Severe flickering in full screen mode
#1
I recently encountered an extreme video flickering problem whenever I try and use full-screen mode. Presently I am using the latest release (8.10 Atlantis) of XBMC under Windows 7, AMD 5050e processor, onboard ATI 3200 HD using HDMI out.

Background:
I originally installed XBMC under different hardware on Windows XP about 3 months ago (don't know the build, sorry). Sadly, it didn't run due to OpenGL issues. Later, I ripped out the motherboard, dropped in a new Foxconn A7GM-S board and processor, then installed Windows 7, keeping the old install of XBMC. I started XBMC and everything worked great. Fullscreen and all.

At some point, I opted to install the latest build of XBMC because I thought maybe it was the reason for the black borders around my screen. Things haven't been the same since. I had also reinstalled Windows 7 and the latest ATI Catalyst Control Center. Now it seems that no matter what I do, I cannot stop the seizure-inducing flicker of full-screen mode in XBMC.

I noticed something interesting however: If XBMC is in the background (tabbed out to another application), the flickering stops and it goes up to the 60 Hz rate when viewing the info screen. The moment I tab back to XBMC it drops dramatically, somewhere around 15 Hz and varies a bit.

My guess is that there is some sort of problem with vertical sync. I have it set to always enabled and my display is a 47" Olevia 247FHD-T11, 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz.

I've tried reinstalling several other builds that I could find, which seemed to date back as far as early January, but nothing worked.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I've searched for past posts and found a lot of people onboard Intel graphics blaming Intel drivers and such, but there seems to be conflicting information. Some say it worked fine under Beta 2. In my case it isn't Intel, but rather ATI/AMD. Due to the fact that it did indeed work for a short time under Windows 7, I can't blame the OS and I believe it was the same graphics driver.

Suggestions greatly appreciated, and I'll gladly report back any testing that is requested.

Thanks!
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#2
I also have a laptop with an ATI 3200 HD, I run into the screen flicker on both HDMI out and the laptop's own display. I'm running Windows 7.
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#3
1st, you should try one of the SVN builds if you haven't already, it's hard to tell from your post which build you're using. Look at the sticky post in this section of the forum.

2nd, I can't believe the amount of people who come on here complaining about it not working on Windows 7. It's a beta operating system with unstable drivers. It's not meant to be used as a primary operating system. I'm sure the XBMC developers will get any and all Windows 7 bugs straightened out eventually but I wouldn't fault them for not doing it until the OS is released because it might be hard to tell at this point which bugs are XBMC and which ones are Windows 7 beta bugs.
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#4
I tried it on Windows 2012 (code name: Nostradamus) and it does not work either. It might be partially due to the fact that it is very early pre-code version, not sure.

Either way guess it does not matter... that Windows version is coded to stop on Dec 12th 2012 anyway.
I'm not an expert but I play one at work.
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#5
This is the exact issue I am having

I am using a laptop (an HP dv8110us) with an ati xpress 200m, when using an external television (connected via a composite cable) xbmc flickers like crazy! I tried changing the resolution to no avail and even tried to download the latest svn build which didn't fix it either.

What is really strange is if there is a program that steals the focus from xbmc (task manager for instance), I can see xbmc working in the background great!

System information
Using windows Service Pack 3 here

AMD Turion 1.8 Ghz Processor
ATI Xpress 200m
2 Gigs of Ram

System setup in CCC to use the television in "Clone" mode with the laptop so that they both display the same thing. But other configurations have yielded the same results.

Using latest build from here:
http://ocs.nl/xbmc/

And also the build from the website here:
http://xbmc.org/download/

The issue occurs in both.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I might just try throwing ubuntu on and try it with that.
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#6
I had this problem too when I was on windows 7 64bit...it worked fine in windowed mode but flickered like crazy in full screen mode no matter what drivers I installed. I reformatted my computer and put windows 7 32bit on instead and installed the latest vista 32bit catalyst and installed the official stable build xbmc 8.10 and all is fine now...I also downloaded 2 files: msvcp71.dll and msvcr71.dll and copied it and put it in my c://windows folder, my c://windows/system32 folder...that seemed to work fine...

also my chipset is the amd 790gx which have the hd3300 igx which is pretty much the same as the hd3200 with 200mhz more...
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#7
Have you tried to set the slider "Wait for vertical refresh" to "Always on" in the Catalyst Control Center under 3D - All Settings?
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#8
macardi Wrote:Have you tried to set the slider "Wait for vertical refresh" to "Always on" in the Catalyst Control Center under 3D - All Settings?

I just tried your suggestion and it doesn't seem to work

(For others trying to find this it's under 3D -> All Settings portion of CCC)

What is really odd is that the application seems to work fine if there is something in front of it (I.E. The windows bar or the task manager)
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#9
Okay, So i downloaded UltraMon, moved the display from "Cloning" mode to "Extended" mode.

I then moved xbmc from the 1st monitor to the second (tv) and now it works.

Wonder why it refused to work in cloning mode

Oh well, thanks for the help!
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#10
Hello,

I just figured out the solution to the full screen flickering.

I installed the kLite codec pack and the problem is gone.

Hope this helps some of you... this problem drove me nuts!
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#11
Uhm...we don't use any external codecs.
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#12
Same problem for me as well on my Gateway c-141xl laptop. Works great on my HTPC running Windows7 x64 but I get the constant crazy flicker on my laptop with windows7 x64.

XBMC Build 21652
ATI Radeon HD3200
Driver Packaging Version 8.561-081201a1-072276C-ATI
Catalyst® Version 08.12
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 7.01.01.849
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0630
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.8304
Catalyst® Control Center Version 2008.1201.1504.27008
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#13
log file, please!

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=42708

Also, is the flicker occurring in a resting state, while moving and scrolling, and/or while playing a video?

Also, also, is the laptop currently connected to anything else, like a monitor?
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#14
Here is a log. http://pastebin.com/m509d9ccb

The flickering is very severe and is always happening. The only time it pauses for a second is when I click a menu button but it starts right away after the click. It also flickers during video playback.

There is no flickering when I use the windowed version.

It flickers with no external display connected and when connected via vga to a 1080p TV in single display output to the LCD TV. I have not tested clone or extended.
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#15
Just wanted to add that on my system, turning vertical refresh sync on (either on, unless app specifies in CCC + let driver decide in xbmc, or off, unless + always on/when playing video) introduces this mad flickering. Without vsync refresh off the video is tearing, as should probably be expected.

Tusse.
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