User experience with AMD 780G and MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[Lucky_JL]

I totally agree with your post- I have been unable to get any hardware acceleration inside MediaPortal so I have MPC-HC set as an external player which plays just about all (properly encoded) HD formats with acceleration - i.e. h.264 and VC-1 interlaced and progressive. I did a little testing with PDVD versions and builds and I couldn't get VC-1 acceleration working even on the latest builds- apparently it last worked on 8.3 Catalyst and old F3 BIOS - here's a VC-1 file that you can use to test whether yours is working or not.

hehe


Since you are using MPC-HC as "External Player", based in your experience do you have some feedback about problemas with this configuration ?
( besides don't have MP menus in MPC-HC )


Regards,
Lucky_JL

 

[jo16v]

Since you are using MPC-HC as "External Player", based in your experience do you have some feedback about problemas with this configuration ?
( besides don't have MP menus in MPC-HC )


Regards,
Lucky_JL

I did have a few problems but I think it was caused by a corrupted quartz.dll file- after I replaced it seemed to work again. However I think my whole MP installation was somehow broken because I couldn't get ffdshow, MPC or anything other than Cyberlink without DXVA to work (in TV or using internal player) so I have it uninstalled ATM (am testing ffdshow for HDTV in DVBViewer).

I will probably reinstall MP when I do an O/S reinstall without installing any junk programs that f**k around with codecs like Quicktime, PowerDVD, Nero, Realplayer etc. (non junk alternatives MPC-HC, Real & Quicktime Alternative, imgburn).

 

[kiwijunglist]

BTW that flickering he's talking about is a known ATI issue, NOT the entire friggin motherboard.
l:

The flicker issue is not an ATI only issue, it also can occur with nvidia. If you turn on single processor afinity you can fix the flicker, but then you can only use 1 core.

 

[huckster2]

Can you check if you get DXVA on this VC-1 Dark Knight trailer? Also, what build of PDVD8 are you using?

~40% CPU as MP (via Graphedit) is using WM Decoders for video and audio. Not sure it's using DXVA. Looks ok though. The Cyberlink version is the patch found at CyberLink Product Support - Download Software Updates & Patches and User Guides which is PowerDVD 8 Ultra build 2217. I currently don't have any other codecs/players installed having cleaned the PC.

What I've found since my hallelujah is that everything looks good, but every now and again, the video stops and loops the last half-second with the sound carrying on. A quick 15sec back and forward fixes that. Annoying. I'm sure that's been experienced elsewhere....

I too went on professional reviews, bought a low-power BE-2350 and then suffered with NZ's bleeding edge DVB-T setup.

 

[jo16v]

Can you check if you get DXVA on this VC-1 Dark Knight trailer? Also, what build of PDVD8 are you using?

~40% CPU as MP (via Graphedit) is using WM Decoders for video and audio. Not sure it's using DXVA. Looks ok though. The Cyberlink version is the patch found at CyberLink Product Support - Download Software Updates & Patches and User Guides which is PowerDVD 8 Ultra build 2217. I currently don't have any other codecs/players installed having cleaned the PC.

What I've found since my hallelujah is that everything looks good, but every now and again, the video stops and loops the last half-second with the sound carrying on. A quick 15sec back and forward fixes that. Annoying. I'm sure that's been experienced elsewhere....

As for the title of the thread, the addition of a "?" is the best solution.

I too went on professional reviews, bought a low-power BE-2350 and then suffered with NZ's bleeding edge DVB-T setup.

Thanks for testing! I think I found the same, that the WM Decoder took over for VC-1- I presume because there is no way to specify what is your preferred VC-1 decoder is in MediaPortal options and the WM decoder has a higher filter merit so it defaults to that? Could you possibly test it in the PowerDVD player if you still have it installed because I think that will use the Cyberlink rather than the WM decoder which can supposedly do DXVA? The clip works fine for me with DXVA in MPC-HC with 4-11% CPU usage on a 64x2 5000+.

Re: your video issue, is that for TV/ recordings from TV as I got that kind of behaviour with some h.264 .ts recordings?

 

[huckster2]

Looping is on live TV and TV (.ts) recordings, yes.

Couldn't find a way to play the file in Cyberlink - wouldn't let me open it. I'll try again tonight - probably just need to change the file extension.

Update: Managed to play the file in Cyberlink with the same result ~ 40% CPU and no obvious DXVA. Interestingly, after a couple of suspends and resumes, I seemed to lose DXVA! A reboot fixed it. Go figure. (Dark Knight test was after reboot)

 

[kiwijunglist]

What I've found since my hallelujah is that everything looks good, but every now and again, the video stops and loops the last half-second with the sound carrying on. A quick 15sec back and forward fixes that. Annoying. I'm sure that's been experienced elsewhere....

I had the same problem with HDTV and DXA enabled. If I disable DXA then it works fine.
(PDVD8 / MP RC3 / XP SP3 / PDVD8 Ultra + Latest Patch)

 

[S.O.P]

Did read a blurb on anandtech the other day when they were previewing the 4350.

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3444&p=2

The NVIDIA GF8200 (AMD processor based) still offers the best CPU utilization rates, slightly better than its Intel based cousin, the NVIDIA GF9300. Those users with a GF8200/9300 based board really have no reason to upgrade to this card since 8-channel LPCM audio output is already included plus proper support for 1080p/24Hz playback. Speaking of 1080p/24Hz playback capabilities, the latest ATI driver set (8.10 Hotfix) for the card provides better support now. However, we still experienced lip-sync problems and occasional stutters. Still not perfect like the NVIDIA solutions, but AMD is far ahead of Intel in this regard. We just hope AMD can get 1080p/24Hz working correctly (100%) in the near future.

Those HTPC users with AMD based chipsets (690G, 780G, 790GX) should seriously consider upgrading to the 4350 chipset for the additional media features. A side bonus is improved casual gaming performance and Surround View (multi-monitor) support. This chipset does not offer Hybrid Crossfire support on the 780G/790GX boards.

Intel HTPC users with the G35 chipset would be advised to upgrade to the HD4350. Although not shown in today's results, CPU utilization drops from 73% to 29% and casual gaming suddenly becomes a reality on this platform. G45 users already have full hardware accelerated BD playback and 8-channel LPCM output so the decision to spend additional funds is difficult. General application and casual gaming performance will improve with the HD4350, but the biggest reason to switch would be driver and BD playback application support in our opinion.

Drivers seem to be at the core of everything, and then as mentioned, software revisions mess everything else up, diluting the whole experience. Perhaps one day there will be the perfect solution.

 

[jo16v]

Did read a blurb on anandtech the other day when they were previewing the 4350.
AnandTech: MSI R4350 - First Look

Review of its bigger brother (faster memory) HD4550 here.

HD 4350 256MB 800MHz GDDR2 £31.43

HD 4350 512MB 800MHz GDDR2 £35.19

HD 4550 512MB 800MHz GDDR3 PowerColor £45.77 (note: says 1800MHz memory which is incorrect)

HD 4550 512MB 800MHz GDDR3 Sapphire £46.73 (note: says 1800MHz memory which is incorrect)

They seem to be succeeding the HD 3450/3470 on pricing level.

Some more HD 4550 reviews
hot hardware
guru3d
techpowerup
firingsquad
legit reviews

 

[huckster2]

I had the same problem with HDTV and DXA enabled. If I disable DXA then it works fine.
(PDVD8 / MP RC3 / XP SP3 / PDVD8 Ultra + Latest Patch)

Defeats the whole point of the HD3200 though! When it works TV3 is so much better (I have a slowish CPU - Save the Planet and all that). Sigh. Am just waiting for the Mrs to complain.