Certain video playback (Could be Codec related) on Kodi

Hi all,

It is me again and I need your suggestion and help. I have decided to install my Zorin Ultimate onto my Home Theatre PC and I am also going to set up my cloud server there. I have always had issues with different distros when it comes to play video files through Kodi hence I have been reinstalling various distros. The last one I have installed is called Makulu Lindoz Beta V1.43 and it worked well. However the developer has kept on releasing new beta and it is just way too busy for my liking (Zorin is very simple). Now this is the sequence and result I have in the past -

1) Installed Linux Mint 17 18 but had graphic card issue (HTPC is running on AMD RV710 730 card with HDMI and sound build in)
2) Installed Ubuntu but also had system issue after upgrading from 10.04 to 14.04 I think
3) Installed Kubuntu and used it for a while but also video / graphic issues
4) Installed Makulu Lindoz 1.43 and worked well but has some system issues (not graphic and also it can not be upgraded)
5) Installed Zorin 12 Ultimate two days ago. It works well but now I have video playback issues using Kodi 17
6) Certain video files such as WMA, FLV and some MP4 ... it will either be playing random green and distorted images and then Kodi broke and whole system hang... or video playback is stuttering and slow.
7) I have googled and installed ubuntu-restricted-extras and it is still doing the same

So I would like to know is that what other solutions / suggestions you have to fix this? I believe it is distro specific (seeing not all distro had the same issue when running the same kernel). I would like to think it has something to do with video library selections or etc/ ? thanks.

Brad

After installing, have you fully updated your system? Have you tried the following at boot time? - Press the Left Shift Key when you see the black square with faint blueish border to get GRUB up - press E to edit the boot parameters, press spacebar then enter acpi=off, spacebar, nomodeset, spacebar, xforcevesa. Do you have proprietary Graphics drivers installed or the Nouveau GNU/Linux drivers for graphics? Can you please also view Wolfman's post on a different topic here and see if it helps?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9534&p=47018&hilit=codecs#p47018

Also you could use Synaptic Package Manager to search for video codecs?

Hi Swarfendor437 again and good to hear from you mate!

Guess what? you won't believe how stupid it was... it had something to do with a Hardware rendering option (MPEG) inside Kodi. The moment I untick it so it uses software rendering, then it works fine! I cannot believe it took me a year to figure this one out and I thought it has always been a distro issue.

and yes, the system is running 12.1 and not sure what Nouveau drivers are but will double check as well.

Thanks a mil mate!

Swarfendor437 wrote:After installing, have you fully updated your system? Have you tried the following at boot time? - Press the Left Shift Key when you see the black square with faint blueish border to get GRUB up - press E to edit the boot parameters, press spacebar then enter acpi=off, spacebar, nomodeset, spacebar, xforcevesa. Do you have proprietary Graphics drivers installed or the Nouveau GNU/Linux drivers for graphics? Can you please also view Wolfman's post on a different topic here and see if it helps?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9534&p=47018&hilit=codecs#p47018

Also you could use Synaptic Package Manager to search for video codecs?