[UPDATE] Kodi 18.4 Leia for Raspberry Pi 4

[bleep42]

Hi Marvin,
I've installed your Kodi on my Pi4, working great, I've tried to stress it by playing 4K HEVC (h265) & it didn't even work up a sweat, about 10% CPU usage, processor not getting above 60C.
Thank you for providing this build, with any luck someone will put it in the official repository, so anyone can install it. Also, as always, thanks to everyone who contributes to the Kodi project, especially Dom/Popcornmix for their Pi related input.
Regards Kevin.
Share & Enjoy.

[amilino]

Hi Marvin,
I've installed your Kodi on my Pi4, working great, I've tried to stress it by playing 4K HEVC (h265) & it didn't even work up a sweat, about 10% CPU usage, processor not getting above 60C.
Thank you for providing this build, with any luck someone will put it in the official repository, so anyone can install it. Also, as always, thanks to everyone who contributes to the Kodi project, especially Dom/Popcornmix for their Pi related input.
Regards Kevin.
Share & Enjoy.

Which resolution you have configured in Kodi?

[gkreidl]

Hi Marvin,
I've installed your Kodi on my Pi4, working great, I've tried to stress it by playing 4K HEVC (h265) & it didn't even work up a sweat, about 10% CPU usage, processor not getting above 60C.
Thank you for providing this build, with any luck someone will put it in the official repository, so anyone can install it. Also, as always, thanks to everyone who contributes to the Kodi project, especially Dom/Popcornmix for their Pi related input.
Regards Kevin.
Share & Enjoy.

This will be done by Rascas, as soon as returns from holidays and finally gets his RPi 4. He doesn't only provide Kodi itself but all the compiled addons and additional packages. And he will create a package with different binaries for different RPi versions.

[Zerwin]

@innocent_bystander I figured out my CEC problem, turns out I accidently turned CEC on my tv off when I wanted to change the overscan settings. Works fine now.

[amilino]

For me 4k is not working very well. I tried following resolutions in Kodi under settup:
3840 x 2160, 30Hz and 4096 x 2160, 30Hz.

Audio seems to work fine but not in the sync. with picture, probably because picture is stuttering big time, not watchable at all. Video used was not 4k but 1280 x 720 video. Tried with hardware decoding and without it. My gpu_mem in config.txt file is 320.

If I lower the resolution in Kodi to 1920 x 1080, 60Hz all works fine.

Am I doing something wrong, what preferences should I use in Kodi?

[bleep42]

For me 4k is not working very well. I tried following resolutions in Kodi under settup:
3840 x 2160, 30Hz and 4096 x 2160, 30Hz.

Audio seems to work fine but not in the sync. with picture, probably because picture is stuttering big time, not watchable at all. Video used was not 4k but 1280 x 720 video. Tried with hardware decoding and without it. My gpu_mem in config.txt file is 320.

If I lower the resolution in Kodi to 1920 x 1080, 60Hz all works fine.

Am I doing something wrong, what preferences should I use in Kodi?

Hi, Did you note the comment in the first post "Be sure to set your gpu_mem to 256 or higher." This is vital to get smooth playback, I think in the Kodi install it actually states 380M, to be sure for all 4K formats.

[amilino]

For me 4k is not working very well. I tried following resolutions in Kodi under settup:
3840 x 2160, 30Hz and 4096 x 2160, 30Hz.

Audio seems to work fine but not in the sync. with picture, probably because picture is stuttering big time, not watchable at all. Video used was not 4k but 1280 x 720 video. Tried with hardware decoding and without it. My gpu_mem in config.txt file is 320.

If I lower the resolution in Kodi to 1920 x 1080, 60Hz all works fine.

Am I doing something wrong, what preferences should I use in Kodi?

Hi, Did you note the comment in the first post "Be sure to set your gpu_mem to 256 or higher." This is vital to get smooth playback, I think in the Kodi install it actually states 380M, to be sure for all 4K formats.

Yes I did, ok will increase it from 320 to 380 and try it out. Tnx for the info.

[bleep42]

For me 4k is not working very well. I tried following resolutions in Kodi under settup:
3840 x 2160, 30Hz and 4096 x 2160, 30Hz.

Audio seems to work fine but not in the sync. with picture, probably because picture is stuttering big time, not watchable at all. Video used was not 4k but 1280 x 720 video. Tried with hardware decoding and without it. My gpu_mem in config.txt file is 320.

If I lower the resolution in Kodi to 1920 x 1080, 60Hz all works fine.

Am I doing something wrong, what preferences should I use in Kodi?

Hi, Did you note the comment in the first post "Be sure to set your gpu_mem to 256 or higher." This is vital to get smooth playback, I think in the Kodi install it actually states 288M, to be sure for all 4K formats, so they set it to 320M.

[amilino]

For me 4k is not working very well. I tried following resolutions in Kodi under settup:
3840 x 2160, 30Hz and 4096 x 2160, 30Hz.

Audio seems to work fine but not in the sync. with picture, probably because picture is stuttering big time, not watchable at all. Video used was not 4k but 1280 x 720 video. Tried with hardware decoding and without it. My gpu_mem in config.txt file is 320.

If I lower the resolution in Kodi to 1920 x 1080, 60Hz all works fine.

Am I doing something wrong, what preferences should I use in Kodi?

Hi, Did you note the comment in the first post "Be sure to set your gpu_mem to 256 or higher." This is vital to get smooth playback, I think in the Kodi install it actually states 288M, to be sure for all 4K formats, so they set it to 320M.

???

[bleep42]

Sorry you replied while I was editing my previous reply, I was wrong, and was correcting it, the Standard Kodi install uses 320M for GPU.
Ok I have now connected it up to my main 4K TV, before I was playing a 4K source, through a standard hi res monitor.
my TV is 3840x2160@30Hz as standard. I have tried playing videos which are the following resolutions, through the 4K TV.
3840x2160, 3840x1608, 1920x1080, 1920x872, 1280x720, 720x288, 640x372.
Only one caused any problems, it was an 3849x2160 at an extremely high data rate of 48mbs, (a 571MB file for 1 and a half minutes of video!) I would normally be using about 8 to 10 mbs, it would stutter about every 10 seconds, after I reduced it to a more normal rate it was fine.
As I understand it, the HDMI cable is effectively a high band width serial connection and as such playing full 4K 'may' require a higher quality cable, I know there is a lot of bull shit around cables, so just make sure yours is of a reasonable quality, or try another one.
Otherwise I have the following settings. You may need to be in Expert mode.
I have enabled the White list, in here you select all the resolutions/refresh rates that you want your TV to accept (assuming it can)
so under system->Display->White List, I have selected all the refresh rates that relate to 3840x2160 (my tv raw resolution) also I have set
Player->Videos->Adjust display refresh rate to 'on start/stop' This will phisically change your TV refresh rate, if it is able to, to be the same as the video you are playing, which should give smoother replay, however most of this is fine tuning.
Also bear in mind this is early days yet, I remember trying to play an h265 video on Kodi on a Pi 3, it was managing about 3fps, by the time they had finished optimising, it could comfortably play a 1920x1080 h265, with plenty of spare.
Good Luck.

[amilino]

Hi, I used your advice about setting Display refresh rate to 'on start/stop' and set up the highest resolution in Kodi to 4096 x 2160.

On other side my Raspbian resolution stayed on 1920x1080, 60.00Hz. Not sure if Raspbian buster resolution means something but this one fits nicely to my TV screen, all other higher resolutions are not fit scaling good tobthe screen and I don't see some pixels on all sides of the screen.

However, with this configuration all is working quite well. I tested 3840x1608 with Frame rate: 24 fps (HEVC).

Thank you for tips.

[bleep42]

Hi, I used your advice about setting Display refresh rate to 'on start/stop' and set up the highest resolution in Kodi to 4096 x 2160.

On other side my Raspbian resolution stayed on 1920x1080, 60.00Hz. Not sure if Raspbian buster resolution means something but this one fits nicely to my TV screen, all other higher resolutions are not fit scaling good tobthe screen and I don't see some pixels on all sides of the screen.

However, with this configuration all is working quite well. I tested 3840x1608 with Frame rate: 24 fps (HEVC).

Thank you for tips.

Picture not fitting the screen is an easy one to fix.
Go to System->Display->Video Calibration...
You will get a screen with a square box in the middle and corner markers in the top left and bottom right corners, it's possible you may not be able to see these, depending on how out of scale your screen is, use the arrow keys to move the corner markers, so that they just fit in the corresponding corners, Enter key to move between the various adjustments, you will need to do this for each resolution/frame rate that you want to use, initially, just do any obvious ones.
Regards, Kevin.

[amilino]

Hi, I used your advice about setting Display refresh rate to 'on start/stop' and set up the highest resolution in Kodi to 4096 x 2160.

On other side my Raspbian resolution stayed on 1920x1080, 60.00Hz. Not sure if Raspbian buster resolution means something but this one fits nicely to my TV screen, all other higher resolutions are not fit scaling good tobthe screen and I don't see some pixels on all sides of the screen.

However, with this configuration all is working quite well. I tested 3840x1608 with Frame rate: 24 fps (HEVC).

Thank you for tips.

Picture not fitting the screen is an easy one to fix.
Go to System->Display->Video Calibration...
You will get a screen with a square box in the middle and corner markers in the top left and bottom right corners, it's possible you may not be able to see these, depending on how out of scale your screen is, use the arrow keys to move the corner markers, so that they just fit in the corresponding corners, Enter key to move between the various adjustments, you will need to do this for each resolution/frame rate that you want to use, initially, just do any obvious ones.
Regards, Kevin.

Thank you for the info but I was talking about Raspbian picture. For example I don't see start button in taskbar.

[bleep42]

Doesn't sound as though the screen you are using is giving the correct CEC info to the Pi, my Pi always knows what the standard resolution of the display I have connected is. Check your screen has CEC enabled or search the forums for forcing a particular resolution, or start another thread, as this isn't Kodi related.
Regards Kevin.

[innocent_bystander]

@innocent_bystander I figured out my CEC problem, turns out I accidently turned CEC on my tv off when I wanted to change the overscan settings. Works fine now.

Wicked.

Hi Marvin,
I've installed your Kodi on my Pi4, working great, I've tried to stress it by playing 4K HEVC (h265) & it didn't even work up a sweat, about 10% CPU usage, processor not getting above 60C.
Thank you for providing this build, with any luck someone will put it in the official repository, so anyone can install it. Also, as always, thanks to everyone who contributes to the Kodi project, especially Dom/Popcornmix for their Pi related input.
Regards Kevin.
Share & Enjoy.

It would be nice to get it included in the official repo, but the way the vt switching is currently done is a bit hacky. I did write a small app to switch vts in a more proper way, but it is causing Kodi to become very slow for some reason.

You can access the file here: https://bit.ly/2YncpAo


Compile:

Code: Select all

gcc chvt_exec.c -o chvt_exec
sudo chown root:root chvt_exec
sudo chmod u+s chvt_exec

Launch:

Code: Select all

./chvt_exec kodi

Maybe someone more familiar with Kodi code base can take a look and figure out what's causing it to become slow.

[amilino]

It would be nice to get it included in the official repo, but the way the vt switching is currently done is a bit hacky. I did write a small app to switch vts in a more proper way, but it is causing Kodi to become very slow for some reason.

It is not just very slow, it is as well slow on exiting when one click on "Exit" button in Kodi. Sometimes it never exit at all. This is a known issue from the past (I think on Windows it is exiting instantly but on Linux not), maybe some Kodi expert can finally have a look on it as well, it is very anoying.

[berrywhite96]

First, very good job! Tried two 4k HEVC files, the first worked flowlessly and the second not. It was a video file with ts container, maybe Kodi cant handle the container.
Now my problem: I have an 4k TV, a Yamaha AV receiver with passthrough and also the HDMI cable. All these components are compatible with 4k 60hz, but Kodi only output the video at 4k@30hz. Also the whitelist in Settings>System>Video output only goes up to 4k@30hz.
So my question: does the release support 4k@60hz or do I have to configure something? The hdmi_enable_4kp60 flag is already set in the config.txt.

[innocent_bystander]

First, very good job! Tried two 4k HEVC files, the first worked flowlessly and the second not. It was a video file with ts container, maybe Kodi cant handle the container.
Now my problem: I have an 4k TV, a Yamaha AV receiver with passthrough and also the HDMI cable. All these components are compatible with 4k 60hz, but Kodi only output the video at 4k@30hz. Also the whitelist in Settings>System>Video output only goes up to 4k@30hz.
So my question: does the release support 4k@60hz or do I have to configure something? The hdmi_enable_4kp60 flag is already set in the config.txt.

Sorry, I don't have a 4K setup, so can't be of much help... other than suggesting to make sure your gpu_mem is set to 320MB.

[derders]

thank you for this version it works good but it crashes if I want to play mpeg2 files.
have set gpu_mem=320

Code: Select all

2019-07-31 19:00:30.690 T:2972810544  NOTICE: VideoPlayer::OpenFile: /mnt/USBEXT2/##Filme USB EXT2/Bieber Grammys.ts
2019-07-31 19:00:30.691 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Creating InputStream
2019-07-31 19:00:30.699 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
2019-07-31 19:00:30.757 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Opening stream: 0 source: 256
2019-07-31 19:00:30.757 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Whitelist search for: width: 1920, height: 1080, fps: 29.970, 3D: false
2019-07-31 19:00:30.758 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Display resolution ADJUST : 1920x1080 @ 29.970032 Hz (21) (weight: -0.000)
2019-07-31 19:00:30.841 T:2972810544  NOTICE: VideoPlayer: OnLostDisplay received
2019-07-31 19:00:30.842 T:2972810544 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
2019-07-31 19:00:30.842 T:2972810544 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
2019-07-31 19:00:30.871 T:2972810544  NOTICE: VideoPlayer: OnResetDisplay received
2019-07-31 19:00:30.871 T:2972810544 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
2019-07-31 19:00:30.871 T:2972810544 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
2019-07-31 19:00:30.879 T:2211967184 WARNING: OpenStream - Unsupported stream 0. Stream disabled.
2019-07-31 19:00:30.879 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Opening stream: 1 source: 256
2019-07-31 19:00:30.880 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Finding audio codec for: 86020
2019-07-31 19:00:30.880 T:2211967184  NOTICE: CDVDAudioCodecFFmpeg::Open() Successful opened audio decoder dca
2019-07-31 19:00:30.881 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Creating audio thread
2019-07-31 19:00:30.881 T:2521325776  NOTICE: running thread: CVideoPlayerAudio::Process()
2019-07-31 19:00:30.886 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Opening stream: 0 source: 256
2019-07-31 19:00:30.887 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Whitelist search for: width: 1920, height: 1080, fps: 29.970, 3D: false
2019-07-31 19:00:30.887 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Display resolution ADJUST : 1920x1080 @ 29.970032 Hz (21) (weight: -0.000)
2019-07-31 19:00:31.095 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 2
2019-07-31 19:00:31.097 T:2211967184 WARNING: CMMALVideo::Open Codec mmal-mpeg2 is not supported
2019-07-31 19:00:31.098 T:2211967184  NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Using codec: MPEG-2 video
2019-07-31 19:00:31.105 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Creating video thread
2019-07-31 19:00:31.107 T:2157949136  NOTICE: running thread: video_thread
2019-07-31 19:00:31.108 T:2211967184  NOTICE: Opening stream: 1 source: 256
2019-07-31 19:00:31.111 T:2157949136  NOTICE: CDecoder::Open - fmt:4

this file is test sample 15 from https://kodi.wiki/view/Samples
called MPEG2 4:2:2@High 1080i/29.970 35Mbps

is this only on my side or can you/someone reproduce it?

[athom]

The deb is missing a lot of dependencies when installing on Raspbian lite.

I fixed this by install kodi from the repo (version 17) which pulls down a lot of dependant packages and then installed this deb (18) on top.

[innocent_bystander]

The deb is missing a lot of dependencies when installing on Raspbian lite.

I fixed this by install kodi from the repo (version 17) which pulls down a lot of dependant packages and then installed this deb (18) on top.

That's possible. I've built it in a clean Raspbian Desktop environment. I will try to take a look at it in the next few days and fix it.

[Zerwin]

I found an interesting bug. I can't scan my library, kodi just freezes up and stops working. I also can't get the last picture that kodi showed away, even if I kill kodi via cmd line from another machine. Only a hard reset helps.

Here a log I managed to get yesterday

kodi_crashlog-20190803_033200.7z

(52.43 KiB) Downloaded 52 times

[amilino]

I found an interesting bug. I can't scan my library, kodi just freezes up and stops working. I also can't get the last picture that kodi showed away, even if I kill kodi via cmd line from another machine. Only a hard reset helps.

Here a log I managed to get yesterday
kodi_crashlog-20190803_033200.7z

For me as well. After changing the scan provider from TMDB to IMDB it stopped freezing on scan.

[DarrenHill]

TVDB changed their API, which broke a lot of client users including Kodi.

See this thread on the Kodi forum for more details.

TVDB have rolled back their change, but it may take a while to propogate out to the wider world and resolve things.

[berrywhite96]

First, very good job! Tried two 4k HEVC files, the first worked flowlessly and the second not. It was a video file with ts container, maybe Kodi cant handle the container.
Now my problem: I have an 4k TV, a Yamaha AV receiver with passthrough and also the HDMI cable. All these components are compatible with 4k 60hz, but Kodi only output the video at 4k@30hz. Also the whitelist in Settings>System>Video output only goes up to 4k@30hz.
So my question: does the release support 4k@60hz or do I have to configure something? The hdmi_enable_4kp60 flag is already set in the config.txt.

Sorry, I don't have a 4K setup, so can't be of much help... other than suggesting to make sure your gpu_mem is set to 320MB.

Oh ok, GPU mem is set to 320MB, tried 360MB but kodi crashed on startup. Maybe anyone can confirm that he/she has 4k@60hz?