[holgenoni]

Hello @ all,

maybe someone can help me with my vdpau problem. :confused2:

I have installed xbmc-pvr 11.0 on a Ubuntu 11.04 from this thread :
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=91716
(it has to be the xbmc 11.0 because of the pvr).

The problem now is that xbmc won't play videos with vdpau. If vdpau is activated then the playback just don't starts. I only see on the bottom the actual time of the movie and the remaining time of the movie and thats it. The time display is running but I can't see no movie. If I go then to fullscreen then it stays black. If vdpau is deactivated then the playback works.

I have to use vdpau because my system is a zbox hd-nd22 (ion). And this system is to slow for playback HD videos without vdpau.

I have also tried to install mplayer (because it also supports vdpau) and playback in mplayer works with vdpau (cpu load only 5%).

But in xbmc 11.0 it don't want to run!

Maybe someone can give me a hint what to do or to try??

If needed I can make a video what happans when I try to play a video with vdpau and upload it to youtube or similar. (if it's not clear what I mean)

Thank's for any help

Best regards from Austria
Andy

[holgenoni]

Hello @ all,

I found the solution for the problem.

It was only the GPU Memory in the Bios. Out of the box it is set to 64MB. That's to small for xbmc vdpau. (for mplayer it looks like it's enough).

I've just raise it to 512MB and now it works.

Best regards
Andreas

[MTPPC]

Thank you for posting the solution.

[holgenoni]

No problem, hope it helps someone else!

Best regards
Andreas

[junk]

Did this solve your problem? I'm also running on a ZBOX, and my BIOS setting was set to 256MB. Right after startup, I THINK I could watch stuff in XBMC using VDPAU, but after a while I couldn't anymore. I increased the memory in BIOS to 512 MB, and it's been working so far.

Could it be possible there's a memory leak somewhere in the VDPAU-code, filling up GPU memory? Is that even possible? Can you "malloc" GPU memory?

I'll post here if I see this happening again with the 512 MB GPU memory limit set. Also, here's an attached picture of what setting I changed in BIOS (is that the same setting you changed, holgenoni?): http://pix.sonhult.se/gpumem.jpg.

Thanks for posting your solution!

[holgenoni]

Hello Junk,

yes this was the solution for my problem. I've now played a few 1080 movies without problems.

This was the Bios configuration I have changed. But I haven't tried it with 256MB. I set it form 64 to 512MB and until now it works.

Best regards

[junk]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Perhaps they've changed the default setting from 64 MB to 256 MB on new ZBOXes. I hadn't set it to 256 MB either, but the problems I had with VDPAU have so far not returned after changing it to 512 MB.

Thanks for sharing your solution! If you hadn't I could have been searching for hours more, was going on a completely different track.

[holgenoni]

That's what I did for about 2 days (going on a completely different track).
And that's why I posted the solution, that other people find the solution faster then me.

[robo989]

Standard procedure. All ION boxes need memory set to 512MB in bios to reduce stutter to a minimum. Although stutter free playback isn't possible on an ION box for full screen 1080p, no matter what you do.

[junk]

Standard procedure. All ION boxes need memory set to 512MB in bios to reduce stutter to a minimum. Although stutter free playback isn't possible on an ION box for full screen 1080p, no matter what you do.

Is on mine

[deppan]

Standard procedure. All ION boxes need memory set to 512MB in bios to reduce stutter to a minimum. Although stutter free playback isn't possible on an ION box for full screen 1080p, no matter what you do.

Yes it is Try fernetmenta's xbmc builds, or openelec ION edition.