[fixed] [v6.90.002] [RPi2] Kodi freezes with OMXPlayer

1st Official Post

    With OMXPlayer activated Kodi freezes right after starting playback of arbitrary video file.
    SSH is possible, "systemctl restart kodi" restarts Kodi, as expected.
    No sign of extensive cpu/memory usage.

    To exclude any upgrade effects (from OE 6.0.3) I made a clean install, but no luck. Same freezing with OMXPlayer.

    Steps i made to reproduce:

    • "flashed" sd with [font="Times"]LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-7.0-Milhouse-20160324154422-#0324-ga0c0b80.img.gz[/font]
    • restart with flashed sd and ssh into
    • wget LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-6.90.002.tar into .update
    • copied advancedsettings.xml and sources.xml from OE6 installation to have video files for testing (video db in mysql already on jarvis version)
    • reboot
    • finished initial LE wizard
    • played various videos (with default MMAL) without issues (despite the usual little stutters you have with MMAL on RPi2 ;) )
    • deactivated MMAL, activated OMXPlayer
    • tried to start video --> instant freeze :(


    I made no changes to the default settings despite mentioned above.

    I can upload a debug log, if it helps.

    EDIT:
    Changed subject as it's fixed for me with v6.90.004

    Edited once, last by Tandric (April 1, 2016 at 6:53 PM).

    Update:

    v6.90.003 fixes the issue for movies and tv shows.

    The problem remains for live tv (tvheadend client):
    When first tuning into a channel, playpack works most of the time.
    Switching channel always freezes kodi with omx.
    Mmal works fine as before.

    Quote from Glenn-1990


    Same problem here.

    Is there a testbuild with this fix included somewhere?
    MMAl for 1080i live tv rpi1 is a bit useless ;)

    Judging from what my crash log was outputting it seems to be an issue with OMX and the way it's handling Audio.

    I'm at work now, but i have a feeling if you change the audio output from HDMI to something else will work... of course you won't hear any audio but at least it will identify the issue.

    Not sure though.... Still waiting for a response from the developers.

    Hold tight, i'm sure it will be fixed soon.

    v6.90.004 finally fixes RPi2 freezing with OMXPlayer on live tv. :)

    I will update to LE now on all my 3 RPi2, as it's ready for production. (at least for me) ;)

    Thank you very much and keep on your good work. :)

    Quote from Hi Tandric


    v6.90.004 finally fixes RPi2 freezing with OMXPlayer on live tv. :)

    I will update to LE now on all my 3 RPi2, as it's ready for production. (at least for me) ;)

    Thank you very much and keep on your good work. :)

    While the problem was fixed. I'm finding that omx player is still unstable. After switching a few channels I seem to get a buffering issue, and channel changes am to take longer also.

    Are you experiencing this also?
    [hr]

    Quote from Loggio

    While the problem was fixed. I'm finding that omx player is still unstable. After switching a few channels I seem to get a buffering issue, and channel changes am to take longer also.

    Are you experiencing this also?


    Was able to fix this by using <cacheindvdplayer>0</cacheindvdplayer>
    In advancedsettings.xml

    Edited once, last by Loggio (April 2, 2016 at 7:31 AM).

    Indeed, OMX player is working again :)

    [font="Open Sans, sans-serif, arial"]@Loggio I experience a buffer loop from time to time (until channel switch), Is that the kind of buffer issue you have?[/font]

    Quote from Glenn-1990


    Indeed, OMX player is working again :)

    [font="Open Sans, sans-serif, arial"]@Loggio I experience a buffer loop from time to time (until channel switch), Is that the kind of buffer issue you have?[/font]

    Yes.

    I would switch a channel, kodi would keep spitting up the buffering progress bar sporadically and the image would pause and play causing huge stutter. The only way to stop or would be to stop and restart the channel.

    Adding <cacheindvdplayer>false</cacheindvdplayer>
    Completely fixed the issue for me. Now channel changes are smooth too.

    I normally have it set to false, because I remember experiencing this a while ago on nightly builds. However since I did a fresh install I forgot to add it back to my advancedsettings file.

    Maybe one of the devs could answer this.

    Do we need to set "<cacheindvdplayer>false</cacheindvdplayer>" when using OMXplayer?

    I suppose only MMAL uses dvdplayer and chacheindvdplayer makes no sense for OMXplayer, so it should be disabled?

    I'm not really sure about cacheindvdplayer. There hasn't been any mention of it being required on OSMC which is using the same Kodi tree.
    I don't have a PVR setup, and the cacheindvdplayer is gone in master.


    Can anyone using PVR report if setting "<cacheindvdplayer>false</cacheindvdplayer>" makes live TV better/worse/same?

    Quote from popcornmix


    I'm not really sure about cacheindvdplayer. There hasn't been any mention of it being required on OSMC which is using the same Kodi tree.
    I don't have a PVR setup, and the cacheindvdplayer is gone in master.


    Can anyone using PVR report if setting "<cacheindvdplayer>false</cacheindvdplayer>" makes live TV better/worse/same?

    All I can tell you is that without it, kodi shows artefacts and frequently buffers when changing channels using omx. Setting it to false immediately fixed the issue for me.

    Edited once, last by Loggio (April 6, 2016 at 8:30 PM).

    Quote from popcornmix


    I'm not really sure about cacheindvdplayer. There hasn't been any mention of it being required on OSMC which is using the same Kodi tree.
    I don't have a PVR setup, and the cacheindvdplayer is gone in master.


    Can anyone using PVR report if setting "<cacheindvdplayer>false</cacheindvdplayer>" makes live TV better/worse/same?


    Yes, the buffer loops are gone after some initial tests (OMX), but I'm afraid that this setting might just hide some bug and maybe make MMAL worse.
    Cacheindvdplay seems just to be another name for buffer live tv streams:
    xbmc/DVDPlayer.cpp at Jarvis · xbmc/xbmc · GitHub

    Also FernetMenta pointed out once that buffering for live tv is needed.
    [pvr] fix high cpu usage when playing recordings, trac #16141 by Glenn-1990 · Pull Request #7905 · xbmc/xbmc · GitHub

    Isengard works perfectly without this setting btw.

    who can help i keep loading images from here for s905 nothing works mxqw 4k pro, i have s805 LE but it freezes all the time, what am i doing wrong
    i download the files im told to
    i unzip them to a folder
    i load the image in image writer and burn to sdcard, ive tried toothpick and just boot with card in ... nothing seems to work

    am i loading the wromg friles there must be something im missing HELP please

    • Official Post
    Quote from madmanc66


    who can help i keep loading images from here for s905 nothing works mxqw 4k pro, i have s805 LE but it freezes all the time, what am i doing wrong
    i download the files im told to
    i unzip them to a folder
    i load the image in image writer and burn to sdcard, ive tried toothpick and just boot with card in ... nothing seems to work

    am i loading the wromg friles there must be something im missing HELP please

    This months award for "most irrelevant bump of an unrelated post" goes to madmanc66. Claim your prize by posting HERE