GTX 970 and i7-860 want to play 4K 10-bit HEVC
#1
I'm running Kodi v17.0 beta 3 under Windows 10 64-bit, with SSD.

I get stuttering when I try to play 4K HEVC videos (24p).

What's the minimum I need to do to achieve smooth playback?

Is there any chance a future software update will allow my system to play back smooth 4K 24p 10-bit HEVC?
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#2
GTX 970 has hybrid hardware decoder, hence it needs CPU power as well (which you should have). As far as I understand it, if you keep at 24p it should be within the realm of possibility to playback 4k stuff.

I suggest you keep this discussion on Doom9 in mind for further information: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=171219
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first (usually it's enough to follow instructions in the second post).
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#3
Hi ashlar, thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately I get stuttering playing 4K 10-bit 24p. I'm pretty sure I'm not doing anything wrong but the system is just slightly not up to par. My CPU (Core i7-860 from 2010) is one of the earliest i7 CPUs so it's only half the speed of newer i7s such as the i7-6700 (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php). I'm hoping to avoid having to change my CPU as that would require changing the motherboard as well and would be a huge hassle since my HTPC is running well.

How do I know if Kodi is using even the partial hardware decoder?
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#4
I believe you would need a GTX 960 (at least from the Geforce 9xx series) to 10bit decode, then you would need to check if one of the outputs can drive 4k (or UHD) at 24p.
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#5
I have had the same issue. 10bit playback was not possible with my system. As Kodi 17 ist a 32bit solution, it's not so powerful during decoding like 64bit solutions. That's why some other players (MPC-HC) are able to play the files on the same system.

If you want smooth playback you need a GPU with full HW support of decoding HEVC 10 bit. The cheapest solution i know is a GTX950. The GTX 970 is more a gaming GPU because of lacking full HW support of HEVC.

To benchmark your system you can try DXVA Checker and test both 32/64bit decoding.
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#6
A good solution if you just want hardware decoding and do not play games is the AMD RX-460 pick it up for around £100.00.
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#7
Unfortunately I occasionally play games too and the 960 is half the speed of the 970 in 3D performance so that's not a good option for me.

What about the new GTX 1070? Does that have 10-bit HEVC hardware decoding and does Kodi support that?

I will give MPC-HC a try too, I don't mind using an external player with Kodi.

If all else fails I may just have to bite the bullet and upgrade motherboard+CPU+RAM.
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#8
Oh yeah, damn Nvidia put the feature in the 950/960 but not the higher-end 970. Argh!
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#9
(2016-10-19, 17:28)18000rpm Wrote: Unfortunately I occasionally play games too and the 960 is half the speed of the 970 in 3D performance so that's not a good option for me.

What about the new GTX 1070? Does that have 10-bit HEVC hardware decoding and does Kodi support that?
1080, 1070, 1060 and 1050 have all the hardware decoding you might desire. HEVC 10 & 12 bit, HEVC 8K...
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first (usually it's enough to follow instructions in the second post).
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#10
(2016-10-20, 11:27)ashlar Wrote: 1080, 1070, 1060 and 1050 have all the hardware decoding you might desire. HEVC 10 & 12 bit, HEVC 8K...

And Kodi fully supports it?
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#11
Kodi 17 supports DXVA2 but the necessary api functions need to be implemented in the driver of your GPU. In my case i own a GTX950 but i never was able to get HEVC to play with Windows 7. No matter which driver i used.
I switched to Windows 10 64bit and Kodi 17 is working fine with HEVC 10bit. I'm able to play the tesfile with HEVC 10bit 400MBit/s

I read you use Windows 10 64bit and Kodi 17. So if NVDIA didn't messed up the driver (and i guess no) the GPUs will work fine.
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#12
I have a GTX 960.
It hardware decodes every HEVC 10/12 bit I've ever thrown at it and does not depend on any CPU additional help.
It is silent during playback.
The fans spin so slow when they do engage that you can't hear anything.
I can't comment on it's gaming abilities. I don't game.
This is for HTPC usage only and fits all my needs perfectly.
I know they are less expensive than GTX 10XX models and doubt you'd gain anything in an HTPC environment.
As was written, higher GTX 9XX models do not dedicate HEVC to hardware and was the sole reason I purchased this particular one recently.
I actually bought 2 so I would have a backup or something for another build in the future.
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#13
Great, info, thanks all!
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#14
(2016-10-20, 22:48)brazen1 Wrote: I have a GTX 960.
It hardware decodes every HEVC 10/12 bit I've ever thrown at it and does not depend on any CPU additional help.
It is silent during playback.
The fans spin so slow when they do engage that you can't hear anything.
I can't comment on it's gaming abilities. I don't game.
This is for HTPC usage only and fits all my needs perfectly.
I know they are less expensive than GTX 10XX models and doubt you'd gain anything in an HTPC environment.
As was written, higher GTX 9XX models do not dedicate HEVC to hardware and was the sole reason I purchased this particular one recently.
I actually bought 2 so I would have a backup or something for another build in the future.

Where do you get HEVC 10/12 bit content that can be played on Kodi?
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#15
Samples (wiki)
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GTX 970 and i7-860 want to play 4K 10-bit HEVC0