The HTPC that cannot quite do it?

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Nety

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#38548 31-Jul-2009 14:44

Well I have recently switched to using a full HD TV which of course also means that my media centre is also outputting 1080p.

Now in the past the media centre has played blurays fairly much faultlessly via Totalmedia theatre however it now seems to be struggling a little. In the past I had noticed issues if media centre was recording a couple of programs in the background (Freeview|HD) and playing a bluray however it now seems to be right on the edge even when not recording in the background. The issue is occasional stutters during playback. Not enough to be unwatchable but enough to be annoying.
However I am not sure if it is because of a software change or because it is now playing in 1080p.

The CPU seems to be running at around 40% when playing bluray. My hardware specs are below.

Is there anyone out there running similar specs that can confirm if it is just a bit much for bluray playback?
Do you think it would be worth looking at a newer video card then the 8500GT? It looks like only the newer 8400GS's are using VP3 still. Now that is seem that ATI have finally got themselves sorted out for Freeview|HD is there something better in their range?

From the PC hardware side I could only consider replacing the video card or maybe the CPU although it is a 939 so I could only go to a 4800 (if I could find one). Saving for a trip so cannot replace the whole mobo/CPU/Ram

I did swap some ram around which gave me 3gig but has not made any difference to bluray playback.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

ajst2duk

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#241028 31-Jul-2009 15:53

I had a stutter problem with blu-ray that was driving me nuts, it turned out to be the refresh rate which I think I changed from 50hz to 60hz, it relates to the frame rate of blu-ray vs the refresh rate, with of the combinations (the default in my case) causing a frame to drop each second or so, most noticeable with shots that panned. This may or may not be what is causing your issue, give it a try?

Nety

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#241030 31-Jul-2009 16:03

Thanks for the suggestion. The new TV supports 24p which is the native refresh rate for blurays. I did have the micro pauses on the old TV which did not support 24p and yes in panning shots you noticed it however the issue I am now getting is only occasional rather then constant and is more distinct rather then micro pauses.

RustyGonad

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#241032 31-Jul-2009 16:26

I'm guessing its not hardware.

I'm using a similar machine to you (AMD 4600, 2GB, 2 x HVR4000, 1x2200, Nvidia 9400 Passive, LG Bluray bla bla). I'm using TMT 3 and Windows 7 7201 32 bit. I've also got a couple of Linux VM session running in the background for NewCS, and Bittorrent.

I can record 4 channels (4 x HD ie 2 FV, 2 Sky) at once in Media Center and watch a Bluray at the same time, launched through the TMT media center interface.

The first thing I would look at is the version of Windows 7 your using. I found a big gain in performance in some of the later builds ie 7200 onwards. I believe alot of the bug tracking stuff started to get turned off. It could also be 64 bit driver related.

The other thing to check is the version of TMT - this is still fairly buggy even in the current release. Are you playing direct from Bluray or via hard drive? I can certainly get TMT3 to stutter playing over the network, but its pretty good from both Bluray native and local disk. My best guess is right here...

The 8500 doesn't perform that different from the 9400 (used to use one), so I doubt its that or the Nvidia drivers either.

Nety

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#241081 31-Jul-2009 20:41

Hmm interesting the build comment. Well I will be able to download the RTM in a little over a week so and was planning to rebuild then anyway

Hopefully that is it. I am playing them from the actual bluray disk.

kiwijunglist

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#241265 1-Aug-2009 18:46

with regard to 24hz, yes set tv to 24hz, however you will still see the occasional stutter with 24fps source and that is because 24 frames per second is actually not that many frames per second, so there will be some stutter in some sources.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

Cadriel

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#241339 1-Aug-2009 23:13

The 8500GT also supports DirectX Video Acceleration - so you might want to make sure that's working. If you're hitting 40% CPU then it sounds like its not? I'm not sure if Totalmedia supports it.

Nety

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#241369 2-Aug-2009 08:42

Yes TMT does support hardware acceleration and the card is definatly doing it as without purevideo the PC cannot keep up at all. However that is a interesting point. Maybe full acceleration is not working or something.

Rusty what is your CPU hovering around when playing bluray?

I do think it might be as Rusty said and just be the 7100 release of Windows. The RTM is being released to MSDN Friday for us so I will rebuild the MC next weekend and see if that helps.

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RustyGonad

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#241401 2-Aug-2009 11:59

It sits somewhere between mid 30's to mid 40's.

Probably more relevent the TMT 3 process (launched from Media Center using Movie Browser) uses about 3-7% playing a Bluray @ 1080p.

With Media Center running (along with DVBLink, with 2 x DVBViewer and Sun Virtualbox w/NewCS 1.67 running in the background) it sits around 30-5% ish at "idle", ie as low as it ever gets.

I'm using TMT 3 lastest patched release .140. Running NVidia drivers 190.38.

Nety

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#242156 4-Aug-2009 08:52

Hmm looks like I might need to hold off. From the TMT forums is seems there are some new issues introduced in the RTM.
I played a bluray last night and part way though a recording started. There was a little bit of a hicup but it recovered and played though fine.

By the way I know 24p is not really 24p. I have a custom res set to 23.976 (or whatever it is can't quite recall).

Nety

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#244368 9-Aug-2009 09:37

Rusty seems like you were right. Did a fresh install of the RTM on Friday and it seems to have sorted out the bluray playback issues. In fact in general MC seems a lot more snappy.

Thanks for the advice.