New toy: Asrock ION 330 (1 Viewer)

[tinabeatr]

I was doing some experimenting with refresh rates on my 330 last night. When I set my HDTV to 1080p 24hz through the Nvidia control panel, HD movie playback looks incredibly smooth. That is, all movies that natively play back at 24fps look incredibly smooth since the screen is refreshing in step with the frame rate. However, some of the movies end up with the audio severely out of sync as the movie progresses. I'm guesses this is due to timing issues involving the telecine/pulldown that's normally performed when the display is at the native refresh rate of 60hz.

I've also experimented with the built-in dynamic refresh rate adjuster in MediaPortal in the past. I encountered the audio sync issue as well as other graphical glitches in MediaPortal's UI, so I stopped using it. Also, it would appear that the dynamic refresh rate adjuster does not work properly with EVR. This is a problem since I'm using Windows 7 and EVR is the optimal rendering method.

The difference between smooth 24p and jittery 60hz has really become apparent to me now that I'm aware of it. I'd really like to be able to display video on the HDTV in the video's native frequency, but I can't seem to overcome these issues. Does anyone know of any plug-ins or utilities that would make this possible?

 

[Domini0n]

Thanks for the help. I have done some further testing now, here are some of my readings:
With MPC Player
mkv 1080p, smooth, cpu 35-40%, dxva
mp4 1080p, smooth, cpu 35-40%, dxva
hdmov 1080p, smooth, cpu 35-40%, dxva
wmv 1080p, stutter, cpu 60+%
wmv 720p, smooth, cpu 55-60%

Mediaportal with MPC-HC codec
mkv 1080p, smooth, cpu 10-15%, dxva (I guess)
mp4 1080p, smooth, cpu 12-20%, dxva (I guess)
wmv 720p, smooth, cpu 35-40%

Mediaportal with CoreAVC codec
mkv 1080p, smooth, cpu 15-25%, cuda
mp4 1080p, smooth, cpu 12-20%, cuda
hdmov 1080p, smooth, cpu 25-35%, no cuda


Also interesting to note that MP with MSFT MPEG2 codec:
Live TV, smooth, cpu 15-20%
However, every channel change adds another instance of ffdshow audio decoder in the sys tray

Haven't managed to get HDTV playback to work again, MP just freezes when I try. It worked before I started testing different codec setups, but with significant audio/video sync issues or stutter.

The MP test with MPC-HC and CoreAVC are good results, it uses hardware acceleration by the looks of it. Have you ever used Studiograph to see which codecs are used when you playback a movie? Installing a codec and selecting it, doesn't guarantee that it will also use the codec. The amount of CPU usage in MPC player itself however does not use hardware acceleration properly when you look at the CPU usage. The problem with ffdshow and haali splitter instances sounds familiar to me, but can't find the thread on this forum where they discuss this issue. I'll post the link if I do find it.

I was doing some experimenting with refresh rates on my 330 last night. When I set my HDTV to 1080p 24hz through the Nvidia control panel, HD movie playback looks incredibly smooth. That is, all movies that natively play back at 24fps look incredibly smooth since the screen is refreshing in step with the frame rate. However, some of the movies end up with the audio severely out of sync as the movie progresses. I'm guesses this is due to timing issues involving the telecine/pulldown that's normally performed when the display is at the native refresh rate of 60hz.

I've also experimented with the built-in dynamic refresh rate adjuster in MediaPortal in the past. I encountered the audio sync issue as well as other graphical glitches in MediaPortal's UI, so I stopped using it. Also, it would appear that the dynamic refresh rate adjuster does not work properly with EVR. This is a problem since I'm using Windows 7 and EVR is the optimal rendering method.

The difference between smooth 24p and jittery 60hz has really become apparent to me now that I'm aware of it. I'd really like to be able to display video on the HDTV in the video's native frequency, but I can't seem to overcome these issues. Does anyone know of any plug-ins or utilities that would make this possible?

Have you tried 50Hz instead of 60? 50 is almost double of 24 and will run better then 60Hz. 24Hz sync issues are known issues with MP and they are trying to get it fixed. I use 50Hz in the mean time to get the best results on playback.

 

[tinabeatr]

Have you tried 50Hz instead of 60? 50 is almost double of 24 and will run better then 60Hz. 24Hz sync issues are known issues with MP and they are trying to get it fixed. I use 50Hz in the mean time to get the best results on playback.

I'll give that a shot. I've seen 50hz listed, but always thought that was just for PAL stuff. Thanks.

Is there a particular thread that discusses the known issues with 24hz sync in MediaPortal? I'd like to follow that thread so I can stay current with the latest news.

Edit: My HDTV doesn't support 50hz, even though NVidia control panel lists it. Oh well.

 

[tomoqv]

The MP test with MPC-HC and CoreAVC are good results, it uses hardware acceleration by the looks of it. Have you ever used Studiograph to see which codecs are used when you playback a movie? Installing a codec and selecting it, doesn't guarantee that it will also use the codec. The amount of CPU usage in MPC player itself however does not use hardware acceleration properly when you look at the CPU usage. The problem with ffdshow and haali splitter instances sounds familiar to me, but can't find the thread on this forum where they discuss this issue. I'll post the link if I do find it.

I can't get Graphstudio to work in Win 7, at least not connecting to a remote graph. I can see the graph, but when I hit the "Connect" button, nothing happens.

I have also read about the multiple instances of Haali, in the SAF thread and some other. I saw somewhere that this issue would be solved in the later SVN:s. Maybe the ffdshow issue is related to that. Unfortunately the never ending codec issue continues to be a P.I.T.A for most of us HTPC users. I was naive to believe that better graphics hardware + Win 7 should be the cure. I have yet to find a codec pack that meets all of my needs.

 

[Domini0n]

Have you tried 50Hz instead of 60? 50 is almost double of 24 and will run better then 60Hz. 24Hz sync issues are known issues with MP and they are trying to get it fixed. I use 50Hz in the mean time to get the best results on playback.

I'll give that a shot. I've seen 50hz listed, but always thought that was just for PAL stuff. Thanks.

Is there a particular thread that discusses the known issues with 24hz sync in MediaPortal? I'd like to follow that thread so I can stay current with the latest news.

Edit: My HDTV doesn't support 50hz, even though NVidia control panel lists it. Oh well.

Did you do a search on the forum yet?
I'll help you this time , but it is something you can find for yourself.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/watch-edit-videos-104/audio-sync-problems-when-screen-set-24-hz-39188/

I can't get Graphstudio to work in Win 7, at least not connecting to a remote graph. I can see the graph, but when I hit the "Connect" button, nothing happens.

I have also read about the multiple instances of Haali, in the SAF thread and some other. I saw somewhere that this issue would be solved in the later SVN:s. Maybe the ffdshow issue is related to that. Unfortunately the never ending codec issue continues to be a P.I.T.A for most of us HTPC users. I was naive to believe that better graphics hardware + Win 7 should be the cure. I have yet to find a codec pack that meets all of my needs.

Yeah codecs can be a B*T*H yeah. Have you thought about posting the required screenshot for language support for the SAF codec pack? Then you can enjoy the SAF easy install for yourself.

 

[tomoqv]

I finally got almost everything to work with minimal cpu usage. I have Win7Codecs + codecs from CLVDPack (Cyberlink PowerDVD 9) and HDPack installed. HDTV playback worked without stutter/sync issues after selecting the ArcSoft Video Decoder for H.264 in the TV client, only problem being that zapping to or from SVT HD requires stopping/starting live TV. The only video file that won't play so far is .MOVSD, however the same format plays flawlessly with extension .MOV.

Another quirk that I have also is that inserting a DVD causes MP to freeze until I eject the DVD. If the DVD is already inserted when I start MP, I can play via the DVD menu. I have Windows set to do nothing when a DVD is inserted and I have tried the three different actions in the MP DVD plugin, but no one works. Very strange.

I will come back with my codec setup after a bit more thorough testing, but so far it looks good. Even streaming 1080p trailers doesn't get cpu usage above 10-15%.

 

[tinabeatr]

Did you do a search on the forum yet?
I'll help you this time , but it is something you can find for yourself.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/watch-edit-videos-104/audio-sync-problems-when-screen-set-24-hz-39188/

Haha. I'm aware of that thread, but thanks for pasting it. I thought you might have known of some other thread where devs were discussing the topic and possibly mentioned if/when it would be implemented.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna keep experimenting and I'll post back with any progress I make.

 

[Domini0n]

Well I played my first Blu-ray disc on my Asrock ION330-BD, it's the Asrock version with a Blu-ray combo drive in it. I use Arcsoft player with the Plugin to make it run from MP, it works like a charm and 100% smooth playback on two different movies that both have 1920x1080 resolution and one disc has DTS-HD and the other DD TrueHD. I now have everything running smooth fast and responsive with MP 1.0.2 and StreamedMP 0.8.448, SAF codec pack and Acrsoft plugin. The slow menu problems with the latest SVN and StreamedMP is being discussed here, but if you install MP 1.0.2 and StreamedMP 0.8.448 then you will not have slow plugin switching (slow menu's).

 

[ChriZ]

I have an AsRock ION 330 as well, MPEG-4/h.264 was easy as piece to get hardware accelerated (with CoreAVC) - however, I'm experiencing serious issues getting live TV mpeg-2 (1080i) to work, stuttering is unbearable... I've tried PowerDVD 9 with hardware acceleration enabled but with no luck.. can anyone give me a step-by-step guide to get this to work?

Cheers

/Christian

 

[VASkO]

unninstall PDVD codec and all other shit. just install haali and arcsoft for SD and HD from HDPACK 2.2. all working with arcsoft codec. even 1080i.