Tracking PMP functionality with Apollo Lake and Kaby Lake NUCs

Plex Players Desktop Players
41

I tested the only 4K HEVC Content that I have, I watched about 40 minutes of it and only 1 Frame Dropped… I am not sure if its considered HDR or not.

Also, on the Sound Update… I took a Movie that Only had 7.1 DTS HD MA. and used the server to Optimize it. It created a AAC File, that when played on the PMP Embedded 1.2.3 only Plays in Stereo.

However, the AC3 File that I manually created using FFMPEG plays perfectly on 1.2.3

42

@wesman I have (4) of these Club3D adapters. Model CAC-1504 REV A0-02. They all drop a few frames at playback start and there is continuous audio dropout.

NUC7i3BNK
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB Version 1607 for low footprint OS
Intel Graphics Driver 21.20.16.4590
Intel Display Audio Driver 10.22.1.97
PMP 1.2.3.589
Star Trek TNG s05e16 h.264 1080p DTS-HD MA 7.1 MKV remux from BD
43

@wesman These Club 3D, CAC-1504,USB-C to HDMI 2.0 Adapter don't seem to be reliable or may be incompatible with my Denon.

  • All (4) of these adapters (used with known good HDMI cables) exhibit audio drop out of the HD Audio bitstreams for Dolby TrueHD 5.1/7.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/7.1 audio tracks.
  • Decoded with PMP, audio drop outs of the Multichannel LPCM occur with Dolby TrueHD 5.1/7.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/7.1 audio tracks.
  • AC3 and DTS Core bitstreams without failure.
  • All 480i/p, 1080i/p and 4K content I have tried show a few dropped frames right from start – then do not further increment.
  • No observed loss of video.

I will now do in depth test using the builtin HDMI.

44

@wesman Builtin HDMI port when connected to HDMI 1.4 Denon AVR is reliable.

  • Dolby TrueHD 5.1/7.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/7.1 bitstreams without failure.
  • AC3 and DTS Core bitstreams without failure.
  • All 480i/p, 1080i/p and 4K content I have tried show a few dropped frames right from start – then do not further increment.
  • No observed loss of video.

For me, this NUC7i3BNK is capable of playing everything up to 4K HEVC HDR. Hopefully Intel gets another FW update out of MegaChips soon for the HDMI 2.0 LSPCon so that you can bitstream with refresh rate switching enabled. I am moving on to in-depth testing of the embedded using decoding so not to be held up by the bitstreaming limitations.

45

@“Ach!lles” , You my friend are prolific with your testing in the wee hours of the morning! Well done.

I too find this interesting.

  • I have (3) of the Club Adaptors
  • (1) NUC7I3BNH and (2) NUC7I3BNK each with
  • Samsung 850 EVO (500GB) M.2 and
  • Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 8GB Kit (2 x 4GB)
  • All the NUC’s have the CLUB, (2) are connected to 4K Samsung TV’s, (1) to a Yamaha RX-A1060BL 7.2 (4K)
  • All using Windows 10 Pro (so I can Remote Desktop to the box for maintenance)
  • All (currently running) 1.2.3 and connected via CLUB

I haven’t see many issues on Windows (Including the 1 4K movie i have)

however, when I boot from a USB to the Embedded 1.2.3.622, that is when I have issue with the HD Audio. but of course, I don’t have HD Audio Selected in Plex for the ones connected to the TV, no point since I have Playbar connected to the TV’s

46

Embedded seems to work fine with either the built-in HDMI or the Club 3D adapter since I am decoding the audio with PMP and not bitstreaming it. Also have discovered that color management in the scheme of limited:passthrough:limited does not seem to work correctly with this NUC using PMP. However it does with Kodi on both OSes.

47

Functional Status of Color Management schemes with NUC7i3BNK using embedded PMP 1.2.3.623

"Legend for Video Color Processing Chain"
Player | GPU | Display
(mpv.conf: video-output-levels) | GPU(autostart.sh: xrandr --set "Broadcast RGB") | Display
  • Limited | Passthrough | Limited - Photos and UI colors are displayed correctly; Videos colors are washed out due to additional clamping at the GPU. This is not an issue with previous NUC models. Something is broken here making it function just as if it were Limited | Limited | Limited–which is an incorrect color management scheme
  • Limited | Full | Limited - Photos and UI colors are displayed with crushed blacks; Video colors are displayed correctly
  • Full | Full | Full - Photos and UI colors are displayed correctly; Video colors displayed correctly but is single scaled with BtB and WtW signals clipped
  • Full | Limited | Limited - Photos and UI colors are displayed correctly; Video colors are displayed correctly but is double scaled with BtB and WtW signals clipped

Kodi is aware of this issue and have patches to resolve this issue with these new Apollo Lake and Kaby Lake NUCs. Not being a sw developer, I am not sure where they are doing this.

48

@Ach!lles said:
Embedded seems to work fine with either the built-in HDMI or the Club 3D adapter since I am decoding the audio with PMP and not bitstreaming it.

could you clarify that? Your PMP is down converting DTS MA? and TrueHD? Or all Audio? and its working fine?

49

@wesman said:

@Ach!lles said:
Embedded seems to work fine with either the built-in HDMI or the Club 3D adapter since I am decoding the audio with PMP and not bitstreaming it.

could you clarify that? Your PMP is down converting DTS MA? and TrueHD? Or all Audio? and its working fine?

All audio codecs were disabled for passthrough.

  • Dolby Digital decoded and outputted up to 5.1 LPCM–depending on source content channel count
  • DTS decoded and outputted up to 5.1 LPCM–depending on source content channel count
  • Dolby TrueHD decoded and outputted up to 7.1 LPCM–depending on source content channel count
  • With DTS-HD MA , core DTS channels are decoded and outputted up to 5.1 LPCM–depending on source content channel count. The DTS -HD extensions are ignored due to support changes in the PMP decoder by Plex.

I didn’t run into any video or audio issues during playback

50

hello devs…again

i’m planning (as i exposed before) to buy a new NUC 7i3bnk with HDMI2.0 to a Hisense 4k TV in Windows 10.

  • i can passthrough DTS and Dolby Digital (normal one…NOT the HD formats) …its working OK PMP 1.2.3?.
  • can play 4k HEVC 10 HDR test files? …

In the future (perhaps next Christmas) i’m gonna buy a 4k HDCP2.2 receiver to passthroug all formats HD. Is working now?

thanks!

51

@orbtwin-plex said:
hello devs…again

i’m planning (as i exposed before) to buy a new NUC 7i3bnk with HDMI2.0 to a Hisense 4k TV in Windows 10.

  • i can passthrough DTS and Dolby Digital (normal one…NOT the HD formats) …its working OK PMP 1.2.3?.
    Passthrough to what?
  • can play 4k HEVC 10 HDR test files? …
    Yes in Windows
    In the future (perhaps next Christmas) i’m gonna buy a 4k HDCP2.2 receiver to passthroug all formats HD. Is working now?

Not yet with HDMI 2.0 at 24Hz.

52

hello…thanks for answering … first of all.

  • passthrough to a Logitech z906 …only decodes DTS and DD
  • what’s does it means at 24Hz. ? isn’t working any HD format (DTS-HD-MA & DD-HD-True) neither in Windows? … Only with the USB-C to HDMI2.0 ?..

i’m very confused. To clarify (always in Windows 10);

  • playing 4k HEVC 10 HDR test files without dropped frames. ??
  • playing BRemux 1080p in high bitrate ??
  • passthrough DTS & DD (the NUC lacks optical output…but i can do the trick with a USB soundcard with optical output) ??
  • passthrough HD formats doesn’t work with HDMI2.0 (although the latests Intel fix) ?? … and with the USB-C adapter?

Come on INTEL!!!

53

@orbtwin-plex said:
hello…thanks for answering … first of all.

  • passthrough to a Logitech z906 …only decodes DTS and DD
  • what’s does it means at 24Hz. ? isn’t working any HD format (DTS-HD-MA & DD-HD-True) neither in Windows? … Only with the USB-C to HDMI2.0 ?..

I addressed this in a previous post in this thread already. Intel has only partially resolved this. The firmware released still has issues with HD audio passthrough at 1080p at 24Hz refresh rate output using the built-in HDMI port.

i’m very confused. To clarify (always in Windows 10);

  • playing 4k HEVC 10 HDR test files without dropped frames. ??
    Yes
  • playing BRemux 1080p in high bitrate ??
    Yes
  • passthrough DTS & DD (the NUC lacks optical output…but i can do the trick with a USB soundcard with optical output) ??
    Yes
  • passthrough HD formats doesn’t work with HDMI2.0 (although the latests Intel fix) ?? … and with the USB-C adapter?

Only at 24Hz output

Come on INTEL!!!

54

Additional Fix for Audio on Intel’s site

24Hz “apparently” now working

55

@wesman said:
Additional Fix for Audio on Intel’s site

Download Intel Drivers and Software

24Hz “apparently” now working

i expect be the final fix.
anybody could test it?
i’m have yet my NUC

56

Unclear.

testing will happen over the next couple days

57

thanks for patience.
i’m pretty sure to buy a new 7i3 …
everything will play smooth and OK in PMP … but in near future (xmas) perhaps i’m gonna buy a receiver hdcp2.2
now i have a “old” Logitech z906 (happy with it) it can’t decode HD audio.

i simply would like a “future-proof” thing

58

@orbtwin-plex said:
thanks for patience.
i’m pretty sure to buy a new 7i3 …
everything will play smooth and OK in PMP … but in near future (xmas) perhaps i’m gonna buy a receiver hdcp2.2
now i have a “old” Logitech z906 (happy with it) it can’t decode HD audio.

i simply would like a “future-proof” thing

If you want future proof wait for the NUC7i7BNH for more CPU power. Will be out shortly.

59

@Ach!lles said:
If you want future proof wait for the NUC7i7BNH for more CPU power. Will be out shortly.

indeed and run on mostly the same hardware, just a better processor. plus it gives you a bit for everyone to work out the issues.

of course, at (or around) christmas, there will be the new NUC8…

60

@wesman Have you tested HDMI 2.0 1080p24?