Black screen on launching video

1st Official Post

    Since bumping from Openelec 6.0.3 to Libreelec 7.0.2 I've been getting a black screen when launching videos sometimes. The video source doesn't seem to be a factor, as I've had it happen with both local videos and twitch.tv streams. Basically every once in a while when launching a video the screen will go black and there's no audio. Sometimes stopping the video will recover the system back to the Kodi interface, at which time I can try the video again and it works fine. Other times stopping does not recover anything and I need to power cycle the tv and receiver to get my display back.

    Hardware is Intel i3 4130T connected to a Denon AVR1913 via HDMI, then to a samsung 6000 series tv.

    Debug log below, screen went black while attempting to play Game of Thrones - S01E04 - Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things - 1080p.BluRay.mkv
    PVPc

    • Official Post

    I'd recommend experimenting with the current alpha builds for two reasons: a) there are significant changes that affect Intel since Helix (OE 6.0.x) and there's a chance the issue is already resolved, and b) Kodi devs moved all development to Krypton now, so if something is broken on Jarvis it will never be fixed, but on Krypton it can be reported and Kodi devs will investigate (and hopefully fix) the problem.

    It just happened again running 7.90.003

    hSgY

    First play of Game of Thrones - S01E08 - The Pointy End - 1080p.BluRay.mkv failed, black screen as previously. No audio. I stopped playback and system recovered. Attempted to play again and it worked correctly.

    Same hardware as previously mentioned.

    • Official Post

    You could maybe try using the modesetting driver?

    Code
    wget -O /storage/.config/udev.rules.d/97-xorg.rules https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lrusak/LibreELEC.tv/802317dd03c4a90c18cd12678129d6fdfda9e00f/packages/x11/xserver/xorg-server/udev.d/97-xorg.rules
    Code
    wget -O /storage/.config/xorg-modesetting.conf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lrusak/LibreELEC.tv/802317dd03c4a90c18cd12678129d6fdfda9e00f/packages/x11/xserver/xorg-server/config/xorg-modesetting.conf


    then reboot.

    to revert back to the intel driver do

    Code
    rm /storage/.config/udev.rules.d/97-xorg.rules


    and reboot

    It seems to actually happen more frequenly using this modesetting driver. It actually happened just now after finishing a video.

    I have match refresh to display turned on, so my tv swaps to 24p for most playback and back to 60 for the kodi UI. I'm not certain that this mode swap is the only time that it happens, but its a possibility.

    This issue seems to have gone away with Ubuntu 16.04-1. I spoke to fritsch and he said it could possibly be a problem with the intel drivers in kernel versions beyond 4.4. I'm currently running kernel 4.4, once I'm certain that the issue is gone I'll test with 4.7.

    Quote from Ommand


    This issue seems to have gone away with Ubuntu 16.04-1. I spoke to fritsch and he said it could possibly be a problem with the intel drivers in kernel versions beyond 4.4. I'm currently running kernel 4.4, once I'm certain that the issue is gone I'll test with 4.7.

    I'm having the same issue with a Intel NUC D54250WYK and a Denon X2000.
    It started with OpenELEC 7 beta and continued after migrate to LibreELEC 7 (even after a fresh install).

    When you get a black screen try to switch the Denon's source to any other source and back to your setup. Some times will be needed to do this more than once, but eventually you will get image again.

    It's really annoying... I was hoping to this being fixed with the next release, but since you have tried the beta 4 and still happening, I'm lowering my expectations.

    Cheers.

    From what fritsch told me it's an issue with some newer video drivers that are in the kernel now. I tried recompile libreelec with older kernels without any luck, so I'm now on ubuntu where it's much easier to change. In the next couple of days I'm going to attempt kernel 4.7 (which should be broken) and then provide some debugging info to intel. I wouldn't have high hopes though... last time I ran into a similar issue they told me to either use the old kernel or buy a new cpu.

    Quote from Ommand


    From what fritsch told me it's an issue with some newer video drivers that are in the kernel now. I tried recompile libreelec with older kernels without any luck, so I'm now on ubuntu where it's much easier to change. In the next couple of days I'm going to attempt kernel 4.7 (which should be broken) and then provide some debugging info to intel. I wouldn't have high hopes though... last time I ran into a similar issue they told me to either use the old kernel or buy a new cpu.

    Looks like this issue will never be fixed, since it only affects people with a very particular hardware combination: an Intel GPU + a Denon AVR and syncing TV refresh to the video...

    Several months and this problems happens build after build.

    Quote from FireMan

    Looks like this issue will never be fixed, since it only affects people with a very particular hardware combination: an Intel GPU + a Denon AVR and syncing TV refresh to the video...

    Several months and this problems happens build after build.

    Are you saying you're experiencing the same issue? I went back to what I thought was a working version of openelec (6.x) and the issue is still present for me.