[ATI] 50Hz isn't quite 50Hz (2 Viewers)

[logifuse]

Hi guys,

DPC latency was all clear - it was the first thing I checked after the problems I had with my Shuttle XS35GT fanless PC.

I'll follow up with the other items ASAP, but out of curiosity I installed XP on it & tracked down some drivers to get it all going. The result was that MP running the PureVideo decoder is smooth as silk for all channels except a 720p one (I've always seen this issue with PV as it doesn't see the channel as progressive & attempts to deinterlace it - the thumbnailer can't cope with it either). The worst channel before was a 1440x1080i anamorphic one (One HD) which is the highest bitrate channel here. On XP using PV it was perfect. Obviously I don't have access to all the EVR stats, & the ATI decoder was a bust (despite consuming the same CPU & GPU percentages), but it was a very strange result. The main issue with XP is that it won't wake properly due to my SSD, so I have to hibernate. It's a possible solution, but not a great one.

Any thoughts on alternative decoders to try in XP? Power DVD, but an older version? I tried Bitcontrol, but it was a bust. MPC struggles due to the lack of DXVA.

I partitioned the hard drive so that I can do a dual boot, so I'm about to reinstall 7 64 bit on it & get back to isolating the issue.

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with how old the ATI XP drivers are? The best I could find (due to the Mobility Radeon & XP) were 10.1 (8.700.0.0). I suppose I can try old drivers in W7 & see.

 

[logifuse]

An update to the XP situation - got sleep/wake working by changing to AHCI, & tried PDVD 9 & 10 & both work perfectly! Even manually installed 11.12 ATI drivers & it's still fine.

Something is seriously borked in W7 with this system. I don't think it's EVR specific as VMR under W7 runs just as badly. Gotta be the way W7 does something that XP does differently.

Anyway, I'll get back to W7 & post the requested items as soon as I can.

 

[logifuse]

OK, here is a stats screenshot & the evr.log from a short session. The graph was going crazy when I took screenshots & that seems to be reflected in the log. Let me know if you want a "clean" evr.log when no stats were on screen or no screenshots having been taken.

Now, this ISN'T an MP or 4TR problem, it's an issue with this GPU & Windows 7 & I'm just hoping that the attached might give a hint as to what that issue is.

I suppose a screenie & log from XP might help by way of comparison? Edit: of course they won't being VMR - d'oh!

Edit: added an evr.log from just plain viewing (evr-clean.log)

Thanks again.

 

[Spragleknas]

Oh.... I got a similar problem where i get a "gltich" every now and then (8-10 sec), but my graphs are not nearly as jumpy as yours.

Did you try disabling advanced features like skin-tone correction etc to see if your gfx is just "over worked"? As I stated prev., this might help (think I read it... somewhere...).

 

[logifuse]

Yeah, it does that with everything off & deinterlacing set to weave (the lowest), so that's not where the issue is. I've fiddled with audio & video codecs, the audio renderer, local & remote playback.

I can get 576i SD TV to almost flat graphs (but not flat), but 1080i & 720p wobble like my screenshot.

It's a shame because it's definitely a better PQ than the Nvidia ION equivalent. The ION can't do better than bob deinterlacing (when forced to do adaptive using LAV CUVID it tanks), & the ATI gets the most out of the MS decoder, while it's lacklustre on the Nvidia (LAV is best for that).

I'm hoping Arctic can come up with a eureka setting that sorts it out. It's got serious potential as an extender type PC as it will be about A$360 for a complete unit when hard drives drop back down in pricing. In some markets you can get a unit without an optical drive, so you could probably get that down to around A$300 - of course if you don't have Windows, it will cost more.