I have good OTA signal.
i sent another diagnostics of CBS, which comes in at 100%, 100%, 100%. Dropping frames quickly on some parts of the news.
(i've seen and heard ota has issues like that when there is too much signal)
Remember that a signal strength of 100% can also mean an overpowered signal—a signal strength of greater than 100%—which can affect the quality of the stream.
I'm not saying this is necessarily the case in your situation, but it is something to consider.
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That was one example. Not all the channels come in like that. There are no amplifiers in my setup. Its a coax run from a roof antenna. If I put an antennuator on it, I would lose quality on some channels, probably.
Does it also happen with exp audio enabled?
Is that an Apple TV HD or 4K?
yes, still happens. ATV 4K
Does it work in TestFlight 12.31.208
Experimental drivers drop frames on multiple older TestFlight I have tried, including 12.31.208. Diagnostics from live PBS sent.
Okay then it seems to be a different issue. We isolated a regression after 12.31 which was just fixed.
Does v5.1.1 stable from the App Store work, or does that drop frames too?
yes, must be a different issue from the 12.31. Watching PBS now with the stable build. its 1920x1080 mpeg2 coming it at (99%,90%,100%) and at a relatively low bitrate, 5Mb/sec. And see frame drops with Experimental drivers, but not with Default.
I hope anyone who wanted to see it got the file I posted, especially @tmm1. If not, PM me.
On ATV 4K set to experimental there are frame drops throughout, but it is significant at about the 50 minute mark until the end of the show at around 52 minute mark.
There are no significant issues playing this file in VLC.
I am unable to recreate the issue with frame drops on this recording.
Are you able to see the frame drops happen when the stats overlay is not visible?
@eric, glad you got the file! I can't see the frame drops on my computer in VLC. But they are noticable on ATV 4k (v1) connected to a 4K Vizio TV, set at 4K SDR. And they happen with the stats visible too. Did you try it on ATV at around the 50 minute mark?
@eric, now that you mention it, I don't have the issue on my downstairs ATV 4K. So its either a setting or something wrong with the ATV. But they are both connected to 4K TVs. Set at 4K SDR YCbCr 4:4:4 with match Range & Frame Rate.
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I've watched from 48 minutes to 52 minutes with the stats off and on. In both situations I see 0 dropped frames reported.
I am using the same ATV 4k you are, but connected to a monitor that only does 60hz fixed refresh rate.
Originally I was testing using the Experimental Deinterlacer but I switched to the Linear one to match you and am also seeing 0 dropped frames.
This is very interesting that it's specific to a single setup...
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This is a shot in a dark, but you may want to try changing chroma 4:4:4 to 4:2:0. I was experiencing crazy dropped frames in the past with the experimental video driver and no one was able to recreate it, then I tried resetting my video settings and everything was fixed. I haven't had issues since and heavily suspect either a tvOS or Channels glitch in regards to the chroma setting.
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@eric, I think I got it fixed. Thank you, really, even though you didn't find anything specific, you pointed me in the right direction (it was some kind of configuration issue).
I don't know what happened, but I changed the output to RGB high, still had issues, the RGB low, no issues, then back to YCbCr 4:4:4 and did "Check HDMI Connection", which ran for a few minutes and reported no issues.
And now I can suddenly play back the video with 0 dropped frames on Experimental drivers. Crazy.
It is as if the ATV, or possibly the TV that it is connected to via HDMI, got in some kind of bad state and needed a refresh. I don't know.
Just to be sure it still works with the range and frame rate changing, I played a 4K HDR video on Amazon Prime, and watched the video change resolution. Then exited and played the Channels video again and started noticing the frame drops again with Experimental drivers.
Tried turning on "Match Content for Live TV", but still getting the frame drops.
Then switched ATV to 1080p SDR and then back to 4K SDR. Frame drops still there again.
Switched to RGB Low. No frame drops.
Back to YCbCr 4:4:4 with Match Content off. No frame drops.
Play 4k prime video again (at 4K SDR setting... not matching this time)
then back to Channels PBS video. No frame drops.
Manually set TV to 4K HDR and played Amazon HDR video. Then set back to 4K SDR and played the Channels PBS video. No frame drops.
Just to be sure, I tried turning Match Content back on and played the Amazon video again. And now it is still at 0 dropped frames. Did the same thing a few more times and then started seeing dropped frames again.
So I thought maybe this has something to do with the way the ATV Match Content works on this TV. But no, it increasingly appears more and more random.
YCbCr 4:2:0 seems to be currently working with no dropped frames, even with the Match Range and Frame Rate.
This is totally bizarre. But I thats all the testing I can do. There must be some change with the tvOS match that doesn't work right with the Experimental drivers.
The primary use of this TV is just a large TV monitor above my computer screens to watch OTA via Channels. Its working now using the 4:2:0. And looks great. Maybe it was overheating. I wonder if the 4:4:4 was pushing it too hard. This ATV is literally taped to the back of the monitor. I pointed a fan at it. Maybe that will help.
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@alai yes, you are right... i spent the last hour or so testing this and ended up with the same 4:2:0 that you suggested. It is working currently.
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On second thought, 4:2:0 helps, but thats not totally the solution. It still drops sometimes when switching between HDR on Amazon and then back to Channels. Something is not working right with the matching + Experimental drivers. But I do like the way the Experimental drivers work with the video interfaces better. It is smoother and works better with PiP.
So I am going to turn the match off on the ATV for now.