[SOLVED] Strange Video Playback Problem

[Skywatch]

Today I reinstalled an old xbian pi2 from scratch.

All went well and it's all back and running with one odd problem which I will try to explain as best I can.

After getting the sound to work I played a video (HDMI out) from the server and the picture was glitching and pixelated with chroma issues as well. I went through all the menu options for hours and still couldn't find the cure.

Then I tried to play from a different server and that was OK.

I rebooted the first server and the issue remained. I then powered off the first server for 10 mins and back on, the problem still is there.

But here is the really strange bit that I do not understand.

If I play a video from the first server with the bad video picture and then whilst it is playing I start the same video on the laptop, the xbian picture becomes normal (and it is always good on the laptop so not the server per se).

From this moment I can stop the laptop stream, skip around the video in kodi and all is well. But if I stop it and start it again (or another file) the problem is back.

This has got me really puzzled as to what could be happening here?

Any ideas and I would be very pleased to hear about them!

[Skywatch]

I can only assume that when the laptop starts to stream the same file it somehow sends a message to the server to set its streaming output and that this applies to all devices streaming that file. The video on the pi does not improve if I play another file from the server, it has to be the same one.

Here is the kodi log....

Terminal

11:06:10.791 1761.441772 T:1921251456 ERROR: Previous line repeats 3 times.
11:06:10.792 1761.442139 T:1921251456 NOTICE: CVideoPlayer::CloseFile()
11:06:10.792 1761.442383 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
11:06:10.800 1761.450684 T:1486877440 NOTICE: CVideoPlayer::OnExit()
11:06:10.801 1761.450928 T:1486877440 NOTICE: Closing stream player 1
11:06:10.801 1761.451050 T:1486877440 NOTICE: Waiting for audio thread to exit
11:06:10.856 1761.506104 T:1543500544 NOTICE: thread end: CVideoPlayerAudio::OnExit()
11:06:10.856 1761.506592 T:1486877440 NOTICE: Closing audio device
11:06:10.906 1761.556152 T:1486877440 NOTICE: Deleting audio codec
11:06:10.906 1761.556641 T:1486877440 NOTICE: Closing stream player 2
11:06:10.907 1761.556885 T:1486877440 NOTICE: waiting for video thread to exit
11:06:10.940 1761.590454 T:1503654656 NOTICE: thread end: video_thread
11:06:10.947 1761.597046 T:1486877440 NOTICE: deleting video codec
11:06:10.951 1761.600952 T:1486877440 NOTICE: Closing stream player 3
11:06:10.973 1761.623291 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: finished waiting
11:06:12.713 1763.363403 T:1921251456 NOTICE: CVideoPlayer::CloseFile()
11:06:12.713 1763.363770 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
11:06:12.714 1763.363892 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: finished waiting
11:06:12.714 1763.364136 T:1921251456 NOTICE: CVideoPlayer::CloseFile()
11:06:12.714 1763.364380 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
11:06:12.714 1763.364502 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: finished waiting
11:06:18.022 1768.671997 T:1921251456 NOTICE: VideoPlayer: Opening: /mnt/540/TV Shows/UFO/2 - Exposed.mkv
11:06:18.022 1768.672363 T:1921251456 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
11:06:18.023 1768.673462 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
11:06:18.055 1768.705688 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
11:06:19.046 1769.696411 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Opening stream: 0 source: 256
11:06:19.047 1769.697266 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 28
11:06:19.070 1769.720337 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Creating video thread
11:06:19.071 1769.721069 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Opening stream: 1 source: 256
11:06:19.071 1769.721313 T:1486877440 NOTICE: running thread: video_thread
11:06:19.071 1769.721558 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Finding audio codec for: 86020
11:06:19.073 1769.722900 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Creating audio thread
11:06:19.073 1769.723633 T:1512043264 NOTICE: running thread: CVideoPlayerAudio::Process()
11:06:19.074 1769.723877 T:1478488832 NOTICE: Opening stream: 2 source: 256
11:06:19.086 1769.736328 T:1512043264 NOTICE: Creating audio stream (codec id: 86020, channels: 6, sample rate: 48000, no pass-through)
11:06:19.331 1769.981689 T:1882190592 NOTICE: CAEEncoderFFmpeg::Initialize - AC3 encoder ready
11:06:19.343 1769.993164 T:1921251456 NOTICE: Display resolution ADJUST : 1920x1080 (1920x1080) @ 24.00 - Full Screen (27) (weight: 0.000)
11:06:25.646 1776.296387 T:1512043264 ERROR: CVideoPlayerAudio::DecodeFrame - Decode Error. Skipping audio packet (-1094995529)
11:11:18.704 2069.354492 T:1486877440 ERROR: Previous line repeats 41 times.
11:11:18.705 2069.354980 T:1486877440 WARNING: CRenderManager::WaitForBuffer - timeout waiting for buffer
11:11:30.278 2080.927979 T:1512043264 ERROR: CVideoPlayerAudio::DecodeFrame - Decode Error. Skipping audio packet (-1094995529)
11:29:02.616 3133.265869 T:1486877440 ERROR: Previous line repeats 6 times.
11:29:02.616 3133.266113 T:1486877440 WARNING: CRenderManager::WaitForBuffer - timeout waiting for buffer

[Nachteule]

Hmmm, that's strange.

So, server installation has not been changed, you installed a fresh Kodi client, right?

Which kernel version are you running on the client, 4.9 or 4.14?

Quote:11:06:19.343 1769.993164 T:1921251456 NOTICE: Display resolution ADJUST : 1920x1080 (1920x1080) @ 24.00 - Full Screen (27) (weight: 0.000)
11:06:25.646 1776.296387 T:1512043264 ERROR: CVideoPlayerAudio::DecodeFrame - Decode Error. Skipping audio packet (-1094995529)
11:11:18.704 2069.354492 T:1486877440 ERROR: Previous line repeats 41 times.

Screen is set to 24Hz, is this correct, the Video you're playing has 24 fps?

Did you noticed the lot of Skipping audio packet messages?

[Skywatch]

(19th Apr, 2018 09:39 PM)Nachteule Wrote:  Hmmm, that's strange.

So, server installation has not been changed, you installed a fresh Kodi client, right?

That is right, no changes. removed sd card. tested. flashed image. set up kodi. simple! (or so I thought)!

(19th Apr, 2018 09:39 PM)Nachteule Wrote:  Which kernel version are you running on the client, 4.9 or 4.14?

Kernel 4.9.91

(19th Apr, 2018 09:39 PM)Nachteule Wrote:  Screen is set to 24Hz, is this correct, the Video you're playing has 24 fps?

Yes - according to properties in windows.

(19th Apr, 2018 09:39 PM)Nachteule Wrote:  Did you noticed the lot of Skipping audio packet messages?

I did notice that - but the audio plays fine!

File played fine before, now it affects nearly all media including mkv and mp4 (maybe test some more later).

What bugs is that it plays fine *if* the same file gets started on the laptop. That makes me think it is network/samba/buffering related. Have I missed a tweek somewhere? The kodi help pages seem a little out of date and theres a lot in there that is windows specific, so I tread carefully.

[Nachteule]

Hmmm, are you using OMXplayer or Videoplayer (MMAL) ?

[Skywatch]

How do I find that out? I have acceleration selected for mmal and not for omxplayer. I can't find the .xml for the player info....

[Nachteule]

(19th Apr, 2018 10:28 PM)Skywatch Wrote:  How do I find that out? I have acceleration selected for mmal and not for omxplayer. I can't find the .xml for the player info....

So you're using VideoPlayer with MMAL acceleration. Did you tried OMXplayer already?

And, can you copy video file without issues?

Code:

dd if="/mnt/540/TV Shows/UFO/2 - Exposed.mkv" of=/dev/null bs=1M status=progress

[Skywatch]

I copied the file from the server 1 (the one with the issues) to server 2 via windows file manager, no problem.

The pi plays it fine from server 2, but from server 1 I get bad video distortion.

More testing shows that if the file is already playing on the laptop from server 1 then the pi plays it without fault. ???
If the pi starts play from server 1 then I get the problems, but they go away if I play the same file on the laptop.

Files from either server play fine on windows laptop.

I set acceleration for both OMX and MMAL in kodi and no change in the video problem.

How do I select which video player I want to use?

[Nachteule]

(19th Apr, 2018 11:17 PM)Skywatch Wrote:  I copied the file from the server 1 (the one with the issues) to server 2 via windows file manager, no problem.

I meant copy file from server 1 to Kodi client

Quote:The pi plays it fine from server 2, but from server 1 I get bad video distortion.

Same file? Same mount parameters?

What's the difference between server 1 and server 2?

Quote:More testing shows that if the file is already playing on the laptop from server 1 then the pi plays it without fault. ???
If the pi starts play from server 1 then I get the problems, but they go away if I play the same file on the laptop.

Files from either server play fine on windows laptop.

I set acceleration for both OMX and MMAL in kodi and no change in the video problem.

How do I select which video player I want to use?

Good question, my experience is if OMX and MMAL is checked, Kodi prefers OMX

Have you already played with kodi's video caching?

[Skywatch]

(20th Apr, 2018 03:45 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  I meant copy file from server 1 to Kodi client

Ah, OK, but I suspect it would play just fine. This is a really puzzling issue.

(20th Apr, 2018 03:45 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  Same file? Same mount parameters?

Yes and Yes.

(20th Apr, 2018 03:45 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  What's the difference between server 1 and server 2?

one is 2 bay Zyxel NSA325, the other is 4 bay Zyxel NAS540. Both work fine with laptop and both worked fine with the pi on the old image.

(20th Apr, 2018 03:45 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  Good question, my experience is if OMX and MMAL is checked, Kodi prefers OMX

Have you already played with kodi's video caching?

Yes, This afternoon, whilst sweating away in a heatwave (+29C in UK ) but no difference at all.
I'll try the 'old' image with the broken database and see if that still works. Then on to try another sd card and do it all over again

I just wish I could understand what is happening here. It has to be something to do with the way the pi connects to the server to stream the file and then when the laptop connects it changes something. I just don't know enough about how it all works to even get close.

IF it were a hardware failure then it would not behave like this. It is so repeatable, that's the annoying thing, and I can watch a movie, so long as I start it on the laptop first and then start it with xbian and I can turn off the laptop and it still plays fine. Arrgghhh!

I just noticed something........ This pi appears in windows network in file explorer. None of the other do/did. Maybe a clue here.....Can you think of anything?

[Nachteule]

The old image, which kernel did you run there.

I'm asking because 4.9 still using SMB1 aka NT1 protocol, whereas 4.14 is using SMB3 as default protocol to access samba shares

[Nachteule]

(20th Apr, 2018 04:09 AM)Skywatch Wrote:  Yes, This afternoon, whilst sweating away in a heatwave (+29C in UK ) but no difference at all.

Maybe you have to turn off your seti@HOME pi's

Quote:Windows network in file explorer. None of the other do/did. Maybe a clue here.....Can you think of anything?

No, don't think so. But Windows network and computer browsing is huge miracle

[Skywatch]

(20th Apr, 2018 04:19 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  The old image, which kernel did you run there.

I'm asking because 4.9 still using SMB1 aka NT1 protocol, whereas 4.14 is using SMB3 as default protocol to access samba shares

I believe I ran it with 4.14 and tried to run it with 4.9 in case that was the issue with the music database.

The fstab mounts are as follows......

Terminal

# UNCONFIGURED FSTAB FOR BASE SYSTEM
/dev/root /home xbian subvol=home/@,noatime,nobootwait,rw 0 0
/dev/root /lib/modules xbian subvol=modules/@,noatime,nobootwait,rw 0 0
/dev/root / xbian noatime,nobootwait,rw 0 0
UUID=53DB-136D /boot xbian noatime,rw,private 0 1
//192.168.1.222/media /mnt/325/ cifs username=cinema2film,vers=1.0,password=xxxxxxxxxx,uid=xbian 0 0
//192.168.1.245/media /mnt/540/ cifs username=cinema2film,vers=1.0,password=xxxxxxxxxx,uid=xbian 0 0
none /run/user tmpfs noauto 0 0
none /run/shm tmpfs noauto 0 0
none /run/lock tmpfs noauto 0 0

[Nachteule]

Ah, ok, you are forcing SMB1 as protocol

Was just an idea ...

[Nachteule]

Sooooo, you had

1) strange database issue with running old image,
2) strange video play issue running new setup

Couldn't faulty hardware being the culprit?