[thrak76]

Hi folks,

I've been having issues with my HD .mkv encodes lately. During playback, video/audio will freeze, and then a buffering message is displayed, followed by either the video stopping and exiting back to the selection screen, or my impatience and stopping the playback with the stop button (with great delay) or a force close of XBMC. This only happens with these Blu-ray encodes, and not with downloaded HDTV material. EDIT: It's now happening with everything.

I've been trying combinations of hardware/software acceleration, and Directx9ex enabling without any alleviation in the problem.

I'm using Eden Final with the HD audio patch, on Vista x64. Here's a snippet of the log where the freeze occurs:

10:19:28 T:2528 DEBUG: CPullupCorrection: detected pattern of length 1: 41708.33, frameduration: 41708.333333
10:22:45 T:4152 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
10:22:45 T:2528 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
10:22:45 T:2528 INFO: CDVDPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 23.976024 fps
10:22:45 T:2528 DEBUG: CPullupCorrection: pattern lost on diff 208541.666667
10:22:50 T:2528 DEBUG: CPullupCorrection: detected pattern of length 1: 41708.33, frameduration: 41708.333333
10:23:07 T:5284 ERROR: ffmpeg[14A4]: [matroska,webm] Read error
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: eof, waiting for queues to empty
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: closing audio stream
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: Closing audio stream
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::WaitUntilEmpty
10:23:07 T:4152 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerAudio - CDVDMsg::GENERAL_EOF
10:23:07 T:4152 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerAudio - CDVDMsg::GENERAL_SYNCHRONIZE
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: Waiting for audio thread to exit
10:23:07 T:4152 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerAudio:rocess - Abort received, exiting thread
10:23:07 T:4152 NOTICE: thread end: CDVDPlayerAudio::OnExit()
10:23:07 T:4152 DEBUG: Thread CDVDPlayerAudio 4152 terminating
10:23:07 T:5284 NOTICE: Closing audio device

And here's the full log

Thanks for looking!

[thrak76]

I know everyone's all fired up with XBMC on Android announcement, but I could really use some help here. I had a wonderfully functioning HTPC until I had to clean install onto an SSD recently, and getting things back up to spec has been difficult.

Bump, please...

[thrak76]

Please. This thread has now had nearly 100 views. Someone has to have an insight regarding:

10:22:45 T:4152 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
10:22:45 T:2528 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
10:22:45 T:2528 INFO: CDVDPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 23.976024 fps
10:22:45 T:2528 DEBUG: CPullupCorrection: pattern lost on diff 208541.666667
10:22:50 T:2528 DEBUG: CPullupCorrection: detected pattern of length 1: 41708.33, frameduration: 41708.333333
10:23:07 T:5284 ERROR: ffmpeg[14A4]: [matroska,webm] Read error

This is what's freezing my playback. I've done clean installs. Nothing is alleviating this problem! I'm almost to the point of trying to do a Windows reinstall and starting fresh - but that's what I did already. I upgraded to an SSD and reinstalled windows. Now I'm having problems that I've never had before with XBMC.

I've even tried moving to the Frodo alpha 3 snapshot build, but that brought a whole new set of problems for me that I've been trying to get help with in the AudioEngine thread. "Endpoint Buffer" problems or something...

[Ned Scott]

This is above my own knowledge, so I can only guess, but perhaps the issue is the SSD? Maybe run some diagnostic tools on it and see if it is working correctly. Things like this can progressively happen when there are memory (drive) problems.

[ventrax]

I have the exact same problem. Stuttering/buffering during .mkv playback. Never had any problems with this before.

VLC have no problem playing the same file.

This really is something that has happened the last month/weeks.

[thrak76]

Well I ended up taking some drastic measures!

I figured it was well past time for me to make the upgrade to Windows 7 (seeing how Windows 8 release is eminent), and I was able to get 7 Pro x64 for a student discount price. So I hosed the Vista x64 install, and did a clean install of 7 Pro. Updated everything necessary, making sure to install drivers for my Radeon HD6450 that are reliable (catalyst 11.10 in my case), got all my optimizations in place for the SSD, and then I was ready to install XBMC.

I went straight for the Frodo Alpha 3 build, because I was very eager to use the new AudioEngine. I used nothing leftover from my previous Eden final install (except the media files!), so that it would be totally fresh.

Lo and behold! - No more freezing on .mkvs! All HD audio streams are bitstreaming correctly. All problems that I was having before have been (AFAIK) eradicated. I've been fighting this HTPC since I upgraded to an SSD. I should've gone with Windows 7 from the start on this SSD. Live and learn!

[wmoecke]

It seems from your description that my problem is very similar (if not the same) as yours. And I never had Vista. But another similarity, is that I upgraded my HDD with a Seagate Momentum Hybrid (the one with 4GB SSD prefetch + 500GB magnetic storage) a while ago.

I went straight for the Frodo Alpha 3 build, because I was very eager to use the new AudioEngine. I used nothing leftover from my previous Eden final install (except the media files!), so that it would be totally fresh.

Would you say that a complete uninstall of Eden followed by installing the Frodo Alpha 3 build would likely solve my problems? (I will likely have to reinstall add-ons and such).

Lo and behold! - No more freezing on .mkvs! All HD audio streams are bitstreaming correctly. All problems that I was having before have been (AFAIK) eradicated. I've been fighting this HTPC since I upgraded to an SSD. I should've gone with Windows 7 from the start on this SSD. Live and learn!

Well I do not know about that, I am on W7 Ultimate and never had Vista, and it seems my problems came directly from the Eden build. I am still a freshman in decoding the log files, it seems you've got more experience. Perhaps I could ask if you could have a quick look at it and share some insights with me?

[thrak76]

It seems from your description that my problem is very similar (if not the same) as yours. And I never had Vista. But another similarity, is that I upgraded my HDD with a Seagate Momentum Hybrid (the one with 4GB SSD prefetch + 500GB magnetic storage) a while ago.

It very well could be a root cause. Did you do reinstall of windows when you upgraded the HDD, or just image the OS on the new HDD. If you did a clean install, I wouldn't imagine the Hybrid being an issue...

Would you say that a complete uninstall of Eden followed by installing the Frodo Alpha 3 build would likely solve my problems? (I will likely have to reinstall add-ons and such).

I think it would be worth the try to do a complete uninstall before installing Frodo A3. Make sure to delete everything in the AppData folder. If you use an uninstaller like Revo, it will scan for any leftover registry entries and files. I know before i did the complete uninstall, I was unable to reliably run Frodo without crashing.

Well I do not know about that, I am on W7 Ultimate and never had Vista, and it seems my problems came directly from the Eden build. I am still a freshman in decoding the log files, it seems you've got more experience. Perhaps I could ask if you could have a quick look at it and share some insights with me?

I'm still finding my way through log files as well, but there were a couple things that stuck out to me:

21:54:35 T:2716 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerAudio:: Discontinuity - was:79770396.857020, should be:79780660.642371, error:10263.785351
21:55:24 T:5864 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
21:55:24 T:5864 INFO: CDVDPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 29.970030 fps
21:55:24 T:5864 DEBUG: CPullupCorrection: pattern lost on diff 166833.333333
21:55:24 T:2716 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available

These are similar entries to some in my log. Did you experience the video playback freezing, and then call for buffering?

I also see some references to playercorefactory, and OnPlay. Are you using an external player for video playback? That could be an issue as well, though many use external players just fine without issue.

I'd say go for the uninstall/upgrade to Frodo A3. I'm not having any issues with Frodo now (besides very minor nitpicks).

[Kokonutcreme]

Hi all

I experienced the same issue after upgrading from Frodo Alpha4 to Alpha 5. All video files regardless of filtetype would stutter on playback, streaming and local. Rolling back to Alpha 4 didn't solve the issue either. All files playback perfectly on VLC and Plex so it isn't the files themselves.

Rolling back to Eden works.

After scrolling through various threads on the topic:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=139449
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=141111
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=80247&page=36
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=139840
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=140101&page=2

and trying a variety of suggestions what eventually worked for me last night was to reinstall Alpha 4 playback a file and then change the default Audio hardware setting from Wasapi....... to one that stopped the stuttering. The selected option will differ for individual setups but it worked for me. Tested every different filetype, local and streaming and playback was perfect.

I then tested again by installing the latest nightly build dated 23 September and the stuttering returned as everything was set to default. Change the audio hardware settings and playback was perfect.

I don't have an AV receiver but do use HDMI to connect my W7 laptop to plasma for video. Sound provided by headphone jack connection to 2.1 speaker system.

I'm so relieved as I wanted Frodo for Nox v4, image caching, tags and the change in behaviour with recently added content so that I can rescrape various libraries without their position changing in the recently added list. It also enables me to finally create a smart playlist for New Releases based on the year and sorted by date added so that it closely resembles the release date of the movie.

This is separate to the recently added list.

[feerlessleadr]

Hi all

I experienced the same issue after upgrading from Frodo Alpha4 to Alpha 5. All video files regardless of filtetype would stutter on playback, streaming and local. Rolling back to Alpha 4 didn't solve the issue either. All files playback perfectly on VLC and Plex so it isn't the files themselves.

Rolling back to Eden works.

After scrolling through various threads on the topic:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=139449
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=141111
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=80247&page=36
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=139840
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=140101&page=2

and trying a variety of suggestions what eventually worked for me last night was to reinstall Alpha 4 playback a file and then change the default Audio hardware setting from Wasapi....... to one that stopped the stuttering. The selected option will differ for individual setups but it worked for me. Tested every different filetype, local and streaming and playback was perfect.

I then tested again by installing the latest nightly build dated 23 September and the stuttering returned as everything was set to default. Change the audio hardware settings and playback was perfect.

I don't have an AV receiver but do use HDMI to connect my W7 laptop to plasma for video. Sound provided by headphone jack connection to 2.1 speaker system.

I'm so relieved as I wanted Frodo for Nox v4, image caching, tags and the change in behaviour with recently added content so that I can rescrape various libraries without their position changing in the recently added list. It also enables me to finally create a smart playlist for New Releases based on the year and sorted by date added so that it closely resembles the release date of the movie.

This is separate to the recently added list.

I don't know what sort of evil black magic you practice...but you are a wonderful human being. I haven't been able to watch any HD movies on my HTCP for over a month now, and this fix finally corrected the studdering.

[DDDamian]

Heh heh - you're welcome. Enjoy