Hello, I’ve recently bought Panasonic HDR TV and since then I am having back screen issues when sending picture from Vero to this TV via HDMI. With old 1080p Samsung TV, HDMI-CEC worked without issues, however this brand new (model 2022) TV is showing black screen when Vero is waken up. I can see red led on Vero going off, which means it is up, but no picture going thru HDMI once waken up from standby. I tried pressing whatever buttons on Vero or TV remote, but the only fix is to unplug/plug Vero back into the mains.
This happens always when Vero is waken up via TV remote and sometimes when waken up with Vero remote. It sometimes happens even aften I finish watching movie and picture should return back to Kodi. This looks to me it has issues with refresh frequency when it goes back to 60Hz which is set up in Kodi (4K).
TV has 3 types of HDMI compatibility modes (1-3) where 1 has the highest compatibility and 3 lowest, but 3 supports up to 120Hz refresh rate, 2 supports up to 4K resolution. 1 is probably the old basic mode. It sometimes helps when I go and change e.g. from HDMI2 to HDMI3 via TV menu. Then it somehow refreshes and I can see Kodi. I didn’t have issues when output was set to HDM1 mode, but this only supports 30Hz. On my old 1080p Samsung TV, there was only one type of HDMI, but this worked without any issues using 1080p/60Hz.
I tried playing with various settings on TV (they call it VIERA Link), but nothing really helped. I also tried the same on OSMC side with HDMI-CEC input drivers, but I still didn’t find out the setting that would refrain from such behavior.
Has anybody encountered this and if so, is there any workaround? I don’t have a feeling this is strictly bad TV (I have over 2 weeks only), this seems to me like a HDMI compatibility with kind of newer HDMI standards and older drivers on the Vero side?
Which HDMI cable are you using, and how long is it? Make sure it is one that is rated either “premium high speed” or “ultra high speed” - check the text printed on the wire. Anything that is actually independently tested as complying to those standards should also have been supplied with a bar code (or QR code) that you can use to check the test results.
I had a lot of problems with the cable that’s supplied with the Vero 4K+ which were fixed by switching to a better quality one.
If your cable is either premium high speed or ultra high speed it’s also worth trying a different cable, just in case the one you’re using has developed a mechanical fault.
I’m using Audioquest Cinnamon hdmi cable that is 1m long. It should be okay as manufacturer declares 18 Gbps, 4K and up to 600Hz. I didn’t have any problems using this cable with other TV and Vero for almost two years.
I have never had reason to swap it, but might try different tomorrow. I am afraid I have just regular cheap ones except this one.
I would unplug the TV and Vero from the wall for a minute, then plug the TV in and wait a minute, then plug the Vero back in. When you swap devices around CEC can sometimes get confused on what is plugged into what. Are there any other devices plugged into this TV?
I’ve tried to use different HDMI cable (standard) and it is doing the same. Also did what darwindesign suggested - no change. And yes, Vero is the only HDMI device connected to TV.
So I am Still having issues when I use TV remote to turn on TV, Vero wakes up too (red led dims), but it seems that HDMI input doesn’t wake up as the screen remains black.
When I use Vero remote to wake it up, it also wakes up TV and picture is shown however it would be great if I workaround the first described scenario. Meaning if I use TV remote for waking devices up, that would ideally turns not just the TV, but Vero too (in fact it does it, but the screen is black).
There’s a Viera Link setting on a TV for Turning ON and OFF via the link. This can be switched ON or OFF. If I set Turning ON via Link to OFF, unfortunately it works the opposite way I would expect, meaning when I turn on devices using Vero remote, it wakes up only Vero, TV keeps sleeping.
If I use TV remote to turn devices on, it keeps doing what I described. I can probably turn everything off and then it should work using both remotes to turn device on and off, but I got used to using just one with my previous TV, so trying to set it up with new TV as well.
In Kodi, there’s CEC Adapter - libCEC 6.0.2 - firmware v5.
Is the TV really so new with non compatible HDMI ports this is not possible to set up?
EDIT: This is probably expected, but I forgot to mention that this happens when I turn off TV when using HDMI input. Meaning if I watch TV via terrestrial broadcast and turn TV off, then when I want to wake it up using TV remote, Vero is correctly sleeping because TV antenna input is active (instead of HDMI). But described behavior happens if I switch back from antenna to HDMI input. Then Vero wakes up, but screen remains black.
Have you tried playing around with the CEC options in Kodi? They are at settings>system>input>peripherals>cec adapter>
Yes, this is exactly what came to my mind originally and what I was already trying couple days, however even some of the options look promising, they didn’t change what I wanted. The HDMI-CEC driver version from that menu is the one I have stated above.
I think some of those options require a reboot to take effect. Also make sure you are exiting the screen by hitting the OK button as using the back button exits the screen without saving or giving a warning. I think the switch sources option is the one relevant to your issue.
I missed this the first time around. Are you saying your running the UI in 4K. This can cause some odd behavior and should be switched to 1080p…
We recommend people with 4K TVs set their user interface (UI) to 1080p. Kodi’s UI is not optimized for 4K yet and this can put unnecessary demands on your device and can lead to a suboptimal picture quality, as well as potentially cause other issues.
The settings we recommend are as follows…
Settings>System>Display>Resolution> 1920x1080p
Settings>System>Display>Whitelist> (empty) *
Settings>Player>Videos>Adjust display refresh rate>Always or On start/stop
Some televisions may also need, or benefit from, the following being set…
System>Display>Force 4:2:2 colour subsampling> (enable)
With the above settings your UI will be output in Full HD and your 4K content will be output in 4K.
*Information regarding the whitelist can be found here. If you have any doubt, feel free to upload some logs so we can verify that your settings are indeed correct.
Great, thank you very much, darwindesign. This is now working (and I hope it will keep like that).
As I bought 4K TV three weeks ago, I automatically changed UI resolution to 4K. I wasn’t aware this is not recommended. I also noticed GPU/CPU temperature raised over 80C. Now it’s back to approx. 60C.
Thanks, your support is much appreciated!