[crawfish]

alright, i sucked it up and prepped this mini-pc with Windows 11 and Kodi on it, i'll do testing tomorrow
what am i looking for in the sample video above?

Cool! My Kodi Omega Beta 2 is configured to match refresh rates, and the resolutions are whitelisted. My Nvidia cards (RTX 3060ti and GT 1030) play the 23.976 Hz file FPS_test_1080p23.976_L4.1.mkv on my Sony A80J with constant, regular hitching motion in the progression of the bars across the screen. There are three rows of these bars moving across the screen at different rates, the top one fastest. The faster the row, the more noticeable the problem, but it's still present in the bottom row. The motion pattern seems to be AB, where I perceive "A" as a quick hitch in the motion and "B" as a longer period of smooth motion. The cycle is roughly once per second. It makes for very jerky movement of the bars.

OTOH, the 24 Hz file FPS_test_1080p24_L4.1.mkv plays smoothly. Both files play smoothly in Android Kodi (CCwGTV).

My TV reports both files play as "1080p24" for both PC and Android, but I know it handles 23.976 OK from Android Kodi. While there's no way to get more information from my TV's UI, I can use "Display Info" (key Z) in Kodi and look at the OSD's bottom line, "Screen resolution", which has the resolution and refresh rate the display is using. The refresh rate matches the files in all my tests in both PC and Android Kodi. (Kodi rounds 23.976 to 23.98 though.) IOW, this Kodi OSD gives me the precise refresh rate.

[izprtxqkft]

Cool! My Kodi Omega Beta 2 is configured to match refresh rates, and the resolutions are whitelisted.

so here's what i got
KodiSetup-20240128-2347e67d-master-x64
Windows11, downloaded from Microsoft yesterday from their site, no weird sources and fully updated after install, of course fresh install means there's all the windows things left on but no 3rd party clogging it up
i have an Arcana2 which has an LCD display on it showing the inputs it's receiving exactly so no guesswork there

whtielisted 1080p 23.98 (23.976), 4K 23.98 (23.976) specifically* as well as the rest that my TV supports, adjust framerate "on start/stop"
FPS_test_1080p23.976_L4.1 does indeed trigger a display change and my Arcana2 reports the correct framerate "23.976" is being received, kodi player info shows 23.98 (we already know is rounded)

either i do not see tearing or jerkiness because it's slight or it is not there

looks the same as when played on my Zidoo so again either i'm not sensitive to it or it's just not happening

played again on my dev computer (not the n100) which is not setup for AFR and i do see the jerkiness when output at 60Hz so i do see what it should look like when it's bad, it was not like that on the N100

-----

switched to John Wick 4 which is 4K 23.976 (full remux), the Arcana2 reports the correct framerate and playback looks smooth

-----

and since i was here i tested some audio formats
DIRECTSOUND - no audio at all which is to be expected
WASAPI - DTS:X, TrueHD Atmos and EAC3 Atmos all directstream to my audio equipment, expectation is the other formats work as well but i do not have a indicator like i do on these (soundbar actually reports these on it's display when received)

-----

lastly some HDR testing
in windows display settings with "Use HDR" off, everything is output as RGB 8b
with it on everything is whitewashed (desktop/kodi) still outputs RGB 8b, when playing a video it switched to RGB 10b so you are actually going to get HDR10, just not 10+ and you will have to adjust windows/kodi colors outside of playback to get the whitewash to be tolerable

otherwise it seems to be your average windows experience, not going to review windows here


-----
edit*
neither windows or libreelec have had CEC working so it must be due to a setup i'm not doing since i'm accustomed to it just being there

[crawfish]

played again on my dev computer (not the n100) which is not setup for AFR and i do see the jerkiness when output at 60Hz so i do see what it should look like when it's bad, it was not like that on the N100

Good to know!

lastly some HDR testing
in windows display settings with "Use HDR" off, everything is output as RGB 8b
with it on everything is whitewashed (desktop/kodi) still outputs RGB 8b, when playing a video it switched to RGB 10b so you are actually going to get HDR10, just not 10+ and you will have to adjust windows/kodi colors outside of playback to get the whitewash to be tolerable

I don't enable HDR in Windows, and I can configure my RTX 3060ti to output RGB 10 bit Full Range. This works as expected, and Kodi switches into HDR when necessary and back to SDR when done. It sounds like Kodi on the N100 wasn't able to switch in and out of HDR with the desktop set to SDR? Is this right?

[izprtxqkft]

It sounds like Kodi on the N100 wasn't able to switch in and out of HDR with the desktop set to SDR? Is this right?

yes, precisely only was switching after set in the windows display settings

i will note, i made exactly no effort to "fix" anything, merely installed and changed settings to whitelist+audio device+passthrough as i expect an average user would do

[crawfish]

yes, precisely only was switching after set in the windows display settings

i will note, i made exactly no effort to "fix" anything, merely installed and changed settings to whitelist+audio device+passthrough as i expect an average user would do

I didn't have to do anything special to get it to work with my Nvidia card, and I don't know of anything you could try. If I were to get an N100 box, it would be just to run Kodi, so the desktop appearance isn't that big a deal. I've always set Kodi and its TV input to Limited Range to eliminate conversions, and with the card outputting Full Range to make this work right, desktop colors are crushed on the TV anyway. Maybe that would even cancel out some of the "whitewashing" you described.

[hdmkv]

All this PC talk got me interesting in testing one again... with LibreELEC. My last foray into HTPC's was a while back with the forked Kodi 3D Windows builds.

Had a Beelink X45 Intel Gemini Lake J4105 miniPC collecting dust from 5 years ago. With Windows 10/11, it's a pretty sluggish machine. Installed LE to its internal SSD & I'm seeing impressive performance. Very snappy, HD audio & 4K HDR. A question though: On my Samsung TV, with HDR enabled in Kodi, the picture with HDR content (or 10+/DV content w/HDR fallback) is overly bright, almost over-exposed looking. Anyone experience this with miniPC's & LE? Doesn't happen w/Fire Cube 3 on same TV.

[clarkss12]

All this PC talk got me interesting in testing one again... with LibreELEC. My last foray into HTPC's was a while back with the forked Kodi 3D Windows builds.

Had a Beelink X45 Intel Gemini Lake J4105 miniPC collecting dust from 5 years ago. With Windows 10/11, it's a pretty sluggish machine. Installed LE to its internal SSD & I'm seeing impressive performance. Very snappy, HD audio & 4K HDR. A question though: On my Samsung TV, with HDR enabled in Kodi, the picture with HDR content (or 10+/DV content w/HDR fallback) is overly bright, almost over-exposed looking. Anyone experience this with miniPC's & LE? Doesn't happen w/Fire Cube 3 on same TV.

So, your Sammy supports both Dolby Vision and HDR 10+??  From my understanding some TVs support one or the other.

[hdmkv]

Sammy doesn't support DV; they claim they never will, only backing HDR10+. The over-bright/exposed issue w/HDR may be due to be either Intel's decoder or Kodi/LE? I'll try a different display this evening.

[izprtxqkft]

Anyone experience this with miniPC's & LE?

i seem to recall this is the case but it was able to switch when playing using auto, i tend to leave everything on auto (and have the display UI in SDR) so i'm not 100% sure i'm remembering this correctly

[Roby77]

As for now imho if anyone is looking for a single player for Netflix and LAN content the Homatics player with ATV 12 is the only solution

Dune HD Pro One 8K Plus is very interesting for the moment but in addition to being expensive (perhaps a version without HD slot will be released) it is not yet clear whether it will be Google and Netflix certified

Let's hope

[izprtxqkft]

Homatics player with ATV 12 is the only solution

but isn't Dobly Vision 7.6 still broken on that device? i have the rocktek version and it is, even in coreelec it gets converted to 8.1

[Roby77]

No and I don't know if It will be correct in the future

Or better : I don't have an HDR TV so I can't understand the importance* to have it and I don't know if it's a bug of the amlogic Sdk or what

All the player have fel 7 support ? I read somewhere that this profile only for bluray player

[izprtxqkft]

All the player have fel 7 support ? I read somewhere that this profile only for bluray player

pretty much exclusive to Blurays but not bluray player devices, FireTV Cube gen3 plays it, Zidoo plays it. Firestick Max does not and needs quietvoid's fixes to remove the metadata or it will get a black screen

[clarkss12]

Dune HD Pro One 8K Plus is very interesting for the moment but in addition to being expensive (perhaps a version without HD slot will be released) it is not yet clear whether it will be Google and Netflix certified

Let's hope

They have already said it will NOT be Google or Netflix certified, because Dune HD would loose flexibility in their software.

Just received an email a couple of hours ago, saying my box will be shipping soon.

[Roby77]

Dune HD Pro One 8K Plus is very interesting for the moment but in addition to being expensive (perhaps a version without HD slot will be released) it is not yet clear whether it will be Google and Netflix certified

Let's hope

They have already said it will NOT be Google or Netflix certified, because Dune HD would loose flexibility in their software.

That is really a bad news

So I wil go for homatics