Fast Forwarding Issue - patnick44

[patnick44]

I have been having this problem for months now.
Using Google Streamer wired 1GB connection.

[danieljlevine]

I may be having the same problem now that I can record. Skip 30 a bunch of times and screen freezes when I resume playing, audio plays and then app crashes. Moving faster to future also has same result. If I back out before it crashes I usually can resume from there fine.

[patnick44]

Yes, same thing I am doing. When it freezes, I get out of it then start it again and most of time it resumes.
It sucks really bad when it doesn't resume. Have to repeat the process all over again.

[danieljlevine]

More than happy to turn on extra debugging for my HDHomeRun app and leave my HDHR4KFlex id if SD wants to investigate. My guess is they have enough info to reproduce it with their own gear.

[nickk]

What exact model of Google device are you seeing this on?

If you have a link to Amazon or similar that would help.

I am testing here on a Google "Chromecast HD" without issue.

Edit - is it a Google TV Streamer 4K? I think I just reproduced the problem...

[danieljlevine]

Google TV Streamer 4K
System firmware version: UTTK.250729.004
Cast firmware version: 3.72.446070

[danieljlevine]

Crashed it for you at 3:44pm using HDHR Flex 4K device: 10A296FB

[nickk]

This looks to be a bug in the MPEG2 system codec provided by the chipset - it stalls triggering a series of log errors from Android.

I made a change to the app config to block using this codec such that the app switches to software decode of MPEG2 channels. This fixes the stall.

720p and 480i channels do a high quality video codec and look fine.
1080i quality is limited by the CPU/GPU and is not as good as we normally aim for.

[danieljlevine]

Thanks. Trying to understand the implications of the fix you made.

1. We shouldn't crash anymore when fast forwarding. Thanks.
2. Side effect is to use MPEG-2 software decoding instead of the platform hardware decoding.

Is this only relevant for ATSC 1.0 recordings and then perhaps more noticeable on 1080i broadcasts that are recorded?

Is live viewing of 1080i also affected? That never seemed to crash for me. So I’d hate to throw use of the all use if hardware decoding out.

The fast forwarding of playbacks didn’t always crash. Is there a way to start the playback with software decoding after fast forwarding and then switch to hardware decoding when it win’t crash?

Perhaps this was just a short term fix for the HDHR app on this Android platform so we can fast forwarding to our heart’s content, but a more involved fix will be in the works to work around the shortcomings of this platform.

Is this platform’s Mpeg 2 hardware decoder always broken or can a vender firmware update fix it?

[nickk]

1. We shouldn't crash anymore when fast forwarding. Thanks.
2. Side effect is to use MPEG-2 software decoding instead of the platform hardware decoding.

Is this only relevant for ATSC 1.0 recordings and then perhaps more noticeable on 1080i broadcasts that are recorded?

Exactly.

Is live viewing of 1080i also affected? That never seemed to crash for me. So I’d hate to throw use of the all use if hardware decoding out.

Yes, because you can also seek when watching live TV.

The fast forwarding of playbacks didn’t always crash. Is there a way to start the playback with software decoding after fast forwarding and then switch to hardware decoding when it win’t crash?

We found the problem easy to reproduce with a hold-down seeks lasting a few seconds... I don't think it is worth special handling.

Is this platform’s Mpeg 2 hardware decoder always broken or can a vender firmware update fix it?

It is likely fixable with a system update but it will have to be fixed by Google or by the SoC vendor providing the fix to Google.

[danieljlevine]

Do you report such platform issues to whomever could address the issue?

[nickk]

Do you report such platform issues to whomever could address the issue?

Stations are good at fixing things.

Big tech names, not so much. I am not sure Google even has a way to report bugs.

[danieljlevine]

Expectations set.

[juddagain]

I have the same fast-forward freezing issue and have reported it months ago. I too have a Google 4k Streamer that this freezing issue happens on. But I also have multiple Roku TVs that exhibit the exact same problem. So it is not exclusively a problem with that Google hardware.

I never got a reply on this issue after reporting? Any updates?