3D Frame Packed output

We’ve got new microcode updates.

But it’s busy and we need a lot of time to verify things.

First step is to introduce an update in September with a number of fixes for v19.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst unfortunately.

Best,

Sam

awesome! cannot wait for test results so I can finally order my vero 4k+ :wink:

Maybe I’m late to the party but this whole “microcode issue“ only affects a handful of titles doesn’t it? I understand that the movie “gravity“ is one of them. I played the 3-D MVC version of that on mine just to see what it was and at worst it was a split second burp in parts of the picture that kind of look like artifacts. Maybe they get worse but at no time did anything that I saw last more than a fraction of a second and by far the vast majority of the movie played awesome!

Frankly, I’m not sure what other titles have this issue nor whether or not I have any of those titles. However, that issue in itself would never stop me from buying a Vero4K+. I use it bone stock out of the box at the newest v19 level of Kodi and it has worked great for me! It worked great at v18 as well. If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t get all my paid streaming services on it I would have replaced every other streamer in my house with one already!

Yeah, that’s about as bad as it gets - a brief pulse of distortion once every few minutes, lasting about a second.

I’ve seen it on Gravity and Avatar. I have a half recollection of someone else saying it affects Ready Player One as well. But certainly most 3D films are unaffected.

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We tested with newer firmware from AMLogic and a newer 4.9.180 based kernel which has a significant number of changes. Unfortunately the issue is unchanged.

There is a 5.4 based kernel from AMLogic available, but we are not ready to move to this yet.

Sam

Is there anyone at AmLogic you can ring up and shout at? :slight_smile:

Are changes like this listed anywhere? (Just curious).

I already spoke to numerous people at AMLogic. They acknowledge the problem but they don’t want to maintain 3D or put time and energy in to it.

The changes in 4.9.180 are too vast to document.

Do you have the sense that we’re probably not going to see a fix for the issue at all? Or are there still some grounds for optimism?

I don’t think it will be fixed.

“Is it okay on the 3rd part platform with the clip?”

Yes, it damn well is, Amlogic. (mutters under his breath)

I hope they will solve this issue. Last thing to make the Vero 4K perfect for 3D also.

Hi, as it seems that AMlogic won‘t ever fix the microcode responsible for the macroblocking issue - is there a known workaround at the source? Meaning: could an affected MVC MKV file be somehow re-encoded so the issue wouldn‘t occur anymore? Sure, this would be a lossy and time consuming process but as only a few titles are affected, I could probably live with it…

We’ve tried that internally before in every way possible to us, but we couldn’t succede. Re-encoding (not re-muxing) 3D MVC content is not really trivial.

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Is the issue related to the video being specifically MVC? Or is it just 3D in general?

If you’ve resigned yourself to re-encoding, maybe try converting to full-frame SBS or TAB? I know I’ve got a full-frame 1080p side-by-side that the vero seemed to be able to play OK. (the vero and/or my TV reported it as 4k, but my TV still recognized and played it as properly as 3D). That might be dependent on what your TV can receive though.

I wanted to have a look at FRIMEncode, did you try it with this tool? I could live with a reencode too for the ~5 movies this issue affects.

Not sure, tbh. It’s quite some time ago. Please let us know what you find anyway :slightly_smiling_face:

I have never yet been able to get 720p 60 frame packed 3D files to play on my Vero4K+, even now with OSMC running Kodi 19.1. When I select the file to play (from File Manager), the screen reports “Buffering”, then a logo appears at the center of the screen cycling through movements, some text appears at the top left, and at the top right text appears with my file’s name and a timer counting up seconds and minutes as long as I wait - but never does the file image appear or play. I have played this file many times with success with PowerDVD.

The exact same problem occurs with any 720p 60 frame packed 3D file I attempt to play.

I have tried a variety of settings to no avail.

My log file is here: https://paste.osmc.tv/ojalewutax

My home-made all rights owned 720p 60 frame Packed 3D file is available here:

A second, shorter 720p Frame Packed 3D file is available here: Dropbox - Next in Line.mkv - Simplify your life

(Dropbox links edited 10/3/21)

This log file is from an attempt with the Vero4K+ hdmi attached directly to my 3D TV, bypassing my receiver. The same problem occurs on both of my 3D displays, with or without my receiver in between.

I hope this is the correct place and way to request help with this. If not, someone please reply here to let me know.

Thanks for reporting this. Until now I’ve never had access to a 720p60 mvc file and so I couldn’t test it. I can see from the logs that the decoder is crashing. I’ll have a look.

Thank you!

Hi, back with news: I successfully re-encoded an affected 3D-movie file (Avatar, my edition shows reproduceable macro blocking, for example at around 0:10:42, when Grace is getting on her feet, finally holding that cigarette :wink: ). After re-encoding that glitch is gone (as far as I have tested, so are the other occurrences).
What I did:
I found this nice little script (based on FRIM), adapted it to my taste* and followed the instructions over there. I ended up with an mkv file that wasn’t recognized as 3D by the Vero4k+. However, after I put it through tsMuxeR (v. 2.6.12) and converted it to .iso it played fine. I can’t test this for other movies but with this one it worked. I did this encoding in fast mode first (quality setting = 7) and noticed a minimal less deep 3D experience, perhaps some slight artefacts, but the re-encoding was done within 4-5h (i7-9700K). I’m now running the same with q=1 and hope to get what is possible.

*) I set the bitrate to avg: 50000, max: 60000 (the latter should be the limit for BD-3D compliance, is this correct?). I also removed the -sw switch since I’m on Intel but it chose the SW version anyway…

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