HTPC Audio Stuttering

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bloom

38 posts

Geek

#23633 4-Jul-2008 19:40

Current Setup:

Asus P5K-VM
E2180
Leadtek 8500GT HDMI 256mb
WD 640gb
Corsair 2x1gb 800mhz
Nova T 500 HD
Antec Fusion 430watt

Previously had trouble with this build on freeview but since going Vista its all running nice and smooth :)

Only trouble now is when I try play high quality movies (HD/Blu Ray) the audio stutters at sections and the video starts to lag. Tried a range of codecs and players with the same problem.

Currently running audio through HDMI + S/PDIF to 32" Samsung LCD TV

Ran the same videos on my grunty PC and was perfect.

Unsure if this is my video card, sound card or CPU which hasn't got enough power. Overclocked CPU to 2.66ghz with no better results.

Any ideas?

Have a sneaking suspecion my GPU isn't powerful enough, specs here:
http://c1com.co.nz/shop/step1.php?number=13032

Dingbatt

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#143043 4-Jul-2008 19:52

What are you playing the BD HD/DVDs on? What resolution are you sending to your TV? Does dropping the res make any difference? What does the windows resource meter indicate for CPU load? Does windowing the movie display make any difference? And finally is hardware acceleration active?

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bloom

38 posts

Geek

#143051 4-Jul-2008 20:11

Tried Windows Media Player, ZoomPlayer, Media Player Classic
Running @ 1380x768
CPU load 50-80%, memory 800mb
Resolution change -> no difference
Windowing -> no change
Advanced settings, troubleshoot says "your current display driver does not allow any changes to be made to hardware acceleration settings" so assume enabled.
Running latest nVidia drivers, tried changing to 'performance' -> no change

hmmm

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#143105 4-Jul-2008 22:21

I don't believe it would be the graphics card. That should handle 1080p playback with hardware decoding enabled. Is the E2180 CPU a Core2Duo? I have read that is needed for good playback. Also, what codec are you using for Blu-Ray playback? Did it come with your drive? Because you don't mention what that is.

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bloom

38 posts

Geek

#143106 4-Jul-2008 22:25

Yep Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 @ 2.0ghz, same issue when OC'd to 2.66ghz
I got installed Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) and Monogram AAC (but thats for mediaportal)
Also got Cyberlink PowerDVD Deluxe 8
Don't have a bluray drive, this is a bluray sample video

Tried a few different ones and get the same problem, works fine on my E8400 PC

Cheers

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#143109 4-Jul-2008 22:37

Have you tried more than one 1080p media file? Are you sure it's not the download? Ah, but I'm guessing, as you have stated as the plural in your first post, you have. To be honest, I've never played with 1080p files so I'm not sure of the issues surrounding HTPC playback, especially, downloaded ones.

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#143110 4-Jul-2008 22:41

Oooops, teach me not to read your last post properly: late at night & didn't sleep very well, last night .

The fact they work on your E8400 machine could indicate an area of direction. Are the files of professional nature ie. HD trailers? Or posted?

One other thing: I'm assuming you have PowerDVD8 setup correctly? ie. hardware acceleration is enabled & working?

bloom

38 posts

Geek

#143121 4-Jul-2008 23:26

Oops hardware acceleration wasn't on for that, havn't been trying to play them with PowerDVD though because they're .mkv files (grrr)
Yea are definitely 1080p high quality as actually gets shrunk when full screened :)

Any Vista codec packs I should be using?

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Nety

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#143130 5-Jul-2008 00:27

bloom: Oops hardware acceleration wasn't on for that, havn't been trying to play them with PowerDVD though because they're .mkv files (grrr)
Yea are definitely 1080p high quality as actually gets shrunk when full screened :)

Any Vista codec packs I should be using?

And therein lies your problem. It is not possible to use your (or any) video cards hardware acceleration on .mkv files. Or at least at the moment you cant.

However you should be able to play them smoothly using ffdshow. Make sure it is the only codec installed as you can get yourself into all sorts of greaf when you have serveral codecs installed for the same file type.

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bloom

38 posts

Geek

#143148 5-Jul-2008 08:35

Ah cheers!
So my XP machine (E8400, HD4850) only has CCCP installed and runs fine
Vista HTPC machine (E2180, 8500GT) only has CCCP installed and runs into issues, think its clashing with MP/PowerDVD codecs?

Just noticed the CPU usage on the E8400 is 20-35% with such files, much better heh

Nety

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#143158 5-Jul-2008 09:46

Go into FFDShow video decoder settings and under H.264 make sure libavcodec is selected and tick the box to skip deblocking when safe.

With it set to those settings my media centre handles playing 1080p mkv files without stuttering and with smooth frame rates.

bloom

38 posts

Geek

#143172 5-Jul-2008 11:51

Nah still no luck, normal HD runs fine with 20-30% CPU usage, just bluray it hits problems.
Think I'll try a more powerful CPU and see if gets any better

EDIT: Think i've fixed it! OC'd CPU to 3.0ghz and seems to be running fine! Will update soon on stability, very small audio crackle if close to TV (often occurs with high OC's and onboard audio)

Nety

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#143249 5-Jul-2008 16:33

hmm you should not need to OC... as you can see from my sig I am only running a AMD X2 3800+ and can get smooth playback of 1080p mkv files. Personally I would get rid of the codec pack and just install what you need. Codec packs are a good idea but tend to cause problems.

Also don't confuse mkv files for blueray. Two different things. Even if it has been taken from a blueray disk it has been converted into a different format. If you were playing a blueray disk your CPU would be almost idling as the video card would be able to do almost all the hard work.

bloom

38 posts

Geek

#143254 5-Jul-2008 17:03

Yea true, I scored an E7300 CPU for $150 so will just chuck that in and should run quick as :)
Maybe AMD CPU's got some technology for this sort of application? Yea proper bluray disc I would expect to run perfect

Cheers for the help, will update with that in Monday

EDIT:

Got the E7300 in running at stock and runs heaps better, smooth playback :)