[SniperZoz]

Hi All - I'm trying to collate the current situation with the Shield (probably good idea to have OP updated to mirror status).

So I read thru' most of this thread and in summary this is what i gathered - please correct/answer any of the following points:

1 - Latest Kodi build will switch refresh rates - but SATV won't do 23.976 correctly - it will display as 23.999 - is this the case? and is jittering noticeable?
2 - Dolby HD - is decoded on-board and forwarded as LPCM
3 - DTS HD - is not decoded and stream falls back to DTS Core - is this something which will be ever fixed (be it via' pass-thru' or on-board decoding)?
4 - Hi10p - can be done in software mode and device handles the load

[oWarchild]

The only one I tested is the 1080p file. It seemed to play fine, but you do have to (like every other device) turn off hardware decoding because there is no hardware support for Hi10P.

Awesome news! Do you remember/checked the CPU usage? It would be interesting to know if there was still margin for heavier files or if the CPU was already maxed out.

Thanks Tinwarble and Hiphopopotamus!

[oWarchild]

I'll add an explicit exclusion from h/w decoders for Hi10p, as there is not one working as far as I know

Thanks @Koying, that makes sense. Would that be generic for all hardware or limited to SATV?

The reason I ask is that my RPi B can't software decode any Hi10P files (obviously) but because some Hi10P files only have few parts were encoding goes beyond 8 bits I can get away with hardware decoding occasionally (with few artifacts). If possible, my recommendation would be to use such exception only on hardware that does indeed have the capacity to software decode Hi10P, like SATV, Celeron 2955U/2957U, Braswell quadcore, Core i3/5/7, etc.

[Nekromantik]

Anyone here had issues installing apps on Shield TV via the Play Store website?
I choose the app, and the shield is shown in the drop down menu and then says installed but nothing happens on the Shield.

[Hiphopopotamus]

Awesome news! Do you remember/checked the CPU usage? It would be interesting to know if there was still margin for heavier files or if the CPU was already maxed out.

Here are screen shots of the 1080P file, I tried to get from similar sections for comparison.

Shield - https://imgur.com/a/nlHvB
Nexus Player - https://imgur.com/a/9UiN7

[oWarchild]

Great work! The Nexus Player is maxing out while the Shield still has some headroom left...

Thanks again!

[Gandalftomte]

I've made some minor observations regarding refresh rate switching and passthrough, no detailed analysis, just observations that I thought might be interesting to others.

Regarding refresh rate switching, this mostly works fine, I've had instances where no switching took place, then I could either stop restart playback, or press the "Y" button to jump out to the file list and then back, both of these methods got it to switch refresh rate.

I have my Shield connected to an AVR (Pioneer VSX-921) and if I switch input on the AVR to something else and then switch back to the Shield input the refresh rate goes back to 60 Hz and I have to do the dance above again.

Once I got the "576p 50Hz" issue that I think someone has mentioned although I'm not sure in which thread and on which forum
When this issue occurs the effect is that the TV reports 576p 50Hz but the picture is at the same time quite small, it doesn't even nearly fill out the full screen, and it looks weirdly squashed together, the input size was 1080p. When I stopped the playback Kodi switched back to 1080p 60Hz, when I started playback again I got 576p again.
I ended up rebooting the Shield in order to get it working properly again (I didn't try restarting Kodi which was stupid, should have done that).


And when it comes to passthrough I've made the observation that it has to do with either the act of refresh rate switching, or that the display isn't running at 60Hz anymore, I can't say if it is the switching in itself that breaks it or if it is != 60Hz that breaks it.
Passthough (DTS) has worked perfectly every time when I let the display run at 60Hz, but when I enable frame rate switching I get one of the following results:
1. It actually works, this is rare but does happen.
2. I get static
3. I get a repeating clicking sound
4. It is completely silent, this is the most common result.

In cases 3-4 my AVR shows "DTS" in the display (I'm not sure about case 2, I stopped playing the video since the static was very loud), and if I press the "status" button on the remote the AVR display says that the sample rate is 32kHz, not the expected 48kHz.
Case 1 shows 48kHz.

If I disable passthrough I get fully working PCM at 48kHz even when using refresh rate switching.

I think this might explain why people don't seem to have any problems with passthrough of DTS when using Netflix, it doesn't switch the refresh rate.

Now its way too late (or early maybe), time to go to bed.

[Hiphopopotamus]

Do you have HDMI CEC turned on with your AVR and TV? If so turn it off and see what happens.

[Gandalftomte]

Yes HDMI CEC was enabled on the AVR, I just disabled it, restarted the AVR and tested again without success, got static.

I started without passthrough enabled, the AV showed PCM @ 48kHz as expected, I then enabled passthrough, got lots of static, and the AVR was still showing PCM @ 48kHz, it's as if the "DTS header" or whatever is sent to identify the stream as DTS wasn't sent (I have no idea how the AVR determines what the input format is).

(Same AVR, Pioneer VSX-921 has never had any issues with passthrough when using Kodi + Nvidia ION on x86, I've been using that for years, so the AVR should be behaving in a somewhat sane manner at least I'd say)

[Koying]

Not having any issue on my Onkyo.
Be sure to have system volume at 100% (or disable volume altogether in the Shield system settings).

[Gandalftomte]

Yes, Shield volume is set to fixed, I handle all volume adjustments on the Pioneer.

I've tested different cables (using the Nvidia supplied cable right now) and different inputs on the Pioneer (I tested using the same input as my x86 box uses, no change).

[Koying]

If it was always set to fixed, try to disable/enable the option. There was some kind of issue with latest shield update...

[Tinwarble]

Yes, Shield volume is set to fixed, I handle all volume adjustments on the Pioneer.

I've tested different cables (using the Nvidia supplied cable right now) and different inputs on the Pioneer (I tested using the same input as my x86 box uses, no change).

And you could just be having the same or a related issue as to what has been discussed a few pages back: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=220297&page=53

Kodi on Android just doesn't play nice with some AVRs .

[Gandalftomte]

I set it to fixed after the 1.2 update (1.2 was available when I got my shield so I updated it right away).
Anyway, I've tried setting it to variable with volume set to 100%, same issue, behaves the same way.
Setting it back to fixed didn't make any difference either, same thing happens in 24 Hz mode.

[Tinwarble]

Well, here's a debug of my audio issue:

http://xbmclogs.com/p3ozagplx

The part that confuses me, or rather what I think confuses the AVR, is (taking out all the video debug stuff):

Code:

08:08:41 T:2126308224    INFO: CAEStreamInfo::SyncAC3 - AC3 stream detected (6 channels, 48000Hz)
08:08:41 T:2126308224  NOTICE: Creating audio stream (codec id: 86019, channels: 2, sample rate: 48000, pass-through)
08:08:41 T:2126308224   DEBUG: CDVDPlayerAudio:: synctype set to 0: clock feedback
08:08:41 T:2126308224  NOTICE: CDVDPlayerAudio::OutputPacket skipping a packets of duration 32
08:08:41 T:2126307584   DEBUG: CDVDPlayerVideo::CalcDropRequirement - hurry: 0


08:08:41 T:1112714496    INFO: CActiveAESink::OpenSink - initialize sink
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG: CActiveAESink::OpenSink - trying to open device AUDIOTRACK:AudioTrack
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG: CActiveAESink::OpenSink - AUDIOTRACK Initialized:
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Output Device : android
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Sample Rate   : 48000
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Sample Format : AE_FMT_S16NE
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Channel Count : 2
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Channel Layout: FL,FR
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Frames        : 2048
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Frame Samples : 4096
08:08:41 T:1112714496   DEBUG:   Frame Size    : 4
08:08:41 T:1112711936  NOTICE: Using GL_TEXTURE_2D