[roidy]

Hi, Just installed Xubuntu 20.04 and Kodi 19.4 on a Gemini Lake J4125 Mini PC and when playing 24p content I'm getting frame skips every few seconds. It's not an issue with the TV or the mini PC as LibreELEC plays the 24p content rock steady. Any ideas how to diagnose and fix this issue.

Before anyone asks why not just use LibreELEC, it has other issues and I'd like a full Linux install that's not locked down.

Thanks.

[Klojum]

Any ideas how to diagnose and fix this issue.

"24p content"... What is the video format, resolution and exact frame rate?
Provide a full debug log (wiki) of a problem video.

If LibreELEC plays it fine, then it could be a Intel driver issue, a Xubuntu weirdness or something else.
I run Ubuntu 21.10 + Kodi 19 fine on a J5005 box. Not exactly the same setup as yours, but 20.04 had some weirdness running on my box. Will be testing 22.04 soon on it.

[roidy]

Thanks, I'll start from scratch tomorrow and do an install of Ubuntu 21.10. If the problem persists, I'll post logs and a sample file.

[Klojum]

In case you don't know yet, 22.04 will be out in 8 days or so. Installing 21.10 first will be a bit of a waste IMO, unless you don't mind the fiddling with OSes.
You can already install its beta, it will fully update to the final. I doubt if much will change in the upcoming week.

[roidy]

Ok, I'll try the 22.04 beta and see if I have any luck with that. Thanks

[roidy]

Ok, so I've tried with Ubuntu 21.10 and the 22.04 beta and still the same result, 24p files play with a stutter every few seconds. Here's the log and a sample file. The sample file plays perfectly smooth using LibreELEC on the same J4125 hardware and also on an Odroid N2 with CoreELEC on the same TV.

Sample 3.5MB:- https://ufile.io/gd586sqs

Log:- https://pastebin.com/BxD5Yiz6

[Klojum]

2022-04-14 08:41:32.143 T:5109 INFO <general>: XRANDR: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/kodi/kodi-xrandr --screen 0 --output HDMI-2 --mode 0x57

Are you running two monitors on your J4125 setup? Because that will affect the video performance, even with bigger PC's with discrete gfx cards like Nvidia.

I ran the sample video on Ubuntu here with MPV and it had only a couple of small hiccups here and there, probably from something in the background. I have a pretty busy Office setup on my J5005. And with Kodi it had the same effect.
Enabling the Sync playback to display option seems to soften the scrolling but also aggravates any hiccups a bit. Disabling it seems to mask it better. Or perhaps I'm not intentionally looking so hard for micro hiccups.

Obviously LibreELEC has no 'background noise' from things like printer spoolers or other processes for network or applications, hence probably your smooth(er) experience there.

[roidy]

Are you running two monitors on your J4125 setup? Because that will affect the video performance, even with bigger PC's with discrete gfx cards like Nvidia.

Nope, just connected to a single TV. The Mini PC has 2 HDMI 2.0 ports, I've tried both as I know that some mini pc use different converter chips if they have more than one HDMI port. Still the same regardless of which port the TV is connected to, I just happened to be connect to Port 2 when I took the log. I'm logging into the Kodi session from the login screen not the Ubuntu desktop, however I've also tried running Kodi from both the Wayland and X11 desktop sessions, the X11 desktop session is the same and the Wayland session is a no go as there is no resolution or refresh rate switching.

[yasij]

It's a modesetting driver bug. Switch to the older intel driver.

sh:
sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-intel

.

You'll need to enable it with a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d.

sh:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

cd /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-intel/xorg.conf 10-intel.conf

[roidy]

It's a modesetting driver bug. Switch to the older intel driver.

sh:
sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-intel

.

You'll need to enable it with a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d.

sh:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

cd /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-intel/xorg.conf 10-intel.conf

Thank you very much, that completely fixed the issue.

[Klojum]

Interesting indeed. I did have to add the following config line to have my J5005 display h265 videos correctly in Ubuntu, and something similar in LibreELEC.
export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME="i965"
Perhaps replacing the whole driver in Ubuntu will also be necessary for me with 22.04. We'll see soon.

Thread marked solved.

[roidy]

The strange thing is the driver didn't get replaced:-

Code:

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-intel

Returned that the newest driver was already installed. It seems to of been the last 3 lines that fixed the issue.
 

I did have to add the following config line to have my J5005 display h265 videos correctly in Ubuntu, and something similar in LibreELEC.
export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME="i965"

I can confirm h265 plays back perfectly fine.