Sumvision Cyclone Mini PC (1 Viewer)

[deadmonty]

All upscaled to 1080p.

That's not the question. What kind of video source have you been using with the kids? SD TV, HD TV or DVD? All of these sources will play quite well without visible chopping. The only indicator might be the number of dropped frames, which you can display with Shift-1. It's on 1080i only that you would really notice the problem. BBC HD will broadcast either in 1080p or 1080i - this seems to vary depending on the content.

Could you take a look at some BBC HD channels and switch Shift-1 on? This way you'll see the rendering curves. They should all be as flat as possible with the red one displaying the frame rate. The respective number is displayed in the text and you should see this staying close to 50 fps, maybe slightly oscillating. Lower values will indicate throttled CPU states.

The latter reminds me that I had switched on additional C-states in the BIOS. I should maybe try and switch that off again.

My daughter watches The Simpsons recorded from Channel 4 HD. She watched it constantly all day Saturday with no issues. (I have hundreds of recordings of The Simpsons!).

 

[HTPCSourcer]

My daughter watches The Simpsons recorded from Channel 4 HD.

Channel 4 is said to broadcast in 1080i. However, Simpson might just have been upscaled SD rather than full HD content.

She watched it constantly all day Saturday with no issues.

It would have been interesting to take a look at Shift-1 and note the number of fropped frames vs. number of total drawn ones. If you have a chance, maybe you could do this when she's watching again.

(I have hundreds of recordings of The Simpsons!)

These will be OK in all cases. Recording is not affected as the stream is captured a such.

 

[deadmonty]

It would have been upscaled prior to transmission, so would have been 1080i when recorded.

 

[SpudR]

If the HTPC shows all the media you want and doesn't get hot - isn't that enough?
It's not like anyone is going to replace one for the other is it?
Although I see the point in testing things - I'm failing to see that the result of testing along these lines would actually server any use.
I'd be sending a mail to my supplier and informing them of a design flaw and requesting some kind of fix, rather than some Heath-Robinson fix I would create...

 

[HTPCSourcer]

If the HTPC shows all the media you want and doesn't get hot - isn't that enough?

It doesn't, 1080i is unplayable without additional cooling.

Although I see the point in testing things - I'm failing to see that the result of testing along these lines would actually server any use.

If deadmonty could show with Shift-1 that playing 1080i over a long period of time is possible without major frame drop rates, he would demonstrate that his box is working and I could consider mine as being badly assembled. If, however - and that's the more likely scenario - these small boxes do all have issues to decode 1080i, I will need to look for someething else.

I'd be sending a mail to my supplier and informing them of a design flaw and requesting some kind of fix

Sure, you think that Amazon UK is going to send me a new one? Kep in mind that I am in Germany - no easy way to get it back to England - and Amazon would just take it and ship it to the next customer.

@deadmonty , the one thing that you did not mention is which TV codec you are using on your Justop. (You are not showing any system specs in your profile.)

 

[deadmonty]

I use the LAV codecs for everything.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

I use the LAV codecs for everything.

There goes my last hope .

 

[mm1352000]

@HTPCSourcer
Have you considered changing the balance of the load? For example, if the issue is 1080i, enable DXVA... but try to use a very simple deinterlacing algorithm... or if possible, have the CPU handle the deinterlacing.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

if the issue is 1080i, enable DXVA...

This is the issue. DXVA is of course enabled.

but try to use a very simple deinterlacing algorithm...

Such as?

have the CPU handle the deinterlacing.

How do I do this?

In another thread https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...core-windows-8-1-mini-pc.131388/#post-1145007 where I am describing my test results of the Justop, RonD posted that he had no trouble playing 1080i on a siilar system using VLC, but observed the same kind of problems when running LAV.

 

[mm1352000]

Such as?

I don't know what options you have, but the simple modes are often called "bob" and "weave". Check your GPU control/config software. For example, my AMD HD 4670 has (from best/hardest to worst/easiest):

• weave
• bob
• adaptive
• motion adaptive
• vector adaptive

That's hardware deinterlacing.

If using LAV, you have the option to disable/enable hardware/GPU deinterlacing (I suggest you try both options). When enabled, you probably have to disable high quality to keep the load as low as possible. You also have the software YADIF option. It's nice but very processor intensive, so I advise to avoid it. I don't know if the "deinterlacing mode" setting is hardware or software (I suspect software), but try "disabled (progressive)".

How do I do this?

As above: in LAV it is called "software deinterlacing" (compared with "hardware/GPU deinterlacing"). Names/terminology varies from codec to codec.

[edit: Forgot to say, make sure you try to turn off post processing (AA, filtering, dynamic contrast etc.) features in the GPU config software... and try different V-sync options.

Of course, some settings (eg. disabling v-sync) may give sub-optimal results. You have to decide how much video quality you're willing to sacrifice to have this low power system.]