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hoppel118 · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-09, 01:13 by hoppel118.)

Sorry @fandangos no good news for my setup. It’s the same as with your last build. I did the following:

1. Deleted your last Kodi build (15)
2. Installed your latest Kodi build (16), mapped my smb share from Kodi
3. Played P7FEL file with default settings, faulty start after 7 file starts (start, play10secs, stop)
4. configured 5.1 audio channels, faulty start after 8 file starts (start, play10secs, stop)
5. configured audio passthrough, faulty start after 8 file starts (start, play10secs, stop)
6. configured 1sec refresh rate delay, faulty start after 5 file starts (start, play10secs, stop)
7. configured refresh rate on start / stop, faulty start after 2 file starts (start, play10secs, stop)
8. configured white list, faulty start for the 1st file start
9. configured 11secs refresh rate delay, faulty start after 2 file starts (start, play10secs, stop)

After every configuration change, I restarted Kodi. It’s not possible with your latest build to repair file starts by playing the P81 file.

With the last configuration I played the P7MEL file. It was possible to play it 17 times.

No color issues, black screens or Kodi UI stalls by playing P7FEL and P7MEL files only. Only issue is the faulty start sometimes.

I never made a catlog. I have to read and understand what to do.

Any further tests I should do, you would prefer?

EDIT: I also tried my configuration settings with real P7FEL/P7MEL movies. The result was the same. After some tries to play the files, Kodi didn’t start a file anymore.

Let’s wait for other guys test results.

Regards Hoppel

fandangos · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-09, 01:31 by fandangos.)

So that's good enough and from my perspective awesome news.

If I understand your findings, a normal person would be able to watch 8 movies in a row.

While we have faulty starts it is much less frequent and I wonder if someone watches a full lenghty movie.. play another one.. and play 10 2 hours movie it would fail to start.

So P7Fel start it fixed.

Here I tested several times but I left the movie playing for 2 or 3 minutes because that's closer to normal behavior.

From the logcat what is happening is that the Shield still thinks the movie is playing and the decoder is busy.
I looked (extensively) to the code and android documentation.
Every API to clear content being played is used.

So, this is kinda bitter sweet but it's possible this is as good as it can get before a new firmware from nvidia.

At least with my limited knowledge.

EDIT: forgot to say, even after a shield restart it's a good idea to disable and enable dolby vision to clear everything.

Forgot to say, one thing that is worth trying is, play the file with refresh rate change disabled and use nvidia's Match Refresh Rate (beta).
And see if that's better.

fandangos · 2021-01-09, 16:49

Got it to hang.

I'll try a few different things and see if that fixes it.
I'm running out of ideas.

fandangos · 2021-01-09, 19:45

@hoppel118 do your best to break this build and let me know.

30 tries here from P7FEL to P7MEL, no hang, no crash, using refresh rate change.
I even reduced the time between attempts to 30 seconds.

Let the movie run for 30 seconds, stop, start a new one.
https://mega.nz/file/uBNgTRgD#oFFF1-fvfW...sw7zZpXOZI

Delay zero if using refresh rate change.

I'm really curious to see how it behaves on your end.

siriusbox · 2021-01-09, 21:01

As I already said here https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2998448 there is something that NVIDIA must fix on Shield that make DV decoder fails, I wouldn't waste time trying different configurations, it also happens in Plex, wait for NVIDIA to fix.

rexian · 2021-01-10, 01:12

(2021-01-09, 19:45)fandangos Wrote: @hoppel118 do your best to break this build and let me know.

30 tries here from P7FEL to P7MEL, no hang, no crash, using refresh rate change.
I even reduced the time between attempts to 30 seconds.

Let the movie run for 30 seconds, stop, start a new one.
https://mega.nz/file/uBNgTRgD#oFFF1-fvfW...sw7zZpXOZI

Delay zero if using refresh rate change.

I'm really curious to see how it behaves on your end.

Tried build 34 after uninstalling last week's build. Setting > Display > Refresh rate --> 23.98, Delay --> OFF, and Player > Adjust display refresh rate --> OFF.

1. Played P7 FEL, flawless playback. Let it finish and it did.
2. Played P7 MEL - got the spinning wheel. Waiting 10 more seconds didn't help. Stared backing and Kodi crashed.
3. Restarted Kodi, went back to play P7 MEL. No issues this time. Let it play for 30 secs and stopped.
4. Played P81 next, started well. After 45 secs the Atmos audio started stuttering.
5. Changed Display > Refresh rate --> 29.97 and played P81 - flawless playback. Let it play fully.
6. Played P7 FEL again and it played with some movement issues, most likely due to refresh rate mismatch.
7. Changed Player > Adjust display refresh rate --> at start/stop and played P7 FEL again. Got spinning wheel. Went back and stopped it from the Kodi home screen.
8. Played P7 MEL and it played without any issues.

So, looks like my experience is a bit different from yours. With adjust refresh rate set to OFF it appears more stable though I had issues there as well.

Thank again for trying different things for us!

rexian · 2021-01-10, 01:17

(2021-01-09, 21:01)siriusbox Wrote: As I already said here https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2998448 there is something that NVIDIA must fix on Shield that make DV decoder fails, I wouldn't waste time trying different configurations, it also happens in Plex, wait for NVIDIA to fix.

Do we know exactly what we want Nvidia to fix? Their devs will need that. In my case at least, it's not predictable when it'll fail though I found it fails more often when the refresh rate is set to change based on content. I don't watch any 59/60Hz content (DV or not) on Kodi/Plex so I can live with refresh rate locked at 23.98 but would love a solution that works for all.

fandangos · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-10, 01:41 by fandangos.)

(2021-01-10, 01:12)rexian Wrote:
(2021-01-09, 19:45)fandangos Wrote: @hoppel118 do your best to break this build and let me know.

30 tries here from P7FEL to P7MEL, no hang, no crash, using refresh rate change.
I even reduced the time between attempts to 30 seconds.

Let the movie run for 30 seconds, stop, start a new one.
https://mega.nz/file/uBNgTRgD#oFFF1-fvfW...sw7zZpXOZI

Delay zero if using refresh rate change.

I'm really curious to see how it behaves on your end.
Tried build 34 after uninstalling last week's build. Setting > Display > Refresh rate --> 23.98, Delay --> OFF, and Player > Adjust display refresh rate --> OFF.

1. Played P7 FEL, flawless playback. Let it finish and it did.
2. Played P7 MEL - got the spinning wheel. Waiting 10 more seconds didn't help. Stared backing and Kodi crashed.
3. Restarted Kodi, went back to play P7 MEL. No issues this time. Let it play for 30 secs and stopped.
4. Played P81 next, started well. After 45 secs the Atmos audio started stuttering.
5. Changed Display > Refresh rate --> 29.97 and played P81 - flawless playback. Let it play fully.
6. Played P7 FEL again and it played with some movement issues, most likely due to refresh rate mismatch.
7. Changed Player > Adjust display refresh rate --> at start/stop and played P7 FEL again. Got spinning wheel. Went back and stopped it from the Kodi home screen.
8. Played P7 MEL and it played without any issues.

So, looks like my experience is a bit different from yours. With adjust refresh rate set to OFF it appears more stable though I had issues there as well.

Thank again for trying different things for us!

I believe I know why you are getting the miss match.

I'll work something out tomorrow.

But it's improving, won't you agree?
I don't think I'll be able to fully eliminate the problem but to make it very rare to happen.

What is going on is that the decoder is still running when we try to play another movie.
This causes the spinning wheel.

I tried with past builds to add more and more calls to close it without success.
Now I'm trying a different strategy. I'm trying to figure out what call is making the decoder stay alive after playback ends.

The reason for the miss match, I believe it's because I blocked the reset(); call, this would prevent hdmi handshack issues but are causing the stuttering you are seeing.

I'll put it back and try a few different things.

The hard part of this is the testing. Like I did yesterday several tries and it worked, came today and it wasn't working.. so chasing this is really hard.

rexian · 2021-01-10, 01:58

(2021-01-10, 01:29)fandangos Wrote: I believe I know why you are getting the miss match.

I'll work something out tomorrow.

But it's improving, won't you agree?
I don't think I'll be able to fully eliminate the problem but to make it very rare to happen.

What is going on is that the decoder is still running when we try to play another movie.
This causes the spinning wheel.

I tried with past builds to add more and more calls to close it without success.
Now I'm trying a different strategy. I'm trying to figure out what call is making the decoder stay alive after playback ends.

The reason for the miss match, I believe it's because I blocked the reset(); call, this would prevent hdmi handshack issues but are causing the stuttering you are seeing.

I'll put it back and try a few different things.

The hard part of this is the testing. Like I did yesterday several tries and it worked, came today and it wasn't working.. so chasing this is really hard.

Thanks Fandangos! I am actually happy with your 12/22 version 😊

fandangos · 2021-01-10, 14:56

Today I decided to take a look at those demo files you guys are testing.

The P7MEL from Make MKV is broken.
You can see that Kodi isn't even capable of retrieving a thumbnail for that video.

When it hangs and playing another file after causes the corrupted colors.
If you test with regular P7 MEL remux, this will not happen.

So, do not use this file for testing:
P7_MEL_GIJoe_The_Rise_of_Cobra

Schrotty · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-10, 15:07 by Schrotty.)

The last test version KodiDV-34.apk has a problem when you want to fast forward a video.

hoppel118 · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-10, 20:52 by hoppel118.)

(2021-01-09, 19:45)fandangos Wrote: @hoppel118 do your best to break this build and let me know.

30 tries here from P7FEL to P7MEL, no hang, no crash, using refresh rate change.
I even reduced the time between attempts to 30 seconds.

Let the movie run for 30 seconds, stop, start a new one.
https://mega.nz/file/uBNgTRgD#oFFF1-fvfW...sw7zZpXOZI

Delay zero if using refresh rate change.

I'm really curious to see how it behaves on your end.

I made some further tests. Same procedure as every day...

deinstalled your build
installed your build

1st test with Kodi default settings

P7FEL.mkv

started the P7FEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
restarted the P7FEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
repeated the test with the same file, until it fails...

It was possible to play the file 18 times before failure (spinning wheel).

P7MEL.mkv

started the P7MEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
restarted the P7MEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
repeated the test with the same file, until it fails...

It was also possible to play the file 18 times before failure (spinning wheel).

P7FEL.mkv / P7MEL alternately

started the P7FEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
started the P7MEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs
repeated the test, but it never failed...

It was possible to play the two files 50 times without failure.

2nd test with adjust display refresh rate on start / stop active

P7FEL.mkv

started the P7FEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
restarted the P7FEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
repeated the test with the same file, until it fails...

It was possible to play the file 8 times before failure (spinning wheel).

P7MEL.mkv

started the P7MEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
restarted the P7MEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
repeated the test with the same file, until it fails...

It was also possible to play the file 8 times before failure (spinning wheel).

P7FEL.mkv / P7MEL alternately

started the P7FEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs,
started the P7MEL file, played it 11secs, stopped it, waited 3secs
repeated the test, until it fails...

It was possible to play the files 4 times before failure (spinning wheel).

Reset HDMI, started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the files 4 times before failure (spinning wheel).
Reset HDMI, started to test the same procedure. Now it was not possible to play the file. The first start of the P7FEL file failed directly (spinning wheel). (I tried to repair the faulty start by playing the P8.mkv. But it didn’t work.)
Reset HDMI, started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the files 3 times before failure (spinning wheel), but I got wrong colors.
Reset HDMI, to check if the wrong colors got repaired and started to test the same procedure. Now it was not possible to play the file again. The first start of the P7FEL file failed directly (spinning wheel).
Reset HDMI, to check if the wrong colors got repaired and started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the files 3 times before failure (spinning wheel), but I still wrong colors. (This times the colors looked different.)
Restarted the Shield without HDMI reset and started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the files 3 times before failure (spinning wheel). The colors were fine.
Reset HDMI, restarted the Shield again and started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the P7FEL file once before failure (spinning wheel). The colors were fine.

3rd test with adjust display refresh rate on start / stop active and a refresh rate of 50.00

P7FEL.mkv / P7MEL alternately

Reset HDMI, started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the P7FEL file once before failure (spinning wheel). The colors were fine.
Reset HDMI, restarted the Shield again and started to test the same procedure. Now it was not possible to play the file again. The first start of the P7FEL file failed directly (spinning wheel).

4th test with adjust display refresh rate off (default) and a refresh rate of 59.94 (default)

P7FEL.mkv / P7MEL alternately

Reset HDMI, restarted the Shield again and started to test the same procedure. Now it was possible to play the files 3 times before failure (spinning wheel). The colors were fine.

Hm... I am back to Kodi default settings. What happened? Could it be that Kodi caches something somewhere? Or do we need a cold start of the Shield to reset every cache/buffer/whatever?

At the moment, I don't have time for further tests. The Shield is switched off and its time for my real life child. Wink

Next check later today will be a more real life test, as you @fandangos described. Play the files 30secs, and so on.

I am really curious about the result. But for the moment I am confused.

Regards Hoppel

hoppel118 · 2021-01-10, 18:00

(2021-01-10, 14:56)fandangos Wrote: So, do not use this file for testing:
P7_MEL_GIJoe_The_Rise_of_Cobra

To late. But I suspected something like that.

Will do my next tests with real movies in the late evening today.

Regards Hoppel

fandangos · 2021-01-10, 19:36

Thank you for the extensive testing Hoppel.

I'm working on a new build, please, wait for it.
Hopefully I can find a definitive solution.

rexian · 2021-01-10, 21:05

(2021-01-10, 14:56)fandangos Wrote: Today I decided to take a look at those demo files you guys are testing.

The P7MEL from Make MKV is broken.
You can see that Kodi isn't even capable of retrieving a thumbnail for that video.

When it hangs and playing another file after causes the corrupted colors.
If you test with regular P7 MEL remux, this will not happen.

So, do not use this file for testing:
P7_MEL_GIJoe_The_Rise_of_Cobra

I have been thinking if these samples are perfect but no other platform like ATV or HTPC supports these so had to just take a leap of faith. BTW, I got the issue with P7 FEL sample as well. Is that a good one?