Any AVI is stuttering and asynchronuous, mp4 works

[jan.stuehler]

On my Vero 4k, AVI files are displayed very asynchronously. The movie part runs much faster than the audio part, then a little later, the movie stutters. Sometimes, I get the sad face. The audio is always in normal speed. This is probably since the last upgrade/reinstall. At least, before that, it was not a problem.

I tried changing the settings in settings > player > videos > frame rate and sync with monitor, but to no avail. It is the first time I played around with those settings, earlier, it was not necessary. But also in the standard settings for player, video, audio, the files are asynchronous and stutter.

The AVI files are of different resolutions. They are on an autofs-mounted NFS share. I copied a sample file to the local storage, but it shows the same behaviour.

Here is a short log of picking the video in the local storage, starting it, and watching it for a few seconds: https://paste.osmc.tv/qizirarovu

Just checked, vlc plays the files correctly.

How can I watch my avis again?

[darwindesign]

Try setting in your player settings…

Adjust display refresh rate: On start/stop
Sync playback to display: false

[jan.stuehler]

Oh, sorry if I wasn’t clear with

I tried changing the settings in settings > player > videos > frame rate and sync with monitor

“Frame Rate” is the refresh rate. I use a non-English UI language.
Nevertheless I got back to Kodi and tested all 8 options:

Refresh        sync on                       sync off
===========================================================
Off            problem exists                problem exists
Always         problem exists                problem exists
Start/Stop     problem exists                problem exists
Start          problem exists                problem exists

What else can I try?

[k2u3]

@jan.stuehler

What else can I try?

Mux the Avi’s to mkv its 2020 after all

[jan.stuehler]

@k2u3

Mux the Avi’s to mkv its 2020 after all

Oh, thank you, kkuuu.
The AVIs used to work all the time before. The AVIs are provided as such by a (legit) online broadcasting recorder. And they worked all the time before. I have hundreds of them, so the idea of remuxing hundreds of AVIs to cater for, until now, a software problem in kodi, is not attractive. Did I mention that they worked all the time before? They did so in 2020, and hopefully will again in 2020, without remuxing provided content by the dozen.

[k2u3]

Try playing the Avis with hardware acceleration disabled ( I assume it’s SD content)

[jan.stuehler]

@k2u3

Try playing the Avis with hardware acceleration disabled ( I assume it’s SD content)

That did the trick, at least for the movies in question. Disabled HW acceleration for h.264, and audio and video are in sync again and not stuttering.

What about HD (720, 1280) or mp4 content, then? How will they suffer from disabled HW acceleration?
And what caused the HW acceleration to degrade so much after the upgrade?

[k2u3]

I’m glad it helped. I think there is an option to disable HW acceleration for SD but keep it enabled for HD and 4k.

I think @sam_nazarko @grahamh or any of the other forum moderators can help you out and give you a better solution.

Providing a media info log of a file that gives you trouble would probably help the guys tracking down the issue.

[sam_nazarko]

This doesn’t bode well.

2020-07-21 01:33:58.431 T:3628053216   DEBUG: CalcFrameRate counted 1000 frames without being able to calculate the framerate, giving up

Is this perhaps a new issue under 4.9? I note you are using the new video stack.

[jan.stuehler]

@k2u3

I think there is an option to disable HW acceleration for SD but keep it enabled for HD and 4k.

This would be very helpful, because an HD movie (an m4v file, i must add) will begin to stutter after a couple minutes.

@k2u3

Providing a media info log of a file that gives you trouble would probably help the guys tracking down the issue.

[jan@one-arch ~]$ gt -m 489
General
Complete name                            : /mnt/media/data/MyVideos/TVShows/Tatort/Tatort_489_s2001e29.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile                           : OpenDML
File size                                : 2.42 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 45 min
Overall bit rate                         : 3 278 kb/s
Encoded by                               : www.onlinetvrecorder.com
Writing application                      : Lavf54.17.100
Comment                                  :  

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.2
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : H264
Duration                                 : 1 h 45 min
Bit rate                                 : 3 069 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.067
Stream size                              : 2.27 GiB (94%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 125 r2200 999b753
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / fade_compensate=0.10 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=23.0000 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 3
Format settings                          : Joint stereo / MS Stereo
Codec ID                                 : 55
Codec ID/Hint                            : MP3
Duration                                 : 1 h 45 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 145 MiB (6%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 24  ms (1.20 video frame)
Writing library                          : LAME3.99.5UUUUUUUU

@sam_nazarko

I note you are using the new video stack.

Noted correctly. The latest and greatest. Please let me know if you need further information or logs or media info.

[k2u3]

@jan.stuehler

@k2u3

I think there is an option to disable HW acceleration for SD but keep it enabled for HD and 4k.

This would be very helpful, because an HD movie (an m4v file, i must add) will begin to stutter after a couple minutes.

It should be in the menu where you disabled HW acceleration

[jan.stuehler]

@k2u3

It should be in the menu where you disabled HW acceleration

Ah yes, I found it in enable hardware acceleration for h.264 for “HD and better”.

But.

The movie in question, as other movies, are 720p. Kodi considers this as “HD and better”, activates HW acceleration, and the stuttering goes on. Is there an option to enable HW acceleration for 721+ p?

[sam_nazarko]

Does it happen on 3.14?

[jan.stuehler]

@sam_nazarko

Does it happen on 3.14?

3.14? What is that? The earlier kernel version? I am sure it didn’t happen there.

[k2u3]

3.14 is the default kernel and 4.9 is the new one that you have installed and that will become default once it’s ready.

Since Sam is now aware of the issue a solution is probably not too far away.

[sam_nazarko]

I would need a file to reproduce this to look in to any issue. But I also need to know for sure if it works on 3.14 or not.

Sam

[jan.stuehler]

@sam_nazarko

I would need a file to reproduce this to look in to any issue. But I also need to know for sure if it works on 3.14 or not.

The file: https://tinyurl.com/tatort489
If possible, please let me know once you downloaded it.

The sureness: I hereby confirm that the said AVI file was working flawlessly before the update to 4.9.

[jan.stuehler]

Is there any update on this?

[sam_nazarko]

The time stamps in the file are wrong. Remuxing may solve the issue.

[jan.stuehler]

So the new video stack brought closer monitoring of the time stamps?

For the records,

ffmpeg -fflags +genpts -i input.avi -c copy -map 0 output.mp4

seems to do the trick. It’s only 466 avi files to do. It will be quick.