Good news regarding tearing and low EmulationStation performance on Pi 4

cellux

@Brunnis With the old kernel running aplay -l i got card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]

Using the new kernel this disappears and only get a card called vc4hdmi.. In theory alsa / bcm2835 sound card is enabled by dtparam=audio=on in the boot config, but that just doesn't seem to happen for me. It's a shame since video works so much better with the new one.

I did force hdmi with my old setup in es and also raspi-config.. wondering whether that could have saved some config that causes issues now. Will try to downgrade and reset as much as possible to default settings.

mitu

@cellux said in Good news regarding tearing and low EmulationStation performance on Pi 4:

Using the new kernel this disappears and only get a card called vc4hdmi.. In theory alsa / bcm2835 sound card is enabled by dtparam=audio=on in the boot config, but that just doesn't seem to happen for me. It's a shame since video works so much better with the new one.

You'll have to add the configurations specified in the RPI forums topic in order to get audio working. dtparam=audio=on doesn't apply to the configuration anymore.

cellux

@mitu

Can you point me to the post that has that configuration please? I've read the pi forum and gradually tried all relevant things I've found:

removing dt param audio
the new configuration in /usr/share/alsa/cards/vc4-hdmi.conf
adding alias vc4-hdmi1 cards.vc4-hdmi

mitu

@cellux I was referring to https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=269769&p=1636828#p1636828.

cellux

@mitu
Ah ok.. unfortunately that doesn't work at all for me (audio off, right kms dt overlay, etc) No sound and raspi-config throws up when I try access audio settings.

I got a nice tip though. It is possible to use the old sound driver:
dtparam=audio=on
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d-pi4,audio=off
(and the old vc4-hdmi.conf)

cellux

@cellux After kernel update and switching to 64 bit, I get audio using the kms driver's audio.

Swampy

Some of my experiences with kernel 5.4 on the raspberry pi 4:

With dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d everything works, except the splashscreen. I think, that's because openMAX and omxplayer doesn't work with kms. The same problem with emulators, where dispmanx is enabled (dispmanx is not supported with kms). Steamlink doesn't work with kms too. The new kms-audiodriver is working fine for me.

With dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d everything works. Emulationstation is working as fluently, as with the real kms driver.

saccublenda

@Swampy Does kodi work for you with dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d?

Swampy

@saccublenda Sorry, I don't use kodi within retropie. I have an extra sd card with libreelec installed.

Rascas

@saccublenda Nope. It starts but doesn't play videos because it uses MMAL.
Only Kodi 19 will work fine with KMS, which has support for v4l2 hardware decoding.

saccublenda

@Rascas Ok, thanks for the info.

George Spiggott

Was this added to the weekly update (4.5.19) because all my screen tearing symptoms seem to have gone?

pbohannon

@saccublenda said in Good news regarding tearing and low EmulationStation performance on Pi 4:

@Brunnis I guess it is an overscan problem. Removing the overscan settings from /boot/config.txt makes the artifacts disappear.

Hi there! I'm having the exact visual artifact you posted in the your initial reply to the thread. However, I have no overscan options set in my config.txt. The only active settings I have are:

dtparam=audio=on

[pi4]
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
dtoverlay=rpivid-v4l2
max_framebuffers=2
arm_freq=2100
gpu_freq=700
over_voltage=6
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
gpi_mem=320

Do you, or anyone else monitoring, have any ideas as to where the described artifact comes from and how to prevent it? Am using 5.4.44-vl7l+ on a rpi4b 4GB. Kodi is installed, using ffmpeg 4.2.2, and I have made no changes to Mesa. Any ideas would be very much appreciated! Thanks very much.

saccublenda

@pbohannon The differences with my settings would be

dtparam=audio=on
disable_overscan=1
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16

[pi4]
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
#dtoverlay=rpivid-v4l2
max_framebuffers=2
#arm_freq=2100
#gpu_freq=700
#over_voltage=6
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1
#gpi_mem=320

Try adding/commenting the new lines and see if you can get rid of the artifact.

joyrider3774

about video's, RPI0-3 supports H264, H263, MPEG4, MPEG2 and VL1 hardware decoding with the last 2 with payed unlock. Raspberry pi 4 only supports H264 hardware decoding and HEVC see post of raspberry pi engineer https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=268356#p1628856 Al formats do still work fine in software decoding.

Also if your wondering if rpi4 will ever get such support again ... the answer is no see post here https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=268356#p1650804

joyrider3774

i had the same visual artifcat on kms/drm version of attract on the intro video, disable_overscan fixed it for me i think in attract, artifcat is gone althouhg i also added hdm_group1 & mode 16

PhoenixJedi

@Rascas Is it possible to install Kodi 19 on the Pi4?

Rascas

@PhoenixJedi It is possible to compile it yourself and install it yes. But there is still some problems and nothing really new or different so in my opininnion it isn't really worth to mess with it. Python 3 only is something pulling it back in my opinion. Until there is proper HDR and HD audio bitstreaming support, I don't really see a need to go into it.

PhoenixJedi

@Rascas Dang, cause thats the only thing keeping me from going to the 5.4 KMS driver.

PhoenixJedi

@Rascas So i have no idea how to get/compile kodi 19 for the pi4... im guessing theres no way youd be willing to walk me through it?