[UglyBob]

Hi guys!

Since I bought a new 24Hz compatible projector in January I've been struggling with getting perfect 24Hz playback on my Asrock, but with no luck. I've come to the point that I wonder if it is impossible and if the only reasons people here likes the ION-systems as XBMC machines is that either they don't play that much high bitrate material or they are just fanboys.

I have followed every guide I could find, tried different versions of xbmc and the best result I could get is judder free playback with an occasional stutter here and there. And this is if I play high bitrate mkv files, if I play blu-ray rips I see small stuttering all the time. So after 3 months of writing xorg.conf and testing all possible xbmc options, I'm getting really fed up. My old popcorn hour did a much better work, starting to regret I ever sold it. Is it really possible to get PERFECT playback using the Asrock and I mean perfect, smooth, stutter and judder free playback on high bitrate material? Or do I need a better nvidia chipset? Or perhaps the new Broadcom Crystal HD?

[cejstrup]

Guess you already tried JumJum's howto ?

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=70068

that's what did the trick for me. However I can't play at 24Hz since my TV doesn't support it so I play my 24p movies at 60 Hz instead and then use the 'sync playback to display' feature. Smooth as silk and no stutter.
I have a zotac ION board

[UglyBob]

Guess you already tried JumJum's howto ?

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=70068

that's what did the trick for me. However I can't play at 24Hz since my TV doesn't support it so I play my 24p movies at 60 Hz instead and then use the 'sync playback to display' feature. Smooth as silk and no stutter.
I have a zotac ION board

Yeah, I followed that guide yesterday and it improved the playback somewhat, but still not perfect. I had my friends Popcorn hour there too and switched back and forth and every time the PCH won. And actually 60Hz makes it smoother for me too (don't know why, it should be more work for the decoder to interpolate the frames), but you get judder instead when the picture is panning, so that is not an option for me.

I'm just not sure it can handle it and if most other users play lower bitrate material. I played for instance a 13GB rip of Casino royal yesterday. It played pretty OK, but not as good as the Popcorn Hour did it. And I tested a full blu-ray of Zombieland and that isn't playing that good at all. In the slow motion parts in the beginning I clearly see some stuttering and also here and there in the rest of the movie. The popcorn hour played it almost perfectly, some extreme parts I saw a small stutter.

What I'm trying to find out is if it is really to weak for my requirements and if a new htpc with perhaps a better nvidia chipset or a broadcom card would do it better or if I would just throw away more money.

[dumalkin]

I also have ASrock 330.
There were 2 changes that I had to do:
1. Select "Sync refresh rate" option and set "use video clock (drop/dup audio)
Everything played smoothly, the only strange effect I got - when displaying UI XBMC sent 1080i/60Hz signal, (interlaced, not progressive) - totally invisible though. When I played 23.96-whatever movies my projector showed it as 1080p/24 signal.
2. Then I run script of JimJim, and it got me to receive 1080p/60 when UI (still no visual difference relative to 1080i/60), and changed used clock mode to "use audio clock" - and I started to get strange glitches when playing video.
So I changed clock mode back to "video / drop/dup audio" - and everything is perfect again.
XBMC correctly synchronizes with 50p/60p/24p material, when I pause movie it shows 50/60 fps as expected.
UPD:
Forgot to say: If you mention not smooth panning etc - I had to enable Frame Interpolation on my projector (usually 2 is enough, but I don't see any "bad effects" from leaving it on 3) - else fast panning scenes weren't smooth.
My screen is 380 cm diagonal.

[einhänder]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1018194

[bobo1on1]

Please post a debug log on pastebin.