The first did not. Using the kodi-send method while a video was playing the video itself would just be black, if the UI was showing (after resuming from paused state) ie. with the time etc, that would show, but the rest of the image was complete black. I tried to take a bunch earlier, fired the command 20 times during playback and ended up with 18 black rectangles and 2 with time bars on them.
I’ve not tested screenshots on Vero 4K, but it’s possible the render layer isn’t being captured.
Sam
So what more can I do to help try and fix the issue at this point, or do I just have to wait until you can find something in the log? Is it at all possible to be a hardware issue (faulty device) or definitely some software setting somewhere?
Sure – it’s possible, but not likely if you’re not having any other problems with other videos. It’s much more likely to be a software / configuration issue.
Can you try on another TV and see if you get the issue?
I’ll try the sample later and let you know if I have any problems; but it would be good to know more about your setup.
That would anyhow not record how your TV is showing the picture.
Why not just take your smartphone and record the video playing with the ghosting and low quality?
The issue is there with other videos it just so happened that this was the first I played (and the opening scene is very ‘good’ for showing the issue).
I tested it on another TV and while not as bad (that TV has a much better picture) upon viewing side by side with the RPi2 it was definitely still there.
I’m looking into doing a factory reset and trying to play it before doing anything else at the moment but it seems like it’ll require an SD card and the only one I have is being used for the RPi2, I may wipe it.
EDIT: I just flashed it and immediately following the setup steps (for language/country etc) I plugged in the USB and played the sample, same issue. So it’s definitely not anything I did to it.
EDIT2: Here’s a log immediately following the flash.
Steps:
- Enable Debug Logging and reboot.
- Navigate Videos->Files->[USB]->sample.mkv
- Playback entire sample.
- Press Home and navigate My OSMC->Log Uploader->Upload [all].
http://paste.osmc.io/sipozepiki
It’s not going to get any cleaner than that, if it’s in the log it should be in there.
I am physically unable to take a good enough capture of the TV to show you but I will try to find someone else to do it for me.
EDIT3: Here’s a snippet of a recording of playing the sample on the freshly flashed Vero4K. Even with a fairly steady hand the image quality is garbage, ignore that because the important thing is actually visible in the recording, albeit not as ‘nicely’ as seeing it first hand. Note the ‘motion blur’ ghost trails as people move around, that’s not because of the awful picture quality of my phone, that’s actually on the TV.
What is the make/model of the TV…? Does it have possibility to playback a media file on a USB stick?
You could try playing the same video directly on the TV, and see if you still get the ‘ghosting’
I’ve already said a few times that the issue isn’t there when using my old RPi2 for playback.
The debug log doesn’t seem to actually show you playing back a file; which is strange.
Can you run:
cat /sys/devices/virtual/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/disp_cap
cat /sys/devices/virtual/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/disp_mode
cat /sys/devices/virtual/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/rawedid
Do you have Adjust Refresh Rate enabled or disabled? Are you plugging Vero 4K in to the same HDMI port on your TV as the Pi 2?
Can you try a video like 1080p Big Buck Bunny and see if the issue still exists?
Some people reported ‘smearing’ issues with some clips: improvements for that will come; but @bmillham said he couldn’t reproduce on his display (I haven’t tried mine yet), so I’m not sure if that will help.
Sam
Hi,
For what it’s worth, I have seen this as well. It’s definitely like the ‘mouse pointer tails’ as you described. I see it mainly on dark scenes and only sometimes. I wondered if it might be down to the Vero doing other things at the same time, and in the background, but don’t know what. It definitely comes and goes and isn’t down to the encoding since the same clip will sometimes be fine.
I’ve done nothing about it since Sam said that there would be improvements in display coming soon and I kinda hope it will get better.
I haven’t seen it at all in x265 encoded material. It seems to me that the x265 decoding is better than the x264 but there is no science behind this 
It’s purely how I perceive the picture quality of various films/tv/demos I’ve watched through a combination of lan and usb playback.
Thanks
-Mat
Does disabling hardware decoding in System -> Settings (disable amcodec) improve things?
Sam
I thought this part was it playing but I don’t actually understand these logs. I can assure you it played and I selected all logs to be uploaded
DEBUG: OnPlayMedia /media/32GBusb1/sample.mkv
Here are the cat results, http://paste.osmc.io/nanahayita
Before flashing I tried both with Adjust Refresh Rate set to Off and Always, there was no difference. Since flashing I have changed none of the settings from their defaults and it is currently set to Off.
I tried two different HDMI ports for both the Vero and the RPi2.
I’ll try and download ‘1080p Big Buck Bunny’ and test it now.
It’s possible he didn’t notice it if he didn’t know what he was looking for. As previously stated, while extremely visible on the main TV I am using for playback, on my other (better, but without an ethernet socket) TV it was far less noticeable and I actually had to watch it about four times over and then watch from each device back to back to confirm it was there. It was, but it was significantly reduced.
Yes. Unchecking ‘Allow hardware acceleration - amcodec’ under Settings-Player->Videos has either completely removed the problem or reduced it by 90%. It’s hard to tell if it’s completely gone or not, I may be too used to seeing it and seeing it when it’s not there, or maybe the picture quality on this TV is just that poor (I don’t know what happened to it I swear it used to be fine).
But I hope this isn’t a final solution as hardware acceleration is sort of important and included in the product (I also could have sworn it seemed choppier than with it enabled, but perhaps with it enabled it was enacting some sort of smoothmotion which was causing the smear in the first place). If it is the problem is it fixable through software/firmware updates? Or is the hardware bad.
The hardware isn’t bad. If you want to send it back and have us take a look at it however, we’d be happy to do so.
It’s not – it’s just a test to see if it’s caused by the hardware decoder; it seems to be. There are a variety of video improvements in progress; and this is one issue that will be fixed.
Sam
I really, really don’t want to send it back because it took 3 weeks to arrive and it sounds like a lot of trouble to most likely find out there’s nothing wrong with it. If it can and is going to be fixed on the software side of things I’m happy to shelve if for now and keep using my RPi2 until those fixes are live. I’m surprised this wasn’t a better known issue though if that is the case.
At least @mlavende is also experiencing this issue so I am not alone with the problem and it’s far less likely to be a faulty device.
I’ve just tried the clip and can’t replicate it here on an Onkyo projector (HD25); so it’s possible it only affects some displays.
It would still be good to know if you experience this problem with Big Buck Bunny, which is a good reference test clip.
There are always going to be problematic test clips, even years down the line we stumble across clips that should, but don’t always play correctly on Raspberry Pi.
That’s a very long time. Are you in Australia? They seem to have the slowest customs + postal system of anywhere we ship to.
Sam
Yes.
Are you able to supply a direct link to the proper Big Buck Bunny clip you wish for me to test. There seem to be a lot of different versions and of them so far all I’ve found are dead links.
I only had a quick look as it’s late but was unable to see a difference between having hardware accel on or off, and couldn’t see any smearing. However from my own testing yesterday with several different movies it does seem to be far worse in darker scenes (which @mlavende also mentioned earlier) which would explain why that sample clip I uploaded earlier shows it so significantly for me. The Big Buck Bunny clip is almost entirely ‘light’.
I plan to test the Vero with a computer monitor tomorrow to try and rule out or in the TV as possibly having issues with it.
ok, I’ve just downloaded and played your sample.mkv
It’s perfect. There’s no ghosting, trailing, or ‘filthy’ bits.
I’m using Vero4K and Samsung HD TV (1080 not 4K). Also I have (what I think is) a
high-speed HDMI cable. See in the picture, it looks more like a ‘belt’ than a cable.
My suggestion is: see if you can get your hands on one of these, and try it.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Niall.