HEVC / 265 files on a Pi 3B, around 11Mbit, it can't keep up....

FeFiFoFum · May 25, 2019 at 9:03 AM

Hello,

Not complaining, I'm still super impressed, but is there any tweaks I can do, or do I just accept the limitations of the unit?

I have 73 movies which happen to be 265 and about 1/3 of them are 11Mbit/ps bitrate I think.

It seems pretty consistent, I play back the movie, the little heat thing in the corner appears and then it kind of buffers and craps out on me.

When the temp thing appears, is the system saying "WARNING HOT" or is it saying "WARNING HOT, THROTTLING CPU!" ??

I could maybe run a fan on the Pi to solve the problem then?

I'm probably just going to get rid of my 265 files, but I have a few ! So if there's a workaround I'm all ears.

jbinkley60 · May 25, 2019 at 9:58 AM

Do you have Raspberry Pi heat sinks installed ?

FeFiFoFum · May 25, 2019 at 10:50 AM

I do not believe so - but it wouldn't make any difference unless it's heat throttling, does it throttle under heat?

**HiassofT** · May 25, 2019 at 11:48 AM

Yes, when you see the thermometer the RPi is throttling - read here for more details Raspberry Pi Documentation

so long,

Hias

**Da Flex** · May 25, 2019 at 7:44 PM Official Post

I'm using this case with an RPi 3B+, without using the fan. Never had heat problems when running LE.

FeFiFoFum · May 28, 2019 at 6:18 AM

I was not aware it throttles, I knew it was too hot but the performance scaling down to save the processor is new to me (I know of this, didn't know the pi did it)

I'll try temporarily running a fan on it of some kind, see if it then gives it the 'oompf' it needs to run a 265 file.

I have several files I know to be a problem - so thanks guys and I'll report back.

edjalmo · May 30, 2019 at 1:35 PM

As far as I know RPi can't play x265, 10bits or 4k files.

Here a guy said that it can play x265 if is 720p, but I never test.

I have a similar issue with termometer icon when I use anothers skins than default's Kodi.

For what I noticed this is because this other skins use more CPU, which makes RPi to heat!

But from what I read the quality of sd card and power supply influence this too.

**chewitt** · May 30, 2019 at 3:58 PM Official Post

720p HEVC media is normally fine and lower-bitrate 1080p will work with a good heatsink, good PSU and some overclock. I'm thinking that 11Mb/sec is probably pushing the board beyond the boundaries though.

jbinkley60 · May 31, 2019 at 1:01 AM

A few months back I did some HEVC testing with various bitrates and a Raspberry Pi 3B+. here are the results:

Raspberry Pi CPU utilization results:

	30 fps @ 1080P	60 fps @ 720P
7 mbs	70%	65%
12 mbs	88%	75%
15 mbs	100%	85%
20 mbs	100% failed	90% failed
25 mbs	100% failed	92% failed

Failed either means the Raspberry Pi GUI locked up or typically the audio / video got so far out of sync it was unwatchable. I suspect due to video frame drops at high CPU utilization. However, playing 15 mbps HEVC was better than I expected.

FeFiFoFum · June 5, 2019 at 2:31 AM

Perhaps my program, is misreporting the bitrate?

I use Video Explorer, anyone have a suggested local media browser tool to pull info from MKV / AVI etc?

(it's an old, good app, no longer updated)

Anyhow, regardless, it is telling me a file is 11Mbit and it can't do it, but the Pi was overheating, still haven't had time to put a fan on it.

3B though, not 3B+

**blueribb** · June 5, 2019 at 3:51 AM

I right click on any media file and choose "MediaInfo" with this Windows app:

https://mediaarea.net/en/mediainfo

Choose "Text" under the "View" tab after it's setup.

jbinkley60 · June 5, 2019 at 3:46 PM

All of my testing above was done using Mediainfo to report on the bitrates. My testing was with a 3B+, with heatsinks and HW decoding enabled.

FeFiFoFum · June 7, 2019 at 7:29 AM

Quote from blueribb

I right click on any media file and choose "MediaInfo" with this Windows app:

https://mediaarea.net/en/mediainfo

Choose "Text" under the "View" tab after it's setup.

No I want to see literally hundreds of files at once, in a browser. I have like 4000 media files.

oJPTo · November 10, 2023 at 8:30 AM

Quote from jbinkley60

Raspberry Pi CPU utilization results:

30 fps @ 1080P 60 fps @ 720P

7 mbs 70% 65%

12 mbs 88% 75%

15 mbs 100% 85%

20 mbs 100% failed 90% failed

25 mbs 100% failed 92% failed

Am I doing something wrong?

My file is 1.5 mbs and it just lags.

Well, it does not crash and audio is not out of sync.

but it's dropping frames massively. CPU load is rather high. Frame rate goes as low as 8.

It's full HD@25 frames, Main@L4@Main

any idea?

thanks

**chewitt** · November 10, 2023 at 12:39 PM

1080p or 1080i media? .. interlaced media needs different settings enabling (read https://wiki.libreelec.tv/configuration/4k-hdr)

oJPTo · November 10, 2023 at 1:25 PM

1080p25. written by handbrake.

Libreelec 11.0.3, Raspi 3B+, playing from Network.
No heatsink. But it does not get warmer than ~ 40°C

Thanks, I enabled "Adjust Refresh". Had searched for it but hadn't found it yet. You motivated me to try again

but does not help.

4k does not apply to my set-up.

**HiassofT** · November 10, 2023 at 1:33 PM

On LE11 this is expected, RPi3 doesn't have enough grunt to decode it. LE 9.2.x and earlier contained optimized HEVC decoder code which was dropped in LE10 as it doesn't work with the new graphics stack (and, no, it won't come back).

TLDR: use LE 9.2.8 on RPi3 if you want to playback HEVC files (or just use H264 files, they work with all LE versions).

so long,

Hias

Cl0ckm4n · December 25, 2023 at 1:51 AM

Quote from oJPTo

Am I doing something wrong?
My file is 1.5 mbs and it just lags.
Well, it does not crash and audio is not out of sync.
but it's dropping frames massively. CPU load is rather high. Frame rate goes as low as 8.
It's full HD@25 frames, Main@L4@Main
any idea?
thanks

Display More

Hello,

i am using LibreELEC 9.2.8 on a Pi 3B with a little heatsink installed on the CPU.

I tested playing HEVC movies and at around 5.5 Mbps Bitrate the thermal throtteling was activated and the movie began to stutter.
Do you have any advice or experineces whether a bigger passive heatsink (e.g. using the Flirc case) or other optimazations could help me to increase the max. playable bitrate?

Out of interest: would the usage of the Pi Model 3B+ bring a noticeable performance increase compared to the 3B?

Thanks.