Kodi won't play some video files

Question

I have a Raspberry Pi 3, using it to share data over my network from my external hard drive and to watch Youtube and some videos I have saved in one place (mostly tutorials and teaching videos).

The problem is, that Kodi doesn't want to play some of my videos. I have bought the MPG2 and WVC1 codecs but that wasn't the problem. Converting all the videos would be hard and it would take a lot of time also with no keyboard it is hard to search online.

The videos will try to load but it won't show up on the screen. It shows in the top right corner that it is playing. If I click on it, it will give me the full screen video playing, the screen is black, there is no sound but the player shows that the video is playing, time is running. I've tried to set it to use OSMplayer, but it won't help. Even some other videos that normally do work will stop working.

If I try to run the video file that did not work from Kodi with osmplayer, from Raspbian directly it works. Although the video will be centered on the screen and on the rest of the screen the desktop is visible, so it's not really full screen, I don't think it's intended to be like that. (Also the sound starts at maximum and it is very very loud)

I think it's just a codec issue, or some settings or something like that, but can't find the problem. If you have any idea what I could try, please let me know.

Linux raspberrypi 4.14.71-v7+ #1145 SMP Fri Sep 21 15:38:35 BST 2018 armv7l GNU/Linux 17.6 Git:20171115-d69a54a Media Center Kodi

Answer 1

A little help:

1) Read kodi log files for find any errors. (probably the best to start)

"This method assumes you are able to navigate the menu system of Kodi. If you cannot gain access to the menu system, then you will need to follow the Advanced Method."

2) file command for showing your movies file format :

~$ file mymovie.mp4 

,and read the output. Maybe some movie have bad/missing codec or file is corrupted (Eidt: What I do not think after reading you again.). You can use wilcard for a big list:

   ~$ file /media/myhdd/*.mp4
   ~$ file /media/myhdd/*.avi
   ~$ file /media/myhdd/*.mpeg
   ...

3) check system log for find any errors:

sudo journalctl
sudo dmesg
...