U4 - Unit does not change frame rate playback (and other anomalies) when hdmi recording in progress.

[Star6key]

It's been happening since I've owned it (about 3 months), but I'm finally fed up with it. These issues never happened on the T4 (other types of hdmi bullshit , but not these ones).

I alternate hdmi recording frame rate settings depending on source (Kayo - 1920x1080 50fps, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc - 1920x1080 60fps).

(I have AV setup/AV settings/Automatic resolution label set to 5 seconds which displays a pop up whenever the frame rate changes).

e.g.
No hdmi recording running, watch a live fta HD channel which sets the resolution to 1920x1080i 50hz (this is shown in the infobar).
Play a hdmi recorded file (1920x1080 50fps), resolution changes to 1920x1080 50z. Video movement is fine (no lost frames).
Play a hdmi recorded file (1920x1080 60fps), pop up window shows resolution now 1920x1080 60z (info bar confirms this). Video movement is fine.
Play the hdmi recorded file (1920x1080 50fps) again, resolution changes to 1920x1080 50z (info bar confirms this). Video movement is fine (no lost frames).
All as it should be.

The following happens randomly, and the sequence steps is not always the same. At all times, stopping the hdmi recording fixes all frame rate changing issues.

Scenario 1
Start a 1920x1080 50fps hdmi recording.
Play any 1920x1080 50fps hdmi recording (including the currently recording one), video starts but immediately stops (frozen image on screen), but audio continues. Stop/starting the file does not fix it. To get it to work, you have to play a fta recorded file, or stop the hdmi recording.

Stop the hdmi recording.

Scenario 2
Play a 50fps file to set it to that resolution (if not already there).
Start a 1920x1080 50fps hdmi recording.
Play a hdmi recorded file (1920x1080 60fps), the Auto-res pop up does not appear. The infobar shows the correct resolution (1920x1080 60fps), but the video movement is choppy (lost frames). Obviously the frame rate is not being changed. The same happens when recording at 30fps.

Thoughts?


Box
Brand & Model: Beyonwiz U4
Chipset: Broadcom 7252
Main Memory: 544600 kB free / 2097152 kB total
Box Uptime: 4d 20:18
Software
System OE: OE-Alliance 4.1
Firmware version: beyonwiz 17.5.20190207 (17.5-819-gdd3f1fa)
Kernel / Drivers: 4.9.51 / 180411-16.4

[Star6key]

After some more testing, the 2 scenarios are the same issue, but in reverse.

Scenario 1 - unit currently in 60fps mode, then record 60fps hdmi, then play a 50 fps file - frozen video.

Scenario 2 - unit currently in 50fps mode, then record 50fps hdmi, then play a 60 fps file - choppy video.

The issue is the same, frame rate not changing.

[MrQuade]

Scenario 2
Play a 50fps file to set it to that resolution (if not already there).
Start a 1920x1080 50fps hdmi recording.
Play a hdmi recorded file (1920x1080 60fps), the Auto-res pop up does not appear. The infobar shows the correct resolution (1920x1080 60fps), but the video movement is choppy (lost frames). Obviously the frame rate is not being changed. The same happens when recording at 30fps.

Thoughts?

No thoughts on the lack of Autoresolution responsiveness during HDMI recording. It's likely to be something very esoteric in the drivers that's causing that and only PeterU really had a chance of diagnosing that.

Have you tried using the "multi" refresh rate without enabling autoresolution?

What I did want to comment on was the Infobar display. The Infobar doesn't tell you anything about the output resolution, it will only tell you what the format of the source file is.

In short, the jerkiness is simply because the output framerate isn't being changed to match the source file.

It really is the same old story though. The HDMI recording feature really is a twitchy thing and you are just best off not using any other features of the box while a recording is in progress. The box is capturing several GB/s of raw video data and re-encoding it on the fly...... That's pretty tricky!

It might be fixed and is worth mentioning for sure, bit I reckon it'd be a hard one to fix with so many "moving parts".