Client HTPC stuttering (1 Viewer)

[Johnnie]

Hi all,

Did some testing last week, and found something interesting, please let me explain:
* did two complete reinstalls, on the multiseat and on the singleseat config, loaded no plugins at all (only standard MePo)
* multiseat was slightly stuttering after install and also overlay of Blue3Wide is flickering, notices that live tv stutters very very lightly. Its like the image freezes for a millisecond and then proceed again
* on the singleseat though I noticed that the stuttering is heavier, it shows itself as an garbeled image. But after a couple of days the singleseat was stutering very heavy (I left multiseat on for a while). Then I rebooted the multiseat and the singelseat was much better! Before I did the reboot I watched the image on the multiseat and that was as always, slight stuttering (as described earlier).

I suspect that TV-server is doing something wierd (memory leaks?) and that shows heavier on a singleseat than on a mulitseat.

Does somebody recognise this or does somebody has an clue?

Johnnie
Maybe a developer can help here, I noticed quite some threads concering stuttering in MP1.1.0 which didn't show up in earlier RC versions

 

[sukceso]

Johnnie
Yes, you can see it clearly when using Shift+1. The red line is not flat but looks like a sinus curve and the value for fps is down to about 33.4 in my case.

I'm currently testing whether it has something todo with the video decoder, using PDVD10 from SAF so far. Now trying "Video Decoder/SP (PDVD9) for testing.

 

[limpwhizkid]

MediaPortal Version: W7: MP 1.1.0 (XP-Pro: MP 1.0.2)
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Wide
Windows Version: Dual Boot: W7x64 all updates (XP Pro SP3)
CPU Type: AMD Phenom X4 9150E 1.8GHz boxed
HDD: SSD Kingston 64Gb and 128Gb. Moved 2x Samsung Spinpoint HD103UJ to Synology DS410j.
Memory: 2x 2048Mb Kingston 800Mhz DDR2 Non ECC CL5
Motherboard: GA-MA78GM-S2H F5 rev1.1
Video Card: ASUS/ATI HD5450 silent
Video Card Driver: XP Pro: ASUS ATI 10.3 - W7: ASUS ATI 10.7
Sound Card: Integrated
Sound Card AC3: Integrated Optical out
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: FloppyDTV C/CI with Alphacrypt
1. TV Card Type: DVB-C
1. TV Card Driver: XP Pro v4.5 - W7 v5.7
2. TV Card: FloppyDTV C/CI with Alphacrypt
2. TV Card Type: DVB-C
2. TV Card Driver: XP Pro v4.5 - W7 v5.7
3. TV Card: (DVB-C)
3. TV Card Type: (FloppyDTV C/CI with Alphacrypt)
3. TV Card Driver: (XP Pro v4.5 - W7 v5.7)
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: SAF5.0 unlocked
MPEG2 Audio Codec: SAF5.0 unlocked
h.264 Video Codec: SAF5.0 unlocked
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Ziggo (Casema)
HTPC Case: Zalman HD160XT plus
Cooling: Scythe, Enermax Silent
Power Supply: Nexus 850
Remote: OneForAll, Zalman and Logitech Dinovo Mini -uberoptions-
TV: Philips 37FPL5322/12
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI and DVI-VGA


Hi Team,

First of all I like to stress that I really like MePo and still discovering features!

But I really need help solving described issue.
For some time now I'm trying to solve stuttering, carbeled images and dropping audio in MePo, I never had this issue with previous releases (1.0.2, and the RC's for 1.1.0 final).

At this moment I've setup a single seat config, see details above, and a client config, see details below:
MB: Asus M2A-VM HDMI (with disabled graphics controller)
SDD: OCZ Vertex 30Gb
Processor: Dual Core AMD Athlon X2 3800+ 2,0 Ghz
Memory: 2Gb
Graphics card: Sapphire HD5450 Silent 512Mb
ATI driver: 10.7
OS:W7 x64
LAN: Gigabit
CD/DVD burner, slim line

What I did till today:
Installed SAF5.0 (experimented with 4.0) => no luck
Experimented with dshowhelper => no luck
Reinstalled the machine => no luck
Experimented with: Dynamic Refresh Rate
Tagged and untagged: Don't drop TsReader in TV-client


What I noticed:
My single seat setup also does have some issues with stuttering but less then the client. LAN should not be an issue its 1Gb native and it has Cat5 cabling.
For this thread I made a recording to attach, but...before I attached it I've played it outside MePo and it wasn't displaying the issue. With that in mind, I think that the issue should reside on the client or whitin MePo.

As I'm not an expert on this matter (but learning all the way) I really appreciate the help of the team.

Please see attached Log files. And of course more than willing to do more investigation.

Regards,
Johnnie

johnnie, if I may make an educated guess..
the stuttering happens with Ziggo HD channels with DVB subtitles enabled ? (like veronica and sbs6? )

or on which channels do they occur ?

i cant get Win7 to work properly with the HD channels and DVB subtitles, i actually switched my clients back to vista and everything working perfectly now..

its easy to test yourself, disable the DVB subtitles option under TV config and see if the stuttering is still there ?

hope this helps..

 

[Johnnie]

johnnie, if I may make an educated guess..
the stuttering happens with Ziggo HD channels with DVB subtitles enabled ? (like veronica and sbs6? )

or on which channels do they occur ?

i cant get Win7 to work properly with the HD channels and DVB subtitles, i actually switched my clients back to vista and everything working perfectly now..

its easy to test yourself, disable the DVB subtitles option under TV config and see if the stuttering is still there ?

hope this helps..

Hi limpwhizkid,

Today I'll try the shift+1 option, promised earlier and let you all know and yes I did have in the W7 config subtitlles enabled, (in my previous setup not!) although I'm not sure if its on the place in the config you're refering. But I'll sort it out as well tonight.
Ow btw Stuttering doesn't matter on which channel, fimnet, public or commercial ones they all do.

But isn't it strange that multiseat is better than my singleseat cfg?

Johnnie

Here again and tried the following on the singleseat cfg:

• changed EVR to WMR9 => no difference
• Shift+1 => the green line is almost flat, the red line sparks down when the image is garbeled, the yellow line is like a jigsaw. Framedrops in a minute approx 30-35
• in TV setup no DVB selected
• tried Bob, Weave, etc => no difference
• tried other refresh rates in ATI config => no difference

Looked in my multiseat config with Shift+1 all lines are like small jigsaws and framedrops was pretty steady. Much less then singleseat.

Question: Does somebody has been downgrading from W7 to Vista and was this succesful?

Johnnie

 

[limpwhizkid]

johnnie, if I may make an educated guess..
the stuttering happens with Ziggo HD channels with DVB subtitles enabled ? (like veronica and sbs6? )

or on which channels do they occur ?

i cant get Win7 to work properly with the HD channels and DVB subtitles, i actually switched my clients back to vista and everything working perfectly now..

its easy to test yourself, disable the DVB subtitles option under TV config and see if the stuttering is still there ?

hope this helps..

Hi limpwhizkid,

Today I'll try the shift+1 option, promised earlier and let you all know and yes I did have in the W7 config subtitlles enabled, (in my previous setup not!) although I'm not sure if its on the place in the config you're refering. But I'll sort it out as well tonight.
Ow btw Stuttering doesn't matter on which channel, fimnet, public or commercial ones they all do.

But isn't it strange that multiseat is better than my singleseat cfg?

Johnnie

Here again and tried the following on the singleseat cfg:

• changed EVR to WMR9 => no difference
• Shift+1 => the green line is almost flat, the red line sparks down when the image is garbeled, the yellow line is like a jigsaw. Framedrops in a minute approx 30-35
• in TV setup no DVB selected
• tried Bob, Weave, etc => no difference
• tried other refresh rates in ATI config => no difference

Looked in my multiseat config with Shift+1 all lines are like small jigsaws and framedrops was pretty steady. Much less then singleseat.

Question: Does somebody has been downgrading from W7 to Vista and was this succesful?

Johnnie

I have been downgrading my clients to Vista sp2... and my stuttering is gone ..

Windows7 is quite "protective" about codec stuff... vista istn ... so my advise would be to install vista where a codec install isnt bothered by MS security measures... (if you think the problem is with codecs)

my problem was that HD channels had stuttering (win7) but only with DVB subtitles enabled..
if i switched dvb subs off it worked perfectly..
but the wife missed out on the subs... so .. tried vista .. and works flawless.. so why bother with win7... its only visible on bootup ... my clients are dedicated to mediaportal .. so after OS has started MP is full screen ..

 

[Johnnie]

I have been downgrading my clients to Vista sp2... and my stuttering is gone ..

Windows7 is quite "protective" about codec stuff... vista istn ... so my advise would be to install vista where a codec install isnt bothered by MS security measures... (if you think the problem is with codecs)

my problem was that HD channels had stuttering (win7) but only with DVB subtitles enabled..
if i switched dvb subs off it worked perfectly..
but the wife missed out on the subs... so .. tried vista .. and works flawless.. so why bother with win7... its only visible on bootup ... my clients are dedicated to mediaportal .. so after OS has started MP is full screen ..

Hi limpwhizkid,

Thanks for giving feedback, did do some things as well.....

Yesterdag I ve been installing my client pc (bedroom), as singleseat and with Vista SP1 (MePo 1.1.1). For what I've seen right now its working oke. But need still some testing.

My livingroom pc is still running on W7.
I've still think that the main issue is comming out of TV-server (from my livingroom) and for some reason gets worse by going over a network.

Hopefully I find a solution to tv-server and will be able to create a network based solution.

BTW, is there a specific reason to go to Vista SP2?

Johnnie

 

[limpwhizkid]

I have been downgrading my clients to Vista sp2... and my stuttering is gone ..

Windows7 is quite "protective" about codec stuff... vista istn ... so my advise would be to install vista where a codec install isnt bothered by MS security measures... (if you think the problem is with codecs)

my problem was that HD channels had stuttering (win7) but only with DVB subtitles enabled..
if i switched dvb subs off it worked perfectly..
but the wife missed out on the subs... so .. tried vista .. and works flawless.. so why bother with win7... its only visible on bootup ... my clients are dedicated to mediaportal .. so after OS has started MP is full screen ..

Hi limpwhizkid,

Thanks for giving feedback, did do some things as well.....

Yesterdag I ve been installing my client pc (bedroom), as singleseat and with Vista SP1 (MePo 1.1.1). For what I've seen right now its working oke. But need still some testing.

My livingroom pc is still running on W7.
I've still think that the main issue is comming out of TV-server (from my livingroom) and for some reason gets worse by going over a network.

Hopefully I find a solution to tv-server and will be able to create a network based solution.

BTW, is there a specific reason to go to Vista SP2?

Johnnie

nice... you made progress..

no specific reason .. i am partner of microsoft.. and could only download vista iso with sp2 included