VMR9: weird issue with movies (1 Viewer)

[gxtracker]

Area: MediaPortal Videos
MP Version: 0.2.0.0 RC2
Skin: blueTwo
Windows Version: XP SP2
CPU Type: Athlon XP 2500+
Memory: 512
Motherboard Chipset: Nforce2
Video Card: FX 5200
Video Card Driver: 81.98
Video Card Resolution: 800x600
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: Nvidia PureVideo
Audio Codec Type & Version: Nvidia PureVideo
TV Card: N/A
TV Card Type: N/A
TV Card Driver: N/A

Synopsis:
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hi all,

I've been having an issue with MP for the longest time now, and I had some free time to diagnose the issue today.

The problem Im having is with some videos I have on my HTPC system. It seems that some of the video files i have on my system are dropping frames when watching them in MP, yet when i watch the exact same movie in Windows Media Player 10, the movie is fine.

An Example:

Lets say a video im watching has a scene, then cuts to black for 10 seconds, then cuts back to the scene.

When I watch the video in WMP, the video does what is described above.
When I watch the video in MP, it will show the scene, cut to black for a split second, and then display the first frame of the scene after the 10 second of black - and that frame stays frozen for the 10 seconds.

It's hard to describe in words, but I've noticed the problem with AVI and WMV files, so its not related to a specific codec. Even at this point im not sure if this is a specific problem with VMR9 or with MP directly. Has anyone else seen an issue like this before, or know how to solve it?

 

[gxtracker]

Well,

I've done a bit more troubleshooting, and Im thinking this might be an issue only with VMR9.

The videos in question both have the same effect using VMR9 on two seperate computers: one with an FX5200 card, and the other with an X800XL.

I've found that when I lower the "video acceleration" tab in the windows display options to "disable directdraw and direct3D" that the problem goes away.

Does anyone know of a way to keep using D3D acceleration and fix this issue?

 

[Tech Geek]

Double check what codecs are being used by MediaPortal. I found it wasn't using the codec I wanted which might have explained my problems with HDTV but I can't be sure. I only had dropped frames with HDTV but then I have a faster CPU and graphics card.

 

[gxtracker]

Thanks for the idea Tech Geek. I tried using graph edit to switch between using different codecs on both my HTPC and my desktop - the codec in use was switched properly, but the effect still persisted.

Plus this issue is happening with WMV and AVI files, So i know its not limited to only one AV format...

This has really got me stumped. Has no one else experienced this issue? Im going to see if i can get a video file to show what i mean.

 

[Tech Geek]

Does it happen on all video files or just certain video files.
It's possible that VMR9 has issues with errors in the data stream and takes much longer to continue play than without.
I've run into a couple video files that seem to pause at one point and then continue. I believe it was caused by a corrupt file. Mine didn't go black though.

What video compression and sound compression were used on the files?
MPEG2? DivX? XViD?
AC3? MP3?