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[MAC] New Thunderbolt Mac Mini!
#16
I had purchased the 2010 macmini model with the nvidia 320m and it ran pretty damn good. It could play the infamous bird scene from planet earth without and dropped frames and with the CPU hovering around 50-60%. I exchanged it yesterday for the new 2011 base model (with intel 3000 gfx) and regret it now. I played the same scene from planet earth and it hit 160% CPU with constant frame drops. I even tried the latest nightly build of xbmc hoping it was a bug and it still performed poorly. So far its not looking good (at least for the base 2011 model with intel gfx). I will probably return it and go for the 2010.
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#17
With working hardware acceleration it should be nowhere near 50% CPU.
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#18
correction - it's pinned at 106% not 160 (typo) but its still way more than the old macmini2010 with nvidia GPU. Either it is not using hardware accel or the intel chip is nowhere near the nvidia.
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#19
Hmm, I've read a little more about the acceleration in os x and is it still slow as it was back when this was posted http://xbmc.org/davilla/2010/05/03/osx-g...leration/? I'm thinking about buying a new mini(intel) and use as an htpc but this makes me reconsider it. Huh
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#20
Dimmuxx Wrote:Hmm, I've read a little more about the acceleration in os x and is it still slow as it was back when this was posted http://xbmc.org/davilla/2010/05/03/osx-g...leration/? I'm thinking about buying a new mini(intel) and use as an htpc but this makes me reconsider it. Huh

Not quite sure what you are seeing, VDA is fast, very fast for h264.
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#21
Open6l Wrote:correction - it's pinned at 106% not 160 (typo) but its still way more than the old macmini2010 with nvidia GPU. Either it is not using hardware accel or the intel chip is nowhere near the nvidia.

As always, xbmc.log will tell you what's going on. 106% does not look right for VDA.
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#22
davilla Wrote:Not quite sure what you are seeing, VDA is fast, very fast for h264.

Okay do you know how much cpu usage will be used when playing back a 1080p on the new intel mac mini approximately? In linux and windows it's around 1-2% with acceleration on my 6+ years old p4 with a geforce 8600GT.
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#23
davilla Wrote:As always, xbmc.log will tell you what's going on. 106% does not look right for VDA.

anything in particular I should look for? I see stuff like

00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'Planet Earth Sample.mkv':
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: Duration: 00:00:24.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 23704 kb/s
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: Stream #0.0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080, PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 23.98 fps, 24 tbr, 1k tbn, 50 tbc
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 448 kb/s
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: Metadata:
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: title : English (AC3)
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 INFO: ffmpeg[B0185000]: Stream #0.2(eng): Subtitle: ass
00:05:42 T:2954383360 M:210137088 DEBUG: CDVDFactoryCodec: compiled in hardware support: VDADecoder:yes VideoToolBoxDecoder:no CrystalHD:yes OpenMax:no
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#24
I reset my log and ran the clip again - I saw this

12:06:45 T:2886578880 M:762232832 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: Planet Earth Sample.mkv
12:06:45 T:2886578880 M:762228736 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player):Tongueut MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:762183680 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:762294272 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:754880512 NOTICE: Opening video stream: 0 source: 256
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:754880512 NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 28
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:753418240 NOTICE: Open - VDADecoder Codec failed to open, status(-12473), profile(100), level(51)
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:753418240 NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Using codec: H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10

wonder if this means that there isn't VDA support yet for the intel chip (even tho its enabled in XBMC system options)?
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#25
here is the full log

http://pastebin.com/arsCeJAd
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#26
Open6l Wrote:I reset my log and ran the clip again - I saw this

12:06:45 T:2886578880 M:762232832 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: Planet Earth Sample.mkv
12:06:45 T:2886578880 M:762228736 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player):Tongueut MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:762183680 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:762294272 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:754880512 NOTICE: Opening video stream: 0 source: 256
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:754880512 NOTICE: Creating video codec with codec id: 28
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:753418240 NOTICE: Open - VDADecoder Codec failed to open, status(-12473), profile(100), level(51)
12:06:45 T:2954915840 M:753418240 NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Using codec: H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10

wonder if this means that there isn't VDA support yet for the intel chip (even tho its enabled in XBMC system options)?

Quote:Errors returned from the VDADecoder APIs.

kVDADecoderNoErr = 0
kVDADecoderHardwareNotSupportedErr = -12470
kVDADecoderFormatNotSupportedErr = -12471
kVDADecoderConfigurationError = -12472
kVDADecoderDecoderFailedErr = -12473

I'd try something with level(41), and not "Planet Earth Sample.mkv"
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#27
so I grabbed another macmini 2010 to compare against my 2011 - the exact same Planet Earth clip maxes out at 33% with no dropped frames on the 2010. On the 2011 model it is constant at 106% with dropped frames every second. Not looking good for the 2011 model so far.
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#28
Open6l Wrote:so I grabbed another macmini 2010 to compare against my 2011 - the exact same Planet Earth clip maxes out at 33% with no dropped frames on the 2010. On the 2011 model it is constant at 106% with dropped frames every second. Not looking good for the 2011 model so far.

I doubt it's the mini. As in, this can't be a hardware performance issue. The specs on even the cheapest 2011 mini should decode 1080 flawlessly even without GPU decoding.

Like Davilla suggested, try another clip and report back.
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#29
ok so I tried 2 more clips - this time the city / glass scene from inception and the orc battle scene from Return of the King. In inception the 2010 model stayed between 34-36% with no dropped frames and the 2011 was 25-27%. For Return of the King it was very similar results (34-36% for 2010 and 25-27% for 2011 model).

So this means that so long as it conforms to a profile then the 2011 does well - but if it drops outside of a 4.1 (etc) type profile then the 2010 model has more overall combined muscle?
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#30
Open6l Wrote:then the 2010 model has more overall combined muscle?

The 2011 model is significantly more powerful. Any issues must be happening at a software level.

I think I found the same "Planet Earth Sample.mkv" file and will give it a go once it finishes downloading.
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[MAC] New Thunderbolt Mac Mini!0