[adrianf74]

I recently purchased a new HTPC solution (to replace a considerably stronger desktop PC that I was using and picked up at Zotac ZBOX AD10. I threw an SSD and 4GB of RAM into it. Did a clean instal of W7 64-Bit and installed everything. I initially left my video settings to the defaults and this seemed to be fine but when I was watching a 720p file tonight, I noticed random stuttering.

I copied the same file to my SSD and tried playing from there (with and without the external USB 3.0 storage device) and found no difference.

I've tried what seems to be the "suggested" settings for the E-350 but the playback is extremely "jerky" or "choppy." These settings were:

SOFTWARE / DXVA2 = ON / MATCH = ON / PAUSE = OFF / AV Sync=Video Clock (Resample Audio).

I'm in the process of updating to the most recent Catalyst package to see if this has anything to do with it. Barring that, I'm at a loss. I'm noticing choppy playback in MPC-HC as well.

Any suggestions are appreciated

[bluray]

I'm in the process of updating to the most recent Catalyst package to see if this has anything to do with it. Barring that, I'm at a loss. I'm noticing choppy playback in MPC-HC as well.
Any suggestions are appreciated

I'm suggesting to visit your motherboard website to see if they have any update for "Video". You can start by make sure that it can playback fluently with MPC-HC before moving to XBMC!

[adrianf74]

I'm suggesting to visit your motherboard website to see if they have any update for "Video". You can start by make sure that it can playback fluently with MPC-HC before moving to XBMC!

I did check Zotac's site after downloading the latest Catalyst drivers from AMD's site. Turns out one driver that wasn't already up-to-date was a USB1.0/1.1 driver (!!) of some sorts. Gonna be trying a reboot shortly to see if this fixes the issue.

I was able to get the "stuttering" resolved when I watched overlayed playback of the movie on the main XBMC screen. The movie plays fine there but as soon as I double-clicked into it, it would stutter and the audio would "warble" on playback. I did change one other setting that people have left enabled: the play in a full-screen window or true full-screen. When I disabled this one and went back to the movie, everything played fine. Not sure if it's because of the TV I'm using (a 50-month old LCD) but I found it weird that the full-screen window issue was causing it to choke.

[bluray]

I did check Zotac's site after downloading the latest Catalyst drivers from AMD's site. Turns out one driver that wasn't already up-to-date was a USB1.0/1.1 driver (!!) of some sorts. Gonna be trying a reboot shortly to see if this fixes the issue.

I was able to get the "stuttering" resolved when I watched overlayed playback of the movie on the main XBMC screen. The movie plays fine there but as soon as I double-clicked into it, it would stutter and the audio would "warble" on playback. I did change one other setting that people have left enabled: the play in a full-screen window or true full-screen. When I disabled this one and went back to the movie, everything played fine. Not sure if it's because of the TV I'm using (a 50-month old LCD) but I found it weird that the full-screen window issue was causing it to choke.

Again, how is the playback using the standalone MPC-HC?

[j114]

Adrian, I would think it's most likely some kind of driver issue. My E-350 (not a zotac, with 8 gigs of memory) plays 1080p bluray rips streamed from a NAS without any issues at all using the settings you posted. While I do have double the memory you have, I rarely have more than 2 gigs used while only using XBMC so I seriously doubt that is the difference between our experiences. I typically run DXVA2 on, and the rest of the settings at default without any problems as well.

Here is my current driver for reference:



I just used the AMD driver detect utility to find the best driver for my system. It's probably the same one you need, but play it safe and let the AMD driver detect utility pick for you.

The only times I have ever had issues at all was when my NIC was smoking crack and would only connect at 10 Mbps. Once I sent it to rehab to sober up, it's been fine (I just reinstalled the driver).

You might also want to check your temps when the stuttering is occurring, as heat can be an issue for these chips in some circumstances, and higher temps will definitely lead to stuttering in my experience with other machines.

[bluray]

Adrian, I would think it's most likely some kind of driver issue. My E-350 (not a zotac, with 8 gigs of memory) plays 1080p bluray rips streamed from a NAS without any issues at all using the settings you posted. While I do have double the memory you have, I rarely have more than 2 gigs used while only using XBMC so I seriously doubt that is the difference between our experiences. I typically run DXVA2 on, and the rest of the settings at default without any problems as well.

4GB is the most you need to run in W7 64-bit HTPC!

[bluray]

Here is my current driver for reference:



I just used the AMD driver detect utility to find the best driver for my system. It's probably the same one you need, but play it safe and let the AMD driver detect utility pick for you.

Isn't 11.12 is the latest? I have 11.12 in my E-350 now!

[j114]

4 GB may, arguably, be all that is needed for a Win 7 64 bit HTPC, but I never said that's all this machine is used for. Secondly, with the current costs of Non-ECC RAM, it's absurd to buy 4 gigs if your system will support 8 gigs, considering the marginal price difference between the two. Sure, it's 50% more expensive, but it's a lousy $15 difference.

Aside from my personal justifications for MY system specs, I believe I was pretty clear when I said "I rarely have more than 2 gigs used while only using XBMC so I seriously doubt that is the difference between our experiences." In no way did I imply he needed more RAM, which his board can't support anyway.

I have no idea what the latest driver version is, nor did I say that I was running it. I said "Here is my current driver for reference".

Followed by "I just used the AMD driver detect utility to find the best driver for my system. It's probably the same one you need, but play it safe and let the AMD driver detect utility pick for you."

It's been about 3 months, give or take, since I did that so I have no clue how many times AMD has pushed updates since. I only update drivers if/when I have problems or there are major security concerns. Regardless of the current version, the AMD driver detect utility is usually pretty accurate at choosing and installing the best driver for your system-- in my experience.

Have I satisfied your challenge, or do you want to compare the number of certifications we each have as well as our e-penis size?

Obligatory

[hdefjunkie]

For what it's worth, I loaded up a new Zotac Nano with Win7 (32bit) using the latest drivers from zotac. Video performance was absolutely horrible. freezing/studdering, pretty much unusable.

Not entirely sure what I did wrong, eventually gave up and re-installed from
scratch Win7(64) and used the provided Zotac CD for the additional driver
install.

Works perfectly.. Updated the vid driver with the AMD update utility.. Everything works as it should.

There was the 32 vs 64 bit delta, but suspect it had nothing to do with the my
original attempt. Something about loading the drivers (ie. install order) I'm suspecting.

[bluray]

For what it's worth, I loaded up a new Zotac Nano with Win7 (32bit) using the latest drivers from zotac. Video performance was absolutely horrible. freezing/studdering, pretty much unusable.

Not entirely sure what I did wrong, eventually gave up and re-installed from
scratch Win7(64) and used the provided Zotac CD for the additional driver
install.

Works perfectly.. Updated the vid driver with the AMD update utility.. Everything works as it should.

There was the 32 vs 64 bit delta, but suspect it had nothing to do with the my
original attempt. Something about loading the drivers (ie. install order) I'm suspecting.

Driver conflict can be a nightmare, and sometime new installation is the best solution. Good job, and it is time to enjoy the movie!

[adrianf74]

So, I did a complete reinstall (again) from scratch but "downgraded" my system to W7 Home Premium from W7 Ultimate. Seems a little more stable.

When I enable the window mode that I was having issues with, I'm getting some weird banding on playback. I'm using the current drivers posted on 12/29 by Zotac which feature the AMD Catalyst 11.8 Package.

I'm still at a loss as to why I can't get that one setting to play nice.

[bluray]

So, I did a complete reinstall (again) from scratch but "downgraded" my system to W7 Home Premium from W7 Ultimate. Seems a little more stable.

When I enable the window mode that I was having issues with, I'm getting some weird banding on playback. I'm using the current drivers posted on 12/29 by Zotac which feature the AMD Catalyst 11.8 Package.

I'm still at a loss as to why I can't get that one setting to play nice.

Try to disable everything in CCC "Video Setting", and try to playback the same blu-ray file using "MPC-HC".

[adrianf74]

Try to disable everything in CCC "Video Setting", and try to playback the same blu-ray file using "MPC-HC".

Everything I throw at MPC plays it back flawlessly. 0 dropped frames (in fact, I normally use MPC because I find it works better and can do HD audio playback - I'm just trying to get XBMC up to snuff for my other half). I'm wondering, since MPC works, if I should just make it my external player from XBMC and dump the built in one (as much as I don't want to because of "looks").

Thanks.

[beytarj]

I've tried what seems to be the "suggested" settings for the E-350 but the playback is extremely "jerky" or "choppy." These settings were:

SOFTWARE / DXVA2 = ON / MATCH = ON / PAUSE = OFF / AV Sync=Video Clock (Resample Audio).


Any suggestions are appreciated

Your setting wrong. u need:
Render: DXVA / DXVA2:ON / Match: OFF / Sync:OFF

at my e-350 i can play bluray with xbmc.

[bluray]

Everything I throw at MPC plays it back flawlessly. 0 dropped frames (in fact, I normally use MPC because I find it works better and can do HD audio playback - I'm just trying to get XBMC up to snuff for my other half). I'm wondering, since MPC works, if I should just make it my external player from XBMC and dump the built in one (as much as I don't want to because of "looks").

Thanks.

That is what I did with the external player codes below, because I enjoy the original BD menu options on TMT5/PDVD11 than XBMC.

If you have TMT5 or PDVD11, you can download these external player bat and xml files:

1. Playcorefactory
2. PlayBDMV
3. PlayDisc
4. PlayISO

With the codes above, you should be able to playback the higher quality video from blu-ray disc on BD-ROM and blu-ray ISO/M2TS/M2TS/MKV using TMT5 or PDVD11 in full 1080P video with DTS-HD and TrueHD audio. XBMC is still being used as front-end and it is used to playback lesser video and audio quality such as (avi/mp4/mp3/jpg, etc).

If you want to use MPC-HC, you can simply replace TMT5 directories in PlayDisc, PlayISO, PlayBDMV and Playercorefactory with this MPC-HC directory <C:\Program Files\Media Player Classic - Home Cinema\mpc-hc64.exe>. You need to make sure that this is where MPC-HC is located in your HTPC!