I have just purchased and installed a Vero V. This replaces a RPi 3B+ (with HW decode licences), which appears to have gotten a bit unstable.
The remote provided with the unit seems unreliable. Sometimes I need to press a button multiple times to get a response. Using the FLiRC (USB) from the RPi, I am able to use my previous remote to have each button press do something (no ‘ignored’ button presses).
I can watch and record TV using the TVheadend PVR client. TVH is running on a Synology NAS. IPTV is delivered by a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Quattro. All devices on the local network are 1Gb/s hard-wired (no wi-fi). HDHRQ is 100 Mb/s. TV is Panasonic TH-P65VT60 plasma. Using a Dell S2419HM monitor instead makes no difference. I use emby for kodi with the embuary skin.
When watching TV the image will seem to pause briefly before skipping forwards. It happens several times per minute. The audio is not interrupted. I’ve fiddled with all sorts of settings to no avail. Playing back a recorded segment seems OK. Playing back video files (ripped from DVD/blu-ray) seems OK. When replacing the VeroV with RPi the issue does not arise.
TV is unwatchable if I turn off HW decoding.
When starting to play a TV channel there is a significant delay of 5 s to 10 s before the stream is played. For Rpi the stream is played within 1 s to 2 s. These delays are the same when switching streams (changing channels).
I have looked through the forum but anyone with somewhat similar problems seem not to have a solution. At this stage I have not generated log files.
I reiterate: these problems do not arise for the ageing RPi.
I have multiple SiliconDust Quatro tuners and Vero Vs. Is the issue related to IPTV recordings or watching the streams live ? Also for the oens with issues are they 1080i or 720P ? suspect it might be 1080i and these are MPEG2 streams, I’ll do some of my own testing and report back. I use SiliconDust’s DVR software but that really shouldn’t matter. I also stream mine via Mezzmo over HTTP vs. SMB which could be a big difference. We’ll see.
I had a few minutes to do some quick testing. I played a few 1080i and 720P MPEG2 recordings and all were fine. No issues with skipping, FF, RW etc. Very responsive. Make sure you have accelerate MPEG2 set to always. Again, I am streaming via HTTP so this might be one of the SMB issues with settings and such, which were recently changed in Kodi. I’ll leave that to the SMB experts here.
I too use the Flirc devices on all of my endpoints whether Intel, Raspberry Pi or Vero devices. I find it easier to keep the remotes in sync and the wife is happy that they all operate the same. When you have as many endpoints hanging off of a sharing solution as I do, pleasing the big boss and the grandchildren is very important.
Sorry it has taken so long to get back but things got in the way.
Some of the issues I have seem to be partially mirrored by others.
I have some more information that might provide some insight. These issues seem to arise when watching through the antenna, possibly only when errors in the stream occur (which happens frequently). Over time the slow down/stutter in the video stream gets worse. Skipping forwards and backwards in a recorded/live TV stream seems to exacerbate the problem, though I cannot be sure. Because this can take a while to manifest I still have not recorded any logs.
When it does occur, if I switch to playing files stored on the NAS, such as movies, then these are also similarly affected.
If I reboot Kodi, the situation does not improve. If I reboot the Vero V, I am back to a functioning unit again. This suggests some effect on the hardware which survives a Kodi reboot.
Playing movies stored on the NAS (after a clean reboot of Vero V) does not trigger the stuttering, at least that I have noticed. Similarly, playing programs from a TV station’s catch-up service (presumably without errors) is fine after a Vero V reboot.
Up to several times per night the unit will crash with the sad face on a blue background, then automatically reboot.
I am a bit confused. Pressing “Restart Kodi” and “Reboot” definitely do different things. “Restart Kodi” seems to only restart the Kodi process. “Reboot” comes up with the AMLogic logo and a bunch of boot messages before starting Kodi.
It might be my fault for earlier writing “reboot Kodi” instead of “Restart Kodi”.
I have installed the latest update and will see how it goes tonight.
Hi. As far as I can tell “Exit” and “Restart Kodi” does the same thing.
When Vero V gets ‘into a state’ and plays back TV recordings ‘in slow motion’ with skips, then it does so whether I play rips or recordings. “Exit” and “Restart Kodi” do not restore normal operation. “Reboot” does.
However, this appears to be the case for ≥ 50 fps source material, which is most of my videos, no matter the resolution. If I play a bluray rip, 1920x1080, 29.xxx fps, then this plays without a hitch. This does not restore normal operation because playing 50 fps immediately afterwards shows the slow-motion artifact again.
Hi Sam. ‘Ordinary ‘is spot on with TVH live streams on the vero 5 issues. Mine is fully updated and has the identical issues to ‘ordinary s’ posts. I am not using an embury skin, just the Kodi native skin with the PKC plugin. Only thing that brings it back is a reboot. The issue described (when it manifests itself) affects all recorded or stored video from that point. it seems to slow the HW decoding down to a snails pace before eventual freeze. I to am streaming mostly 50hz native for live tv content that is 1080i and below. The issues doesn’t happen or start until decoding the live tvh streams, and it doesn’t happen straight away. I have an identical setup in another room with a vero 4+ fully updated, it does not suffer from this issue and it is used the same way and has a PKC plugin etc. There are no errors on my TVH server at time of slowdown, I have checked.