Rhythmic Freezing Of 4K Movies/TV Series After November Update

First of all I apologize for my poor English!
I think theoldfarter’s problem is the same as mine and it only happens with the latest versions, 19.3
Unfortunately I only tried the 19.3 and not the intermediate versions (from 18.9) and when I did the update artifacts appeared with all the files that I have viewed many times in the past (4k files, 1080p and lower files worked great!).
I tried the first time with online update than I tried again with a fresh installation from a pendrive (after a fresh installion of 18.9).

Can you provide a log of this?

Sam

This is the log with 19.3 and artifacts:

https://paste.osmc.tv/uqukobolic

This is the log with 18.9 and no artifacts:

https://paste.osmc.tv/opoyoponid

A hard lockup – caused by potentially a lack of power; overheating issue; bad PSU.

It would be interesting to know if this improves things:

sudo -s
systemctl restart apploader
systemctl restart videofirmware
systemctl restart mediacenter

I will have a bash at doing this today, after having a read up on using SSH.
I will swap over PSU between my Vero’s.
Both Vero’s sit out in the open, nothing impeding airflow.

I installed Putty on my laptop & watched a video tutorial on how to use it.

Below is a copy of the CMD box. After I had pressed enter on systemctl restart mediacenter, my TV screen went black, showed some lines of words at the top left and I was returned to the default Vero 4K+ screen. Played 4K videos, still played bad.

Warm boot. Plays bad.
Cold boot. Plays bad.

login as: osmc
osmc@192.168.1.15’s password:
Linux osmc 4.9.113-60-osmc #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Dec 19 23:56:28 UTC 2021 aarch64

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Fri Jan 7 16:08:30 2022 from 192.168.1.4
Warning: You are using SSH with the default OSMC credentials.
This is a security risk!
To change your password, type passwd
To disable this warning, type touch /home/osmc/.nosshwarn
osmc@osmc:~$ sudo -s
root@osmc:/home/osmc# systemctl restart apploader
root@osmc:/home/osmc# systemctl restart videofirmware
root@osmc:/home/osmc# systemctl restart mediacenter
root@osmc:/home/osmc#

@sam_nazarko

What next is to be tried so that 4K video play OK?

After you ran those commands, did you try and play a video?

Yes, I did. They still played bad.

OK. I really need to think about this.

I don’t think anyone else here (please chime in if you are), is affected anymore.

Cheers

Sam

Just curious, if I leave the Vero 4K+ on and connected via Ethernet cable to my Modem and give you its I.P. address, are you able to ‘log in’ and do stuff to it?

Yes – but you would need to port forward SSH.

That is a bit involving but would be a perfect way for me to poke at things…

Sam

Reading this:

My Modem is the Netcomm NF18ACV
https://support.netcommwireless.com/products/NF18ACV

I know the Modem MAC address.

EDIT: that is the Modems MAC address. It is the Vero’s MAC address that is needed, is that correct?

EDIT 2: found a MAC address on the bottom of the Vero 4K+
Is that it’s Ethernet MAC?

I have never port forwarded anything before, nor given anything a static address or assigned an address to anything.

I am good at following instructions if they are comprehensive.

If you so wish, download the “NF18ACV NC2 - Port Forwarding Setup Guide - 21/03/2019” from the Netcomm website, and tell me what to do.

I thought the above was asking too much in the way of support, but one lives in hope, as my Mum used to say.

Sam, I have noticed behaviour that might give you a clue as to what is causing the problem with my 4K+.

Cold boot. Play that 4K Hawkeye TV video that I made available for you. (you have never commented on it) and it plays badly. Same with a high bit rate 4K movie I have, Hard Target 1993.

Watched an hour of 1080p “Call The Midwife” (a great program). Play 4K Hawkeye and Hard Target again, which both play badly.

Started playing a 4K episode of The Witcher 2019 for 10 seconds, which plays OK. Played Hawkeye and Hard Target again, which now play OK.

Does that help you, Sam?

Sorry – I’m still investigating this, but I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what was going on yet. I will post some suggestions shortly.

Sam

Thank you. In all honesty, I did not expect you to go to the length of telling me how to port forward, etc. No other Manufacturer would entertain that sort of support.
Indeed, it is the fact that this support forum exists and the quality of the support, that is behind my recommendation to my family & friends, that if they need a media player that will play everything you chuck at it, the Vero 4K+ is the way to go.

There is no rush.

A bit more info: Another cold boot. Played the 4K Hawkeye & 4K Hard Target, which plays badly.
Played a 4K TV episode of Yellowjackets 2022, which plays badly. Played the 4K episode of The Witcher, which plays OK. Played the 4K TV episode of Yellowjackets, 4K Hawkeye & Hard Target, which plays OK.

Why does playing The Witcher, after the bad playing of Yellowjackets, cause Yellowjackets to play OK the second time?

Hope that is a clue.
I am off to bed now.

The 4K+ had been powered off at the wall for a few days. I have a guest staying so we decided to watch the 2160p version of the movie Nobody 2021. It played bad. I then tried playing a 2160p episode of the TV Series Tales From The Loop 2020. It played bad. They are both on the same HDD, plugged into a powered hub. I did a warm reboot but both still played bad.

I then plugged a USB stick into the hub, that has a 2160p episode of the TV series Hawkeye and a 2160p episode of the TV series The Witcher. Played Hawkeye, it played bad. I then played The Witcher, which played OK. I then played Nobody again, which played OK.

Sam, surely these actions narrow the scope of possible causes. Why does playing The Witcher, fix the problem with the bad playback of Nobody and other 2160p movies?

I genuinely have no idea. I need to see more logs between these interactions.

It could be as simple as having a hard drive that is underpowered or experiencing issues

All playback issues reported by users with the last updates seem to be resolved now.

It happens to many movies on many HDDs. No matter what HDD I am using when the 4K movies play bad, playing The Witcher, then playing the movies, fixes the bad playback of the movies.

What I may do, is just wait until you release another update to Kodi 19.3. What do you recommend?
Have you any idea as to when that may happen?