Blinking Samsungs

[trummel]

OK so I set up kodi, pi and x-newa. They work and play the files without the blink. Its a bit too easy to drop back out of X-NEWA to kodi though and the Samsung Smarthub remote doesn't blend as seamlessly with x-newa as it does with Fred's app.

Samsung have said that they think the blink is caused by the TV trying to upscale the 50fps stream to UHD. Not sure why it would do that with an interlaced stream. Apparently that's why the lower spec telly's cope as they don't have the upscale functionality.

Would still like a good tool to look at resolution, interlace and frame rate of the recorded files. It would be nice to get to a definitive 'It happens with this type of recording' statement.

[trummel]

I've just used a program called mediainfo to examine the .ts files. I think the cutter that I used to clip out a short sample from the blinky file must have changed the fps. The original shows as 25fps.
These are the specs of the original file that blinks:-

Code:

ID                                       : 101 (0x65)
Menu ID                                  : 17472 (0x4440)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : 27
Duration                                 : 30mn 28s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Standard                                 : Component
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

All of which seems to be within what Samsung say should be OK.

Is it possible for the stream to change part way through a file?

[stustunz]

good luck ive been waiting 2 years its not going to happen

[stustunz]

frame rate can change at adds so can resolution thisvwill screw the crappy samsung media player that they use for the apps, their answer was to trsnscode everything.

[mvallevand]

OK so I set up kodi, pi and x-newa. They work and play the files without the blink. Its a bit too easy to drop back out of X-NEWA to kodi though and the Samsung Smarthub remote doesn't blend as seamlessly with x-newa as it does with Fred's app.

That's surprising since only one key is set up to get you from web client to Kodi, There are some many remotes from Samsung but if it has enough IR keys you should be able to map it to work exactly the same or just setup an old Hauppauge, MCE or NMT remote if you don't like CEC

Martin

[stustunz]

yeah i agree martin that was my thought and as for exit just add newa as i startup icon on maun screen of kodi under addons and you are straight back in if you exit by mistake

[martint123]

When I tried, I couldn't get CEC to work with samsung+Pi and use on of those tiny keyboard+touchpad things to test things with.
I have a Microsoft USB remote receiver (but no remote). would it be possible to use that with either the samsung or a hauppague remote? i.e. is the receiver hard coded for the microsoft remote?

[stustunz]

yip the mce remote receiver works also.sometimes you have to disable and reenable cec and restart tv to get it to hook up right

[mvallevand]

For the Hauppauge RC the RPi doesn't have an ir receiver but there are is lots of info on connecting one to the GPIO for just a few dollars. USB MCE and IR receivers are other options as is Flirc.

Martin

[trummel]

I finally got Samsung to have a proper look at a sample file with the blink in it. Their response isn't very helpful though

Further to your query, the file format that your content is currently displayed in is not a supported format. This is why you are experiencing the blink with this content. Some aspects of the content is supported, however other aspects are not.

We would advise that you convert the files to either AVI, MKV or MP4. These are supported formats and this can be found in the user manual under the video codec table.

I don't know how the data stream is encoded by NextPVR, my understanding was that it was unaltered from the stream that arrives OTA. In which case I'm still confused why the television does not have a problem when playing the stream live from the antenna.

As far as the Pi and Kodi are concerned, I can make it work well enough with the conventional remote that comes with the TV, unfortunately that remote doesn't pass the volume CEC commands on to my Onkyo surround sound unit. Our preferred remote is the Bluetooth Samsung smart hub unit. That does control the audio correctly, but doesn't have sufficient buttons to control Kodi (no stop button for instance). It works perfectly in the WebApp by pressing the return button to stop the video playing, but in X-NEWA, that button brings up the channel list. Can I reconfigure that in X-NEWA?