Win Stutter and quality issues in 1080p playback
#1
I’m having issues watching some of my high bit rate mkv’s on XBMC. These are all 1080p and 22-25MBPS – essentially m2ts extracted and remixed (not re-encoded). In fact mkv vs m2ts makes no differed, mkv is just a little smaller.

The issues I notice are:

micro stutter (info from pressing o shows dropped frames to) This, is quite noticeable on pans.
Subtle banding on dark sky scenes

I have tried combinations of these from the forum: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=139495

For Intel iGPU, you need to do as below-

- Download the latest Intel driver from here- Automatically identify and find drivers
- Disable DXVA2 but select software as Renderer Method, and disable everything else in XBMC settings/video/playback
- Enable "Use a full screen window rather than true fullscreen" in XBMC settings/system/video output

No joy! I did notice with DXVA2 enabled the GPU was bouncing upto 100% and disabled it was 0. The CPU’s did not saturate though, but still the stutter and the banding. If I exit and fire up explorer GUI I can run VLC full screen with no stutter and no banding.

Anyone else got any ideas on what setups may help or had any experience with this?

Thanks,
Chris.


My set up:
Intel DC3217IYE NUC with Intel QS77 & Intel HD Graphics 4000 Integrated
Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT120GB-V mSATA 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9
Windows 8 Pro 64bit
XBMC: Current Stable Release: 12.0 “Frodo”
Samsung 46” via HDMI

If it makes a difference I’m also not using explorer as a GUI but jumping straight into XBMC as in this method http://cybernetnews.com/xbmc-run-boot-xb...-windows-8
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#2
(2013-03-07, 00:11)Clmoose Wrote: I did notice with DXVA2 enabled the GPU was bouncing upto 100% and disabled it was 0. The CPU’s did not saturate though, but still the stutter and the banding. If I exit and fire up explorer GUI I can run VLC full screen with no stutter and no banding.

Seems I was wrong retried: VCPU is bouncing off 100% with DXVA2 enabled or disabled (render method set to sw). whatever cache 0 B is always 90-100%

Any thoughts?
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#3
If I had to guess I would say it's the integrated graphics you are using, it probably can't handle the high bit rate video. Maybe you can create a few sample videos (few minutes) at different bit rates at the same 1080P resolution from the same m2ts source to see what the GPU load is there. Maybe you can find what the upper limit is for the integrated graphics that you're running.

I've never seen a video stutter issue on my setup... but I don't playback video at that high a bit rate, and I'm running a GT 520 video card with 1gb of ram.

You can ask for recommendations in the hardware forum, but if it is the GPU, you don't need the latest/greatest video card you just need something decent... a GT520 is less than $50 now, and even the 520 is probably overkill.
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#4
Unfortunately its a Intel NUC, which is ~5"x 5" x 2" and no options for any other graphics solution. I did think of cutting the bit rates down and see how it look but I wanted to keep them as is if I can as re-encode takes forever and I don't want to buy a new TV and have to redo the whole collection!

I'm still hoping that there is a setting combination somewhere that would help. The fact that VLC under windows on the same HW does not have either the stutter or banding that the HW is ok with 1080p and these bit rates, just not with XBMC or XMBC the way I have it set up.

Thanks,
Chris.
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#5
Maybe DSPlayer fork is an option?

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...t=dsplayer
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#6
Many are running full rip bluray (I have done myself) with those size of bitrates on i3 integrated graphics - with Hardware Acceleration turned off. Something else to try is to ensure that your audio settings are correct for the hardware you are running - see here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=146911. Incorrect audio set-up can cause issues like you are seeing.

Assassin over at AVSForum has reviewed one and shows a screenshot of the xbmc GUI playing a 1080p rip with a bitrate of 23 Mbps, so it looks like it can handle it - see here http://cdn.avsforum.com/b/b2/b2d4c045_Image13.jpeg and the thread here http://www.avsforum.com/t/1460922/assass...nuc-review
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#7
(2013-03-07, 00:11)Clmoose Wrote: My set up:
Intel DC3217IYE NUC with Intel QS77 & Intel HD Graphics 4000 Integrated
Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT120GB-V mSATA 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9
Windows 8 Pro 64bit
XBMC: Current Stable Release: 12.0 “Frodo”
Samsung 46” via HDMI
Your video settings seems to be fine, but you might have issue with Frodo audio output configurations. Have you try Frodo audio configurations similar to screenshot below (your NUC should be Intel instead of AMD in the screenshot)? You can try Analog and DirectSound options too. If it happens over homegroup LAN network, you can try classic workgroup-style networking instead of homegroup networking. I found that it is quicker....

Image
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#8
I captured a log if it helps. I went through audio and video settings again and still seeing a stutter.

I had a few observations:
My video is VC1, no re-encode, and the example screenshot was re-encoded to x264. However, when I tried this with a short clip it still stuttered. A clip with just a video stream also still stuttered. Another observation was that the screen shot above shows vcpu = 0% and mine is bouncing off 100% when it stutters. I saw this:

12:01:02 T:3000 DEBUG: CDVDFactoryCodec: compiled in hardware support: CrystalHD:yes DXVA:yes

in the log and wondered if I had disabled HW acceleration - even tho the setting are as above.

Log from reboot > load stuttering video:

XMBC Log

Thanks,
Chris.
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#9
Any more thoughts, I'm still. Having issues.

Thanks,
Chris.
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#10
(2013-03-23, 04:02)Clmoose Wrote: Any more thoughts, I'm still. Having issues.

Thanks,
Chris.

I wouldn't mind betting that the files you are having issues with are VC1 encoded (inside an MKV container if you are using MakeMKV). On my NUC all my H264 files play beautifully but any of my blu-ray rips that use VC1 stutter like crazy.

I double checked this using a another windows box with a faster CPU and it plays the VC1 files perfectly

Both the NUC and the other machine are using HD4000 integrated graphics so its not those
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#11
VC1 encoded files (like BBC documentary blu-rays) will stutter if you are using stable versions. VC1 works perfectly in latest nightly builds.
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#12
(2013-06-09, 13:18)baijuxavior Wrote: VC1 encoded files (like BBC documentary blu-rays) will stutter if you are using stable versions. VC1 works perfectly in latest nightly builds.

Great, I will give that a try :)
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#13
(2013-06-09, 00:44)ijhammo Wrote:
(2013-03-23, 04:02)Clmoose Wrote: Any more thoughts, I'm still. Having issues.

Thanks,
Chris.

I wouldn't mind betting that the files you are having issues with are VC1 encoded (inside an MKV container if you are using MakeMKV). On my NUC all my H264 files play beautifully but any of my blu-ray rips that use VC1 stutter like crazy.

I double checked this using a another windows box with a faster CPU and it plays the VC1 files perfectly

Both the NUC and the other machine are using HD4000 integrated graphics so its not those

I'm using bdclown to demux the video and audio and recode audio if needed. Then mkv merge to mux into an mkv. I don't touch the VC1 track at all as I was looking for 1:1 blu ray quality without getting the disk out :)

My guess was that it is xbmc specific or interaction with HW/drivers as I could play the same file on the same PC with MPC, no issues. Above post suggests the same, I'm going to try the nightly build a try.
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#14
This is almost a year now and I did not find a solution other than setting up MPC as an alternative player. I also found with much experimenting that Plex suffered the same issues. It seams that the NUC/HD4000 with 1080p VC1 is not enough within the XBMC or Plex player. I know its more resource intensive than x264. Running VLC in Windows native seems to work. For now I've been using very high BR settings and converted any of my VC1 encoded discs to x264. Its a bit of a pain as it takes a while! My main goal is to have transparent audio/video on a convenient home video cloud. As such I'm not looking to compromise on quality, just ease of use.
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#15
As someone mentioned in this thread, I would suggest giving DSPlayer a go. It can be setup to use LAVFilters as decoder instead of XBMC internal DVDPlayer. Not hard to setup but also not 1-click setup though.
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