[mythtv-users] Pi3 Playback problems with 1080i MPEG2?

Wed Jun 8 10:21:16 UTC 2016

On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 11:27 AM, Curtis Gedak <gedakc at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 2016-06-05 06:26 PM, Tom Harris wrote:
> > On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 2:17 PM, Peter Bennett <cats22 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------
> >> *From: *"Tom Harris" <thom.j.harris at gmail.com>
> >> *To: *"Discussion about MythTV" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> >> *Sent: *Saturday, June 4, 2016 2:05:02 PM
> >> *Subject: *Re: [mythtv-users] Pi3 Playback problems with 1080i MPEG2?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 8:39 AM, Tom Harris <thom.j.harris at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, May 30, 2016 at 7:35 AM, Peter Bennett (cats22) <
> >>> cats22 at comcast.net> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> On 05/29/2016 09:58 PM, Tom Harris wrote:
> >>>>> I just set up a new Pi3 frontend on Raspbian Lenny + Peter’s .deb
> >>>>> package for 0.27.
> >>>>> After some tweaking of various settings in raspbian and mythfrontend,
> >>>>> it is working well.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> The one issue is that playback of 1080i content has problems.  It
> >>>>> misses frames, pauses, and is generally not watchable.  720p video is
> >>>>> fine.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I verified a few things in debugging it:  content streams are fine,
> >>>>> bandwidth to frontend is fine, settings are correct (as far as I can
> >>>>> tell).   I played back the same videos just fine via Kodi’s mythtv
> >>>>> add-on on my Pi2 as well as the Apple TV mythfrontend.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ‘-v playback’ confirms openmax is enabled.   But, there is an error,
> >>>>> which I’m not sure if it’s normal or a real problem: “E  AFD: Unknown
> >>>>> decoding error"
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Has anyone else run into this?   Any more settings I should check?
> >>>>>
> >>>> Check your playback profile. You should have "Openmax normal"
> selected.
> >>>> Also edit the profile and check that the decoder and renderer are both
> >>>> set to openmax. Set the number of processors to 4.
> >>>
> >>> Yes, all of those settings are correct.   The other settings on those
> >>> pages, I just left default:
> >>>
> >>> ‘Deblocking filter’ is selected
> >>> ‘OSD fade’ is not selected
> >>> ‘OSD renderer’ is soft blend
> >>>
> >>> Primary deinterlacer: Advanced (HW)
> >>>
> >>> Fallback deinterlacer: One field
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Do you have the latest version? There was a bug with dropping frames
> >>>> that has been fixed. "Unknown decoding error" is one message that
> >>>> occurred with that bug.
> >>>
> >>> Yes, it appears to be current (same version currently downloadable from
> >>> your site).
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> What type of content is this? Is it MPEG2 or H264? Is it recordings or
> >>>> videos? Is it only one particular recording?
> >>>
> >>> MPEG2.  It’s Comcast cable TV recordings, from several stations - some
> >>> local NBC/CBS, some national TNT, etc.
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Are you using an on screen display (e.g. Subtitles or Info)?
> >>>
> >>> No. No subtitles, etc.
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> If you still have problems let us know your version (mythfrontend
> >>>> --version).
> >>>
> >>> MythTV Version : v0.27.6-86-ge2ccfdf
> >>> MythTV Branch : raspi/0.27
> >>> Network Protocol : 77
> >>> Library API : 0.27.20151025-1
> >>> QT Version : 5.3.2
> >>> Options compiled in:
> >>>  linux profile use_hidesyms using_asa using_oss using_pulse
> >>> using_pulseoutput using_backend using_bindings_perl
> using_bindings_python
> >>> using_bindings_php using_dvb using_firewire using_frontend
> using_hdhomerun
> >>> using_ceton using_hdpvr using_ivtv using_joystick_menu using_libcrypto
> >>> using_libdns_sd using_libfftw3 using_libxml2 using_lirc using_mheg
> >>> using_qtwebkit using_qtscript using_qtdbus using_sdl using_taglib
> >>> using_v4l2 using_x11 using_xrandr using_xv using_profiletype
> >>> using_bindings_perl using_bindings_python using_bindings_php
> >>> using_mythtranscode using_opengles using_openmax using_ffmpeg_threads
> >>> using_mheg using_libass using_libxml2
> >>>
> >>>  Here is some more complete output from ‘-v playback’.. anything else I
> >>> can enable for more debugging detail?
> >>>
> >>> 2016-05-31 19:35:47.336368 I
> >>>  FileRingBuf(myth://mythbackend/1720_20160531230000.mpg):
> >>> OpenFile(myth://mythbackend/1720_20160531230000.mpg, 2000 ms)
> >>> 2016-05-31 19:35:49.477791 I  MythCoreContext: Connecting to backend
> >>> server: 10.1.1.11:6543 (try 1 of 1)
> >>> 2016-05-31 19:35:49.502527 I  TV: StartPlayer(0, WatchingRecording,
> main)
>

(snipped debug output - mailing list was complaining about message > 45KB)

> >>> 2016-05-31 19:35:53.189281 I  Player(0): Video is 10.7273 frames behind
> >>> audio (too slow), dropping frame to catch up.
> >>>
> >>>  (snip..  it keeps generating messages about skipping frames, etc.)
> >>>
> >>
> >> I scanned through all the list postings about Pi setup to verify my
> >> settings.  The only one that differed in some posts was the number of
> CPU
> >> cores used for playback.  I changed mine from 4 to 1, but that made no
> >> difference.
> >>
> >> I also installed Kodi on raspbian, as a sanity check on the
> >> hardware/software/network, and playback is perfect in Kodi with the
> >> mythtv.pvr add-on playback the same recordings in Kodi that didn’t play
> >> well in mythtv.    I’m not sure where to go from here..  is there any
> way
> >> to get more debugging information out of OpenMax to narrow down the
> issue?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Other things to check
> >> - GPU memory, must be at least 128MB, but try 256MB to see if that helps
> >>
> >
> > I’ve got it set to 256MB.  At that level, there is still free memory
> > available and zero swap usage.
> >
> >
> >> - Perhaps some other process is using CPU. Try running top from ssh
> while
> >> playing back and see if anything other than mythfrontend is using lots
> of
> >> CPU.
> >>
> >
> > Mythfrontend is the only significant CPU user, and there is plenty of
> idle
> > CPU.
> >
> >
> >> - Is the mpeg2 license correctly installed?
> >>
> >
> > Yes, confirmed via the command “vcgencmd codec_enabled MPG2” and also via
> > playback in Kodi.
> >
> >
> > Thanks for the help.    At this point, I think I’ll continue with Kodi
> for
> > MythTV playback, and maybe when the next mythtv update is available I’ll
> > give that another try.
> >
>
>
> Since you mentioned that playback of 1080i content worked well in Kodi,
> did you also check to see what resolution was being used with Kodi?
>
> With a default OpenELEC 6.0.3 (Kodi) install on my RPi2, the default
> resolution was set to "DESKTOP" which turned out to be 1280x720p in my
> situation.
>
> The video resolution can be found at:
>
> System -> Settings -> System -> Video output
>
> If your Kodi resolution is less than 1920x1080 then you might try using
> the same resolution in mythfrontend to see if it also works well with
> 1080i content.
>

My Kodi is also set at 1920x1080.  I’ve tried it on both Openelec and
Raspbian, and Kodi plays it perfectly in all configurations.

Does your Kodi have issues displaying at 1920x1080?   It seems like scaling
it down to 1280x720 would be more work.
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