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ddale · 2011-09-20, 02:38

OK, so I replaced my trusty first gen AppleTV running XBMC with something that I thought would be able to handle whatever I throw at it.

Here is what I have:

- New Zotac AD02
- 4GB Ram
- 160GB hard drive (really only used for OS)
- Clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
- Updated drivers to current from ATI site.
- All windows updates installed.
- Current xbmc nightly build (2010919)

So far the machine has been great until I threw a 1920x1080p MKV file at it today. During playback it is obviously skipping frames and I can see that if I hit O to bring up the debug info. It shows the video is 1920x1080 and I can see that the vpu is pegged at over 90% and the frame dropped counter going up (video jerky).

All the 720p video I have thrown at it so far has been flawless and the vpu runs about 40% on the ones I have.

Am I going to have issues with 1080p on this device? If so then I've obviously made a poor decision because I wanted something that I could keep around for quite a while without fear of it not being able to play something.

Any ideas?

The only thought I've had so far is that the hard drive can't keep up. I'm going to try copying the file to the local hard drive to see if that helps.

Darryl

Mallet21 · 2011-09-20, 02:50

Dumb question but did you remember to tick the DXVA2 button in the video settings?

ddale · 2011-09-20, 03:58

Um, silly answer, probably not ;-)

I went through the video settings looking for a "Render method" like there used to by with my ATV and CrystalHD card.

Did not see anything obvious.

Is it a checkbox in the gui somewhere?

Darryl

eskro · 2011-09-20, 04:07

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=How...or_Windows

ddale · 2011-09-20, 04:14

Excellent, thanks for the link. Came across it when googling "xbmc dxva2".

Now the weird part.......

I went in and enabled DXVA2 and playback on a file that plays fine without it being enabled is unbelievably choppy when it is enabled. It would appear that enabling hardware accelaration made the problem worse and not better.

What other options should be enabled on that screen?

My zotac is hooked up to my 40" LCD via hdmi cable running a native resolution of 1920x1080.

Shoud I be playing with any of the synch / refresh settings?

Darryl

eskro Wrote:http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=How...or_Windows

eskro · (This post was last modified: 2011-09-20, 04:23 by eskro.)

check in BIOS and see if u can set iGPU's ram to 512MB

eskro · 2011-09-20, 04:23

Kirky99 · 2011-09-20, 05:03

You may want to toy with Full Screen vs Full Screen Window and Adjust Display Refresh Rate to Playback...

I believe that on my TV, Full Screen Window and Adjust Display Refresh Rate to Playback produces an odd picture. Somewhat jerky; probably has to do with LG's TruMotion.

ddale · 2011-09-20, 05:35

The full screen (as opposed to full screen window) seemed to help considerably.

Can now play the 1080p video no problem and cpu seems to hover around 20% with no frames being dropped.

Excellent!!!!!!

Thanks for the tips.

Darryl

Kirky99 Wrote:You may want to toy with Full Screen vs Full Screen Window and Adjust Display Refresh Rate to Playback...

I believe that on my TV, Full Screen Window and Adjust Display Refresh Rate to Playback produces an odd picture. Somewhat jerky; probably has to do with LG's TruMotion.

ScrapMaker · 2012-01-21, 22:34

I just purchased the AD-02 and I am running Windows 7 64-bit. For the life of me, I cannot get this thing to play 1080p MKVs (ranging between 6GB and 20GB,) smoothly. Skippy video, audio dropping out, you name it. CPU is pegged at 100%, and GPU is 1-2%. I have the latest driver from ATI, and DXVA is enabled. I have also tried toggling between the fullscreen modes.

I have an old Zotac 9300 with Wireless-G built in. Core 2 Duo with Geforce 9300 Ion. That plays the same movies with 2-3% CPU usage, and something like 20% GPU, if I recall correctly.

Also I find it entertaining just how slow the Wireless N performs. I was able to stream 1080p (6GB) movies for up to 10 minutes at a time without buffering on the Zotac 9300 (Wireless G,) whereas the AD-02 with Wireless N, can't go for more than 30 seconds. Same router. Perhaps it's a frequency issue, but either way it's annoying.

Any ideas on how to get the video to play back properly? I can run Ethernet, so I am not as worried about that.

rbrohman · 2012-01-22, 00:54

Do you need to use this box for anything other than XBMC?

I have an AD-02 running Openelec's AMD Fusion build with 4GB of RAM and an SSD. It's smooth as silk.

ScrapMaker · 2012-01-22, 01:00

All I use the box for is XMBC. I only have the stock 2GB of RAM, but I don't think that is what is causing it only run off the CPU.

I think I am going to return it today and use my Core 2 Duo/Ion 9300 setup again. Flawless operation. I am still curious what it takes to get this to run at full speed though.

**r1lee** · 2012-01-22, 01:43

I have a zotac ad02 with 8gb of ram and a 32gb ssd, it runs 1080p fine.
I also have it wired though, no wifi.

ScrapMaker · 2012-01-22, 08:48

How large and what type of 1080p files are you playing back? I tried playing with every setting I could find, yet I still got no positive results.

I went to Fry's and bought a custom HTPC Antec case, and threw my Zotac 9300 WiFi in there... this thing is pretty slick. I'm going to order a slim Blu-Ray burner to toss in there. It even has room for two 2.5" HDDs.

I was wrong earlier, my vcpu is 3%, while my regular cpu usage is 14% across both cores. No frames dropped, and somehow it only buffered 6 times during a 2-hour 16GB file. This is a Wireless G module that comes with the 9300, and it's handily trumping the Wireless N module that the AD-02 had installed.