Expected experience of auto refresh rate switching

[puithove 208]

Just picked up a couple Nvidia Shields because I wanted a box where we could start reliably utilizing some streaming options in addition to our local content. First let me say the Android client is really nice.

 

My question is around what I should expect for auto refresh rate switching.  Right now if I enable it, and play a 23.976 video, it looks like it's flipping the mode several times, looking for one that works.  In between it's losing video sync in a way that results in old-skool looking snow on the tv, sometimes for several seconds - something that I haven't seen at any point with refresh rate switching in the HTPC world.

 

If I disable the option to automatically switch, and manually switch it once the playback has started, it seems to handle things better, though occasionally it'll seem to have a hard time switching which looks about as bad as the auto switch.

 

Is this just typical for the current state of the Shield, or is there some tweaking that I can do?

 

My shields upgraded to 6.1 as soon as I set them up.  I'm running the GUI at 1080p59.94.

[ebr 14929]

I've never seen anything that looks like what you describe.  Sometimes, you have to pick and choose which exact rate is smoother based on the content but nothing like what you are describing in my setup.

 

What is the display?  It sounds like it is having trouble syncing at some rates.

 

You can fiddle with the option to choose the exact rate or not too.

[puithove 208]

Yeah, I have the exact rate option on. Changing that option doesn't change the bad behavior, but it does change what rate it finally locks in on (24.00 vs. 23.98)

 

It acts like it's trying several modes and finally finds one it likes. Is it possible to give it just the modes that it's allowed to use?

 

Since you say you haven't seen this, I'll try to pull a log later tonight to take a look.

 

This is 2017 Shield - Yamaha receiver - 2012 Panasonic plasma VT50

Edited November 21, 2017 by puithove

[ebr 14929]

It acts like it's trying several modes and finally finds one it likes. Is it possible to give it just the modes that it's allowed to use?

 

The app doesn't do that.  It just requests one rate that matches best based on the content and the options you chose.

 

Perhaps your display is trying different settings based on the content it is receiving though...

[puithove 208]

Ok, thanks for the info, I'll be trying to figure out how to pull the app's log from the box then.  Fun new stuff

[ebr 14929]

Ok, thanks for the info, I'll be trying to figure out how to pull the app's log from the box then.  Fun new stuff

 

Under "Emby for Android TV/Fire Tv...Logs" here: How to Report a Problem

[puithove 208]

Ok, just sent logs @ 9:22pm on 11/22/17.  Emby user "TV".  In this log, I enabled, debug options, played Stranger Things S2E8.  Saw the bad behavior, then once it settled and playback started, I brought up the menu and verified it was actually on 1080p23.98, then returned to the home screen and sent the log.

[ebr 14929]

Yeah everything looks fine on the app end as I would have expected.

 

I think the issue is just with how your display chain changes modes.  Every display I've had has always muted the screen during the mode change (screen goes black for a few seconds) probably to cover up these types of ugly display anomalies.

 

In the end, does the item play back fine?

[Jdiesel 1114]

Semi related. I have an older Vizio TV in the spare bedroom that was giving me strange HDMI dropouts which resulted in the same old school "snow" you described. It was driving me nuts until I switched my Roku over to a different HDMI port on the TV. Since then everything is perfect. It doesn't hurt to try a differnt HDMi port.

 

I have my Shield TV hooked up to my my Sony 4K TV and refreshrate switching works well other than the old problem video which requires me to manually set the display to 60hz once playback has started.

[puithove 208]

Hmmm... ok, I'll play around with switching things around.  Have never seen anything like that with the couple different PCs I've had hooked to the same receiver/tv setup - has always been quick and clean with just a quick flash to black during the resync.  

 

But yes, once it finally does settle in, playback is fine.  The switch back to 1080p59.94 when playback stops is better, still not as clean as I'm used to.

[puithove 208]

Yea, it's not the app.  I installed Kodi and got the same thing.  Also just switching modes back and forth via the settings would do it as well.

 

It's also not the hdmi port or cabling - I put the shield on where the HTPC is, and got the same issue.

 

So I'm chalking it up to the Shield not liking something about my A/V equipment.

[ebr 14929]

Thanks for reporting back.

[puithove 208]

BTW - found this, and it shows/describes what I'm seeing exactly.  They're also reporting it with Yamaha receivers.

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/983721/shield-tv/inconsistent-frequency-refresh-rate-switching/1/

 

I had already come to that conclusion because I plugged the shield into the TV directly and the issue went away... but then of course I can't get HD audio to pass through ARC, so that's no good.

 

I may try one of the HDMI splitters mentioned that seem to clean up the HDMI handshake.  Though part of me wants to make the issue justify picking up a new receiver LOL.

Edited November 25, 2017 by puithove