[Pirivan]

Brief update in case anyone now/in the future is curious where I ended up with this issue. I attempted several additional "fixes" recently:

• Setup a custom advancedsettings.xml with the settings listed in the last post on this thread: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=250743
  • Result: Playback still halted
    
  • Tested forcing my QNAP to SMBv1 and mounted the SMB shares on the Shield itself to see if the new cache settings eliminated the buffering with this configuration.  The results seemed WORSE than before with even more buffering issues on playback
    
• Setup NFS on a QNAP share and tested playback (I had to use NFS v2/v3, v4 did NOT work when attempting to connect from Kodi)
  • Result: Playback still halted randomly just like with SMB: 2020-01-05 23:16:38.649 T:29650   ERROR: Read - Error( -5, nfs_service failed )
    
• Tested with several new nightly masters in my original configuration with SMB shares setup in Kodi
  • Result: Continued playback issues
    
• SMBv1 w/ legacy security forced in Kodi
  • Result: Still quits playback randomly
    
• Tested playback after disabling developer options on the ShieldTV
  • Result: Still quits playback randomly
    

At this point of the suggestions I have seen online the only other that I may attempt is completely flattening the Android TV OS and reinstalling it and Kodi on the Shield TV 2015.  I'm reticent to do this because I don't honestly think it will work considering my Android TV install is incredibly vanilla and was setup from scratch recently along with a brand new Kodi install.  So, I was starting from a fairly 'blank slate'.  However, I DID start with a very old/outdated version of the Android TV after a factory reset and it required a number of OS upgrades to get to the latest, so it's possible that the upgrades 'created' the problem somehow but I don't have much confidence in that.

Alternatively, I may be sort of at the end of the road with this issue and will have to live with one of two options:

• Live with playback randomly exiting until either Nvidia somehow patches the issue and fixes it or the Kodi devs do. 
  • Possible that Nvidia or Kodi devs may fix it incidentally while working on some other feature. I am currently on the Alpha Kodi branch and the beta/hotfix Nvidia Shield TV branch.
    
  • Maybe the Kodi devs will at some point offer the library that mrmc uses for smb access (libsmb/libsmbclient is what mrmc uses I think) as an optional feature in the settings UI.  That would solve the problem for me as that seems to work in mrmc with files on my Qnap.
    
• Migrate over to mrmc.  I don't like that it's a more limited version of Kodi that feels less configurable so that it can be in the Android/iOS stores but it looks like a very solid application that would meet my pretty simple requirements (TV Shows, Movies and Music playback basically).
  • It feels like a "defeat" to do this but it might be my best option if the random playback exits are driving me crazy
    

[VonMagnum]

The odd thing is that KODI 18.5 Leia works perfectly fine on my FireTV 4K (2nd gen) unit.  It doesn't support Atmos, etc., but it also doesn't randomly exit.  Thus, I don't think it's KODI, specifically that's "causing" the problem per se, but something in the Shield is interrupting it somehow.  And whatever it is, it's something NEW in the last firmware update as it did not exit like this before that update in 18.4 Leia here.  Both the random exits and the ProjectM visualizer "skips" started after that last big firmware update.  I wish there was a simple way to back it up to the prior version.  Going back to whatever was on it when I got it with a full reset isn't great either as it had other issues on the Shield.  What I want is the last firmware version where pretty much everything worked.  NVidia has been promising SMB3 support on both ends (server and client) for over a year now and only managed to get it on one end.  Yes, they've supported the Shield for a long time, but it's a long time between updates and SMB3 came out several years ago.  They've been very slow at fixing major shortcomings like that (given Windows 10 doesn't want you using SMB1 as it's a security risk, at least on Windows.  Oddly, the Mac is compatible with SMB1 still and I've read nothing about limiting it here.  But then Apple never supported indexing or whatever it's called where it brings up the master directory list.  It's always behaved like SMB3 does on Windows 10, but does support the SMB1 and SMB2 transfer protocols.  Oddly, most of its compatibility problems over the years seemed to be centered around not talking nice to SMB1 on Windows (but seemed to work with KODI OK once you got the address in manually).

[Pirivan]

@VonMagnum Agreed, it's for sure not Kodi itself causing the issue.  However, it does really appear to be some combination of the library Kodi uses to handle SMB + the Shield (plus possibly certain SMB targets like my QNAP).  That's why playback works properly on the Shield when using mrmc, it uses a different smb library.  If it was purely the Shield itself causing the problem and only the Shield, playback issues would be present across all applications.  Completely agreed that it may be a while before Nvidia gets around to issuing a fix for this.  Looking at their support forums they have a LOT of outstanding bugs/issues across the 2015/2017/2019 models and I am not even sure if this issue is really even on their priority list.

[VonMagnum]

@VonMagnum Agreed, it's for sure not Kodi itself causing the issue.  However, it does really appear to be some combination of the library Kodi uses to handle SMB + the Shield (plus possibly certain SMB targets like my QNAP).  That's why playback works properly on the Shield when using mrmc, it uses a different smb library.  If it was purely the Shield itself causing the problem and only the Shield, playback issues would be present across all applications.  Completely agreed that it may be a while before Nvidia gets around to issuing a fix for this.  Looking at their support forums they have a LOT of outstanding bugs/issues across the 2015/2017/2019 models and I am not even sure if this issue is really even on their priority list.

If it were only the SMB library, why do I get "stops" when using NFS as well?  I get the impression it has something to do with Shield integration in terms of what's playing, voice search, etc. that was added in Leia.  That's great, but if it's causing random stops, I'd rather do without.  There's an update in firmware for my Zidoo X9S that supposedly gets Leia working on it (I've been watching KODI on it via Krypton since this "stopping" business is too annoying to keep using the Shield).  I'll need to try that next, but I'll have to backup my Krypton libraries, etc. that I've been maintaining independently of Leia on it since I can't just copy the newer library over anymore since they are now different.

[Pirivan]

If it were only the SMB library, why do I get "stops" when using NFS as well?  I get the impression it has something to do with Shield integration in terms of what's playing, voice search, etc. that was added in Leia.  That's great, but if it's causing random stops, I'd rather do without.  There's an update in firmware for my Zidoo X9S that supposedly gets Leia working on it (I've been watching KODI on it via Krypton since this "stopping" business is too annoying to keep using the Shield).  I'll need to try that next, but I'll have to backup my Krypton libraries, etc. that I've been maintaining independently of Leia on it since I can't just copy the newer library over anymore since they are now different. 

Right, I see the stops using NFS as well which pointed to an issue with the Shield itself in my mind.  However, the issue is also resolved by swapping to using mrmc, which points to the SMB library that mrmc as a "fix" given that the Shield is a constant there as well.  Give using mrmc Lite on your Shield a try and see if playback via SMB works there (with the default SMB settings/configuration in mrmc).

[VonMagnum]

If it were only the SMB library, why do I get "stops" when using NFS as well?  I get the impression it has something to do with Shield integration in terms of what's playing, voice search, etc. that was added in Leia.  That's great, but if it's causing random stops, I'd rather do without.  There's an update in firmware for my Zidoo X9S that supposedly gets Leia working on it (I've been watching KODI on it via Krypton since this "stopping" business is too annoying to keep using the Shield).  I'll need to try that next, but I'll have to backup my Krypton libraries, etc. that I've been maintaining independently of Leia on it since I can't just copy the newer library over anymore since they are now different. 

Right, I see the stops using NFS as well which pointed to an issue with the Shield itself in my mind.  However, the issue is also resolved by swapping to using mrmc, which points to the SMB library that mrmc as a "fix" given that the Shield is a constant there as well.  Give using mrmc Lite on your Shield a try and see if playback via SMB works there (with the default SMB settings/configuration in mrmc). 

I'll try to give it a go when I get some time to set it up (I had it on my FireTV before).  But how can you be certain it's the SMB library that fixes it and not something else that got branched off at some point?  MrMC has been a separate build for several years now.

[ZombieViewer]

Unfortunately I am in the same boat as you.

Kodi was working fine up until version 17. With 18 and all subsequent development nightly builds, it has become completely unusable.

The only major difference, is that my Kodi will also crash when in the menu. Videos play for a little while and randomly exit.

My samba shares are on a Synology NAS (minimum version: SMB2, maximum version: SMB3, encryption mode: Auto, enable opportunistic locking, enable SMB2 lease, apply unix permissions, enable wildcard search cache, enable smb durable handles).

I've tried the same things as you and a few others, but nothing worked so far.

One thing I've noticed, is that Kodi refuses to start if there is no internet connection, all I see is a black screen. I am not sure if that is relevant, maybe Kodi development nightly builds need to phone-home in some way during startup?

[black_eagle]

@ZombieViewer do you have a debug log (wiki) from Kodi showing one of these crashes ?  Difficult if not impossible to diagnose anything without one.  Also, Kodi does not require an internet connection to start up.

[Pirivan]

@VonMagnum Not 100% certain it's the SMB library, no. It could certainly be something else in mrmc that allows it to work, it just seems like a possible candidate given the symptoms and the logs Kodi generates when the error occurs.  Unless we could replace the smb library in kodi with the one used by mrmc it would be hard to be 100% certain on that theory.

@ZombieViewer If you have time/interest it might be worth setting your Synology to minimum SMB1 and then testing out the free mrmc lite on your Shield TV (use the settings for SMB in mrmc lite) and see if you encounter the same playback issues.  I am curious if my results where playback doesn't exit can be replicated by other Shield TV users.  I tried using VLC and encountered similar playback issues (not sure which SMB library it uses) but mrmc functioned properly.

[ZombieViewer]

Some 6 months ago I tried that. I enabled all debug log but it had no crash information, it just abruptly stopped. It was also quite hard to get it out of the Shield, I had to connect a keyboard and mouse, along with a usb stick and install a crappy file manager software, to copy the log to the USB stick, it was a horrible experience I don't want to try again.

 

@ZombieViewer do you have a debug log (wiki) from Kodi showing one of these crashes ?  Difficult if not impossible to diagnose anything without one.  Also, Kodi does not require an internet connection to start up.

[black_eagle]

Some 6 months ago I tried that. I enabled all debug log but it had no crash information, it just abruptly stopped. It was also quite hard to get it out of the Shield, I had to connect a keyboard and mouse, along with a usb stick and install a crappy file manager software, to copy the log to the USB stick, it was a horrible experience I don't want to try again.

 

@ZombieViewer do you have a debug log (wiki) from Kodi showing one of these crashes ?  Difficult if not impossible to diagnose anything without one.  Also, Kodi does not require an internet connection to start up.

Umm.  There is an addon that uploads logs in the official repo.  In your case, if you have had to restart Kodi then it should be the old log, not the current one.  No need for keyboards, usb sticks or anything other than Kodi.  Still, no debug log, no issue.

[VonMagnum]

Some 6 months ago I tried that. I enabled all debug log but it had no crash information, it just abruptly stopped. It was also quite hard to get it out of the Shield, I had to connect a keyboard and mouse, along with a usb stick and install a crappy file manager software, to copy the log to the USB stick, it was a horrible experience I don't want to try again.

 

@ZombieViewer do you have a debug log (wiki) from Kodi showing one of these crashes ?  Difficult if not impossible to diagnose anything without one.  Also, Kodi does not require an internet connection to start up.

Umm.  There is an addon that uploads logs in the official repo.  In your case, if you have had to restart Kodi then it should be the old log, not the current one.  No need for keyboards, usb sticks or anything other than Kodi.  Still, no debug log, no issue.  

Pirivan has a debug log.  Still no issue, apparently. 

Nothing is more annoying than going to a lot of bother to get information to the devs (you can't even post them here; you have to create a github account of whatever) only for nothing to ever happen.  I don't go out of my way anymore.  I can't think of a single thing I've ever mentioned, suggested or reported that ever got fixed on here, debug log or not.  (e.g. still no tag reader that works for movies even though Apple has had one for 14 years now, still no fix for music skips over the network or a buffer to prevent it (they used to say it was because I used a Mac, but it does the same with Windows 10 here and I've even replaced the router so I call BS).  The reply is nearly always, we await you to give us the code.  Yeah, if I could fix or add the things myself, I would have done so and probably kept it to myself with the attitude shown to normal users on here over the years including we can insult you all we want, but you say one word back and wham.  Yeah, I don't really care to talk to devs anymore and they surely don't like talking to me.  I'm only here to talk to other users.  If a dev wants to be helpful once in a blue moon, great, but I've given up on them after all these years.

[Pirivan]

@VonMagnum 

To be clear, I purposefully have not uploaded a full debug log and opened a github issue as I was trying to investigate the issue without involving the developers.  I was/am attempting to determine if the issue could be worked around with settings etc. without requiring any dev to code a fix.

[ZombieViewer]

fair enough, I went ahead and re-did the procedure:

1) clear cache, clear data
2) start kodi
3) comes up empty because I've cleared everything
4) navigate to settings and enable debug
5) crash
6) copy the two logs (kodi.log and kodi.old.log) to a USB stick

the two logs are:

https://paste.kodi.tv/onixibimij.kodi

https://paste.kodi.tv/agavuralah.kodi

I'd appreciate any help.

Thank you.

 

Umm.  There is an addon that uploads logs in the official repo.  In your case, if you have had to restart Kodi then it should be the old log, not the current one.  No need for keyboards, usb sticks or anything other than Kodi.  Still, no debug log, no issue. 

[VonMagnum]

I tried something slightly different today.  I forced SMB1 mode with the Shield/Mac to see if it behaved any differently.  I put on The Matrix (Atmos 2K) and at 35 minutes in, it "froze" for a moment, but then continued.  It didn't stop.  It played fine until 1 hour 40 minutes and then all hell started breaking loose with it freezing and stopping a bit until about 1:49 when it just froze (still didn't stop, though).  No amount of changing soundtracks, etc. made any difference.  I loaded the same part in the BD "Fan" version (that uses the DVD color timing and original DTS soundtrack) and the BD (green tint) version to the same parts and they both froze too.  It was too weird.  I tried switching back to SMB2 and SMB3 and no difference.  Finally, I just rebooted the Shield and voila.  No freezing.  All three played fine through the same section as if there never was any issue at all.  

So, just when I thought maybe SMB1 traded "stops" for "freezes" and that perhaps adding a bit more buffering to the advanced.xml file might just get it working perfectly, it did that whole freeze on everything bit.  Given a reboot cleared it up, I'm not sure WTF that was.  Now I pretty much have to start all over again.... Maybe I'll increase the buffer ahead a bit first and see what it does with SMB1 (got to watch something else though; I can't sit through The Matrix again so soon).