Juddery Video (1 Viewer)

[sns2015]

TV-Server Version: 1.0 RC4
MediaPortal Version: 1.0 RC4
MediaPortal Skin: Blue3 Wide
Windows Version: XP MCE SP3
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 64 x2
HDD: 500gb WD GreenPower SATA
Memory: 1gb (2x512mb) DDR2 800
Motherboard: Asus M2A-VM
Video Card: Asus ATI Radeon HD3450
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Integrated/Radeon HD3450 (thru HDMI)
MPEG2 Video Codec: MPV
MPEG2 Audio Codec: M2A
h.264 Video Codec: CoreAVC
Remote: MediaCenter Remote
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI


I recently started encountering an issue where all of the videos that I play through MediaPortal start juddering and appear to be dropping frames left and right. This issue didn't used to happen, and this is a new issue. I've really only tested it with x264 files, and the issue occurs with all codecs on my system except for the Arcsoft TotalMedia Codec which seems to play back files fine (with the exception of 1080p where there isn't enough processing power to go around for that, normally CoreAVC handles 1080p on this system fine). I've tested the files in Windows Media Player on the same machine and they playback with no problems using various codecs, so this is definitely a MediaPortal issue. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[frenzy]

I recently started encountering an issue

What changes have you applied to your system when the issue started occuring? does a system restore to a point before the issue fix it?

 

[sns2015]

As far as I can tell, the only thing that I did was install Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme in order to playback Blu Rays (I also installed the corresponding in-development plugin). I also tried a clean install of MediaPortal and I'm still encountering the issue. Interestingly enough, when I tried changing the video renderer to EVR (or whatever the other option MediaPortal gives you is), it played back at full framerate, but it had video tearing. I'm also a bit weary to try a system restore point option, as last time I did that, it broke my whole HTPC and I had to reinstall Windows.

 

[frenzy]

Well, try to find what is causing tearing in EVR. Should be an option in ccc. Try to reset the ati ccc to the default factory settings and see if that works. ccc has given me tearing before so it should be something in that buggy driver software.

 

[sns2015]

I reset everything in CCC to factory defaults and it still doesn't work. EVR is only supported under Software mode for XP (hence the tearing) so I did that just as a bit of a test. It seems that I can use CoreAVC successfully for 1080p material, but I can't use it for 720p or below. For those, I have to use a DXVA-enabled codec such as the Arcsoft Decoder or the MPC Codec, and unfortunately, my GPU/CPU combo isn't enough for DXVA to decode 1080p material. Normally I would be okay with the constant switching of codecs, but it used to work before, so now I'm confused as to why it isn't working now. I even tried to re-install DirectX 9 and it didn't really do anything. The strange thing is that the video is fully smooth in areas of extremely high motion in the video (to the extent where most of it is a blur).

 

[frenzy]

I can use CoreAVC successfully for 1080p material, but I can't use it for 720p or below

I can't understand that unless you are resizing through some filter to 1080p

 

[yourmumquake]

Try the following:
Un-register MPV (Mpeg2DecFilter.ax) and MPA (MpaDecFilter.ax) and MP Audio switcher MPAudioSwitcher.ax.

Use the ATI h.264 codec from xcode of 8.11 and AC3Filter 1.51a only.

Set refresh rates in CCC both in Display Manager and Options (3D).

You may need to adjust jitter in AC3Filter if lips not in sync.

Good luck.

 

[sns2015]

As far as I know I'm not using any extra filters to resize to 1080p, which makes this an extremely strange issue indeed. I also tried yourmumquake's suggestion and it didn't fix the issue. Part of the problem is that my 3450 isn't quite enough to offload 1080p material fully (and even if it could, it would still have to be level 4.1, which most stuff isn't) and what remains is still too much for my CPU to handle, so going with just a DXVA solution doesn't really work. I did find out, however, that this issue is only limited to h.264 material in MediaPortal. It seems that I can play back DivX/XVID and MPEG-2 videos fine regardless of resolution, it seems that it's just x264 that's broken. I get the feeling that it may be that the internal scaler used by VMR9 is using an unnecessary amount of CPU than it would otherwise normally do outside of MediaPortal. I've even tried re-installing my graphics card drivers to no avail.

Edit: It's definitely not a lack of CPU issue, I just checked it's usage during playback of a juddery scene and it never went above 35% (typically it stayed around 25%). So I don't know what it is now.

 

[frenzy]

use gspot or or graphedit or something and see what's going on because it doesn't make sense.

 

[sns2015]

Solved the issue. Something was parsing MKV files instead of Haali Media Splitter, and apparently that was causing the issues. All I had to do was reinstall Haali Media Splitter, and everything works fine now. Thanks for all of your help.