Kodi Community Forum

Here is my set-up:

- XBMC Eden (MarcelG PVR Build 2012/07/27)
- Intel SandyBridge Core i7 3960 (3.8GHz, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 15MB Cache)
- 16 GB DDR3-1600 MHz RAM
- 2xNVIDIA GTX 670 (SLI)
- ASUS x79 MoBo
- 90 GB OCZ SSD (OS)
- 1 TB WD (Data) + OCZ SSD (SSD Cache for Mechanical Data Drive via ASUS SSD caching)
- Synology 1510+ w/ 5x3TB WD drives w/ Synology DX510 expansion w/ 5x3GB WD drives

My above system accesses my NAS via wired gigabit (my brother and I wired my house so any connected systems do not have to rely on wireless). However, as I grab the CTV broadcasts of the Olympics I noticed that the MKVs are severely tearing, as is all of my other movies. I recently replaced my Radeon 7970 with the two NVIDIA 670s because of NVIDIA's Adaptive Vertical Sync technology. Since I moved my rig to my living room (TV) I was getting either tearing or stuttering in games, and the Adaptive Vertical Sync is just what the doctor ordered. However, since moving to NVIDIA now my video playback is spotty at best. I never had this problem with the Radeon.

I don't think the problem is lack of processing power (either CPU or GPU), and the NVIDIA 670 bests the Radeon 6970 in most tasks, so I don't think it is an issue of AMD/ATI vs NVIDIA. My best guess is that the NVIDIA GPU settings are different enough from the Catalyst settings to cause a problem in XBMC.

Things I've tried:

- Adjust frame rate - Doesn't help
- Syncing playback to display (sync on Audio) - This works pretty well for most things, but I will get slow down

Is there a WIKI page I'm missing with preferred options for NVIDIA cards? Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Well I ran into a similar problem with no luck. My system is close to yours but I only have 1 GTX 560. I have been using MPC with CCCP before and NEVER have video problems. Only change is I switched to XBMC. For me the problem was worst when I use a Radeon card. I think this problem is somewhat related to big screen TV (40+) and the screen buffer. I have multiple XBMC running in my hose and only the Living room TV (61" Plasma) show this problem.

Only 2 options left for me to try
1. Try Frodo.
2. Use a DirectX Player - Dsplay

For me using MPC as an external player actually works fine, but it require some majors works to reprogram all the remotes and keys.

Let me know if you found other better solution.

I have tearing recently too. I never used to. I have an ATI card though. I've changed quite a few things recently, so it's hard for me to narrow down the cause. I used to have Win 7 32 bit with older video drivers and of course and older Eden or Eden nightly. But recently I've reformatted and put on Win 7 64, updated to latest video drivers, and installed the most recent nightly build. Now I'm getting studdering and video tearing when I enable sync to display and the refresh rate. My tears are at the bottom 1/4 of the screen and mostly seems to be just one. So for me it's hard to know if it's the fault of 64 bit, latest ATI drivers, or recent XBMC changes. If I disable sync and refresh then the video plays almost smooth.

I may just dump my nightly and revert to vanilla Eden. If that doesn't work then downgrade my video driver. If that doesn't work then reformat again back down to 32 bit.

@akutz-

Have you try these?

1. Update the latest Nvidia driver from here- Automatically find drivers for my NVIDIA products
2. Disable "Use fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen" in XBMC system/system/video output

Not sure about Akutz but I have already try updating Nvidia drive, toggle full screen window/full screen, Toggling the vsync. None seems to works. In my case it is very hard to reproduce the problem, that's why I never open a bug.

The tearing happened at random. Even I restart a problem video the issue may not happen and it it show up it will be at a different spot.

---

@ Skram0
I have multiple installation of XBMC at home and only the living room one caused me trouble. I don't think running Win7 64 bits or not have anything to do with it. I actually boot xbuntu off the box and still run into the same issues. ....:-(

Edit
I resolved my issues with a few updates/ changes. Please check my response on another thread. Hope this helps.

_______________________________________
So similar to my setup and same issue : I have a thread here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=137728
I am also using a radeon 6670 card and as @Skram0 mentioned, I did not have tearing start till .. well.. till end of July. I have noted the following

1. Radeon shipped the new catalyst control center. Now it is 12.6 - that seems to be an issue. Did you guys update it ?

2. I uninstalled / cleaned the registry and re-installed 12.4. No dice. Lather, Rinse, 12.7beta, no dice.

3. As @Skram0 mentioned, the original tearing used to be in the lower 25% of the screen. A reboot would typically fix it. after Jul 23~27th, it is all hosed.

4. Enabling / disabling Aero after upgrading to AMD Catalyst 12.7beta, helped reduce tearing.

5. I can see tearing on XBMC, Arcsoft TMT5. However on VLC, it is greatly reduced / non existent.

Hope this adds to the discussion / analysis.
I am on WIn 7/ 64 bit/ Radeon 6670 / 12.7b Catalyst/ XBMC Vanilla Eden.

FWIW, I had a very similar problem crop up when I decided to get brave and get back into nighty builds a few weeks ago.....

Of all the things I tried to fix the problem (to no avail) I found a thread somewhere that said to make sure you were running the Directsound audio driver...

So I went into "Settings-->System-->Audio Output" and discovered my audio output was set for "WASAPI", so I changed it to "Directsound" and......I kid you not....it fixed my video issues!

YMMV

cheers