[hellspawn69]

Alright- the rig-
HP XW9300
AMT Opteron 248 @ 2.2Ghz
2 gig's RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX540 128MB

System is XP Pro 32 bit
1680x1050 screen over a DVI (will eventually be pushing DVI to Component to a 1080p TV if I can get this working smoothly.)
Only things besides XBMC that are installed are-
Microsoft Security Essentials
K-Lite Codec Pack

I have some 1080p .mkv's, they are around 8-10 GB each. Also a 1080p mpeg that is around the same size.

When playing, I notice it seems to VERY briefly freeze/skip frames, then speed up for a brief instant. So it looks like people walk 'jerky' or something like that.
When playing a file it shows-
Freemem 1,597,000/2,096,644
FPS - 20.2
CPU 2 Cores Average 78%

Any idea's? Or is this Video Card or CPU not good enough for these 1080p files? Or am I doing something newbish and easy to fix?

I did have another 1080p MKV that seemed to only hit the CPU around 65%, and ran closer to 24fps. That one I never really noticed this Stuttering type issue.

Any other information you need from me to help, please just let me know.
Thanks XBMC Community!

[hellspawn69]

And now that I learned I can press 'o' while the video is playing. On the files with problems, I can watch the # of Dropped Frames rise as the movie plays.

[R_N_B]

May I suggest that you download the latest SVN nightly. That will make things a bit easier for you, because there is an option to allow the graphic card to take up some of the load. I do however have some reservations about your graphic card being up to the task, but that could simply be because I am not familiar with it.

In the latest SVN builds you can select (if your card is capable that is - I am not sure that it is) to have the video card do most or nearly all of the work. You will need to set that option in the play-back section of the system -> Video -> playback set up.


http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/win32/


As to codec packs you really do not need any at all. The XBMC provides all that you need to play back all the formats supported.

[hellspawn69]

Thanks R N B.
Will download the nightly and give it a try and post my results.

(for the record, the reason I am trying to do this using my current equipment, is it's some spare stuff from work. I just wanted to be able to push DVD's and HD MKV's to the tv in our office's game room.) Just a fun side project I was playing with.

[hellspawn69]

Alright. Installed the latest Nightly.
Video still had Dropped Frames.
Changed Video Post Processing from Disabled to Always Enabled.
Video still had Dropped Frames.

Is there another setting I should be looking at?


Thanks again for the help so far. Be a shame if I can only use this rig for SD DVD's though.

[bobo1on1]

I think the cpu is just too slow for h264 1080p.
Best bet is to use a dxva capable videocard with a nightly build (if you're getting a new card, stay away from ati).

[>>X<<]

Your graphics doesn't support full hardware decoding on H.264 so the nightly builds wont help you and your system isn't good enough for 1080p but it could probably handle 720p

[steelman1991]

I think the cpu is just too slow for h264 1080p.
Best bet is to use a dxva capable videocard with a nightly build (if you're getting a new card, stay away from ati).

Why - I'm running an ATI 5450 card without any issue (DXVA and Adjust Refresh rate in perfect harmony)

Guess that would be a comment from an Nvidia 'fanboy' - though as a Dev I thought you might have been more impartial, or even more informed. Oh and yes I have tried a GT240 - found it to be no better or worse than either the ATI 5450 i have or ATI 4670 I had.

[bobo1on1]

I guess it's not so bad on windows, but to me it seems like they're always the ones with the most bugs.

[R_N_B]

Ati cards run rather splendidly on three of my systems with nVidea on the other, nothing fancy on the two HTPC set-ups as I use two cheap £18 HD4550 lowprofile cards in each. They provide a wonderful sound, no stutter or lag of the picture and near zero load on my CPU for all my 1080p media - so you can understand why I am not sure why you would suggest otherwise in truth. Might just be that the issue is with the other OS and not really the brand of cards hmm? And yes I do own quite a number of nVidea cards. On my primary rig I am running a pair of 470 GTX cards so I do not really consider my self a fan boi of either brands. But we digress.

Now back to the original topic.

It is as I suspected, both the graphic card and the processor are not really up to the task it seems. If you simply wish to watch high 1080p media and such then the cheapest and most simple solution would be to get a inexpensive graphics card. With the nightly builds the CPU no longer carries the main video load, and that means that systems with rather old tech, specifically the CPU have been given a new lease of live with the addition of a cheap but functional graphic card.

If you do not require the full functionality of the XBMC media suite there are other options that will suite.

You might be interested to read this article.

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

Regards & Enjoy

[hellspawn69]

Thanks for all the helpful info everyone. Was hoping this machine could handle the 1080p stuff I threw at it, but it sounds like it won't without getting at least a new video card. Oh well.