EPG text flickering off (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

EDIT: Never mind, it seems it was probably caused by the TV card not having initialised properly after waking from standby.

MediaPortal Version: 1.4.0

Description
When on the TV EPG screen, the entire text will keep disappearing momentarily, leaving only the background (i.e. picture and columns/rows for where the channels/programmes should be displayed).
The frequency of this happening varies but it tends to go about 3-4s before happening and then doing it twice in quick succession.
I had the EPG showing and it was happening throughout the minute of 10:23-24 recorded in the logs for sure.

Steps to Reproduce:
Open TV EPG

 

[doveman]

Actually it seems it's not related to TVService not running as it's happening now and TVService is working fine. I observed it happening around 13:29-13:30 and didn't see it on Home or TV Recordings, only TV Guide.

 

[wizard123]

I've seen this on my parents machine before a while back, changing the codecs pack and using default direct audio instead of MPAR fixed it. Not seen it since though.

 

[doveman]

Hmm, it mostly only seems to happen when using PureVisionHD 1080 skin and with "Enable Coloured buttons in TV EPG" enabled. If I disable that option it doesn't seem to happen at all but I do need that on otherwise it's hard to read the EPG and it gives me a headache.

I've seen it happen briefly when first going into the EPG after switching to Titan but after that it didn't seem to happen. As soon as I switch back to PVHD1080 with that option enabled it starts happening again.

I switched between the skins and toggled that option on/off in the attached logs. As it mostly seems to affect PVHD1080, I'll report it to catavolt in his thread as well.

 

[catavolt]

Cannot confirm the issue with PVHD 1080

 

[doveman]

Sorry, I've observed it happening on DefaultWide and Titan now, so it's not a skin-specific issue.

 

[catavolt]

But would be interesting to know what causes that flicker.

 

[doveman]

But would be interesting to know what causes that flicker.

Indeed. I tried running MP on my (VGA) LCD monitor and didn't see any flickering there but changing it back to run on my (DVI) TV and it flickers again. I think I'll try and make a video as that might make it clearer what is happening.

EDIT:
Hmm, the flickers tend to stop when I start recording with Bandicam and even when they do happen, they don't come out in the video at all

I guess I could record the screen with my camera instead.

EDIT2: I wonder if it could be insufficient VRAM. My onboard HD4250 IGP is currently using 256MB on Auto settings and GPU-Z currently shows 230MB Dedicated and 284MB Dynamic being used. I'll try setting the VRAM manually in the BIOS to 512MB and see if that fixes it.

I've also noticed the GPU usage does go quite high, up to 70%, when on the EPG. On Home, it hovers around 38-45% (with MP closed it drops to 7%, 111MB Dedicated and 89MB Dynamic). I couldn't say the flickers corresponded with the high GPU usage on the EPG though.

 

[wizard123]

I know if you turn off evr rendering it stops so maybe codec or refresh issue?

 

[doveman]

At first I thought I'd fixed it by increasing the VRAM to 512MB but no, it's still happening

Now GPU-Z shows 475-502MB Dedicated and 47MB Dynamic.

I'm not using MPAR and the refresh rate for the TV is 60hz and 59hz for the monitor (this can't be changed to 60hz, or at least when I re-open the settings it's changed back to 59hz).[DOUBLEPOST=1375811823][/DOUBLEPOST]

I know if you turn off evr rendering it stops so maybe codec or refresh issue?

Codecs wouldn't be in play just sitting on the EPG screen though would they?

EDIT: It's happening for me in VMR9 mode as well.