H264 Freeview Pic Jitter on Grunty PC

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › H264 Freeview Pic Jitter on Grunty PC - MediaPortal

geoffw

21 posts

Geek

#29575 12-Jan-2009 12:55

I have a WinTV-HVR-2200, and i believe that this unit is responsible for annoying variations in frame rate when watching Freeview - has anyone experienced this or have a solution?

Picture quality drops during the same (busy) scene in Freeview HD channel (helicopter flying over mountains and ferns), as well as other random scenes, some of which aren't that busy, like latest Noel Lemming Advert, although not predictably insofar as i can tell in the NL ad.

Here are my findings, and why I think the WinTV-HVR-2200 is responsible;

1. H.264 1080i .mkv files play perfectly, so GPU / CPU / Bus probably OK
2. Mediaportal is set to EVR Hardware decoding, and CPU using 10-15% during playback of 1080i, so CPU probably OK.
3. Timeshirfting moved to USB 2.0 USB disk which according to Vista copy dialogue can write at 15MBps, so probably not disk
4. Vista Resource Manager shows everything running at minimum capacity, so probably not MB, Mem, CPU, Disk etc
5. When i watch aforementioned scene via RF directly into TV (Freeview Tuner Build-in) pic is as smooth as, so either related to MediaPortal or TV Card, and as MP plays h.264 .mkv perfectly on complex scenes, so probably TV Card
5. When i record aforementioned scene, jitter repeats predictably in same spot on playback, and CPU not doing much lifting. so i think it is probably TV Card.

I have checked AV and index settings to make sure PC not doing housekeeping while watching TV, and seems OK...and of course its the same scene that causes jitter in frame rate, so not related to PC running services from time to time - although i think this might be affecting random jitter issues.

I have latest updates, drivers, software.

WinTV-HVR-2200 / DG45ID / E8400 / 4GB / Vista U /

Cheers

Geoff

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#188989 12-Jan-2009 14:41

Hi Geoff,

You've done a thorough analysis, there. So should assist on getting it sorted. You also may want to check the Mediaportal forums for answer, as well.

What version of Mediaportal are you using?

Also, what version of PowerDVD (assuming you are using Cyberlink) are you using? Is it registered or trial-pack? Reason I ask is I've found quite a difference in the versions' ability to deinterlace? well (only had experience with trial-packs when I got this sorted); at least on my machine. I had frame-rate drops/stuttering occurring with LiveTV but did improve on playback of same file from RecordedTV. I found one that worked well but have recently gone to 7.3 full version as I've added a Blu-ray drive. Still have version if interested.

Have tried rendering a video file using Graphedit to see if frame-rate drop happens there, also?

Does this happen all the time? Or only after a resumption from Standby or Hibernate? Hope you get sorted pronto.

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

geoffw

21 posts

Geek

#189008 12-Jan-2009 15:55

Hi

Thanks for prompt reply.

Answers to questions / suggestions below;

1. MediaPortal 1.0
2. CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Ultra - Full Version, but yet be register
3. Recorded TV has same glitch as live TV in exactly same spot - which is v.busy 1080i scenery
4. I have reviewed general timeshift files with GraphEdit, and shows Video being sent to Cyberlink H.264 / AVC Decoder (PDVD8 before being passed to renderer - how do i turn this route diagram into a framerate chart? I think i just clidk the Video Renderer and select 'Properties', is this correct? And we are looking for the 'dropped frames' stats, or should i be trying to render a frame rate graph of some sort?

I will re-record / find specific .ts file later tonight with glitch and see if i can see any obvious issues reviewing jitter / 'frames dropped in rendered' assuming your answer to item 4 is 'there is no graph, just look at properties to see whats up'.

Thanks again

Geoff

nzkc

1571 posts

Uber Geek

#189012 12-Jan-2009 16:06

Hey Geoff,

I tried to use a USB stick, admittedly not a USB disk, for timeshifting and it couldn't handle it at all. Resulted in awful stuttering. So I'd recommend giving your local disk a try just to make sure it's not your USB disk unable to keep up (though 15MB/s should be enough).

Regards
nzkc.

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#189022 12-Jan-2009 16:58

geoffw: Hi

Thanks for prompt reply.

Answers to questions / suggestions below;

1. MediaPortal 1.0
2. CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Ultra - Full Version, but yet be register
3. Recorded TV has same glitch as live TV in exactly same spot - which is v.busy 1080i scenery
4. I have reviewed general timeshift files with GraphEdit, and shows Video being sent to Cyberlink H.264 / AVC Decoder (PDVD8 before being passed to renderer - how do i turn this route diagram into a framerate chart? I think i just clidk the Video Renderer and select 'Properties', is this correct? And we are looking for the 'dropped frames' stats, or should i be trying to render a frame rate graph of some sort? To be honest, I'm not sure. Had a quick look at Graphedit & couldn't find if possible.

I will re-record / find specific .ts file later tonight with glitch and see if i can see any obvious issues reviewing jitter / 'frames dropped in rendered' assuming your answer to item 4 is 'there is no graph, just look at properties to see whats up'.

Thanks again

Geoff

Another way to get accurate FPS info is inside MP. When watching either LiveTV or a video, use shift+! to get FPS OSD visible. This will give average FPS, jitters, errors & FPS for your renderer type. But I think you are aware of this. Didn't realise this myself until looking recently.

geoffw

21 posts

Geek

#189056 12-Jan-2009 18:32

that is good advice. No drops to speak off during 'normal' freeview viewing.

One thing that i did notice is that there is ref to VMR, and yet i have set MP config for EVR - am i only to something here, or is VMR to be expected when Shift !+ ?

When i view suspect recording using GraphEdit, no dropped frames to speak of.

Geoff

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#189063 12-Jan-2009 19:01

geoffw: that is good advice. No drops to speak off during 'normal' freeview viewing.

One thing that i did notice is that there is ref to VMR, and yet i have set MP config for EVR - am i only to something here, or is VMR to be expected when Shift !+ ? Not sure as I use VMR9 with XPMCE.

When i view suspect recording using GraphEdit, no dropped frames to speak of. Have you tried reviewing the suspect recording using the FPS OSD? Also, have you tried watching the file(s) with another player like PowerDVD or WMP for similar jitters at the points you notice on the recording?

Geoff

Also, have you recently updated your PowerDVD8 codecs? I had major jitters with the PowerDVD7.3 codecs off the Blu-ray disc. It was not until I updated to the downloaded ultra version that they really dropped off. There is nothing to state that updates necessarily improve the situation. If you post your cl264dec.ax file version (the H.264 video codec), others may be able to compare with their versions. But then, are you not sure the situation is rectified? I guess, doing a number of recordings could tell if this is the case.

nzskater

93 posts

Master Geek

#189415 14-Jan-2009 07:24

You could try the new DivX 7 codec pack, which has added H.264/MKV/AAC support.