[arokh]

Power cord is now included. Same type as before.

[mstef]

How about noise? When I use OE and Aeon Nox 4.0.9 default install without any addons/skin tuning and widgets, after dozen seconds my CPU cooler turns up and begin being annoing. Do you have the same feelings? Do you create some tweeks in BIOS? I have i5 haswell box. Thx in advance.

[micoba]

Power cord is now included. Same type as before.

Thank you! That was new to me!

[Selene]

Noise is inaudible for me.

[IBTB]

Since I threw out my good old Xbox (with XBMC ) I have been using mediaplayers without any moving parts, and now going back to the NUC again the "inaudible" noise most people refere to annoys the crap out of me!
It might not be loud, but it all depends on what you're used to!

I also did an installation with Windows as I've read in this post that should give me least problems, but that didn't go 100% smooth neigther.
I somehow need to choose "Optical out" for sound to be able to even play movies with DTS-HDMA (HDMI output makes the movie stutter ALOT. <1 fps), even tho I use HDMI -> Reciever.
(So, I use Optical out in the config/options, but physically the sound goes through HDMI).

I have only tested two movies yet, but I don't feel I get the same quality as with my other mediaplayers. It also looks like some very little micro-stutter in dark/black scenes with explosions!

I tried XBMC on a RaspberryPi once, and was able to see the FPS output somehow, anyone know the command for that (I can of course google it if not)!

Watching this thread like a hawk, and I am impressed by the solutions you guys are able to come up with. You are doing a great job!

[lmyllari]

Intel patch for the grey blacks: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71769#c13

[micoba]

Does this have to be implemented by the openelec devs or can we do this ourselfs?

[Selene]

Does this have to be implemented by the openelec devs or can we do this ourselfs?

I'm on IRC and just pinged fritsch (who has been very helpful) to take a look.

Thanks again lmyllari, you're awesome.

[mstef]

(...)
I tried XBMC on a RaspberryPi once, and was able to see the FPS output somehow, anyone know the command for that (I can of course google it if not)!
(...)

Just press "o" key (letter not zero)

[zoroeyes]

lmyllari, can I just ask about an earlier reference you mentioned when posting your solutions for grey-blacks and colours etc.

You had options 1 and 2 for those either using GPU or software rendering, then you had another option for better quality.

Is the third option far better across the board or just in certain scenarios? I'd prefer to use the GPU of my haswell i5 if possible, as that was kind of the whole point, but if I'm going to get a better (noticeably) result with another solution then I'd be interested in that also.

I know you're super-busy (being the driving-force behind the majority of these fixes) but I'd be interested on your take on the various solutions on offer. Unless of course, you think there'll be a new build coming soon enough with these fixes rolled in so those less experienced individuals (like me) can simply install and set a few settings.

Keep up the great work.

Cheers

[Alchete]

Intel patch for the grey blacks: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71769#c13

Brilliant! Thank you again -- and a great, quick response from the team at Intel!

I could be wrong, but for those asking, I think the fix will show up in Intel's "staging" branch first: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/vaapi/intel-...?h=staging

[lmyllari]

lmyllari, can I just ask about an earlier reference you mentioned when posting your solutions for grey-blacks and colours etc.

You had options 1 and 2 for those either using GPU or software rendering, then you had another option for better quality.

Is the third option far better across the board or just in certain scenarios? I'd prefer to use the GPU of my haswell i5 if possible, as that was kind of the whole point, but if I'm going to get a better (noticeably) result with another solution then I'd be interested in that also.

The third option just gets rid of some banding, most visible in smooth gradients. The difference in quality is not that big - most software players have this problem and very few people notice. If you're happy with the quality, and prefer hardware decoding, stay with that for now.

I know you're super-busy (being the driving-force behind the majority of these fixes) but I'd be interested on your take on the various solutions on offer. Unless of course, you think there'll be a new build coming soon enough with these fixes rolled in so those less experienced individuals (like me) can simply install and set a few settings.

Let me note that I've just analysed issues and filed bugs. Intel devs have fixed the issues, and fritsch is bringing the fixes to everyone.

For now, the patches going in just ensure proper colors and black levels.

To fix the banding issue, there are two ways: either limited range RGB all the way from colorspace conversion to display, or dithering in colorspace conversion. For the first, I already have a hack that works with software decoding (this is the third option referenced above). The second should be pretty easy with software decoding too. Unfortunately both are a little more difficult with hardware decoding.

I'll try to make an upstream acceptable version of my current hack. It will take some time though. If there is developer interest in that enough to get it done properly and merged, I will continue to implement the same for hardware decoding.

My goal is to have best possible quality to users with no special settings or just a single switch in xbmc.

---

I could be wrong, but for those asking, I think the fix will show up in Intel's "staging" branch first: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/vaapi/intel-...?h=staging

The fix is for kernel, not VA-API. I think http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~danvet/drm-intel/ is the repository to watch.

The patch is attached to bugzilla and could be pulled into OE from there.

[twochannel]

My goal is to have best possible quality to users with no special settings or just a single switch in xbmc.

---

I've been following this thread since it was created hoping for a fix before I purchase my NUC. I wanted to echo my agreement lmyllari, this too would be my wish for the NUCs. I'm trying to move from a popcorn hour to XBMC and want same or better picture quality.

It sounds like from the intel bug that there will be banding artifacts when using hardware decoding, did I read that right?

Thanks for all your hard work, it is very much appreciated.

[Selene]

lmyllari, can I just ask about an earlier reference you mentioned when posting your solutions for grey-blacks and colours etc.

You had options 1 and 2 for those either using GPU or software rendering, then you had another option for better quality.

Is the third option far better across the board or just in certain scenarios? I'd prefer to use the GPU of my haswell i5 if possible, as that was kind of the whole point, but if I'm going to get a better (noticeably) result with another solution then I'd be interested in that also.

The third option just gets rid of some banding, most visible in smooth gradients. The difference in quality is not that big - most software players have this problem and very few people notice. If you're happy with the quality, and prefer hardware decoding, stay with that for now.

I know you're super-busy (being the driving-force behind the majority of these fixes) but I'd be interested on your take on the various solutions on offer. Unless of course, you think there'll be a new build coming soon enough with these fixes rolled in so those less experienced individuals (like me) can simply install and set a few settings.

Let me note that I've just analysed issues and filed bugs. Intel devs have fixed the issues, and fritsch is bringing the fixes to everyone.

For now, the patches going in just ensure proper colors and black levels.

To fix the banding issue, there are two ways: either limited range RGB all the way from colorspace conversion to display, or dithering in colorspace conversion. For the first, I already have a hack that works with software decoding (this is the third option referenced above). The second should be pretty easy with software decoding too. Unfortunately both are a little more difficult with hardware decoding.

I'll try to make an upstream acceptable version of my current hack. It will take some time though. If there is developer interest in that enough to get it done properly and merged, I will continue to implement the same for hardware decoding.

My goal is to have best possible quality to users with no special settings or just a single switch in xbmc.

---

I could be wrong, but for those asking, I think the fix will show up in Intel's "staging" branch first: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/vaapi/intel-...?h=staging

The fix is for kernel, not VA-API. I think http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~danvet/drm-intel/ is the repository to watch.

The patch is attached to bugzilla and could be pulled into OE from there.

https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv/pull/2776

[lmyllari]

Haswell HDMI audio fix on alsa-devel, although I don't think this will fix the HD audio issues. Here are links though if anybody wants to take a look:

http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermai...68230.html
http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermai...68229.html (cosmetic)