[bossanova808]

Hi Folks

I have two XBMC machines. Both are running Openelec RC3.

One is an ASrock ION 330, connected to the network vuia Ethernet over Power boxes.
The Second is a Shuttle XS35GT connected to a gigiait siwtich va Ethernet.

(Thus the ASRock has a less good network connection).

Both have sandforce SSD in them. 2G of RAM for the Shuttle, 4G for the ASrock. Both show heaps of memory free.

Both refer to a Win7 server full of media, which is hosts a remote Thumbnails folder. Both also refer to MySQL.

Both perform wonderfully, but there is one glitch I can't fathom - on the ASrock ION 1 machine (with the worse nework connection), the home page UI is smooth as silk and appears to render pretty constantly at 60fps. It's buttery smooth.

On the ION2 machine, the home page UI rendering is stuttery - with debugging on you can see the FPS drop down to 30ish when moving between elements.

I can't see why this would be. I don't think it can be due to remote thumbs, or MySQL or they would both experience, and probably the ASRock worse due to its crappy network connection. But its the Shuttle that has the issue. The only thing I can think of is either the RAM difference (but both show ample free mem.), or the ION vs. ION2.

Debug logs don't appear to show any issues - both seem to identify the TVs ok (one is a 32" LCD with the ASrock, the other a 50" Panny Plasma) - and fo into 60hz mode fine (and switch modes properly when palying videos too). So I don't think it's xorg related (I am not using an xorg, jsut letting Openelec do it's thing).

Any ideas? Anyone else with the same? On the Openelec forums others have noticed the same but no solution yet?

[prae5]

Are they both running the same builds? I can honestly say i don't see any noticable difference in performance between my ion1 / 2 boxes.

Have you tried moving boxes around? i.e move your ion1 box to your ion2 box location and see if you have similar issues?

Only reason I ask is i know my friend had many issues with his box initially with his denon amp which sounds similar to your problems. MIght be worth a shot to see what happens and rule it out.

[bossanova808]

Yep same build of Openelec (RC3).

It's not that easy moving them, they're kind of deep cabled in, but I will maybe give that a go, it's a good idea. Hopefully the weekend will give me some time inbetween the toddler demands I am subject to!!

[User 34959]

I already replied to your topic at Openelec forum but i noticed now that we're both using Denon's amps. That plus Prae5's comments about his friend's box suggest that it's the amp.

Like i said i'm running Live 10.1 and it's fine. Menus keep stuttering with Openelec and full Maverick desktop+XBMC, i haven't tested with Windows.

Xorg is being used in Openelec as much as it is in Live and full Ubuntu.

[ant_thomas]

Quick question to hopefully give other people some more info...

Are they running at the same resolution?

Both 1080p? Or is the ION2 running at a higher res than the ION?

[TheSwissKnife]

Member FernetMenta alerted me to the fact that the Shuttle XS35GT ION GT218 is the crap version with only 8 CUDA cores rather than 16 (hardly made clear in the marketing). That combined with the limiting PCIe x1 bus connection that GT218 uses may explain why is performs worse than original ION. EDIT: Also the number of DIMMs may play a part according to FernetMenta (dual channel being faster than single) and Shuttle can only have one. It is clear to me now that I wasted my money on this system.

[fasteddy]

EDIT: Also the number of DIMMs may play a part according to FernetMenta (dual channel being faster than single) and Shuttle can only have one.

This at least shouldn't affect performance. ION 2 has discrete memory (in this case, 512mb DDR3), so it doesn't share - and consequently is not limited by - the system memory (DDR2).

[Edit: Also, have you checked to make sure resolution is the same? Is it possible that your ION on the 32" tv is outputting 720p, while the ION2 on the 50" is outputting 1080p?]

[TheSwissKnife]

This at least shouldn't affect performance. ION 2 has discrete memory (in this case, 512mb DDR3), so it doesn't share - and consequently is not limited by - the system memory (DDR2).

[Edit: Also, have you checked to make sure resolution is the same? Is it possible that your ION on the 32" tv is outputting 720p, while the ION2 on the 50" is outputting 1080p?]

But it still transfers from main memory to GPU memory up and down the PCIe bus.

[bossanova808]

yes one is at 720 and the other at 1080, forgot about that. I will swap them over but I have used the ION1 machine on 1080 with Camelot and it was silky smooth.

Honestly, I don't think it is 720 vs 1080 to be honest. And people with LIVE report the Shuttle is as smooth as their ION1 machines, so I think it is maybe somethign to do with Openelec/Denon/Xorg.

It's slightly less smooth - it hardly makes the Shuttle a waste of money - other than this it is perfect, silent, very fast, zero playing glitches, and just a dream in general with Openelec. I honestly think this is a minor issue and I only notice it on the home page UI, not the other pages...even some of the glitzier skins (Alaska etc) seem very smooth in all, so I don't think there's a big fundamental problem here - just a glitch to be ironed out (or lived with, it's not that big a drama...)

[bossanova808]

Xorg is being used in Openelec as much as it is in Live and full Ubuntu.

Yep I realised it's used, but I just haven't needed a custom one as all the playback side of things is smooth and switches appropriately etc - best playback I've had with any version of XBMC ever, and I have tried basically every combinaton of Camelot, Dharma, Live, Ububun Lucid/Maverick etc etc you can think of. Openelec just works out of the box for playback awesomely and that's where it counts for me.

[TheSwissKnife]

It will be smooth for many files but as soon as a difficult file turns up it will struggle. De-interlacing/or high fps etc. I now am becoming confident this is due mainly to the reduced number of cores. I didn't say it was a waste of money, I said it was a waste of my money - I thought it would be powerful enough to do 60fps decoding and 50i/60i de-interlacing via VDPAU and it is not (though it seems to cope with 60fps with DXVA2).

[bossanova808]

I don't have any issues play 1080/60i with mine?

Plays 23.97/24/30/50/60 all jsut fine, i or p as far as I have seen. That said 99% of what I need is 24p anyway, but I have tried various other things without issues (are you using Openelec or Live - I had many more issues with playback with Live).

[TheSwissKnife]

You can play 60i with proper (decent) de-interlacing? You can play 60p files?

I tried openelec once a while back but didn't see that it gave me much. Now I use 32-bit live distro (ubuntu-lucid) with current version(s) of xbmc. I also have thousands of mini-dv avi files (50i) that it can't play (software decoder). Overall, it just isn't quite powerful enough, and I will begin my search for an upgrade though it will have to have a fan it seems, and may well end up being a much bigger beast.

[bossanova808]

1080/60i yes, and it looked pretty good to me although to be honest I didn't spend a lot of time with it. 1080/60p I am not sure I have any - is that maybe home video footage or something? It's not that common for commercial stuff I think?

It plays my Panasonic video cam files fine - these are older SD but 50i in DV/AVI format. And no problem with my IXUS or iPhone vids either now. This was awlays an issue for me with Live, but fine with Openelec.

I have really limited time so there's only so much experiementing I can do in terms of version swapping, but if you upload a sample of something somewhere I can try it for you. I realise it's not going ot manage somethings but since 99.9% of what I play is 1080p/24 in mkv it's perfect.

[TheSwissKnife]

Well I have Sanyo Xacti 1080p59.94 files that won't play, and also tried the Panasonic 50p files and they too won't play properly, yet I reckon they would work on a fully fledged ION2. I also can only play some interlaced stuff (ie not film telecined to interlaced) with basic bob type de-interlacing and with limited success. I gave up a while ago on this and have only recently looked at it again as FernetMenta is trying to enhance xbmc in general in this area.

Here is a sample 1080p59.94.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8JQ50BED