[manhas]

Hardware:
Mac Mini - Mid 2010 - 2,4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB - 8GB RAM

Software:
OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 (14F1808)
Nvidia Web Drivers (to fix horizontal tearing for 320M)
17.0-ALPHA2 Git:2016-06-30-f3ca4ea

Debug Log: http://pastebin.com/s6m3RpYm
Video settings when creating debug log: Display set to 1920x1080p@60Hz, Adjust Display Refresh Rate set to 'Always' and VTB Acceleration turned on.

Issue:
The FPS average around 15-16 frames per second when playing a video file while using 24Hz to 30Hz refresh rate with Kodi 17.0 Alpha 2, resulting in a choppy video playback. If the refresh rate is set to 50Hz or 60Hz the FPS average goes up to at least +35 frames per second giving a smooth playback.


I saw the thread [Mac Mini][v17 Nightly] Choppy Video Playback and thought my issue could be related, but after some experimenting with different settings for "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" and "VTB Acceleration" I'm not so sure.


My results after testing different settings:

• Same result using Nvidia Web Drivers and the Native OS X drivers.
  
• Turning "VTB Acceleration" on or off doesn't make a difference except that the CPU usage is lower with it turned on.
  
• When the refresh rate is 24/25/30Hz and it average 15 FPS the CPU usage is around 25%, when using 50/60Hz and it average +35 FPS the CPU usage is 18-20% for the same video file.
  
• "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" works as expected, but the issue appear to be related to the actual refresh rate used and not the switching of it:
  
  With "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" turned on, display refresh rate set to 60Hz:
  • Playing a 24p video switches the refresh rate to 24Hz resulting in average 15 FPS.
    
  • Playing a 25p video switches the refresh rate to 50Hz resulting in average +35 FPS.
    
  • Playing a 30p video switches the refresh rate to 60Hz resulting in average +35 FPS.
    
  
  With "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" turned off, display refresh rate set to 50/60Hz:
  • Playing a 24p video keep the refresh rate to 50/60Hz resulting in average +35 FPS.
    
  • Playing a 25p video keep the refresh rate to 50/60Hz resulting in average +35 FPS.
    
  • Playing a 30p video keep the refresh rate to 50/60Hz resulting in average +35 FPS.
    
  
  With "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" turned off, display refresh rate set to 24/25/30 Hz:
  • Playing a 24p video keep the refresh rate to 24/25/30Hz resulting in average 15 FPS.
    
  • Playing a 25p video keep the refresh rate to 24/25/30Hz resulting in average 15 FPS.
    
  • Playing a 30p video keep the refresh rate to 24/25/30Hz resulting in average 15 FPS.
    

As you can see the video file is played with FPS around 15 FPS when the refresh rate is set to 30Hz or lower, if the same video file is played with refresh rate 50 or 60 Hz I get a higher FPS. It doesn't matter if VTB Acceleration is used or not, or if the refresh rate was set to 24/25/30 Hz from the start or switched by Kodi to match the video.

Is this related to [Mac Mini][v17 Nightly] Choppy Video Playback? Any idea what could be wrong or what I could test?

This was not an issue on Kodi 16.x, but perhaps much have changed between them that could affect this.

[Memphiz]

Have you "sync to display" turned on or off?

[Memphiz]

@FernetMenta - something seems to go wrong here looking at that log...

[manhas]

Have you "sync to display" turned on or off?

It's turned off.

Here's my guisettings.xml: http://pastebin.com/xZSHWh5y

[FernetMenta]

Did you try setting number of render buffers to 2?

[manhas]

Tried it now, no difference between Renders Buffers 2 and 3.

[FernetMenta]

@FernetMenta - something seems to go wrong here looking at that log...

Something got broken with fullscreen. GUI rendering performs awful on my 2nd screen as soon as I go full screen.

[manhas]

I've noticed that I can easily reproduce the issue by running Kodi in window mode and change the refresh rate in the OS X display settings. As soon as I change to refresh rate 24/25/30Hz the FPS goes down, if I change to 50/60Hz it goes back up again.

I also noticed that refresh rate 30Hz will average around 20 FPS while 24/25Hz are both running around 15-16 FPS, not sure if that's helpful in anyway.

Here's a debug log from 17.0-ALPHA3 Git:2016-07-14-b0970fe when I run in Window mode and the display at 60Hz, I then change the refresh from 60Hz to 50, 30, 25, 24Hz and then finally back to 60Hz again: http://pastebin.com/uGw1hYZ5

[manhas]

I've tested the nightly kodi-20160812-29b260c-master-x86_64 and so far I get correct FPS and smooth playback for 24p videos.

But only for 720p movies, if I play a 1080p movie the FPS is correctly averaging around 24 FPS but the playback is still choppy. So perhaps I'm now having the same issue as: [Mac Mini][v17 Nightly] Choppy Video Playback.

When I turn off VTB acceleration both 720p and 1080p are played smooth, even if the CPU is working hard when playing 1080p and 3D movies and sometimes goes over 100%. So hopefully this should work on my Mac Mini.

[Memphiz]

What if you have VTB enabled and go into windowed mode (and make the window nearly as big as fullscreen). Still choppy then?

[manhas]

With VTB enabled and in window mode fully expanded, running in 1080p resolution and playing a 1080p video it's still choppy, perhaps a little bit better than fullscreen but it could also just be placebo.

If I change to 720p resolution and in window mode the 1080p video is less choppy. But it's still noticeable and not as smooth as running with VTB disabled.

[Waltman]

I moved my reply to http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2393236

[Defik]

Same here as Manhas. If Memphiz or anyone else need my assistance, Im ready to send log or anything else.

[jingai]

Mid 2011 Mac mini with Intel HD 3000 here. Same issue.

[bigbadrabbit]

Using latest nightly - i can also can confirm the described playback problems.