CPU 100% peaks and dropped frames (1 Viewer)

[Johan]

MediaPortal Version: 1.0.0.0 + SVN 21793
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Windows XP SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 2200
HDD: 60Gb
Memory: 756 Mb
Motherboard: MSI
Video Card: Asus ATI Radeon HD3650
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 8.5
Sound Card: Soundblaster Live
Sound Card AC3: Coaxial out
MPEG2 Video Codec: Intervideo WinDVD 7
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Ffdshow
h.264 Video Codec: MPC-HC Build 1004
HTPC Case: Silverstone

I have a strange and somewhat annoying issue when playing videos in Mediaportal.

It occurs as droped frames/audio for a fraction of a second. It can happen many times within minutes and other times it can go several minutes between the problem.

I suspected that high cpu useage was causing this so I made some cpu logging. See attached picture. There you can see the peaks very clearly. This is what is causing the dropped frames. It does not matter if it's DXVA video or if it's cpu decoded video. The exact same happens in DVD video, h264 video and XVID.
I of course suspected the process using up all the cpu had to be Mediaportal but it is not. It is the process "System" which peaks the cpu. It only happens when I play video, not when I am in homescreen idle.

Now you might say I have some driver problem etc but I am not so sure of this. I have tested video in WinDVD, Windows Mediaplayer, MPC-HC and Graphedit and here I don't get any CPU peaks. Only in Mediaportal.

What I did now was to turn off every single plug-in in Mediaportal. The only plug-in I had active was "Home" and "My Video" so I was able to play video.
No difference so there is something in MP core?

OK I am using MP core changes to get MPC-HC subtitle integration but no. This is not it either. I reverted back to MP 1.0 (no svn, no modified core) and still the same problem.

I also suspected the memory. So I removed a 512+256 module and inserted one 1024mb module but no change either.

I have now spent hours of making different changes and logging cpu. It is darn boring since the peaks can stay away for several minutes sometimes so hard to know if it is fixed or just pure luck.
I am really clueless. HELP!

 

[Dodgy Bob]

Take a look at this forum post, it might help.

 

[Johan]

Thanks for the tip. However I don't have TV service installed so this is not my problem. I wish it was though. I still have the problem. I noticed the other day that I also had the peaks when I was idle in TV series plug-in (no video playing). Next day I had the idea that it could be skin dependant but then I was not able to reproduce in TV Series. And it takes so damn much time to test different things and I have a 1.5 year old daugher who needs my attention and a girlfriend who wants to watch TV (which I need to use to test MP) so I don't know. I have sort of given up to fix this

 

[tourettes]

Usually when you see the red spikes in task manager (kernel uses CPU time) it is caused by a broken driver.

 

[Johan]

Yeah I am familiar with this and that one is really nice to to try and fix

However I am not sure that is the case since I don't have this problem if I use another vide players which I have described above. I only get this problem when using video in MP.

 

[Johan]

Ok I have made some more testings and without any luck at all.
I still get the 100% cpu peaks every now and then when playing any kind of videoformat.

I am using MP 1.0 and I also reverted back to my old RC2 installation and still had the same problem.
I doubt that the upgrade to 1.0.1 will help but that is what I will try next.

Is there any way that I can narrow down that the heck it is that are causing the peaks? I mean it is only present when playing videos in MP. I don't have a clue how to know which driver could be the broken one (if that is the case).

I really really don't want to make a complete re-install of Windows XP (or Vista??) but if that is the only option that helps I guess that is what I have to do.

If I go for reinstall maybe I should choose Vista since this OS has better(?!?) support for video and DXVA.
The problem is if my old CPU can handle Vista without slowing down so much so that it is not useful to run MP.

Any suggestion to guides how to install a stripped Vista on an old systems would be very good helpful if the recommendations are to go for Vista.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Is amd's cool'n'quiet enabled, this can break video playback, the only other thing i could suggest is try the Vista codec pack, this is excellent at fixing codec problems, but before installing would run filmerit (link in sig), just to see if there are any errors.

 

[pnyberg]

I notice you got a separate sound card and also an ATI 3650. I suspect the 3650 also are having a sound chip - when using HDMI? Well, that was the case with my HD2600, and having two sound cards enabled at the same time can cause odd behaviour.

So are you sure you have disabled the sound driver for the ATI 3650 card?
I had kind of similar problem (but on Vista), with High CPU.

Good luck.