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[WINDOWS][PATCH]Bitstream output of HD audio formats - Printable Version

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- voip-ninja - 2012-02-17

DDDamian Wrote:@meridius - I haven't done a hard comparison, but I don't see the video frame drops as drastically as some report if I allow them to occur - and conclude that there's some inter-frame smoothing being done between output frame flips by the GPU. The only other explanation I can think of is this enables better regulated clock timing for video frames, but that would lead to audio disruptions. Wish I had a hard answer - can only draw from observation that I simply don't visually see frame drops if I slave to the audio clock.

@voip-ninja - great news on both fronts. You seem to be quite sensitive to the video drops. Perhaps the question above by Meridius is something you can experiment with once your new card arrives.

It's pretty exciting where all this is heading Nod

Okay, so i have a little bit of feedback on these new Intel drivers. I really don't know what people at AVS are smoking, but I am seeing no real improvement in frame-sync performance with these drivers vs. the last set of drivers that came out about six months ago. I am still seeing a moderate amount of clock drift and when I don't use the "sync to display" option I am still taking a couple of frame drops every 7 minutes or so.

Also, they still have not improved or fixed their performance under DXVA, it still macro blocks, so it's still pretty much unusable.

I will give the HD6450 a shot and see how I like that, in comparison to the Intel solution. It's unfortunate, because I was really hoping to avoid going with an off-board video solution, but if there's enough of an improvement, then it will be worth it to go through the hassle of setting it up.


- DDDamian - 2012-02-17

From the ATI help file:

Use the video playback settings on the Video > Quality page to ensure smooth video playback for times when video images appear to be disjointed due to dropped frames.

There is a demo mode just below that - go to split screen mode and tinker away!

EDIT: On my rig "Enable Dynamic Contrast" and %15 edge enhancement look spectacular. Use denoise at your whim.


- CpTHOOK - 2012-02-17

Guys Y Gals,

I'm truly grateful for Daniela's build, but it's been a challenge..

I was experiencing really bad audio dropouts with my TrueHD files, the same issues mentioned by others, but for me, only after updating to the new builds. I've tried two builds by DDDamian and two by Daniela and the only one that works on my rig with optimal performance is Daniela's build in the first post. As I began to update to new builds I began to notice the audio dropouts and a slowdown in performance(library not as snappy..XBMC crashing) very wierd!! Using Daniela's first build now and I'm golden... no issues what-so-ever

Again... thanks for this version of XBMC w/HD audio... very HUGE!!


- GreenEyez - 2012-02-17

@voip-ninja - If you`re looking for 0 dropped frames without any type of Re-syncronization like the built in XBMC one or Re-Clock, the only solution i know that can do it is and Nvidia GPU with a custom resolution/refresh rate, that drops 1 frame every 7 hours (which basically means 0 dropped frames during a movie which can take up to 4 hours max). By default Nvidia drops one frame every 5 minutes, Ati once every 7 minutes (they do 29.977 if i recall correctly from my Zacate) and Intel every 40 seconds (unless they improved something in their drivers recently, i have no clue about these improvements since my Intel GPU/mobo only arrives on Monday). These values are without any type of re-syncronization like ReClock & co.


- voip-ninja - 2012-02-17

GreenEyez Wrote:@voip-ninja - If you`re looking for 0 dropped frames without any type of Re-syncronization like the built in XBMC one or Re-Clock, the only solution i know that can do it is and Nvidia GPU with a custom resolution/refresh rate, that drops 1 frame every 7 hours (which basically means 0 dropped frames during a movie which can take up to 4 hours max). By default Nvidia drops one frame every 5 minutes, Ati once every 7 minutes (they do 29.977 if i recall correctly from my Zacate) and Intel every 40 seconds (unless they improved something in their drivers recently, i have no clue about these improvements since my Intel GPU/mobo only arrives on Monday). These values are without any type of re-syncronization like ReClock & co.

Thanks Green Eyez. Intel, with newer drivers seems to be dropping 1-2 frames ever 7 or so minutes. The problem is it's quite visibly noticeable. I will have to see if the ATI, when similarly dropping frames is better.

With using XBMC sync the Intel never drops frames and all audio formats work fine, with the exception of True-HD.

The only reason I am getting the ATI is to experiment a bit with this new build. I have also noticed that FF/REW seek on the Intel is a little spotty and sometimes after movie playback the sync is messed up, so perhaps ATI will be better in that regard.


- bluray - 2012-02-18

voip-ninja Wrote:I have also noticed that FF/REW seek on the Intel is a little spotty and sometimes after movie playback the sync is messed up, so perhaps ATI will be better in that regard.
I'm having Macroblocking issue during FF/RW with my Nvidia GT430 too, but AMD HD6450/HD5570 are okay! Smile


- nikc0069 - 2012-02-18

DDDamian Wrote:Check out this thread Wink



If your audio device does not report that it can pass DTS-MA then you'll just get the core DTS. Check that you have the latest drivers for your device, otherwise you'd need to contact the device manufacturer - sorry.

The annoying thing is other people don't have it showing as an available lossless codec under windows but it still works!


- DDDamian - 2012-02-18

nikc0069 Wrote:The annoying thing is other people don't have it showing as an available lossless codec under windows but it still works!

I'm not sure their specs or what method they're using to bitstream (AE, DSPlayer, external player) but there's also the chance their just getting the core DTS. Have you checked your drivers? What card?


- fezster - 2012-02-18

Been using DDDamian's build for the last week or so, and the audio side of things is working brilliantly.

However, I do have an issue after resuming from standby where everything just freezes as soon as I try to play a video. Im not sure if this occurs in the standard Eden build or not. I have a key mapped on the remote to kill xbmc and to restart, and then everything is fine. Wondering if anyone else has seen this ? I'll try and get a debug log at some point.


- assassin - 2012-02-18

voip-ninja Wrote:Okay, so i have a little bit of feedback on these new Intel drivers. I really don't know what people at AVS are smoking, but I am seeing no real improvement in frame-sync performance with these drivers vs. the last set of drivers that came out about six months ago. I am still seeing a moderate amount of clock drift and when I don't use the "sync to display" option I am still taking a couple of frame drops every 7 minutes or so.

Also, they still have not improved or fixed their performance under DXVA, it still macro blocks, so it's still pretty much unusable.

I will give the HD6450 a shot and see how I like that, in comparison to the Intel solution. It's unfortunate, because I was really hoping to avoid going with an off-board video solution, but if there's enough of an improvement, then it will be worth it to go through the hassle of setting it up.

GreenEyez Wrote:@voip-ninja - If you`re looking for 0 dropped frames without any type of Re-syncronization like the built in XBMC one or Re-Clock, the only solution i know that can do it is and Nvidia GPU with a custom resolution/refresh rate, that drops 1 frame every 7 hours (which basically means 0 dropped frames during a movie which can take up to 4 hours max). By default Nvidia drops one frame every 5 minutes, Ati once every 7 minutes (they do 29.977 if i recall correctly from my Zacate) and Intel every 40 seconds (unless they improved something in their drivers recently, i have no clue about these improvements since my Intel GPU/mobo only arrives on Monday). These values are without any type of re-syncronization like ReClock & co.

The newest Intel drivers have a dropped frame about once every 5 minutes with is hardly noticeable if at all.

Intel is only 0.003 off now. Very very good. The 40 second figure is no longer accurate.

1/(23.976-23.97251) sec = 4.78 min


- nikc0069 - 2012-02-18

DDDamian Wrote:I'm not sure their specs or what method they're using to bitstream (AE, DSPlayer, external player) but there's also the chance their just getting the core DTS. Have you checked your drivers? What card?

It is an AMD fusion platform so it has the E350 APU with an on-die 6310 graphics card. It is running on an E350M1 mobo from ASRock and is capable of streaming everything else. The specs say it is capable and I have seen other people running this board with the Catalyst 12.1 drivers. Interestingly, they don't get the DTS-HDMA showing in the properties of the HDMI audio device either, but still get the output. They may be getting the DTS core but my amp will tell me if I am getting that.

Moreover, when I set to output via WASAPI to th AMD HDMI device, and set my receiver capable of Master Audio, it fails to initialize. Setting it to DTS-HD does in fact pass the core to my receiver.

Hope I don't sound like I'm complaining - I appreciate the work that you guys do and once I get this working I'm sure it will be awesome Smile


- Raytestrak - 2012-02-18

nikc0069 Wrote:It is an AMD fusion platform so it has the E350 APU with an on-die 6310 graphics card. It is running on an E350M1 mobo from ASRock and is capable of streaming everything else. The specs say it is capable and I have seen other people running this board with the Catalyst 12.1 drivers. Interestingly, they don't get the DTS-HDMA showing in the properties of the HDMI audio device either, but still get the output. They may be getting the DTS core but my amp will tell me if I am getting that.

Moreover, when I set to output via WASAPI to th AMD HDMI device, and set my receiver capable of Master Audio, it fails to initialize. Setting it to DTS-HD does in fact pass the core to my receiver.

Hope I don't sound like I'm complaining - I appreciate the work that you guys do and once I get this working I'm sure it will be awesome Smile

Have you tried a windows reinstall? Starting from scratch? I have an E350 chipset based device too and if plays flawlessly. Do you get DTS-MA in MPC-HC? Wait till february 29th and you can try the windows 8 beta Wink


- nikc0069 - 2012-02-18

Raytestrak Wrote:Have you tried a windows reinstall? Starting from scratch? I have an E350 chipset based device too and if plays flawlessly. Do you get DTS-MA in MPC-HC? Wait till february 29th and you can try the windows 8 beta Wink

I did consider windows 8, as I like the Metro interface for a 10-foot PC interface to compliment XBMC. But I will be perfectly happy if I can get this working as is. I'm using some strange custom build of Windows I found somewhere so going to do an upgrade to proper ultimate first and then see where we go from there.

A rebuild wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing though - just have to be careful to copy all my media to another partition first.


- nikc0069 - 2012-02-18

Raytestrak Wrote:Have you tried a windows reinstall? Starting from scratch? I have an E350 chipset based device too and if plays flawlessly. Do you get DTS-MA in MPC-HC? Wait till february 29th and you can try the windows 8 beta Wink

Does your amp report Master Audio, Ray?


- DDDamian - 2012-02-18

nikc0069 Wrote:Moreover, when I set to output via WASAPI to th AMD HDMI device, and set my receiver capable of Master Audio, it fails to initialize. Setting it to DTS-HD does in fact pass the core to my receiver.

I hope you have luck with the fresh Windows install, but what happens behind the scene is XBMC asks WASAPI to initialize the card with a given set of parameters, in this case with an 8-channel, 192khz layout, and a media sub-type of DTS-MA. WASAPI passes this directly to the audio driver (ATI). The driver returns either yes or an error code via WASAPI. Failed to initialize happens if the driver rejects the format as being within it's capabilities per your hardware.