Playback stutter, low fps, no hardware acceleration option
#1
I'm experiencing major stuttering during playback.

I've been searching for a solution for the last 5 hours, sifting through thread after thread trying to find a hint of a solution, but to no avail. If I am reposting a known issue please point me in the direction of the solution as I've tried to find it myself but ran out of patience.

The system is MacBook with the following specifics:
- OS X v.10.5.8
- 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- GeForce 9400M

The laptop is connected to a server using a wired LAN connection from which movies are streamed. Using Win 7 on a different laptop connected to the same server over the same LAN connection works perfectly, so the issue must be with the Mac.

What's wrong:
Low FPS (10-30) in menus and during playback, except for main menu for some reason which has 60 fps. As a result movies stutter constantly. DVD-R movies displays better for some reason, appearing to be flowing like normal, even though the FPS is around 30, but 720p and 1080p is out of the question. At first I thought I should remove video acceleration, but the option is not present for some reason. It just can't be found in the location I thought it would be in (system -> settings -> video -> playback). Also, debug reports an error with a file named "libcrystalhd.dylib";

18:34:59 T:2690774816 ERROR: Unable to load libcrystalhd.dylib, reason: dlopen(libcrystalhd.dylib, 1): image not found

No idea what this is so it could be something else too. My first thought though is that the owner of the computer (my gf) has derped at some point and deleted some files she shouldn't have.

The whole debug log can be found here.

Edit1: first debug log didn't include playback. New file does.

I appreciate any help in the matter.

Edit2: Title said video acceleration. Should be hardware acceleration.
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#2
Ignore libcrystalhd.dylib, I highly doubt that a Broadcom CrystalHD is present in your MacBook.

I don't see video playback in xbmc.log.

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#3
Yes, of course I posted the wrong log... *grumble grumble*

New log

This is a new one where I run two HD movies. Good news though, for some reason playback does not stutter anymore, even though FPS is around 30, but in certain scenes it drops below 20 and creates very noticeable stutter. Also, CPU usage ranges from 80-120% during playback, but idles at 0-20%. I'm thinking the low FPS is due to CPU overload. Makes sense if something is hogging the CPU.
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#4
you don't seem to have VDADecoder turned on.


10:11:42 T:2955268096 DEBUG: CDVDFactoryCodec: compiled in hardware support: VDADecoder:yes VideoToolBoxDecoder:no CrystalHD:yes OpenMax:no
10:11:42 T:2955268096 DEBUG: FactoryCodec - Video: - Opening
10:11:42 T:2955268096 DEBUG: SECTION:LoadDLL(special://xbmcbin/system/players/dvdplayer/avfilter-1-x86-osx.so)
10:11:42 T:2955268096 DEBUG: Loading: /Users/[user]/Downloads/XBMC-1/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/system/players/dvdplayer/avfilter-1-x86-osx.so
10:11:42 T:2955268096 NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Using codec: H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
10:11:42 T:2955268096 DEBUG: FactoryCodec - Video: ff-h264 - Opened

and you are using rars Smile
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#5
I googled and found this xbmc page that says I need OSX v.10.6.3 to benefit from VDADecoder. I will install snow leopard and see if things improve. Thank you for the help.

And yes, I use rar archives for practical reasons, and since xbmc is such an awesome tool that it plays compressed archives right off the bat I never saw the need to decompress.
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#6
please read this post when using snowleopard:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=87749
MBP late 2009 - TimeCapsule 2TB - Harmony One+ - Readynas NV+ 8TB RAID5 - Mac Mini late 2009 with 10.9.0 and VDA - Panasonic TX-PG420ES -
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#7
Installing Snow Leopard proved challenging but I finally got past the restrictions. The computer is now running OSX v.10.6.8 and playback is smooth at 24Hz and 40-50% CPU usage. Hardware Acceleration is also present now. Thank you for your help, and idioteque's guide was very helpful Smile
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