Win 1080p stutters ... whereas CPU usage is only 45%.
#1
Hiii,

I need bit of help in XBMC for Windows, 720p playback is fine. Whereas 1080p stutters alot, surprising thing is that cpu usage is only 45% - 50% but when I press "O" there is a lot of frame drops on certain scenes during 1080p playback.

Whereas if I run same file in XBMCbuntu, it runs flawless with no stuttering at all. Can you guys please help.

One more thing, in XBMC Windows, I see that it is running on DirectX rather than Opengl which runs in XBMCbuntu. Is it possible to force Opengl in XBMC Windows just like XBMCbuntu.

Thanks.
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#2
What is your hardware?
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#3
I have had the exact same problem on my XBMC box running a March 2012 build. See my signature for full PC specs.

I can play a 1080p video in any stand alone player (MP Classic, Winamp, WMP ect) and the CPU hovers around 8%-12%, and the video plays perfectly every time. This includes Mpeg, Xvid and Mkv video formats. If I try playing ANY 1080 video in XBMC, the video is unwatchable, studdering video, with the sound track way off.





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Intel Quad core 3.8 Ghz / Windows 11 Pro / 32 gigs RAM/ MCE Remote /20 Tb storage / Intel Iris 550 chip-set outputting 4k via HDMI to a 80" LED TV / just over 5,800 movies

Have you entered your 5 Movies? - Support themoviedb.org as THE best open source movie information site.
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#4
(2012-07-04, 04:56)JohnWPB Wrote: I have had the exact same problem on my Windows XP, 1.6Ghz dual core machine, with built in nVidia HD Graphics chip set over HDMI. I can play a 1080p video in any stand alone player (MP Classic, Winamp, WMP ect) and the CPU hovers around 8%-12%. This includes Mpeg, Xvid and Mkv video formats. If I try playing ANY 1080 video in XBMC, the video is unwatchable, studdering video, with the sound track way off.
Unfortunately, there is no hardware acceleration support for XP when playback using XBMC.....

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#5
(2012-07-04, 05:21)bluray Wrote: Unfortunately, there is no hardware acceleration support for XP when playback using XBMC.....

Seriously? What is the solution then. I am a little confused.. above you asked:

(2012-07-03, 23:21)bluray Wrote: What is your hardware?

I am not being sarcastic, just trying to understand, and maybe learn something. What does the hardware matter, if XBMC does not use HW acceleration? This is all new to me, I mean 95% of the purpose of XBMC is video playback, and to not use hardware acceleration to play back video..... I am just a bit taken back....... not sure what to say hehehe




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Intel Quad core 3.8 Ghz / Windows 11 Pro / 32 gigs RAM/ MCE Remote /20 Tb storage / Intel Iris 550 chip-set outputting 4k via HDMI to a 80" LED TV / just over 5,800 movies

Have you entered your 5 Movies? - Support themoviedb.org as THE best open source movie information site.
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#6
(2012-07-04, 05:24)JohnWPB Wrote:
(2012-07-04, 05:21)bluray Wrote: Unfortunately, there is no hardware acceleration support for XP when playback using XBMC.....

Seriously? What is the solution then. I am a little confused.. above you asked:
Unfortunately, some CPU's do need DXVA option to playback 1080P fluently....XBMC included DXVA support for Vista/W7/W8 only....

(2012-07-04, 05:24)JohnWPB Wrote:
(2012-07-03, 23:21)bluray Wrote: What is your hardware?

I am not being sarcastic, just trying to understand, and maybe learn something. What does the hardware matter, if XBMC does not use HW acceleration? This is all new to me, I mean 95% of the purpose of XBMC is video playback, and to not use hardware acceleration to play back video..... I am just a bit taken back....... not sure what to say hehehe
The reason I'm asking OP this "What is your hardware?", because different hardware required different configuration in XBMC......

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#7
Hi bluray .... Smile

I have read many posts written by you that contain amazing valuable information ... Thanks for takin interest in this.

My setup is Intel Core 2 Duo + 2 GB Ram + Intel GM965 + Window 7.

Ram Usage: Windows 7 + XBMC = 900MB (Remaing 1.1GB - So plenty of RAM there)

One more thing I realized yesterday ... in XBMCbuntu it shows two cores seperately with individual CPU Core load line stats, whereas in XBMC Windows there is only one CPU load line state, however in Hardware information it does show that it has detected Intel Core 2 Duo.

Edit: One more thing I'd like to add. I haven't installed any codec pack or anything at all. All it got is Windows 7 default Windows Media Player ... thats it. And Im using XBMC Windows for playback of all files.

Thanks.
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#8
Your CPU usage is around 50% because probably XBMC is using only one of your 2 cores.
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#9
(2012-07-04, 09:38)Krieg Wrote: Your CPU usage is around 50% because probably XBMC is using only one of your 2 cores.

The version of ffmpeg used in v11.0 can only do single threaded decoding, so 45% CPU means it's running almost flat out. It sound as if you don't have hardware decoding enabled or for some reason XBMC is failing to use the hardware decoder. To find out what's going on we need to see a debug log. Enable debug logging from System settings, System, Debugging, and restart XBMC then wait a minute or two for all the startup tasks to finish. Now play one of the offending 1080p films for a minute or two, then stop the film and close XBMC.

Open the debug log by pressing Windows-R and in the Run dialog type:

Code:
"%appdata%\xbmc\xbmc.log"

(including the quotes). Click OK and the log should open in Notepad. Copy and paste the log into http://pastebin.com/ and post the link it gives you here.

Re OpenGL: in theory OpenGL support is still in the code, but you will have to build your own version of XBMC from the source code, or find someone who's already done it.

Later: I just tried building the OpenGL version of XBMC v11.0 and somewhat to my surprise it builds and runs fine. If you want a copy of my build I can pop it on my web site. However I don't know if the OpenGL build supports hardware acceleration, so it wouldn't necessarily work any better than the DirectX build.
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#10
(2012-07-04, 10:12)jhsrennie Wrote:
(2012-07-04, 09:38)Krieg Wrote: Your CPU usage is around 50% because probably XBMC is using only one of your 2 cores.

The version of ffmpeg used in v11.0 can only do single threaded decoding, so 45% CPU means it's running almost flat out. It sound as if you don't have hardware decoding enabled or for some reason XBMC is failing to use the hardware decoder. To find out what's going on we need to see a debug log. Enable debug logging from System settings, System, Debugging, and restart XBMC then wait a minute or two for all the startup tasks to finish. Now play one of the offending 1080p films for a minute or two, then stop the film and close XBMC.

Open the debug log by pressing Windows-R and in the Run dialog type:

Code:
"%appdata%\xbmc\xbmc.log"

(including the quotes). Click OK and the log should open in Notepad. Copy and paste the log into http://pastebin.com/ and post the link it gives you here.

Re OpenGL: in theory OpenGL support is still in the code, but you will have to build your own version of XBMC from the source code, or find someone who's already done it.

Later: I just tried building the OpenGL version of XBMC v11.0 and somewhat to my surprise it builds and runs fine. If you want a copy of my build I can pop it on my web site. However I don't know if the OpenGL build supports hardware acceleration, so it wouldn't necessarily work any better than the DirectX build.

Thanks jhsrennie ... I was able to get following log from that command that you asked to generate xbmc.log.

This is the address where I've copied paste log: http://pastebin.com/3zfsdfGw

Hope this helps.

Btw I just wanna add here, audio playback is perfect in XBMC Windows, PAplayer bitstreams DD, DTS, AC3 and even AAC (which apparently my audio receiver doesn't support but somehow appears as DD) to my audio receiver perfectly, I literally do not wish to touch this feature and would like it to be as it as ... because I was unsuccessful in my previous attempts using AC3Filter to passthrough DD and DTS at all.

Therefore its only 1080p issue, and one more thing ... I've checked during playback of a 1080p file and when I press "O" it doesn't show DXVA2 in use even though it is enabled in the system settings.

Partial output from "O" = dc:ff-h264 (just this - no DXVA2)

System > Settings > Video > Playback > Allow hardware acceleration (DXVA2) = Checked

Thanks.
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#11
Hmmm - I'd be surprised if a dual core 2.8Ghz CPU with 4 GB of RAM doesnt have the number crunching power to decode Full HD without DXVA or VDPAU... it definitely used to play stutter free on my 2.4Ghz core2 machine....
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#12
(2012-07-04, 12:22)Geeba Wrote: Hmmm - I'd be surprised if a dual core 2.8Ghz CPU with 4 GB of RAM doesnt have the number crunching power to decode Full HD without DXVA or VDPAU... it definitely used to play stutter free on my 2.4Ghz core2 machine....

That has always made me wonder, up till now, why it never could handle 1080 in XBMC. I am gonna image the OS drive, as a fallback, and give Win7 a try on it this weekend.

Does anyone have a clue why HW acceleration is disabled in XP? XP and all the "Tiny" versions are so perfect, and much smaller / cleaner than a Win 7 install for dedicated software. My desktop runs Win7 but my CarPC, Home Automation Server and XBMC all run a slimlined version of XP.



------------------------------------------
Intel Quad core 3.8 Ghz / Windows 11 Pro / 32 gigs RAM/ MCE Remote /20 Tb storage / Intel Iris 550 chip-set outputting 4k via HDMI to a 80" LED TV / just over 5,800 movies

Have you entered your 5 Movies? - Support themoviedb.org as THE best open source movie information site.
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#13
(2012-07-04, 08:12)horseless Wrote: Hi bluray .... Smile

I have read many posts written by you that contain amazing valuable information ... Thanks for takin interest in this.

My setup is Intel Core 2 Duo + 2 GB Ram + Intel GM965 + Window 7.

Ram Usage: Windows 7 + XBMC = 900MB (Remaing 1.1GB - So plenty of RAM there)

One more thing I realized yesterday ... in XBMCbuntu it shows two cores seperately with individual CPU Core load line stats, whereas in XBMC Windows there is only one CPU load line state, however in Hardware information it does show that it has detected Intel Core 2 Duo.

Edit: One more thing I'd like to add. I haven't installed any codec pack or anything at all. All it got is Windows 7 default Windows Media Player ... thats it. And Im using XBMC Windows for playback of all files.

Thanks.
With your hardware, it is probably under power to handle Windows7+XBMC when playback 1080P video. XBMC don't play nice with Intel chip when DXVA2 is enabled either......

You can try these.....

1. Install the latest Intel driver- Check your system for the latest updates
2. Install- Intel Management Engine Interface Driver]Intel Magagement Engine Interface Driver
3. Disable DXVA2 and everything else in XBMC settings/video/playback
4. Disable "Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen" in XBMC settings/system/video output
5. Select "High Performance" power option in W7 control panel
6. Turn off UAC "Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7"

Now, you know why I asked you for your hardware info......if it is AMD, you don't need these settings....



>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#14
Thanks bluray .... literally appreciate it ... I'll try these suggested methods. Hopefully it'll give me some improvement over 1080p playback. I'll post result to let you know if there is any improvement.

Dude, I never had any problem with your questions, you can ask me any question about my setup as you want. It seems that other dude JohnWPB was/is also going thru same kind of problem and is probably upset cause of countless unfortunate attempts to fix and run this awesome software XBMC to its max.

Thanks Again .... Big Grin

Btw I've to ask ... is there any chance that future release of XBMC Windows (maybe v12.0) will support multicore and use both/multi cores for video playback .... especially for ppl like us who are stuck with ancient contraptions.
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#15
This thread has been invaluable, BlueRay, thanks for all the input! @horseless: I am not "upset", just disapointed that I have never been able to sucessfully play 1080 videos in XBMC. When I want to watch a 1080 movie, I actually have a script that I wrote, that drops out of XBMC, fires up the movie in Media Player Classic, and commands it to full screen. Luckily my MCE remote still works for play/pause at least. It has been a real hassle.

I JUST installed Win7 on the Media PC (Desktop came up for the first time like 2 minutes ago) , and am about to install XBMC, drivers and such to get it all working. I hope this works, and will report back Wink

------------------------------------------
Intel Quad core 3.8 Ghz / Windows 11 Pro / 32 gigs RAM/ MCE Remote /20 Tb storage / Intel Iris 550 chip-set outputting 4k via HDMI to a 80" LED TV / just over 5,800 movies

Have you entered your 5 Movies? - Support themoviedb.org as THE best open source movie information site.
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