Hardware Transcoding stopped working

numetaler · 2025-08-12T09:53:24+00:00

Hello everyone, for some time now, I have been experiencing issues with hardware transcoding. I am uncertain if this is the appropriate forum, as I am using...

ukn_unknown

numetaler

The sound is about 1 second out of sync with the image during transcoding. Can this be improved, or should I compensate for the delay in Kodi?

i testet again with the older container where everything was working fine and there is no sync problem in kodi. VLC is Working fine on this build as well

Interesting ... I don't have this problem. Delay is constant? or is variable based on: how close are you from source, is accessed directly or through VPN? Can you perform some tests on local network (in order to remove the VPN from picture)? Another thing to look for is how much CPU is used when you start one container (that works) and second container (that doesn't work). I experienced this delay on RPI4 when I tried to transcode video with large resolution.
Another interesting test is to reduce the resolution (a lot) to confirm if the traffic of information is the problem. Instead of 720 can you set a small value ... like 240?
For RPI 5: can you flash something light like LibreELEC on the SDCard?

i think it could be that my problem with not starting streams at my father in laws place with kodi, was related to bad/slow connection via tailscale... today i do some testing when i'm at his place.

You can use iperf3 to test the throughput before testing video. If you have large variation in throughput this system is not intended to adjust dynamically (like Neflix) 🙁 ... so will fail.

numetaler

im busy today, maybe i have time tomorrow to do more testing. i have a up to date libreelec install on a pi4 and i already tested transcoding in my home network. had the same delay witch is constant the whole time

numetaler

Hello, I ran some tests today and managed to get logs from the container.

Although I said last time that transcoding in Kodi works with the :latest container, I was wrong. The stream starts and runs smoothly for a while, but regardless of whether I set a low resolution or only specify the bitrate and other parameters, after 3 minutes at the latest it starts to stutter and the buffer ring is visible the whole time.
The audio delay is always present regardless of the settings and is not affected by VPN.

With the other container (0af87f1), everything works perfectly.

the logfiles are to big to upload here (1.4 and 2.4 MB) how can i provide it to you?

ukn_unknown

numetaler the logfiles are to big to upload here (1.4 and 2.4 MB) how can i provide it to you?

Can you upload those as zip files (after compression)?

Another thing to look for is how much CPU is used when you start one container (that works) and second container (that doesn't work).

what was the outcome of this test?

numetaler

ukn_unknown Another thing to look for is how much CPU is used when you start one container (that works) and second container (that doesn't work).

sorry, forgot to answer about that . my Nas idle's around on ca 5-7% and if i start a stream with transcoding it goes up to about 11-13%. so i don't think its using sowftware transcode. when i started my transcode attempts iv'e seen arround 50% with sw-transcode.

tvheadend-logs.zip

258kB

numetaler

feel free to ask me about a specific setup and log. id'd like to help as best as i can. these two logs are made using libreelec 12.2.0 on a raspberry pi 4. maybe you need one when i am using VLC or something

ukn_unknown

numetaler
I did a side by side comparison and the one that is not working is trying to start two video streaming conversion (two video transcoding) ... and frankly the second one has a log print that I cannot find in the source code (maybe I am wrong ... but I couldn't find it).

The first log is generated by:

I found only 3 places where this type of log is generated and is not matching with what we are looking for:

I checked thought the commits (that we discussed) and there are no changes in that part of the code (related to this new logs).
Unfortunately I don't think we can move forwards without the ability (for you) to compile the container binary from source code 🙁 .

numetaler

ok, thank you very much for your efforts. for now i stay with a setup of 2 containers and switch regarding what i need at the moment. Normaly the older working container is fine. but i like the changes you guys made recently so i have to check from time to time whats new.

If you haven't found anything in the logs, could it be due to the container? Could a packet be used in the container that causes this effect? Am I really the only one who has had this problem recently?

So you want me to learn how to build containers myself 😉 I'll do my best. but first i choose new homeserver hardware and then make the step fully away from win to linux and learn to build myself...

ukn_unknown

numetaler If you haven't found anything in the logs, could it be due to the container? Could a packet be used in the container that causes this effect? Am I really the only one who has had this problem recently?

I am suspecting some corruption during container built.

So you want me to learn how to build containers myself 😉 I'll do my best. but first i choose new homeserver hardware and then make the step fully away from win to linux and learn to build myself...

You can wait a few releases and hopefully will be fixed. But if you want to have 'la creme de brulee' my advice is to be independent of prebuild binary. Or learn how to build your container or use bare metal install.
Let me know if you need help on selecting your HW (if you plan to renew your server). Is better to learn from my experience 😉 .

ukn_unknown

numetaler good news ... I think, I was able to repro the case where the image freeze and even if the transconding is crunching data and data is flowing the image is steady (no update). We have a lead on that ... stay tune.

numetaler

ukn_unknown

thanks for the update 🙂

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