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[NEW] Revised Codec and Playback info overlay discussions and suggestions
#61
(2016-07-08, 10:53)BigNoid Wrote: Besides the practical problem of choosing what icon I should use for this (I already have an "i" icon on OSD)

...

It does look nice in the screenshots from Gade though Smile

Thanks!

I had the same considerations and decided on this when focusing the "i" button:

Image

I use the same type of dialog for subtitles and 3D settings.
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#62
Yeah looks good. I always tried to avoid that myself though as I never really liked that same looking buttons have different behaviour (even though it's perfectly clear to the user in this case). Maybe showing the video information when the video settings are active and the audio information when audio settings are active is an idea.

Thx in any case, the way you've implemented it certainly has it's merits.
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#63
(2016-07-07, 14:49)FernetMenta Wrote: The debug screen I was referring to is what we have currently showing when pressing "o"
I see. So from your wording (and the recent post from @BigNoid), it sounds like there is actually a separate key / input event / dialogue which now brings up the status screen displayed in this thread showing technical information, but is clearly missing a/v bitrates, skips/drops & buffer information) The "o" key was commonly referred to as the codec overlay, not the debug screen which was enabled via system settings; or at least I distinguished between the two.

I assumed–perhaps incorrectly(?)–that the new status screen was a /replacement/ (revision/re-implementation) of the code which was dumped earlier, in order to simply clean up the codebase and to minimize any adverse performance impacts. Since I cannot use Krypton on a daily basis due to its current lack of audio passthrough, I have to mostly rely on the information posted in this thread.

I am however compiling a new test build–based on today's git master branch–to see if there have been changes since I last tested a Krypton build. When I last ran it it the debug screen / "o" did not produce information about the video buffer, despite using the same advancedsettings.xml used in Jarvis+Isengard. (And I could not see if that was due to the configuration having changed, or the video cache option having been dropped.)

This finished while I was typing this, so I am including a screenshot. Neither the OSD, the metadata tab or the codec info ('debug screen') shows information about the buffer. To illustrate the difference, the video playing has the old codecinfo screen displayed, as this was used previously to debug a separate issue. Please excuse the quality as this was captured off of my screen.

I was unable to see the dialogue window referenced here, so I assume that is not in any official branch yet (or implemented for the default Kodi skin)

Image
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#64
(2016-07-08, 11:52)BigNoid Wrote: Maybe showing the video information when the video settings are active and the audio information when audio settings are active is an idea.

That's a very good idea. I think sualfred did something similar.

For Rapier, I wanted to include the lost PVR stream information too, and that's too much info to add to the video settings dialog. Smile
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#65
Tried the test build and it does work perfectly.

I do like the way that it has been implemented in Rapier to with the two options from selecting the i button.
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#66
(2016-07-08, 10:53)BigNoid Wrote: but that's something I would expect to see in the codecinfo screen.

There is no "codec screen" anymore.
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#67
(2016-07-08, 13:38)FernetMenta Wrote:
(2016-07-08, 10:53)BigNoid Wrote: but that's something I would expect to see in the codecinfo screen.

There is no "codec screen" anymore.

Poor choice of words maybe Smile I mean the text that is rendered on screen when action 'codecinfo' is triggered.
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#68
(2016-07-08, 13:41)BigNoid Wrote:
(2016-07-08, 13:38)FernetMenta Wrote:
(2016-07-08, 10:53)BigNoid Wrote: but that's something I would expect to see in the codecinfo screen.

There is no "codec screen" anymore.

Poor choice of words maybe Smile I mean the text that is rendered on screen when action 'codecinfo' is triggered.

This "text" is primarily for troubleshooting and debugging. When you come to this stage and don't know if hw acceleration is active, your are lost anyhow.
Every static information does harm on this screen because it just eats resources. The old "codec screen" made many systems drop/skip just by binging this cluttered window on screen.
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#69
I completely agree with that reasoning but I think hw acceleration is the exception. It is probably the first thing you would want to know when you get to the point of analysing skips and dropping frames (and thus go to that debugging 'screen'). All other static infos can be obtained elsewhere (either in Kodi or by an external tool), except that one.
In any case, the info is available so no sweat. I just have a hard time finding a place for it and this info is the only thing keeping me from omitting the whole player process info.
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#70
Glad I'm not the only one who appears to be confused here. Regardless of the semantics of what this is now 'officially' called; I posted information about the missing buffer status (among other things) above, which was indicated by @FernetMenta as should be present either in this new implementation or in the codec ^H^H^H^H^H debug screen, according to post http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2370699

This does not seem to be the case though.

I disagree that this information is primarily used for debugging and troubleshooting - I found it useful during everyday usage.
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#71
Note that process info is NOT metadata. Hence the AR you may see for a movie does not need to match AR seen in process info. Pixel format for example does not fir any any of the existing dialogs either. PVR signal quality does fit into this category.
I would add the dialogs like Gade has done it to the default skin.
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#72
(2016-07-08, 14:43)Drag0nFly Wrote: I disagree that this information is primarily used for debugging and troubleshooting - I found it useful during everyday usage.

I have a real hard time imagining why you would need that info in every day usage.

(2016-07-08, 14:45)FernetMenta Wrote: I would add the dialogs like Gade has done it to the default skin.

Adding a dialog is probably the nicest way, especially since PVR info is needed as Gade and you pointed out. I will add a skin setting to show this button on OSD and disable it by default as to not clutter UI for majority of users for what the minority want to see Smile
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#73
The "o" button is currently mapped to the "debug screen". I would change this to bring up the new dialog.
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#74
(2016-07-08, 15:53)BigNoid Wrote:
(2016-07-08, 14:43)Drag0nFly Wrote: I disagree that this information is primarily used for debugging and troubleshooting - I found it useful during everyday usage.


I have a real hard time imagining why you would need that info in every day usage.

If you look at some of the other threads it is not just me who is missing this functionality for everyday usage.

But since you asked I'll recap this quickly;

- The videobuffer status is crucial to determine whether the stream has enough cache for smooth playback-esp. when doing i/o intensive tasks, or when running off a busy RAID/NAS box, as this can sometimes cause i/o depletion for full-bitrate titles even when a storage box is hooked up directly via e-sata.

- The audio & video bitrates–along with drop/dupe information–is particularly useful when viewing HEVC material in order to see how Kodi's decoding backend performs, as well as testing different versions of FFmpeg determine performance impacts and improvements

- CPU utilization (per core) is also used in conjunction with the above. It also serves a purpose in identifying whether any other processes (outside of Kodi) are using too much cpu, impacting Kodi's video rendering backend

More importantly, the buffer status has not officially been stated as having been removed, although I cannot see any evidence of it still being present in recent Kodi 17 versions. It was alluded to by @FernetMenta that this information should be present (in the post I linked to above, yet unanswered), but the steps detailed there were rather vague. There have been other threads where this was asked about by others as well (in order to add labels which would be made available to the skin), but it has apparently not yet been acted upon.

(2016-07-08, 16:47)FernetMenta Wrote: The "o" button is currently mapped to the "debug screen". I would change this to bring up the new dialog.

Sounds reasonable.
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#75
So if you need to monitor these things, you have to act if one of these variables go out of range? How can you sit back and relax and watch the movie Smile
You are a power user by the sound of it and on the forums it may seem that those are the majority. I am pretty sure though that the majority is not the vocal group on the forums and just wants to watch their media and not care about these things (and if everything is setup correctly they should be able to do that imo).

@FernetMenta: so that will require a new dialog in core I presume. That sounds like the best solution to me.
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