Help, where's the bottleneck on my system? (1 Viewer)

[Tmac]

Hi, i just finished building a new HTPC and I'm experiencing some playback issues, specially on 1080p. First of all, they are very subtle, almost unoticiable, but they exist. Bsplayer reports framerate delays and drops.

Checking windows task manager the CPU usage hovers around 80% while using ffdshow, and about 50% with coreAVC. Which makes me believe that processing power isnt the problem here, but then, whos to blame?

My system is the following:

ASUS M2A-VM HDMI
AMD X2 5200+
1gb RAM
500 GB SATA

Anyone have any clue?

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Also i'm experiencing some problems with ac3 filter. It seems to output the audio with a slight delay, which i never experienced with my desktop PC. On my desktop i have digital optical SPIDIF output, on my HTPC, its a RCA SPIDIF output. Can that be the problem? Is there any difference beteween those two different types of SPIDIF solutions?


Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[MyPVR]

Hi Tmac,

you should have a look at the following link (just searched in the forum via "ASUS M2A-VM HDMI"):

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/htpc-projects-42/htpc-asus-m2a-vm-hdmi-690g-chipset-1250-a-42893/

The next link is one of your own threads there you were already told that this type of MoBo/Gfx could lead into troubles:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/hardware-selection-help-62/config-ok-low-cost-htpc-45386/

Regards,
MyPVR

 

[tsamb.]

Hi there Tmac,

I played around with the Asus P2-M2A690G barebone which uses almost identical (but smaller) motherboard. It was back when the LG Blu-Ray/HD DVD combo drive had just come out and I was hoping to get HTPC Blu-Ray playback from a small form factor. The barebones with that motherboard was the best IGP solution that hardware decoded H.264 and VC-1.

The end result was that the hardware decoding wasn't up to scratch to decode 1080p H.264. It handled 1080p VC-1 fine, but the combination of the BE-2350 and the 690G couldn't handle H.264. Most notably, Casino Royale on Blu-Ray was completely unwatchable with tons of dropped frames and stuttering. CPU usage was between 80% to 100% with the majority of 1080p H.264 titles. VC-1 was between 40% and 60% with no dropped frames and MPEG-2 the CPU usage was negligible.

I thought perhaps the BE-2350 was a bit underpowered so I popped a Brisbane core Athlon 5200+ in there, but still exactly the same problem with H.264.

I believe your biggest bottleneck in that system is the hardware decoding of the 690G's IGP.

The generation after that is a lot better. I recently put together a new testbed with the 780G chipset and the hardware decoding with that has improved considerably. (The 780G mobo is happy decoding 1080p with the BE-2350.)

So if you can, either shell out for a cheap current gen dedicated GPU with HD decoding, or upgrade your mobo to either the 780G or an nVidia board with an 8200/8300 IGP.

Another thing to note; I have noticed that the PowerDVD H.264 codec is a lot more efficient than ffdshow in terms of CPU usage. I haven't tested CoreAVC, so I can't quote a comparison on that.

As for your S/PDIF problem there is no major difference in the signal of an optical and a coax. Is your coax (RCA) connection using a very long (and perhaps flimsy) cable? If so try a short cable and see if that gets rid of the delay. I doubt it has anything to do with the cable, though, it is probably a software or driver problem.