I’ve been using the Vero 4k+ for over a year now and have been very happy with it. A few days ago it offered an upgrade from Kodi 18 to Kodi 19.1.
Unfortunately, after the upgrade I struggle(d) with several problems that I would like to make you aware of.
I was using Amber skin and was aware that the upgrade would initially break it, so after the upgrade the Vero was on the default skin. I tried to upgrade Amber to the new version that supports Kodi 19, but failed.
Amber has dependencies which themselves have dependencies as well (e.g skinshortcuts, unidecode and simplejson). This chain did not upgrade, no matter what I tried in the GUI, so in the end I was forced to the Linux command line and:
stopped mediacenter
removed all addons that have python 2.x in their dependencies from the “/home/osmc/.kodi/addons” folder (34 total)
started mediacenter
Now I was able to install Amber. A few skin settings were lost and the music section in the main menu had no background, but I could resolve that quickly.
When troubleshooting I usually had the Vero 4k+ connected to my NEC 2690WUXi computer screen (native 1920x1200). The screen doesn’t have HDMI ports, so I’m forced to use a HDMI/DVI adapter. This isn’t working anymore since the upgrade.
It seems the Vero now requires a native HDMI device. That makes troubleshooting extremely difficult for me. Good thing is that my projector is a native HDMI device so I can at least watch movies.
For remote control of the Vero 4k+ I’m using the IR remote of my WDTV Live Gen4 and the Vero IR extender. It was working flawlessly with the old Vero release. With the new one the Vero barely reacts to button presses.
Batteries are full. I have to press buttons multiple times to get the box to react. Fast forward doesn’t work with more than 2x speed. The Vero simply doesn’t register the button presses to increase the speed.
Also fast forward playback now lags a lot even at 2x speed on low bandwidth movies.
Suggestions are welcome. If problem 2 and 3 cannot be resolved, I guess I’ll be going back to the old release.
Shouldn’t be. Were you getting the native 1920x1200 resolution before? I checked the timings for your NEC and they are exactly the same as a DELL 2408WPS (also DVI) which we got working for another user about a year ago.
Please post debug logs so we can have a look at those problems.
I don’t remember if it was the native resolution I got in the past. It has been some months that I had the Vero 4k+ connected to that port on the monitor. The monitor port itself is working fine, I had a laptop connected to this cable last week with the full 1920x1200.
Change the line that reads <setting id="videoscreen.screenmode">0192001080059.94006pstd</setting>
to <setting id="videoscreen.screenmode">0192001200060.00000pstd</setting>
Save the file then systemctl start mediacenter
If you are not familiar with the command line see here
That should get you a picture. Then go to Settings->System->Display and set RGB output and full-range quantisation.
I modified “guisettings.xml” as per your instructions, but still get no picture on the monitor. I also verified again that the cable and monitor port are working fine using a PC with a HDMI output.
I plugged the Vero back to the projector. In Settings → System → Display there are no “RGB output” or “full range quantisation” settings. The only thing that matches somewhat is “force RGB output”.
Sorry I wasn’t clear enough. force RGB output is what you want and you need to disableUse limited colour range.
If you didn’t restart the Vero between using it with the NEC and the projector, please post logs again.
If you did restart, please get logs when you are connected to the NEC. You will have to edit guisettings.xml again because it will have been re-set when you attached the projector.
Hope this is clear. I’m looking at improving the code, but there are very few users with PC monitors which do not support the standard video mode 1080p so it hasn’t been a priority.
I enabled “force RGB output”. “Use limited colour range” was already disabled.
After I plugged the Vero back to the NEC, I modified “guisettings.xml” again. There is still no picture. Here is the new log.
What I noticed on the NEC is that there seems to be some struggle with the signal. When switching inputs and there is no signal, the NEC will display a “no signal” message and after some seconds the message vanishes and the front LED goes from blue to yellow. When the Vero is connected, the same message shows, vanishes and comes back again. The front LED stays blue the whole time. So there must be “some” signal.
Aug 28 17:24:28 vero4k kernel: hdmitx: video: VIC: 0 (789) 1920x1200p60hz
Aug 28 17:24:28 vero4k kernel: hdmitx: video: Video output
Bit depth: 8-bit, Colourspace: RGB
Colour range RGB: full, YCC: full
Aug 28 17:24:28 vero4k kernel: hdmitx: video: Gamut
Colorimetry BT709
Transfer SDR
Aug 28 17:24:28 vero4k kernel: hdmitx: video: PLL clock: 0xc00002a1, Vid clock div 0x000a739c
Aug 28 17:24:28 vero4k kernel: hdmitx: system: update rx hdr info 0
Aug 28 17:24:28 vero4k kernel: vout: new mode 1920x1200p60hz set ok
Let me check which user had the Dell 2408 and whether he’s still using it. It was @hbbs if he’s around.
Today I was testing a little bit. I installed a freshly downloaded “OSMC_TGT_vero3_20210808.img.gz” image on the Vero4k+. Installation went without problems. Afterwards I added the WDTV Gen4 lirc files to test my remote control.
Amber installed without problems. That’s no surprise, as there are no remnants from a previous version on the Vero.
There was still no image on the NEC.
The remote control still didn’t work properly. Button presses were hardly recognized, especially while playing a movie.
Then I installed the freshly downloaded “OSMC_TGT_vero3_20201227.img.gz” image. It installed without problems and I added the WDTV Gen4 lirc files again.
Amber installed without problems.
The Vero4k+ shows a 1920x1080p60 image on the NEC (verified on both ends).
The WDTV Gen4 remote works absolutely fine.
I guess I’m stuck with Kodi 18.9 now, until the next big update maybe? If you need debug logs to compare them with a 19.1 box, feel free to ask.
I’ve been working on it. Problem is the 4.9 kernel has much ‘better’ support for VESA modes like 1920x1200 and Kodi is defaulting to that on boot. But the timings (mode line) aren’t right for your display.
Could you post a log for Kodi 18.9 starting up, please? I want to know how it’s finding that 1920p60 mode.
Right. Clearly your display does support 1080p60, even though there’s no sign of it in the EDID. There will be an update for OSMC very shortly that gets rid of those 1080i60 modes which your display definitely doesn’t support. With that update, you should be back to where you are with Kodi 18.9.
You still won’t be able to get the real native resolution of 1920x1200p60Hz although it should show up in Display settings.
For the WDTV remote, I suggest you modify the title of this thread to include it, or, better, start a new thread with it in the title.