Recommended Kodi Settings

Kodi
1

Below are the video settings which we recommend for Kodi v18 Leia, by default our builds will use these settings unless you have changed them.

Settings > Player > Videos

  • Adjust display refresh rate => On start / stop
  • Sync playback to display => disabled

Settings > System > Display

  • Whitelist => de-select all options
  • Resolution => 1920x1080p

Notes:
Whitelist: When this feature was first introduced into Kodi it was very problematic for Amlogic devices and would cause playback issues if you did not select all the resolutions/refresh rates that your display was capable of, however the code has since been refined and by not selecting any resolutions the old behaviour of Krypton is enacted.

If you have a black screen when playing 4K/HDR content then whitelist 3840x2160 and below, leaving 4096x2160 unselected as sometimes Kodi will choose this resolution for 4K content which can cause problems with some setups.

Resolution: It is very important that if you plan to watch HDR content that you do not select a 4K resolution here as tempting as it may be :yum:, the reason for this is that it will break the HDR auto switching code. The automatic colour space/depth function requires a change in resolution on Amlogic devices to become active and if you select 4K content whilst your GUI is already running at 4K then this will not happen.

Problem devices!
We have also added some custom settings to Kodi for problematic devices.

If you have ghosting/smearing then disable noise reduction.

Settings > System > CoreELEC

  • Disable noise reduction => enable

If you have red/green lines then disable deinterlacing, this is mainly only an issue for S905W and S912 devices.

Settings > System > CoreELEC

  • Disable deinterlacing => enable

For recommended audio settings, please refer to the following here.

15 Likes
4

I write my first question in the forum, I hope you have patience.
My configuration is: CoreELEC 8.95.7 SD boot on Amlogic 912 device (Beelink GT1 Ultimate), Screen 4kHDR 75 inch (Samsung QE75Q7FNATXZT)
For me it is very tempting to have both the 4k GUI (in such a big screen you can really perceive the difference in definition of the GUI, eg movie posters) and delegate any upscaling to the TV.
Could the following configuration work?
Whitelist: select all
Resolution: 4k @ 24fps
in this way I fall into the problem of not activating the HDR or having whitelisted the 4k resolution solves the problem?

Otherwise what specific configuration would you recommend (I read from my NAS mainly 4khdr, HD, and ISO DVD-Video)?
thank you
F.

5

@Freitag73 no I’m sorry that will not work, HDR will not activate with the above configuration.

On a side note you are incorrect, your TV will only upscale if Kodi resolution is 1080 or below, if you are running Kodi at 4K and watch some 1080 content then Kodi will handle the upscaling which is bad because generally your TV will upscale better than Kodi will.

The settings we recommend for most users are listed above, the only exception to these would be users with very old displays and using CVBS.

7

thanks, now everything works as I wanted. I had to remember to force the TV screen adaptation function (from Auto to On). last brief note: the restore to default command of the video section has no effect on: whitelist, resolution, frequency, calibration. restores only double buffering selection

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Thanks adamg, I’ve been a bit confused about the whitelisting feature, never knew how to configure it! So now we shouldn’t select anything in there at all right?

1 Like
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It was necessary to define a whitelist in earlier releases but you do not need to any more unless your TV can’t handle certain resolutions or refresh rates.

12

A post was split to a new topic: Auto display refresh rate for resolution

13

Why is scaling in Kodi bad exactly? I understand software scaling can be slow (especially HQ) but I’d imagine there is a dedicated unit on Amlogic chip for hardware acceleration? I know that other software players like mpv use OpenGL for scaling e.g.

I thought the conventional wisdom a few years was to always drive LCD displays with their native resolution.

14

Running 4k videos (remux, etc), without whitelist, i get 2160p 24hz. (Only some files from 4kmedia etc goes 60hz).
To run 60hz, i have to whitelist it, and for some reason in that case i loose HD audio (dd+ ok)

(H96 pro+ s912; denon avr x2100w; viewsonic px727).

15

Using a Beelink GT King (S922x) I only get playback if I whitelist.
Resolution set to 4k @ 59.94. with 4K 60/59.94/50 and 1080p 29.97/23.98 selected at the moment.

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Hi

I have a problem while I try to play hevc uhd video files with my N2. I don’t know what is the correct technical term for this issue (I’m sorry I’m a newbie) when I play uhd hevc movies, the video doesn’t fit the screen, it looks like 10 times zoomed. And if I don’t stop the video all kodi menus also out off screen. It looks like wrong resolution. I attached a screenshot from one of the video.

Ps: my TV IS a LG UHD 4K TV

Thanx in advance

IMG_20191221_233449
IMG_20191221_2334493648Ă—1744 1.43 MB

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See instructions in this post:

18

Thank you after I disable GIU from settings video minimized itself and it game me chance to calibrate video, so there is no need edit xml file (cause I reboot n2 a few times and it still works well)

Thank you for the link and help

19

Hello,

I have this same issue with my Vizio TV. Are you able to explain better what you did in order to fix it? I’m not able to understand what setting you changed.

20

See here:
https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/gui-at-3840-x-2160/8104/16

1 Like
21

Thank you for link. I disabled GUI setting and then video minimized itself and it gave me chance to calibrate video frame. After I reboot system a few times my video still as I calibrated it. So that I didn’t need to edit xml file. Meanwhile, on kodi forum someone made a comment as “Calibration is not what you want from kodi. This will kill 1:1 pixel mapping.”

So, if it’s true I can’t watch my 4k movie as a really 4k resulation video.

Do you have an any idea, what can I do and fix this problem. BTW, I don’t know how I need to edit xml file, can you please suggest me a walkthrough about that editing also?

22

I can’t understand what the problem is with watching 4K. You may need to disable overscan on your TV.

1 Like
23

You need to perform actions from 3 messages above link first.
Don’t do calibration for 1/4 size picture or for 10x zoomed picture. It’s wrong.

24

Ok thank you finally I did it, editing xml file solved

25

On my S912 VIM2 I discovered that having refresh rate switch set to “ON START/STOP” caused multiple lock ups on media switching. Setting this to “ON START” instead is much better.

Shoog