[rajincajin]

I specifically purchased a Radeon HD 4670 so the card will do all the work when decoding HD. Why is it when I view the movies via XBMC that my cpu is pegged at 100%? It makes the video and audio stutter and is unwatchable. I know my system is a bit old but still from everything I read, the video card should be doing all the work.

I did some searching and downloaded codecs to make decoding point to the video card but I cannot figure out how to configure codecs in XBMC. What codecs is it using? Internal ones? How do you change them?

Can anyone help?

System Specs:
Intel Celeron 2.54GHZ
2.0 Gigs DDR2 5400 Memory
ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB Video Card
1.5 Terabyte Seagate hdd
Vista X86 Ultimate

[lxx_33]

is it also 100% when you don't use xbmc?

[BlueSpam]

XBMC does not support GPU offloading for video decoding as of yet:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=43331

I would recommend that you investigate using the External Player patch to launch another player, such as MPC-HC, for high-def material - this is what I do for my 1080p videos and it works fantastically!
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=43511

[nekrosoft13]

I specifically purchased a Radeon HD 4670 so the card will do all the work when decoding HD. Why is it when I view the movies via XBMC that my cpu is pegged at 100%? It makes the video and audio stutter and is unwatchable. I know my system is a bit old but still from everything I read, the video card should be doing all the work.

I did some searching and downloaded codecs to make decoding point to the video card but I cannot figure out how to configure codecs in XBMC. What codecs is it using? Internal ones? How do you change them?

Can anyone help?

System Specs:
Intel Celeron 2.54GHZ
2.0 Gigs DDR2 5400 Memory
ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB Video Card
1.5 Terabyte Seagate hdd
Vista X86 Ultimate

that is your problem

[xanadu1979]

It's getting to the point that we need a sticky about Windows codecs done in the same style as this sticky on the Linux section:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=40236

I'm starting to get sick of people asking about codecs or wondering why their newly installed codec pack doesn't seem to be fixing their stuttering HD video problem.

[rajincajin]

XBMC does not support GPU offloading for video decoding as of yet:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=43331

I would recommend that you investigate using the External Player patch to launch another player, such as MPC-HC, for high-def material - this is what I do for my 1080p videos and it works fantastically!
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=43511

sorry for not reading the sticky. i feel like an idiot now. been a hellish day at work and my mind is frazzled

that is your problem

not if your video card does the processing but as stated above it's not a feature of xbmc

It's getting to the point that we need a sticky about Windows codecs done in the same style as this sticky on the Linux section:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=40236

I'm starting to get sick of people asking about codecs or wondering why their newly installed codec pack doesn't seem to be fixing their stuttering HD video problem.

really? getting sick of people asking about something after only being a member for 6 months. you have some patience there buddy.

[haileris]

Quite willing to be proven wrong since I'm no real expert on this but my understanding is that most cards support h.264 hardware acceleration, not x.264 which is what is used in MKV's etc. So it really falls back to the CPU and / or a decent code. Have a look at the following link:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/accelerate...gpu-guide/

Incidentally, I think it would be a good sticky but one that expands to help people resolve issues with playback. In my case, I had enough money at the time to get fed up quick at troubleshooting and move to a quad core for my HTPC

[rajincajin]

Quite willing to be proven wrong since I'm no real expert on this but my understanding is that most cards support h.264 hardware acceleration, not x.264 which is what is used in MKV's etc. So it really falls back to the CPU and / or a decent code. Have a look at the following link:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/accelerate...gpu-guide/

Incidentally, I think it would be a good sticky but one that expands to help people resolve issues with playback. In my case, I had enough money at the time to get fed up quick at troubleshooting and move to a quad core for my HTPC

i'm no expert either but MKV's are just a container like an AVI and can be used for more than one type of codec. the ones i'm using are definitely h.264 720p as you can see in this screenshot: http://www.moarpics.com/images/8jyhq6z7mvmynjvb5uh.jpg

as you can also tell from the screenshot, with media player classic i can maintain 20-30% cpu usage since the ECR Custom setting puts all the work on my video card.

as was previously stated my only option is to get the svn that has external player support but the problem with that is i like the built in player for everything else and there's no way to make it choose the external player for hd and the internal player for sd....

i think i'm just going to move all my hd content to another folder on my storage drive so it doesn't even show up in XBMC. i can just exit xbmc and open a shortcut to that folder and run my hi def stuff through mpc hc manually

[skriefal]

Quite willing to be proven wrong since I'm no real expert on this but my understanding is that most cards support h.264 hardware acceleration, not x.264 which is what is used in MKV's etc. So it really falls back to the CPU and / or a decent code. Have a look at the following link:

There is no such thing as an x.264 format. Rather, x264 is a piece of software that creates h.264 files. However there are several varieties -- or "levels" -- of h.264, and not all of these levels are supported by GPU-based decoders. Many of the people using x264 merely select the highest level, without being aware of (or caring) that this produces a file that cannot be decoded by most GPU decoders. Used properly, x264 should produce h.264 files that are compatible with GPU decoders.

[tcman47]

I just played batman returns 1080p mkv movie and checked my intel e8400 usage, it was at 68%.

Xbmc to me is rock solid for everything, the picture I get with the built-in codecs is just stunning.

TC

[rajincajin]

I just played batman returns 1080p mkv movie and checked my intel e8400 usage, it was at 68%.

Xbmc to me is rock solid for everything, the picture I get with the built-in codecs is just stunning.

TC

i just played amelie 1080p mkv movie and checked my cpu usage and it was 30%

xbmc to me is lacking. i was messing with mediaportal and it has so many configuration options where you can customize everything including codecs for different formats. the skins are so buggy though and it just doesn't feel as fluid as xbmc.

if someone could combine xbmc's smoothness and stability with mediaportal's advanced configuration that doesnt require modifying xml files i think the end result would be absolutely incredible.

in the meantime i am fine with using xbmc for xvid/divx/dvd/etc and mpc hc for 720p/1080p. i'll cross my fingers that one day someone will code in some customization where it comes to codecs

[xanadu1979]

if someone could combine xbmc's smoothness and stability with mediaportal's advanced configuration that doesnt require modifying xml files i think the end result would be absolutely incredible.

I agree, but it's a pipe dream. The two programs aren't even written in the same language. MediaPortal's focus is Windows. That's why you can use external codecs with it. XBMC is and always will be cross-platform, which requires cross-platform codecs. I highly doubt you'll ever see a version of XBMC that allows you to use external codecs on Windows.

I personally use MediaPortal as my main media center app. I use it mainly because of the external codec support and my MCE remote seems to work much better with it. The fact that XBMC doesn't let me use my remote arrows (mapped to the keyboard arrows) for the on-screen keyboard is pretty much a deal breaker for me.

Have you tried the StreamedMP skin for MediaPortal? In my opinion, it's very stable and looks just as good as XBMC's Mediastream when used with the MP-TVSeries and Moving Pictures plug-ins. There has been a lot of activity with it in just the past few weeks. If you haven't tried it recently, I would give it a shot.

[rajincajin]

I agree, but it's a pipe dream. The two programs aren't even written in the same language. MediaPortal's focus is Windows. That's why you can use external codecs with it. XBMC is and always will be cross-platform, which requires cross-platform codecs. I highly doubt you'll ever see a version of XBMC that allows you to use external codecs on Windows.

I personally use MediaPortal as my main media center app. I use it mainly because of the external codec support and my MCE remote seems to work much better with it. The fact that XBMC doesn't let me use my remote arrows (mapped to the keyboard arrows) for the on-screen keyboard is pretty much a deal breaker for me.

Have you tried the StreamedMP skin for MediaPortal? In my opinion, it's very stable and looks just as good as XBMC's Mediastream when used with the MP-TVSeries and Moving Pictures plug-ins. There has been a lot of activity with it in just the past few weeks. If you haven't tried it recently, I would give it a shot.

i still have mediaportal installed on my htpc i just gave up on it. i was using the streamedmp skin because how similar it looked but it was just insanely buggy. when i moved the mouse to the right side of the screen it would go to shutdown, when i arrowed through the menus the words would disappear. it was little nit picky stuff i think i'll be ok with just doing xbmc + mpc hc