[WTA] How to disable VMR9 on Media Portal (1 Viewer)

[thiskl]

Hmmmmmm.... BiFi....

now that was a very strange web page...

Am I missing something?

Bifi?

Maybe a support template!?

 

[thiskl]

Have you tried using GraphEdit to compare what Media Player 10 is doing differently to MediaPortal?

 

[mPod]

BiFi is a salami in snack size... Sorry, just had a Homer Simpson moment when someone said: "...your graphics card is not beefy enough for MP..."

 

[Commodore 64]

Microsoft says 10GB//sec memory bandwidth is needed for HD playback with VMR9. Your 256Mb 6600 almost certainly does not have 10GB/sec memory bandwidth. And without that you will get stuttering in HDTV with VMR9.

I've been through the ringer with this issue. For me to resolve the stutter went something like this:

r8500-->r9600pro-->r9700pro-->nV6200-->nv6600GT.

All of the above cards could provide smooth playback of 1080i content with VMR7, but it looked pretty subpar, IMHO. It was slightly blurry and motion just wasn't quite smooth. Note that the r9700pro vastly exceeds the 10GB/sec, but I could not get smooth playback with it. After much frustration and a few posts at AVS forums, I chalked it up tot he 9700pro not being optimized for VMR9. It wasn't until I put in the 6600GT that my HTPC became truly awesome.

No more microstutters in DVDs, crystal clear, stutter-free 1080i playback, fantastic hardware upscaling of Xvid, h264, and DVDs to 1920 x 1080i...

These days I advise a 7600GT or better. Sometimes you can find 6600GT pretty cheap. Whatever you do, make sure you check the memory bandwith and bus width on those cards 64-bit memory will KILL you. And at 128-bit you need a pretty high clock on the memory to get 10GB/sec.

 

[thiskl]

Microsoft says 10GB//sec memory bandwidth is needed for HD playback with VMR9.

Can you provide a reference to this assertion?

No more microstutters in DVDs, crystal clear, stutter-free 1080i playback, fantastic hardware upscaling of Xvid, h264, and DVDs to 1920 x 1080i...

Given that DVD's are closer to SDTV, and don't have the bandwidth requirements of HDTV, I would suspect that your stutters weren't a problem of your video card alone.

I'm running an ATI 9800pro and regularly watch 1080i HDTV broadcasts, without stutter.

 

[NEI]

I don't plan to add a "gaming" graphic card in my htpc just to have 1080i playing right. Is there another possibility? Maybe to use an external player?

 

[kelvinsykoh]

i tried enabling an external player but it doesnt launch. Any tips?

Must I enter something in the parameter field.

 

[Commodore 64]

I don't plan to add a "gaming" graphic card in my htpc just to have 1080i playing right. Is there another possibility? Maybe to use an external player?

You best come to grips with something right now. HDTV demands more out of your graphic card than "gaming" in a lot of cases. The days of cobbing to gether a cheap HTPC out of spare or old parts are over. HDTV resolution and VMR9 will punish your system. And a 6600GT is hardly a gaming card anymore.

 

[Commodore 64]

Can you provide a reference to this assertion?

I sure can:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/hdtv/readme.mspx

"Video adapter with 128MB DDR video memory with 128-bit interface; AGP8x interface or PCI express; video memory bandwidth of 10Gb per second or greater; and driver support for MPEG-2 iDCT acceleration "

Given that DVD's are closer to SDTV, and don't have the bandwidth requirements of HDTV, I would suspect that your stutters weren't a problem of your video card alone.

I did too. I will concede that the following must be taken witha grain of salt because it is purely anecdotal.:

I tried lot of things, codecs, reformats, video players etc. Microstutters during pan scenes were something I just could not get rid of until I went to a 6600GT and Full Screen Exclusive mode. With cards other than the 6600GT I had stutter in SDTV and HDTV (all received by an ATSC card, but some programs are still broadcast in SD). I noticed it especially in baseball and football games where there is a lot of motion. The stuttering/frame drops were FAR WORSE in the SDTV broadcasts than they were in the HDTV broadcasts, which does seem counterintuitive.

I had some IRC discussions here and a few posts in the AVS forums where people noted the same behavior. I'm not sure of the reason, but I am sure that I am not the only one who noticed such things.

Also, the stutters went completely away when I swapped out the 6200 for a 6600GT. I changed nothing else on my HTPC other than to uninstall and reinstall the video driver (and I used the same driver revision, since at that time there was a bug where newer nV drivers would not output over component).

I'm running an ATI 9800pro and regularly watch 1080i HDTV broadcasts, without stutter.

I am not surprised. Many people recommended to me that I get at least a 9800pro because there were DXVA optimizations built into that core that were not present in the 9700pro. I did not have a 9800pro to test, so i went with a 6200 and then finally to the 6600GT. I don't know specifically what the differences are and how they relate to digital TV/mpeg2 decoding, all I can say is that more than one person told me that 9700pro was not optimal for HTPC.


Listen, I'm not trying to be an asshole. I've been through a lot of hardware, time and money to get satisfactory results from my HTPC. The money I can deal with, but I'd like to save people the time and frustration that I went through.

All I'm recommending is that someone spend ~$130 dollars on a video card for Digital TV, and especially HDTV playback. I'm not telling you to go buy a $600 dollar video card---the cards belwo are probably similarly priced to your TV Tuner Card!

Gigabyte Passive 6600GT for $110: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125015

eVGA 7600GS for $110: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130020

 

[NEI]

Now this all sounds reasonable, but then tell me why the heck i can play the same videos on the same machine with WMP10 without a problem! Why not stay with VMR7 if VMR9 uses so more resources?