Problems with amcodec Kodi 16.0
#1
Having tracked down this issue for a few days I've finally managed to figure out that it's amcodec causing a near constant buffering on all channels from headend.

I was wondering if there was a way to force the client to use an alternative codec to amcodec for SD channels? With it disabled in the video settings the channels play fine but as a knock on effect our HD and 4k movies are jerky as anything as they aren't using amcodec for acceleration. So we need amcodec only to decode 720p and above.

This is on a T95 android box running an octa core Mali GPU and a 64bit Quad core amlogic A5 main processor and Android 5.1.

Any suggestions for either the backend or frontend would be appreciated.
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#2
Sounds like an Android client problem more than a tvheadend issue. That said, if your back end is powerful enough, you may be able to transcode the SD channels in tvh, see if that helps?

It's odd not to be able to play MPEG2/SD, though. I wonder what's up with the stream that's making the box stutter. Does it happen only on live, or on recordings as well? Any difference between a recording played through the pvr.hts addon versus playing it over a file share or playing it locally?
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#3
I don;t think it's actually the client at fault, I think the version of amcodec isn't supporting the latest generation of amlogic chipsets. I remember in 15.2 it wouldn't play if your TV wasn't 1080p- zoomed out badly so had to be disabled by anyone with a 1080i TV.

I've more than enough grunt on the server to transcode but there's 120 or so IPTV channels we're running into headend. We can transcode using the source panel but in all honesty what would we transcode to when it seems all SD is the issue. For now I've disabled amcodec because there's no other option but as a result bye bye 4K rendering.
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#4
Well, AFAICT amcodec is deprecated, or soon to be - see here.

I guess it boils down to whether your box can play MPEG2/SD using amcodec in Kodi or not. After that, it's firstly a case of trying MediaCodec or something else; after that, you may be transcoding to SD H.264 just to make it work on that box.

I'll butt out now, though, as I'm really no expert in this.

MODS: does this thread better belong in the Android section vs tvheadend specifically, if it's a codec/playback issue? It might get better attention if nothing else...
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#5
The boxes are fine playing it, they're actually very, very beefy units but they just don't like playing it via the htsp client. They've said amcodec would be deprecated for long time, I thought it may have gone in Jarvis but it's still there. It's annoying because the last generation using s802 processors play everything fine via amcodec, it's only the new s905 that have issues.

If only there was a way of simply disabling amcodec in the headend client. It's a queer old issue with it affecting both h264 and mpeg2 alike.
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#6
Okay, so we're getting closer - are you saying that it's only via pvr.hts? And not if you record the files?

I'm still not sure if it's a stream/CODEC issue or a tvheadend issue. If it's something to do with the addon, then negge or kso(ooo.....) might have something to add.
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#7
You should post a debug log.
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#8
Known issue on the new AML S905, particularly if the Firmware does not have the correctly File R/W permissions setup to allow Kodi to dynamic refresh rate switch to match TV refresh rates to the video content. (Sound familiar ?)

If you disable amcodec, video playback will use mediacodec. Only problem with that is software decoding, and crap CPU software deinterlacing will take place for Interlaced mpeg2 and h264 resulting in Jerky video playback for HD and above.

Kodi decoding using amcodec on the AML S905, currently are not happy companions. The S905 as a media player is Ok so long as you only use mediacodec and do not need to deinterlace any content. AMLogic changed a bunch of Display mode hooks in the Kernel and broke a lot of video playback compatibility when using amcodec Sad

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#9
Thanks wrxtasy- I couldn't actually find a way to disable de-interlacing using mediacodec to see if it helps. Anyone know which file R/W might need changing?

Anybody know if the Kodi devs are going to look at this in detail? Seems to be a massive problem when you consider the s905 is now the standard amlogic processor set replacing all s8xx series chipsets.
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Problems with amcodec Kodi 16.00