[Solved] Black screen after refresh rate switch

Hi all,

I’m having an intermittent issue with my new n2+ where it will occasionally present a black screen after having automatically switched refresh rates, either before playback or after playback of a video.

Power cycling the TV/AVR/N2+ / replugging the HDMI will resolve this issue and successfully display the UI again making me think this is a handshake/edid issue.

This issue only occurs when running though my AVR (Denon avr-x2000) but not while plugged directly into my TV (Toshiba Regza 37c3030d) - n.b. neither of these devices really support 4k and they’re both probably limited to at most, hdmi 1.4* - again making me think is a handshake issue, specific to the AVR.

I’ve attempted a considerable amount of troubleshooting over the past week (new hdmi cables, various kodi configs / boot.ini modifications / AVR tweaks) and am making no headway - the issue still persists probably 1/10 times I initiate or stop video playback.

Here’s a dispinfo log of the issue (black screen) - http://ix.io/3BzN
Here’s a dispinfo log of everything working well - http://ix.io/3BzQ

If anyone has any ideas on what might be going wrong here, I’d love to hear them!

I desperately want this n2 to work as when it works, it’s flawless.

Thanks!

Solved - it’s a known issue with this series of Denon AVRs.

Fixed by bodging an automation in home assistant to switch to another input and back on kodi play / idle.

The same here.
When watching TV and then switching to HDMI2 where Odroid N2 is connected via Denon AVR-X27000H randomly in 50% of cases there is only a black screen. Solution is to switch back to TV source and then again to HDMI2.
Annoying like a hell…
Didn’t know it is a known issue of some Denon AVRs and funny thing is that I hadn’t this problem on my old… AVR-2000 but it is happening with newest AVR-2700H.
Can you share a link where it is described as a known issue? Is Denon aware of it and working on a fix?

I think i saw it mentioned over on the kodi forums - Occasional Refresh Rate Change Problems

My AVR is from 2014 so I’m shocked to hear you’re having the same issue on your much newer AVR.

Maybe there really is something up with the N2(+)? I never experienced this problem with any models of the RPi…

I see this occasionally with both an N2 and an NS+ with my Denon AVR X2700H - but we’re talking like 1 in 50, definitely not 1 in 10 or even close to it. So only mildly irritating in the big scheme of things.

I do use a disp_cap file. Not sure if that helps…

Hi,
As I’m facing this issue much often (around 1 in 2 cases when switching to N2) can you guide me what should you do for helping in troubleshoot process? You mention “use disp_cap file” - what does it means and how to collect such “file” ?

disp_cap is basically a file which identifies what your display capabilities are

In a nutshell, you copy a dynamic operating system file: /sys/class/amhdmitx/amhdmitx0/disp_cap to your /storage/.kodi/userdata folder - this then means you have a static file identifying your display capabilities.

No idea if this does in fact help, but perhaps it is used when EDID fails or something?? Right this moment I have forgotten why I started using it, to be honest…

Can’t hurt to try it, though!

(if you search here for disp_cap, there’s a bunch of threads using them for similar issues to do with sync/refresh rates etc: https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/override-edid-refresh-rates/8482_

I have the same issue with an old Marantz NR1604 (part of the Denon family) that I already use for many, many years. But I only have these issues since my switch to CoreElec & N2+. I had RPi based, Intel based and ARM based Kodi boxes, but I NEVER have experienced that kind of issue before. So, I cannot agree that this is a particular Denon problem. CoreElec and/or N2+ must be causing this. Therefore, I also cannot agree to the issue status [Solved]. Please remove it and let’s discuss about how to move forward on solving this issue.

Did you find a real solution to this?

Hi,
I have the same issue with 100% issues and moreover when I start to play as well.
New install, Denon AVR-2313, TV LG 55UF860V and RPi2/LibreElec or Odroid-N2/CoreElec.
Working perfectly with Rpi2/LibreElec @1080 but issue with Odroid-N2/CoreElec @2160.
I noticed that @1080 the time between STOP key press and CoreElec menu is around 2-3 seconds, bigger than RPi2.
In this post MeisterP said the issue is at the AVR side.
I agree with phaze75, the issue status should NOT be solved.
Do anybody have a fix now?

To let you know that I found a setting that for me almost resolve the issue.
Please have a look here and posts 196, 197, 202.

Please, let me know what happen in your config.

Given I have an N2+ running with my Denon X2700 amp, those posts were giving me some concern about 19.4rc2, but I have just tried it, and see no change in behaviour over 19.3

I do use a disp_cap (as above), I run the GUI at 1080p (I thought that was the definitely recommended approach - there are known issues with a 4K GUI and CE, aren’t there?) - and in any case have just tried a bunch of files from 720p through to 4K/HDR. No black screen issues here so far.

After 3 days test, I found some 1080 video, manly low bit rate, to have a jerk about every second. I found recently why there was jerking in some video; It happen if the resolution/frequency is not listed in the “Whitelist” even in low resolution.
I’d guess the best is to copy all the resolution present in the disp_cap.
So, I’ll try again for few days.
See you then, let me know your tests/issue.

Just for extra info - I don’t use a whitelist at all.

I do not experience any jerkiness. The only (very rare) time I see that is if there’s something that’s been badly encoded (24 or 25p material that turns up as 29.7 say). A better version of the file eliminates the issue.

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