[-locha-]

As usually happens this thread has become a wildcard for anyone who has it's own issue and does not want to provide information (just blame kodi).

I don't want to badmouth Kodi, Kodi is great but not perfect.
I have described my problem extensively in the german forum and was even confirmed that the transfer rate via smb is really bad compared to nfs. And that it works better with the VLC player is also certain. Kodi has undisputed problems with buffering and/or the cache...This is not such a big problem for me personally, as I only have very few files with a high bit rate. And when I do, I simply switch to the VLC player.
So no problem, I love Kodi :X

[-locha-]

Recently, Fritsch (Kodi developer) wrote: “ [...] the cache doesn't really work as it should. [...] I think it [the buffer code] needs to be completely replaced at some point because the internal knowledge has been lost and we see a lot of problems, especially in non-Gbit setups.” https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3166668

[fritsch]

Recently, Fritsch (Kodi developer) wrote: “ [...] the cache doesn't really work as it should. [...] I think it [the buffer code] needs to be completely replaced at some point because the internal knowledge has been lost and we see a lot of problems, especially in non-Gbit setups.” https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3166668

And first and foremost speaking for myself ;-)

[Lunatixz]

I don't believe factory resetting will help... The only two solutions i'd recommend is either rip your collection at lower bitrates or disable TrueHD in Kodi's audio settings.

No offense, but whenever there was even the slightest glitch with TrueHD there were hundreds of complaints every week.

Does anyone think it's possible that everyone has to disable TrueHD for Kodi to work and no one else has complained?

Kodi works on Shield with 4K Dolby Vision + TrueHD passthrough + Cache enabled (all at same time) at least for 99% of people.

The user mentioned high bitrate audio... I find it hard to believe with the Shields current firmware that 99% of Kodi users playing high bitrate Atmos or TrueHD don't have dropped audio or video.

[Lunatixz]

I don't believe factory resetting will help...

 

I've had the most recent Shield TV Pro since the day it released. It has been working pretty much perfectly. Over the past month or so, I'm starting to notice random stutters in video playback. It doesn't always happen and it seems to occur more regularly with HDR content (it affects both standard HDR and Dolby Vision content). At first I thought it was an issue with Plex, but I've now seen the issue with Kodi, Netflix and Disney+. I have other streaming boxes that aren't experiencing this issue. Unfortunately, I don't have another Shield TV to test with.
I'm going to try doing a factory reset, but I was wondering if potentially a recent update might have caused this. Has anyone else started experiencing stuttering in the past several weeks?

EDIT:
Cleaning the fan, as suggested by someone here, unfortunately didn't fix the problem.

EDIT 2:
Another suggestion of enabling Dolby Audio Processing also didn't help, as I got stutters again tonight.

EDIT 3:
I performed a factory reset tonight and it was the first time in a while that I watched a movie without stutters. I'll be watching more over the weekend, so fingers crossed it continues to work. If not, it's time to decommission the Shield TV.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV..._on_video/

When I factory reset my shield; no real improvement was noticed in regards to high bitrate content.

[APIPerfi]

Not to necro an old thread, but I was reading this and it sounds an awful lot like my current issue.

I wonder if the NVIDIA Shield Pro has some inherent USB limitations and my drive is choking on itself during playback in Kodi.

In terms of speaking from experience, I wonder if there is anyone else who has recently had similar trouble with the Shield's USB ports and local content playback in Kodi.

Although somewhat illogical given my current findings, a factory reset might have to be my next step. A pain in general, but especially if it changes nothing.

[jogal]

Not to necro an old thread, but I was reading this and it sounds an awful lot like my current issue.

I wonder if the NVIDIA Shield Pro has some inherent USB limitations and my drive is choking on itself during playback in Kodi.

It is known that Shield performs worse over USB compared to 1 Gbps Ethernet. Hence the point 7 in list of troubleshooting.

The theoretical numbers are:  USB 250 Mbps (default settings), 500 Mbps (performance mode) while Ethernet is 1000 Mbps. In real life all these numbers are lower.

Although 250 Mbps is sufficient, the problem is that it uses more CPU cycles compared to Ethernet.

The final cause may be a sum of factors, i.e. USB + something else.

Top screenshot shows CPU usage of 40% vs 29% mine  (assuming it was playing 4K video just like me).

e.g. nvphsd process/service is not present in mine:





40 vs 29% CPU usage not seems critical but all is important and probably with Dolby Vision playback numbers are 60% vs 75%.

[jogal]

Although somewhat illogical given my current findings, a factory reset might have to be my next step. A pain in general, but especially if it changes nothing.

Before that, I recommend updating to beta firmware 9.2.0 as it keeps the installed apps and most of the Shield system settings. You have nothing to lose, if it doesn't work, just do the factory reset afterwards.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV..._incoming/

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/for...e/3478201/

[jogal]

I find it hard to believe with the Shields current firmware that 99% of Kodi users playing high bitrate Atmos or TrueHD don't have dropped audio or video.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3199568

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3199274

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3199254

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/25360

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/23883

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/23883#...1751687611

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3212675

[APIPerfi]

Back with another brief update; in hopes of gaining more insight into the root of the problem, I tested playback of my local files using Just Player (Legacy) in order to rule out Kodi.

Like Plex, my understanding is that Just Player's decoding backend is ExoPlayer, so I wanted to see if it would work as flawlessly as my remote test. Long story short, it still exhibited frame drops.

Furthermore, I tested the same drive but plugged into my computer (with a hard wired connection) and shared it via SMB to Kodi. With a fresh install of Kodi 21.1 from the play store and default cache settings, I did a 40 minute test of the file I've seen the most frequent frame drops locally.

After watching the fps counter like a hawk, at the very end of the test it dropped a single frame, so a noticeable improvement. This dropped frame could have been related to a bunch of other factors and most likely isn't related to the problem I have been facing.

As a side, I revisited files that previously played without frame drops on my Shield locally, but are now exhibiting the same issue. So I don't think that the file quality/bitrate has anything to do with the root problem.

Given all of this, I will be factory resetting my Shield and providing an update in a few days detailing if it resolved the issue.

[APIPerfi]

I recommend updating to beta firmware 9.2.0

I'm hesitant about this, as the firmware isn't considered stable. Are you saying that if I were to factory reset after installing said firmware, I would be back to 9.1.1?

[jogal]

I tested playback of my local files using Just Player (Legacy) in order to rule out Kodi.

Like Plex, my understanding is that Just Player's decoding backend is ExoPlayer, so I wanted to see if it would work as flawlessly as my remote test. Long story short, it still exhibited frame drops.

 

I'm hesitant about this, as the firmware isn't considered stable.

So, if I have understood your comments correctly, you have the same symptom with others apps and since they are local files everything points to Shield firmware itself.

If the firmware you call "stable" is not stable for you and the Beta firmware has a lot of known bugs FIXED then it is normal to think that the Beta firmware (which has several iterations) is better than the old one.

But I don't want to force you into anything, you should read the links I've posted, especially "Caveats of the HotFix process:" and decide what interests you.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/for...e/3478201/

I was only recommending it because it's an easy way to "change" firmware without losing data or settings.
 

Are you saying that if I were to factory reset after installing said firmware, I would be back to 9.1.1?

No, factory reset means reset settings to defaults of the CURRENT installed firmware 

9.1.1  --> Factory reset --> defaults of 9.1.1
9.2.x  --> Factory reset --> defaults of 9.2.x

if you only update firmware you may end up with 9.2.x and some settings like 9.1.1 defaults or your previous hand picked settings.

In any case, if you are ready to do factory reset (lose data) you can also install any firmware (downgrade) in the VERY unlikely case that the "9.2" firmware does not work for you.

[jogal]

Another point is that with Shield is really EASY backup Kodi data.

You can map entire Android storage to Windows network drive and copy paste any file:



e.g copy entire org.xbmc.kodi folder and restore after factory reset firmware...


Shield Settings > Device Preferences > Storage > Transfer files over local network = ON 

[jogal]

I have audio passthrough turned on and a capable receiver connected directly to my SHIELD.

Then remember this:

RECOMMENDED SHIELD AUDIO SETTINGS

• Dolby processing: OFF
  
• Match content resolution: ON (only in FW 9.x)
  
• Audio video sync: 0 ms
  
• Play comfort noise on HDMI: OFF
  

OTHER SHIELD SETTINGS

• WiFi scanning: disabled (Settings > Network & Internet > Scanning always available = OFF)
  
• Bluetooth pairing requests: disabled (Settings > Apps > security & restrictions > Allow all Bluetooth pair request = OFF)
  

RECOMMENDED KODI SETTINGS

• Adjust display refresh rate: On start/stop
  
• Sync playback to display: OFF
  
• Whitelist: All 4K resolutions only (if you want use Shield's AI upscaling for 1080p videos)
  
• Allow Passthrough: ON
  
• Passthrough output device: AudioTrack IEC
  
• Capable Receiver: Turn ON the audio formats that your AVR/SoundBar is capable of playing (check your specs)
  

[fritsch]

If we are at the remember point: Also remember the Shield firmware choice of audio buffer hal and it's forwarding, which happens "at once" - really bad for proper sync estimation ...
I am on my way to a business trip around Asia, but when I am back that was on my todo list. Stopping delay smoothing based on delay only, but rather incorporating high precission timer to workaround blocking.

Means on Shield (if buffer is full with 160 ms):
AddPacket n:  1 ms for 10 ms -> return 160 ms
AddPacket n+1: 1 ms for 10 ms -> return 160 ms
AddPacket n+2: 60 ms for 10 ms -> return 160 ms <- this is a problem

Better would be:
Old-Buffer + new value minus time it took to add on sync, e.g. returning 160 + 10 - 60 = 110 ms. That would be way more precise. Averaging only helps when the sink does not move forward in a proper way, but as AE measures the time it needs to add values as well - it might make more stuff wrong than right.

See you then.