[tomtor]

I noticed a strange inconsistency in the XVBA branch. I have two XBMC installations: A Foxcon E350 on a Philips 100Hz LCD TV and an MSI Windbox DC100 E450 on a older Pioneer plasma without higher refresh rates (main modes 24, 50, 60). The E350 on the Philips works ok with VA-API but I could not get smooth movies on the MSI E450, so I tried the XVBA branch.

The problem is that I only get a smooth display on the E450 if I have used VA-API first and than switch to XVBA. Just as if some hardware is not initialised on a fresh boot of XBMC and that using VA-API (from XBMC or by using mplayer -vo vaapi) initialises the GPU in the correct way.

I mainly play 720P 23.978 fps and 720P 25 fps X264 mkvs.

Any suggestions what could be the cause?

[fritsch]

Intersting finding:

Could you do the following:

Reboot; enable debug; Play specific movie with xvba (should stutter);
Play the same movie with vaapi over xvba-va-driver (should work okay);
Play the movie again with xvba (should also play okay).

And paste the xbmc.log?


Do you use the xvba packages provided in the howto? If not: remove the xvba-va-driver and disable vaapi in the menu. As vaapi get initialized first.

[tomtor]

Intersting finding:

Could you do the following:

Reboot; enable debug; Play specific movie with xvba (should stutter);
Play the same movie with vaapi over xvba-va-driver (should work okay);
Play the movie again with xvba (should also play okay).

And paste the xbmc.log?


Do you use the xvba packages provided in the howto? If not: remove the xvba-va-driver and disable vaapi in the menu. As vaapi get initialized first.

I use the packages from the howto, but these have (no longer?) va-api option settings, only xvba.

I compiled my own version from your repo on github which had both VA-API and XVBA, I could experiment with that version in the weekend, and provide the log. I'm currently resetting by playing 50 frames of a movie with mplayer -vo vaapi after boot before I start xbmc :-)

Note that the behaviour with VA-API in XBMC was NEVER good and that the XVBA
when it is bad it only misses a refresh occasionally. No real stutter. The "o" display does not show missed frames however, it is just a slightly irregular sync every 3 or 4 seconds.

Using the VA-API trick does not show any difference in the "o" display (so I doubt that the debug log will provide any hints), the slightly irregular sync is just gone...

[fritsch]

Okay.

The vaapi enabled version has the problem that at startup the xvba-va-driver is queried, loaded or something. Because of this we disabled it completely. Are you totally sure that this behaviour did also happen with the xvba-only version?

I looked through the xvba-va-driver source and could not find anything they do different to us - more encrypted, yes.

I think the debug.log would help, cause the stuttering can be seen when surfaces failed to transfer.

[tomtor]

Okay.

The vaapi enabled version has the problem that at startup the xvba-va-driver is queried, loaded or something. Because of this we disabled it completely. Are you totally sure that this behaviour did also happen with the xvba-only version?

I looked through the xvba-va-driver source and could not find anything they do different to us - more encrypted, yes.

I think the debug.log would help, cause the stuttering can be seen when surfaces failed to transfer.

Yes, I'm sure it happens with the xvba-only version, because I deinstalled the other
versions because I thought everything worked fine.

I'll try to run extensive tests in the weekend and keep you informed.

Thanks for the feedback so far!

[tomtor]

Ok, I did run some tests this morning.

A fresh boot with mplayer run before starting xbmc:

http://www.v7f.eu/public/logs/good.log

Disabling mplayer, shutdown, boot, start xbmc and play the same 720p 25fps file:

http://www.v7f.eu/public/logs/bad.log

During the bad run the film stuttered slightly...

Edit:

I played the good run for about 60 seconds, the bad for about 30 seconds because it had shown an irregular stutter about every 2/3 seconds.
See no hints logged in the bad file... :-(

[wsnipex]

Only things that comes to mind is pulseaudio, its know to not work well with XBMC.
Did you try without refresh overrides and without "Sync audio to video" option?

[bilbonvidia]

I have an existing install of xbmcbuntu. Is it possible to update to this version of xbmc from here by just running set 2 installing correct driver, and step 3 installing your version of xbmc over the top?

I have an ati 5770 and would like to see this in action before I switch to nvidia, hoping it can correct the 24p sync issue?

Thank you

[wsnipex]

I have an existing install of xbmcbuntu. Is it possible to update to this version of xbmc from here by just running set 2 installing correct driver, and step 3 installing your version of xbmc over the top?

I have an ati 5770 and would like to see this in action before I switch to nvidia, hoping it can correct the 24p sync issue?

Thank you

yes, but stick with catalyst 11.11. Dunno if the newest (12.2) has fixed the issues on the 5xxx series.

Also make sure to disable the team xbmc ppa.

[tomtor]

Only things that comes to mind is pulseaudio, its know to not work well with XBMC.
Did you try without refresh overrides and without "Sync audio to video" option?

No issue with playing 25 fps on 50hz refresh without those settings, but obviously not
the solution for watching 23.976 sources.

I also just discovered that the mplayer-vaapi trick for priming the GPU works best after real
power off, just rebooting is not sufficient...

[turboloader]

@ wsnipex

Hello, thanks for your nice work. I changed from Vaapi to your xvba build and it's working like a charm. I build up my perfect system including live tv and bluray support(with makemkv) Everything works fine. I'm now over a year with xbmc and my first tries there was still a pause option while watching live-tv included the xbmc surface. But now there isn't a button anymore to pause the tv. Do you know how to enable the pause button again? I found a toppic that the button was removed https://www.lonelycoder.com/redmine/boar...topics/405 . It worked fine for me over a year ago. Is there a way to enable it over a settings file? Or do I need to compile xbmc my self. I know it has nothing to do with your xvba work but maybe it's only a smal change for your packages.

[anXieTyPB]

Works like a charm i guess.

How can i really verify that XVBA is used by XBMC?

I followed your guide almost completely and my test .mkv H264 encoded file works like a charm (28.1% and 20%) CPU loads.

Edit: While watching a movie for a longer time, I'm experiencing some edges in the picture from time to time. You could also call it a short flickering centered on the screen for like 1 second.

[FernetMenta]

@ wsnipex

Hello, thanks for your nice work. I changed from Vaapi to your xvba build and it's working like a charm. I build up my perfect system including live tv and bluray support(with makemkv) Everything works fine. I'm now over a year with xbmc and my first tries there was still a pause option while watching live-tv included the xbmc surface. But now there isn't a button anymore to pause the tv. Do you know how to enable the pause button again? I found a toppic that the button was removed https://www.lonelycoder.com/redmine/boar...topics/405 . It worked fine for me over a year ago. Is there a way to enable it over a settings file? Or do I need to compile xbmc my self. I know it has nothing to do with your xvba work but maybe it's only a smal change for your packages.

There has never been support for time shift. It might have worked unintentionally by using the some buffers which are not intended to use for this feature. It's on the list of feature requests.

[fritsch]

Edit: While watching a movie for a longer time, I'm experiencing some edges in the picture from time to time. You could also call it a short flickering centered on the screen for like 1 second.

Could you check the temperature (though unlikely)? And additionally, please supply the mediainfo output of this file.

[bilbonvidia]

sudo apt-get install -y ia32-libs

I could not get this to work at all, installed multiarch ver, does that matter?

I did download manually but no idea how to install it.

Currently installing xbmc.......