[SadTomato]

Hello.

I've been running XBMC for a couple of years off a laptop that couldn't play anything higher than 720p. I recently bought a new Gateway core i5 desktop and am using that as a HTPC and currently running Eden and watching big fat 1080p files.

With DXVA2 enabled I get occasional artifacts in certain spots in certain mkv files. I know that many recommend disabling DXVA2, saying the core ix CPUs are robust enough to not need it but, when I did, I noticed occasional stuttering while playing back certain scenes in high bitrate files--The opening battle scene of "Revenge of the Sith" for instance. CPU is around 20% but the VCPU can go as high as 101% at some points. The stuttering also happens on an older i3 I have.

So it seems I can either leave DXVA on and experience occasional artifacts OR leave it off and experience occasional stuttering.

I know these problems have been discussed elsewhere but I'm not sure a solution was ever arrived at.

[pkscout]

I think you're stuck with picking the lesser of two evils. The built in graphics on the i3/i5/i7's have some sporatic problems when DVXA2 is enabled. I will say that it is much better under Eden than Dharma.

[SadTomato]

Would installing a video card solve the problem?

[DDDamian]

In Win7 yes.

[SadTomato]

Being a complete non-gamer and considering this rig would only be used for watching movies, I keep seeing the Radeon 6450 mentioned as a good choice.

Keeping in mind my system is now playing 99.9% of my videos flawlessly, would I be able to get by with something cheaper?

[Mallet21]

A 6450 will work great however I don't see any reason why your i5 would be struggling with software decoding a high bitrate video.

My i3 sandy had no trouble playing back 1:1 bluray rips using just the cpu.

[SvenB]

I had the same problem, but only with high bitrate bluray movies. I bought a cheap ATi HD6450 and now all of my problems are gone using DXVA2.

[DDDamian]

I have the same, 6450, and playback is flawless - highly recommend.

[Ryan00]

What's the point of dxva2 ? Does it just use the gpu more rather then the CPU? Does it give you better picture quality? Also should you have DeInterlace In video settings on or off?

[SadTomato]

Installed a 6450 and now everything works perfectly!

Thanks for the advice, everyone.