Certain codecs not playing

Apologies if this has been asked before but I am having no luck finding a solution. I believe it’s a new codec issue, as certain new files I am downloading and playing on my Pi/OSMC box are not playing. The video player buffers, and the sound starts but there is no picture. If I download a different version of the same episode/video, it will play.

I assume that there is some new mkv compression video codec I am just not up to speed with, this has been happening for the past 6 months i’d estimate.

My debug logs are here: paste.osmc.tv/ipiloquhar

You should post MediaInfo output of the file.

Can do: (i cannot upload a text file into this post so here’s the text)

General
Unique ID : 137471768992409148363727056745314125435 (0x676C1982133150C243A93EC4444C067B)
Complete name : \osmc\My Book\TV Shows\Whose Line Is it anyway (US) (1998)\Whose.Line.Is.It.Anyway.US.S18E07.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[eztv.re].mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 281 MiB
Duration : 21 min 3 s
Overall bit rate : 1 863 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf58.76.100
Writing library : Lavf58.76.100
IsTruncated : Yes
ErrorDetectionType : Per level 1
CRC_Error_Pos : 4857 / 2188112 / 3497025

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L4@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 21 min 3 s
Bit rate : 7 977 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Original frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.128
Stream size : 1.17 GiB
Writing library : x265 3.5+9-bf91444e0:[Windows][GCC 10.2.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings : cpuid=1111039 / frame-threads=3 / numa-pools=12 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=1920x1080 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=0 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=1 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-eob / no-eos / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=25 / keyint=250 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=3 / b-adapt=0 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=5 / lookahead-slices=6 / scenecut=0 / hist-scenecut=0 / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=32 / min-cu-size=16 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / no-signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=2 / limit-refs=0 / no-limit-modes / me=0 / subme=0 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-frame-dup / no-hme / no-weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=2 / selective-sao=0 / early-skip / rskip / fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=23.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=1 / aq-strength=0.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=2 / transfer=2 / colormatrix=2 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / hist-threshold=0.03 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr10 / no-hdr10-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=0 / analysis-save-reuse-level=0 / analysis-load-reuse-level=0 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00 / scenecut-aware-qp=0conformance-window-offsets / right=0 / bottom=0 / decoder-max-rate=0 / no-vbv-live-multi-pass
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : A_AAC-2
Duration : 21 min 3 s
Bit rate : 126 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -33 ms
Stream size : 18.9 MiB (7%)
Title : English
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text
ID : 3
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration : 20 min 49 s
Bit rate : 103 b/s
Count of elements : 499
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 15.8 KiB (0%)
Title : English
Writing library : Lavc58.134.100 ssa
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

HEVC on a Pi2/3 is not going to work well with Kodi v19 due to video stack changes.

Yeah it’s a Pi3 I believe, hardware just too old? I figured it had to be either a new codec or old hardware. Thanks! Time to treat myself to a new Pi I guess!

HEVC/x.265 has been out for 8 years now and is the primary codec for 4K content. The RPi’s prior to the 4 could only play this if it was simpler lower resolution rips, and even then often not well. In the last couple years it seems to be getting increasingly more popular to use with lower resolution files just to make them smaller. Without a hardware upgrade you would do better sticking with AVC/h.264 files.

You can install an older version of OSMC which runs Kodi v18

This will run the files you are playing fine (as they are 1080p) on your Pi.

If you wish to upgrade, your best bet would be a Pi 4 or Vero 4K +

You may wish to consider the overall upgrade costs and new year sales.