[GregPK]

Hi all,

I have some troubles with my new media center PC. The problem is: XBMC has ususable performance in full screen. It performs admirably in windowed mode.

I'll post my setup details below, but first I'd like to share what I believe to be a tellin symptom:
when running in windowed mode, the framerate will be anything in between 90 and 130 and the UX is very good. When in full screen however, I can see that about once every 2 seconds for a normal FPS (~100) I get a 0,5 second hiper boost (~250-500 FPS).

The terrible UX is felt during the 2 seconds, because there is terrible lag between any input method (keyboard, xbox ctrl or mouse) and the action it should do. Then there is the brief 0,5 seconds when everything feels as it should be.

All of the above are felt mostly when there is UI heavy work - a picture, menu transition etc. When playing a file with no UI elements there is no lag whatsoever, it also seems that when there is a lag while playing when the UI is visible, the lag only affects the UI and not the file being played.

It also seems that the longer XBMC is running, the stuttering becomes more manageable (but it's still bad after an hour).

It should be noted that:
1) When I installed the system, added the latest team-xbmc repo and installed XBMC 13, the problem did not exist
2) The problem started when I've installed the prioprietary AMD drivers (unfortunately I need them to run audio through HDMI)
3) My current XBMC is installed step by step with this guide: Install_XBMC_on_Ubuntu/with_AMD_GPU so the setup is optimized for ATI (in theory). I've done with the safe router and installed via ppa:wsnipex/xbmc-xvba-frodo
4) I've tried disabling hardware accelation to no avail.

Some additional data:

• Debug log
  
• ATI driver version: 13.4
  
• Tried on skins: Ace, Confluence
  
• Linux Mint 15 64bit
  
• Hardware:
  Mainboard: FM2-A75IA,
  CPU: A10 5800K (with Radeon HD 7660D),
  Display: A 42 inch Panasosic plasma connected via HDMI
  

[laric]

I think you have a couple of issues. First you should use another ppa that has xvba support.
Second I believe that Min 15 is based on Ubuntu 13.04 and that means you cannot get a good AMD driver.

You should not have a system that is built on anything newer than Ubuntu 12.10. And use the AMD driver in 12.10 original repository.

Anything newer than those 2 drivers are not really usable.

You should really follow the directions here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996 and you should use 12.10 minimal as your base as you are on an amd trinity apu. Do not install any other driver than the one in the original ubuntu distribution and you should be fine.

[fritsch]

I think, we have to rewrite the xvba howto. That is now the 50th time, that I see this question.

@wsnipex: what do you think? Just closing the other thread, and copy / paste / pimp the start page for a new one?

[GregPK]

You should really follow the directions here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996 and you should use 12.10 minimal as your base as you are on an amd trinity apu. Do not install any other driver than the one in the original ubuntu distribution and you should be fine.

Ok I'll try that, but I'm worried that the sound issues will return. Will report back.

I think, we have to rewrite the xvba howto. That is now the 50th time, that I see this question.

So you're suggesting the same solution as above? Rewriting the guides might be a bit much, but a big "Don't use Ubuntu later that 12.10" neon might be useful.

[fritsch]

Nope - I did not suggest anything.

I told: You don't have a choice :-)

[fritsch]

Edit: To be fully correct here.

You can make a partially working driver for 13.04, which is installation of 13.6 driver (backup signature file), patch that driver with amdxvba.so from 13.8 driver. Set Vertical Blank Sync to "Always enabled" in xbmc.

Issues:
- SD channels, which are not hw accelerated, will lag (Arctic 0001 machine)
- Boblight and things will introduce drops