Upgrading to Rpi 4, Need Some Help

  • I didn't want to put all my issues in the Topic, so sorry it's a little vague.

    History - I've been using Kodi since Isengard. Love it. I've been using LibreELEC since Jarvis (I believe). Started with a Pi 2, then a Pi 3. I waited to get a Pi 4 because the device was still new and had a lot of bugs. I knew I would want one though because it supports 4k video, has USB3, and has gigabit LAN. These are vast improvements and I am eager to make it work.

    Current Setup - Rpi 4 4gb connected via microHDMI in HDMI0 to HDMI in on my TV. TV is an LG webOS TV OLED65C9PUA. Audio out is through the Digital Optical Out to a Denon AVR-591. LibreELEC release is 9.2.1. I have also gone into the LibreELEC settings and updated the "Bootloader EEPROM" and the "VIA USB3 Firmware)".

    Problems -

    1 - I saw on the LibreELEC homepage that in order for the Pi4 to output in 4k 60hz, I needed to add a line to the config.txt file "hdmi_enable_4kp60=1". I have done this. However, Kodi seems to load up in 4k 30hz. The resolution is 3840x2160. I also have an option to output at 4096x2160 but it only outputs at 30hz too. It looks like the only way I can get true 60hz is by selecting the 1920x1080p resolution, which isn't 4k. Is this a known problem that is being worked on, or am I missing something? I did add an extra bump to the memory split thinking it might help (I have the 4gb version of the Rpi 4 after all). I also tried adding the "old" format to enable 4k too, just in case the "new" format wasn't working. Here is a copy of my config.txt file:

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    2 - The Kodi menus seem to "fracture" when navigating. By fracture, I choppy, stuttery, and breaking during the moving animation. Kind of like when a low bandwidth video stream starts to pixelate. It's more or less a visual annoyance than anything else. I've never seen it before on any previous versions of Rpi's or Kodi's. I suspect it might have to do with the refresh rate not being 60hz, but I've seen it when I drop the resolution down to 1080p too. Increasing the memory split didn't help either. As a "temporary" workaround I've gone into the skin settings and disabled the "slide animations". Now it fades rather than slide, but I still l occasionally see it when I'm navigating. Like when in the settings menu and I move around the highlighted option boxes, the animation of making them bigger to indicate it's selected cause the animation to sometimes stutter.

    3 - This is mostly just informational... My router is broadcasting WiFi at 2.4G and 5G, however when I tried to connect my Rpi 4 to it the only option I saw was 2.4G. Is the Rpi 4 still only capable of the 2.4G range and not 5G? If it IS supposed to support 5G, how do I access it? It's not really a big deal because I have it connected with the wired LAN for the gigabit speed anyway.

    4 - I have some 4k Blu-Rays stored on my home server I'd like to start streaming through this device. I've never tried it before so I'm a little lost. Inside the Kodi Player settings, there is an option under Discs for the Blu-Ray Playback mode. It's default is "simplified menu" but when I select to use the original menu it gives me a popup about needing Java installed. I realize this is Kodi talking and not specific to LibreELEC. But, is there a way to install Java to make this work? If not, that's ok, I'd just like to know.

    I think that's it. For the most part I'm just concerned about the first 2 problems. Not getting 4k 60hz is sort of a game changer. Maybe it'll be working right when the next version of Kodi comes out? As for the weird effects I'm seeing while navigating, that might go away once I have a different skin installed. But I would think the default built-in skin shouldn't have any issues like that. When I feel up to it, I will try to set up a tripod and record it happening so you guys can see what's going on better (I just had hernia laparoscopic and don't have much motivation right now).

    Thanks for your help. And thanks immensely to the LibreELEC staff for developing and maintaining this awesome OS!

  • Updates:

    1 - Not sure what I did. I left the Rpi 4 unplugged for a few hours when I went for my 2-week post checkup. Plugged it in when I got home to tinker some more, and now it's running at 3840x2160 @ 60hz. Go figure. I've rebooted it a dozen times and it's maintaining that rate now. <shrug>

    2 - This is still an issue when I'm using the default skin. I've installed my favorite skin from xbmbbrazil; Aeon MQ8. Seems like the problem with fractured animation is mostly gone now. A couple of times I've seen it I was actually TRYING to make it do it by holding down the arrow on my remote to make it rotate through the screens really fast. In regular usage, I don't think I'll ever see it now.

    3 - Still curious about this. At first I thought maybe my router wasn't outputting 5G. Our internet had went out for a few days and I had reset the router to default settings in the process of troubleshooting. It definitely is doing 5G, and I actually had to reconfigure my Blu-Ray player after the fact because my SSID for the connection had changed. So 5G is working but the Rpi 4 (or this of version of LibreELEC) just doesn't want to see it.

    4 - I think I fixed this too. I found an addon in the LibreELEC repository under Program Addons called "JRE For BD-J Menus". Guess that's all I needed. Seems to work great without any more errors.

    Going forward now, the only issue I seem to be having since I installed this skin and have been slowly adding in other addons, is this:

    5 - Python 3. Seems like everything wants to use it and most of my addons have a required dependency for it. I started noticing this with my Rpi 3 before upgrading too. It was my understanding this would be coming with the new version of Kodi. I guess since we're still on Leia 18.6, that's why these errors are still popping up. Can anybody confirm that the next build will have Python 3? Is there any way to get around this before the new version comes out?

    • Official Post

    Your TV will do a better job of upscaling a 1080p GUI signal to the native resolution of the TV panel (4K) than Kodi will achieve rescaling a 720p or 1080p skin to the same size. Also, unless you have 4K60 media (most people don't) there is not much point forcing the board to support more than 4K30 resolution; it only increases the power draw and heat output of the board. You can still set the whitelist to allow 4K resolutions and Kodi will switch to them when you play 4K media, but then return to the 1080@60 GUI afterwards - the GUI will be snappier at 1080p. This scenario is generally applicable to all ARM devices, nothing that specific to RPi hardware.

    You might need to force the Wireless Regulatory Domain for your counrty so the card is using the right radio properties before all frequencies show up correctly. In LE 9.2.3 this will be in the GUI (settings add-on). Until then it requires a conf file setting. e.g.

    Code
    echo "options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=DE” > /storage/.config/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf

    Kodi v19 (LE10) will be entirely Python3, no Python2. It sounds like add-on authors are starting to retool around Py3 which is good.

  • here you can find and test the latest kodi 19 build with Python 3:

    LibreELEC Testbuilds for RaspberryPi (Kodi 19.0)

    Updates:

    ....

    Going forward now, the only issue I seem to be having since I installed this skin and have been slowly adding in other addons, is this:

    5 - Python 3. Seems like everything wants to use it and most of my addons have a required dependency for it. I started noticing this with my Rpi 3 before upgrading too. It was my understanding this would be coming with the new version of Kodi. I guess since we're still on Leia 18.6, that's why these errors are still popping up. Can anybody confirm that the next build will have Python 3? Is there any way to get around this before the new version comes out?

    • Official Post

    I went into trouble after trying latest Milhouse builds. Some add-ons are disabled on that branch, and when downgrading back to the stable branch, not all add-ons will be reactivated (Python / Kodi Six dependency chaos). My advice is to stay with the stable branch, and wait until Python 3 officially arrives.

  • You can still set the whitelist to allow 4K resolutions and Kodi will switch to them when you play 4K media, but then return to the 1080@60 GUI afterwards - the GUI will be snappier at 1080p.

    I never thought about that, having it switch to 4k as needed. I thought I just needed it set to that resolution by default. Something worth tinkering with now.

    You might need to force the Wireless Regulatory Domain for your counrty so the card is using the right radio properties before all frequencies show up correctly.

    That makes sense. If the device isn't pre-configured to use my country, that could cause some problems. Raspberry Pi's come from Europe and I'm in the USA, so that might be the culprit.

    Kodi v19 (LE10) will be entirely Python3, no Python2. It sounds like add-on authors are starting to retool around Py3 which is good.

    Awesome to know that. Now I just have to wait. :)

    here you can find and test the latest kodi 19 build with Python 3:

    LibreELEC Testbuilds for RaspberryPi (Kodi 19.0)

    Thanks for that. I think I'll play it safe and make a backup of a stable SD card before trying the testbuilds.

    My advice is to stay with the stable branch, and wait until Python 3 officially arrives.

    I agree with this as well. I don't mind tinkering but I will definitely play it safe with a backup of a working copy first.

    Thanks guys for you responses! It gives me something to play with now!

  • Yeah I'm not sure how well 4k will be on a Pi 4. I dropped the resolution down to 1080p, and it does properly switch over to 4k when I play a stream. BUT, the results are horrible. Not sure what's wrong. The color/saturation is mostly gone, and I get a strange white bar across the top of the video that causes a really bad bleed down into the movie. Also, I'm not getting proper passthrough. My receiver stays in ProLogic II mode rather than switching over to the Dolby or DTS modes. The video I'm watching I just grabbed as a test. It's supposed to be full HDR with TrueHD 7.1 audio. Interestingly enough though, when I direct stream it through Plex on my TV, it works exactly like should, with the TrueHD passthrough, and my TV switches on the icon indicating it's HDR.

    Maybe it's a codec issue. Maybe it's something that will be fixed in Kodi 19. Here's a clip of what I see.

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  • So could you tell me these things:

    Did you enabled in config.txt your 4k60?

    What is your screen resolution in kodi? 1920x1080 60?

    Did you whitelist something?

    did you do: Settings>>>>player and set by "adjust display refresh rate" On start/stop?