Amiberry 3.3 / RPi 4 slow

[gordonfreemanjr]

@mitu I’m not sure about showing the change of resolution, but when I power the Pi up with the new settings, apart from the black screen and the ES not booting, when I press the HOME button on the Smart TV’s remote, the following info is displayed:

HDMI 1
Game Mode
640x480 / 60p
SD
the date and the time

[mitu]

@gordonfreemanjr said in Amiberry 3.3 / RPi 4 slow:

Game Mode
640x480 / 60p

This seems right, similar to your screenshot. Why ES doesn't show up, that I cannot explain - didn't found this situation before.

[gordonfreemanjr]

@mitu Still, when the Pi is blackscreened at the start up, that is when the ES doesn’t show up, the F4 key works and brings the terminal up. As far as I’m concerned, this the expected behaviour when quitting the ES.

It’s almost like the ES was booting after all, just hiding behind the black screen for some reason.

[dankcushions]

@gordonfreemanjr i don't know why it would make a difference, but could you try with the default theme? and/or updating emulationstation to latest master (update from source)?

[gordonfreemanjr]

@dankcushions I like this suggestion. I’ll try that later today and get back to you. Thanks!

[gordonfreemanjr]

@dankcushions Both methods have failed. Same situation: black screen on startup, even with the preset theme and the ES script updated from source.

[mitu]

@gordonfreemanjr One last idea (filtering out 4k modes at the source) - add to config.txt:

[hdmi:0]
hdmi_max_pixel_freq=200000000
[hdmi:1]
hdmi_max_pixel_freq=200000000

Remove the hdmi_safe option and comment out the hdmi_group/hdmi_mode options (if still enabled).

[gordonfreemanjr]

@mitu Ok, so the „safe”, „mode” and „group” options are now commented out, and the „pixel freq” options are on.

The ES boots fine. The HOME button on my Smart TV remote displays the following info:

3840x2160 / 30p
UHD

[mitu]

@gordonfreemanjr said in Amiberry 3.3 / RPi 4 slow:

3840x2160 / 30p
UHD

Based on the information above, I guess the 4k video modes aren't filtered. Can you post the config.txt with the latest modifications ?

[gordonfreemanjr]

@mitu Sure. Here:
https://pastebin.com/t9RYrdNn

Also, some screenshots:
https://ibb.co/rFKRj99
https://ibb.co/SPjw72F

[mitu]

@gordonfreemanjr The config looks ok. The only think that's a bit different than the stock config is enable_uart(added by a shutdown script maybe ?), but that shouldn't affect the video resolution stuff.

[gordonfreemanjr]

@mitu I just called Samsung and they confirmed that upscaling the resolution is what a Smart TV does and there’s no internal setting to change it.

...

Still, when I connect the Pi via HDMI, the TV asks me what kind of equipment it is. I usually pick Game Console. Maybe I should ID the Pi as something else to avoid the upscaling? A decoder? A toaster?

At the same time I find it weird that I’m the first RPi4/Smart TV user to encounter an error like this one.

[Cna]

@mitu I know nothing about Rpi4 but i encoutered real slowdowns on Rpi3 with enable_uart=1 which set core_freq to 250Mhz instead of 400Mhz on Pi3.
You may give a try on removing this.

[quicksilver]

@cna that setting doesn't seem to affect the gpu core frequency on the pi 4 the way it does on previous pi models. With it on I still get 500mhz frequency for the core clock.

[mitu]

@gordonfreemanjr said in Amiberry 3.3 / RPi 4 slow:

I just called Samsung and they confirmed that upscaling the resolution is what a Smart TV does and there’s no internal setting to change it.

That's not exactly true. When using hdmi_safe, it reported the resolution correctly (640x480).

[quicksilver]

@gordonfreemanjr the solution @mitu suggested to limit the maximum resolution doesnt work by itself on my vizio tv either for some reason (it should work but I have learned my vizio has some weird quirks)

What worked for me was also setting this in my config.txt

hdmi_ignore_edid=0xa5000080

[gordonfreemanjr]

@quicksilver Thx. Was that the only additional line or have you included the one @mitu proposed as well?

[quicksilver]

@gordonfreemanjr That setting plus mitu's works for me.

[gordonfreemanjr]

@quicksilver IT WORKS.

This is the only combination of settings that did it for me. Both need to be active at the same time. Now, when I press the HOME remote button to inspect the resolution, it's 1080p / 60 - and it shows in the emulation speed. For the first time ever, Amiberry works at full speed.

This is the gamechanger for me.

@quicksilver @mitu Thank you both for your help. It's been a long topic and couple days, but this is it. It works.

Thank you!

So, to sum up. The final working combination to fix the resoution for the RPi4/Samsung Smart TV combo:

[hdmi:0]
hdmi_max_pixel_freq=200000000
[hdmi:1]
hdmi_max_pixel_freq=200000000
hdmi_ignore_edid=0xa5000080

[mitu]

@gordonfreemanjr Well, glad you sorted it out.

I'm wondering if the TV's EDID is not broken and/or lying about the TV's capabilities. Can you get the EDID contents from the TV with

tvservice -d myTV.edid
base64 myTV.edid

then post the output of the last command.