Enabling debug logging in KODI I can also see a huge FPS difference even in the UI without b playing a move between PPM and FireTV4K
PPM:
FireTV4K:
PPPM shows CPU0 at 100% …. FireTV4K Max Value is 50% per CPU
FireTV4K:
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But that is a different GPU on the FireTV4K (is that the Stick version??)
Does anyone have the non-Stick FireTV 4k (the rectangular model)? It has Mali-450.
True, FireTV4K has a different GPU: PowerVR Rogue GE8300.
I just did the same test with my MiBoxS witch has a Mali450 (see under System). Picture taken from connected TV though…
FPS for Mi Box S UI are around 60 vs PPM around 23
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Great, thanks a lot.
The overlay strangely does not show any dropped or skipped frames (Ctr.-Shift-O). Both on my MiBoxS and on my PPM. The overlay is there, shows 0 dropped skipped frames. but playback on PPM is choppy.
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Interesting, so decoding is fine but rendering the ui and video on top of decoding is choppy 
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Yes, that brought me to the idea if it might be a judder issue at 50 or 60 hz and not the native refresh rate.
I just did some modification within Kodi settings which seems to bring a much smoother experience at least with the video files that showed a problem on my side.
If anyone experiences the same choppy video playback on Kodi could you please test this Kodi settings :
- Go to Settings> Player> Video
- In the lower left corner change the settings level to Expert
- Click on adjust the refresh rate select the way the system detects and changes the screen resolution, always or only when you start and end a Video
Please give it a try and share your experience…
Details on this problem could be found here:
https://androidpctv.com/tutorial-judder-in-video-playback-what-is-and-how-to-fix-it-in-android-or-windows/
I just wonder why I don’t need to set this on the firetv stick 4K or on the MiBoxS. …
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Interesting. As Long as I don’t see the Kodi UI the video Playback is smooth now. If the UI Pops up it’s getting choppy again. (Also when you are enabling subtitles, which seem to be part of the UI then).
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10 years ago I had the same issue on a laptop running intel GMA 900 graphic card. We are narrowing down. I think the bug is with surface compositing.
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Could it be, that the Kodi UI is now running with a different refresh ratethan the movie playback ? The whitelist within Kodi’s settings only shows 60Hz/1080p. I could not extend it to other formats…
At least those settings seem not to be a full solution. Not sure where this can be really fixed.
Perhaps there’s an advanced setting in the advancedsettings.XMLfile for Kodi
https://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.xml
Ps.: also found this while Googling, not related I think but interesting nonetheless (to me at least):
The link you have posted is related to buffering which I don’t think is the cause here.I believe it must be somehow related to the refresh rates. I already enabled expert settings mode within KODI. Compared with my MiBoxS I can see the following differences to PPM:
Allowed video refresh rates are much more than with PPM
MI Box S:
PPM:
Could this be some Android build Limitation ?
I posted 2 links, first one was to an advanced settings xml file, not sure that’s the same as the expert settings you refer to.
This reminds me more and more of the occasionally choppy playback on RPi4. That showed no dropped frames in decode, either, but whenever subtitles were rendered with the video playback jerked. Someone mentioned the following setting for advancedsettings.xml that supposedly solved/improved the issue:
https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_dirty_regions
Does that spark any ideas?
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Sure, that seems something worth to be tested. - But at the end, I hope that Kodi is working fine out of the box without any of those tweaks. - I guess a lot of users will not patch that advencedsettings.xml manually. Hope that rockchip could do some tests here, too. If they got the PPM it should be easy for them to test and see the same problems. - Like low FPS during logging of the UI… Strange is also Kodis screen refresh rate white list only showing one entry (60Hz 1080p). Not sure what is the culprid here, but for me that looks like strong evidence for something beeing wrong. This list should have at least 7-8 entries. Hope that Prashant can get some support here from the android or rockchip specialists…I strongly believe this is not a HW limitation issue, but more something that could be solved in software though…
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Thanks, I tried it, mode 0 results in 35-40 fps. All other modes can go down to 20 fps or even lower.
In any case, these hacks should not be needed.
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Just dropping in to say Thank You Prashant, Kodi is of utmost inportance to many of us (and the reason I have backed the project).
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This is the case for my other Android devices as well.
E.g. my S8 phone just shows 2960x1440p @60 in the whitelist. Plays any resolution just fine.
Under settings->player it gives options for hardware acceleration: MediaCodec, and MediaCodec (surface). Do these appear on the PPM as well?
It’s not about resolution, it’s about avoiding judder with alligning the screen refresh rate to the video source material. If whitelist is containing only 60Hz it’s most likely the only refresh rate for Video material. Not sure if you would spot a difference on a small S8 screen tough…
I tried it, MediaCodec (Surface) gives better fps in the log but no visible difference.