Pi codec issue

Help and Support
1

Hi all.
I’m having a bit of a problem with the mpeg2 and vc1 codecs on both my pi2 and pi B. Both have been running OSMC for some time and have had the codecs setup and working. But since updating a few days ago I’ve noticed some playback issues. After some investigation I’ve found that vcgencem codec_enabled MPG2 is now returning MPG2=disabled on both Pis. I’ve checked config.txt and the keys are still there. Any ideas? Am I just being stupid and I’ve missed something?

2

Ok… not sure what I did (few restarts, re-entering the key in config.txt, few settings changes) but the codec seems to be working now. Still having some minor playback issues, but will investigate further and may ask for assistance again after.

3

I would still do this:
Check If The Keys Are Enabled

If you are having issues with your licence there are some tests you can do to confirm if the licence is enabled or not.

SSH into your Raspberry Pi and run the below commands:
vcgencmd codec_enabled MPG2
vcgencmd codec_enabled WVC1

If MPG2 or WVC1 has been successfully enabled it should return something similar to this:
MPG2=enabled

If it returns disabled you will need to check:
1.You entered the correct serial number when purchasing the licence.
2.You have correctly added the licence key to the config.txt file.
3.You uncommented the relevant lines in the config.txt file by removing the # and space from the start of the line.
4.You have rebooted before testing.

4

As I said in the first post I had already tried the vcgencmd codec_enabled commands which showed they were disabled. They are now showing as enabled but I don’t know what has changed, I have a copy of the config.txt that wasn’t working and have compared it to the current one and I can see no difference except that I’ve now put the decode_MPG2=0x12345678 (not my actual key of course) line at the bottom of the file now while it was in the middle before, but the line is exactly the same. So not sure what was going on with that, maybe some kind of corruption that was preventing the file from being read at startup?

As for the ongoing issues they seem to be specific to live TV playback and not codec related as it affects both SD TV (mpeg2) and HD TV (h264) in the same way. I’ve got a couple of ideas, just need to find time to test them.

5

Hello
I have some similar issue.
I have more codecs in one line separated by comma, because I ordered more codecs in same time. I don´t known which codec is for which serial No of RPi.
With last version of OSMC 2016.12-1 if I had inserted to config.txt all codecs, the codecs are disabled.
Previous version running fine.
The problem was found when tv stream produce only sound and no picture.
Recorded files was play correctly.
If I found correct codec and add only this one codec, the codecs are enabled after reboot.
It looks like some mistake, when is added more codecs - osmc read only first codec.
Is this possible? It was made some changes in these parts of system?
Thanks in advance
Jan

6

You should only add the codec licenses which are specific to the RPi you are working with.

7

The systems will quite happily accept (correctly) up to 7 comma separated, licences, and mine are so set up.

8

This is correct. See RPiconfig - eLinux.org

9

Thanks
I know, I have codecs for 6 RPi in one line.
It was function till this time.
Could you please confirm, that your function codec is not on first position in config line?

10

It matters not which position in the line the one for that particular RPi is.
Derek

11

But the codecs should not be the top line in config.txt. Firmware and kernel should be loaded first.

12

Shouldn’t matter.