Posts by trent

I am hoping to understand the meaning of each setting, so that I can experiment methodically rather than simply enter suggested values.

Perhaps the settings are self-explanatory but I want to avoid making wrong assumptions.

I have an issue with key bouncing when using HDMI-CEC (TV remote) on Pi3.

Can someone clarify the meaning of the following 3 settings, or link to documentation that explains them. They are located in the Input Devices > HDMI-CEC setting menu

Remote button press delay before repeating

Remote button press repeat rate

Remote button press release time

Have you tried the other HDMI port?

In 2022 it has been difficult if not impossible to buy a Raspberry Pi 4 (or even 3) at RRP. My supplier is showing a lead time of 30/10/2023

Most of the reasons are well-known - global chip shortage, etc. Some reasons are less-well known or speculative. But they point to a turbulent company and uncertain future as far as hobbyist customers are concerned.

All good things must come to an end, perhaps Pi4 is the final Raspberry Pi platform with large Kodi userbase. If a Raspberry Pi 5 launches in this enviroment, and it is impossible to buy, I cannot imagine developers wasting time to support it when the future is so uncertain.

What are your thoughts on the future of Raspberry Pi as a Kodi/LibreElec platform?

Some TVs store unique picture settings for each framerate/resolution.

What I mean by this is that I adjust the picture settings (on TV) to my preference when Kodi is outputting 1080p60. Now I play a movie and the Kodi output switches to 1080p24 ... all of a sudden the TV is using fresh picture settings. I must perform the adjustment once more. And also for 1080p30.

And the picture settings can include HDMI black level.

Perhaps this is not your issue, just a guess.

The problem is quite simple - the Pi3 and Pi4 does not have enough power to software decode 1080p VC-1 with the current ffmpeg software decoder. This decoder is single-threaded.

Pi3 can hardware decode VC1 if you buy the key but LE 10 no longer supports these decoders.

If you want to use these hardware decoding, you must stay on LE 9

Pi4 does not have VC1 hardware decode at all.

The good news is that some developers are working on some NEON optimisations for the decoder. So maybe in the future it is possible to play 1080p VC1 on these platforms.

See this thread for more details:

Post

RE: [Pi 4] Lots of frame drops when playing high bitrate VC-1

I have a sample, I will PM the link

trent

Jan 18th 2022

Quote from niels

thanks, but why is the procedure distinct for rpi3 and rpi4 ? is it risky to upgrade on rpi3 ?

In-place update between major versions is sometimes problematic, for that reason it is not endorsed.

However, I will let you into a secret - normally it works fine. Thus what I do is:

1. make a backup

2. do an in-place update

3. if there is any problems, don't come to the forum and complain, instead do a clean install

Quote from Libre888

I tried LE10.0.2 on my RPi 3B+ yesterday, but the performance was not satisfactory. When I played 1920x1080P mp4 files, it was dropping frames and sometimes the video and audio were not in sync. Later I switched back to LE9.2.8. Bummer.

Probably the video codec was H.265/HEVC.

Kodi 18 (and previous) on RPi2/3 was capable of decoding some H265 streams up to 1080p due to very specialized decoder optimizations.

Kodi 19 cannot use these optimizations, it uses normal software decoding, therefore performance for H265 goes down significantly on these platforms.

You can read more about this elsewhere. People who need the old H265 performance should stay on LE9.

Quote from sindbad6

Hi,

as Gerri83, I don't get displayed the current version 10.0.2 in the available versions. I know, how to update over the command line, but I'm curious to know, if it is an issue on my side or are the updates not available on the GUI yet?

Thnx for answering

sindbad6

It is not yet available via the LibreElec settings add-on. There is usually a short delay, it is normal.

On LG TVs the type of device can be configured for each HDMI port. You can pick PC, Bluray, Set Top Box etc.

If you want to use Tru Motion etc then you must set the device type to be something like Bluray.

The method for this will vary depending on model, consult your user manual.

I have a sample, I will PM the link

The problem is that VC-1 software decoding in ffmpeg is single-threaded, it has always had a reputation as CPU intensive for this reason.

However maybe the optimizations mentioned by popcormix will help

You are correct, the "Number of channels setting" has no impact on bitstreaming.

It tells the number of PCM channels to use when bitstreaming is not supported / not in use. If you have an AVR then you should set "Number of channels" to 7.1 so that a non-bitstream format (eg FLAC 7.1) is sent to the receiver as multi-channel PCM

Quote from powiedzmi

Synerworks LE9 works fine on Pi Zero which also has 512M.

With original Pi Zero and LE9 I can play 1080p H.264 from SMB share and the Kodi playback stats say the memory usage is around 30%

So there is plenty of memory - provided you do not have many stuff running in the background.

Quote from Morphy

Da Flex I can do that but for which bug! The latest I can't even boot from it so it's not going to be much to report. I've got the second most recent nightly, 20211207 working but I'm still seeing some packet loss and I can't even install TVHeadend for some reason.

I'm going to try rpi OS to see if the wifi issue is hardware related.

I only once tested LE on my pzw2 because I don't intend to use it for that purpose. I just tested for curiosity. However I can confirm that 20211207-6638105 (the only build I tested) has wifi issues. In fact many other distros also gave me wifi problems. Even raspbian buster gave me unusable wifi.

So I don't think you have a hardware problem. I think in general support for pzw2 is just not ready due to supply issues. Developers don't own one yet.

You should forget about HEVC.

The ZeroW2 is basically an underclocked Pi3B with less RAM.

At launch of Pi3, HEVC software decoding was very bad, basically unusable. Eventually limited HEVC playback became possible, due to highly optimized decoder (some functions were hardware assisted).

These optimizations were discarded for Kodi 19. Therefore from LibreElec 10 onwards, Pi3 HEVC capability takes a permanent step backwards.

If you own an old Pi3B/+ you have the option to remain on LE9 if you want to keep the old HEVC capability. With Pi ZeroW 2 no such option exists, since LE9 does not support it.

If you want a small, cheap device for HEVC, forget about the Pi Zero W 2. Wait for the Pi4A, which will (presumably) have same hardware decoder as big brother.

Quote from menkalos

Anyone? Ping? What am I doing wrong? I very much want to upgrade to the latest Kodi. I download the latest 10.0 for Rpi4 and copy it onto my USB thumb drive using your imager. I plug it into the same USB port that my working 9.2 imaged thumb drive was in. I see the first bit of text scrolling by, but then the screen goes black, and my monitor goes into powersave mode for lack of a signal. I have made NO changes to the Config.txt file, and this is an unmodified RPi4 that runs the old 9.2 image just fine.

Thanks for any help!

Sometimes it just doesn't work, not necessarily a mistake on your part.

Try a different thumb drive or MicroSD

Try a different imager (eg Win32 disk imager)

Try an in-place upgrade rather than clean install

Saving energy is always worthwhile, even if the existing power consumption is already low.