[BertieBassett]

Hi everyone. I'm running 19.3 on Windows 11 on my Intel NUC8i3BEK. I've noticed that the resolution received by my 4K TV is always the same as my desktop resolution, regardless of the resolution I am playing. Ideally, I would like Kodi to switch to the native resolution of the file that's playing, but no matter what combination of settings I use it doesn't seem to do that.

Currently the setup is that I have Windows set at 3840x2160p60, and the Kodi GUI at 1920x1080. When in the GUI, the TV info displays an input resolution of 3840x2160. When I play any file, the refresh rate changes to match the file (usually 24p) but the displayed resolution on the TV remains at 3840x2160. However, if I change the desktop resolution in Windows to 1920x1080, Kodi only outputs at that resolution.

I have whitelist enabled and have selected every possible option from 3840x2160 @60hz right down to 1920x1080p @23.976 - if I understand it correctly then Kodi should switch to native res for these files, but should upscale lower resolution files. However this doesn't seem to be happening. What am I doing wrong? Or perhaps I don't understand what the whitelist does? I've been reading every post I can find but nothing really seems to make much sense... 

The behaviour is the same whether or not I have any whitelist options selected. I'm also able to verify that Kodi is sending 3840x2160 images all the time because if I change 'view mode' on a 1080p file to 'original' I get a small image in the middle of the screen - surely if Kodi had changed resolution this should still fill the screen and my TV would be upscaling to the panel native res.

The GPU in my NUC is an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 running the latest drivers from Intel. Perhaps there's a hidden driver setting that will allow Kodi to actually control the resolution of videos?

I haven't posted a log file here - do say if one would be useful.

[BertieBassett]

Oh and it seems to me that the video quality, especially on 4K HDR, is better when direct playing the file on my TV via Plex than it is played in Kodi, and I've convinced myself this is because of Kodi's odd scaling / resolution / whatever. Is that a thing?

[jogal]

I have Intel NUC8i3BEK. The recommended settings are:

Windows desktop 3840x2160  59.94 Hz
Kodi GUI 3840x2160 59.94 Hz
Whitelist not set or only add 3840x2160 modes

If you want 1080p videos not upscaled by Kodi (upscaled by TV) then add 1920x1080 modes to whitelist. I prefer Kodi's internal upscaling using DXVA. Please note that 1080p videos always need to be upscaled because the TV panel only supports 4K....

Optionally you can set video range to limited/16-235 in both Kodi and HDMI TV settings. Is well supported on Kodi / Intel NUC.

To check all options is working properly use "Debug Info Video OSD"  keyboard  Alt+O    this displays both source video resolution/fps/pixel format/video range  and output video resolution/refresh/pixel format/video range

[jogal]

I now have this same issue - no sound at all, neither through passthrough or direct sound, and videos freeze after a few seconds of playback. For me this only started when upgrading to 19.2 - 19.1 was working perfectly well. I'm on a NUC8i3BEK and I'm really grumpy.

Has this problem gone? Was Kodi v19.2 then?

If it reappears try https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=366453

[BertieBassett]

No, this problem hasn’t gone, but it’s intermittent. If it happens then I can just quit out of Kodi, start it up again and all is fine. Not ideal but not too bad.

And thanks - I saw that other build but haven’t got round to testing it yet. I will do soon and will report back when I do.

[BertieBassett]

Great, thanks so much. I’ll give those settings a try. Is it important that the refresh rates in both desktop and Kodi are 59.94 rather than 60? I think my Intel control panel only offers 59 or 60 - is 59 the same as 59.94?

And also I thought it was recommended to run the GUI at 1080 since it isn't supposed to affect playback resolution and 2160p is unnecessary. It does feel a bit more sluggish to browse round when the gui is at 4k.

Good stuff to try though, thanks - it’s appreciated.

[BertieBassett]

So I tried your settings. Alt-O confirms that media below 1920x1080 is upscale to 2160p, but 1080p is not upscaled by Kodi.

However, with any file of any resolution my TV still reports it is receiving a signal at UHD 2160p. Other than the GPU driver there is nothing else in between Kodi and the display that would be upscaling the video. So I’m sure there’s something in the driver settings. But I have no idea what it could be…

The TV is totally capable of receiving a 1080p signal - it does from my Blu-ray player - and that shows on the TV info display as 1920x1080p. But everything from Kodi is still 2160p. Hmm.

[Pmk1]

I am having the same issue in Windows 10 21H1 with an NUC11i3. Whitelist and switching at start/stopp is set up correctly. At start/stopp Kodi is switching correctly the framerate to match the video but resolution stays at the Desktop setting of 2160p. I want to have the TV doing the scaling as he produces better picture quality than DXVA. I tried Kodi 19.3 and latest nightly, same behaviour. I tried Desktop setting at 2160p and Kodi at 1080p, but at video startup of a 1080p video Kodi is switching to 2160p.

Just for comparison I have Dual Boot with Libreelec and the switching for the same videos works fine in LE. Looks like something of Win10 or the Intel Driver is blocking the resolution switching.

[damagedspline]

I also has this issue issue on NUC8, BrixJ4105R & NUC6.
As it turns out changing your resolution in the windows display settings to a lower resolution still outputs the native resolution so upscale is in place - this might be an intel driver "feature"

[Bagger]

I also has this issue issue on NUC8, BrixJ4105R & NUC6.
As it turns out changing your resolution in the windows display settings to a lower resolution still outputs the native resolution so upscale is in place - this might be an intel driver "feature"

This is to do with Windows "Active signal resolution"
You can get around this.
Right click your windows desktop select "display settings"
scroll to the bottom and select "Advanced display settings"
This will now show you your "desktop resolution" and your "active signal resolution"

to change your "active signal resolution", click "display adapter properties for display 1"
In the box that pops up click "list all modes" now select the resolution, colour depth and refresh rate you want to be the "active signal resolution"

OK and Apply

[BertieBassett]

Thanks for the suggestion - I immediately went into my Win 11 display properties and checked. And, as you predicted, my "active signal resolution" is set to 2160p, so I guess that means that everything the graphics driver outputs is at 4k res i.e. the graphics card is doing some upscaling.

However, when I tried to change it using the "list all modes" method you described, nothing changed - I could set my "display resolution" to 1920x1080 but the "active signal resolution" remains at 2160p and my TV still says it is getting a 2160p signal.

I did a bit more googling and found this post - about halfway down, someone describes how to change the scaling method in the Intel Graphics Command Centre to "maintain display scaling". Mine was set to "maintain aspect ratio". So I made this change and immediately the "active signal resolution" matched the "display resolution" and my TV reported it was receiving 1080p. Woo hoo, I thought...

... but when I started up Kodi, the TV immediately switches to displaying the menus at 2160p, despite the fact that I've chosen 1080p for the menus in Kodi display settings. But this is where it gets weird: if I change 'fullscreen window' from off to on, my display immediately switches to displaying the Kodi menus at 1080p. But then when I start to play a 1080p video file, which should pass through to my display at 1080p, my TV reports it is receiving a 2160p input signal. If I then stop the file, quit Kodi and go back to the desktop, I notice that the scaling method in the Intel Graphics Command Centre has reverted back to "maintain aspect ratio" and my "active signal resolution" is back to 2160p (though my "desktop resolution" is still 1920x1080. So it's like none of the changes I made have happened.

I think this is so close to a solution, but how do I get Kodi to stop changing my Intel Graphics Settings back to "maintain aspect ratio" so I can keep the "active signal resolution" the same as the display resolution and thus (I think) allow Kodi to change the output resolution it is sending to the TV.

Or, in other words, argh. So close...

[Bagger]

This is how I set it up when I was using the onboard Intel® UHD Graphics 630.

I set windows to use 1080p 50Hz for both active and desktop resolution. I needed 50Hz as I also use the PC for watching BT sport.
But 50Hz did something weird to my TV, It caused loads of over scan. The only way then to fix it was to use the custom display scaling in the driver settings to shrink the display area.

Using the --standalone option for kodi enables you to choose your refresh rate from within kodi which I also set to 1080p 50Hz, full screen window set to on and nothing in the white list.

This was the only way to get my TV to report its using the 1080p HD / 1080 24p input otherwise it'd just just report everything coming in at 2160p

[BertieBassett]

Great, thank you - that's super exciting and I'll try it when I get home. 

Just one question, hopefully not a stupid one: what is the "--standalone" option and how do I enable it? Is it a parameter I can add to the shortcut?

Thanks again!

[Bagger]

Right click on the shortcut icon for kodi and select properties
in the box named target will be the path to the kodi.exe , add a space followed by --standalone so it reads [your path]\kodi.exe --standalone
Same thing if you are running it from a script just add a space then --standalone after kodi.exe

good luck

[BertieBassett]

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it. 

Just curious: what does the --standalone actually do? How does Kodi behave differently with this enabled?