Kodi Community Forum

Hi everyone, I have post about this on a wrong place previously -sorry for that-

Well, it looks like I am also experiencing this frame dropping / video stuttering, that other users have reported using boxes.

I am running Kodi on a Philips OLED-TV 65OLED873/12 (Android 7), reading the files via SMB. I´m positive this is not a buffering issue between the PC <-> TV.

I been trying to adjust / modify some of the player parameters, as the refresh rate, and activating / disabling MediaCodec and MediaCodec (Surface) options.

Depending of the different combinations and the played files (from SD to 4K), outcome is different, from a very unpleasant playback, up to a some decent, smooth playback, but getting those small frame drops / stuttering time to time.

I been reading all your replies, and looking into the support forum, but it looks like the issue has not been identified yet, am I right?

Any ideas, or tips?

Hi tormentoman,

I'm experiencing exactly the same issue with my newly bought Philips 55OLED903 (also running Android 7 and Kodi 18.1) which is sharing a very similar hardware than your TV I believe (Mediatek SoC).
I've probably read the same posts and articles related to these kind of stuttering issues without being able to find a solution.
My impression is that the root cause is on the automatic refresh rate which doesn't work properly although it's enabled, so the TV doesn't switch to 24hz when reading 23,976fps content and stays instead stuck to 50hz.

On my former setup (an 11years old Sony LCD + HTPC + Win7 + Kodi 17.6), the 24p mode was well supported (and even quickly confirmed on the TV OSD each time I was lauching a movie) and the videos were very smooth.
The Philips is also supporting the 24hz refresh rate, but doesn't indicate it when it is used (or maybe there is a way to display it that I don't know) which is making the investigations a bit more complicated...

Anyway, I'm also very interested by any progress towards a solution and will continue to share my experience here if I find new interesting things.
Any feedback is of course welcome!

Hi moulinex78,

Well, at leat is not a problem of my model only :-(

Indeed, Philips 65OLED873/12 runs a MediaTek MT5596A SoC, with a ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and a ARM Mali-T860 GPU. You may find a comparative of the two models here https://www.displayspecifications.com/en.../eb9596390

But I do not believe the problem is relate with the refresh rate, I have tested the TV by connecting it to a PC via HDMI, and forced a 24Hz refresh rate: movies run perfectly fine, both 1080p /2160p, SD, etc.

I have started to think that the root cause is deeper, or better said, I have realized recently that the output from Kodi is is not 4K - 2160p, but 1080p instead!, so this might be causing a kind of downsampling on the TV side, leading to the issues. You may find additional details in this tread: 340992

The thing is as another used has reported (for a Sony), when playing a 4K video file, if using the option while plating, video size is set to "original", video gets zoomed, while by doing the same with a 1080p video file, image gets perfectly fitted. Also, by using a 720p video, image fills about 1/4 of the screen. So it looks like 4K videos are downscaled, or in other works, output is not set at 2160p.

I´m going to conduct some tests tonight, I´ll keep you updated.

Hi tormentoman,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

I would like to elaborate further on why I still suspect the auto refresh-rate system in Kodi as potentially related to our issue:

I also did the test with my former HTPC system (Win7 + Kodi 17.6) that I connected by HDMI to my new Philips OLED TV ==> all videos are playing smoothly, no juddering/stuttering at all in any of the 1080p movies I've played.
Since I know that, with my HTPC, Kodi has always been able to detect and auto-switch the output refresh rate to 24hz before sending it to the TV (as it was displayed on the OSD of my old Sony), this is for me the evidence that the Philips OLED can support correctly the 24p mode as well when received from a source. 
I understand you've made a similar test on your side and have reached the same conclusion, so I think we can both agree that the issue is probably NOT on the TV itself and with its handling of a 24p signal.

My suspicion is therefore on the output refresh rate sent by Kodi, and more precisely on the "adjust refresh rate" functionality (under the video player settings).
With my HTPC (Kodi 17.6 Windows thus), this setting was set to 'Always' and I know that this was doing the 'magic' to get a true 24p signal sent by Kodi to the television and have very smooth videos as a result.
On the Philps OLED (Kodi 18.1 Android), this same setting is obviously set to 'Always' as well, but considering the stuttering issues we are experiencing, I have some doubts that this is working as it should.

Of course, there are many differences between these 2 setups: the Kodi version (17.6 vs 18.1), the OS (win7 VS android) and the hardware (CPU, GPU, ...).

On the kodi version, I was going to uninstall 18.1 and install manually 17.6 from the apk file to see if the issue would be the same.
But before doing that, I've downloaded and installed SPMC from the Play Store since this is an 'old' fork of Kodi 16.7 but unfortunately I observed the same issue.
So I'm not too sure 17.6 would work better... did you try it by any chance?

Another track I'm exploring is this new "White List" feature in Kodi 18.
As explained in this thread (https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=331840&page=2), "Kodi will only goes to switch if the exact resolution and refresh rate is matched in the whitelist, otherwise match the desktop resolution (and refresh rate)."
When I look at my "White List" Under Kodi 18.1, there is only one entry being "1920x1080p 60.00Hz" and there is no possibility to add extra ones. This is for me the main reason why the "adjust refresh rate" doesn't activate and doesn't swith to 24p since there are no such entries allowed in the list. Question: do you have the same in your White List? This might also be the reason why 4k videos are played / downsampled to 1080p by Kodi since no 4k resolution are white listed and therefore the "desktop" (UI) resolution is being used instead. What do you think?

That's a bit where I am currently with my investigations.
Next steps I envisage:
- downgrade to Kodi 17.6 android version and give it a try (in case of)
- instruct myself on how to get the Kodi logs from the TV and check what they can tell about the refresh rate / resolution being detected and used.
- browse forums to see if more entries could be added manually to the white list ? (editing advancedsettings.xml maybe?)

Looking forward to read your latest findings and maybe your opinion on my thoughts above :-)
thanks !

Hi,

That thing with the white list an interesting point.

As in your case, I can only see the "1920x1080p 60.00Hz" option on that list, greyed, and without any options for modifying / adding new modes.

According to the TV manual, it supports the following modes (reproduced from section 25.6):

Display Input: 480i - 60 Hz• 480p - 60 Hz• 576i - 50 Hz• 576p - 50 Hz• 720p - 50 Hz, 60 Hz• 1080i - 50 Hz, 60 Hz• 1080p - 24 Hz, 25 Hz, 30 Hz• 2160p - 24 Hz, 25 Hz, 30 Hz, 50 Hz, 60 Hz.
Computer formats: 640 x 480p - 60 Hz• 800 x 600p - 60 Hz• 1024 x 768p - 60 Hz• 1280 x 768p - 60 Hz• 1360 x 765p - 60 Hz• 1360 x 768p - 60 Hz• 1280 x 1024p - 60 Hz• 1920 x 1080p - 60 Hz• 3840 x 2160p - 24 Hz, 25 Hz, 30 Hz, 50 Hz, 60 Hz.

So the 4K@24Hz is supported, -in theory-, by the TV. The question is how to enable / edit that whitelist.

I have look into the advancedsettings.xml options, and I couldn't find anything related to the resolutions or, and the whitelist.

1.While your displays support refresh rate switching, the Android TV OS on all Phillips and Sony TV's does not!
2. The Android TV GUI on those TV's is always rendered at 1080p, but the videos are always rendered in 4K. Display/GUI and video resolution are two different things on those devices.

Please use the search next time before posting. There are already many threads about your issues.

(2019-02-21, 16:38)puenktchen Wrote: [ -> ]1.While your displays support refresh rate switching, the Android TV OS on all Phillips and Sony TV's does not!
2. The Android TV GUI on those TV's is always rendered at 1080p, but the videos are always rendered in 4K. Display/GUI and video resolution are two different things on those devices.

Please use the search next time before posting. There are already many threads about your issues.

Very hard to know the gui sais 1080p 60 hz i video player it says resolution 1080p 50hz . Files/stream  info 4k 24 hz   
Actual photo of my philips tv

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xSbYa9aMjyCKVw6SA