2010-07-03, 23:16
Edit. Damn, I wrote a huge post describing my problem and being unable to see why it was happening, and at the last minute tried something that was revealing.
It looks like there may be VDADecoder issues with machines that have an NVIDIA GeForce 320M (ie: the new Mac Minis)
This is a problem I'm encountering running the latest XBMC nightly (svn31542) on a new mid-2010 Mac Mini Server, plugged into a Panasonic HD TV using HDMI.
*Some* movies (encoded by HandBrake using Normal preset from BluRay sources) play back on one mac with the video slowed down. ie: reduced frame-rate but instead of skipping frames to stay in sync, the video lags behind the audio which plays on at the correct speed.
Meanwhile on another mac (mid-2009 Macbook Pro on its own screen, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M) all movies played back fine.
But on the problem-Mac when I turned off System->Video->Playback->Allow hardware acceleration (VDADecoder) the movies showing the problem now played back at their correct frame rate. (But struggled sometimes; there's a reason we want hardware acceleration to work!)
Also, because the Mini is running OSX *Server* I tried booting the Macbook Pro into the 64-bit kernel to see if that produced the same fault and it didn't; everything still played back fine (with VDADecoder on).
Pasted are the xbmc.log files from playing two movies on each machine with VDADecoder *on*. Cars.m4v plays back fine on both machines. Ratatouille.m4v plays back with slow video on the Mac Mini but fine on the Macbook pro.
The xbmc.log from the mac mini: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/pF1kW1JD
The xbmc.log from the macbook pro: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/TVMBLzLD
BTW this isn't just affecting one file, but many apparently at random. While many other files are just fine.
Also BTW, QuickTime and VLC play Ratatouille.m4v fine on the Mac Mini - in QuickTime's case, presumably using hardware acceleration.
It looks like there may be VDADecoder issues with machines that have an NVIDIA GeForce 320M (ie: the new Mac Minis)
This is a problem I'm encountering running the latest XBMC nightly (svn31542) on a new mid-2010 Mac Mini Server, plugged into a Panasonic HD TV using HDMI.
*Some* movies (encoded by HandBrake using Normal preset from BluRay sources) play back on one mac with the video slowed down. ie: reduced frame-rate but instead of skipping frames to stay in sync, the video lags behind the audio which plays on at the correct speed.
Meanwhile on another mac (mid-2009 Macbook Pro on its own screen, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M) all movies played back fine.
But on the problem-Mac when I turned off System->Video->Playback->Allow hardware acceleration (VDADecoder) the movies showing the problem now played back at their correct frame rate. (But struggled sometimes; there's a reason we want hardware acceleration to work!)
Also, because the Mini is running OSX *Server* I tried booting the Macbook Pro into the 64-bit kernel to see if that produced the same fault and it didn't; everything still played back fine (with VDADecoder on).
Pasted are the xbmc.log files from playing two movies on each machine with VDADecoder *on*. Cars.m4v plays back fine on both machines. Ratatouille.m4v plays back with slow video on the Mac Mini but fine on the Macbook pro.
The xbmc.log from the mac mini: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/pF1kW1JD
The xbmc.log from the macbook pro: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/TVMBLzLD
BTW this isn't just affecting one file, but many apparently at random. While many other files are just fine.
Also BTW, QuickTime and VLC play Ratatouille.m4v fine on the Mac Mini - in QuickTime's case, presumably using hardware acceleration.