Smoothvideo ("Sync playback to display" feature) now merged in the mainline branch
#61
Hi,

Thanks for all the work you put in to this - now that I finally have it running, video playback looks /so/ much better.

On the off chance someone else runs into it, I had a problem that videos would play back way, way too fast - like it was trying to decode 24Hz video at the screen refresh rate of 60Hz. I spent a lot of time screwing around with changing the screen refresh rate to match the video feed but to no avail.

In truth, my problem turned out to be one of a missing library. I'm running an svn build on top of XBMC Live 9.04, with updated Nvidia graphics drivers to get VDPAU to work properly on my integrated 8300. It turns out that CVideoReferenceClock was reading an incorrect refresh rate of 11Hz - because what nvidia-settings was returning was "error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory". Consequently since it believed the actual refresh rate was lower than the video's frame rate, it would try to decode a new frame for every vblank - ie. at 60Hz.

The fix, of course, was to "sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0".

Hope this helps another XBMC Live user who likes to live on the bleeding edge.

-Will
#62
midgetspy Wrote:OK I'm a bit confused as to who exactly this feature helps. I have a projector that supports 24/50/60 Hz and my audio is digital SPDIF passthrough. Does this feature accomplish anything for me or is it just for people who can't match their display refresh rate to a multiple of the video fps (24fps on 50Hz display, for example)?

That's what I'm wondering too. My LCD TV supports 24/50/60 and I've had no issues with XBMC, then I install the latest SVN and Bam! - Choppy video / audio. I've read through this thread and see there is a way to disable it, but it would be nice to have a "Smooth Video - On/Off" option, instead of setting it to sync to audio (I think that disables it), for those of us who don't need it's "features".
#63
Even if your display supports 24/50/60Hz etc. it's not a guarantee for a smooth playback. And if you use digital passthrough, you have to set it to skip audio packets when necessary since passthrough audio can't be processed in any way.
#64
mach170 Wrote:it would be nice to have a "Smooth Video - On/Off" option, instead of setting it to sync to audio (I think that disables it), for those of us who don't need it's "features".

There is an on/off setting (read under "How do I turn it on?" on the first page of this thread) and there's also an option to choose how to sync, if you have syncing enabled. Nod
#65
It's off by default, but there where some changes made to the av sync code.
I can't do much without a debug log though.
#66
seeker83 Wrote:There is an on/off setting (read under "How do I turn it on?" on the first page of this thread) and there's also an option to choose how to sync, if you have syncing enabled. Nod

I see that, but the feature is called and has been discussed on the forum as 'SmoothVideo'. Why not, from and end-user viewpoint, list the main option as 'Enable SmoothVideo' instead of 'Sync playback to display'. It just adds confusion when a feature is labeled one way on the forums, but the option is labeled differently in the application. I just think there should be some continuity.
#67
mach170 Wrote:I see that, but the feature is called and has been discussed on the forum as 'SmoothVideo'. Why not, from and end-user viewpoint, list the main option as 'Enable SmoothVideo' instead of 'Sync playback to display'. It just adds confusion when a feature is labeled one way on the forums, but the option is labeled differently in the application. I just think there should be some continuity.

You can always build your own and change the text to anything you want.
#68
davilla Wrote:You can always build your own and change the text to anything you want.

Well that's constructive.

It's your program not mine, just adding my two cents. Do with it what you will.
#69
You (and other users that follow this thread) know what smoothvideo means. Noone else does. We prefer to have our settings as obvious as possible to all users. This is a non-trivial thing to do, and we don't always get it right. While the current settings may not be optimally named (though they at least describe what they do), I'd wager that calling it "smooth video" doesn't really help matters.

Any other suggestions?

Cheers,
Jonathan
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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#70
"Sync video to display refresh rate" or "Sync video playback to display refresh rate"? Huh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
#71
You guys need to realize that "smoothvideo" was just the name of the branch for development of greater control over how audio/video are synchronized. It's NOT the name of any setting or feature. Now that the facilities it added are in mainline, it's just some more settings to play with. Those settings have appropriate names to designate what it is that they do. Read the very first post in this thread for a detailed explanation of each.
#72
mach170 Wrote:I see that, but the feature is called and has been discussed on the forum as 'SmoothVideo'. Why not, from and end-user viewpoint, list the main option as 'Enable SmoothVideo' instead of 'Sync playback to display'. It just adds confusion when a feature is labeled one way on the forums, but the option is labeled differently in the application. I just think there should be some continuity.

Thanks for pointing out the startpost was written in an ancient northern dialect of Klingon.
#73
Kaplah! Wink

Here's a debug log from rev 20522:
http://pastebin.com/m5f69395f

lots of "CDVDPlayerAudio:: Discontinuty" in there... dunno if it's any use for debug though... Any more news on what could be the problem in Vista bobo?
#74
seeker83 Wrote:Kaplah! Wink

Here's a debug log from rev 20522:
http://pastebin.com/m5f69395f

lots of "CDVDPlayerAudio:: Discontinuty" in there... dunno if it's any use for debug though... Any more news on what could be the problem in Vista bobo?

Looks like it's working for you as there's none of these -

CVideoReferenceClock: Setup failed, falling back to QueryPerformanceCounter
#75
Well the vista issue can be fixed by removing a call to SetForegroundWindow() but that breaks other stuff.

The log filled with discontinuities is a different issue, which we're currently investigating.

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Smoothvideo ("Sync playback to display" feature) now merged in the mainline branch0