4K Playback on rpi4

[daharn]

This has definitely been asked before but unfortunately it’s quite hard to search for any info on 4K, UHD or HDR with a forum search that requires more than three letters.

Can anyone give me the latest state in terms of 4K mkv playback when using the latest Xbian on a raspberry Pi 4? I was under the impression that it „should work“, but of the three files I tested two would not run at all (instead they would be stuck in loading forever) and one showed significant artifacts and wasn’t playing properly.

Are there known limitations/technical requirements that I can look out for?

[Nachteule]

Since I am unfortunately also over questioned, because I have no 4K TV

I just played a 2160p/HDR/UHD video again, which works perfectly on my FHD TV, except for the incorrect color reproduction.

[daharn]

So, I tried several 2160p mkv files with and without HDR. None of them were played properly. In some cases the ui would claim that the reading rate of the source location was too low, but this would even happen when placing the file directly onto the SD card. Looking at the codec info screen, I can see that the audio and video queues never really fill up.

I tested the same with libreelec and it works flawlessly. Even HDR and Dolby Atmos was supported for the files I tested!

I read that the pi4 has a separate hardware unit to decode h.265 that relies on new Kernel drivers. It thus appears like there might be an issue in supporting these drivers with the current xbian rpi4 build.

I don’t know if this is a priority for you, but it might at least be worth a look whether fixing this requires a lot of work or not. I for one always liked xbians concept of having a full Linux install underneath kodi, but since I primarily use it as a media center I will probably stick to libreelec for the moment.

[queequeg]

(3rd Nov, 2021 08:16 PM)daharn Wrote:  So, I tried several 2160p mkv files with and without HDR. None of them were played properly. In some cases the ui would claim that the reading rate of the source location was too low, but this would even happen when placing the file directly onto the SD card. Looking at the codec info screen, I can see that the audio and video queues never really fill up.

I tested the same with libreelec and it works flawlessly. Even HDR and Dolby Atmos was supported for the files I tested!

I read that the pi4 has a separate hardware unit to decode h.265 that relies on new Kernel drivers. It thus appears like there might be an issue in supporting these drivers with the current xbian rpi4 build.

I don’t know if this is a priority for you, but it might at least be worth a look whether fixing this requires a lot of work or not. I for one always liked xbians concept of having a full Linux install underneath kodi, but since I primarily use it as a media center I will probably stick to libreelec for the moment.

I've had the same experience. (Can't get 4K playback in Xbian, but can in Raspbian). Love Xbian for my media center and would love for it to support 4k hardware decoding for h.265, but it doesn't appear to support it at the time of this writing.

[Nachteule]

Perhaps a change from
dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d,cma-384
to
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,cma-384
in /boot/config.txt may help

I don't know what else would be wrong with it

And maybe the xbian-package-firmware is too old for it. In the staging repo is a brand new version for testing.

[WilliamThompson]

Bitrate and Framerate: Higher bitrate and framerate videos require more processing power to decode and play smoothly. If your 4K MKV files have extremely high bitrates or framerates, it may exceed the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi 4. sinister squidward

[nervebehale]

Hi,

I can play 4k mkv on the rpi4 with the current XBIAN, but none with Dolby Vision. The sound is 1a, but the picture stutters more or less strongly. I play the files from a directly connected external disk.

Does anyone know more? Is there perhaps an AdOn?

Best

[Nachteule]

Dolby Vision is not supported by Raspberry Pi Hardware