lite board, video playback in the Juke Box becomes slow and unreliable after playing audio. If you quickly switch songs in the Juke Box and then start playing a video, playback is slow and you might see these other issues:
    • The image is unclear and slow to update
    • The audio component plays normally but the image stays the same or there's no image
    (Ref# J608500)
  • Color artifacts may appear when multiple video streams are being decoded simultaneously. For example, if you start playing a video in the Browser and another video in the Juke Box, and then tap the seekbar or move in and out of full-screen mode many times, color artifacts may appear in the full-screen output. Furthermore, when the Juke Box video finishes playing, you can't play any more videos in the Juke Box until you reboot your system. (Ref# J599844)

Texas Instruments OMAP4430 Panda

  • Flickering and tearing has been observed during video playback on some Lilliput displays. This problem has been observed only with TI OMAP4430 Panda Revision A3 boards equipped with the yellow chips around the HDMI port. It hasn't been observed with other board revisions. (Ref# 400898)

Fixed issues

The following reported issues have been fixed:

iPod

  • iPod Playback is no longer choppy. (Ref# J439788)
  • When the target is booted with an iPod connected, the iPod now plays music as expected. (Ref# J422442)
  • When you're connected to iPod via USB3.0 and playing a DLNA track, you can now switch media sources and play any track. (Ref# J413373)

Technical support

To obtain technical support for any QNX product, visit the Support area on our website (www.qnx.com). You'll find a wide range of support options, including community forums.

You can also view the forums on our community portal host, Foundry 27, http://community.qnx.com. There are forums for specific topics, including the QNX Neutrino RTOS, development tools, networking, Board Support Packages, and so on.

Where can I get more information?

Start with the help docs that accompany your software (Help > Help Contents). In the Contents pane on the left, you should find these entries for the products you've installed:

  • QNX SDK for Apps and Media
  • QNX Software Development Platform

When you click an entry, you'll see a table in the right pane to guide you through the docs for that product.