Odroid C2 - DVD menu blank, cursor is there

Bug report


Describe the bug


Here is a clear and concise description of what the problem is:

I have a lot of my DVD’s ripped to ISO, and put them on my NAS which is mounted through SMB. Most of them are series, in this example I use That 70’s show Season 2 disc 3. What happens is that the initial trailer / promo runs fine. When that ends it goes to the menu. The screen then stays blank, but the cursor / selector is there. The music plays. If I just enter the dvd starts playing. If I then go back to menu it works fine.
When I restart the DVD and am on the blank menu, when I just let it there, I guess at the point the music restarts everything practically locks up. 100% CPU load on all 4 cores and even SSH takes about a minute for each command to recognise, let alone reproduce it.

I came from LibreElec 9.0.2, where the menu’s work fine but there I have MP2 audio issues, which work fine under CoreElec. I have tried some development builds from LibreElec on kernel 5.x, which also have that DVD menu issue.
It’s similar to https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=335979 and https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/9105-dvd-title-menus-rarely-appear/, and there are more to be found.

To Reproduce


Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

  1. Play a DVD with menus in ISO format

Debuglog


The debuglog can be found here:
The CoreElec log, so the one that is NOT working properly:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As_wCUgs-pjPgj4fHldtEbpAKjS4?e=5bw8ca

During the trailer I press UP to skip to the menu. The following line indicates that:

2019-11-01 16:04:25.083 T:4093931536 DEBUG: HandleKey: up (0xf080) pressed, action is ChapterOrBigStepForward

So from there on, the menu should be build up or shown.

For reference, I also have the LibreElec log, which does not have that issue. Not sure if that helps.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As_wCUgs-pjPgj0X3WlHagskQHK6?e=lAORtz

Same, I pressed up and from here the menu starts:

2019-11-01 15:38:58.093 T:4087463952 DEBUG: HandleKey: up (0xf080) pressed, action is ChapterOrBigStepForward

Screenshots / Video


Here is a video or screenshots to help explain the problem:

When the menu comes up after starting the DVD:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!As_wCUgs-pjPgkDbqpac92gnZKgF?e=osz9SI

Then I press enter once, which does enter the episodes menu:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As_wCUgs-pjPgkJ8wt6byt3fnDLl?e=ysxu5N

Then I enter again and the episodes start playing. If I go back the menu then it shows up fine:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As_wCUgs-pjPgkEoHESsQsgoQqi8?e=35sjjJ

CoreELEC version and device


CoreELEC version: 9.2.0
Device: Odroid C2
Device Tree:

Other information, sample media (if appropriate)


Here is some additional information or sample media that might help:

If you want me to I can upload a DVD iso somewhere which shows the issue. It would be a private link / upload though as I of course can’t just share copyrighted material. However, so far every ISO I tested has this issue.

Have you tried Kodi on Windows to see if this can be reproduced, if your having issues in LE mainline builds then this suggests an issue with Kodi itself.

For some reason I don’t get notification at all from this forum, not even in my spam. However, I’ve just tried Kodi (18.5) on Windows and that works perfectly fine with the same DVDs. As said, Kodi 18 on LibreElec works fine as well.

You won’t get notifications unless you explicitly turn them on.

Now you said

I came from LibreElec 9.0.2, where the menu’s work fine

but there is no LE 9.0.2 release for Amlogic, so I’m not sure what build you was using?

and then you said

I have tried some development builds from LibreElec on kernel 5.x, which also have that DVD menu issue.

Our nightly builds contain Kodi 18.5 so can you try that.

Ah, I’ve enabled notifications now, that works. Usually they are enabled by default.

Anyway, there sure is a 9.0.2 LibreElec for C2: https://libreelec.tv/downloads_new/odroid_c2/ has a 9.0.2 build, which works fine. That could have another Kodi version though, I’d have to look that up. The LE development builds which use mainline kernel and Lima has serious bugs though for now, but while dvd itself plays fine it also has the menu bug. I cannot verify though if that’s Kodi itself (they also use Kodi 19 now) or Lima or something else.
I know the older coreelec builds worked fine. I’ll try the Coreelec nightly and report. Do the logs show anything useful? I’ve not compared them. Can there be any other logs or something else I can provide?

I’ve tried CoreELEC-Amlogic.arm-9.2-nightly_20191124-Odroid_C2.img, i.e. the november 24th nighly, but the same issue is there.
What can or should I provide besides the logs I have already provided, in order to help fixing this issue?

9.2.1 didn’t fix this. Issue still there, and same question still; what can I do to help fixing this?

In the meanwhile I have tested 18.4 and 18.5 Kodi on Windows and there it works just fine. I’d still like to hear what I can do to troubleshoot.

Any update? What can I do to help getting fixed what worked before?

@Rataplan626 - like you, I have a number of DVD’s (mostly music videos) ripped to ISO format. I’m using a Venz V10 Pro (chinese s905x with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC). I’m running 9.2.1 build for ARM. I moved to Coreelec from Libreelec when they stopped supporting the generic boxes.
I’m not sure when the issue started for me because I mostly use the box for my multichannel FLAC audio files, but recently I’ve noticed that when selecting a music video (ISO) from the library, I will either see the initial menu with no cursor to select audio/chapter/features etc, or see the cursor with no background video/text so unable to navigate properly. I’ve found, through trial and error, that selecting the DVD ISO from the file menu (as opposed to clicking on the library entry) the DVD menu will show and I can control the DVD structure correctly. This works most of the time. If you look at your logs you will see that the selection of the ISO is done slightly differently with the library shortcut as opposed to navigating through the file system. All my media is on a NAS on my LAN.

To check I went back to one of kzaqs Libleelec builds (8.2) and installed it on an SD card. This works perfectly, in fact it’s way more stable with my audio (no dropouts at the start of tracks) when I change from a stereo album to a multichannel (5.1). Now, the Kodi version is 17, so it may be that which is the significant factor and that Kodi 18 is just a step too far for my generic box.

I can post logs if necessary, but I thought I’d comment that you are not alone in this issue!

Some additional info. When selecting a dvd iso from the Music Videos library entries I get the following:

2020-01-15 18:02:10.532 T:4094168496   DEBUG: HandleKey: return (0xf00d) pressed, action is Select

2020-01-15 18:02:10.976 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers(smb://192.168.0.135:445/Multimedia/MusicVideos/BLACK SABBATH Paranoid Quad.ISO)
2020-01-15 18:02:10.976 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: system rules
2020-01-15 18:02:10.976 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: matches rule: system rules
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: mms/udp
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: lastfm/shout
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: rtmp
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: rtsp
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: streams
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: dvd
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: dvdimage
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: sdp/asf
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: nsv
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: radio
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: matched 0 rules with players
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: adding videodefaultplayer (VideoPlayer)
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: for video=1, audio=0
2020-01-15 18:02:10.977 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: for video=1, audio=1

When i select a dvd iso by going through the file menu I get this in the log:

-01-15 18:04:23.940 T:4094168496   DEBUG: HandleKey: return (0xf00d) pressed, action is Select

2020-01-15 18:04:23.966 T:4094168496 DEBUG: OnPlayMedia smb://192.168.0.135:445/Multimedia/MusicVideos/BLACK SABBATH Paranoid Quad.ISO
2020-01-15 18:04:24.011 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CSMBFile::Open - opened smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@192.168.0.135:445/Multimedia/MusicVideos/BLACK SABBATH Paranoid Quad.ISO, fd=10000
2020-01-15 18:04:24.013 T:3892691840 DEBUG: Skin Helper Service --> Kodi_Monitor: sender xbmc - method: Playlist.OnClear - data: {“playlistid”:1}
2020-01-15 18:04:24.015 T:3892691840 DEBUG: Skin Helper Service --> Kodi_Monitor: sender xbmc - method: Playlist.OnAdd - data: {“item”:{“id”:2,“type”:“musicvideo”},“playlistid”:1,“position”:0}
2020-01-15 18:04:24.029 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CSMBFile::Close closing fd 10000
2020-01-15 18:04:24.031 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers(smb://192.168.0.135:445/Multimedia/MusicVideos/BLACK SABBATH Paranoid Quad.ISO)
2020-01-15 18:04:24.031 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: system rules
2020-01-15 18:04:24.031 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: matches rule: system rules
2020-01-15 18:04:24.031 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: mms/udp
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: lastfm/shout
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: rtmp
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: rtsp
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: streams
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: dvd
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: dvdimage
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: matches rule: dvdimage
2020-01-15 18:04:24.032 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: adding player: VideoPlayer for rule: dvdimage
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: sdp/asf
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: nsv
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerSelectionRule::GetPlayers: considering rule: radio
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: matched 1 rules with players
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: adding videodefaultplayer (VideoPlayer)
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: for video=1, audio=0
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: for video=1, audio=1
2020-01-15 18:04:24.033 T:4094168496 DEBUG: CPlayerCoreFactory::GetPlayers: added 2 players
2020-01-15 18:04:24.039 T:4094168496 DEBUG: Radio UECP (RDS) Processor - new CDVDRadioRDSData
2020-01-15 18:04:24.039 T:4094168496 NOTICE: VideoPlayer::OpenFile: smb://192.168.0.135:445/Multimedia/MusicVideos/BLACK SABBATH Paranoid Quad.ISO
2020-01-15 18:04:24.040 T:4094168496 DEBUG: OnPlayBackStarted: CApplication::OnPlayBackStarted
2020-01-15 18:04:24.040 T:3500135296 DEBUG: Thread VideoPlayer start, auto delete: false
2020-01-15 18:04:24.040 T:3647980416 DEBUG: Thread BackgroundLoader start, auto delete: false

Note that when I use the file select method the GetPlayers rule “dvdimage” is matched. After that, the libdvdnav-arm.so is loaded and there is a message “libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 6.0.8”. With the library entry select method, there is no loading of libdvdnav and it just plays through the menu and onto the main part of the dvd without allowing selection of audio etc.

Hi Joe, thanks for your reply! I must say the response on this forum is quite underwhelming. Yeah I know, peoples spare time and such, but still.

I mainly have ripped my Disney DVD’s for the kids, as well as for example my That 70’s show box. The latter one are DVD’s with episodes on them. I’ve never put any time in it to get them in my library properly, so I always start them (the .ISO that is) from the ‘videos’ menu, which shows my sources. Never since the move to CoreElec has a DVD menu worked for me that way. But the Disney’s of course are just one movie on a disc, so they ARE in my library. But alas, from the library they don’t work, and from the videos menu they don’t work either. I’ve even tried through the settings-panel file explorer, where I can long-click an ISO and choose the video-player: same result. Also when I open the ISO and select a VOB or IFO (always the second file I believe) there is no difference.

So what method did you exactly use to get it working sometimes? Also, when it does NOT work, and you just click ok through the (blank) menu until the dvd actually starts playing, and you then go back to the DVD menu, does it work for you then? Because that’s what happens on my Odroid-C2. However, sometimes with a blank menu it just crashes.

This can’t be a big issue or bug to clear in my opinion, as, as said, when I return to the DVD menu from a playing DVD, it ALWAYS works.

I really hope the development of LibreElec on the mainline kernel fixes things for Amlogic boxes. They are doing great, and Kodi is actually partly usable already using open-source Mali drivers (Lima) and it’s looking very promising. But not stable enough to put in production :slight_smile:

1 Like

I don’t think that has anything to do with dvd menus?

You want to wait a few years ?
Good luck

2 Likes

@kostaman - issue #15414 describes the problem exactly in my case. When I use the file path to select the DVD iso it works perfectly. From the library it does not work. I see from the comments on #15414 that a build was done for Android. Is it possible that this correction was not done for the mainline linux builds?

edit - I see that as of Dec 2019 this is still open in Kodi 18.5

I tried an 8.90 build of Coreelec and the problem was there also. At the moment I’ve tried CE 9.2.1 stable and the latest nightly - with the same issue. @kzaq’s LE build has no issues.

Thanks for chasing this up!

Joe

In order to “level the playing field” I’m using the default Estuary skin. What I do is select Videos (in my case MusicVideos), then navigate up to the parent icon which gives you the Titles/Producers/Cast/Year etc. options and select files. Then I select the actual folder containing the video I want to see and select the filename.iso - works 99% of the time. It’s easier to navigate in the Confluence skin as you just select the … at the top of the list until you can see the Files icon.

I downloaded the latest Coreelec nightly and burned a new micro-SD card and started from scratch just in case there was some legacy issue with my existing build (which is installed on the eMMC (I know I know!) on my Venz box). That still fails with ISO video menus most of the time in library mode and works most of the time in file mode.

@kszaq’s LE build on SD card works 100% with videos for me and is better all round with multichannel PCM audio. I can’t really see Libreelec getting around to releasing images for S905X boxes on the newer kernels - much more chance of CE backporting the ng kernel/DTBs for the S905x series. I would prefer to be using Kodi Leia rather than Krypton, so CE is the way forward really!

I’ll have a look at @kostaman’s reply and read up on dynpath. The key to resolving the issue is for the file open process to realise that it is dealing with a dvdimage and use the correct libraries for dvd menu navigation. The fact that I can “trick” CE into using the dvdimage rule most of the time means the capability is there, we just need to ensure that it works 100% of the time!

edit - I’ve read through both of the issues flagged in @kostaman’s post and they seem to be exactly what I’m seeing in my logs. This is a Kodi issue, rather than anything specific to CE. The fact that it’s not an issue in the LE Krypton build must mean that some reversion took place in the move to Leia. Hopefully, it will be picked up by the Kodi team and resolved!

What is with this dynpath? When I select to play one ISO file I see menu for a second but when cursor is shown I get black screen with cursor only. When pressing Stop button Kodi crashes.

Update 1: Seems it is working fine if using Kodi settings Adjust display refresh rate = OFF

Update 2: Setting Hardware decoding of MPEG 2 to HD and UP works also with Adjust display refresh rate = Start/Stop. Of course this means SD mpeg2 videos are sw decoded (default setting is hw decode always).

1 Like

Joe, I’ve tried with 10+ ISOs going though files, and I couldn’t get a single one working.

But VPeter, you really saved my day! Disabling hardware decoding for MPEG2 made all menu’s working straight away! I don’t know why I haven’t tried that before but it works! I’ve been struggling with this ever since Kodi 19 was released and LibreElec gave me issues with MP2 audio.

For the record I also tried the don’t switch resolution button but that doesn’t help me.

1 Like

I’ve tested on the latest LibreElec nightly, where I also had DVD menu issues. When I disable hardware-decoding there, it works as well. Now I believe LE uses LIMA drivers (as it runs on mainline kernel), but CE does not as it’s still running the 3.x kernel with the closed source blobs / drivers.
However, the older LE version do as well, where we don’t have these issues. So I’m not sure, maybe the old LE versions have some sort of patch?

Anyway, disabling HW really works well after some hours of testing. The SOC runs a bit warmer but nothing to worry about.

Thanks all for the replies!

btw @Tim_Taylor, wait a few years? Think positive! They have come so far already. The dev builds of LE are quite stable and run mainline kernel. I think they deserve more credit than that.