[bastos]

Hello guys,

I've been dealing with this problem for a while but I haven't managed to find a solution.

I've got a lot of image artifacts in some hd channels, these same channels work normally via VLC. The problem only happens in Kodi, so I think it's related to tvheadend's addon.

Looking at the logs I've found some logs that seems to be related to the problem:

Code:

21:06:33 T:1060    INFO: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] Cannot parallelize slice decoding with deblocking filter type 1, decoding such frames in sequential order
21:06:33 T:3776   DEBUG: CDVDPlayer::HandleMessages - player started 2
21:06:33 T:3376   DEBUG: CWinRenderer::CreateIntermediateRenderTarget: format 22
21:06:33 T:1060    INFO: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] To parallelize slice decoding you need video encoded with disable_deblocking_filter_idc set to 2 (deblock only edges that do not cross slices).
21:06:33 T:1060    INFO: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] Setting the flags2 libavcodec option to +fast (-flags2 +fast) will disable deblocking across slices and enable parallel slice decoding but will generate non-standard-compliant output.
21:06:33 T:1060   DEBUG: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] Increasing reorder buffer to 1
21:06:33 T:1060   DEBUG: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] no picture ooo
21:06:33 T:1060   DEBUG: Previous line repeats 1 times.
21:06:33 T:1060   DEBUG: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] no picture
21:06:33 T:3376   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (DialogSeekBar.xml) ------
21:06:33 T:1060   DEBUG: ffmpeg[424]: [h264] unknown SEI type 2

Full debug: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=343917

Any help would be welcome.

Thanks

[Prof Yaffle]

I can't help directly with the problem, but I'd suggest initially isolating the issue better... see if it happens on a recording as well as Live TV (.ts should be genuinely passthrough so identical to the broadcast stream), see if the problem is still there if you then play that recording locally or over a network share vs over the Live TV menu.

If you still get the problem when playing locally then it's not the addon per se. My guess is that there's something inherent about the H.264 stream encoding that ffmpeg in Kodi doesn't like - that would explain why VLC plays it okay. I'll shut up at this point, though, as I'm really no expert at reading log files.

[bastos]

I can't help directly with the problem, but I'd suggest initially isolating the issue better... see if it happens on a recording as well as Live TV (.ts should be genuinely passthrough so identical to the broadcast stream), see if the problem is still there if you then play that recording locally or over a network share vs over the Live TV menu.

If you still get the problem when playing locally then it's not the addon per se. My guess is that there's something inherent about the H.264 stream encoding that ffmpeg in Kodi doesn't like - that would explain why VLC plays it okay. I'll shut up at this point, though, as I'm really no expert at reading log files.

Thank you Pro Yaffle.

It's only happens in kodi and with tvh addon.

Before I've started to use tvh as my backend, I was using vdr+vnsiserver and the channels were working normally.

I've tested with kodi on windows, linux and openelec and all platforms have presented the same problem.

[Prof Yaffle]

Yes, but to be certain - are you saying that playing a recording through the Live TV menu shows the same issue?

And playing that same recording via the library or Videos -> Files menu doesn't show the problem?

[bastos]

Yes, but to be certain - are you saying that playing a recording through the Live TV menu shows the same issue?

And playing that same recording via the library or Videos -> Files menu doesn't show the problem?

No. Records don't presents the problem only live tv.

[Istari82]

Wanted to respond earlier but couldn't as it took me ages to activate my account. (Seems kodi.tv is blocked nearly everywhere? Had to use my company address in the end).

I have blocky/artifacting image as well with Kodi, PVR client and TVHEadend as backend on some channels. I'm convinced its Kodi or the HTS plugin.
I thought initially it might be 4G interfering with my network(the main channel with the issue was near the 800mhz band, which 4G is also mostly on here). So i ended up:
- Replacing all my coax cables with high quality cables and connectors.No difference..
- I then used my old set top box, which showed no issues (!). At this point i still thought it might be outside interference, but then on my HD Homerun box..So i shielded the box in a separate room and in another Box. No difference.
- i then ran VLC directly to the TVheadend stream (AND the same streaming profile/user as Kodi was using). -> Works fine !
- i then ran Kodi and made a recording. Played it back... -> Works fine !

In other words..something seems off with Kodi streaming, though i didnt't see any strange log entries myself.

[bastos]

Wanted to respond earlier but couldn't as it took me ages to activate my account. (Seems kodi.tv is blocked nearly everywhere? Had to use my company address in the end).

I have blocky/artifacting image as well with Kodi, PVR client and TVHEadend as backend on some channels. I'm convinced its Kodi or the HTS plugin.
I thought initially it might be 4G interfering with my network(the main channel with the issue was near the 800mhz band, which 4G is also mostly on here). So i ended up:
- Replacing all my coax cables with high quality cables and connectors.No difference..
- I then used my old set top box, which showed no issues (!). At this point i still thought it might be outside interference, but then on my HD Homerun box..So i shielded the box in a separate room and in another Box. No difference.
- i then ran VLC directly to the TVheadend stream (AND the same streaming profile/user as Kodi was using). -> Works fine !
- i then ran Kodi and made a recording. Played it back... -> Works fine !

In other words..something seems off with Kodi streaming, though i didnt't see any strange log entries myself.

Seems like we're facing the same problem. In my opinion it's the tvheadend addon, the logs show something wrong with ffmpeg.

[FreddyKrueger]

I´m also facing some artifacts for quite sometime, but never tried to stream to VLC, neither tried to record.
I've done it a few minutes ago.... and i have the same thing as reported.
- Stream it to VLC.... perfect
- Record using Stream profile "pass" (.ts file) ..... perfect
- Record using Stream profile "matroska" (mkv file) .... and the artifacts are there in the recording.

I've tried different players in my laptop, (not in XBMC)like bs.player, vlc, and media player for viewing the recorded files and the results are as stated above
Using XBMC for viewing the recorded channels is exactly the same thing.... ts file plays ok, but mkv file plays with the artifacts.

I don't know about you guys, but i'm using Hispasat Sattelite, "meo" and "zon" providers
The artifacts only shows in the bottom of the image... more or less 3 to 5 cm.

[bastos]

I'm using a cable (dvb-c) provider and the artifacts covers all image in some channels and half in others.

I've opened a ticket in tvh bug track: https://tvheadend.org/issues/2456