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[MAC] Broadcom Crystal HD Mini-PCIe Card in a Intel (GMA) Mac Mini?
#16
I recently installed the Broadcom CrystalHD into a Mac Mini.

Installed both the hardware and drivers (and a nightly [JAN-09] build of XBMC. Everything installed properly and I get the option on the "VIDEO" setup screen.

The issue that I'm receiving is that arbitrarily all HD videos will hit a bog down state. The movie will be playing perfectly, no dropped frames and then it hits a point (every few minutes) where it basically drops into slow-mo and drops about 300 frames. I can rewind and rewatch the offending scene and have no problems. It will continue playing for a few minutes (sometimes 3, sometimes 10, it's really random) and then it happens again. I'm forced to rewind to reset it.

Is there something I did wrong on the install? Is it just the relatively new state of the software drivers?

Please help. Uber-frustrating.
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#17
I have installed the Broadcom CrystalHD in my MacMini.

To do it, just follow the same process you would when you want to add memory. The only difference is that when you've got it all disassembled, just switch out the airport card instead of the memory. Quite a simple process.

Installation of the drivers required some TERMINAL work, unless there is an easier way to do it. I followed the APPLETV tutorial, except used TERMINAL instead of using FTP software on a windows machine.

I can confirm that it will handle 1080p content flawlessly*.

The reason for the '*' is that I am having strange intermittent issues. It will play the content perfectly for stretches and then randomly get bogged down and I have to press the back-arrow key to rewind the scene and reset it. I do not know what is causing this issue. Whether it was my install, the card, or the Mini ...
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#18
sirreef Wrote:The reason for the '*' is that I am having strange intermittent issues. It will play the content perfectly for stretches and then randomly get bogged down and I have to press the back-arrow key to rewind the scene and reset it. I do not know what is causing this issue. Whether it was my install, the card, or the Mini ...

Interesting, because I've got exactly the same issue. Sometimes, the playback slowdown and I have to go back and forward in order to restore a good playback.
The system logs output is:
"Flush issued"
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#19
Same issue for me. I use a macmini too. It happens only for 1080p playback.
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#20
Does that issue happen on 720p videos or DVD ISOs as well, or only on 1080p?
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#21
Only on my 1080p movies. Series in 720p (mkv) plays flawlessly.
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#22
when this happens what is a/v reporting from the OSD. you will need to pop it up with an 'o' which means either a keyboard or using xbmc_remote (http://code.google.com/p/atv-xbmc-launch...bmc_remote)
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#23
Hello,
Thanks for your reply. My logs are on pastebin (mordrake pseudo) and you can find printscreen at this URL : http://www.flickr.com/photos/46432736@N03/
Last one was taken after the issue solved by a rewind.
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#24
For the Mac Mini hiccup issue:

Davilla noted in a PM to me that this is a known bug and is being looked into. So this is good, as it means it isn't just us and it can be fixed.

Davilla,

What information do you want from the OSD when this happens? All I did was watch my dropped frames jump from about 10 (due to movie startup) to about 600 in a few seconds.
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#25
mordrake Wrote:Hello,
Thanks for your reply. My logs are on pastebin (mordrake pseudo) and you can find printscreen at this URL : http://www.flickr.com/photos/46432736@N03/
Last one was taken after the issue solved by a rewind.

screenshot4, a/v is 8.2, this means that audio and video are out of sync and DVDPlayer is thrashing to catch up. r26657 seems much better at handling this. Known issue, unknown cause.
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#26
thanks I will give a try to the r2660 Smile
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#27
hello, I gave a try to the last nightly build and I still got the same issue and even with 720p content.
My resolution is 1080p 24p.
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#28
sirreef Wrote:For the Mac Mini hiccup issue:

Davilla noted in a PM to me that this is a known bug and is being looked into. So this is good, as it means it isn't just us and it can be fixed.

Excellent, I installed my Crystal HD today and got this problem as well on a Mini 1.83 GHz. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it is a software issue and not a problem with the hardware.


I wrote down what I downloaded and how to install everything in a small web page in case someone is interested: http://ae.dhs.nu/crystalhd/
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#29
Some bug reports:

-In some movies the A/V keeps stuttering between -0.020 and 0.020 which causes the screen to stutter (I think that's why, anyway).
-Changing the audio stream may cause the movie to become extremely stuttery and slow, restarting the movie seems to be the only fix.
-Skins that will continue playing video in the background of the home screen and other screens will cause the video to have the same extremely stuttery and slow effect that changing the audio stream does. This seems to happen every time.

If there's some sort of logs I can send in to help just tell me how and I will Smile

--------

A note: all the guides say you have to manually reload the KEXT on every reboot. I usually sleep my Mac Mini but about an hour ago it froze, so I rebooted it. After the rebooting the Crystal HD works without having to manually reload the KEXT. I made sure it was using the Crystal HD by changing the rendering method to software and comparing the CPU usage, and it's definitely still using the Crystal HD, even without manually loading the KEXT. Can anybody else confirm you don't have to?
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#30
I too can confirm that the broadcom card works in a mac mini (1.83 ghz core2duo). The video plays perfectly, though seeking seems to be awkward.

The audio however is definitely behind (for me at least); people will open their mouths and the dialogue will be a sec or so after it. This is different on every video file, and none of the video/audio clock syncing options correct it. Switching back to any of the other video renderers fixes the audio

Anyone else have any delayed audio issues?
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[MAC] Broadcom Crystal HD Mini-PCIe Card in a Intel (GMA) Mac Mini?0