Couple quick questions here. First off, im getting 2-3 FPS on all video. I think its because i have no audio card installed but want to confirm. When i press the "O" menu it states the CPU is 4 cores when in fact i have a dual core. Not sure that really matters tho. It runs at about 20% but video is 2-3 FPS. Is the audio engine causing this? If not what do i need to do to determine the video issue? The other possibility could be that i have a PCIE 16x card in a PCIE 8x Slot. I didnt think this would be the issue as other programs such as media player plays video just fine. Any thoughts or ideas welcome. Oh and is there a audio card that can stream analog and digital audio at the same time? I used to do it with a creative labs sound blaster audiology card. Unfortunately its a 10 year old card and i have tried a ton of drivers but windows 7 doesnt seem to have a driver that works.
As far as showing 4 cores when running a dual core processor, you are likely running a recent Intel dual core processor that has hyperthreading ability. Hyperthreading basically splits each core into two threads that can each run unrelated processes. What you are seeing is it counting each of these threads as a core.
As far as your FPS goes, what is your WEI score for video? I'm assuming when you say you have no audio card installed, you are referring to an expansion sound card as I'm sure your board has built-in sound card or you would have no sound at all or audio ports to connect to. Most quality modern boards should be more than sufficient to play audio included in a video file. I mean a 5.1 card won't be able to run 7.1 sound obviously, but what it can do, should be done acceptably. I doubt your FPS issue has anything to do with your sound hardware's ability. It's more likely a video card or system setup issue. What are you using as a monitor when you are getting these low frame rates. What is your setup including cabling? What video card are you running? How much RAM?
My motherboard has no audio card built in. I installed the soundblaster audiology 2 which is an older audio card but windows is not accepting the audio driver. Even tho creative states there is a driver for windows 7 it does not install or work properly. XBMC lists no audio device available in the settings which is why i thought this could be the issue. My windows performance score is a 5. Video works great when i play in windows media player however when i play a video in windows media player it comes up with an error about audio codec issues (again i believe the issue may be due to no audio card installed and working properly) I have k-lite codec installed but i understand XBMC uses its own codecs? The monitor is an older asus running at 1600-1200 as the Nvidia 7800gt seems to list 1600-1200 as the best resolution available. The card is a 16x card in a 8x slot. Again with a windows rating of 5 which is good in my opinion. The machine has 5 gigs of ram. The motherboard is a Dell poweredge 2900 server setup with no pcie16x slot. The strange thing is windows media player runs smooth video. XBMC runs at 3-4 FPS and the timer glitches between zero and one second the whole time video tries to play. Let me know if you have any more ideas on how i can determine the issue.
Not sure if this is helpful but I don't have an external sound card just the onboard one and if I try to install the Realtek drivers for it then I also get 2/3 frames a second. If I uninstall the drivers and just use the optical out (I guess it uses windows drivers instead) then it fixes the problem
Im guessing my issue is audio then. I just need to figure out how to get rid of all the drivers and maybe try a reinstall or a new audio card. Thanks!
No onboard or expansion audio card? What model & brand of board is it? Why are you even bothering playing video if have no sound? Is it just me or does that seem kind of pointless to anyone else as well, lol?
Nevertheless, the 7800GTX should be adequate, even at half speed, especially if not trying to send signal to a big screen TV or anything. 5 GB of RAM, despite being an odd amount so is not running in dual-channel mode should also be sufficient. I would say get rid of the k-lite codec pack, it and all others like it cause nothing but problems and is a likely problem contributor. Best to install individual codecs as needed.
Edit: Forgot to mention that a WEI score of 5 is horrible for a system you are wanting to run HD video. Fine for an office machine running word, excel or other office software, but very low-end for graphic intensive tasks such as gaming/hdtv/video.
My current machine has a rating of 4 and works fine. Im certainly not planning to have no audio, the computer just currently does not. Its a project im working on for a friend.Trying not to spend money unless he needs to. He will buy an audio card if the machine ends up working out. Like i said the motherboard is dell poweredge 2900 server board with no audio or decent video. no pcie16x either. its a server/raid machine not intended for anything other than that.
OK, that explains the audio, lol. As far as working fine, I don't consider 2-3 FPS working fine. Apparently, you don't really either or wouldn't have started this thread. Again, I would STRONGLY urge getting rid of the codec pack. In fact, if were me, I would even go so far as to re-install Windows to be sure it is COMPLETELY removed and all affected files and settings fixed.
As you say, the 2900 board was designed for server/raid use. Not sure how well it will perform converted to being used as an HTPC.
If your friend is not looking to spend a bunch of money to build an HTPC, he may want to consider a hardware media player. I have been debating which route to take myself. I am leaning more toward a player myself except that quality audio file playback is at top of my list and I have read threads here and there that say they are geared more toward quality video playback. I may try one though since they are cheaper to get up and running, especially if you already have needed media storage space. I am primarily considering one of the X3D Mede8er versions found at link below. Also, they seem to be using a variant of XBMC interface for their GUI, which is a definite plus. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there as an option since it sounds that, like me, he doesn't have a bunch of money to spend but wants a nice interface to view and play his media.
Link to Mede8er players:
http://www.mediaconceptusa.com/mede8er.html
Have researched PopcornHour and Dune players as well, but seems, fro what I have gathered, that the Mede8er's have the better support and best price/performance ratio IMO. Dunes are supposedly solid performers but are more expensive and sound like when problems do arise, they are harder to get help/bug fixes for. Firmware for newest PCH's don't seem to be up to par yet.
Classic, but worked. New windows install fixed my issue. All i can think is corrupt drivers. Few short hours and all is well. Now im off to figure out how to watch TV through XBMC and how to play a BluRay lol
Glad to hear you got it worked out!!!!
Thanks, and thanks for your help!!!