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Full Version: Video flickers when played in a window (e.g. Trailers) or in background
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Hi all,

I am using a Pi 4 4GB and LibreELEC 10.0.1 with the Arctic Zephyr - Reloaded skin. When I enable the skin's option to play a trailer (all files available locally) in a Netflix-style - in the upper right corner of the screen - it just doesn't work. The very first trailer I try to play always results in a black area where the video should show and from the second trailer onwards I get to see the video but it flickers extremely. And when I enable the option to display the currently playing video in the background it results in flickering as well. I also noticed the same problems a couple of weeks ago when I tried out various other skins (e.g. Titan Bingie Mod).

I have Kodi 19.3 installed on my Windows 10 PC as a test system and there everything works as expected so I am guessing the problem must be somehow connected to the Pi. While searching the forum for possible hints I came across similar issues and one suggested solution was to change the PRIME render method from "Direct To Plane" to "EGL" or to disable the DRM PRIME decoder. And while especially switching to "EGL" does solve the flickering issue it unfortunately also makes playing any HEVC files almost impossible. Either the screen stays black (EGL) or the video stutters (DRM PRIME disabled).

Looking for some input now wether I will have to live without Netflix-style trailers or if there is a possible solution available?

And here is a logfile to show what is happening when I try to play a trailer (I played two trailers, first one only produced the black area on the screen and the second one played with heavy flickering).
(2022-01-14, 18:11)leschranz Wrote: [ -> ]also noticed the same problems a couple of weeks ago when I tried out various other skins (e.g. Titan Bingie Mod).

Including the Kodi default Estuary skin?
(2022-01-14, 19:18)Klojum Wrote: [ -> ]Including the Kodi default Estuary skin?

Sorry, forgot to mention that. There is no flickering when using Estuary, at least for a video played in the background. For trailers being played in a window I can't tell as I'm not aware of an option to do that in Estuary. So it probably has something to do with both the Pi and how the skin handles the video being displayed in the background or a window.
Have you set Kodi's GUI speed at the max in the settings? Can't remember exactly where it is in Estuary, Settings/System/Video perhaps.
(2022-01-14, 20:41)Klojum Wrote: [ -> ]Have you set Kodi's GUI speed at the max in the settings?

Hmm, I can't seem to find a setting that would be about GUI Speed. A quick Google search brought me to this page but messing around with those options only sent Kodi in a loop during start-up.
I did some more tests on this issue with an old Pi 3 I have lying around. I used LibreELEC, OSMC and Raspbian Lite and in all three instances I had the flickering when playing a trailer in windowed mode (aka Netflix-style) with DRM Prime enabled and set to "Direct to Plane". So for me it does look like an issue specific to the Pi which means I have to give up on trailers being played automatically.

Still hoping someone might have another idea though.
go to player option/videos/processing/prime render method= EGL
(2022-01-23, 06:07)mypi4home Wrote: [ -> ]go to player option/videos/processing/prime render method= EGL
Thanks, but as stated in the first post I have already tried that. Unfortunately it is no solution as with EGL most HEVC files are no longer working (either just a black screen or the video stutters heavily).