Causes for stuttering TV (2 Viewers)

[tsaelee]

Slow and stuttering TV/video playback

It is possible that what you all described caused video/audio issues, but to suggest your pci latency, video cable faulty, and over heating as primarily the issues, you all seem to miss something. The reason your video/audio isn't properly played lied mostly with your video codec (notice, I said video codec), it is either performing poorly or not able to handle the video - try switching to different video codecs (visit www.free-codecs.com and download the k-lite mega pack, load the ffdshow, etc..) If you don't have an integrated hardware capable decoder, try one of the more efficient codec such as the MPV or use the ffdshow, if you have NVIDIA video decoder, by all means, use it.

Also, please note that integrated hardware decoder can decode MPEG-4/MPEG-2 signals, the source has to be compliant. I don't believe all hardware decoder can all DivX files, only some.. so don't expect your hardware to decode those files.

The bottom line is, your video/audio codec has to work efficiently in conjuction with your file, and that your hardware (video chips and cpu) is fairly powerful.

Hope some of these tips will help you fix your playback issues.

I got Hauppauge pvr-250mce (single analog), AMD Athlon 2500+ (not even x2), ATI Radeon 9800 SE, and 512MB of memory - and it seems work just fine using:

MPV/MPA for codec, with ffdshow as postprocessing, and in ffdshow configuration, activate ffdshow to decode xvid, all raw, mp4, divx.

Well, love MP and keep up good work.

 

[Slack]

Area: Media Portal Program
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.0 (2006-07-03)
MediaPortal Skin: Butcher2 16_9
Windows Version: Windows XP (SP2)
.NET CLR Version: 2.0.50727
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904 (9.0c)
Audio Codec: MPA Decoder Filter
Video Codec: MPV Decoder Filter
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Memory: 959 MB
Motherboard: Asus A8N-VM CSM (w/ Forceware 8.26 Drivers)
TV Card Model: VBox DTA-150 (ATSC)
TV Card Type: Hardware
TV Card Driver: 2.1.705.7
Video Card Model: Integrated nVidia GeForce 6150
Video Card Driver: 91.47
Video Card Resolution: 1366x768 (Max Res of DVI Blade in Plasma)
Video Render Type: VMR9
Audio Card Model: SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio
Audio Card Driver: V5-10-01-4151_2KXP
Synopsis::

Note: Fresh Install of OS (Critical Updates Applied via Windows Update)

Attempting to resolve my TV stuttering issue...
Namely: too much stutter & audio drop out to endure when watching a recorded program while recording another. I built this box mainly to record HD football (american style). I'll typically start watching a game when it's 2 hours under way, skipping commercials & most huddles, so I'm interested in getting flawless playback whilst still recording....

Have tried (per this thread)....
Audio render - default directsound device: No change
Installed Process explorer to find that my CPU is at 70-80% Just playing back HDTV

This seems high to me - given the specs of the system. Does it not? Just curious what others think. If cpu is that high playing back a single file (still with a few intermittent pauses & audio drop outs)... it's no wonder that it's falling down when asked do do two streams.

The video folder is on the secondary IDE buss, sole, master drive. No other device on the secondary IDE. The primary IDE buss has the OS volume as master, and a DVD burner as slave.

Things left to try...
Nuke unecessary services.
Try other decoders (Nero & nVidia Pure Video come to mind.)
Prove HDD is up to snuff (HD Tach or similar proggy) It should be: PATA 7200RPM 8mb Cache
Try out this PCI latency Timer thing.
Downgrade Video drivers to older version (read about this as a fix on Snapstream forums)
Update window media player to 10?? Any value in this?
Any other ideas.

I'm reasonably deteremined to figure out my issue. If it's just lack of horsepower, I'll just give up on the HTPC altogether, and punt. Punt = get a set-top HD tuner & record down-resed HD on my ReplayTV. And for the other stuff that media portal does....I can still enjoy XBMC

 

[Flerbizky]

Video Card Model: 6600GT

I just fubar'ed my installation yesterday.. Was running a non WHQL 84.xx - And while searching for a solution to my "dead"ish TV image, decided to upgrade to the latest official nVidia driver - 91.47.... Irked.. Not good - First of all, colors were off like you wouldn't believe it. Spend an hour just trying to get that right, then there was stuttering in TV mode, weird flickering and what not..

Then spend two+ hours reverting back to a WHQL 84.56 - Let's just say that procedure wasn't pretty.. Anyway - 84.56 solved everything...

Now my "My TV" picture looks better than regular TV..

[Edit:] I will take extreme precautions when upgrading my drivers next time - Probably won't do it without a Ghost !....

 

[broadscott]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.0.4
Windows Version: Media Centre
CPU Type: Sempron 2800
HDD: 160 GB
Memory: 512mb
Motherboard: Asus K8V-MX
Video Card: GeForce 5200
1. TV Card: Winfast DTV1000T
MPEG2 Video Codec: Nvidia PureVideo
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Leadtek
HTPC Case: Antec NSK 2400
Remote: MCE
TV: CRT
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video

TV stars to stutter after watching for about an hour (with timshift on and off). If you change channel or turn the TV off then back on it stops stuttering, but this is impractical if you are timeshifting a program longer than an hour (ie a movie). Anyone else come across this and has a solution?

 

[Slack]

Have tried (per this thread)....
Audio render - default directsound device: No change
Installed Process explorer to find that my CPU is at 70-80% Just playing back HDTV

This seems high to me...

Damn straight this is high...

I ended up re-installing windows, and when installing motherboard chipset drivers I decided to NOT install nVidia's SMBus Driver & Storage Contoller. So all I installed was nVidia's Ethernet drivers.

I installed nVidia Video drivers one release below the current 91.## drivers. And reformatted my video storage volume with NTFS & 64K Clusters.

Installed SageTV (again), Saw 70-80% CPU when using default mpeg decoder. Switched to nVidia pure video...CPU usage is down to 20% when watching AND recording at the same time. In fact when recording, CPU usage is nothing more than background 'noise'. This is the way it's supposed to be. So I know can get SageTV to work satifactorily.

Still, I wanted to get MP working... however, when I re-installed Mediaportal, and configured it to use pure video, I did not see the accompanying reduction in CPU usage that SageTV exhibited. So, I'm sticking with SageTV.

I'll keep tabs on Mediaportal, because I love where it came from (XBMC), but I really have a finite amount of time to spend tweaking.

 

[pleky]

Same here, AMD 2800+, Nforce chipset. I tried to reduce resolution, add more frame buffer memory, change nvidia driver...

Nothing really changed, if I open MP in window mode, speed with or without timeshift is OK. If I change windows size, or switch to fullscreen, in TV mode sound and video are not sync, CPU is 70 % and more, frames are dropped...

TV Colors are crappy...

If I use an other software, everything is OK (speed, colors,...)

Like you slack I'm a XBMC user, I love this software (I only use my xbox for this software), and I'm looking for something like this for my PC...

 

[Al_Ghazi]

I would also be tearing my hair out if a lifetime of IT has not got rid of it for me. Also having stuttering TV problems.

All other video playing fine (DVD, Divx, etc...)

I have a Win-TV PVR 1300, using it in Analog mode. The software supplied by manufacturer (who can spell hauppauge???) works fine - really nice. but MP experiences severe stutters. I have tried each of the video / audio codecs in turn and the effect is the same.

Not sure what to try next. Are there known causes for MP stuttering? i am thinking that this has to be the MP software as everything works fine in the Win-TV application.

Anyone fix this? i got a Athlon 3700+ 1G DDR on a single simm and a 1TB RAID-5.

I just want my TV....

G

 

[debaser_uk]

Hello all,

not sure if this will help you out but I found that when I was using an accelerated codec (such as nvidia or intervideo) I had to manually select what de-interlacing method to use. My PC is connected up to my CRT widescreen tv and I only ever got good results with bob de-interlacing. Other methods caused stuttering and swearing (from me of course).

I got the best results with nvidia (possibly I set de-interlace to best, in work at the moment so can't confirm). To improve the picture quality I started MP in a window, started watching something, double clicked the nvidia tray icon that appeared and manually tweaked the colour, brightness etc. Once I was happy I put MP back into fullscreen mode. The picture quality is stunning now. Also make sure you video card driver is set to allow applications to control the colour and de-interlacing. Not sure how you do this with the nvidia driver, I have a radeon 9550 and use the catalyst control centre.

cheers.

 

[ziphnor]

I can confirm the behavior described by debaser_uk, with my X550 i get stuttering in MPEG-2 HD playback(1080i), if i choose 'best'. Choosing 'bob' fixes this issue for me.

 

[YaBigBlouse]

Wireless network card

Hi,

I found that when I was connected wirelessly to my network I was getting really bad stutters on live tv. I think the wireless lan signals were interfering with the TV reception. I bought another antenna with a 1 metre cable (for the lan card that is), sited the antenna away from the pc and solved the problem. It took me 4 weeks to solve, I was tearing my hair out. I couldn't find any help on this problem anywhere so maybe this will help someone out in the same situation.

Hats off the team-mediaportal gang - the software is awesome, I love it, well done to all concerned!

Peace.

Nice one, debaser!
Disabled my wireless card (a Belkin wireless 802.11g desktop network card) and voila! Rock solid telly. Enable, stutter. Disable, no stutter. Definitely a pattern emerging. Now, about that antenna w/ a long cable...