[NicApicella]

Hello!

For a while now I've had issues with some videos. Primarily, when streaming (most) TV channels to my Mac.
(I'm running Kodi 16.0 on Mac OS El Capitan 10.11.4.)

I thought the error to be on my side; I've recently found out the culprit: "Allow hardware acceleration – VDADecoder" was activated.

In fact, deactivating that particular setting fixes everything. But with it active, I get a black (sometimes green) screen (audio plays fine). As far as I (think to have) figured out, the issue arises with some particular codecs.

So my question is: Is this a bug or known issue? Or is VDADecoder on Mac OS buggy/broken (as I've seen mentioned in a few places over the years)? Or am I doing it wrong?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated!
Nicola

watch gallery

[Memphiz]

nvidia gpu?

[NicApicella]

Hey!

nvidia gpu?

Nope, it's the default "Intel HD Graphics 5000" installed in my MacBook Air…

Nicola

[Memphiz]

well we switched from our own vda decoder to ffmpegs vda decoder. There are some reports that it does behave like you said in some situations. Seems this needs a fix in ffmpeg then maybe.

Are you able to provide a sample that shows this issue (not more then 50mb in size)?

[NicApicella]

Are you able to provide a sample that shows this issue (not more then 50mb in size)?

I have the issue when streaming a TV signal; but I guess I should probably be able to do a (very short) recording (without any postprocessing) and get the same result. I'll play around a bit and get back to you later today.

[NicApicella]

Are you able to provide a sample that shows this issue (not more then 50mb in size)?

Sorry for the delay; life got in the way… ;-)

Anyway, here's a sample (~32MB, ~30s) with which the issue occurs (if you have any better idea than Dropbox, let me know):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqff64rwrycnr53/ZIB.ts?dl=0

If there's any way for me to help out, I'm here for you!
Nicola

[NicApicella]

Are you able to provide a sample that shows this issue (not more then 50mb in size)?

Hey Memphiz, did you get a chance to check out the issue? I uploaded a relevant file a couple days ago.

Nicola

[Memphiz]

We are transitioning to ffmpeg VTB support instead of VDA (VideoToolbox vs. VideoDecodeAcceleration). There is no fix for the issue you see on intel hd 5000 for now - we hope switching to vtb will solve it ... (though its not ready for testing yet).

[Memphiz]

Really early version of vtb enabled kodi:

http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/osx/x...x86_64.dmg

does it solve your problem?

[NicApicella]

We are transitioning to ffmpeg VTB support instead of VDA (VideoToolbox vs. VideoDecodeAcceleration). There is no fix for the issue you see on intel hd 5000 for now - we hope switching to vtb will solve it ... (though its not ready for testing yet).

Thanks for getting back to me: That's good to know!

Really early version of vtb enabled kodi:

http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/osx/x...x86_64.dmg

does it solve your problem?

It does seem to work: it works both with hardware acceleration disabled and enabled (~60% vs. ~35% CPU usage). Though I cannot say for sure whether it solves my problem, since the TV-portion appears not to be completely working on this alpha. (Everything seems to be pointing toward it working, will wait for release!)

Thanks!
Nicola

[jrenn]

Hi,

I also have problems streaming H.264 encoded HD channels with DVBLogic plugin.
Everything works fine after I disable the VDADecoder option in settings.
I'm am using a 2012 Mac Mini with Intel HD 4000 graphics.

Are there plans to switch to the ffmpeg VTB support with Krypton?
Will this fix all issues?

[Memphiz]

Its already switched in current nightlies ... and obviously doesn't work for all intel GPUs the same way ...