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moonlight-stream / moonlight-android

GameStream client for Android
GNU General Public License v3.0
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[Issue]: Fire Stick 4K Max (2023) high latency #1276

Closed LoserCard closed 2 weeks ago

LoserCard commented 1 year ago

Describe the bug

The Fire Stick 4K Max (2023) has higher than expected latency given the hardware specs compared to the last generation (2021).

I observed the following benchmarks:

Enabling Game Mode on the Fire Stick did not make any difference. For comparison, the previous generation Fire Stick 4K Max (2021) achieves 4K60 80Mbps HEVC at 4ms average.

Setup:

One additional thing I noticed is that it seems to receive network bottlenecking after 50Mbps where my network latency jumps from 2-3ms to 8-12ms. This is tested using Wifi 6E on AXE6600 router (no other clients have network issues running 4K120 150Mbps). Using the built in Fire Stick internet speed test, I am seeing a max download speed of 419Mbps. This network issue may be hardware related but was not observed on the previous generation.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Download Moonlight on Fire Stick 4K Max (2023)
  2. Connect to a PC
  3. Enable Moonlight statistic
  4. Start any game

Affected games

Tested using Desktop and opened Minecraft, Heaven Benchmark, and Timespy.

Other Moonlight clients

PC

Moonlight adjusted settings

Yes

Moonlight adjusted settings (please complete the following information)

I have tested using H.265 and H.264. Adjusted bitrate from 20-80Mbps (observed the bottlenecking past 50Mbps).

Moonlight default settings

Yes

Gamepad-related connection issue

No

Gamepad-related input issue

No

Gamepad-related streaming issue

No

Android version

Android 11

Device model

Fire Stick 4K Max (2023)

Server PC OS version

Windows 11

Server PC GeForce Experience version

0.21

Server PC Nvidia GPU driver version

546.17

Server PC antivirus and firewall software

Windows Defender

Screenshots

No response

Relevant log output

No response

Additional context

No response

LoserCard commented 1 year ago

It looks like they made a switch from Android 9 (Fire Stick 2021) to Android 11 (Fire Stick 2023). Could this be related?

peacepenguin commented 1 year ago

Yikes, looks like the android 11 and higher mediatek bug again. My hunch is this report is the same issue as:

https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-android/issues/1241

Where they've started using the "modern" c2 decoder which doesn't work with the magic "vdec-lowlatency" fix that got media tek decoders working fast for moonlight on older Android versions with the same chipset.

Can you check your 2023 fire tv stick 4k max and see what decoder it's using?

My guess is the new fire tv stick 4k max (2023), based on android 11, will show:

C2.MTK.HEVC.DECODER

Instead of the older android 9 sticks that use the omx decoder api.

Let us know what you see, thanks!

LoserCard commented 1 year ago

It's using OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.HEVC

peacepenguin commented 1 year ago

Oh weird, not what I expected! Could you perhaps sideload this codec info app onto your fire stick?

https://github.com/Parseus/codecinfo/releases/download/release_2.5.1/app-standard-tv-release.apk

and use that app to screenshot / dump as much as you can for the codecs that it lists related to HEVC? I know it will be a pain on a TV, but curious what extensions it claims to support.

Also a logcat output from the ADB debug interface would be helpful too, I can compare that to my older 4k max (2021) and see if the decoder is loading the same way on the new 2023 max stick.

Enable adb over network and connect from a computer: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/connecting-adb-to-device.html

Run logcat over the adb shell: https://developer.android.com/tools/logcat

Usually just "adb logcat" will suffice after you've run the stream for a few seconds.

Thanks!

jesuzon commented 1 year ago

Just bought a fire stick 4k max (2023 version) and can confirm decoding latency sits around 15-16 ms no matter which settings you use. I will try to supply some of the information you requested above @peacepenguin tomorrow once I get some time!

kbonnici commented 1 year ago

Just purchased this model of firestick and i am experiencing the same issue described. i am a software engineer but i don't have experience with video codecs, so all i can do is follow @peacepenguin's instructions and i will report my findings as soon as i can.

mrratherford commented 12 months ago

I switched yesterday from a 4k Max Gen 1 (2021) to a 4k Max Gen 2 (2023) and didn't change anything other in my setup. So PC settings (including sunshine settings) and network settings stayed exactly the same. Both Fire TV sticks are connected via ethernet dongle. In moonlight I chose HEVC as codec. Now I am experiencing the same issues as @LoserCard.

On my gen 1 stick (2021) decoding latency was around 5 ms. Now on my gen 2 stick (2023) latency is between 15 ms and 20 ms.

As @peacepenguin asked I am attaching the codec infos for HEVC from my 4K Max Gen 2 stick (2023) gathered with parseus codec info.

There are 4 entries under VIDEO in parseus codec infos in the category video/hevc:

OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.HEVC
Hardware acceleration
true
Software-only
false
Codec provider
Device vendor / OEM
Max supported instances
4
Max resolution
3840x2176
Max bitrate
157 Mbps
Frame rate
1-120fps
Max frame rate per resolution
144p: 120,0 fps
144p (YouTube): 120,0 fps
240p:120,0 fps
240p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
360p:120,0 fps
360p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
480p: 120,0 fps
480p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
576p: 120,0 fps
720p: 120,0 fps
1080p:120,0 fps
4K: 64,5 fps
Color profiles
COLOR_Format1 6biRGb565 (0x6)
COLOR_Format32bitABGR8888 (Ox7F00A000)
COLOR_Formatyuv420Flexible (0x7F420888)
COLOR_Formatyuv420Planar (0x13)
COLOR_FormatYUV420SemiPlanar (0x15)
OMX_COLOR_FormatVendorMTKYUV (Ox7F000001)
Adaptive playback
true (required: false)
Partial frames queuing
false
Secure playback decryption
falee
Dynamic timestemp
felee
Multiple access units
false
Tunneled playback
true (requlred: false)
Partial access units per Input buffer
False
false
Profile levels
HEVCProfleMain (0x1): HEVCHighTierlevel51 (0x20000)
HEVCProfileMain0 (Ox2): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (Ox20000)
HEVCProfileMain10HDR10 (0x1000): HEVCHighTierLeve151 (0x20000)
HEVCProfileMain10HDR10Plus (0x2000): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (Ox20000)
OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.HEVC.secure
Hardware acceleration
true
Software-only
false
Codec provider
Device vendor/ OEM
Max supported instances
Max resolution
3840x2176
Max bitrate
160 Mbps
Frame rate
1-120fps
Max frame rate per resolution
144p; 120,0 fps
144p (YouTube): 120,0 fps
240p:120,0 fps
240p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
360p:120,0 fps
360p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
480p:120,0 fps
480p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
576p:120,0 fps
720p: 120,0 fps
1080p:120,0 fps
4K: 64,5 fps
Color profiles
COLOR_Format1 6bitRGB565 (Ox6)
COLOR_Format32bitABGR8888 (Ox7F00A000)
COLOR_FormatYUV420Flexible (0x7F420888)
COLOR_FormatyUv420Planar (0x13)
COLOR_FormatYUV420SemiPlanar (Ox15)
OMX_COLOR_FormatVendorMTKYUV (Ox7F000001)
Adaptive playback
true (required: false)
Partial frames queuing
false
Secure playback decryption
true (required: true)
Dynamic timestamp
false
Multiple access units
false
Tunneled playback
true (required: false)
Partial access units per input buffer
false
Profile levels
HEVCProfileMain (Ox1): HEvcHighTierlevel51 (0x20000)
HEVCProfleMain1o (Ox2): HEVCHighTierlevel51 (0x20000)
HEVCProfileMain10HDR10 (0x1000); HEVCHighTierLevel51 (Ox20000)
HEVCProfileMain10HDR1OPlus (Ox2000): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (Ox20000)
c2.android.hevc.decoder
Hardware acceleration
false
Software-only
true
Codec provider
Android platform
Max supported instances
32
Max resolution
4096x4096
Max bitrate
10 Mbps
Frame rate
0-960 fps
Max frame rate per resolution
144p:960,0 fps
144p (YouTube): 960,0 fps
240p:960,0 fps
240p (widescreen): 960,0 fps
360p:740,7 fps
360p (widescreen); 555,6 fps
480p: 416,7 fps
480p (widescreen): 311,5 fps
576p: 308,6 fps
720p: 138,9 fps
1080p:61,7 fps
4K: 15,4 fps
Color profiles
COLOR_FormatYUV420Flexible (Ox7F420888)
COLOR_FormatYUV420PackedPianar (0x14)
COLOR _FormatYUV420PackedSemiPlanar (0x27)
COLOR_FormatyUv420Planar (0x13)
COLOR_FormatYUV420SemiPlanar (0x15)
Adaptive playback
true (required: false)
Partial frames queuing
false
Secure playback decryption
false
Dynamic timestamp
false
Multiple access units
false
Tunneled playback
false
Partial access units per input buffer
false
Profile levels
HEVCProfileMain (0x1): HEVCHighTierLevel52 (0x80000)
HEVCProfileMainStill (0x4): HEVCHighTierLevel52 (0x80000)
c2.android.hevc.encoder
Hardware acceleration
false
Software-only
true
Codec provider
Android platform
Max supported instances
32
Max resolution
960X544
Max bitrate
10 Mbps
Frame rate
1-120 fps
Max frame rate per resolution
144p: 120,0 fps
144p (YouTube): 120,0 fps
240p: 120,0 fps
240p (widescreen): 120,0 fps
360p:90,7 fps
360p (widescreen): 68,0 fps
480p: 51,0 fps
480p (widescreen): 38,1 fps
Color profiles
COLOR_FormatSurface (Ox7F000789)
COLOR_Formatyuv420flexible (0x7f420888)
COLOR_FormatYUV420PackedPlanar (0x14)
COLOR_FormatYUV420PackedSemiPlanar (0x27)
COLOR_FormatyUv420Planar (0x13)
COLOR_FormatYUV420SemiPlanar (0x15)
Intra refresh
false
Dynamic timestamp
false
Multiple access units
false
Bitrate modes
Constant bitrate (CBR): true
Constant quality (CQ): true
Variable bitrate (VBR): true
Encoding complexity range
0-10 (default: 0)
Encoding quality range
0- 100 (default: 80)
Profile levels
HEVCProfileMain (0x1): HEVCMainTierLevel52 (0x40000)
HEVCProfileMainStill (0x4): HEVCMainTierLevei52 (0x40000)
mrratherford commented 12 months ago

@peacepenguin now for your question concerning the adb logcat logs:

I started logcat over adb and then connected with moonlight to my pc running sunshine. I let the stream running a couple of secs and used an xbox controller to make some commands. Hope this suffices. If not please let me know. I am happy to help.

adb_logcat.txt

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

@mrratherford The log cat looks good, there's no errors with the needed flags being applied to the decoder during the moonlight initialization like we see on some other newer mediatek devices. I see the correct 'vdec-lowlatency' flag for example being set.

Can you run parsec and see if it performs better or worse or the same? On some other mediatek devices parsec works great, but moonlight is high latency, lets see if parsec has solved the issue and we can reverse engineer from there if there's optimization possible.

SnowJ7Z commented 12 months ago

@peacepenguin Strangely, in parsec the decoding time is very low, like 2 to 3ms. unfortunately I can't play like I did on Moonlight with 50 bitrate (Parsec doesn't seem to know how to manage the network very well on Fire TV and the network latency is very high most of the time, unlike Moonlight) Here are some photos with 15, 20 and 50 bitrate and it is incredibly playable. (except for the 15 bitrate, sometimes it gets very grainy in fast movements.) I'm willing to carry out more tests within parsec if necessary. IMG_20231128_192829 IMG_20231128_193043 IMG_20231128_193359

LoserCard commented 12 months ago

@SnowJ7Z something is definitely up with networking in Moonlight too. I noted in the issue description that the threshold between 50-60mbps caused really bad latency in Moonlight. Hopefully both these issues can be addressed at the same time with a reverse engineering of Parsec.

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

@SnowJ7Z can you set parsec to h265 (hevc) and share those results too? So far all we're looking at in depth is h265. Thanks!

SnowJ7Z commented 12 months ago

Apparently everything is fine IMG_20231128_200233

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

Ok good to see parsec is working well, 3ms decode time is fantastic. It means that we should be able to make moonlight at LEAST as good.

Can someone capture a logcat of parsec using h265 on the 2023 fire tv stick 4k max?

Last parsec log I looked at was a little wonky, like they're bypassing the normal draw to screen functions and using their own. They seem to have found a trick to bypass some of the buffering that were seeing on mediatek decoders in android lately.

SnowJ7Z commented 12 months ago

@peacepenguin My version is the fire tv stick 4k 2023, basically the errors that are occurring are the same as in the max version. I'll send the logcat in an hour, maybe less.

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

Yes makes sense the only difference I see in the spec sheet for the 2023 4k vs 4k max is the storage space and clock speed of the cpu and gpu. Looks like they have the same chipset. So yes, the issue I imagine will be identical on both. Thanks for collecting the data, it will make finding a fix much easier!

SnowJ7Z commented 12 months ago

I don't know if I did it right, but here it is. Logcat.txt

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

Thanks @SnowJ7Z and @mrratherford the logcats are really helpful

Try this apk I just compiled, I just made a quick change to the decoder config to closer align it to parces.

You'll need to uninstall your existing moonlight app before installing this modified one:

https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/releases

Changes: https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/commit/7ff2561fd3632313f974f7d5474bb256402d084d

donlonW commented 12 months ago

@peacepenguin Just try this on my Mediatek tablet and it is still using the c2 decoder not the omx one. The soc is Helio G99. image

SnowJ7Z commented 12 months ago

@peacepenguin Still unsuccessful, still within a range of 13 to 16ms

mrratherford commented 12 months ago

@peacepenguin I'm seeing the same results as @SnowJ7Z .

Moonlight (https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/commit/7ff2561fd3632313f974f7d5474bb256402d084d) runs with 10 -16 ms decoding latency. The only different to version 0.21 is that the screen is black for a couple of seconds after connecting to the sunshine server. but after this the stream runs stable.

here are the logs for Moonlight (https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/commit/7ff2561fd3632313f974f7d5474bb256402d084d): logcat_moonlight_7ff2561_firetv_4k_max_gen2_2023.txt

i installed parsec (v150-85c) on the fire tv 4k max (2023) and looked at its decoding latency. parsec seems to have some tricks up its sleeve, because it's decoding latency was around 3 ms:

Medien

I'm attaching the logs for parsec, too: logcat_parsec_150-85c_firetv_4k_max_gen2_2023.txt

(looking at the logs now i'm not sure if I captured the moment connecting to the host with parsec. If not please let me know and I will try again)

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

@SnowJ7Z thanks for testing, good news is adaptive playback isn't causing trouble, that's a decoder feature that we can re-enable for these newer sticks that was previously causing problems.

@mrratherford thanks for testing and sending more logs, it's very helpful.

I'm now looking at these settings that are different and will make some further changes to my fork to hopefully get moonlight decoding sub 5ms on these sticks.

I'll post test builds as I progress.

parsec:


MediaCodecLogger: HW.omx.video.hevc Adaptive Streaming max w:3840 h:2160, screen size:FHD

VPUD    : MaxFixedBuf Info, w*h=0*0, mode=0
VPUD    : [Vdec_initFixedMaxMode ,4789] bFixedMaxBuffer:0 size(0 0), bMetaEnhance=0

VPUD    : [Info] bMetaEnhance=0, bFixedMaxBuffer=0

## consistent 'no free buffer' errors 10 per sec logged during streaming, indicating buffer is never available
## which based on the great performance, assume this is a good error to have

I MtkOmxVdecExV4L2: [0xee4bf140]  FBD, mNumPendingOutput(13), input_index = 3, output_index = 0 (0xee69b180)(2, 1)
E MtkOmxVdecExV4L2: [0xee4bf140] PrepareAvaliableColorConvertBuffer, no free buffer can't queue to CCDst

vs moonlight with adaptive playback enabled (https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/commit/7ff2561fd3632313f974f7d5474bb256402d084d):


com.limelight.LimeLog: Configuring with format: {max-height=1080, color-transfer=3, vdec-lowlatency=1, max-width=1920, low-latency=1, mime=video/hevc, width=1920, color-range=2, priority=0, frame-rate=60, color-standard=1, height=1080}

MediaCodecLogger: HW.omx.video.hevc Adaptive Streaming max w:1920 h:1080, screen size:4K

VPUD    : MaxFixedBuf Info, w*h=3840*2176, mode=3
VPUD    : [Vdec_initFixedMaxMode ,4789] bFixedMaxBuffer:0 size(3840 2176), bMetaEnhance=1

VPUD    : [Info] bMetaEnhance=1, bFixedMaxBuffer=0
VPUD    : [Info] bMetaEnhance, PicAlloc(1920,1088), PIC(1920,1088) u4DpbSize=3
peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

After digging through lots of code and logs, I think what we need to do next is implement "Tunnel Mode" (or Multimedia Tunneling) for audio/video playback in moonlight-android.

The codec info posted for the fire tv 4k max 2023 shows "Tunneled Playback" as a supported feature of the hardware hevc decoder.

The notes for Tunneled mode are very promising from both google's android and amazon's fire os implementation notes for low latency video playback.

I'm looking into how to convert my fork of moonlight-android over to use Tunneled Playback mode. It looks easy based on the docs linked below, but I'm not sure where to initialize the audiosessionid that is required to sync the video to the audio. Both the audio and video stream need to reference the same, pre-created audiosessionid when they are instantiated. Currently in moonlight-android the audio decoder gets created after the video decoder, I think we need to switch that around and setup the audio decoder first, with the audiosessionid, then pass that same audiosessionid to the video decoder too.

Then just need to figure out how to remove the dequeueOutputBuffer and releaseOutputBuffer traditional rendering steps as noted in amazon's guidance.

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/4k-tunnel-mode-playback.html

Tunnel Mode Playback

The hardware decoder for some Fire TV devices support playback of 4K @ 60 FPS. To play a video at such high resolution and frame rate, the timing requirement of media pipeline is very aggressive and the app may not be able to render 4K frames at 16 msec interval due to thread and process scheduling limitations of the kernel. This may cause frame drops and a sub-par movie experience. To get the best out of the hardware, use Tunnel Mode playback.

Do not call dequeueOutputBuffer and releaseOutputBuffer for video decoder.

https://source.android.com/docs/devices/tv/multimedia-tunneling

tunneled video playback bypasses the app code and reduces the number of processes acting on the video, it can provide more efficient video rendering

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

@SnowJ7Z not sure but to test audio sync and latency issues I use this video on a loop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjAa0wOe5k4

First just make sure it's perfect when you sit in front of your computer, direct attached output to monitor and speakers, to ensure the base rendering is working as intended (no sunshine/moonlight involved here, just gotta get ensure even local playback is perfect first)

Then open up moonlight, desktop session, and see if the audio and video is still in sync or not when viewing the same video over moonlight.

So far in my experience moonlight has been perfect for AV synchronization, so it sounds like the issue you are having would be from the game itself not rendering the audio and video in sync. But you can deduce that down with the above test and see where the issue is coming from.

BuiltInParris commented 12 months ago

Glad to see folks are already digging into this, just bought a Max mostly because I was excited about using moonlight with it. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help as far as logs or whatever. I can also potentially help with dev since I know Java really well, but my experience with these streaming protocols is pretty limited.

peacepenguin commented 12 months ago

@BuiltInParris

I'm digging into this deep for academic reasons, and i just snagged a new max 2023 to test with.

I could use your help, as java is not my main to say the least!

I'm trying to find where the AudioTrack object "track" gets created, and move it to before the video decoder gets initialized. The goal being to implement Tunnel Mode decoding. Documented in very few places on the web, with even fewer examples.

I need to get the audiosessionid from the "track" object, and pass it to the video decoder. Currently the video decoder is setup before the audio decoder, so I can't get the audiosessionid where I need it.

Let me know if you can look at that, I'll post my progress and test builds in this thread so we can stay in touch.

I should probly hop on the discord and see if any of the maintainers can weigh in on moving to Tunnel Mode decoding in general.

BuiltInParris commented 11 months ago

@peacepenguin Looking really quickly (busy weekend for me), it looks like it's done in the AndroidAudioRenderer. The method createAudioTrack is responsible for creating the AudioTrack object, which happens in the setup method and that's called by bridgeArInit.

Honestly a bit confused by how exactly the method "Java_com_limelight_nvstream_jni_MoonBridge_init" works, but it seems like that's where they make all these statics calls to initialize each component. "bridgeArInit" makes the call inbound to create the AudioTrack. It seems that "bridgeDrSetup" is responsible for making the video decoder. You should just be able to swap those two to get the effect you want. You can find the calls in callbacks.c.

peacepenguin commented 11 months ago

thanks @BuiltInParris

I've now got the audio session ID generated and passed down to the audio and video rendering startup as params, seems ok. As soon as i start the session things hang and crash though, which makes sense, as I've not removed the traditional rendering methods for the video, which amazon says explicitly needs removed in tunnel playback mode:

Do not call dequeueOutputBuffer and releaseOutputBuffer for video decoder.

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/4k-tunnel-mode-playback.html

I'm pretty much stuck here, I have no idea what to replace those calls with. dequeue and release output buffer is how the screen is drawn. I don't see any further documentation on how your supposed to draw the screen without those in existence.

Non-working wip can be found here. At least it has the audio session id being passed into both audio and video now: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-android/compare/master...peacepenguin:moonlight-android:tunnelmode

That diff is from my 'tunnelmode' branch in my fork of moonlight-android here: https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/tree/tunnelmode

Please chime in if anyone knows what to look at next. This all to enable "tunnel mode playback", which amazon says: "To get the best out of the hardware, use Tunnel Mode playback."

Google says it reduces latency: https://source.android.com/docs/devices/tv/multimedia-tunneling

And these sticks support it per their codec output. So should shave some decode latency off the top by switching to tunnel mode.

So I think we're on a good path here, I'm just quickly reaching my limit on Java programming, especially with basically no implementation examples on how to use it from google nor amazon.

Anyone with Java experience please take a look at the links above and my wip code and see if you can help.

Thanks all!

jesuzon commented 11 months ago

I don't know much about Java or video streaming in general, but, just in case you haven't seen this (although I'm sure you probably have)

https://source.android.com/docs/devices/tv/multimedia-tunneling#:~:text=Multimedia%20tunneling%20enables%20compressed%20video,code%20or%20Android%20framework%20code.

There is some information on the android documentation which might be helpful.

The other source of example use is the ExoPlayer source which again you have probably seen.

Thanks again for your help and efforts, it feels like a solution is close!

prototypicalpro commented 11 months ago

Hey @peacepenguin! I just picked up a sony X85K TV and am seeing the same issue (also based on android Q), but I was able to get multimedia tunneling working on it using your branch. Here are the changes I made:

All my changes to your branch are here: https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/compare/tunnelmode...prototypicalpro:moonlight-android:tunnelmode?expand=1 . I haven't run any latency tests since my audio sync code is jank and I'm sure it will cause issues, I'd be interested if moonlight has a better way to compute the audio timestamp.

BuiltInParris commented 11 months ago

@prototypicalpro This is exciting! Thanks for weighing in, super appreciated (and love when I find anyone else who uses jank lol). It looks like Moonlight uses "SystemClock.uptimeMillis()" in some places and "SystemClock.elapsedRealtime()" in others: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-android/blob/a18aa2698513ae5b7b585e68ffc49fb1f23ad955/app/src/main/java/com/limelight/binding/video/MediaCodecDecoderRenderer.java#L1407C64-L1407C90 https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-android/blob/a18aa2698513ae5b7b585e68ffc49fb1f23ad955/app/src/main/java/com/limelight/computers/ComputerManagerService.java#L179

It looks like: "System.currentTimemillis is the standard "wall" clock (time and date) expressing milliseconds since the epoch... This clock should only be used when correspondence with real-world dates and times is important, such as in a calendar or alarm clock application."

"elapsedRealtime() and elapsedRealtimeNanos() return the time since the system was booted, and include deep sleep. This clock is guaranteed to be monotonic, and continues to tick even when the CPU is in power saving modes, so is the recommend basis for general purpose interval timing."

So it seems like it might make sense to use elaspedRealtime here, yeah? Reiterating here I don't have streaming expertise but that would be consistent with other parts of the code.

peacepenguin commented 11 months ago

@prototypicalpro

Nice progress! Did you get the stream actually working in tunnel mode? I merged in your changes but I get black screen and decoder crash still.

Perhaps we're close and my issue is just a mediatek specific thing we need to workaround now. I'm not sure the chipset in your Sony TV.

prototypicalpro commented 11 months ago

@prototypicalpro

Nice progress! Did you get the stream actually working in tunnel mode? I merged in your changes but I get black screen and decoder crash still.

Perhaps we're close and my issue is just a mediatek specific thing we need to workaround now. I'm not sure the chipset in your Sony TV.

I did! Although I tested a bit more and it seems it only works if I have audio constantly playing in the stream, I guess moonlight doesn't send audio if none is playing which leads to a black screen. Maybe this fixes the issue?

I checked and my TV has the Mediatek MT5895, which I'm guessing is a similar generation to the new firestick.

cgutman commented 11 months ago

Nice investigative work. I'm interested to see if tunneled playback ends up being the magic bullet for low latency playback on these types of devices.

I did! Although I tested a bit more and it seems it only works if I have audio constantly playing in the stream, I guess moonlight doesn't send audio if none is playing which leads to a black screen. Maybe this fixes the issue?

That's correct. I believe GFE will send silent audio frames if nothing is playing but Sunshine won't.

The docs mention that audio data starvation will stop the video:

When audio data isn't provided to AudioTrack and the buffers are empty (audio underrun), video playback stalls until more audio data is written because the audio clock is no longer advancing.

However, they also mention that Android 11 supports tunneling video-only streams:

For Android 11, the HW sync ID from PCR or STC can be used for A/V sync, so video-only stream is supported.

The docs are unclear exactly how that works and it doesn't help on prior Android versions though.

I wonder if it would work to just completely forget about the audio synchronization part and just play silence on a separate AudioTrack just for the purpose of making tunneling work. I'm not sure if having a concurrent tunneled audio stream might cause other issues though, like failing to enter the lower latency fast path in the audio mixer for the real audio stream.

Another thing that needs to be checked is how tunneled playback handles cases where the incoming frame rate exceeds the frame rate of the display. A large part of the renderer logic is dealing with frames that arrive late or otherwise can't be displayed within a reasonable time period. With the current rendering code, we call releaseOutputBuffer() so we get to tell MediaCodec what we want to happen with our buffer if it's late. Without this, the stream will accumulate latency the longer it goes, even if it's a tiny difference of 60 FPS vs 59.94 Hz or something.

apoklyps3 commented 11 months ago

Could this be the same issue that plagues exynos devices with big decoding latency?

peacepenguin commented 11 months ago

@apoklyps3

This is still a theoretical attempt to reduce latency. We've barely got a proof of concept working to test now.

You can check if your device supports tunnel mode with this app:

https://github.com/Parseus/codecinfo/releases

If you see tunnel mode available, join the fun here and test these builds out that were discussing and see if it helps or not!

apoklyps3 commented 11 months ago

@apoklyps3

This is still a theoretical attempt to reduce latency. We've barely got a proof of concept working to test now.

You can check if your device supports tunnel mode with this app:

https://github.com/Parseus/codecinfo/releases

If you see tunnel mode available, join the fun here and test these builds out that were discussing and see if it helps or not!

seems it doesn't according to Parseus at least. sorry to polute your thread... mine seems a different issue where if though Parseus says it supports low latency on h264, it seems Moonlight doesn't use it

morgan35543 commented 11 months ago

I'd like to add that I'm also experiencing high decoding times on a 3rd gen fire cube.

Client machine

Fire TV Cube Gen3

Host machine

CPU: i5-13600k GPS: RTX 3080 Streaming software: Sunshine (https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine)

Host configuration

Encoder: NVENC NVENC preset: P1

Decoding Benchmarks

Resolution 4k

Bitrate: 150mbps
Codec: HEVC

Average decoding time: ~28ms +/- 2ms
Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.hevc.decoder.awesome
Bitrate: 80mbps
Codec: HEVC

Average decoding time: ~24ms +/- 1ms
Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.hevc.decoder.awesome
Bitrate: 150mbps
Codec: AV1

Average decoding time: ~28ms +/- 2ms
Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.hevc.decoder.awesome -- Not sure why it's using hevc for AV1, I restarted moonlight to be sure
Bitrate: 80mbps
Codec: AV1

Average decoding time: ~24ms +/- 1ms
Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.hevc.decoder.awesome -- Not sure why it's using hevc for AV1, I restarted moonlight to be sure
Bitrate: 150mbps
Codec: H.264

Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.avc.decoder.awesome

Stream fails to load. 
Bitrate: 80mbps
Codec: H.264

Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.avc.decoder.awesome

Stream fails to load.
Bitrate: 40mbps
Codec: H.264

Reported decoder: OMX.amlogic.avc.decoder.awesome

Stream fails to load.

Logcat output

Moonlight: LogCat.txt

Decoders

OMX.amlogic.hevc.decoder.awesome

Hardware Acceleration: true
Software-only: false
Codec provider: Device vendor / OEM
Max supported instances: 9
Max resolution: 3840x2160
Max bitrate: 160mbps
Frame rate: 0 - 960 fps
Max frame rate per resolution:
    144p: 960
    144p (Youtube) 960
    240p: 960
    240p (Widescreen): 960
    360p: 960
    360p (Widescreen) 960
    480p: 960
    480p (Widescreen): 960
    576p: 960
    720p: 540
    1080p: 238.2
    4k: 60
Colour profiles:
    COLOR_FormatYUV420Flexible (0x7F420888)
    COLOR_FormatYUC420SemiPlanar (0x15)
Adaptive playback: true (required: false)
Partial frames queueing: false
Secure playback decryption: false
Tunneled playback: true (required: false)
Profile levels:
    HEVCProfileMain (0x1): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (0x20000)
    HEVCProfileMain10 (0x2): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (0x20000)
    HEVCProfileMainHDR10 (0x10000): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (0x20000)
OMX.amlogic.hevc.decoder.awesome.secure

Hardware Acceleration: true
Software-only: false
Codec provider: Device vendor / OEM
Max supported instances: 1
Max resolution: 3840x2160
Max bitrate: 160mbps
Frame rate: 0 - 960 fps
Max frame rate per resolution:
    144p: 960
    144p (Youtube) 960
    240p: 960
    240p (Widescreen): 960
    360p: 960
    360p (Widescreen) 960
    480p: 960
    480p (Widescreen): 960
    576p: 960
    720p: 540
    1080p: 238.2
    4k: 60
Colour profiles:
    COLOR_FormatYUV420Flexible (0x7F420888)
    COLOR_FormatYUC420SemiPlanar (0x15)
Adaptive playback: true (required: false)
Partial frames queueing: false
Secure playback decryption: true (required: true)
Tunneled playback: true (required: false)
Profile levels:
    HEVCProfileMain (0x1): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (0x20000)
    HEVCProfileMain10 (0x2): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (0x20000)
    HEVCProfileMainHDR10 (0x10000): HEVCHighTierLevel51 (0x20000)
peacepenguin commented 11 months ago

Anyone that wants to try out tunnel mode on their devices can find a compiled apk here:

https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/releases

On my fire tv stick 4k max (2023), I only get crackling audio from the host, and a black screen. But @prototypicalpro reported it worked fine on their sony X85K smart tv.

Thanks @prototypicalpro for the code that enabled this test build. Can you confirm this build works the same on your sony tv as your own test builds? I want to make sure I got all your code merged in correctly.

We're at least close to seeing if tunnel mode will help improve latency or not for these fire sticks, and maybe other devices too.

morgan35543 commented 11 months ago

I get the same results with tunnel mode on the fire cube 3. There's also audio latency but there's another issue that was raised for that.

Edit: I haven't tried that new build, will do tomorrow.

Edit 2:

@peacepenguin, with the latest build I'm unable to see the average decoding time. It just sits at 0.00 ms. Rendering frame rate also sits at 0.00 fps.

I do have a picture and just eye balling it, I can't see much difference.

SnowJ7Z commented 11 months ago

On my fire tv stick 4k 2023 I get the same thing, black screen and crackling audio. I tested it on my smartphone with SOC mediatek and I get error 2, something related to the audio, I don't remember now...

peacepenguin commented 11 months ago

Yes not sure tunnel mode is going to help anything here, thanks all for testing though.

I also see tunnel mode isn't supported on mediatek devices on android 12 and up, they switch to the "c2" decoders instead of "omx". So tunnel mode is a dead end moving forward anyway.

On a related note, testing the normal moonlight client on my fire tv stick 4k max (2023) I'm seeing the reported 15-20ms decode times, and also non-synchronized audio. The audio is delayed about a quarter of a second, or 250ms-300ms.

So there's certainly something wrong with the decoding on these sticks at a more fundamental level.

Can anyone else confirm the audio lag? I just swapped back to my fire tv stick 4k (2018), and it runs perfect, no audio lag, and 8ms decode times for hevc on the same TV, with all the same settings.

So not sure where to go next. The audio delay is way more bothersome than an extra 10ms of video latency. Maybe we fix the audio first, as 250ms delay is unplayable, vs 10ms of extra video decode latency, which is not perfect but is playable at least.

morgan35543 commented 11 months ago

Yeah there's this issue for the audio latency: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-android/issues/1238

At least myself and the person who raised that also experience it.

SnowJ7Z commented 11 months ago

@peacepenguin Yes, I don't know if you remember, but I mentioned something about the audio delay a while ago, I thought it was something in my head and ended up ignoring it, but on my 4k 2023 model I have this same problem, it's very noticeable in the fullscreen mode of the playnite when browsing the menus, the sound is extremely delayed, in the same average of ms that you mentioned, I managed to reduce it enough so that it doesn't become a nuisance by setting the fire stick's av sync to maximum, but it is still noticeable.

constantindjonkam commented 11 months ago

From what I realized the audio is significantly delayed when you connect a Bluetooth speaker to the fire TV make sure you're not using a Bluetooth audio source

On Sat, Dec 23, 2023, 13:31 SnowJ7Z @.***> wrote:

@peacepenguin https://github.com/peacepenguin Yes, I don't know if you remember, but I mentioned something about the audio delay a while ago, I thought it was something in my head and ended up ignoring it, but on my 4k 2023 model I have this same problem, it's very noticeable in the fullscreen mode of the playnite when browsing the menus, the sound is extremely delayed, in the same average of ms that you mentioned, I managed to reduce it enough so that it doesn't become a nuisance by setting the fire stick's av sync to maximum, but it is still noticeable.

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moi952 commented 10 months ago

Hello, have you been able to make any progress on this subject? I got the 4k max fire tv for Christmas but it's unplayable unfortunately. šŸ˜‚ Thank you for your work Charly

BuiltInParris commented 10 months ago

I wanted to follow up here: I thought my game was unplayable because of that extra processing time, but Constant's comment put me onto bluetooth devices. Looks like it's actually my controllers connecting to the Fire Stick that have a crazy slow response time. It seems like the Firestick's bluetooth hardware kinda sucks. For anyone else who is getting one fresh, it's something to be aware of.

LoserCard commented 10 months ago

@BuiltInParris I've done various testing with the 2021 Fire Stick 4K Max and found that it is due to the antennas and placement of the stick (typically placed right off of HDMI port on TV). I have an older TV where I can play games with normal BT latency but if I try on my newer TV (smart w/ wifi), the latency increases the farther away I get from the stick. I would recommend an HDMI extender to get it away from the back of a TV. I also confirmed my theory using a portable gaming monitor (no smart/wifi capabilities) and an 8Bitdo Ultimate Controller (allows for 2.4GHz and BT) and the BT (via Fire Stick/Moonlight) latency was near indistinguishable from 2.4GHz (connected directly to PC).

I suspect the same can be said about the 2023 refresh but I don't really want to do any extensive testing until this main issue is resolved.

constantindjonkam commented 10 months ago

Everything wired should be playable (at least on the Firestick). My controller is sometimes laggy on Bluetooth, same with other Bluetooth devices like sound. When I have everything wired the games are very playable. Try to wire everything if you experience any lag on your device. In my experience, moonlight has been better than parsec on the Firestick 4k max. I face a lot of decoding issues (freeze) when I use parsec. A 2 ms or less on moonlight will be a plus.

moi952 commented 10 months ago

I also have the problem of sound lag, but I don't use a bluetooth speaker, it's the sound from my home cinema connected to the TV.

I hope the sound problem can be fixed because it's completely unplayable like that šŸ˜•

@peacepenguin https://github.com/peacepenguin/moonlight-android/commit/8b8e7cc24e33c9667df747477f36fbaecf88d3d5 not working on my Fire tv 4k Max (2023)