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stephendt · (This post was last modified: 2016-05-27, 15:53 by stephendt.)

Hey guys,

Got a bit of a problem I'm trying to work out. I have just setup my new Windows 10 HTPC and everything is working great except for playback of HEVC (x265) 1080p video. I can play a particular video file in VLC (no hardware assisted decoding) with ease, with around 50% CPU usage. The moment I try to play back the exact same file in Kodi, it will regularly shoot up to 100% CPU usage, causing dropped frames, unsynced audio, and general slowness and lag. I've noticed this behavior with various files and similar hardware on Kodi 15.1 and 15.2 RC. Just wondering if there is anything I can enable or disable in Kodi to help alleviate the stress on the CPU? I know the hardware to accelerate HEVC via the GPU isn't quite there yet so hoping to make the most of what I got for now.

Specs:

Intel E7400 2.8ghz Dual Core
2GB DDR2 RAM
120GB SSD
Intel G43 Express Chipset (GMA x4500)

Any suggestions to help deal with this would be really appreciated.

stephendt · 2015-10-04, 04:43

I took the time to test the new Kodi 16.0 Jarvis Alpha 3 and whilst it seems to be slightly improved, it's still dropping frames on my system. What is it that VLC is doing that makes Kodi consume extra CPU cycles?

Tennyten · 2015-10-04, 20:25

Same issue for me with Jarvis Alpha 3.

**fritsch** · 2015-10-05, 08:24

Kodi is an OpenGL / DirectX Application. When I see your GPU, then it's sadly quite clear why VLC works and kodi not ... poor D3D rendering performance.

stephendt · (This post was last modified: 2015-10-05, 17:34 by stephendt.)

(2015-10-05, 08:24)fritsch Wrote: Kodi is an OpenGL / DirectX Application. When I see your GPU, then it's sadly quite clear why VLC works and kodi not ... poor D3D rendering performance.

Are you saying that due to the way Kodi works a GPU upgrade would improve performance? I have a HD8570 lying around but didn't see the point since there's no native GPU acceleration for H265 right now.

Edit: I tried another similar CPU (E6750) which has a bigger L2 cache in the hope that would help, no go. What did help was overclocking it to around 3.3ghz - butter smooth after that. Obviously not ideal to be OCing my HTPC though, lol.

stephendt · 2015-10-07, 16:04

I'll try another GPU tomorrow and see if I get some better results.

Jogee · 2015-10-07, 21:48

Do you have Kodi set to "Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen"? If so, try disabling it.

stephendt · 2015-10-11, 09:56

(2015-10-05, 08:24)fritsch Wrote: Kodi is an OpenGL / DirectX Application. When I see your GPU, then it's sadly quite clear why VLC works and kodi not ... poor D3D rendering performance.

Tried an AMD Radeon HD8570 1GB with the latest drivers. Made little to no difference.

(2015-10-07, 21:48)Jogee Wrote: Do you have Kodi set to "Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen"? If so, try disabling it.

I have tried this, and have tried changing settings in regards to refresh rates and syncing to display. Both made no difference.

Still pretty baffled what is causing Kodi to make HEVC 1080p unwatchable whilst VLC has no problems.

stephendt · 2015-10-20, 02:47

Any other suggestions? Still has me a but stumped. Overclocking my CPU works but it does suck a fair bit more power now so I'd like to avoid that. It's also not an option on my other HTPCs.

Vaiojuan · 2015-10-21, 10:15

(2015-10-20, 02:47)stephendt Wrote: Any other suggestions? Still has me a but stumped. Overclocking my CPU works but it does suck a fair bit more power now so I'd like to avoid that. It's also not an option on my other HTPCs.

Hello, sorry for my English that is translated with the GT.
If your card is an AMD there is a problem with the latest drivers and W10. In this post I explain.
I solved completely uninstalling the AMD drivers, and installing the Catalyst 15.4 beta (which are Win8.1). With these I have solved the problem and now I can go back to watching videos.

In this post: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=233774

whwxmbc · 2015-10-22, 16:35

I have always had issue with Kodi maintaining a good audio sync, on a platform similar to yours and on my newer AMD APU build (A8-5500/8GB RAM) Win7 & 10.
The audio always eventually starts walking out of sync, slowly, usually after about an hour, if I exit KODI and restart it goes away but always comes back.
Just figured it was bug as it has happened on 2 separate builds Intel/AMD) over a few different incarnations of the app.

Any suggestions would be nice.

stephendt · 2015-10-26, 12:48

(2015-10-21, 10:15)Vaiojuan Wrote:
(2015-10-20, 02:47)stephendt Wrote: Any other suggestions? Still has me a but stumped. Overclocking my CPU works but it does suck a fair bit more power now so I'd like to avoid that. It's also not an option on my other HTPCs.

Hello, sorry for my English that is translated with the GT.
If your card is an AMD there is a problem with the latest drivers and W10. In this post I explain.
I solved completely uninstalling the AMD drivers, and installing the Catalyst 15.4 beta (which are Win8.1). With these I have solved the problem and now I can go back to watching videos.

In this post: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=233774

I've had the same issue on both Intel and AMD GPUs, haven't tried Nvidia but don't think it'll make any difference. Everything other than HEVC (H265) video is perfect for me.

Sigh.

StoningtonQB · 2015-10-27, 19:23

stephendt,

Many of us have complained about this problem before. It is clear to me that they have no intention of ever fixing this. Instead They will blame your hardware or tell you that "less than 2% of Kodi users report this problem." What they WON'T tell you is that they are going to fix this or at least look into the problem everyone is having.

Download and install 14.2 and NEVER UPGRADE. I promise you the video stuttering problem will magically disappear.

stephendt · 2016-01-15, 04:07

(2015-10-27, 19:23)StoningtonQB Wrote: stephendt,

Many of us have complained about this problem before. It is clear to me that they have no intention of ever fixing this. Instead They will blame your hardware or tell you that "less than 2% of Kodi users report this problem." What they WON'T tell you is that they are going to fix this or at least look into the problem everyone is having.

Download and install 14.2 and NEVER UPGRADE. I promise you the video stuttering problem will magically disappear.

I'm not too interested in going backwards. 15.2 works great apart from that.

Funnily enough, I tested this issue on a system with a Celeron G530 (2.4Ghz Dual Core, Sandy Bridge) and I have no stuttering at all. I checked the CPU usage and it was around 75-85% (but smooth) and GPU usage was around 25%. Is there something about the older Intel HD graphics that does some form of hybrid decoding? The CPU on this system is slightly weaker than the E7400 system I have but it decodes things just fine.

The Coolest · 2016-01-15, 15:41

The Sandy Bridge CPU is considerably quicker than a Core 2 clock for clock, so even with a 400mhz gap in frequency, you can expect it to be faster.
Sounds to me like the software HEVC decoder in Kodi is simply not efficient enough to decode 1080P on a dual core 2.8ghz core 2 chip. While VLC has a much more efficient decoder, perhaps it uses newer instruction sets that enable it work much faster.
Once you overclock the CPU Kodi's decoder begins to work better as the CPU becomes just fast enough for it to handle the decoding process of the video.