Serious ghosting/low quality issue

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
82

Hi,

I know I’m jumping into this thread after what seems to be some headway in a resolution, but as a new Vero 4K owner (birthday present from my wife last Friday), I too noticed the ghosting issue when watching certain files on mine.

I have all my media stored on my Synology NAS, served via Ethernet to my Vero 4K. Before this, I was using the exact same setup but using a Raspberry Pi 2 (also running OSMC) and I never had any ghosting issues then.

All the media files (TV episodes and movies) are MKV files, encoded using H264. However, I have started downloading H265 encoded MKV’s now that Vero can handle them. I can confirm that the ghosting only happens when watching a file encoded using H264, and is noticeable in scenes where there is a lot of fast-paced movement and / or when the scene is dark.

I tried disabling hardware acceleration as recommended in a previous message, but that didn’t seem to do a thing. I’m also running the latest update of OSMC available through the My OSMC app too.

I am also using the exact same HDMI cable as I was using with my Raspberry Pi 2, but I can confirm that the ghosting still appears when using the HDMI cable supplied with the Vero 4K too.

My TV settings (Samsung) have remained unchanged between using the Pi 2 and the Vero 4K, so I can confidently say there is nothing going on there too.

I’m at work at the moment, so cannot post any logs / screenshots, although having seen the screenshots posted earlier in this thread are pretty much what I’m experiencing too. If my logs will help, let me know what you need and I’ll try and get them on here later this evening.

As a recent convert to the Vero 4K, I would love to see a solution for this implemented soon. I would hate to have to revert back to using the Raspberry Pi 2 (or 3) because everything else about the Vero 4K is amazing (handles my surround sound audio without a HDMI splitter; MUCH faster than the Pi; handles H265 so I can save space on my NAS etc.).

Hope this helps @sam_nazarko and other Vero 4K users!

83

I think we’ve enough to go on for now. There are video improvements coming.

The confirmation that using software based decoding doesn’t improve things is useful to know; and suggests that it may be a display issue causing this.

I’m hoping to have a new thread shortly with a variety of improvements to video so that we can get them tested and included in the May update.

Cheers

Sam

1 Like
84

Thanks for the rapid response @sam_nazarko. I just wanted to share my experience after trying what I could from this thread.

If I can help any further, just let me know. Happy to do what I can to make it easier for you!

85

Cheers – I will keep you posted.

1 Like
86

HI Sam,

I have to disagree with @raspberrycoulis when he says “I tried disabling hardware acceleration as recommended in a previous message, but that didn’t seem to do a thing.” above.

Using software decoding does improve matters for me, at least with H264 encoded files. I previously shared a snippet of a file with you. If I watch that using software decoding it plays fine. If I use hardware decoding I get the ghosting.

Have you been able to replicate this yet?

Thanks

-Mat

87

I haven’t been able to reproduce it here on two different displays.

I need to find out why this is occuring before I’m able to resolve this; so need to work out if disabling hardware decoding is indeed making a difference

Sam

88

Did for me though, disabling hardware decoding fixed the issue entirely, or appeared to. Confirmed this on two TVs and a PC monitor, all three of which had the issue apparent with hardware decoding enabled.

1 Like
89

Thanks, that makes it easier to track things down.
There may be an unrelated issue for those who experience the problem with hardware decoding disabled.

Sam

90

Hi,

Sorry for the intrusion, but I think I could add some info to the case.
I experienced the problem as described by the others in this thread.
(Ghosting with H.264 / 1080p content, mostly in dark scenes, especially on faces)
I wanted to exclude that the media I was playing was not problematic by itself, so I copied it to a usb stick, attached it to TV, and played directly from TV.
As I was expecting, I could not reproduce the problem,
BUT
The TV (4K Samsung 2016) has a “Digital Clean View” setting. When I enabled it, the problem was there again, although I was playing the media without the Vero 4K.
This ‘Digital Clean View” setting is supposed to improve quality when viewing SD content (DVD or SD TV). So I was thinking that a similar setting is unnecessarily enabled in the OSMC all the time, and causing the problem.
It is just a thought, might help Sam.

Thanks for your time, hope the solution to be included to May update.

91

Are you saying that if you disable ‘Digital Clean View’, then you do not see the issue anymore?

92

I don’t see the issue Only when i play content from a usb stick directly attached on TV and setting is OFF.
When I play from the VERO 4K the problem is there whatever the
"Digital Clean View” is ON or OFF.

93

Is this issue the same as I reported here?

94

I can’t tell if it’s the exact same issue based on your sample but it probably stems from the same problem. Seems very similar.

95

Yes, I would say your description is what I see too.

Hopefully all will be fixed with Sunday’s update.

@sam_nazarko Happy to test early :slight_smile:

96

Stay tuned!

97

Hi Sam. Sunday has come and gone. Have I missed something or do you have a hold up in the release?
If you need some testing I’m happy to help.
Thanks
-Mat

1 Like
98

Guess he is working on it, to see if its added to the project you could check git commits. It was bank holiday in the UK and even Sam deserves a break once in a while :slight_smile:

3 Likes
99

Hi @mlavende

The fixes we pushed for the security vulnerability delayed us slightly, but the May update is now out.

For Vero 4K:

  • We added improvements to remote responsiveness
  • We’ve added support for a lot more DVB tuners (that will please @danialbehzadi)
  • We’ve added support for RC5 remotes (including original Vero remote)

I wanted to add a fix for this ghosting issue, but the simple fact is that with some testing I’ve been unable to yet get a consensus. With some planned improvements users that were never afflicted with the issue now report ghosting, and some users that had the problem before now say it’s gone. I’m not quite sure if the same clips were tested yet.

It’s become evident to me that this is more than an issue with the hardware decoder. The issue is the hdmitx output and dithering that’s occurring.

The rework of video on Vero 4K is quite large. So instead I wanted to get this update out the door and then set up a test thread for video improvements where we can spend as much time as necessary getting things right. Keep your eyes peeled for that. There was a large (under the hood) undertaking with this update, which makes the next set of changes possible to include. With any luck, everything will behave the same. If we’re unlucky, things will regress.

Cheers, and thanks for your patience.

Sam

100

Good to hear it’s on the road map, unfortunate to hear that it’s such a complicated issue. Hopefully you guys can work it out though. If you need any testing done I’m sure many of us will happily do so.

101

Thanks Sam,

it’s definitely a hardware decoding issue and I’m more than happy to help with as much testing as needed to sort this - it’s the only thing stopping the Vero being everything it should be.

Cheers

-Mat