Kodi Community Forum

CAN I IMPROVE VIDEO PLAYBACK IN WINDOWS?
After playing the 'killa sample' on my XBMC setup I was disappointed with the results. The playback was almost smooth but the video quality was terrible for such a high definition source.
I'm not sure if this is the right question to ask or the right way to ask it. But after looking around, reading FAQ's and thread's, I am still eager to find out if any improvements can be made with my XBMC setup. Obviously the fact remains that is 'there is no GPU video accelerated decoding support in XBMC for Windows'. I may be stupid staring this thread since that probably is the answer i'll get, yet I'm still curious since windows is my only option at the moment, and i may just be missing something out.


I have used the killa sample to provide a resulting screen shot (for playback info, obviously screenshot does not compliment quality), below is also my system information and current XBMC player settings. please suggest any other information I should provide.



SYSTEM:
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (Service Pack 2)
Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 GHz
8 GB Ram
NVIDIA Geforce GTS 240 (Driver Version: 191.07)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Dell S229W (Digital) 1920x1080 HD/WS
XBMC-Rev24114 (http://danielpatton.com/user-accounts/XBMC-updates/)

Player Settings:

Render Method: Advanced Shaders (GLSL)
Adjust Refresh Rate: Enabled
Vertical Blank Sync: Always Enabled
Interlaced Handling: None
Video Scaling Method: Bilinear

16 drops, CPU running at 33%? That's really not too shabby. There is nothing out there that should tax your system.

If I had to pick one thing to change if you really wanted to reduce CPU usage, I'd say install XBMC Live and use VDPAU. Your system doesn't need it, but some people really go crazy about CPU usage.

Edit: I guess you could also try overclocking to 3.0 ghz, but that's a personal decision.

You've got nothing to worry about really seeing as the 'killa sample' has a much higher bitrate than your standard releases.

Knock on wood.. Killa Sample is a killa because it uses profile 5.1 with high reference frames and high bitrates.. Standard MKV releases and even Blu Ray releases are profile 4.1 which is a piece of cake compared to 5.1.. My guess your CPU usage will be around 10% with standard 1080p MKV..

Concerning quality of HD material.. And I am assuming you are talking about quality with regards to sharpness, grain, and color saturation.. It really depends on the source.. If the source is bad it will look bad, because XBMC does not use edge enhancement and Pixel Shaders to improve videos.. It will always look exactly like the source..

Maybe try to go with an external player using ffdshow like MPC and tweak the setting.
I don't know about the "killa sample", but i'll try that ASAP ;-)