[AP0ll0UK]

Hi Everyone

I've installed XBMC [as of 06/06/10] on my Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid PC, the box is a Core2Duo E6600 2.4Ghz with 3GB Ram and an NVidia 8400 GS 512MB connected to a 40" Samsung LCD.

The issue is that during playback of either stand divx, raw DVD or HD files @ 1080p I'm getting a flicker at the top of the screen. During the playback of HD files its more visible during fast moving scenes or scenes with a lot of detail.

Also when the menu is visible down the left hand side with the video playing in the background, there is noticible lag on the video playback.

I've installed the latest NVidia driver through Synaptic Package manager [v173] and I downloaded XBMC through Synaptic as well this afternoon.

Generally the performance of my system is good and it never reaches 100% cpu or memory utilisation, the video card also does well in other players such as SMPlayer.

I'm confused, can anyone give me any pointers please?

[bobo1on1]

Turn off desktop effects.

[AP0ll0UK]

Turn off desktop effects.

Thanks for the advice, that's really helped!

It's helped to reduce the lag so it's a lot less regular. Also, when navigating through XBMC and the menus down the left, the transitioning of the images weren't smooth, moving the mouse cursor also wasn't smooth, plus the text that scrolls across the bottom in the ticker juddered and wasn't smooth.

But turning off desktop effects has made a significant improvement and the GUI overall is a lot smoother so thank you.


I also following steps I found in this post - http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=74963

fire up your nvidia-settings (system -> administration -> nvidia x server settings), and under 'OpenGL Settings' check "sync to vblank". do the same under 'X Server XVideo Settings' (for both video texture adapter and video blitter adapter).

then in xbmc, go to settings -> system and select "always enabled" for your vertical blank sync. then in settings -> video -> playback check 'sync playback to display'.

This removed the line flicker I was getting at the top of the screen and also on random parts of the screen during playback.


On a different note, I've seen in the XBMC documentation about starting XBMC when the desktop loads. That is how I would like to have the box setup for the session that appears on my TV.

However, I would also like to being to RDP [or something like] into the box, get the full desktop but not disturb what is happening in the session on my TV. You don't happen to know anything about that do you please?

[bobo1on1]

You need to set up vnc for that, not x11vnc but the other one.