Develop Bugs

SPMC /XBMC stutter and micro stutter

I have tried multi fire tvs.
I have tried SPMC
XBMC gotham
Kodie
hardware acceleration on and off
I have tried wireless and direct through a gigabit switch with nothing else running.
I have tried advancedsettings.xml and without.
I have no issues running .mkvs on boxee boxes throughout the house and on other computers throughout the house.
it doesn't matter if the file size if 5GB or 14gb. Can someone please help me I am at my wits end and want to use this great device but am thinking of going back to the boxee box. thanks

no one?

acesup_11 said:
no one?
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I see zero (micro) stutter or judder. Even with BD source material @ 23.976 fps.
AFAIK, the FireTV doesn't output ~24 fps, but 60 fps for all source material (25 fps, 23.976 fps, 50 fps etc).
Does your TV have temporal processing or other forms of post-processing built-in ? Did you try to disable this ?

loekf said:
I see zero (micro) stutter or judder. Even with BD source material @ 23.976 fps.
AFAIK, the FireTV doesn't output ~24 fps, but 60 fps for all source material (25 fps, 23.976 fps, 50 fps etc).
Does your TV have temporal processing or other forms of post-processing built-in ? Did you try to disable this ?
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+1 for this FireTv needs Motion Interpolation settings at OFF or it will stutter badly.

kalouka said:
+1 for this FireTv needs Motion Interpolation settings at OFF or it will stutter badly.
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By motion interpolation, do you mean the smooth frequency setting?

Yes

ok I have now loaded a movie onto a SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive With Speed Up To 245MB/s directly into the amazon fire tv. I have turned off all filters and settings on the tv and even tried an older tv that is a plasma and another first gen lcd with no motion control the movie micro stutters on all of them and all the fire TVs. Just for fun I put XBMC on the boxee box and it runs fine on that also. Please help I really want to make the move over but this is getting my hopes down.

acesup_11 said:
ok I have now loaded a movie onto a SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive With Speed Up To 245MB/s directly into the amazon fire tv. I have turned off all filters and settings on the tv and even tried an older tv that is a plasma and another first gen lcd with no motion control the movie micro stutters on all of them and all the fire TVs. Just for fun I put XBMC on the boxee box and it runs fine on that also. Please help I really want to make the move over but this is getting my hopes down.
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update just tried netflix and amazon prime and those both play fine. Can someone please tell me what might be wrong?

I don't have my fire to yet, but I just had this problem with Xbmc in my PC with 24fps content.
To fix it I found choosing the audio re sample option in this playback menu made it perfectly smooth. Not sure if this option is on the fire to build though?

Is there a way to output 1080i?

I have an older tv that doesn't support 1080P but will do 1080i but found out last night the unit won't output 1080i. Is there any way I can force this thing to output that? I don't have a rootable unit but would consider doing the solder method if I need to. Also is there a way i can set 1080i in kodi/xbmc? Also I have seen converter boxes that look like they will do 1080p to 1080i has anyone used one of these?
Thanks

lpstudio said:
I have an older tv that doesn't support 1080P but will do 1080i but found out last night the unit won't output 1080i. Is there any way I can force this thing to output that? I don't have a rootable unit but would consider doing the solder method if I need to. Also is there a way i can set 1080i in kodi/xbmc? Also I have seen converter boxes that look like they will do 1080p to 1080i has anyone used one of these?
Thanks
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I would set it to 720p as there's not really that much difference, although it should set itself when you first turn on the AFTV?
You can then set Kodi to 720p by going into System - Settings and choosing 1280x720p in the video output display, although hopefully that will be set automatically as well...

wonneil said:
I would set it to 720p as there's not really that much difference, although it should set itself when you first turn on the AFTV?
You can then set Kodi to 720p by going into System - Settings and choosing 1280x720p in the video output display, although hopefully that will be set automatically as well...
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In Kodi it looks like it is locked at 1080. I have heard the fire Tv runs everything at that and down scales everything to what your tv can handle.

lpstudio said:
In Kodi it looks like it is locked at 1080. I have heard the fire Tv runs everything at that and down scales everything to what your tv can handle.
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I've never actually tried 720p but according to the AFTV technical details it outputs in both 720p and 1080p...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-CL1130-Fire-TV/dp/B00KQEJBSW#tech
Not sure about the Kodi/AFTV combi though.

Same exact problem, unable to sync at 1080i
I have the same exact problem, my TV set is capable of 1080i only, and at 1080p it wont sync!
I can argue against those suggesting 720p (as i did) that the video quality is not so good,
because 1080i is the "native" resolution of my TV, and 720P scales down to slightly blurred images.
Also, at 720p you usually have some "borders" or "crops" at the edge, almost impossible to compensate
using TV set controls (and, incredibly, no options on fire stick to zoom in/out for frame borders).
Thus, i'm waiting the new firestick 4K (that supposedly have 1080i support also), and using my firestick
basic at 720p resolution. BUT if it exist a trick to sync at 1080i i would be much more happy with it.
I contacted amazon support, but they barely understood my question.

720p is far superior to actual 1080i, which is equivalent to 540p data-wise. Put it at 720p and forget it.

3D movies using Kodi on Fire TV

Not sure if my issue is Kodi related or Fire TV related, but 3D MKVs (1080p SBS) do not work well on my Samsung TV in 3D mode through Kodi. They do display in 3D once I change the TV into that mode, but there's ghosting. Playing the MKV using the TV's built in Media Player has always worked fine. I suspect Kodi isn't converting the SBS video completely correct. OTOH, I had to calibrate the Fire TV due to my TV's overscan, so perhaps that has something to do with it? I'm not sure. Does anyone have any tips for getting 3D video to work?

You´re TV is using additional filters etc. when the playback is run internally but the TV does not use these for external input via HDMI. It´s most likely you would see this also with other external players.
Concerning overscan: when you don´t need it (for e.g. you´re not using any analogue video inputs), set it to 0 in you´re TV or deactivate overscan. It´s the better solution than to calibrate all attached devices for overscan which isn´t needed for digital HDMI input normally.

Calibaan said:
You´re TV is using additional filters etc. when the playback is run internally but the TV does not use these for external input via HDMI. It´s most likely you would see this also with other external players.
Concerning overscan: when you don´t need it (for e.g. you´re not using any analogue video inputs), set it to 0 in you´re TV or deactivate overscan. It´s the better solution than to calibrate all attached devices for overscan which isn´t needed for digital HDMI input normally.
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That's interesting because I have two different TVs connected through HDMI that both required the image to be reduced 2-3% with the Fire TV. That ought to be digital. Am I missing something?
EDIT: Okay, here's what I was missing. Both TV sets were NOT set up to the optimal screen settings. The Samsung was set to 16:9, which you'd think would be the right setting, but it's not. The "User setting" with the option to move the picture horizontally and vertically is the "correct" one to use. On the other TV that I was using overscan on had a similarly poorly worded option called "Fullscreen 100%" or something like that that gave the actual resolution instead of the default "Normal" setting. Unbelievable!
The happy ending to this story is that 3D movies work perfectly. I hear there is a plugin for Kodi to automatically switch the TV into the correct 3D mode assuming the MKV file has the 3D encoding option specified. (I went through and fixed all the MKV metadata to include it.) I'll try to find it and test it out.

Those overscans mechanism do imply scalers which may also corrupt the proper displaying of 3D content. I wonder why still today TVs are preprogrammed with overscan for digital inputs.
But you´re 16:9 issue isn´t clear for me. A 16:9 TV should display everything at 100% or is it a non 16:9 TV, for e.g. with 21:9 aspect ratio? In that case the TV probably tried to stretch the 16:9 content instead of letterboxing which may also lead to a bad 3D behaviour.

Calibaan said:
Those overscans mechanism do imply scalers which may also corrupt the proper displaying of 3D content. I wonder why still today TVs are preprogrammed with overscan for digital inputs.
But you´re 16:9 issue isn´t clear for me. A 16:9 TV should display everything at 100% or is it a non 16:9 TV, for e.g. with 21:9 aspect ratio? In that case the TV probably tried to stretch the 16:9 content instead of letterboxing which may also lead to a bad 3D behaviour.
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The default option on my Samsung 55" TV is "16:9". There's also "Wide" (4:3 stretched to fill the screen) and "Zoom" (4:3 zoomed so the top and bottom are cropped). It's not until you go to the "User" option that you realize that the default "16:9" option (the first setting) is actually zooming the image 2-3%! I can only suspect that Samsung assumed people would be watching a mix of analog and digital sources. You'd assume the cable company's box would take care of any issue with displaying analog signals to a digital TV, but I guess not. The moral of the story here is to not assume the TV isn't implementing an overscan on ALL signals by default.
EDIT: Apparently, my TVs are the only ones like this: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/27/hd-101-overscan-and-why-all-tvs-do-it/

[GUIDE] How-To: 4K GameStream without 4K computer monitor(s)

So as you guys know the Shield TV is a solid 4K device sporting support for [email protected] over HDMI 2.0.
nVidia gamestream works by playing the game on your PC and using the GPU to rapidly encode the video stream to H.264 to stream to the shield while redirecting all of the input on the shield back to the PC. This, for the most part, works very well. Up to this point it's been [email protected] in general. The new beta of GeForce Experience has enabled both [email protected] as well as [email protected] streaming to the Shield. Additionally, the new nVidia Network Streaming service no longer kills the game if the monitor is powered off or detatched from the PC. (this is crucial for this to work.)
This generally works out of the box if you already have a 4k monitor connected to your computer. However, most of us probably don't. So here's a relatively easy way to get true 4k gaming in your living room.
Prerequisites:
GeForce Experience Beta Release which you can get here: http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/gfe-beta
nVidia GTX 970 or better (or SLi equivalent.) (My opinion just to be playable.)
Ethernet connected Shield or a really really good MIMO 802.11ac bridge (which is was I use.)
If you already have a 4k monitor attached to your computer and you're already able to play games at 2160p then you're done, just go to your shield, set your game resolution and play and enjoy.
However, if instead you have a field of 1080p monitors and no 4k to speak of here's what you need to do.
Open nVidia Control Panel
Disable nVidia Dynamic Super Resolution
Go to the "Change Resolution" screen and select your monitor.
Click the "Custom" button, then create a custom resolution.
The custom resolution should match that of your TV regardless of what monitor(s) you have attached. In most cases this will be [email protected] If you have an earlier 4k tv model that only supports 30hz on it's HDMI port, then change the refresh to 30hz. This needs to exactly match the current refresh rate that the Shield is running as it's connected to your TV for the best quality and smoothness of the video stream.
Click test, your monitor will go black and you won't be able to see anything. This is key, hit the right arrow on your keyboard TWICE then hit enter. This tells the app that "yeah, that resolution looked ok," even if you didn't see crap.
Repeat this step for EVERY monitor in your setup ensuring that all the settings are exactly the same. This is crucial or your game will NOT be able to see the custom resolution when it's time to turn up the pixel count!!!
Once you've created the custom resolution for your monitors, restart the nVidia Network Streaming service. Then, if you like or you're afraid of breaking your monitors by sending out of range resolutions to them (which unless they're CRT's you shouldn't be worried) you can turn your monitor(s) off. This is the part that matters here. nVidia has made it so that the card can render headless which is huge for this. Potentially opening up to being able to render complete unbeknownst to a user using the workstation physically. That's beside the point.
Head over to your shield, fire up a game, go into the settings and you should see the 4k resolution you configured earlier. Fire it up and you're good to go. Expect to see around 21mbit/s bandwidth used.
Hit me up in this thread if you have issues.

4k gamestream issues
Hi there, I am having issues getting my Nvidia Shield TV to stream games at 4k. I just tried this steps on my (ultra wide 3440x1440) but when I Test it says the test failed and my display does not support the custom resolution. Is there any other way to force 4k into the Shield TV?

MForce22 said:
Hi there, I am having issues getting my Nvidia Shield TV to stream games at 4k. I just tried this steps on my (ultra wide 3440x1440) but when I Test it says the test failed and my display does not support the custom resolution. Is there any other way to force 4k into the Shield TV?
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Same with me. Using the 2017 Shield TV with latest update.

What if I just enable DSR and choose 4k in the game?

DSR works as well. But the aspect ratio is important (should be 16:9)

You no longer need to add a custom resolution or enable DSR, it will allow you to select 4k even if your monitor does not support it or if the monitor is off with the 2017 upgrade.
You *might* have to flag experimental features in the Geforce Settings though, not to sure on that. To activate it, make sure you set resolution to 2160p in the Quality settings on the Nvidia Shield for the PC.

Can someone with a non 4K monitor let me know if GameStream is still working fine?
A few weeks ago I had everything working properly. 4K would stream fine without having to change anything on my monitor. But for some reason it has stopped working. I can't figure it out and it's doing my head in!
The only thing I can think of that has changed recently was the Windows 10 Creators update. But surely that isn't it because I can't seem to find anyone else having issues.
I even tried reinstalling Windows and Geforce Experience from scratch. Still have issues!
When I try loading a game in GameStream, it doesn't change from my monitors resolution (1920x1200)
I've tried turning game optimization on and off, I've set the resolution in the GameStream settings to 2160p (and even tried all the other resolutions)
I've reset the shield to factory settings, I've even tried a different shield. Nothing is working.
Any ideas what is causing this?
Video card is a gtx 1070 (with latest drivers)
Monitor is a Dell 2407wfp-hc (1920x1200)
TV is a Samsung 55KS8000
Shield is the 2017 model (though I have also tried the 2015 model as well)

Mine does not work out of the box
PC = 34" Ultrawide 3440x1440 w/ 980TI
4k = Samsung UN75MU8000F w/ 2017 shield
4k = Vizio p65-c1 w/ 2015 shield
I am messing with Custom Resolution Utility from https://www.monitortests.com now to try to get it to work

Hello !
Few years later... I've got a Nvidia Shield 2019 and I will try those things to play in 4K on my TV while my PC's monitor is 2K.
BUT... I read that, few years agao, Nvidia provide the ability to shutdown PC's monitor w/o turning off the gamestream connexion, right ?
Nowaday, if I turn off my PC's monitor, it stop the gamestream connexion... what am I doing wrong, please ?

Fire TV 4K stick: auto framerate siwtching only works once :(

Hello,
my new Amazon frie TV stick 4K is attached to a Denon AVR 1912, and this one to a Panasonic LCD TV set. My problem is that I would like the stick to switch the framerate (24Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, etc.) automatically according to the source framerate automatically, which can be set in the settings menu of fire TV stick accordingl, but the problem is that this setting only works once after it has been selected. If you hibernate the stick and it wakes up again, it will be stuck to 60Hz all the time, no matter what source framerate your video has. It stays that way until you change *something* (no matter what parameter actually) in the fire TV video settings, i.e. switching from "HDR" to "disable HDR", then the auto framerate works again, until you hibernate it the next time, and so on, which is very uconvenient.
You can also see it clearly when you install (sideload) Kodi to the stick, the whitelist of possible resolutions will normally offer a great variety, but when the stick is stuck at 60Hz, also Kodi will only allow this one refresh rate, and the same is true for all other apps on the stick that make use of framerate siwtching.
I have read a lot on the net that some people only have that problem when they are using a AVR (like in my setup), but for some people it also happens with the stick directly attached to their TV. So it seems Amazon devs have completely messed up this essential feature, which I was missing in the previous Fire TV sticks completely. Now I was happy to have that feature just to see that it isn't working properly Very poor performance, Amazon. Anything one can do against it? Any way to create a log and send it to Amazon devs to fix that problem?

Refresh rate is not equal to framerate.
If there is such a dramatic difference using regular pulldown, you might need a new tv.
No media is created with variable refresh rates in mind.

TimmyP said:
Refresh rate is not equal to framerate.
If there is such a dramatic difference using regular pulldown, you might need a new tv.
No media is created with variable refresh rates in mind.
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Sorry, but I think you totally did not understand my post: I am using various apps on the FireTV Stick, i.e. Kodi, using media with various framerates. And there is of course a relationship between the framerate a media was created and a suitable refresh rate which is in the best case the same or an integer factor to the framerate of the video (i.e. if a video was recorded with 25fps, then 50Hz would be a good choice for autoframerate, 60Hz would not be a good choice!). But this is not the point to discuss here.
The point is that the Fire TV Stick can only select an appropriate refresh rate once it has been set in the video options of the stick, as soon as it goes to hibernate once, it will be stuck at that refresh rate, no matter which other media is played. This does not only affect Kodi, it afffects, as I wrote, all the apps on the fire TV stick. And as soon as you select any other option in he video options, it again works - but only once!

It doesn't matter. There is absolutely no point to watching video with a refresh rate lower than the highest you have available.

You need to be sure in kodi settings -> system -> video -> refresh rates You see non standard refresh rates !
I had some problem while connected to AVR 5.1 not showing 50fps or lower
For 4k material auto framrate doesn't work so to have it enable for movie put some small fullhd starter with same fps as 4k movie played. Works for me all the time. I've cuted out 3s clip from my movies via ffmpeg

None of this matters. Any difference you see is completely placebo. There is never a circumstance where you do not want to use the pulldown your tv gives you.
edit: passtrough for everything, as much as possible. Unless there are specific *firetv-software-only needs.