720p playback stutters, 1080p seems fine (coreavc) (1 Viewer)

[Nazgulled]

MediaPortal Version: 1.0.0.0
MediaPortal Skin: Blure3 Wide
Windows Version: Vista SP1 (32bits)
CPU Type: Athlon X2 4850E
HDD: Seagate 500GB Sata II 32Mb
Memory: 2Gb DDR2 800Mhz
Motherboard: Asus M3N78-EM
Video Card: IGPU GeForce 8300
Video Card Driver: ForceWare 178.24
h.264 Video Codec: CoreAVC

This is really, really weird...

Most of my movies are 720p but I have one that's 1080p, which plays just fine with no stutter using CoreAVC as decoder. However, any 720p movie I try to play with the same codecs/decoders, it just stutters. Some times it really stutters, other times it seems just out of sync with the audio/subtitles. Either way, there's a lot of issues playing 720p content but 1080p plays just fine...

For audio decoder, I'm using ffdshow and for subtitles, vsfilter. I have CCCP installed for this with H.264/AVC disabled in CCCP/ffdshow and CoreAVC is selected as video decoder in MP. The autoload subtitles thing is enable in Haali.

Weirdest thing, everything plays with no stutter at all in Windows Media Player, the stutter problems are only with MP internal player.

I would appreciate any advice on the subject, is getting me mad and I've already lost countless days and nights of sleep because of this.

 

[edterbak]

Maybe this is your problem.

Read the firstpost in this thread.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-1-talk-45/automatic-refreshrate-changer-44338/

 

[Taipan]

@ nazgulled: Please do not double post - I have deleted your other thread on this same topic ....

 

[Nazgulled]

edterbak
I was going to try that but I didn't got the chance to do and I won't be able to test it out until next weekend. I'm away from home during the weekdays cause of university. Anyway, I want to discuss this problem as much as possible during the week so I can try to fix the problem when I get home next weekend.

However, I'm wondering how could that be the problem...

1) The stutter I see doesn't feel like a refresh rate problem but I can be wrong.
2) If refresh rate is causing my problem, how come the video files play just fine on Windows Media Player?
3) The 720p and 1080p files I've tested are all 23,976 frames/second I believe (I don't really know which tool should I use to verify that) and the TV output signal is set to 1280x720 @ 50Hz. How come refresh rate is the when 1080p files play fine and 720p don't if everything is the same for both files?

Taipan
I'm sorry but I though that the other one was better placed (forum hierarchy that is) and the description of the problem was more complete so I created a new topic. I would have deleted this topic after the other one's creation but I can't do that as you are aware.

 

[edterbak]

couple of questions:
-Do you handle your audio digitally over SPDIF or something? through a receiver?
-Did you check that CoreAVC is actually used with MP? You can check with this program. You can also see what the differences are between playing in MP and in WMP.
-Did you try other audio codecs?

good luck

 

[Nazgulled]

-Do you handle your audio digitally over SPDIF or something? through a receiver?

Nope, the audio is decoder through software (ffdshow) and outputted to external speakers through the usual jacks.

-Did you check that CoreAVC is actually used with MP? You can check with this program. You can also see what the differences are between playing in MP and in WMP.

Yes, there were no differences. But I'll do a double check when I get home...

-Did you try other audio codecs?

I don't think so, the audio decoder is set to ffdshow on MP's configuration for the "Video Player".

 

[Nazgulled]

Ok, I've tried a couple of things but I can't make it work, it still stutters in MP...

I tried GraphStudio again but for some reason, there's no remote graph from Windows Media Player in "Connect to Remote Graph". So, I tested with "Render Media File..." instead and it seems to produce a stutter free playback. Here are the differences between both graphs:

MediaPortal:

Render Media File:

The only difference I see is on the video renderer, MP uses EVR and the other one VMR. The thing that says "0002" is VSFilter (DirectVobSub) and the one that says "inf-jttcote.mkv" is actually Haali.

I haven't yet tested "Automatic Refreshrate Changer" but something tells me it won't help a thing. But I'm going to try it right now and report back...

EDIT:
As suspected, "Automatic Refreshrate Changer" didn't helped a thing and it's not the source of the problem. I suspect the video renderer but I don't know what to do to fix the problem...

 

[edterbak]

So when you are using VMR as a renderer in WMP it looks fine. In MediaPortal with EVR it doesnt. You can change this in MP configurator. Go to Directshow Filter Controle, Video Renderer Settings. Here you have both options available. Maybe this will help. I am using VMR9 with exclusive mode to avoid tearing. This works for me in Windows XP.

 

[Nazgulled]

That's what I tried when I saw that EVR could be the cause of the problem... However, VMR9 with MP on my Windows Vista SP1 32bits box doesn't seem to work, it only shows a blank/black screen and nothing else. The sound plays though, but no video at all...

I tried to search the forum for this problem, but I can only seem to find "blank" screen problems with EVR and not with VMR...

 

[Nazgulled]

Does anyone have any more ideas?

I'm currently using an external player but that sucks a bit and it's a bit limited too...