[naviathan]

I just upgraded my HTPC with a new motherboard and an Intel Core i3 2105. With my new found power (upgraded from an Atom 330) I figured I would give XBMC another go. I love it! It's fantastic! Except for one thing. I turned on hardware acceleration thinking it would improve playback of HD content, but it only makes my HD TV shows choppy. Turn it off and all is well. Any ideas? It's using the GPU built into the processor which is listed as an Intel HD Graphics 3000.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Lincoln1986]

So far I know DXVA doesnt improve anything. It just make your CPU usage less when you watch movies. But in your case if your CPU can handle it, there is mainly no reason to have it activated. Might be cause your CPU is stronger then your GPU?

I have the same case, so i deactivated DXVA and since CPU usage never gets above 25% when i watch movies and runs smoother, im happy with that

[jhsrennie]

In XBMC v10.1 (and earlier) DXVA gives problems with Intel processors. I believe this has been improved in the v11.0 development versions. You could try one of the development builds from http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/win32/ or wait for the imminent v11.0 beta test to start.

JR

[djmcnz]

Are they VC-1 files by any chance?

Instead of the Execution Units, dedicated functional units are now used when decoding HD videos. This should make decoding more efficient. According to the DXVAChecker (link) the Intel HD Graphics 3000 (in the 2500K desktop processor) supports the complete decoding of MPEG2 and H264 (VLD entries). In VC1 and WMV9 the current driver only copes with IDCT decoding level. However, according to Intel, a complete decoding of VC1 should be possible (perhaps with future driver versions). Our tests results go conform with the readings from the DXVAChecker. Even if only one core of the i5-2500K is active and clocked at 1.6 GHz the H.264 coded Big Buck Bunny video (1080p) runs smoothly at 0.5% processor load. Playing back VC1 or WMV encoded videos we observe a clearly higher CPU load compared to a Desktop GTX 460 with PureVideo HD (VP4) decoding. (source)

I disagree in part with the above poster too...DXVA works fine on my Intel/Dharma setup. Although I do agree that all it does is transfer effort from the CPU to the GPU - it doesn't inherently "improve" anything.

[naviathan]

Interesting points. I'll give the nightlies a go and see if that helps. I'm not sure if the video files are VC-1 or not. They're Matrovski containers and I believe they should be X.264 or H.264. They're TV episodes downloaded by SickBeard on my fileserver.

I have definitely made a full switch to XBMC, regardless of the hardware acceleration problem. The wife far prefers the layout, the Hulu add-on and XBMC Flicks over using MediaCenter, Hulu Desktop and the WMC Netflix app. She's the hard one to convince (and not techy at all despite my attempts to teach her) so if she's happy, everyone is happy.

[Paraffin]

Can you check in Settings > System and look at the Display Mode, what is this set to?

[naviathan]

I'll have to check when I get home, I'm not sure off the top of my head.

[Paraffin]

OK try deselecting "Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen"

This worked for me a while back when I uninstalled the nightlies and went back to Dharma for stability as the WAF was slowly declining..

[naviathan]

Ahh, that option, yeah that's already disabled. It's a dedicated HTPC so I had no need to run it in a windowed mode.

[Headcase_Fargon]

I'm in the same boat with an I3 myself and wanted to try the pre-Eden nightlies. Is there a way to do this without uninstalling 10.1? I'd like to be able to go back to 10.1 if it doesn't work out.

[jhsrennie]

I'm in the same boat with an I3 myself and wanted to try the pre-Eden nightlies. Is there a way to do this without uninstalling 10.1? I'd like to be able to go back to 10.1 if it doesn't work out.

Yes, just install into a different directory. You might want to export your library first just in case.

JR