[u156531]

I was having problems with streaming HD videos. The video and audio were out of sync. I now installed the Crystal HD and I've tried running with Openelec and Crystalbuntu. The videos with each are taking a very long time to start and are still out of sync. They also have a tendency to freeze up. Also I'm using component output with the optical audio connection. Does anyone have a suggestion as to what to try? Are there settings to change or files to install?

[wrxtasy]

Firstly make sure you are NOT running all manner of add-ons as the ATV1 has limited RAM to use, the basic ones are fine.

Crystalbuntu:
XBMC > System > Settings > System > Video > Acceleration > Allow hardware acceleration (Crystal HD) > Enable

Then:
Settings > System > Audio Output > and set the configuration below:

Audio Output:
Bottom Left - select Settings Level - Expert

- Audio Output Device - Default (HDA Intel ALC889A Analog) (This is the only way to get Passthrough via SPDIF to work properly)
- Number of Channels - 2.0 (Don't worry as this is only the number of transport modulation channels NOT the 5.1 speaker setup when passing through via SPDIF)
- Output configuration - Optimized
- Stereo upmix - Enable
- Normalize levels on downmix - Disable
- Resample Quality - Medium
- Enable Passthrough - Enable
- Passthrough output device - the one with SPDIF in it.
- Enable Dolby Digital Transcoding - Enable

Then select whatever options your receiver is capable of decoding ie Dolby Digital AC3, DTS etc...

TV's are usually only capable of decoding AC3.

[u156531]

Wrxtasy, Thanks for the detailed information. At first it seemed to fix the problems. The video and audio are now insync and the videos seemd to be playing without freezing up. Unfortunately I later discovered that the videos were freezing up later in the video. It almost seems that the ATV is running out of memory before it reaches the end of a video. One thing I didn't mention before is that I'm running off of the HDD if that is any help. Are there buffering setting that I can change? If you have any other sugestions to try let me know.
Thanks agan for your help.

[wrxtasy]

I don't think the HDD has anything to do with it.

Just confirming you are running Crystalbuntu ?

CrystalHD support has been dropped in XBMC and only the Gotham version supports it.

Your TV may not be capable of refresh rate switching when running Component video output to sync the audio correctly.

More tweaking required:

If living in a NTSC TV region - refresh rate is 60Hz standard.
PAL TV region - 50Hz

XBMC > System > Settings > System > Video Output > Refresh Rate > select 50 or 60 depending on your TV region.

System > Settings > Video > Playback >

- Adjust display refresh rate to match video - Off
- Sync playback to display - enabled
- A/V sync method - Video clock (Resample audio)

You can also try this is problems still persist
-A/V sync method - Audio clock

[u156531]

With these latest settings the videos stream great and don't freeze up. The poblem now is that when I stop playing the videos and exit the youtube addon no othere addon will start. When I select a different addon the working circle just keeps spinning and spinning. Any work around for this?

[wrxtasy]

Be advised that the ATV1 only has 256MB of RAM to play with.

Adding all manner of add-ons particularly ones that are not even in the official XBMC repository will bog down Crystalbuntu eventually, and you will have problems like the one you mention.

Playing back movies, TV, music , Live broadcast TV streaming and using basic Addons in Crystalbuntu is fine, just don't expect miracles due to RAM limitations.

Solution - Spring Clean - first by uninstalling any unused skins, then thoroughly uninstalling ALL unused addons. Experiment by adding them back one at a time and watch for issues.

I will not discuss add-ons on here that are not in the XBMC / Kodi repos due to forum rules.
If an official add-on is giving you trouble ask questions in that particular add-on developers thread here on the forum.

[u156531]

Wrxtasy, You mentioned that CrystalHD support has been dropped in XBMC and only the Gotham version supports it. Does this mean if I have the CrystalHD installed in the ATV and I upgrade to the next version of Kodi the CrystalHD will not function correctly? Wil the necessary driver files be missing?

[Ned Scott]

Yes and yes

[wrxtasy]

EDIT 4th Feb: Kodi 14.1 stable (the latest) with Crystal HD Hardware acceleration is back after I reverted it back into Helix. A few other bug fixes addressed as well.

Install instructions here:
http://forum.osmc.tv/showthread.php?tid=...#pid115746