Video judder on Fire TV
#1
Just bought an Amazon Fire TV and am moving away from a HTPC to this device.

I've noticed some movie content is juddering, and frames are being lost on panning scenes.

I've tried to mess around with some of the video settings and have read that the device cannot refresh properly at 24fps or cannot auto refresh?

Does anyone know if this is an issue?

I'm starting to regret buying this device and thinking I should have save up some more money and gone for an Intel NUC... Confused
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#2
As I sad at previous post, Android devices have bad video driver implementation. You can try two things more. First one, try to install newest ROM to your device. Second one, put your resolution something like 60p or 60i, for example 720x60p, since Kodi has the best performance with this refresh rate. If it fails, find SPMC and installed, it is Kodi but for Android Devices.
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#3
Fair enough, I think I'll have to go down the SPMC route as I can't see any setting on the Fire TV that allows me to adjust video parameters.

This is pretty poor from the Kodi Group to be honest, why promote a platform when it doesn't even work properly.

Playback of HD content should be a minimum requirement and it clearly does not work properly on the Android platform.

People are spending money on these devices, following Wiki guides and expecting this to work and unfortunately it doesn't!
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#4
No offense guys, but I think you're confusing performance on a particular piece of hardware with the whole danged platform... I'm pretty sure I've seen a bunch of posts regarding people getting 24P to work on android devices(I can't comment on the Fire). I think this is maybe still a little bit of the Wild Wild West when it comes to things working on all variants of android hardware -frankly a near impossibility, but improving with time. So far the KODI team seems to be doing pretty well with picking up hardware decoding for various SOCs -it sure seems to be working nicely on AMLogic based units, at least the ones with proper OS support.

As for the blanket statement of it does not work on the Android platform, I'm having pretty much zero issues on a CX-S806 with an AMLogic S802 Quad core w/ Octa core MALI GPU that I paid $66 for, including shipping, back in February.(they're up about ten bucks higher of late.) BTW, the CX-S806 has a nice NetFlix & HULU app and I think you can get something for Amazon Prime, but who needs it?

I'm far happier to own a piece of independent hardware not tied directly to any one provider. I'd not want a Fire box and then to have Amazon brick it because they decide they don't want 3rd party apps competition on "their" hardware like they did a few months back.
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#5
Junos -

Kodi has many many ways to adjust video parameters, however, by default most are hidden. To enable them, look in the lower left corner of the settings menu, and you'll see the words "Level: Standard" or "Level: Basic". You can switch to Advanced or Expert to enable more controls.

I have found the FireTV to be an exceptionally good KODI platform, however, some folks have reported issues with 24fps content. Some report success in improving playback by adjust the Expert settings, but since I haven't had issues, I don't know the specifics. Look around the forum and I think you'll discover there's a lot of info available.

In general I've found SPMC to work better for my needs.
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#6
Kodi does work properly on the AFTV for most users that are not sensitive to video judder.
Blame Google and the underlying Android OS for imposing video output refresh rate limitations.

Basically its buyer beware with Android devices and perfectly synced 24p Kodi video playback.

Education time for newbie Fire TV users....
=========================

Sync playback to Display set in Kodi settings with
- A/V Sync Method - Resample Audio

Kodi Refresh Rate set at 60Hz....
23.976fps (24p) (most movies + Netflix, Amazon Prime etc) will employ a 3:2 pulldown technique to playback video. This will result in slight judder of the video, especially noticable by some when the camera pans left<->right in a scene.

Kodi Refresh Rate set at 50Hz...
24p video - judder even worse on most devices.

Kodi Refresh Rate set at 24 Hz.... (playback now also on a capable 24p TV)
24p video - buttery smooth playback until every 41 seconds when there will be a slight video hiccup.

- some AMlogic and Rockchip devices running OpenElec, SPMC or Kodi Isengard can dynamically switch refresh rates to 24, 50 and 60Hz, based on the source video fps.

- from personal experience with an AMlogic S805 and a refresh rate set at 24Hz. I see perfect 24p synced HD Netflix video playback in Android 4.4.2 and close to perfect 24p / H264 and H265 playback in Kodi IsengardA2 running on Ubuntu 14.04 Smile

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#7
I would try to be more clear. The most devices people get from market are RK3188 android devices with the poorest video driver implementation on MALI400 VPU. As argument I offer to anybody, to try RK3188 device on 42' television, take 60Hz refresh rate and as Junos said, it has slight judder which some people do not want to see at all. Therefore SPMC could be nice solution, thanks to Koying who made it very well, with a better video driver performance and even with a new codec in the Settings/Video/Acceleration called rklibstagefright codec, but it would be working only after small build.prop tweak. If you use tablet or phone, than you probably would not see judders on a small 7' or 10' screen. One thing more, RK3188 devices on MALI400 or MALI450 VPU just do not have video driver implementation to use option Adjust refresh rate (Settings/Video/Playback option) with the screen since it is useless, nothing would happen at all, as Rockchip said they will implement on RK3288 platforms.

Newer RK3288 quad or octa core devices, have stronger VPU processor with more stable video driver implementation and faster CPU, giving better playback of different codec. With newer technology you will probably get noticeable better video playback with no judder at all.

Kodi is highly recommended software, improving daily and so far it has the best video performance in video playback with different standards (mkv, H2764, mpeg2, mpeg4 etc.) but judder is here and some people are just perfectionist and do not want to see any judder at all.
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#8
(2015-05-11, 15:45)Junos Wrote: People are spending money on these devices, following Wiki guides and expecting this to work and unfortunately it doesn't!

I guess I need to increase the font size on the warning for devices (wiki).
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#9
I know I am going to regret asking this but how do you alter the video refresh rate?
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#10
(2015-05-11, 01:05)dzigi.bau Wrote: As I sad at previous post, Android devices have bad video driver implementation. You can try two things more. First one, try to install newest ROM to your device. Second one, put your resolution something like 60p or 60i, for example 720x60p, since Kodi has the best performance with this refresh rate. If it fails, find SPMC and installed, it is Kodi but for Android Devices.

The OP will not be able to "install the newest ROM." This isn't how it works on an AFTV. Unless it's rooted, it's self updating. I'll bet big it's not rooted.

I'm yet to notice any positive difference between SPMC and Kodi 14.2 (15 beta), but it does come with disadvantages namely the backporting of an unpleasantly buggy skip step implementation, which has been subsequently fixed in 15b, plus it minimizes out if you hit "back" from the Home Screen, something that annoys almost everyone.

I would be inclined to first investigate your TV's cinema motion settings. These can also be problematic.
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#11
@JNRW

Go to Settings/Video and Sounds, find resolutions like 1080 60p, 1080 50p, 720 60p, 720 50p and experiment what resolution and refresh rate works best on your monitor, display or television, whatever. Some users said that using refresh rates 60p, gives the best playback in Kodi. You can try all of them and find the best one for you.
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#12
@dzigi.bau

Great stuff! Thanks very much for your reply.

I shall now do some experimentation and see what gives.
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#13
See the post that I started about the stutter on Fire TV. I am glad I'm not alone in this. I've spent countless hours and I am also regretting buying a FIre TV since I've had this issue and wish I had just built a Windows PC. wrxtasy I wouldn't say most users. People are now coming out of the woodwork to raise this issue of the video not playing correctly. I've enabled/disabled every possible setting in Kodi/SPMC trying to fix this and it's always there. I'm hoping Isengard will resolve it.
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#14
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2004562
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#15
(2015-05-15, 08:43)lovewiibrew Wrote: See the post that I started about the stutter on Fire TV. I am glad I'm not alone in this. I've spent countless hours and I am also regretting buying a FIre TV since I've had this issue and wish I had just built a Windows PC. wrxtasy I wouldn't say most users. People are now coming out of the woodwork to raise this issue of the video not playing correctly. I've enabled/disabled every possible setting in Kodi/SPMC trying to fix this and it's always there. I'm hoping Isengard will resolve it.

No need to build a PC to get smooth playback a raspberry PI2 would do that, then use the android box for netflix or other options that dont work on the PI2
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