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

Wed Jun 8 15:34:00 UTC 2016

On 2016-06-08 04:21 AM, Tom Harris wrote:
> 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.
> 

I have not experienced any problems playing content with kodi video
output resolution set to 1280x720.

Curtis