Huge amount of dropped frames (SOLVED) (1 Viewer)

sam3

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EDIT (SOLVED): Looks like the issue was caused by a bad nvidia driver. Installing the GPU driver that came with my mobo fixed this issue

It started off as a small audio problem - once or twice during a movie there would be a brief audio pause/break which i was trying to fix but made things a lot worse. The audio would stay in sync and the movie would play fine otherwise. Ive had this problem for a while (before i started using mediaportal, when i was still using windows media center).
To try and fix it I thought i would try to use some different codecs with media portal. I was originally using the microsoft codec for h264 and lav filter for audio and dts/ac3 passthrough.

I thought I would clean my computer of codecs first to see if this would help but i think uninstalling one of these things now casues mediaportal to drop about 50% of frames :(

  1. Uninstalled CCCP
  2. Used Win7DSFilterTweaker to restore microsoft codecs as preferred (instead of cccP)
  3. unistalled lav filters and reinstalled mediaportal ones
After this I ran mediaportal in windowed mode and used graphedit to see what filters were being used. I noticed that the video playback was very jerky.
graphedit.png


I thought it could be my weak CPU (amd 5000) and lav using software encoding so i tried cuvid, dxva 2 and even went back to the microsoft codec but the jerky video was happening on all. Clicking on the enhanced video renderer properties shows about 50% of frames are being dropped :(
I then did a complete uninstall of mediaportal and re-install but the issue still exists. Windows media player plays the files fine.

Any ideas on how to get this working again (I really am trying to avoid having to re-install windows :( )

Thanks

Sammy

Edit: Appears to happen only with 1080p and 720p h264 mkv content (with ac3 or dts passthrough) other files appear to play fine. The stuttering is much more noticeable on 1080p than 720p. Will have a play around with audio codecs tm to see if there is any difference.

Logs included and some minor specs:
Mediaportal 1.30 RC
Tv resolution 1360x768 @ 60hz
Using dts passthrough to amp
 
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mbuzina

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    MP uses the codecs that are set in the configuration tool, it usually does not use the windows merit system, so it uses LAV right now (see the graph jpg in your attached log file).

    Your log is full of errors, that the database could not be connected. You should check that first. Such intermittent issues might also cause stuttering.
     

    radical

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    Is this File a Bluray Rip? Maybe you have so much dropped Frames because it has 24fps an your TV is on 60hz and pulldown don't work properly?
     

    sam3

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    MP uses the codecs that are set in the configuration tool, it usually does not use the windows merit system, so it uses LAV right now (see the graph jpg in your attached log file).

    Your log is full of errors, that the database could not be connected. You should check that first. Such intermittent issues might also cause stuttering.

    Hi thanks for the reply (you were right the tv service had stopped working it could not connect to the database or tvserver) - I uninstalled mediaportal and mysql (and deleted the mysql files left behind in programdata and program files) and reinstalled them.
    It seems mediaportal can now log into the database and tv service but im not getting any tv picture (just a black screen). The tv scan picked up all the channels (most at a reasonable quality) and I tried selecting different codecs in renderer menu with no sucess (lav and microsoft). He is the picture of running filters created by mediaportal debug mode (isnt there supposed to be a video filter in there?) (ive added the logs of trying to playback tv below)
    graph_MediaPortal PID (CF0) IFilterGraph = 6652D88.jpg


    I will test now to see if HD playback is any different

    Is this File a Bluray Rip? Maybe you have so much dropped Frames because it has 24fps an your TV is on 60hz and pulldown don't work properly?

    Yes it is a bluray rip (24fps) and im running my tv at 60hz - how would you go about fixing pulldown problems?
    60hz is the only refresh rate that works without flickering on my tv at native res (1360x768) :( I can put it at 50hz at 1280x720 but my tv uses overscan on this and crops out a lot of the picture (which i cant seem to disable).
     
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    radical

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    I really don't know. Maybe you take a look on reclock but I've no experience on this.
    Be patient, someone will definitely have a closer look on this.
    And you should write down your configuration in system specs. It will make helping you much easier.
     

    sam3

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    I really don't know. Maybe you take a look on reclock but I've no experience on this.
    Be patient, someone will definitely have a closer look on this.
    And you should write down your configuration in system specs. It will make helping you much easier.

    Thanks for your help - I have added my system specs in.

    I will test now to see if HD playback is any different
    Just tested it now and hd playback was smooth. Closed mediaportal down and reopened it and video playback was very jerky again :(
    HD playback seems a bit hit and miss now (sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt)

    Ive added the latest log of trying to playback a 1080p mkv h264 file
     
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    georgius

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    The played file is on F drive. Is this drive local or mapped network path? If you have antivirus / firewall solution, can you check if it is not working at same time, or better exclude MediaPortal processes (at least MediaPortal.exe and TvService.exe) from checking?
     

    sam3

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    The played file is on F drive. Is this drive local or mapped network path? If you have antivirus / firewall solution, can you check if it is not working at same time, or better exclude MediaPortal processes (at least MediaPortal.exe and TvService.exe) from checking?
    Its on a external drive (USB). Im using Microsoft security essentials (I will add mediportal to the excluded list and try again)

    Thanks for your help - will report back in a hour or two
     

    husmoaschta

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    Did you play around with "Process-Priority" in MP-config? - Should be set to "Normal" under all circumstances and regardless what others may suggest.
    Also Windows should NOT be configured for Background-Processing ...
     

    sam3

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    Did you play around with "Process-Priority" in MP-config? - Should be set to "Normal" under all circumstances and regardless what others may suggest.
    Also Windows should NOT be configured for Background-Processing ...
    Hi thanks for the reply
    No I havent changed process priority (its still on normal) and I dont have any serious Background-Processing that i know of. The cpu usage during the stutter is only around 40% (on 1080p playback).

    Ive tried it with my antivirus disabled and this problem still occurs. Tv still only shows a black screen (and takes ages to start) and hd movies on local and external drives have about 50% dropped frames :(
    It always stutters in mediaportal in debug mode but normal launch mode hd playback is fine about 50% of the time? And wmp plays the files fine.
     

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