[Gracus]

Just a guess: while the soc is capable of hardware decode all those fancy codec, it does not mean that the android you have on your TV let apps use it (same story than DTS passthrough on sony TV)

In theory Android should let the apps use the hardware decoding for all the codecs.
To this aim the chipset vendor writes and install in the android package the low level firmware to let the applications to use the hardware codecs.
It is up to the application developper to write the correct code to use the hardware through the Android APIs.
But sometimes the application developper fails to write the correct code for several reasons e.g. lack of API documentation, lack of testing expecially when an application has to run on several machines, bugs in the firmware, etc.

-Android should let you use all the hardware codec
-the soc manufacturer should give the proper "driver"
-kodi should use all of this

But you forgot something: the TV manufacturer that is the last to put his hand in your TV software (before it is installed or updated on your TV)

As long as Sony (and some other TV manufacturer) will provide badly reworked android, some peoples will have to face this kind of issue

[wrxtasy]

It is up to the application developer to write the correct code to use the hardware through the Android APIs.
But sometimes the application fails to write the correct code for several reasons e.g. lack of API documentation....

And this is why Android Kodi Krypton is now insisting on everyone using standard, widely published and well known Android - API's - Mediacodec for Video and IEC61937 for Audio.

Custom implementations of Android Firmware, by SoC manufacturers not adhering to standards will continue to have problems going forward with Kodi Krypton, particularly for Audio.

As well old compression formats like mpeg4 and VC-1 needs thorough playback testing and Linux Kernel tweaking to get everything to play nice. These two old formats obviously do not get much testing.

As an example AMLogic actually tweaked and fixed mpeg4 and VC-1 for the Linux Marshmallow Kernel code that we use for LibreELEC Kodi Krypton. It's one of the reasons these cheap LE / AML S8xx/9xx's now work so well for Krypton video playback.

[nickr]

It is up to the application developper to write the correct code to use the hardware through the Android APIs.

That is IF the hardware manufacturer follows the Android API. Not all do.

[Oibaf]

I can see the codec

Code:

OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.VP9   video/x-vnd.on2.vp9

on my Sony.

It can't do VP9.2 though which is the 10/12 bit variant of VP9 for HDR content.

Since there is not this codec in my Full HD TV (W808C), I suspect that only the chipsets of the 4K 2015 Sony TVs have this codec.

After All, this codec was introduced specifically for the 4k resolution.

It would be interesting to know if the Full HD TVs with Marshmallow (I did not update to Marshmallow) do not have the codec:

OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.VP9

The APP AIDA64 in the app store (also the TV version) can give this information.

OMX.google.vp9.decoder, which is present in all the distributions, is the software codec.

[CiNcH]

Can you tell us the SoC/processor model that AIDA64 reports?

I am pretty confident that my 4K HDR TV already provided the VP9 HW codec with Lollipop.

[Oibaf]

Can you tell us the SoC/processor model that AIDA64 reports?

I am pretty confident that my 4K HDR TV already provided the VP9 HW codec with Lollipop.

MT5890

[CiNcH]

That's what I expected. All Sony Android TVs use the same SoC. There are actually only 2 HW platforms:

BRAVIA 2015 (ATV1): MediaTek MT5890 (all 2015 models, early 2016 models)
BRAVIA ATV2: MediaTek MT5891 (all models after mid-2016, including 2017 models)

My 4K HDR set is also based on ATV1 with MT5890. So if the VP9 HW decoder is missing for you, this is just a software/driver limitation.

[Oibaf]

This is not strange.
Likely for commercial reasons, Sony decided to not enable VP9 in the full HD TVs.

In the past I bought a LG TV where the usb port and the media features were disabled.
It was sufficient to enter the service menu with a special remote control to enable them.

According to this article the 2015 Sony full HD TVs do not have VP9 support:

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/article.php?...n=showfull

Indeed they also say that they do not have HEVC support whilst they have it.

[krakout]

H265 videos are hardware decoded by KODI therefore there is no performance issue.
In this case KODI uses the hardware VPU and the cpu is left free for other tasks.
Problems could raise for the videos which are software decoded (e.g. Xvid videos). Fortunately the most demanding video codec (H265 and H264) are hardware decoded.

I used many files taken from:

https://samples.mplayerhq.hu/

https://samples.mplayerhq.hu/V-codecs/

http://kodi.wiki/view/Samples

and serching in internet.

I spent a lot a time in serching and selecting the videos.

All this time I was avoiding H265 vids because my experience with Amazon FireTV/Kodi was disastrous, and I didn't dare think that the (otherwise slower) Tv could do it... wow, gonna try this sooner rather than later!!

[Dinsdale87]

I've read this thread from page 69 onwards as suggested... I'm not sure by some of the replies if I'm totally stuffed or there IS a solution that doesn't involve rolling back a Kodi version. I can post a debug log but can't do that until I'm home at the weekend.

I use Kodi on my 2015 Sony Bravia Android TV and love it. I have recently invested in a NAS drive and ported 6TB of content over. 99% of this is standard definition video (mostly NTSC, some PAL) in DVD format with MPEG-2 video.

I've added the server as an SMB connection and Kodi can see the files fine. It recognises the DVD format so booting up any IFO files takes me straight to the menu and I can play the video as if it were in a DVD player. This is exactly what I want - brilliant.

The issue is playback. Both NTSC and PAL footage is very choppy. The sound seems fine, but the playback just isn't smooth. It seems to be choppy in the same places.

My NAS server is cabled to my router, which my Android TV is connected to wirelessly (strongest signal).

I have tried all possible combinations on the Kodi video settings. The only codecs I have an option to turn hardware acceleration on or off are the MediaCodec and MediaCodec (Surface) codecs.

I don't think it's the hardware being limited - for example if I run VLC to play these videos they work flawlessly and run more smoothly than I've ever been used to - the only trouble with VLC on Android is that it doesn't support DVD_Video folder structure, so when I say these play well, they do so as individual 1GB VOBs. Obviously not feasable.

I consider myself quite technical, but I really have had a hard time following some of the posts in my thread. Can I fix this or not?

[krakout]

I had this issue randomly, it seemed, with my FireTV. I had tried everything, but two things stand out:

-first, try Kodi's advanced settings with regards to buffering etc. There's a lot of documentation online, and tools to help you set them correctly (even some Kodi add-ons).
-secondly, and perhaps it shouldn't matter but for me solved things to a large extend, is switch from SMB to NFS. It made such a difference for me, really...

[Dinsdale87]

-first, try Kodi's advanced settings with regards to buffering etc. There's a lot of documentation online, and tools to help you set them correctly (even some Kodi add-ons).

I tried those settings, but happy to try specific recommendations?

-secondly, and perhaps it shouldn't matter but for me solved things to a large extend, is switch from SMB to NFS. It made such a difference for me, really...

That's definitely worth a go, thanks.

[krakout]

As to the settings, I don't remember now to tell you the truth because after moving to the TV rather than relying on the AFTV I didn't touch them - it always played perfectly. But i found that the guides out there are ok -even the official Wiki has very good info. I think I may have a tab or two open at home, I can check out later, but in general if you google for 'how to play hd movies Kodi' you'll see what I mean...

As for the protocol, it might be a bit more of a hassle depending on your NAS and settings, but believe me, I never went back...

[cwh060]

@Dinsdale87,

I have always found SPMC on Android to work better for video playback. The Wiki has the appropriate settings.

In terms of playing back different files, instead of using the Kodi internal video player, you can build a "playercorefactory.xml" to select different video players, including VLC. This works with Kodi or SPMC.

Mine is set up to use the internal Sony video player for 4K on USB Drive, MX Player Free for some 4K and special video formats, SPMC internal player for 1080/720/480 stored on my NAS.

[Dinsdale87]

In terms of playing back different files, instead of using the Kodi internal video player, you can build a "playercorefactory.xml" to select different video players, including VLC. This works with Kodi or SPMC.

Hmmm, approach would probably work but the theory is I would need to tell Kodi to use VLC to play IFO files... and on Android, VLC doesn't support IFO files, only the individual VOB files...

I like your workarond thinking though!