Problems with video stuttering

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blur

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#340368 10-Jun-2010 19:17

Hi there

I too have looked into the play-ready installation.

Curiously, when I look at the application in the add/remove programs in Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, it is suffixed with "amd64" ???

This is despite my config having an Intel Core 2 processor!

My HTPC - Case Antec Fusion Remote, MOBO Intel DH67BLB3, CPU Intel Core i5-2400S 2.5 GHz, RAM 8GB DDR3 1333, HDD 120Gig Corsair Force Series 3 SSD system | WD Caviar Black 2TB data, Tuners Black Gold BGT3595 dual DVB-S/S2, dual DVB-T, Video nVIDIA GeForce GT 520, 1024MB, Sound Intel® High Definition Audio (onboard), OS Windows 7 x64

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richms

26420 posts

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#340380 10-Jun-2010 19:29

blur: Hi there

I too have looked into the play-ready installation.

Curiously, when I look at the application in the add/remove programs in Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, it is suffixed with "amd64" ???

This is despite my config having an Intel Core 2 processor!

That is the instruction set.

Intel had their own 64 bit one that was incompatible with x86 stuff so got nowhere other than some servers a while back. AMD made their compatible instruction set, everyone loved it and intel had to follow.

Richard rich.ms

smac

309 posts

Ultimate Geek

#344288 22-Jun-2010 20:31

Just my 10c on the two major themes in this thread:

1. I too was having the occasional 'tearing' issue on a relatively clean install of Win7 on hardware more than equal to the task. I can confirm that removing Play Ready has solved this almost. I still have the occasional issue, and guess what.....it's at times when Windows updates are faffing about in the background. Neither ram nor CPU('s) are maxed out, yet the video is effected. I'm seriously thinking of shutting down windows updates completely.....if the system works, and I'm behind a hardware router, I really can't see the benefits (in light of the negatives). And people still ask why my preference is linux.....

2. Put me down for a dud WD (1TB) green as well. If used as an OS drive the 'micro pauses' eventually turned into complete hanging. If used as a storage drive audio/video stuttering and pauses in access eventually hung things. The drive could be accessed ok, no errors (even when checked), but would suffer from unexplainable pauses.

Dingbatt

6421 posts

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#344449 23-Jun-2010 09:33

Subsequent to removing Play Ready things seemed to improve but I still had occasional glitches. I noticed when using a 1080p htpc output the CPU load was about 40% on both cores and when I dropped the resolution to 720p the CPU load dropped to about 5-15%, which is where it used to sit using MP prior to the RCs. To me that tends to indicate that the GPU was maxed out and passing some of the processing back to the CPU when trying to output 1080p. So I have come to the conclusion that the hardware specs on MP have gone up somewhat.

The system runs stutter free (so far) at 720p on all freeview channels.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

blur

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#344455 23-Jun-2010 09:48

2. Put me down for a dud WD (1TB) green as well. If used as an OS drive the 'micro pauses' eventually turned into complete hanging. If used as a storage drive audio/video stuttering and pauses in access eventually hung things. The drive could be accessed ok, no errors (even when checked), but would suffer from unexplainable pauses.

So, can we conclude that this is in fact a faulty drive, or merely a bad choice that we will have to live with? Personally I am annoyed, but am unsure where and how to direct my concerns...

brucej

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#344456 23-Jun-2010 09:49

I noticed the same micro pauses on a WD 1.5T green drive I have in my WHS, you should try defragmenting the drive, even if it shows its not needed. On my drive this stopped the pauses for a few months then when it starts I defragment again. There seems to be some sort of issue with WD green drive having to read from a fragmented drive.

blur

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#344457 23-Jun-2010 09:56

hmmm... worth a shot I suppose, but I think I'd rather be shot of the drive.

It's funny really, you can read all the reviews under the sun and look at graphs on performance etc. until the cows come home. But the reality is until you use it in a real "live" system you won't identify these sorts of problems.

Makes me think of the Consumer Guarantees Act and phrases like "not fit for purpose" etc.

richms

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#344549 23-Jun-2010 14:04

They are very disappointing drives to be honest, yes they make no noise when seeking but thats because they take so damn long doing it.

Have worked fine for me as a media storage drive, but thats not in a raid at all, apparently they really bottleneck a raid

Richard rich.ms

kiwijunglist

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#345723 27-Jun-2010 11:27

My 2c

I've noticed CPU load of >40% is too high for smooth 1080P playback.

Example

1080P mkv with DXVA CPU runs at 0-5% and it plays nice and smooth

1080P mkv that has not been encoded nicely and can't use dxva. CPU load is ~40-50% and I get occasional stuttering. Play the same file on a different PC with faster CPU, CPU load is ~15% and it plays nice and smooth.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwijunglist

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#345724 27-Jun-2010 11:29

brucej:
I noticed the same micro pauses on a WD 1.5T green drive I have in my WHS, you should try defragmenting the drive, even if it shows its not needed. On my drive this stopped the pauses for a few months then when it starts I defragment again. There seems to be some sort of issue with WD green drive having to read from a fragmented drive.

have u read about any problems with Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 64MB 2T, they have dropped to $200 so was gonna add a 3rd media storage HDD to my HTPC,

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

brucej

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#347145 1-Jul-2010 22:39

Never read any real problems with them just the general issues due to their speed, my experience with 1.5T Green drive is that it doesnt seem to work well in my home server, while all the other 5 drives work fine though they are all 7,200rpm.

The green drive are good for storage and general use, although wouldn't use one in a media centre, where the drives are used constantly.

dale77

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#347149 1-Jul-2010 22:49

Data point...

I replaced a 750G green which was intermittently giving ATAPI error 11... Received a 1Tb green as a replacement, which has now been replaced with another 1Tb green due to bad sectors appearing under windows.

Current drive seems to be running fine so far.

HTPC: Antec Fusion 430, Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-UD2H F7, AMD X2 4850e, Sapphire 4670 1GB, Corsair 4x1Gb, Adata 128Gb SSD, WD10EARS Green, LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray, Hauppauge NOVA TD-500, Logitech z-5500, Logitech Harmony 525, Samsung LA40B530 1080p, Vista Premium-32 SP2, Catalyst 10.12(Facelift preview), Mediaportal 1.2.3+OneButtonMusic, AC3Filter, Cyberlink Powercinema 6 codec, BLU-RAY: Samsung BD-F7500

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