Problems playing HD recordings with latest RaspBMC build

Hiro Protagonist

I have a server running TVHeadend, and clients running RaspBMC connected via wired ethernet.

The latest RaspBMC build upgrades from XBMC Frodo to Gotham. I'm finding that when playing recorded HD programs, I see random video dropouts [screen goes black & there's no sound] for a second or two, after which the playback resumes.

I also have HD video files on the same server which I access on the clients via NFS - I have observed no problems playing these with the latest RaspBMC build.

Nothing has changed on the server, current uptime is > 80 days.

Hiro Protagonist

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

> The latest RaspBMC build upgrades from XBMC Frodo to Gotham. I'm finding that when playing recorded HD programs, I see random video dropouts [screen goes black & there's no sound] for a second or two, after which the playback resumes.

Just in case anyone else has this problem: The screen blanking problem can be fixed by updating the Pi GPU firmware [start_x.elf and fixup_x.dat].

A residual problem exists when playing 1080p programs with subtitles enabled - this causes stuttering. The programs play fine with subtitles disabled. This appears to be a longstanding XBMC issue.