ebr 14897 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 I'm going to be looking into this but just look at all of these caveats about refresh rate switching on Android: Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, even if developers added this functionality to their apps, it may not work right or at all. There are several issues with Google's current implementation, as it exists on the Nexus Player, firmware LRX21V: - The available modes appear to only be detected on Android TV boot. This means your TV or receiver needs to be turned on and switched to the correct input before booting the Android TV device, or not all the modes your TV supports will be recognized. - Switching hz may break audio. This app provides an option to fix that, but that does require your device to be rooted. Note that this may be both Android TV device as well TV dependent - your setup may not display this issue. - Switching hz may randomly reboot the device - The Android API lies. It'll happily report the current refresh rate to be X hz while it is actually Y hz, which may cause timing issues for video apps that actually take refresh rate into account. - There is no hz override in display settings This type of thing really should be handled at a lower level than the applications. If the system is going to support matching refresh rates, it should be doing it automatically at the OS level. Hopefully, that's where it will eventually get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven-au 17 Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I'm going to be looking into this but just look at all of these caveats about refresh rate switching on Android: LOL, getting anything implemented in Android is like pulling hens teeth, always has been. Inevitably it takes ages for the Google developers to accept the feature is needed even with heaps of people requesting it, then the initial implementation is typically broken in really stupid ways, and it takes as long again to fix it and make it sane. An eye opener for me, quite a while ago though, was looking at some of the low level Android source. That and the above were enough for me boycott Android on phones and tablets, but the TV vendors have a similar track record and I'm hoping Android TV will eventually stabilize. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tman 47 Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 So how do you get Kodi to frame rate switch? For me it has never worked on the NP and I have the latest available version. It's hard to tell just what version it is, other than it's probably later than 15.1 rc1, because various places where the version string is displayed conflict in what they report. It an advanced Video setting in Kodi - you just enable it. What I don't know is whether the app still has to send a setting to the player when the media starts playing, or whether the player should automatically detect the refresh rate of the media being played. There's no setting on the NP for this, so I guess it's down to the application, ie, Kodi has this setting, and it needs to be enabled to send the correct info. Either way, with everything played back at 60hz, it's pretty much unwatchable on the NP. In the UK, the amount of true 60hz material is about zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven-au 17 Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) It an advanced Video setting in Kodi - you just enable it. What I don't know is whether the app still has to send a setting to the player when the media starts playing, or whether the player should automatically detect the refresh rate of the media being played. There's no setting on the NP for this, so I guess it's down to the application, ie, Kodi has this setting, and it needs to be enabled to send the correct info. Either way, with everything played back at 60hz, it's pretty much unwatchable on the NP. In the UK, the amount of true 60hz material is about zero. That's never worked for me on either the Sony TV or the NP, including following the v6 update. In your post you implied this worked with Kodi, is that actually the case or are you just quoting release notes? Pity the Google folks believe the only country in the world is the US even if they live in another country, it will be hard to convince them otherwise. In Australia our TV system is PAL (@ 50Hz), same as you I guess. Ian Edited October 19, 2015 by raven-au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven-au 17 Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 That's never worked for me on either the Sony TV or the NP, including following the v6 update. In your post you implied this worked with Kodi, is that actually the case or are you just quoting release notes? Umm ... I'm wrong about this. On other platforms with Kodi using the same TV and the setting enabled I always got a banner at the top left of the screen when the frame rate switched. After the comment here I checked the NP (with v6) and the frame rate does in fact switch silently to 50Hz for 25Hz (expected) and 24Hz for 24Hz HD shows. Ha, can't work out how to check the frame rate on the Sony TV (that's odd), so can't check this with Kodi on v5.1.1! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tman 47 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) Umm ... I'm wrong about this. On other platforms with Kodi using the same TV and the setting enabled I always got a banner at the top left of the screen when the frame rate switched. After the comment here I checked the NP (with v6) and the frame rate does in fact switch silently to 50Hz for 25Hz (expected) and 24Hz for 24Hz HD shows. Ha, can't work out how to check the frame rate on the Sony TV (that's odd), so can't check this with Kodi on v5.1.1! Google did build a whole new media framework into Android 6, specifically for Android TV, which included what we've been discussing. As you've now seen it working, I'm guessing the app needs to send the information when the media is played for force the refresh change, so I guess the devs here could implement that quite easily in Emby. I get this could require VLC to support it as well, but you can uncheck VLC as the default player. It something we really, really need, and we need it for live TV as well. Watching 50hz material at 60hz is just a horrible experience. Don't know about you, but when I play back media on my NP, I also notice awful black crush in the video. It's like it's playing back at PC levels rather then expanded RGB. Blacks are all grey with no detail. If I set VLC to be the default player, I also notice some judder and audio drops. Turn VLC off, and the judder/audio problems stop, but I still get the black crushing problems. If I playback the same video in MPC-HC on my media center, it's perfect with all blacks restored to expanded levels. Edited October 23, 2015 by tman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven-au 17 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) Don't know about you, but when I play back media on my NP, I also notice awful black crush in the video. It's like it's playing back at PC levels rather then expanded RGB. Blacks are all grey with no detail. If I set VLC to be the default player, I also notice some judder and audio drops. Turn VLC off, and the judder/audio problems stop, but I still get the black crushing problems. If I playback the same video in MPC-HC on my media center, it's perfect with all blacks restored to expanded levels. Ha, I've never heard the term black crush before, I'm assuming it means the same as when you exceed the dynamic range in a photograph and the low end black areas (and often the high white areas) loose detail. I have to say I hadn't noticed that but I wasn't looking for it, I was more concerned with what I initially thought was low contrast but could easily be to high brightness in the Emby app (seen as a slight mist everywhere, but mostly in brighter scenes). I guess that shift toward the white would wash out the blacks too so maybe we're talking about the same thing. Haven't used Play Movies & TV lately so can't say if that's affected, and as expected, Kodi seems OK. Certainly judder was very noticeable in v5.1.1 and below on the NP and that (the rate changing) now explains why it appears so much improved in v6. What thru me is the Sony TV shows very little judder on v5.1.1 (and I can't check if it has an early frame rate switching implementation) and I can't remember now if it was present on earlier releases. Edited October 23, 2015 by raven-au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 36991 Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 Hi @@empireslayer000 @@ozrex @@raven-au @@tman @@gdog1977 The latest beta version of the Emby app offers improved playback, refresh rate switching, and all the HD Audio pass-through you need. Check out the beta thread for more details: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42239-android-tv-beta-13x/ We think you'll enjoy the next update to the stable channel. Thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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