Posts: 14
Joined: Oct 2014
Reputation:
0
I've installed xbmc Gotham on the Fire TV and it works very well indeed.
The video on some programmes though is not 100% smooth. On normal close up shots and when nothing is moving in the picture it looks fine but if you get a slow panning type shot the video is not 100% smooth. It's as if it skips one or two frames every second or two.
I was wondering if others are getting this and if there are any settings I can adjust to help.
I've read that disabling the MediaCodec makes video smoother but looks the same to me.
Any ideas are welcome.
Posts: 31,445
Joined: Jan 2011
2014-10-26, 03:00
(This post was last modified: 2014-10-26, 03:01 by Ned Scott.)
If I understand correctly, this is likely a matter of refresh rate, and why some people insist on using hardware that supports refresh rate switching on the fly. Basically, your Fire TV is sending out a number of frames per second that are probably different than what the actual video file is using. Android-based devices can change their refresh rate, but currently XBMC/Kodi can't do this on-demand, so a video in 30 or 60 Hz might look fine, but when you view a movie in 24 Hz things look weird. This is especially noticeable on panning shots, as you've described.
Often it's not noticeable enough for a lot of people to care, or the type of videos they watch most often either don't require switching the rate, or works great with everything as "default" for the videos they watch (whatever the refresh rate might typically be for your country, as some are different). For those who are bothered by it, we're hoping that future versions of Android, and other Android-based devices like the Fire TV, will get refresh rate switching on-the-fly in the near future.
You might also be able to manually switch the over-all refresh rate for specific videos, if the system settings (outside of XBMC/Kodi) support it, but this can be rather tedious and impractical, since you need to know the refresh rate of the video before switching the system settings.
Posts: 14
Joined: Oct 2014
Reputation:
0
That sounds like exactly what I'm getting. The wife can't see it but I can so I know what you mean about it not being that noticeable.
The fire TV is set to Auto but I have tried it on 60 & 50 Hz but still the same.
There is a setting in xbmc that says to change the refresh rate to the monitor but as it's a TV I bet it can't work out what the refresh rate is!
Looking forward to an update. Do you think Kodi version 14 will have that feature in it?
Posts: 31,445
Joined: Jan 2011
For automatic refresh rate switching, that update will need to come from Android/Fire OS itself.
Posts: 31,445
Joined: Jan 2011
Actually, XBMC/Kodi for OS X does have on-the-fly refresh rate changing for the last couple of versions, IIRC. At the very least, it's there in v13.2.
Posts: 9,033
Joined: Feb 2012
Reputation:
551
2014-10-28, 16:26
(This post was last modified: 2014-10-28, 16:27 by wrxtasy.)
Sorry I take that back Ned.
Its OSX that prevents the refresh rate switch, everything is output as 60Hz and locked down. Typical Apple.
I've installed SwitchResX and plugged in a few custom modes of 23.976Hz and 50Hz and XBMC Gotham 13.2 does now switch on-the-fly.
Much smoother video panning.
Happy times.
Posts: 9,033
Joined: Feb 2012
Reputation:
551
You will have to set video output to 50Hz in the Amazon Fire TV Android OS settings first if thats possible and then start XBMC.
Posts: 14
Joined: Oct 2014
Reputation:
0
I don't know if this can work or I'm just imagining it but setting XMBC to use software acceleration looks like it may be a touch smoother!!
Is that possible?
Posts: 31,445
Joined: Jan 2011
Certainly. Software video decoding can compensate for a lot more variables than hardware video decoding. The only reason we like hardware video decoding is because it allows low power devices to handle complex video. If the device can handle the same video in software, in some cases the video might have higher quality.
Posts: 1
Joined: Nov 2014
Reputation:
0
Ned,
Forgive me if you've already answered this elsewhere, but is it a possibility that a future version of Kodi will be able to fix this issue for AFTV? As it is for me, the dropped frames make the video unwatchable, and I'm going to return my AFTV.
Posts: 31,445
Joined: Jan 2011
It's possible, sure, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Posts: 253
Joined: Sep 2004
Reputation:
7
Knocks
Senior Member
Posts: 253
2015-02-26, 10:32
(This post was last modified: 2015-02-26, 10:32 by Knocks.)
I watch almost exclusively Blu-Ray rips, which are encoded at a constant frame rate of 23.976 fps. How should I tweak Fire TV settings to get rid of the jerkiness?
