[Nazgulled]

Apologies if this is not in the correct forum but since this a support question and I'm using Linux, I couldn't find a better place for it.

I recently got a 4K TV and I'm wondering if I should set the resolution to 2160p or just leave it at 1080p. AFAIK, there are no skins whit 4K resources (yet), but that's not what concerns me (although it would be nice, but I understand it's a lot of hard work). No, my doubt comes from the upscaling work that needs to be done for 1080p video sources to fill the whole TV.

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

• Configure Kodi to display at 2160p: Kodi will do all the upscaling work and the TV will simply display the 2160p signal it receives with no upscaling whatsoever.
  
• Configure Kodi to display at 1080p: Kodi will do only upscaling from <1080p video sources and transmit a 1080p signal, the TV will upscale that signal to 2160p.
  

Per many reviews, my TV (Sony KD-65X850C) has very good upscaling algorithms. But are they better than what Kodi offers? Assuming the points above are correct, in your opinion, what would be the best option? Let Kodi do all the upscaling work or let the TV do it? If my assumptions are wrong, can you please clarify what will happen on each mode and what's the recommended setting for best image quality?

[fritsch]

Use Kodi @ 1080 - cause our gui scaler is just not good at all.

Then "Adjust Refreshrate to match video on start / stop" with a recent Jarvis Nightly Build. Then it will automatically switch up the resolution to 2160p whenever you watch something > 1080p.

[fritsch]

As I also don't know which hardware (GPU) you are using and if it's HDMI2 capable, the 1080 would be your only chance to get content that requires > 30 hz to run - as HDMI 1.4 devices can only output 3840x2160@30p max ... Live TV (1080i50) or other content 576i50 would not run correctly at this 30 hz. Furthermore it is a very heavy task to upscale SD content to 2160p and even the newest NUCs cannot do that reliable. That's the reason I expanded "Adjust Refreshrate to match video" to incorporate this "up" switching.

[Nazgulled]

Use Kodi @ 1080 - cause our gui scaler is just not good at all.

Then "Adjust Refreshrate to match video on start / stop" with a recent Jarvis Nightly Build. Then it will automatically switch up the resolution to 2160p whenever you watch something > 1080p.

If I understood this correctly, you're saying the GUI scaler is not very good but the video scaler is? As such I should use Kodi with the UI set to 1080p and with that nightly build the resolution will change to 2160p and Kodi will scale the video instead of the TV, correct?

As I also don't know which hardware (GPU) you are using and if it's HDMI2 capable, the 1080 would be your only chance to get content that requires > 30 hz to run - as HDMI 1.4 devices can only output 3840x2160@30p max ... Live TV (1080i50) or other content 576i50 would not run correctly at this 30 hz. Furthermore it is a very heavy task to upscale SD content to 2160p and even the newest NUCs cannot do that reliable. That's the reason I expanded "Adjust Refreshrate to match video" to incorporate this "up" switching.

I don't think it is... I have a Zotac GT 720 (full specs). Looking at the specs, it can only output 2160p @ 30hz, but 1080p @ 60hz.

I actually have a change to compile Kodi from source and take advantage of that feature (I currently compile every build I use) but I'm thinking of moving my Kodi setup to a NVIDIA Shield soon (which uses Android TV) and AFAIK, I won't be able to use nightly builds for those (but the Shield supports 2160p @ 60hz). What would you recommend then for each (current setup and Shield setup) scenario?

[Sunflux]

Use Kodi @ 1080 - cause our gui scaler is just not good at all.

Then "Adjust Refreshrate to match video on start / stop" with a recent Jarvis Nightly Build. Then it will automatically switch up the resolution to 2160p whenever you watch something > 1080p.

If I understood this correctly, you're saying the GUI scaler is not very good but the video scaler is? As such I should use Kodi with the UI set to 1080p and with that nightly build the resolution will change to 2160p and Kodi will scale the video instead of the TV, correct?

No... he's saying that for 1080p videos you want Kodi to continue to output 1080p, but when you go to play actual 2160p videos it will now automatically switch resolutions up to 2160p. This is a new feature only on the referenced builds.

Basically, you don't want Kodi upscaling anything but videos below 1080p (and even then make sure you've configured a quality scaler). Kodi does not have good performance on upscaling to 2160p, and at this time quality will likely be better from your TV anyways (and you'll put far less stress on your system).

I eagerly await a time when Kodi can render the GUI smoothly to 2160p - I've tried that out, and the improvement in movie poster thumbnails alone makes it desirable!

[fritsch]

@Sunflux: I eagerly await the time when capable guys like you - start to look into the code :-)

[Nazgulled]

@Sunflux

Ok, got it. I don't think I'll be playing 2160p files in Kodi any time soon, Jarvis final version will probably be out by then. Still, I found where you guys poblish Android nightlighes, so it's cool

About the videos below 1080p, I don't play them, so there's no issue there.

I'll keep my Kodi installation at 1080p then

Thank you both for your answers.

[ichkriegediekri]

Use Kodi @ 1080 - cause our gui scaler is just not good at all.

Then "Adjust Refreshrate to match video on start / stop" with a recent Jarvis Nightly Build. Then it will automatically switch up the resolution to 2160p whenever you watch something > 1080p.

Nice! Much needed feature. However I think it deserves its on menu entry

[fritsch]

When i implemented it - the others were against a new setting.

[punpun]

Is it possible for Kodi to display menu GUI in 4K but play contents using its source resolution? The UI looks so much better in 4K rather than upscale from 1080p.

[fritsch]

No.

Edit: Our gui scaler is probably the worst that is possible ... if 1080 upscaled by your TV looks worse than I would return my TV ... and same for "native resolution". The native resolution of your TV is 4k ... watching 1080 movies at 1080 will have the same shitty effect as the GUI that you don't like.

[sam_1421]

@fritsch thank you for looking into this. It is indeed a very useful feature. I have a 4K TV that doesn't support HDMI 2.0 unfortunately, so no 4K@60hz for me. Having the GUI run smoothly at 1080p and switch to 2160p only when needed would be a very useful feature in my case.

However, I can't seem to get it to work with the latest Jarvis beta (beta 3). You said back in October that it was in the nightlies, so I assume it has been merged into the beta channel by now. Am I right?

Right now, it does change the framerate to match the video file but not the resolution (it stays at 1080p). Besides changing the option "Adjust Refreshrate to match video" to "start / stop", is there something else I must do? I'm running Jarvis beta 3 on an Nvidia SHILED TV.

Thank you!

[fritsch]

A Debug Log will tell.

[sam_1421]

Thank you for your quick reply. I uploaded a debug log, here is the part where the resolution switching occurs :

Code:

10:37:55 T:1678047872  NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: smb://192.168.10.160/Videos2/UHD/LG 4K demos/Europe.mp4
10:37:55 T:1678047872 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
10:37:55 T:2109408384  NOTICE: Creating InputStream
10:37:55 T:2109408384  NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
10:37:56 T:2109408384  NOTICE: Opening stream: 0 source: 256
10:37:56 T:2109408384  NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 28
10:37:56 T:2109408384  NOTICE: Creating video thread
10:37:56 T:2109408384   ERROR: SelectionStream& CSelectionStreams::Get(StreamType, int) - failed to get stream
10:37:56 T:2109411584  NOTICE: running thread: video_thread
10:37:56 T:2109408384 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
10:37:57 T:2109411584  NOTICE:  fps: 23.976024, pwidth: 3840, pheight: 2160, dwidth: 3840, dheight: 2160
10:37:57 T:2109411584  NOTICE: Display resolution ADJUST : 1920x1080 @ 23.98 - Full Screen (21) (weight: 0.000)
10:37:57 T:1678047872  NOTICE: Using GL_TEXTURE_2D
10:37:57 T:1678047872  NOTICE: GL: Using MediaCodec (Surface) render method
10:37:57 T:1678047872  NOTICE: GL: NPOT texture support detected
10:37:57 T:1678047872  NOTICE: Current resolution: 1920x1080 @ 60.00 - Full Screen
10:37:57 T:1678047872  NOTICE: CEGLNativeTypeAndroid: Switching to resolution: 1920x1080 @ 23.98 - Full Screen
10:37:57 T:1678047872  NOTICE: Previous line repeats 1 times.

It looks like it gets the resolution right (3840*2160) but then switches to [email protected] nevertheless.

Here is the full log, if needed: http://xbmclogs.com/ppzeaov6z

[fritsch]

Thanks. I will ask @Koying for help - this is special in comparison to x86 and the generic implementation.