FPS/HZ Smoothness

Hey all.

I've been having the "problem" for a while now. It's more an annoyance than anything.

Basically I have 2 setups with XBMC. I'm more concerned about the main living room one.

With the main one, which is connected to a 40" Sony TV, sometimes one 24fps, 25fps or 30fps content, there's slight judder on movements, especially when the camera is panning. A few times I've watched 50FPS/60FPS versions of the same types of programs and the difference is amazing. The higher FPS just looks phenomenal and ultra smooth. I'd take this difference over higher resolutions any day, even though the videos I'm comparing are both usually 720p.

The 2nd set up which uses a 23" monitor as a display struggles with the higher FPS content. It's basically unwatchable. And the judder I mentioned isn't as noticeable on the lower FPS videos. This 2nd machine can't play 1080p either as the GPU is pathetic and it can't use the hardware acceleration.

So basically my question is how do I make the 24fps, 25fps or 30fps stuff look better on the TV? I've tried the "adjust refresh rate to match display" option and changed the "video clock", "audio clock" options next to it but really I've not noticed much difference with it except my TV goes black for a sec while it changes to 24p and occasionally stuff is out of sync.

Any suggestions on how I can improve my setup? If any details are needed, let me know.

The settings you need to use in video\playback are influenced by the GPUs you have in the system and the TV you are connected to. There are quite a few threads about these issues for almost all the GPUs including the Intel onboard GPUs. There is also an advanced setting that is used to help with setting the proper refresh rate when using the adjust display refresh rate option as sometimes it isn't set properly.

NVIDIA® nForce® 9200 Chipset

And the TV is a 40" Sony Bravia. It supports 24p.

The problem I described is very subtle but more noticeable when the camera pans. It seems to be non-existent on 50/60fps content and has nothing to do with frame drops. I only seem to get frame drops when skipping around, fast forwarding etc.

(2012-03-23 16:54)kricker Wrote:  The settings you need to use in video\playback are influenced by the GPUs you have in the system and the TV you are connected to. There are quite a few threads about these issues for almost all the GPUs including the Intel onboard GPUs. There is also an advanced setting that is used to help with setting the proper refresh rate when using the adjust display refresh rate option as sometimes it isn't set properly.

I'm not currently using the "adjust display refresh rate option" because when selected, it takes the TV a few seconds to switch and you miss a few secs of video. And I didn't see any major improvement anyway.

I've searched and searched for this issue but everything I find is talking about 24p issues. I'm not. I'm talking about 30fps/25fps. FYI my TV is PAL. Like I mentioned before no frame drops are listed... Sometimes it will judder, and sometimes the video will then speed up to catch up to where it was.

I was just playing something and while not particularly bad, I decided to have a look at the OSD. I think the video was 30fps... But the OSD had it climbing up to 50fps and down to 31 fps and up, constantly changing. Shouldn't it stay at 30?

---

Could it be giving me these issues because Windows was set to 60Hz? I've changed to 50Hz, will watch some stuff and see if that has fixed it. I'll kick something if it was that simple.

60 is NTSC so 50 is correct for a PAL TV right?

So after watching a bunch of different files... I think that fixed the issue with 25/30 fps content. Switching to 50 Hz... Although there's a new problem now. All my 60 fps videos are pretty much unwatchable. jumping like crazy. I do have less of these formats but why can't I get everything playing smooth. 60fps is now worse than any of the others were when the PC was set to 60Hz.

When Windows was set to 60 Hz, 60 fps and 50 fps both looked amazing, lower fps were ok but slight judders were there... Now with the PC set to 50 Hz, the lower fps look better than they ever have... but 60 fps is just totally unwatchable. I don't have and 50 fps content to try at the moment.

What's the solution?

PS "adjust display refresh rate option" doesn't cause any issues... It's just annoying the few secs it takes for TV to switch. Although 24p does look slightly better i think, but not really noticeable either way.

My problem now seems to be with 60 fps.

Can you find the specs for the TV and see what refresh rates it truly supports? When you hit info on the TV does it tell you the current refresh rate?

The TV only tells you on screen when using "adjust display refresh rate option" and playing a 24p video.

The television is a sony kdl 40ex401 http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product...ifications

I'm googling now for supported rates.

EDIT: I've googled and so far I've had 2 sites telling me 50 Hz and 2 telling me 60 Hz. This sony one clearly says 50 Hz http://www.sony.co.uk/comparison/kdl40ex...dl40v5810u

Windows at 60 Hz = 60fps Amazing, 50 fps Amazing, 25 fps and 30 fps watchable but occasional judder/annoyance.

Windows at 50 Hz = 60 fps Bad, 50fps ?, 25fps and 30 fps look better I think. I may need to watch some more but the OSD (fps reading when u press 'o' on keyboard) on XBMC looks much more stable on 30 FPS vids and the vids themselves look better, although hard to judge until I've watched a couple of hours of stuff.

The issue i'm describing seems to have no relation to the resolution of the videos.

And after more messing around, I think iv finally got all of them working.

I hadn't tried "adjust display refresh rate option" on the 60fps vids. With Windows at 50 Hz. It's smooth now.

I like how in Eden they now have the setting to pause vid for a few secs while ur tv switches, so u don't miss anything.

What did you do "messing around"?

I hadn't tried "adjust display refresh rate option" on the 60fps vids. With Windows at 50 Hz. It's smooth now.