Is anyone else experiencing intermittent pixelation and stutter with live tv on the August update?
Updated to staging repo and still present.
Recording of the same footage plays without issue.
Did a fresh install of March firmware and live tv performance is back to being flawless.
My setup is rpi5 running tvheadend server, connected to Hauppage WinDualHD tv tuner. Vero V as client.
Hereās a logā¦
https://paste.osmc.tv/yutorufata
ITV4 sd. MotorsportUK is unwatchable. Pixelation and picture stutter. Recording plays perfectly however.
Experienced these issues after installing August firmware, so decided to revert back to March firmware with a fresh install and everything played perfectly.
Decided to update again to share logs and see if this can be fixed. Thanks.
Hi Tariq
Hereā¦ noā¦
Can you reproduce it with a recording?
If you can that will be very useful
I assumed your tuner is DVB-T2. I am mainly using DVB-S2 for viewing recently, although I do have access to both if needed.
Sam
Hi Sam.
Yeah, Iām using Hauppage DVB-T tuner.
Unfortunately, any recordings I make play without issue.
From limited testing, it seems SD content is affected. Can go for long periods without issue, then get pixelation and stuttering. Some programs - like motorsport the other night - are unwatchable throughout. Also seems like thereās consistent picture breakup with transitions to ads on SD channels.
Happy to go back to previous firmware to be honest, but was hoping to identify the issue, particularly if others are affected by it (although it doesnāt seem like anyone else is!).
I could try plugging the Hauppage tuner directly into Vero and setting up tvheadend server on it (bypassing the rpi tvheadend server) to check if that makes a difference?
What version of TVH are you running on the Pi?
There has not been a stable release of TVH for a while, but the TVH guys keep saying they will cut a release āsoonā.
I would be curious if things work fine on Vero directly, and if youāre watching on the Pi, if the inverse is the same
Sam
Hi. Iām running tvh 4.3 on pi. Itās been solid as a rock for ages to be honest - hasnāt skipped a beat.
Connected Hauppage directly to Vero and experienced same pixelation / picture breakup on SD channels.
I run the rpi5 headless so couldnāt check performance directly on it.
I know my transmitter has had some engineering works going on for the last few weeks (which coincided with me upgrading to August firmware) so is probably whatās causing this.
The weird thing is, when I upgraded and noticed live tv performance issues over the course of a day, I downgraded to April release and everything played perfectly again for days, so thought it had to be the newer firmware causing issues.
Anyway, having done a clean install of raspberry pi os (seems a new āTrixieā version has been released) things seem to have settled a bit, although not perfect. Hopefully things will improve.
Itās going to be hard to improve things if we donāt know what the issue is, and right now we donāt.
Can you try watch a stream via VLC or another client and see if it also exhibits issues?
How easy is it to reproduce the stuttering now? Is it constant or do you have to wait a while
Only some muxes or all. Sorry if I have asked these questions before. Furthermore if youāre watching fast live sports it might be that you just notice it more on channels like ITV4 as opposed to say BBC showing newsā¦
Cheers
Sam
Hi @sam_nazarko. Havenāt found the time to properly test since you replied, but did manage to record the issue this eve.
Iāve done a fresh install of August firmware. Pixelation/ stutter still happening every few minutes.
I watch a fair bit of Film4 and notice it most there, but caught it happening on ITV4 this eve, also on 642mhz mux. HD channels seem to be unaffected.
Managed to play two streams side by side using rpi5 as tvh server.
One stream using Vero V direct to tv and another using tvheadend client on Kodi on my MacBook.
Serious picture break up on Vero/ tv but picture on MacBook is perfect.
Can I upload a couple of short videos here (showing TV and MacBook running side by side)? Or is there a better way to share video with you?
Total shot in the dark, but could this output from dmesg explain the picture breakup?
index:20744055:20744054
[550703.800829] vidioc_qbuf skip: index:20744445:20744444
[550707.421582] dim:warn:peek busy
[550719.081553] dim:warn:peek busy
[550732.921713] vidioc_qbuf skip: index:20745901:20745900
[550750.221692] vidioc_qbuf skip: index:20746753:20746752
osmc@osmc:~$
Hi, in the provided logs I see that you set a single whitelist display setting, namely
<setting id="videoscreen.whitelist">0192001080050.00000pstd</setting>
<setting id="videoscreen.whitelistpulldown">false</setting>
<setting id="videoscreen.whitelistdoublerefreshrate">false</setting>
So, you have configured soemthing like
So, EVERYTHING should be played as 1920x1080p, 50Hz ā¦
What happens, if you remove this whitelist setting? (New logs would be fine)
Also, you can try the following setting with your Tvheadend HTSP Client:
Hi @JimKnopf thanks for the response.
I removed 1920x1080p50hz whitelist (disabling 3:2 pulldown and double refresh rates) and also added 50hz as a fallback framerate.
Still experiencing issue unfortunately.
Interestingly, I just checked dmesg a minute ago while end credits of a film4 film were running, and see a lot of dim:warn:peek busy messages. I then noticed a heavy stutter on credits, checked dmesg immediately after, and noticed vidioc_qbuf skip had appeared, so guessing that message is connected to the skipping?
[91241.425051] dim:warn:peek busy
[91354.905020] dim:warn:peek busy
[91360.929855] vidioc_qbuf skip: index:4554136:4554135
[91380.025241] dim:warn:peek busy
[91385.826265] vidioc_qbuf skip: index:4555283:4555282
[91386.489243] vidioc_qbuf skip: index:4555316:4555315
We need the full logs after adjusting and rebooting.
Obviously if we can reproduce with a recording itās a lot easier.
Otherwise maybe I can give you access to my TVH instance.
Sam
almost immediately after starting playback, got a long picture freeze. Also a bit of pixelation after starting recording - recording plays perfectly.
2025-10-28 01:33:32.572 T:2807 info <general>: VideoPlayer::OpenFile: pvr://channels/tv/All%20channels@-1/1@pvr.hts_1878223605.pvr
...
2025-10-28 01:33:34.716 T:3047 info <general>: [WHITELIST] Searching the whitelist for: width: 720, height: 576, fps: 25.000, 3D: false, 3d mode flags: 0x0
2025-10-28 01:33:34.716 T:3047 debug <general>: [WHITELIST] Using the default whitelist because the user whitelist is empty
2025-10-28 01:33:34.716 T:3047 debug <general>: [WHITELIST] Searching for an exact resolution with an exact refresh rate
2025-10-28 01:33:34.717 T:3047 debug <general>: [WHITELIST] No match for an exact resolution with an exact refresh rate
2025-10-28 01:33:34.717 T:3047 debug <general>: [WHITELIST] Searching for an exact resolution with double the refresh rate <<ā !!!
2025-10-28 01:33:34.718 T:3047 debug <general>: [WHITELIST] No match for an exact resolution with double the refresh rate
@sam_nazarko Is this wrong in the code logic? See
====================== Display Cap CTA =================== g0gjk991
480p60hz
576p50hz <<ā !!!
720p50hz
720p60hz
...
Depends on your definition of āwrongā. It is expected - with no user whitelist, resolutions less than GUI are not used. @Tee77 needs to add 576p (at least) to a whitelist.
Just chiming in here to keep a track. Iām also seeing this on channels like ITV4 and ITV Quiz. Only noticed the other day and not had a chance to test much and donāt use those channels all that often.
I donāt have a whitelist in place. I did try one a while back, but fell foul of this one: Kodi GUI is stuck with the last played refresh rate .
It made the UI look odd and only happened with a whitelist in place so Iāve taken it out and not gone back to it again.
Hi @grahamh can you explain why I need to add 576p to whitelist? Never used it before and never had any issues (as recently as March firmware, where everything played perfectly).
Is it worth me posting a video - side by side of kodi/tvheadend on Macbook vs Vero on tv - so you can get an idea of the issues Iām seeing? I canāt see how whitelisting would affect what Iām seeing.
If so, can I post directly here?
As explained above, without that Vero will be not switch to 576p so it will be converting 576 lines, 50Hz to 1080p50. I donāt know why that would have worked before August and not now but itās how Iāve always used the whitelist. Can you try it? Thanks for the reminder about the āGUI is stuckā bug. I think someoneās working on that.
I should add - I tried watching TV with no whitelist and there do seem to be an annoying number of picture break-up incidents. Seems to vary by mux. No need for you to post videos.
Ok thanks for the info. Tried switching whitelist to 576p - still experiencing picture breakup/ pixelation - regular as clockwork after ads on film4, transitioning into the red film4 logo screen.
So youāve always whitelisted 576pā¦the low resolution tv guide not bother you?