[nick3young]

Hi All,

I have 4 'niggly' start up issues each time I boot up my XBMC box. I am running XBMC 12.3 sat on top of Windows 8.1.

1. More often than not, the screen is pushed up into the top left corner of my TV. It only fills about a quarter of the screen. A reboot fixes this. I suspect it has something to do with the TV not being turned on (or having the correct input selected) when I turn the computer on. I believe that enabling 'true full-screen' also fixes this but I need to have it in 'Window Mode' to allow a seamless return back to XBMC from the emulation software that I launch inside XBMC.

2. Again, more often than not, XBMC boots with no sound. No menu clicks, sound within media... absolute silence! And again, usually, a reboot fixes this. Sometimes it takes a couple of reboots though. I connect the computer to my TV through HDMI.

3. I use a shared MySql database hosted on my Synology NAS box..... which usually all works fine. However, (more often than not!!!) when I start my computer up, XBMC cannot locate it. When I select 'TV Shows' or 'Movies' the menu just looks very strange - no thumbnails, titles, fan-art.... just a load of rectangles. I almost feel like my computer is starting up too fast for the NAS e.g. before it can initialise itself. However, sometimes a reboot doesn't fix this which may counter this theory.

4. Finally, when I select an episode from my 'TVShows' it sometimes says "File cannot be located. Would you like to delete from the database"? To fix this, I then need to go into 'Movies' (or vice virsa), play a couple of seconds of a random Movie, before returning to the original file. It then works. My media is stored on the same NAS as the MySql database so problems 3 and 4 could be related. As I say though, it is a brand new Synology NAS box which is generally considered to by pretty decent....

My log file can be viewed here: xbmc.log

Does anyone have any ideas for any of these?
Thanks in advance
Nick

[baijuxavior]

1&2 - Always turn on the TV before starting xbmc. If TV is switched off, Windows can't detect hdmi display and audio device. The resolution will change to the lowest value and xbmc can't find the hdmi audio device resulting in audio problems.

3. You can add a delay to xbmc startup.

[PatK]

1 & 2 http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=158432

3 & 4 related timeout issues, try delay or cache or buffer mods.

[nick3young]

Thanks for the responses. I've been tweaking and monitoring it over the past couple of weeks but it hasn't really got any better.

Turning on the TV before the computer solves the 'fullscreen' issue but the audio issue is a real pain! It often takes, three or four reboots to get XBMC to recognise the audio device.... it is extremely fiddly. I have HDMI selected as the audio output and I've noticed that, when the audio isn't working, my TV isn't listed under 'Audio Output Device' or 'Passthrough Audio Device'. It comes up with 'LG TV' or something similar when it finally starts working. I never had this issue with my previous two media centre computers using HDMI with the same TV. The Zotac AQ01 doesn't have a HDMI socket but instead comes boxed with a DVI to HDMI adapter... could this have something to do with it?

The 'not recognising media' issue is also becoming very frustrating. As mentioned in my initial post, I have to first select a movie before I can play a TV show (or vice virsa)... it is very odd. I really can't understand this one! What could be causing this?

And finally, a new issue but probably linked to everything.... my media often cuts out about 15-20 minutes. It just goes back to the main menu. Once I play it again it is fine and never cuts out.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[PatK]

You need to paste your debug log to a proper pastebin like http://xbmclogs.com/ and link it back to this thread. Glad the video is working right, the audio sounds like a hit & miss, perhaps an iteration update with XBMC is the charm? Run through this thread with some of the suggestions http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=146911 I've found if you open XBMC on the PC close and then open to the TV, it remembers the last audio settings from your PC... hence issues.

I'll bet you have a drive going to sleep in your NAS and doesn't wake in a timely manner... tickling the NAS and all the drives prior to access brings relief (I seem to remember workarounds, but forget the fix, go fetch). This may be adjustable in your NAS set-up, ask in the hardware thread.

The last issue is a bit more troubling than the rest, 15-20 minutes cut-out is quite odd unless the software is corrupt or XBMC has an issue with an archive. I suggest using the keyboard 'O' key to watch for bottle necks, look for threshold issues or lost frames.

[nick3young]

Thanks again for the reply PatK. The thread you linked to which helps solve audio issues is brilliant. Because the audio issue is intermittent (as are a lot of my issues), I feel it is going to be a lot of trial, error and playing the waiting game. I will be sure to post back here with my results though when I am more certain of everything.

The NAS one is odd. I have always felt that the issues were down to my NAS drives not waking, as you say, in a timely manner. To help strengthen this theory, I am using Western Digital 'Green' drives which after a little bit of research today, aren't supposed to be the greatest for NAS (typical!). Having said that though, sometimes I reboot XBMC (which takes 20 seconds in total) and I still get the issues. Surely the NAS would still be alert after 20 seconds? Hmmmm....

Could the cut-out be due to network issues then do you think? I am using TPLink Poweline adapters (ethernet over mains). In the past when I've had bandwidth issues e.g. watching a hi-def movie over wireless, XBMC just freezes up. I've never had it cut back to the main menu before. I might run it over wireless for a week or so and see if it still cuts out.

Any thoughts on any of this? Cheers.

[PatK]

Keeping a silent debug log running ( <loglevel hide="true">1</loglevel>) while using XNMC will offer more hints to what is happening and you might get a little more comfortable looking at it and spotting irregularities. Network issues can bring symptoms of which you speak and drive types can make the difference with some of these NAS devices, but I would have thought there would be some sort of tickle mode if you want them up. In the log look for request for data, and nothing available is a sure network sign, that something is too slow or some packet is requesting but is corrupt.

Pick one of the issues, and work on it for the solve, I doubt there is any one thing that is the cure.

[nick3young]

Just a quick update. I got closer to solving the audio issues last night.

My computer has 2 sound devices installed - a Realtek driver (for the onboard sound device) and an Intel driver (for the HDMI audio). XBMC was regularly only detecting the Realtek driver and setting that. I removed the Realtek driver and disabled the audio device (in Device Manager)... now XBMC always defaults to the correct device. It only has one to choose from now! I don't understand why this was necessary though. I have never had to do this in the past.

One thing that has resulted from this though is that the menu sounds now sound... strange! Some of the clicks don't happen and the 'whoosh' sound when you press 'back' is cut short. I'm being nitpicky here though because media sound is ok.