SAF v4.00 ''stable'' (StandAlone Filters) - DXVA ready (H.264 and VC-1). (26 Viewers)

[hoborg]

Hi all,

Finally I had the time for upgrading MP from 1.0.2 to 1.1.0 Beta 1. Also upgraded from SAF 3.47 to SAF 4.00RC1 (not unlocked, please can you tell me what to do?).
Made the usual upgrade sequence for MP, SAF and stuff. I use Vista Home Premium + HD3200 integrated + Catalyst 9.4. Never had a problem before, everything was working perfectly.

But now, I have a strange behaviour when starting a video. Not sure what the hell is causing it. When playback starts, and after 8-10 seconds, CPU suddendly loads to 100% and stays there for about 80-90 seconds (no relevant hard disk activity and the video is played correctly, no choppy and no audio problems during these moments), then after those 80-90 seconds, CPU load drops suddenly to stay fine.

It happens on every mkv, xvid, divx I tested (dozens of them). This cause the overheating of the system, as CPU core temp goes to 85º during the overload, then drop down to a good measure of 55-60º.

MP is configured exactly as Hoborg states in the main post.
I don't think is DXVA related, as after the 90-seconds-CPU-overload I get 1080p playback with 5-10% CPU load. More: It also happens when playing SD.
It's not post-processing related, as I don't have any postprocessing active. Also I deactivated the resize option on FFDshow Video, no luck.
I'm using SPDIF-out selected on FFDShow Audio Decoder. No matter if I don't use it, the same happens.

I want to remark: During the strange stress time, video playback is still perfect.

Anybody has a reason for this to happen and how to avoid it?

Thanks in advance,

Felipe.

CPU load - try to disable auto thumbs generations - MP config - general - thumbnails - uncheck Autocreate thumbs

Another possible hight CPU usage - Start menu - SAF - FFDShow video configure and uncheck resize

 

[trepamuros]

CPU load - try to disable auto thumbs generations - MP config - general - thumbnails - uncheck Autocreate thumbs

Another possible hight CPU usage - Start menu - SAF - FFDShow video configure and uncheck resize

Thank you very much Hoborg.
I already unchecked resize in FFDShow, should be another issue.
But... "Autocreating thumbs" makes sense, as the CPU load only happens at the start of the playback, seems like another process is going on and when it finish the things come back to normality. I will try to disable it and will see.

@joz, I will check the software you told about. Definitely I also have a cooling problem (the system case is very small and is not well ventilated). I'm thinking on purchase a PCI-E graphic card with passive cooling, this may help. But I need HDMI-out and should be low-profile, couldn't find a suitable one. Do you know about some ones?

Thanks again.

 

[joz]

@joz, I will check the software you told about. Definitely I also have a cooling problem (the system case is very small and is not well ventilated). I'm thinking on purchase a PCI-E graphic card with passive cooling, this may help. But I need HDMI-out and should be low-profile, couldn't find a suitable one. Do you know about some ones?

Passive cooled cards need airflow to cool themselves, so if your airflow is not good the card will get hot and warm up the rest of the case. So that will not help at all with the temperature problem. If you use onboard now it could even make it worse. Passive cards are mostly intended to be silent not to have any affect on the cooling (in a positive way at least )
Is your CPU cooler attached right? If you use a boxed one with pushpins you should hear that all the pins make a clicking sound, if they don't do that they are not connecting right. Also with pushpins always do a criss cross atttachment (so first left top then down right for example). Have you used a tiny amount of thermal paste? (like the size of half a rice piece, you know one rice, do not know how to say that correctly in english). Not sure what else could be the cause of the overheating, could also just be that it just does not have enough airflow.
Also another airflow tip. Try to have less intake then outtake so you can create an under pressure in the case itself.

 

[GoldenEye]

Is this the reason why I can't watch TV on my Win7 HTPC? Keep getting a message saying it can't play the stream and then it mentions audio. I need to use the AAC-codec if it's to work.

:::This::: might solve your issue.

Hope this helps.

G.

 

[JSorrentino]

Are you running EVR or VMR? If you were doing hardware based offload before and now are not, can be a major cause. SAF adds a program group with a few icons to enable hardware processing easily now. May want to check that, if you have not already.

JS

 

[kiwijunglist]

trepamuros - agree with others, your computer wont last long if it hits 85C on full load. You could try reducing the cpu voltage slightly in bios, or slightly underclocking the cpu, or both.

 

[trepamuros]

CPU load - try to disable auto thumbs generations - MP config - general - thumbnails - uncheck Autocreate thumbs

Hoborg, THANK YOU, it worked like a charm. No more CPU load.

In addition, I want to say SAF 4.00RC1 works perfect with MP 1.1 Beta1 using SPIDF-out for DTS/AC3 via FFDShow Audio. Also, FFDShow Video postprocessing tips for SD material result in a severe quality improvement. Thanks to all for all the work.



@kiwijunglist
@joz

Thanks for the tips. I am pretty sure the overheating comes due a poor airflow/ventilation, but the furniture where the system is placed doesn't allow more. In fact, I placed a 12cm cooler in the back of the wood which takes the energy from the mainboard, this reduced the temperature a lot. I don't have too much room to improve the airflow, but every tip would be highly appreciated.

The extreme overheating (85º) I suffered has been an incident (already solved), as I never saw the core temp over 70º before, even full-load CPU. Now the things seem to come back to normality (assuming the airflow problem, which I should investigate in the hardware forums, not in this one).

Thank you very much again.

 

[hoborg]

In addition, I want to say SAF 4.00RC1 works perfect with MP 1.1 Beta1 using SPIDF-out for DTS/AC3 via FFDShow Audio.

Can you post your paas-trough config screenshots to place on first page for other users too?

 

[xadox]

Can you post your config screenshots to place on first page for other users too?

Yes that would be great, because DTS did not work for me with FFDSHOW/SPDIF. Now I am using SPDIFER for that part.

 

[kiwijunglist]

The extreme overheating (85º) I suffered has been an incident (already solved), as I never saw the core temp over 70º before, even full-load CPU. Now the things seem to come back to normality (assuming the airflow problem, which I should investigate in the hardware forums, not in this one).
Thank you very much again.

you should try the undervolt, my cpu was getting hot, so i dropped the voltage by 1 step in bios and now its much better.