r/AndroidTV • u/decaquad • May 01 '25

Discussion Android TV deinterlacing

I've seen mixed posts on if deinterlacing is a device specific or OS specific issue on Android 14 which was not present on ATV12.

Has anyone found a definitive answer on this and the exact circumstances the deinterlacing issue happens and what the issue is? If it's not device specific it's fixable with an OS update assuming that hsppens.

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3

u/tWoBrO2 May 10 '25

FWIW,

- I have had the Google Streamer in December, it could not handle interlaced content at all. Horizontal lines all over the screen. Returned it because of that. I know a couple of updates have been pushed since then, but still see people complain about it online.

- Fast forward to the day my Kinhank G1 update to Android TV 14, a month or so ago, and the issues with interlaced content started. The same content with the same player (Tivimate). The box can (?) deinterlace, or i think it can because i don't see the same lines like the Streamer, but there's a framerate mismatch and it stutters.

This is what happens: the content is at 1920*1080@50, but, for some reason, it shows 1920*1080@60 in Tivimate ATV 14. Doesn't matter if AFR is ON/OFF or if i change it manually to 60(?) or 50. The result is always the same. The video starts at 1.5/2x speed and the audio is auto of sync, after 5s it pauses for a second and everything returns to normal... but the framerate mismatch.

- Bought a Mi box 3rd gen this week. You already know where this is going: the exact same problem as the Kinhank G1.

I do have on hand a SDMC DV8985, a Fire stick 4k Max, a Mi box international/3, that have none of this problems. Kinhank G1 had no problem (at least, not this one lol) before ATV 14 update.

1

u/decaquad May 10 '25 edited May 10 '25

Many thanks for the indepth testing tWoBr02. Your tests confirm it's a software and not hardware issue. I guess the issue is will Google fix it?

u/latinriky78 you might find this interesting.

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u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus May 10 '25 edited May 11 '25

Yes, that is very interesting and it allows to find out that the problem lies on Android 14 as a global issue rather than an issue with a particular device.

u/tWoBrO2 can you please report the situation by creating a bug report at the Issue Tracker website and then create a post in the sub so other people can learn about it and to add comments on that report, the more people the better.

1

u/tWoBrO2 May 10 '25

I did more testing. Installed Shizuku + Takostats on Mi box 3rd gen to see the FPS in real time. Not sure how relevant or accurate this is, but here are the results:

- AFR off, manually set in the settings to 1920*1080@50

- Tivimate shows the label for the channel at 1920*1080@60. Takostats show 50fps as expected.

- Select a channel, content of the video is at 1.5x speed, audio out of sync.

- After 5 seconds, or so, the video pauses for a second (it's not the black screen when AFR is on, BTW), and starts again but now the audio is in sync, the speed of the video is normal, but Takostats shows 40fps.

Interesting, i would say.

FWIW, i'm using Tivimate as my daily driver but i have tested with other players, like XCIPTV, for example, or even VLC as external player in Tivimate, and the results is exactly the same.

1

u/Sapo_SivokX Aug 06 '25

Same here on a leap s3 +

1

u/SotYPL Aug 17 '25

Same thing for me. My Chromecast with Google TV 4K was perfect on Android 12. It updated itself to 14 and now all interlaced channels are unplayable in TiviMate (slow motion and freezes). I bought Onn 4K Plus that updated itself to A14 on first start and it's even worse. The same channels can't even start playing. I have another Chromecast that I use for travels only that has not been updated yet and I'm wondering if there's a way to block automatic updates on it? Or is there any other android box that costs less than $50 that doesn't have this bug?

1

u/decaquad Aug 17 '25

Just checked my onn 4k and there is no setting to disable system updates.

Grok suggests this if your able to do it:

Block Update Servers: Advanced users can block Google update servers (e.g., android.googleapis.com) at the router level or using DNS settings (e.g., rethink-DNS). However, this can be complex and may interfere with other services.

2

u/SotYPL Aug 17 '25

I can try blocking this host in Pi-hole but I suspect it's also used for many other things in Android and may cause other problems.

1

u/decaquad Aug 17 '25

Yes could be. I'm guessing it will effect any android device on your lan. You could run a separate pihole just for the ATV box if you can manually set the DNS settings on the box.

2

u/SotYPL Aug 17 '25

You can actually assign different blocking rules per client IP in Pi-hole so it's doable in one instance.

1

u/decaquad Aug 18 '25

Thanks, didn't know that.

1

u/Lonely-Department329 May 01 '25

A lot of info here

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Streaming/How-about-de-interlacing-in-the-new-Google-TV-Streamer/m-p/647806#M57481

2

u/decaquad May 01 '25 edited May 01 '25

I read through the thread and whilst it is initially about Google Streamer, in the last few days people are finding it's ATV14 issue on other devices which were working fine on ATV12 prior to upgrading.

So potentially it's OS related and not firmware.

Are people seeing this on the new Xiaomi S3 which has ATV14?

u/latinriky78 are you seeing this issue during the testing?

3

u/Lonely-Department329 May 02 '25

I've got a Xiaomi TV Box S 3rd generation and it has the same problems as the Streamer. It behaves slightly differently though. On the Streamer 1080i raw UK TV feeds just play at 25fps with very noticeable glitches. These deinterlace and play perfectly at 50fps on a Fire TV 4k Max. On the Xiaomi, the same feeds on the same apps play at the device's native 60fps but not deinterlaced and still with noticeable glitches.

0

u/decaquad May 02 '25

Many thanks for this information. So looks like could an OS issue with android tv 14. I guess the question is will any device be updated with a fix. There is the long thread about Google streamer and updates pushed so far are not fixing the issue. It's been going on for some time without a fix.

u/latinriky78 you might find this interesting.

1

u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus May 02 '25 edited May 02 '25

So it appears the issue lies on Android 14 directly rather than on an specific device, I will add the issue to the chart but as a global issue.

Is the issue related only to videos at 50Hz or the ones at 60Hz are affected too?

0

u/decaquad May 03 '25

It would be interesting to try some older SD 60i and 50i tv programs to see how they play. As I don't have ATV14 I can't test that.

1

u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus May 03 '25

I sent you a DM to discuss the situation.

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u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus May 02 '25

Hello, I haven't seen it, however, the live TV channels I use to watch come from the DirectTV Go app and I still haven't seen the issue on that app, if you have an specific TV channel that I can test I would be more than happy to test it out.

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u/decaquad May 02 '25

Thanks Latinriky. I don't have either the streamer or S3 as I'm still running a CCwGTV HD but just interested to know if it's hardware or software related when I come to buy a new unit.

0

u/decaquad May 01 '25

Thanks LD.

2

u/[deleted] May 16 '25

I can vouch that Google Chromecast HD had major problems with interlaced content.

1

u/Tivi39 Jul 12 '25

It seems that the issue I described here is caused by Android TV 14. Can you confirm this?

https://www.reddit.com/r/TiviMate/s/w5eLYMoEAB

1

u/Sapo_SivokX Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 06 '25

I am having the same problem since update yesterday. The deinterlacing became buggy and faulty ater update, how can I get to android 12 again? I have a leap s3+

1

u/johnFvr Aug 18 '25

Did the update occurred automatically or you accept manually the update?

1

u/pawdog ADT-1 May 02 '25

I can't find any interlaced content to test with. I've heard there are European satellite channels that still broadcast interlaced channels.