[WTA] How to disable VMR9 on Media Portal (2 Viewers)

[NEI]

I have done the same thing as Commodore 64.
Didnt get stutterfree HD before I bought the Gigabyte 6600GT.
Went trough 5200, 5700 and 6200.

Now then i have to wait until they release a passively cooled 6600GT that fits into my Shuttle XPC! :-(

 

[thiskl]

No you misunderstand. It's not AGP or PCIe bus bandwidth, it's memory bandwidth between the GPU and memory on the video card. You guys seem to be missing the point...VMR9 means more stuff is done IN THE VIDEO CARD.

This is hilarious. You folks are in complete denial...I give up. Have fun with your stutters.

Commodore 64
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're the one that's in denial. Your math simply doesn't add up.

Microsoft's requirement for 10Gb/sec is equivalent to ~1.25GB/sec video memory bandwidth. Video cards have been exceeding this for several generations now.

Please refer to this table of GeForce4 MX specifications to see that even a GeForce4 MX 420 had a memory bandwidth of 2.7GB/sec, or roughly twice what Microsoft requires.

 

[Commodore 64]

No you misunderstand. It's not AGP or PCIe bus bandwidth, it's memory bandwidth between the GPU and memory on the video card. You guys seem to be missing the point...VMR9 means more stuff is done IN THE VIDEO CARD.

This is hilarious. You folks are in complete denial...I give up. Have fun with your stutters.

Commodore 64
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're the one that's in denial. Your math simply doesn't add up.

Microsoft's requirement for 10Gb/sec is equivalent to ~1.25GB/sec video memory bandwidth. Video cards have been exceeding this for several generations now.

Please refer to this table of GeForce4 MX specifications to see that even a GeForce4 MX 420 had a memory bandwidth of 2.7GB/sec, or roughly twice what Microsoft requires.

I see your point. I'm not sure if it is a typo on MS website or not. 10GB/sec get's thrown around a lot on the AVS forums and others. There are several posts about HDTV where 6600 do not cut it, but 6600GT do. There are several accounts of x1300 stuttering while x1600 do not, and the primary difference is memory bandwidth.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=659808

Even 6600 and x1300 far, far exceed 1.4GB/sec so I really don't know what to tell you.

Whether I am wrong or right about 10GB/sec or 10Gb/sec the fact remains that if you get a 6600GT or above, these stuttering problems will disappear.

 

[thiskl]

Whether I am wrong or right about 10GB/sec or 10Gb/sec the fact remains that if you get a 6600GT or above, these stuttering problems will disappear.

If that's what you believe, then fair enough, that's your right.

Out of curiosity, what HDTV frame-rate are you referring to when experiencing stuttering? Also, is it an interlaced or progressive source?

The reason I ask, is because a couple of the DVB-T broadcasters down here have started transmitting progressive signals.

It's only SD at 1024x576p, but PureVideo doesn't handle it well at all. It stutters horribly. The MPV codec handles these progressive sources fine.

Conversely, the PureVideo codec is great when watching the 1920x1080i sources.

Personally, I think it's this kind of codec issue that's being experienced by the original poster of this thread.

 

[Commodore 64]

Well I don't have any stuttering now that I use a 6600GT. The stuttering was a dropped frame issue, from what I understood.

Stuttering was worse in 1080i than it was in 720p material from what I rememeber (here in the USA, some channels do 720p others do 1080i).

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

I Have to agree about needing 6600gt+ for full 1080i HD, downloaded the MS HD test files.
Tried running on a FX5200 totally forget it, the next was a 6200 and had stuttering, same file played on my Gigabyte 6600GT and no problem.
But if that was running through quite a DX9 graphically hungry program like MP that may not even cope without glitches.

8)

 

[zombiepig]

I see your point. I'm not sure if it is a typo on MS website or not. 10GB/sec get's thrown around a lot on the AVS forums and others. There are several posts about HDTV where 6600 do not cut it, but 6600GT do. There are several accounts of x1300 stuttering while x1600 do not, and the primary difference is memory bandwidth.

i've seen the same reports from a lot of forums... that a 6600 doesn't have enough memory bandwidth for HD, while the 6600GT does.

 

[Callifo]

Heres the thing then, Ive got a 64bit 6200, Ive got a 1080i mpeg2 file here from the MPTeam sample media, it runs fine inside MP.

1080i quicktime is completely different though, even my 2.8Ghz, 6800GT cant do that.

 

[rocky500]

I did a google on Purevideo stutter 1080i problems. (Words to that effect)
Everywhere there are problems with HDTV playback with Purevideo.

Here is a good article on 1080i playback. It recommends a 7800GTX for best results.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/building_high_definition_home_theater_pc_htpc/page2.asp

Also try Nvidia drivers 78.xx or older as after that I think I read Nvidia turned on certain options that make it hard for 6600 series cards to playback HDTV content properly.
I can't remember which forum but this one reminded me of it.
http://www.theatertek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8308

 

[Tech Geek]

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.

The 6600 normally has 14.4 to 16 GB/sec memory bandwidth so I think there's more to it than that. Also, if it's a passively cooled model it may require overclocking to provide that level of bandwidth since most of those run at a slower clock speed than normal.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html

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

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

The 6200 had 64 and 128 bit versions. Even the 128 bit versions probably didn't support 10GB/sec. Without knowing the clock speed I'd guess it was around 8GB/sec given when it was released.

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.

Make sure you try turning off cool n quiet since that seems to cause problems sometimes.

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.

No 64 bit card has 10GB/sec and I believe I posted a minimum clock speed for 128 bit cards in the ATSC support thread.
I'd stick to the latest generation ATi or NVidia cards and avoid the lower end models to be safe.