I have multiple tests for video quality. Normally Kodi is the smoothest on 3rd gen Core i3 NUC, and RP3 B+. Mythtv-frontend is equally smooth on NUC but not RP3.
Today I loaded Kodi 18 RC1 on Xubuntu 18.04 with kodi-pvr-mythtv and compared that to LibreELEC 8.90.008 Kodi 18 RC1 on a RP3 B+. Normally I could not tell the difference, but Kodi 18 RC1 on the Core i3 NUC is not as smooth as LibreELEC 8.90.008.
The way I compare is I have a saved TV Recording, MPEG2 video with a news scroll. Normally that is complete smooth, but now it's a stop and go jerkiness. Not real bad, but clearly not as good.
My table of test results:
RP3 B+ LibreELEC 8.25 smooth
RP3 B+ LibreELEC 8.90.8 smooth
Core i3 NUC Xubuntu 18.04 Kodi 18 rc1 slightly jerky
Core i3 NUC Xubuntu 18.04 Kodi 17.6 smooth
Core i3 NUC Xubuntu 18.04 mythfront 29.1 smooth
(2018-11-30, 17:37)jfabernathy Wrote: [ -> ]Core i3 NUC Xubuntu 18.04 Kodi 18 rc1 slightly jerky
Sounds like a dish in a restaurant that is not prepared very well.
Please enable debuggingin Kodi, exit Kodi, restart Kodi for a clean log, play the slightly jerky video, exit Kodi, and provide us with the
debug log (wiki) so we can start looking somewhere.
I enabled logging and add the log uploaded addon and exited Kodi. Then I restarted Kodi play enough of the video to see the slight jerky news crawl and stop the video and uploaded the log.
log link
Thanks... I see a pvr file being opened, but I don't see many (if any) jerky entries. (but then again, I'm not video dev/guru).
Do you also have all necessary resolution/framerate combinations enabled via the video whitelist option, apart from the usual "Adjust framerate to display" options? It's a new thing in Kodi 18.
Perhaps one of the devs can take a peek in your log as well.
(2018-11-30, 19:46)Klojum Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks... I see a pvr file being opened, but I don't see many (if any) jerky entries. (but then again, I'm not video dev/guru).
Do you also have all necessary resolution/framerate combinations enabled via the video whitelist option, apart from the usual "Adjust framerate to display" options? It's a new thing in Kodi 18.
Perhaps one of the devs can take a peek in your log as well.
I'm not sure what resolution/framerates are enabled. I've always uses kodi with just the pvr.mythtv installed. The videos are all recorded OTA ATSC programs using a HDHomerun Quatro. I guess I could edit the video down to 10 seconds and upload it for test purposes. It's just a network promo between programs and 6 sec of the start of a program.
Could you post your xorg.conf please.
my system is a standard Xubuntu 18.04.1 system. To the best of my knowledge it doesn't have an xorg.conf file. For most monitors and HDMI TVs it can determine what it needs without the config info that used to be supplied in the xorg.conf file.
When I do a locate xorg.conf I get this:
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-quirks.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-radeon.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/51-synaptics-quirks.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-synaptics.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-wacom.conf
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-intel/xorg.conf
/usr/share/man/man5/xorg.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/xorg.conf.d.5.gz
My monitor is a Samsung Smart TV connected via HDMI. So it really doesn't take anything to set it up. It's the one common piece in this test. I have the Xubuntu NUC on one port and the RP3 B+ on another.
Without an xorg.conf your system uses modesetting driver. You should force intel driver:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
cd /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-intel/xorg.conf 10-intel.conf
complete how-to:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=231955
that changed things, but not for the better. Now any video on the Core i3 is slightly jerky on the news crawl. On the same video the RP3 b+ is perfect.
Enable "sync playback to display". Ivy Bridge can't go clean 23.97 or 59.94
(2018-11-30, 20:46)jfabernathy Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not sure what resolution/framerates are enabled.
Settings, Player, Videos, Adjust display refresh rate, Always or On start / stop
Settings, System, Display, Whitelist: Enable resolution/refresh rate pairs your display can show (only native resolution if you wan't Kodi to do scalings).
okay, thanks. I did the "sync playback to display" with really no change, but the "Adjust display refresh rate, Always" and Whitelist: 1920x1080p 60hz and 59.94 hz seemed to fix things.
I guess I'm surprised that after a long time of running Ubuntu 18.04 and Standard Kodi 17.6 on my Ivy Bridge NUC with no issues, I now have to do a lot of technical stuff to get the same hardware to work on 18rc1. I can only hope this gets automated by Release date for the sake of those normal folks.
Again thanks.
hehe - yeah it fixes it, cause it won't allow your box to switch to 23.976 ...
One more question. my setup is NUC-> -HDMI- A/V receiver-> HDMI > Samsung 4K TV Do I want Audio Passthrough on or off? My receiver is setup for 5.1
To better understand this I following the guide you pointed me to and started over with Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Server and basically followed the guide exactly. Only difference, I did "sudo systemctl enable kodi" and now I have a dedicated Kodi NUC.
The part I don't know if I did right is I set "sync playback to display" to no and "audio pass through" to yes. My NUC is connected to the A/V receiver and it in turn is connected to the TV all with HDMI.
I seem to be getting 5.1 audio and a smooth picture.
Now I just have to get bluetooth working so I can use my Harmony Smart Control Remote