Heavy stuttering with 4K UHD playback

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

Hi, I did not use my Vero 4K+ since a while because the lack of BR-Menu support. I have seen this thread

and would like to give it a try.

First I updated the osmc with
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

And
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-pgrade
sudo apt autoremove

I did not see errors.

Furthermore I installed the Java Addon as described in the thread above.

Up to now I did only tests with two UHD Iso and BR 3D Disc without Menü.

The Accountant UHD ISO - Menü is working but it’s stuttering like hell even before menu (this is definately a java menu)
Sicario UHD ISO - This crashes when I try to go to Menu (sad osmc face)

But what I did not expect. Both are also stuttering without menu (simple menu with direct jump to main movie). I think that last time I tested this h265 playback did work but I’m not sure about thtat. What I also noticed is when I check the player settings there are options for hardware acceleration for h264 but not for h265. Is this normal?

In playback videodecoder am-h265 (HW) is shown. CPU usage is way below 30% over all cores average render speed is around 12 fps (but I’m not sure if this matters, with a normal 3D Blu Ray render speed also drops to 12 fps partially and this is fluent as far as I can say). But the 3D Blu Ray has higher CPU / memory usage than the UHD Blu Ray playback.

Hardware acceleration seems to be working because without this setting enabled it’s way worse. System usage in idle mode is below 5% over all cores.

How can I check what’s the reason for the stuttering? If you need logs how do I collect them?

2

The normal way to get logs is:

  • Go on into Settings / System / Logging and check “Enable debug logging”.

  • Reboot twice.

  • Reproduce the problem.

  • Go into Settings / My OSMC / Log Uploader (the clipboard icon) and choose Upload Selected Logs Now.

  • Make a note of the URL it eventually gives you, and post that here.

  • Turn off debug logging.

1 Like
3

https://paste.osmc.tv/rivowititi

4

I think your log only shows playback with BD-J menus being used
Try change

Adjust display refresh rate: On start / stop ===> Default: Off
to Always

and disable the video whitelist

5

I have changed the settings as you mentioned but that does not help. I used simple menu with play main movie. This does not start a menu. Otherwise it would crash like it does when I start the Menu. TV is showing 4K 24hz at playback so should not be the problem.

For test purposes I switched to play main movie instead of simple menu but this has no effect as expected bause it’s the same than the above option.

I also deinstalled Java runtime for test purposes. That does also not help.

6

A fresh log would help.

Have you tried with a fresh install?
Have you tried playing from local storage?

Many thanks

Sam

8

I have tried a local storage now. No difference. I have attached the logs. I have also tried several other UHD Isos it’s the same with all of them.

https://paste.osmc.tv/zidahelica

I have not tried a fresh install because this only got one or two updates. Nothing that should be a problem with linux at all. The strange thing is that CPU consumption is really low.

9

Unfortunately, the logs don’t show any reason, so we need more logs. Can you also activate the component specific log messages and turn on the video and a/v timining components? Then redo the test and post the new logs.

Regarding the shown fps values in the debug overlay: that’s the current rendering speed and is (currently) not directly related to the video fps. For 3D MVC we need a higher rendering speed and that has an influence on the CPU load, so you will see higher values there.

10

Hope that helps. I activated Audo-/Video- Timing Information. Are you needing also the video component?

https://paste.osmc.tv/akakiyutat

Edit: Made another one with both enabled:
https://paste.osmc.tv/iwenikaxoh

But seems to be latest log is missing. Do I have to restart after chaning the settings?

Thank you for the explanation.

11

It’s better to reboot after the changes to get a clean log.

12

Ok, after reboot there are new entries:
https://paste.osmc.tv/esemivotas

16

We have seen many times odd or unstable behavior when someones goes a long time between updates. Given that there was fully two years since your last update, which constituted many major updates, I would suggest that a prudent approach may be to backup your userdata and perform a clean install of the newest build. This should also work around any potential issues there might be with earlier Java installs.

18

Never experienced that kind of behaviour on any of my linux machines but anyway I can try.

Backup does also not work. If i set it to a valid path wich I choose as location (osmc > cloud icon > backups) the result allways is (translation of German): no backup location maintained. choose a backup folder in osmc. So how should this work or what are the requirements? I tried a drive and smb location. Both are not recognized by manual save procedure.

19

It is a known bug that hasn’t been fixed yet. If you set the path and restart Kodi it will then use the updated path.

20

That way the backup worked.

The installation process seems to be very instable. As soon as I select the language I’m getting the sad face after selecting German (sometimes even dropping to command line). That’s the first step in the setup wizard. After that I can start again and this is working. At the end I’m choosing the estuary skin which will no be stored. Two bugs in a setup wizard of a fresh install. Seems to be no one have tested this.

Skin settings are not saved in general after fresh install. After every restart I’m getting OSMC skin. This is reproducible. I have installed several times now.

Out of the box the stutter effect is gone. If I restore the saved information it is back. Based on that the reason is not the Linux base but the Kodi byself.

I restored everything part by part and the problem is related to guisettings.xml

I compared the two files. As soon as I switch on truehdpassthrough (which is used in Sicario) to enabled the stutter starts in case of Sicario, if I switch that off there is no stutter. That happens if my AV Receiver is off. If it is on playback is fluent with passtrough enabled. I would say this is a bug. If passthrough is on and the AV receiver is off that should have no effect on playback.

Menu support is still buggy. When I start Sicario Menu the device just crashes. The same thing is no poblem in Kodi on a Intel machine and this is not based on Java as far as I know. Is this something where you are interested in debugging? I have hundreds of original IMG files captured from original discs without changes. On the other hand this maybe does not make much sense on the Vero 4K and maybe even the V is to slow for that. The Accountant Menu is working (Based on Java) but the playback is so slow that is makes absolutely no sense to use it.

21

I think it is – we don’t have any hardware acceleration through this pathway, which is why I was reluctant to spend too much time on it until users said it was essential.

I think it just depends on the complexity of the menu.

22

bluray_info /nasmedia1/data/video/iso /Sicario\ -\ UHD.iso
Disc title: ‘Sicario’, Volume name: ‘Sicario’, Main playlist: 4, AACS: no, BD-J: no, BD+: no
Playlist: 0, Length: 00:00:10.427, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio s treams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 3 MBs
Playlist: 1, Length: 00:00:20.395, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio s treams: 1, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 90 MBs
Playlist: 2, Length: 00:00:05.005, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio s treams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 1 MBs
Playlist: 3, Length: 00:00:05.047, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio s treams: 1, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 16 MBs
Playlist: 4, Length: 02:01:45.347, Chapters: 13, Video streams: 1, Audio s treams: 2, Subtitles: 3, Angles: 1, Filesize: 54750 MBs

bluray_info /nasmedia1/data/video/iso/The\ Accountant\ -\ UHD.iso
Disc title: ‘The Accountant’, Volume name: ‘THE_ACCOUNTANT’, Main playlist: 100, AACS: no, BD-J: yes, BD+: no
Playlist: 0, Length: 00:00:08.008, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 5 MBs
Playlist: 1, Length: 00:00:19.061, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 13 MBs
Playlist: 2, Length: 00:00:11.011, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 1, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 69 MBs
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Playlist: 4, Length: 00:00:05.005, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 1 MBs
Playlist: 5, Length: 00:00:23.482, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 20 MBs
Playlist: 6, Length: 00:00:10.010, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 4 MBs
Playlist: 7, Length: 00:05:40.340, Chapters: 35, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 202 MBs
Playlist: 8, Length: 00:00:30.030, Chapters: 4, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 18 MBs
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Playlist: 15, Length: 00:00:30.280, Chapters: 2, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 8 MBs
Playlist: 32, Length: 00:00:05.005, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 5 MBs
Playlist: 36, Length: 00:00:01.001, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 1 MBs
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Playlist: 100, Length: 02:07:54.250, Chapters: 13, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 13, Subtitles: 27, Angles: 1, Filesize: 59290 MBs
Playlist: 101, Length: 02:07:54.250, Chapters: 13, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 2, Subtitles: 3, Angles: 1, Filesize: 59290 MBs
Playlist: 120, Length: 00:02:06.126, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 1, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 350 MBs
Playlist: 121, Length: 00:02:06.126, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 1, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 341 MBs
Playlist: 900, Length: 00:00:10.010, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 1 MBs
Playlist: 901, Length: 00:00:10.010, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 1 MBs
Playlist: 959, Length: 00:00:04.004, Chapters: 1, Video streams: 1, Audio streams: 0, Subtitles: 0, Angles: 1, Filesize: 1 MBs