[tekno]

I understand that Crystal HD support has been removed from Kodi . Please do not take this thread there.

I also however understand that when KODI software decodes it uses ffmpeg (this is based on typing "o" during playback I see "ff").

According to what I googled about crystalHD and ffmpeg it looks like ffmpeg does suppport crystalHD

So without having used had a chd card in a system I installed the CHD and the old kodubuntu 14 beta 3 on a d525 @1.8 Ghz , which I then upgraded to kodi 15.2 stable, and all ubuntu updates.

Much to my surprise I found that Big Buck Bunny MP4 1080p was using relatively low CPU usage when playing back. I saw 4 CPUs displayed and one was mostly near 75% while the others were all below 50% and often showed single digits.

It seems I remember this same system on earlier versions of KODI and no CHD struggling to keep up with the same Big Buck Bunny 1080p mp4

I played back also CBSN at 1080p smoothly

So after thinking about it and not having the system in hand at present (I am in another city now), it made me wonder if maybe I was seeing support for CHD via ffmpeg, Since Kodi passes the decoding off to ffmpeg maybe the card was detected at install and CHD decoding for ffmpeg is being used?

somewhat confused but I am anxious to remove the card first chance I have and see if Big Buck Bunny, and CBSN are still smooth.

Why did it struggle at 1080 p with earlier versions and not so much with 15.2 is I am not seeing hardware decoding by way of ffmpeg?


It seems too strange to be real but that was my observation which seems inconsistent with my previous experience software decoding on the same hardware under earlier versions of xbmc.

[wrxtasy]

ffmpeg decoding optimisations in successive versions of this software itself to use multithreaded Software decoding, would be the answer I would think. As another example the RPi2 can now ffmpeg decode low bitrate (CPU intensive) 720p HEVC files as well, which was impossible in the past.

You are correct the CHD card is doing nothing, although support for it has been incorporated back into Kodi for the Apple TV1 running OpenELEC or OSMC:
http://chewitt.openelec.tv/appletv/
and here:
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/osmc-arrives...e-tv/10028

[Soli]

You have to build Kodi yourself with the old chd support patched back in. Nobody has incorporated the code to incorporate chd accel. Via FFmpeg. For all intents and purposes the old code still works like butter in 15.2 if you patch back in the code.. I have it in an oldschool mac mini running kodibuntu. All refreshrates, incl fractional ones are supported out of the box. These old macs also default to rgb full. Turn kodi on limited range and you get perfect playback of 1080p up to 30fps with wtw and btb intact. It's just like the EGL build without the bugs

[noggin]

You have to build Kodi yourself with the old chd support patched back in. Nobody has incorporated the code to incorporate chd accel. Via FFmpeg. For all intents and purposes the old code still works like butter in 15.2 if you patch back in the code.. I have it in an oldschool mac mini running kodibuntu. All refreshrates, incl fractional ones are supported out of the box. These old macs also default to rgb full. Turn kodi on limited range and you get perfect playback of 1080p up to 30fps with wtw and btb intact. It's just like the EGL build without the bugs

How's the deinterlacing. I used to have a CHD in an ATV1 - but never really used it in anger because it lacked decent deinterlacing support.

[wrxtasy]

CHD deinterlacing is rubbish, quite blocky, so its disabled for mpeg2 on the ATV1 now with OE or OSMC. With the ffmpeg Optimisations over the years you can get basic Bob Deinterlacing for up to HD.
SD Channels will do Deinterlace-Half before the CPU runs out of grunt.

[Soli]

I dunno, but I suspect it's like wrxtasy said.
I just recently ended up with an extra mac mini 2006 whose hdd had died. Bought a t7200 2ghz core2duo cpu on Ebay for for 3 or 4 usd incl tracked shipping (how on earth do the sellers on ebay survive on these margins?..) It was just a matter of cloning my Kodibuntu install from my chromebox, then build Kodi with CHD patched in, and install atvclient. Gonna give it away to a friend.

ps. Since ffmpeg is now MT and much better optimized than a few years ago, even an original coreduo 1.66ghz will decode most 1080p with ease. But a CHD will let the Mac mini even decode the hardest clip of them all, the "Killah sample", with minimal cpu usage.