[fritsch]

@ciukacz
How did you control frame rate? Your HD4400 is more than enough to render anything in Kodi. I have not any issues with rendering in Kodi on my HD4600 which is similar to yours.

@dml3334
Disable any enhancements in Video Playback section of AMD CCC. And decide what you want to using "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" or "Sync playback to display". Both this settings are mutually exclusive

That last statement is not correct. Mutual Exclusive are: Sync Playback to Display _and_ Passthrough Audio. Cause when we sync to the display, we try to keep the "clock" of the display in order to display perfectly smooth video wise. As this might not match the audio, which is always wallclock, we need something to with the audio. In passthrough case, we could only "skip" and "dupe" audio - but this you will hear quite heavily. So in that combination "Sync playback to Display" makes only sense when the audio can be altered to match this perfect playback -> passthrough audio needs to be disabled.

In a perfect world, when a video is perfectly 23.976 fps and the display clock is also perfectly 23.976 hz - Sync Playback to Display won't harm - but as you see - in a perfect world, when all clocks fit together nicely this Sync to Display would not be needed.

Adjust Refreshrate to match video instead finds the best matching rate. E.g. on screens that only have 60 hz and 59.94 hz a 23.976 fps movies would switch Refreshrate to 59.94 hz and we would do a 3:2. This will introduce small "issues" - but in fact many people cannot see them. So in short: Adjust Refreshrate to Match video makes _always_ sense. Sync Playback to Display cares for a very smooth display and makes always sense when audio can be resampled (e.g. passthrough is disabled). The other edge case "when everything is perfect" I described above.

On the other side: Sync Playback to Display is always good when you don't use passthrough audio. As we get a perfect picture while audio is adjusted.

[afedchin]

@ciukacz,
I've checked twice. There is no difference in performance between 0816 and 0821 on my HD2000 which is less powered that yours. Check your Kodi's setting or hardware.

[XTrojan]

@ciukacz
How did you control frame rate? Your HD4400 is more than enough to render anything in Kodi. I have not any issues with rendering in Kodi on my HD4600 which is similar to yours.

@dml3334
Disable any enhancements in Video Playback section of AMD CCC. And decide what you want to using "Adjust Display Refresh Rate" or "Sync playback to display". Both this settings are mutually exclusive

That last statement is not correct. Mutual Exclusive are: Sync Playback to Display _and_ Passthrough Audio. Cause when we sync to the display, we try to keep the "clock" of the display in order to display perfectly smooth video wise. As this might not match the audio, which is always wallclock, we need something to with the audio. In passthrough case, we could only "skip" and "dupe" audio - but this you will hear quite heavily. So in that combination "Sync playback to Display" makes only sense when the audio can be altered to match this perfect playback -> passthrough audio needs to be disabled.

In a perfect world, when a video is perfectly 23.976 fps and the display clock is also perfectly 23.976 hz - Sync Playback to Display won't harm - but as you see - in a perfect world, when all clocks fit together nicely this Sync to Display would not be needed.

Adjust Refreshrate to match video instead finds the best matching rate. E.g. on screens that only have 60 hz and 59.94 hz a 23.976 fps movies would switch Refreshrate to 59.94 hz and we would do a 3:2. This will introduce small "issues" - but in fact many people cannot see them. So in short: Adjust Refreshrate to Match video makes _always_ sense. Sync Playback to Display cares for a very smooth display and makes always sense when audio can be resampled (e.g. passthrough is disabled). The other edge case "when everything is perfect" I described above.

On the other side: Sync Playback to Display is always good when you don't use passthrough audio. As we get a perfect picture while audio is adjusted.

The only question i have is there a major difference in sound quality when decoding audio via PC instead of the receiver?

I seem to have issues with the receiver decoding ( videostutter randomly )

Edit: quality seems to be the same, however i use 5.1 setup but the receiver supports up to 9:2. Now when i'm letting the PC decode should i put 5.1 or 7.1 on kodi settings?

[afedchin]

@MadScientist,
Can you also try with DXVA2 disabled and Render method is Auto?

[MadScientist]

@MadScientist,
Can you also try with DXVA2 disabled and Render method is Auto?

Tried it and disabling DXVA2 fixed the black levels.

[edrikk]

"Always on top" means it stays topmost, it won't minimize the instant you try to do anything else with your computer, or if e.g. another program pops up a message box.
Yes, people have been asking for this for years, but it wasn't possible in D3D9 - with DX11 it's possible.

@afedchin did you had time to see what @Shine says here? its very crucial for me also since in my dual monitor setup i get always panning in windowed mode and in full screen mode my browsing monitor becomes useless since if i touch anything in it kodi or isenguard minimises.

thx for your great work.

@bluechris,
I'll definitely take a look asap.

Now that DX11 is merged into master, I will rebase and PR my changes against master. This will take till late August or September, though, since I'll be mostly afk for a while due to work and vacation. Also, I want to fix the remainung issues I found, before PRing.

@Shine and @afedchin just wondering if there's any chance still for this one?

[Shine]

@Shine and @afedchin just wondering if there's any chance still for this one?

I just returned from vacation last night, so there's no further progress yet. You can use my 3 commits from here, they should still be mergeable with Isengard-DX11. The only issues left are handling of other always-on-top windows (like task manager).

[ciukacz]

I've checked twice. There is no difference in performance between 0816 and 0821 on my HD2000 which is less powered that yours. Check your Kodi's setting or hardware.

you said that build 0821 is "0816 + limited range fix + rotated font fix and nothing else" so i will report my findings here, otherwise i would not bother you with this.

i am using a texture-heavy skin (aeon nox 4 derivative) on a not-so-small library (less than 1TB).
i have lots of widgets enabled which show movie posters, album covers etc.
i get more skipping/choppiness/stuttering using build 0821 when navigating main menu than with build 0816.
in the meantime i put 2nd memory stick in my nuc (which didn't change anything), so i guess my hardware side is fine.

when i enabled useddsfanart in advancedsettings.xml and changed default skin backgrounds (which are not fanart so are "not DDSable", at least by default)
the stuttering completely stopped, now i have main menu smooth like butter.

i guess you will point me to the skin support thread, but in my case there is a clearly visible perf difference between 0816 and 0821.

[afedchin]

@Shine,
Can you create a PR against master? And our developers can review it.

@ciukacz,
Probably I've found a reason of the performance issue on your hardware. Please test this build KodiSetup-20150826 (+pdb)

[player-x]

Loosing focus, and dropping back in to the desktop, after commercial popup from AVIRA free AV.

Kodi version: 15.1 August 16
Win8.1 Pro

[afedchin]

@player-x
Please use a software like KodiLauncher to auto restore focus.

[player-x]

@player-x
Please use a software like KodiLauncher to auto restore focus.

Why?

Its clearly a bug, as i had no problem whit normal 15.0 version before, and also now have no problem anymore whit the new 15.1 normal release, only the DX11 version.

[afedchin]

It's a bug of AVIRA av which grabs focus instead of using foreground window. normal 15.x release also dropping back to the desktop on loosing focus in full screen mode, perhaps you use fullscreen window on normal 15.x. In any way please read the OP for more details how to report a bug.

[ciukacz]

Probably I've found a reason of the performance issue on your hardware. Please test this build KodiSetup-20150826 (+pdb)

yes, that fixed it. thank you very much for your work.
btw is your donate link correct?

[player-x]

perhaps you use fullscreen window on normal 15.x. In any way please read the OP for more details how to report a bug.

No, i don't think so, i just installed 15.1 DX11 over standard 15.0 DX9, with migrating all the settings, and the problems started, and the problem was over when i went back to 15.1 DX9, ware i also kept all the settings the same.

I did just a standard upgrade, as i did many times before, with keeping all the settings the same.