CinemaVision causing resync of display / refresh rate change between sections

[Justifier 5]

Hi all, I am a total noob here so my apologies if I am not clear with using the right terminology relating to CinemaVision.

I am having an issue with my JVC projector which takes about 10-12 seconds to resync on refresh rate changes.  I use the DSplayer Kodi wth MadVR and I have set MadVR to change refresh rates to match the video as this eliminates judder etc.

I know that there are events you can create to stop refresh rate changes and turn them back on but to avoid the refresh rate changes I have ensured that all my Theatre intro's and Trailers are the same resolution and refresh rate @ 23.976 (ie the same as the main feature) but for some reason the transition between the sections ie. Theatre intro's - Trailers - Feature causes the projector to have to resync and I end up with a black screen between each one of about 10-12 seconds.

This is extremely annoying and basically makes CinemaVision unusable  Can you please fix this issue as a matter of urgency?  I realise that if there are different refresh rates for different videos that the projector or display device will have to resync but if all the videos (trailers etc.) are the same refresh rate and resolution between each part then surely it can be done without the display losing signal/resyncing?

I did read in another topic where Ragnarok said the following:  "Chances are it's something to do with the refresh rates then. Are you on a projector or a TV? We use dummy files between videos to give us bookmarks to jump to. We're actively working to change that methodology so we remove some of the refresh rate changes" - this was in January 2016.

Please help to fix this issue.

Thanks

 

[Ragnarok 198]

37 minutes ago, Justifier said:

Hi all, I am a total noob here so my apologies if I am not clear with using the right terminology relating to CinemaVision.

I am having an issue with my JVC projector which takes about 10-12 seconds to resync on refresh rate changes.  I use the DSplayer Kodi wth MadVR and I have set MadVR to change refresh rates to match the video as this eliminates judder etc.

I know that there are events you can create to stop refresh rate changes and turn them back on but to avoid the refresh rate changes I have ensured that all my Theatre intro's and Trailers are the same resolution and refresh rate @ 23.976 (ie the same as the main feature) but for some reason the transition between the sections ie. Theatre intro's - Trailers - Feature causes the projector to have to resync and I end up with a black screen between each one of about 10-12 seconds.

This is extremely annoying and basically makes CinemaVision unusable  Can you please fix this issue as a matter of urgency?  I realise that if there are different refresh rates for different videos that the projector or display device will have to resync but if all the videos (trailers etc.) are the same refresh rate and resolution between each part then surely it can be done without the display losing signal/resyncing?

I did read in another topic where Ragnarok said the following:  "Chances are it's something to do with the refresh rates then. Are you on a projector or a TV? We use dummy files between videos to give us bookmarks to jump to. We're actively working to change that methodology so we remove some of the refresh rate changes" - this was in January 2016.

Please help to fix this issue.

Thanks

Hey there! So all of the methods we tried (which was admittedly a ton) failed to fix the refresh rate change during the Sequence. That said, we haven't abandoned fixing that issue. In fact, I ran out and nabbed a projector so I would be able to test because it was a bit of a chore for going back and forth with members of the community, and quite frankly I'd bet you guys have better things to do than troubleshoot all the time with us.

In between when I said that and now, our developer has been tied up working on other contracts. One in particular with Plex. Because of those other commitments he couldnt do more than some of the less complicated bug fixes. We recently started up development again and are flying through adding new features and fixing some of the bugs we've seen. This one is a priority, though Kodi does limit what types of files we can use as dummy files to video files which will likely limit what we can do to fix this unless we find a way around the problem. I'll talk to our developer and see if we can come up with some other ideas.

What we've tried so far to use as dummy files:

• Different types of video files
• Different types audio files
• Stub files
• Playlist files

[Justifier 5]

7 minutes ago, Ragnarok said:

Hey there! So all of the methods we tried (which was admittedly a ton) failed to fix the refresh rate change during the Sequence. That said, we haven't abandoned fixing that issue. In fact, I ran out and nabbed a projector so I would be able to test because it was a bit of a chore for going back and forth with members of the community, and quite frankly I'd bet you guys have better things to do than troubleshoot all the time with us.

In between when I said that and now, our developer has been tied up working on other contracts. One in particular with Plex. Because of those other commitments he couldnt do more than some of the less complicated bug fixes. We recently started up development again and are flying through adding new features and fixing some of the bugs we've seen. This one is a priority, though Kodi does limit what types of files we can use as dummy files to video files which will likely limit what we can do to fix this unless we find a way around the problem. I'll talk to our developer and see if we can come up with some other ideas.

What we've tried so far to use as dummy files:

• Different types of video files
• Different types audio files
• Stub files
• Playlist files

Hi Ragnarok, thanks for your prompt response.  Yes, unfortunately this problem makes CinemaVision next to useless for me and those having projectors and resync issues.  Is it possible for me to make the all the dummy files etc 1080p @ 23.976?  Can you maybe make a version where all dummy files etc. are 1080p 23.976 because this should eliminate 99% of the problem as most movies are 23.976.  That way if people have their display set at 23.976 and the dummy files and theatre intro's and trailers etc are at 23.976 then the display should not need to resync each time.

[Ragnarok 198]

20 minutes ago, Justifier said:

Hi Ragnarok, thanks for your prompt response.  Yes, unfortunately this problem makes CinemaVision next to useless for me and those having projectors and resync issues.  Is it possible for me to make the all the dummy files etc 1080p @ 23.976?  Can you maybe make a version where all dummy files etc. are 1080p 23.976 because this should eliminate 99% of the problem as most movies are 23.976.  That way if people have their display set at 23.976 and the dummy files and theatre intro's and trailers etc are at 23.976 then the display should not need to resync each time.

Hey hey! So the trouble with that is we have the same issue. For those folks that use different frame rates in their files, they'd end up switching. I've just stumbled across something that might fix the problem for everyone and I'm trying to figure it out now. What I'm looking at is creating a dummy file with a variable frame rate instead of a constant frame rate. Each frame would have a specific time code instead of a frame rate associated with it, which might avoid the switching. Have any thoughts?

[Justifier 5]

1 hour ago, Ragnarok said:

Hey hey! So the trouble with that is we have the same issue. For those folks that use different frame rates in their files, they'd end up switching. I've just stumbled across something that might fix the problem for everyone and I'm trying to figure it out now. What I'm looking at is creating a dummy file with a variable frame rate instead of a constant frame rate. Each frame would have a specific time code instead of a frame rate associated with it, which might avoid the switching. Have any thoughts?

I am not sure that would work as I am not clued up on a variable frame rates but I am certainly happy for you to give it a try.  Is there any way I can convert all my own dummy files etc. to 23.976?  I am pretty sure 99% of movies are 23.976 so whilst this may not fix the problem for everyone and every single scenario I am confident it will fix the problem for 99% of people who play 99% movies

 

[Justifier 5]

Ok I have some great news for a lot of people but it's still not perfect   Last night I found the dummy files I think Ragnarok was referring to and I re-encoded them to 1080p files at 23.976 (Handbrake) but kept the same format ie. 2 were mpeg and 1 was mp4.  I also kept the identical names and replaced these files.  I then also re-encoded all of my theatre intro files and trailer intro files etc. and such that all my files within CinemaVision content are 1080p 23.976.  The great news is this has successfully eliminate by JVC projector from resyning between every section!!!  SO for anyone having this refresh rate change resyncing/handshake issue if you do the above I am confident it will fix your problems.  Obviously this only really works well if you download and store the trailers you want in 1080p 23.976 which for me is what I am after anyway.  I simply point the CinemaVision to the directory I have stored the trailers in. Also 99% of my movies are 1080p 23.976 so this makes everything  1080p 23.976 which works really well.

Unfortunately it is still not perfect There is still alternating flashing black and grey screens between sections that lasts a about 2 - 5 seconds - sometimes there are 2-4 flashes of grey and black sometimes more sometimes less.  I think there is something else trying to display that is not 1080p and I am guessing some picture files or something.  I am really hoping Ragnarok can figure out what is causing the flashing grey and black screens between sections as it does not relate to refresh rate changes as otherwise my JVC projector would be resyncing and losing the picture for 10-12 seconds which it is no longer doing.

I really hope that my solution helps a lot of people to stop refresh rate changes and if we can fix the flashing black and grey screens between items then it should be pretty close to perfect! 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Justifier
typo

[Justifier 5]

Ok so talking to myself a bit here but hopefully my investigations will help some people when they search for this problem....  I have tried many things over the weekend to see if I can eliminate the grey/black flashing between items in the cinemavision sequences.  I am happy to say I have found the culprit.  Note that this does not relate to refresh rate changes as I mentioned a fix for that above which works perfectly! This relates to MadVR and using the "exclusive full screen" option in teh DSplayer options to get DirectX11 and 10-bit output from DSplayer within the DSplayer Kodi Version.  I have found that if I deselect "exclusive full screen use" in the options in DSplayer that I can fully eliminate the black/grey screen flashing between segments.  The problem here is that then it defaults to 8-bit window mode when playing videos so I lose my 10-bit output.  I am not sure if this is effecting the output quality at all and my initial testing would suggest that it is not as the bluray files I am playing are obviously all 8-bit but whether the process of MadVR converting everything from 16-235 8-bit to RGB 0-255 10-bit and back to 8-bit causes any issues or degradation in quality I am not sure.  I have done some dithering and banding tests and I can not see any differences between the two modes.  I also note that trying to set full screen mode instead of fake window mode in the other settings section of Kodi itself unfortunately results in kodi intermittently crashing back to the desktop.  So the only way, at this stage, for me to get rid of the black/grey flashing screens is to deselect the exclusive full screen mode in DSplayer such that it defaults to a 8-bit mode with MadVR when playing files.  Hopefully this helps some people.  If anyone can find a solution which stops the flashing and enables DirectX11 10-bit mode please let me know. Cheers

[Fisherman456 1]

Hi, I noticed this automatic refresh rate is still an issue and I too have a JVC projector with a 10-12 second refresh rate change. What are these dummy files and where can I find them? Where do I put them in my sequence?