Posts by Hauke

  • 9.2.0 on RPi 4: Audio glitch on broken DVB-T2 recording

    Hi folks,

    sorry for lots of posts now - I have replaced my Le Potato by Raspberry Pi 4 recently and have several issues, which I think make sense to put into seperate threads. This one: I record TV shows from DVB-T2 using WinTV dualHD USB stick. It happens that I get data errors (I currently suspect high load issues that also cause the UI freeze reported earlier). When I then playback and the data error is encountered, image is shortly distorted, but recovers. However, audio is then off by a few seconds to the video. Sometimes (but not always) playback changes speed and image and audio get back in sync (after several seconds), but more often the offset remains.

    I can provide example video on demand.

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • 9.2.0: Freezing UI on RPi 4

    Hi folks,

    this is my second bug report - more to follow, sorry! I once in a while experience a hanging UI. I control the UI via wireless keyboard, and sometimes the UI does not react to any input for a few seconds, but after unfreezing, the input is digested with that delay. It is difficult to identify when this exactly happens, but it seems during general high load on the RPi, e.g. right after boot, when a recording starts or stops (I record via tvheadend on the same Raspberry to an external SSD attached via USB-SATA bridge) or similar tasks happen.

    Anyone else suffering from this?

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • 9.2.0 on RPi 4: Blank/distorted frame after ~1sec of Playback

    Hi folks,

    on my Raspberry 4 when starting playback of basically any video file (regardless of type) after ~1sec there is a very short (one frame?) black screen. Both video and audio run without issues otherwise. Sometimes it is not a black frame, but a distorted frame from the media file I played beforehand, even if this was hours ago. Not critical, but annoying.

    Others see this too?

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • Live TV via DVB-T2/HEVC with bad signal quality is problematic

    I just installed the most recent 9.1.501 for RPi 4 and test with a Hauppauge WinTV dualHD. It works well enough with good signal, but if the signal quality is bad and the stream has errors, things get nasty. A data glitch causes all kinds of follow up problems - I've had the following issues at times (meaning: very often, but not always the same):

    • Picture slows down like slo-mo video, while audio continues at normal speed.
    • Audio goes quiet, while picture goes on normal
    • Picture and audio freeze - channel switch recovers
    • Picture and audio run on at normal speed, but out of sync by seconds
    • Very rerely the player crashes and only reboot helps

    All this is with German DVB-T2, i.e. HEVC encoded transport stream.

    Not sure how I can help with troubleshooting - is there a way to collect debug information for such an issue?

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • Raspberry Pi 4: Issue with damaged HEVC file

    Hi folks,

    testing my Raspberry 4 2GB now since a week with LibreElec, and I run into the following issue: I recorded a DVB-T2 transmission (Germany = HEVC). I watched it while recording, and since my test was done with not the best antenna reception, I had half a dozen glitches, where the signal went too bad and I had a continuity error. When watching live, the Raspberry coped with it just fine - short picture distortion, and on we go. When I watch the recording, right at the first glitch playback stops. I can still use the navigation bar, like e.g. cursor left/right, but playback does not start again, and after a few seconds, the whole player freezes, incl. the playback controls. Issue is reproducible.

    Played the same file then on my LePotato (with CoreElec), which also hickupped on the glitch, but recovered itself and went on playing just fine.

    Any idea how to tackle this? I can put the recording somewhere for download if it helps troubleshooting.

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • How to update CrazyCat driver package

    Hi all,

    quick update: Last weekend my TV broke down, so I needed a quick solution, which was to attach a monitor to the Le Potato and use the dualHD with tvheadend/PVR backend. But watching TV with the dualHD was no fun: sometimes/too often the image stuttered, and the frame rate adjustment TV 25 Hz <-> Monitor 60 Hz caused subtle jitter. So I went for my own suggestion and rigged up a Raspberry as tvheadend server with kernel 4.19 (dualHD native support), pointed the PVR backend on Le Potato to the Raspberry, and enjoyed several hours of perfectly stable TV.

    I really can't wait to have the mainline kernel for Le Potato... Until then, I'll just keep the Raspberry running, wasting another 5 W of energy ;)

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • How to update CrazyCat driver package

    I *think* I use this one: [8.2.3.1] LibreELEC 8.2 for S905/S905X - but just to make it clear: The DualHD is _not_ working flawless with that image. The main reason I still use it is that I did a lot of customization and am too lazy to redo this on any new image unless I think it's bringing me any advantage. If I would start from scratch, I might as of today give CoreELEC a try, because it currently seems to be the most bug-free amlogic incarnation of Kodi. However, being rather opportunistic, I guess the first group offering mainline kernel will be my friend, since I expect this to solve some of my issues - hope nobody feels offended... I already bought some of the guys here a beer (remotely), so I guess I might be excused :)

    Something I feel important to emphasize: All this is done by community on spare time, and since I do not contribute anything but questions here, I do not feel entitled to "demand" anything - on the contrary! So, thanks again to all the people here doing their best to give us a good media experience - I really appreciate it and will stay patient!

    Edit: I just logged in to my box via SSH and it tells me it is LibreELEC (community): 8.90.4 (LePotato.arm) - so worst case I am just confusing things - sorry... I tried many images past then when I got my Le Potato and *may* have lost track somehow...

    Edit²: Just remembered some notes I wrote down past then, and it seems I used adamg's image after all. These are no longer available for download it seems, but CoreELEC is the follow-up project from that as I understand it. Sorry for all this confusion!

  • Question on the use of CPU cores

    Hi all,

    I use LibreElec on my Le Potato, and just experienced a thing that surprised me: While listening to music from my MP3 library via the network, I startet scrolling the list of videos from one of membranes mediathek-addons. Whenever I used the scroll wheel of my mouse to quickly browse through the entries, the music started stuttering - just very short, but well audible breaks in the sound. I was surprised in many ways: First, Le Potato is a quad-core CPU device, so if a CPU core would be busy playing the MP3, the other three should be idling and take over the scrolling. Second, MP3 is not too demanding for an [email protected] GHz, so I'd not even expected overload if the same core was used. And finally, the scrolling I'd have expected to be offloaded to the GPU anyhow, not really bothering the CPU. Are my assumptions stupid? Is there something I might have done wrong during setup or else?

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • How to update CrazyCat driver package

    Sorry to say, but I was a bit too fast with my assessment. It is *nearly* flawless. The continuity errors on receiver 2 are gone, but funny as it is, now receiver 1 has occasional continuity errors, but very few. Changed the receiver priority in tvheadend so that receiver 2 is default - fine for the moment. Seems I have to wait for mainline kernel after all :)

  • LibreELEC (Leia) v8.95.2 BETA

    Hi folks,

    also from my side a lot of thanks for the good work!

    I switched from the now one-year-old kszaq-image for LePotato to 8.95.2 Beta, and have one problem: Some MP4 movies (VLC says: H264 MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) do not work (they did with the old image). When I start them, there is no sound, picture is lagging, and, when opening the navigation bar, the current position is shown as a negative number (see screenshot).

    Some other MP4's work. As far as I can tell the only difference is the audio track: Those with problems have MP3 sound with 192k, those that work have AAC, both with 48 KHz sampling rate.

    Other things also hint at an audio problem: When I, while the faulty movie stutters along, open the audio settings from the lower right menu and toggle passthrough audio, for a short while audio is OK, but severely offset by seconds, and also the time is displayed correctly. Regardless if passthrough was on or off beforehand - just toggling it does the trick. If I played a faulty movie, stopped it and then started a "good" one, sometimes audio is played way too slow, al voices sounding as if they came directly from the crypt.

    I played around with some audio options, namely passthrough and sample rate adjustment, but nothing seems to help.

    How can I provide helpful information? I can provide example movies upon request.

    Cheers

    Hauke

  • How to update CrazyCat driver package

    Is there still much interlaced content? Interlacing in my mind is something outdated from SD TV times, when technology was just not fit for full pictures... But I stand to be corrected.

    Whatever - what I am currently thinking about is just letting run my Raspberry in parallel to Le Potato and point the PVR frontend to the TVheadend on Raspberry with kernel 4.18. Not my long term solution, since it eats up another 5W of standby power, but until Le Potato is fit, it might be a solution.