[RPi4] AV1 Capabilities

elim_garak · November 22, 2024 at 6:58 PM

I've read comments from people saying they can play AV1 media on their rpi4 (no LE, just raspbian) while others say they are choppy.

I'm using LE 11 and I'm one of the later ones. On slow scenes you can see it drags, while on fast action scenes you can definitely see the jumps.

I've noticed that there have been recent improvements in the AV1 decoder dav1d with latest 1.5.0 even saying "Optimize Armv8.0 NEON"

And LE HEAD has been updated to use that latest version https://github.com/LibreELEC/Libr…av1d/package.mk

What I'd like to know is if anyone running nightly LE12 (note LE 12.0.1 doesn't have latest dav1d) can play 1080p AV1 smoothly?

Is there hope for the RPi4 or should I just stop dreaming and move on to the RPi5?

For AV1 video samples:

http://download.opencontent.netflix.com.s3.amazonaws.com/AV1/Sparks/Spa…80-2194kbps.mp4 (slow scene)

https://test-videos.co.uk/vids/sintel/mp…080_10s_2MB.mp4 (fast scene)

https://test-videos.co.uk/vids/sintel/mp…080_10s_5MB.mp4 (fast scene)

more bitrates on https://test-videos.co.uk/sintel/mp4-av1

Thanks

trent · November 22, 2024 at 7:48 PM

Random test samples is a waste of time.

Video codecs have standard levels and profiles. You need to find the technical details of those, and encode clips in such a way that they use the maximum allowed frame size, bitrate, tiles etc for that level and profile. Then you test each clip and depending on which plays perfectly you can say you are Main Profile Level 3.1 compliant (or whatever). Then you know in future how to encode compatible content.

MatteN · November 22, 2024 at 8:08 PM

There is a number of test files here: https://kodi.wiki/view/Samples

MatteN · November 23, 2024 at 8:05 PM

https://test-videos.co.uk/vids/sintel/mp…080_10s_5MB.mp4 plays fine on Pi4 and Pi5 on latest nightly.

So does https://test-videos.co.uk/vids/sintel/mp…80_10s_30MB.mp4

**popcornmix** · November 25, 2024 at 1:41 PM Best Answer

With latest nightly, you can enable NUMA to get better performance. See numa thread.

Make sure bootloader is updated to latest and set:

SDRAM_BANKLOW=1 (for pi5)

SDRAM_BANKLOW=3 (for pi4)

using using rpi-eeprom-config.

From previous testing, on a pi5 I'd expect any 8-bit 1080p60 AV1 to play fine, and most 10-bit 1080p60.

1080p24/1080p30 will have no problems.

NUMA likely means any 10-bit 1080p60 will play on a Pi5.

Pi5 is around 2 to 2.5x the speed of Pi4, so Pi4 abilities will be lower.

I'd predict any 720p60 AV1 files to play okay, and some 1080p30 on a Pi4.

Reddog · November 27, 2024 at 10:00 PM

Quote from popcornmix

With latest nightly, you can enable NUMA to get better performance. See numa thread.
Make sure bootloader is updated to latest and set:
SDRAM_BANKLOW=1 (for pi5)
SDRAM_BANKLOW=3 (for pi4)
using using rpi-eeprom-config.

I'm always up for an increase in performance, especially when it's for free!

Does this apply to the latest le12 nightly (LibreELEC-RPi5.aarch64-12.0-nightly-20241114-f000f3c.img.gz) or is it just the latest le13 nightly?

Thanks.

**popcornmix** · November 28, 2024 at 12:15 PM

Quote from Reddog

Does this apply to the latest le12 nightly (LibreELEC-RPi5.aarch64-12.0-nightly-20241114-f000f3c.img.gz) or is it just the latest le13 nightly?

LE 13 only.

Reddog · November 30, 2024 at 12:12 AM

Quote from popcornmix

LE 13 only.

Thanks.

I've been putting off upgrading to le13 because le12 is so stable - hope le13 is the same.

**popcornmix** · November 30, 2024 at 12:48 PM

Quote from Reddog

I've been putting off upgrading to le13 because le12 is so stable - hope le13 is the same.

I've been running le13 as daily driver for months. I've had no problems.

MatteN · November 30, 2024 at 1:12 PM

Quote from popcornmix

I've been running le13 as daily driver for months. I've had no problems.

Same here, only 1 of my 6 Pi's run LE12, rest is on LE13.

elim_garak · January 22, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Thank you for the replies.

I've upgraded to the latest LE12 daily https://test.libreelec.tv/12.0/RPi/RPi4/…-37e4458.img.gz and performance has definitely improved. Only getting a few frame drop/skips now. Difference between night and day but still not 100% smooth.

I can see that this daily uses dav1d 1.4.1 https://github.com/LibreELEC/Libr…av1d/package.mk

But I can also see that in the past few days HEAD now has dav1d 1.5.1 and kodi 21 omega has had a minor update too (not affecting AV1 mind you but still nice to have fixes).

~~Can we expect a LE12 daily to include these updates? Or should I give up and move on to LE13?~~

~~I'm trying to avoid upgrading to LE13 due to my current theme not being available to kodi 22 piers yet.~~

EDIT: ok I found this thread explaining the nightly builds Nightly Builds So hopefully a new build should be out in next days.

However something doesn't add up. Because even though the above linked LE12 nightly is one week old it is still using dav1d 1.4.1 which is almost one year old. But meanwhile other versions have been released before but have not been included https://github.com/LibreELEC/Libr…av1d/package.mk

I guess I was expecting a github dependabot type of thing but maybe these are manually updated. I've gone full circle and back to my original question

Can we expect a LE12 daily to include an update to dav1d? Or should I give up and move on to LE13?

Thanks

**chewitt** · January 23, 2025 at 1:25 AM

Answered in the other thread. In short, no libdav1d updates to LE12, use LE13 nightlies if you need to.

[RPi4] AV1 Capabilities

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