As @bmillham says
but you can safely put that in rc.local.
It won’t break anything and can be easily reverted if it doesn’t go to plan
Cheers
Sam
Ok, since adding that to rc.local I haven’t had the same issue. Only watched two episodes of a series however, but normally was getting at least one black screen per episode previously. Will keep an eye on it, but wanted to update.
I didn’t change the connections either (i.e. the Vero 4k is still directly connected to the soundbar).
Thanks for the help so far!
Please do let me know if this fixes things long term and I can do some more digging.
The issue should’ve occurred around March – but not sure how frequently you’ve tracked updates.
Sam
I started experiencing the same issue after the October update. Two different movies, both h264 1080p at 23.976. I got ~2 sec of black every 10 minutes or so. But for me it was not reproducible at the same times in the video, always random. I tried turning off refresh rate adjust, but the video is jittery. I also have a Vero 4k, connected through an HDMI switch, then through a sound bar, then to tv. I have not had this issue with other sources, or before today’s update
I can give the above error mode change a try and report back. But out of curiosity, what does the hpd lock do in this situation?
Please try making the changes suggested above
Sam
If you have certain conditions it can look to the vero like you unplugged the hdmi cable so it renegotiates with downstream devices. By locking the hot plug detection it keeps sending the same signal regardless of the plug status. The downside to doing this is that if your device is restarted when your display is off you will likely have no signal and it will not recover without rebooting OSMC.
Interesting. After posting above, I had the glitch happen while in the OSMC menu, as some others have reported. So I don’t think it is related to the video decoding now. It could be a negotiation issue with the HDMI switch, or the cable. I’ll try the HPD lock and switching the cable.
The HDMI switch has been great so far, I got this one from monoprice.
Monoprice Blackbird 4K 4x1 HDMI 2.0 Switch, Ultra Slim, HDR, HDCP 2.2, EDID, 4K@60Hz, Product # 21614
@sam_nazarko, I have all other settings already like above (auto res switch on start/stop, etc).
Are you able to remove the switch for a while?
Yeah, I could directly connect the Vero for testing. The switch is for convenience and so I can run external sources through the soundbar (which has only 1 input), to get rid of any ARC audio lag. The only things running over ARC are the builtin streaming apps.
Vizio sb36512-f6 soundbar, TCL 2019 6 series tv (roku tv)
The switch does EDID passthrough, but also has dipswitches for manual settings.
These are the cables I got, 3 ft length
Monoprice Ultra Slim Certified Premium High Speed HDMI Cable, 4K@60Hz, HDR, 18Gbps, 36AWG, YUV 4:4:4, 6ft, Black, Product # 24187
Ok, tried HPD lock and a new cable, but still get the black flash after a few minutes of playing a movie. This time I rebooted, directly played the movie, and grabbed logs after the flash.
https://paste.osmc.tv/qobololezi
Next I will try plugging the Vero directly into the soundbar, bypassing the switch.
Have you tried adding the line to your rc.local as per above. Since doing that I haven’t had any issues.
Plugged directly into the soundbar, it was OK. I then went back through the switch, but set the switch EDID to a 4k@60 setting, instead of passthrough, and it was OK as well. However my xfinity cable box does not work with the EDID, and I had to go back to passthrough on the switch.
Next I will try the error mode change.
Cautiously optimistic that the error mode setting is working. Any idea why it would work, when I had experienced the black flash while in the OSMC menu? This setting seems specific to the h264 decoder. Does the menu use the decoder in some way?
No.
Sam
Unfortunately the error mode change did not resolve the issue. Was there anything in the logs that might help?
If the issue is only occurring with the switch, I’d be inclined to blame that…
I agree, but I don’t have issues with other sources through the switch, like my cable box, so it’s not a blanket switch failure. It would be helpful to understand what the incompatibility is. It’s the only switch I’ve found that supports 4k@60 and 4:4:4 colorspace for HDR (ie consoles with 4k and HDR).
From your logs, I don’t see any HPD events or OnLostDisplay events (with exception of the initial refresh rate adjustment) which indicates that there isn’t a disruption of signal on the Vero’s side.
How is the switch powered? It may be worth checking that is OK.
If forcing HPD isn’t working either, then it’s not going to be an OSMC issue unfortunately
Sam
Switch is powered via external block supply. I’m sure it’s fine, since no issues with other input sources. I’m not seeing any weird flashes on the indicator lights, and auto switch inputs is off.
https://paste.osmc.tv/kisuhumuvo
Started happening again. Screen went black twice during an episode so I turned on debug logging and reset. Nothing happened during the next episode we watched. But the screen did go black on the episode listing screen whilst I wasn’t watching any thing.
Log is on the link above. Any clues as to why this has come back? I haven’t changed anything in my set up.