[ShabbyDog]

Whenever I try to play a DVD, either from disc or from remote storage the video stutters and I et no sound while playing the AC3 soundtrack.

Attaching alink to a debug log where I start playback of a disc with the default PCM stereo soundtrack, change to ac3 so it stutters and then change back and it resumes normal playback.

Using Dharma Beta 1.

http://pastebin.com/MdAk2nz9

[Tartifless]

What are your audio settings in XBMC ?

[ShabbyDog]

HDMI output, 7.1 speaker configuration, AC3 and DTS enabled receiver using Direct Sound on Nvidia HDMI.

Same thing happens with WASAPI.

[gnif]

Sounds like your network is not up to it, or the cpu power required to play back those formats is way too high.

The log shows you are playing a file in a RAR file over a SMB share, there is overhead in decompressing from RAR, and then more overhead in the SMB protocol, and then more overhead via the network.

The file you are playing is H264 which is high bitrate in most cases and needs both lots of bandwidth to stream, and lots of cpu to decode. Your ethernet device may be hogging the resources required to decode if it is a cheap device.

To prove it is not XBMC, copy the file to the local machine and then play it, if the issue is gone, the problem is elsewhere (CPU, Network Throughput or the remote machine is not fast enough to keep up with the required data rate)

[ShabbyDog]

I see the rar playback you are talking about, dunno why that is in there tough cause all I did was enable logging and then inserted a DVD to test with. It hapens a bit further down.
So, to answer some of your questions, it's played from a local DVD, not across the network. It's also a retail DVD, so mpeg2 video with two audio tracks. The default PCM stereo and a AC3 5.1 track.