[rschmied]

avi is a known bad container format. avi encoders do all sorts of bad and wacky things that are known to cause issues with hw decoders. problem is, I can't tell from vdadecoder that the h264 data stream came from an avi.

Thanks for the explanation, davilla. Appreciated. So, I take it that extracting the H.264 data stream from the container is not transparent / independent from the container itself. So I will look into methods of re-packing the AVI container into a MKV container. Hopefully this is something that could be done by a simple stream copy, ideally with a command line tool available on Linux (as this could be done automatically on my NAS in the background). I guess I have some research to do

Thanks,
-ralph

[Babal]

That drop increasing problem...
To me it must be a refresh rate issue.
I had the exact same problem with my mac mini 2010, HDMI out.
Try to change the screens/TV refresh rate to match your choppy video's and tell us how it goes.
Try to force 50Hz or 25Hz if not avail.

[D-tyme]

Thanks for the explanation, davilla. Appreciated. So, I take it that extracting the H.264 data stream from the container is not transparent / independent from the container itself. So I will look into methods of re-packing the AVI container into a MKV container. Hopefully this is something that could be done by a simple stream copy, ideally with a command line tool available on Linux (as this could be done automatically on my NAS in the background). I guess I have some research to do

Thanks,
-ralph

HandBrake is your friend...

[rschmied]

HandBrake is your friend...

not exactly... I take it that HandBrake actually transcodes the video. Which is what I'd like to avoid. Or am I missing something? It looks like MKVToolnix is the tool of choice.

[rschmied]

That drop increasing problem...
To me it must be a refresh rate issue.
I had the exact same problem with my mac mini 2010, HDMI out.
Try to change the screens/TV refresh rate to match your choppy video's and tell us how it goes.
Try to force 50Hz or 25Hz if not avail.

I have had locked the HDMI to 50Hz with all my tests.

[D-tyme]

not exactly... I take it that HandBrake actually transcodes the video. Which is what I'd like to avoid. Or am I missing something? It looks like MKVToolnix is the tool of choice.

Yes it will...but...With the proper settings, its really just a case of taking an h.264 and making it more "efficient." Since I got my Quad i7 I can turn my full 1080p bluray rips into a fraction of the size with no visual quality loss. Then I use MKVToolnix to add back the DTS-HD audio track. Doesn't make since to me to keep a 26gb file, when I can get the same from a 7gb one.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19939

[rschmied]

Yes it will...but...With the proper settings, its really just a case of taking an h.264 and making it more "efficient." Since I got my Quad i7 I can turn my full 1080p bluray rips into a fraction of the size with no visual quality loss. Then I use MKVToolnix to add back the DTS-HD audio track. Doesn't make since to me to keep a 26gb file, when I can get the same from a 7gb one.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19939

Excellent pointer. Thanks for providing this. However, the movies I'm concerned about are already in a highly compressed format and transcoding does not only take forever (unnecessarily) but also will probably reduce quality even more. My ideal solution therefore leaves the encoded H.264 stream untouched and just replaces the container (from AVI to MKV). This is what MKVtoolnix does for me. I just have to figure out what parameters I have to feed into mkvmerge to get this done in a batch file.

[baalin]

I have found Avidemux a very useful tool for switch video containers. Just do a copy stream for audio and video and then select a different container then avi.

http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

[yabbah]

I have the exact same issue here. Mac Mini mid 2010, hdmi, 1080p 50Hz (tried 60Hz too, and 720p), my videos is choppy when its going from side to side for example.

I tried to play the exact same video with VLC, Plex and Boxee, and there they works just perfect. Is this an xbmc-issue?
Can it be fixed in some way as I really love xbmc.

*** EDIT ***

I also got this if I play a dvd-movie from a .iso/.img-file.

*** /EDIT ***

[rschmied]

I have the exact same issue here. Mac Mini mid 2010, hdmi, 1080p 50Hz (tried 60Hz too, and 720p), my videos is choppy when its going from side to side for example.

What you experience is probably something different... Have you enabled 'Vertical blanc sync' (Settings -> Systems -> Video Output)? This is usually referred to as 'tearing'.

[yabbah]

What you experience is probably something different... Have you enabled 'Vertical blanc sync' (Settings -> Systems -> Video Output)? This is usually referred to as 'tearing'.

I will try that. Thanks

[yabbah]

I have now tried activate 'Vertical blanc sync'. The tearing is now gone. But instead it seems like it skip some frames when I watch media. When ie people moving vertical in the scene, its not smooth, hard to explain with my bad english. :/
Hope anyone understand what I mean and can help

[yabbah]

I think I found what was wrong, Truemotion in my TV (LG 60LD550N) did that. I disabled it, and everything is now smooth as a ... something.

[idioteque]

.... Baby, or

[Turb007]

So reading through the thread am i reading right that hardware decoding of video is not possible ( or working properly ) in XBMC on OSX now ?

I too am having problems playing back files (H.264 mkv's) using the VDA decoder but they seem fine in VLC