Could you send me the kodi.log file? I ramped up the fallback mechanisms so that even devices without DV support could use the build and play DV content via HDR10, I might have been a bit too aggressive with that.
Ok, here it is.
Click to download files: https://file.kiwi/0276153b#lIuT9DXvgLIcryhRyFxgkw
I am very happy to share the new build R1.0.0 Beta1
https://github.com/CroqueMr/libreelec-x86-DV/
Tried it but curiously all DV and HDR related stuff appeared as "/unavailable" on my N100... on the same hardware that had everything working in release R0.3.0. So I can't even play test it.
As a side note. I tried both dangerouslaser and R0.3.0 CroqueMr build on "Tron Ares" (a DV P7 highbitrate REMUX) and on both I get the same 1 frame drop per second. So it seems that lightweight file test or gigantic movie file size really don't matter.
Can you try every mode and tel me if you see any drop?
- Activate Standard DV: 90+ drops
- Disable DV support: No drops (indeed like the latest nightly).
- Convert DV to HDR10: 90+ drops
Went ahead and tried with 59.94 with pulldown, no drops on any of the modes.
Just one detail: I'm always using simplified statistics display, not the pretty one enabled with "O". This one apparently is one video layer too much and causes 30+ drops even on Convert DV + pulldown.
Ps. The conversion is clearly heavier on the GPU, but at 23.97Hz, in the pretty statistics GPU draw never exceeds 75% (about 5% more than pure DV).
Could you confirm whether you get any dropped frames on the latest LE build when playing the exact same file that falls back to HDR10?
I just tested it. No frame drops playing at 23.97Hz on the latest nightly.
an you reproduce the whole setup you describe and send me back the log file.
Ok, here it is. Done with the latest version
One log is the playback at 23.97Hz with drops and the other is the playback at 59.94Hz using 3:2 pulldown with no frame drops.
Can you please share the log? did you try to be on ethernet?
I started looking into the logs of w46n3r who's also getting frame drops every second on a FEL playback with an N100. I don't think it's coming from a saturated GPU, but I suspect the network connection and SMB.
I went ahead and did some more testing on the R.02.1a-opt1.
Tried USB as source, did not change anything. Still 90+ frame drops.
BUT, disabling 4K 23.97Hz as valid refresh, white-listing 4K 59.94 and enabling 3:2 pull-down resulted in zero drops in rendering.
I do not know what to make of this, heh.
But with the log I will see your issue.
Here is the log, and the test file used.
for me your issue is not a performance issue, something is wrong.
Yeah... I guess it could be a problem with the test file. I frankly don't even remember where I got it from. Do we have any good source of test files?
It was quicker than expected the new version is available on github R0.2.1-opt1 it should fix a lot of your issue with the FEL layer. https://github.com/CroqueMr/intel-dv-libreelec/releases
Nice... now the "DV FEL All Layers Test" plays as it should, colors, the actress, the whole thing seems to work and not one frame was dropped on the N100.
I know performance wasn't the focus of the update but I went ahead and tested "FEL TEST ST DL P7 CMV4.0 4000nits V4.mp4" anyway and the 90+ frames are being dropped as before.
Could you let me know if that fixes your problem? I’d be really happy to see the N100 handle all DV profiles at 24–30 fps perfectly, and did you try the profile 10 (AV1)? this profile is also GPU-hungry.
Just tried it. Unfortunately it seems it did not change anything (at all) for the 2 minute file I tested. It keeps dropping somewhat around 90+ frames in total. I even increased the power limit in the BIOS to 25w to see if it improved anything but to no effect.
As for profile 10 AV1, it plays fine with no drops at all. At least on the test file I have (Old Harrison Ford in a boat, I do not know from what movie it is). This file was already running ok on the first version you released.
As for the DV FEL All Layers Test, it is a complete failure here. It seems to render just the first frame with no colors at all and it stays frozen forever at that image (but continues to play... even after the end of the video).
I tested on a N100 DDR5 mini PC and on 23.976Hz have yet to find any playback performance problems. The Dolby Vision logo is enabled every time (Marantz AV Receiver + LG C2) and in all videos I tested I did not experience frame drops or skips.
I noticed that on FEL test files the player, even at 23.976Hz, in some cases drops quite a bit of frames (almost a frame per second on one called "FEL TEST ST DL P7 CMV4.0 4000nits V4.mp4") but I'm not too worried about it given its just a test.
I'll continue to test it as I use it but the initial feeling is that is already completely usable even on the lowly N100.
Well... of course it would not be ideal, but if it needed, this could be a patch/script completely independent from official LE (like the infamous 12/10 bit issue on N100).
what is the frequency that the dropouts occur? .. because watching that movie I hear only a handful of audio glitches
Yeah. To be fair, the frequency isn't really high. I think what you are seeing is indeed the problem as everyone else experiences it.
People here moan even about occasional screen tearing or stuttering in panning shots. We aren't exactly easy to please, to put it mildly.
it's not happening often and the way folks have been moaning about things in this thread I was expecting something more frequent or obvious. Is the 'dropout' a momentary glitch or silence lasting a few seconds? - and what's the frequency of occurrence?
There's some movie titles that are better for the testing because they saturate more frequently the bandwidth limitation. I don't have a exhaustive list but I remember the problem to be very clear on the horrible movie "Free Guy" from 2021.
As for the glitch itself it's just a sudden and brief (sub 1 second) audio interruption. Brief... but jarring and annoying nonetheless.
And now we can just hope that intel devlopers will find the cause of this and give us a proper fix.
They weren't able to before the massive layoffs across the company. One would think that they are now even less capable.
I wouldn't waste time interacting with Intel to try to solve this, as they couldn't even understand the concept that using only one AV receiver they will be able to reproduce the problem.
Is it then futile to try to achieve the goal of true Dolby Digital passthrough from a media player? If it is possible, kindly suggest a solution.
Believe it or not... the (lowly) latest FireTV 4K Stick running Android Kodi is capable of DV playback AND HD Audio passthru.
I'm not a big fan of low power android devices, but one can call it a better "solution" than any PC could ever dream to be.
CE does not use 12-bit for 4K/24. Intel does.
Oh well. Intel could at least point us which AVR it used for testing (if any). At the very least it would serve as a starting point for us to begin bothering Denon/Marantz about it.
I'm not convinced that this is an Intel issue. Looks to me that those affected AVRs (Denon?) are all using the same chipset which has some issue with 4K 12-bit modes.
It works correctly with some ARM box (Coreelec) in the same AVR. So what gives?
That fact and the long Intel tradition of having those types of issues make it very difficult rulling the possibility out.
My guess: Intel not being able to reproduce the issue is down to method, not knowing what to look for or simply not understanding the problem.
