[Asterra]

Now that I'm in crunch time and am seeing what Kodi does with all of my carefully-curated movies and artwork, it's time to sort out some of the shortcomings, if at all possible.  First up: trailers.

In any given skin (I've tried a half dozen), when it starts to play a trailer in the background, two things happen.

1: Initially, it brings up an hourglass and darkens the screen.  Briefly, but it still flashes hourglass+dark at the viewer, needlessly.

2: The first 4.5 seconds of the trailer play at about 20% of normal volume, for whatever reason.  Causing the viewer to initially strain to hear the audio, only to have it come blasting out of the TV.

I don't know how these are even problems, but there they are.  Allow me to provide a demonstration video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUD1GAIt0kg

Also some images.  Normal, before hourglass appears.  ||  Half-brightness, when hourglass appears (and background poster disappears in preparation for the trailer).

I seek solutions.  And to reiterate: It doesn't matter what skin I use.  They all do this.

Edit: The trailers and all other data are entirely local, on the same drive as the movies.

[Karellen]

Are you using local or scraped trailers.

See... Trailers (wiki)

[Asterra]

Are you using local or scraped trailers.

This is all 100% local data.

[Karellen]

Check known issues on that page.

[Asterra]

Check known issues on that page.

I did.  Not applicable to me, as 1) I don't allow Kodi internet access, 2) I specify "local data only" when adding the source, 3) I have the "Enable Trailer (Youtube)" setting off in any case, and 4) even if it was still somehow playing these trailers from Youtube, I don't see how that would cause it to exhibit the two issues I underscored in the OP; Youtube itself doesn't have either of those problems, nor any other media player I've used in the last decade, including Kodi itself when it plays a movie.  Those issues are the darkening of the screen accompanied by an hourglass, and perhaps more annoyingly, the fact that volume is too low for the first several seconds of each trailer.

[Karellen]

Then what do you think it is?

Did you use NFO Files? Do the NFO files have a URL in the <trailer> tag?

[Asterra]

Then what do you think it is?

In the case of the volume issue, a bug in how Kodi is handling trailers. Evidence: If Kodi is freshly booted, the first time it plays a trailer, I don't get the audio problem (I still get the hourglass).  It's as though Kodi has a master volume which is being set to ~20% every time I highlight a new movie, and then belatedly set to 100% after the new trailer has already been playing for a short while.

Evidence 2: If I happen to highlight a new movie at the exact moment when the volume switches from 20% to 100% (easy to do, since it occurs at precisely the same moment every time), Kodi freaks out.  It stops displaying all the box art and only succeeds in displaying the new movie's background artwork.  And then, even when the new movie's trailer starts playing, the background artwork remains the only thing Kodi will display.

In the case of the hourglass, an oversight; the OS is producing the hourglass as it tries to load the trailer in its entirety and it takes longer than a single frame to complete, and Kodi is not doing anything to prevent the consequences of this latency, which in the case of Android / Nvidia Shield it is evidently the darkening of the screen and the manifestation of the "blue circle" hourglass.

What I find inexplicable is the apparent fact that nobody's ever bothered to question these phenomena; they wouldn't still be bugs in the software otherwise. As it stands, I'm having to consider not having trailers play at all, because with these two issues, it's just too ugly.

Did you use NFO Files? Do the NFO files have a URL in the <trailer> tag?

Yes, and no, respectively. The <trailer> tag in looks like this:

<trailer/>

[Karellen]

Ok, so it is not the obvious problem that others unknowingly fall prey to. Provide a Debug Log which captures the problem.

As for a "bug in Kodi", I have hundreds of trailers and have never experienced the problems you describe, so I assume it is an issue with your local install, and not a general problem. Maybe you are using some video screensaver add-on?

[Asterra]

As for a "bug in Kodi", I have hundreds of trailers and have never experienced the problems you describe, so I assume it is an issue with your local install, and not a general problem. Maybe you are using some video screensaver add-on?

The problem may be this: The only way trailers will play in these skins is if I have TvTunes enabled.  TvTunes itself may be the cause of the hourglass delay.  Do you use some other addon to automatically play trailers inside skins?

This probably won't solve the audio problem, as I can hear Kodi's system sounds drop in volume by 80% under certain circumstances, leading me to suspect it's just a universal issue.

[Karellen]

Do you use some other addon to automatically play trailers inside skins?

No, I just hit the trailer icon to play trailers. I don't use them as any sort of screensaver or background display.

Disable TV Tunes and try playing a trailer. Do you have the same symptoms? If not, then TV Tunes is most likely the cause and you should take it up with the developer... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=347428

I'll wait until I receive the Debug Log before I respond any further.

[Asterra]

Disable TV Tunes and try playing a trailer. Do you have the same symptoms? If not, then TV Tunes is most likely the cause and you should take it up with the developer... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=347428

Playing the trailer from the context menu indeed does cause the hourglass to briefly appear and the screen to darken during that moment.

I "solved" the matter of the shifting volume by telling TvTunes to play its "themes" at 100% volume, since that's what Kodi ultimately kicks the volume to anyway.