Posts by duffbeer

  • Need help/advice with Intel NUC buffering problems

    I really hope that someone here can offer me some advice as I have been trying to resolve this issue myself for a long time with no success.

    My setup is as follows:

    NUC8i3BEK with 8gb of RAM running the latest bios with Libreelec 9.2.6. The only thing I use Kodi for is to watch my media files stored on my NAS, I have no additional addons and I do not watch anything via http. My Synology NAS is connected using homeplugs (I know these are not the best solution but they have worked without issue for a few years and I have no way of running a network cable between the 2 rooms.) The media files are streamed using NFS protocol rather than SMB.

    I have been using this setup for a few years with no issues, 1080p files play perfectly both AVC and HEVC. The problems began when I started watching 4K media files.

    These files will play OK until the bitrate increases during a high action scene or similar. The high bitrate causes the video to freeze and then after a couple of seconds the blue circular icon appears on screen and counts up to 100 while the buffer is refreshed (I assume this is what's happening.)

    I understand that the home plugs are probably the issue here and they just can't keep up with the higher level of data throughput. After a little research I discovered the video cache settings page on the Kodi wiki. I have tried a few different variations of the advancedsettings file but nothing seems to work for me. In fact, they all make the playback worse not just with 4K but even with the 1080p files that play correctly with the default settings.

    When I change the video cache settings it causes the video to freeze within 1-2 seconds of the start and it does not display the blue circular icon that I mentioned earlier, it just freezes and does nothing until I press stop. I assume I'm doing something wrong here but I can't figure it out, surely these cache settings should help the file to play correctly? As I mentioned earlier, the 4K files play mostly OK with just a few freezes during the high bitrate scenes so I don't think it is too far away from working OK.

    I have tried the following advancedsettings.xml flies:

    <advancedsettings>

    <cache>

    <buffermode>1</buffermode>

    <memorysize>139460608</memorysize>

    <readfactor>20</readfactor>

    </cache>

    </advancedsettings>

    I tried inceasiing and decreasing the readfactor and also buffermode 4

    <advancedsettings>

    <cache>

    <buffermode>1</buffermode>

    <memorysize>52428800</memorysize>

    </cache>

    </advancedsettings>

    Also tried with buffermode 4

    <advancedsettings>

    <cache>

    <buffermode>1</buffermode>

    <memorysize>0</memorysize>

    <readfactor>30</readfactor>

    </cache>

    </advancedsettings>

    I was surpised this one didn't work for me either because according to the wiki page, setting the memorysize to 0 means it should buffer the data to the local hard drive rather than the RAM. I really thought this would make some difference but it behaves exactly the same as all the other files above.

    Every one of these options makes the playback worse in my setup and I just don't understand why. I would be really grateful for any advice as I'm completely stuck and I don't know what else to try.

  • Audio passthrough menu missing on 9.2.1

    Currently running 9.2.0 on Intel NUC but when I upgraded to 9.2.1 I got no audio. When I checked the settings, the entire audio passthrough menu is missing. The menu heading is there but none of the options are present. Back to 9.2.0 and all is well again.

    Any ideas what may be wrong here?

  • How much RAM for NUC8i3BEK?

    I've read a few comments about the built-in infrared receiver being poor. That's pretty worrying - I don't want to plug in an extra receiver.

    I'm upgrading from a D54250WYK that is just over 4 years old now. The software decoding HEVC @ 1080P works great but I was hoping that the hardware decoder would produce a better image.

  • How much RAM for NUC8i3BEK?

    Quote from jbinkley60

    I have a NUC8i7BEH and memory utilization remains low. CPU remains low as long as HW decoding is enabled. Attached is a top command output of my NUC playing a 12mbps MPEG2 1080P file while doing 4K upscaling. You can see it isn't braking a sweat. It has 8GB of memory but 4 is sufficient.

    That's exactly what I wanted to hear! Thanks very much for posting this info.

    My intention is to get the cheapest nvme SSD and 4gb RAM as Kodi does not need high performance so anything more is a waste. Hopefully that's a good plan.

    Can you comment on the noise from your i7? I've seen reviews mention that the cooling fan on the NUC 8 is a little noisy for a HTPC. I realise that noise is subjective but I would value your comments. Have you ever used an older NUC to compare?

  • Refresh rate problem after update from Openelec


    Thanks for your post. Seems a little harsh? Quite a few people having similar issues.

    I'm certainly not criticizing...I think LIBREELEC is amazing.

    Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

  • Refresh rate problem after update from Openelec

    Quote from hat_dk


    You are not alone.

    I'm having that same issue with my nuc->Yamaha avr->optima projector setup.
    When booted the refresh rate always default to 60, however changing between default and HDMI input in the settings menu allows me to choose 23.98.
    Back in the openelec days I solved this issue by sleeping a few secs and then setting the refresh rate manually via the autostart.sh script. However this approach does seem to work anymore with libreelec. Maybe autostart.sh isn't, supported anymore?

    This issue really suckz big-time....


    Sorry to hear you're having the same problem but it's good to know that I'm not alone.
    The fixes suggested above don't seem to work for me but my temporary solution means I can use Kodi for now.

    Let's hope this gets fixed soon as there must be other people affected.

    Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

  • Refresh rate problem after update from Openelec

    OK I've been doing some more testing.

    I tried escalades extended build but there was no change to my refresh rate issue. I also tried a couple of different Milhouse builds but these are also not working for me.
    Next I tried LibreELEC 7.95.2 and 7.95.3 but both of these have the same issue as 8.0. Then I tried LibreELEC 7.0.3 beta and this works fine - as does OpenELEC 7.0.

    I have read a few threads where others are having HDMI related issues so I thought I would try connecting the NUC directly to my TV rather than looping the HDMI through my Yamaha receiver. This works perfectly with all the LE 8.0 and also escalades build. So the issue seems to be every build of LibreELEC with Kodi 17.

    I have created a custom xorg.conf file as detailed in the wiki page and this means I now have a couple more refresh rates available but it does not have all the modes that I need so this is only a temporary fix as far as I'm concerned.

    I really like Kodi 17 and the new Estuary skin so I don't want to go back to the older versions.
    Is this issue likely to be resolved any time soon?

    Please can someone give me some info??

  • Refresh rate problem after update from Openelec

    Quote from escalade


    Because that has nothing to do with the refresh rate, and probably shouldn't be turned on anyway.

    Post the output of xrandr, that should tell you the different refresh rates detected by xorg. If there is only 30Hz, perhaps there was a problem getting the EDID?


    I also tried a fresh install of OpenELEC and the refresh rates are working fine.
    Not sure why LibreELEC behaves differently.

    Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

  • Refresh rate problem after update from Openelec

    Thanks - I really appreciate your help.
    This is the result of running xrandr via SSH:

    Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
    DP1 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
    HDMI1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1280mm x 720mm
    1920x1080i 60.00*+
    HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
    VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

    Edit - I just tried a clean install to a USB stick and I get exactly the same problem. There must be something incompatible in this release? OpenELEC did not have the same problem.