[RckStr]

Well I've thrown several remuxes I did with makemkv at it. One handbrake reencode I did myself. And quite a few scene releases. Everything 1080p. Works a charm. Couldn't be happier with the new mini.

[Rachel]

Well I've thrown several remuxes I did with makemkv at it. One handbrake reencode I did myself. And quite a few scene releases. Everything 1080p. Works a charm. Couldn't be happier with the new mini.

What's your secret? :-)

Seriously... firstly, what's your screen? I still suspect there may be an issue with it outputting to a real TV over a monitor, though when the real TV is set to 1080p 60Hz that's enough *like* a monitor that I can't see why there should be an issue. But I suspect something...

Secondly, what handbrake settings? Sticking to a preset? Which one? What handbrake *version* for that matter? Post a MediaInfo output of one of these files. :-)

Thirdly, are you sure you have VDADecoder enabled? Software playback (dc:ff-h264) *does* work perfectly on everything, it's just that I find the machine is not *quite* able to keep it up reliably resulting in frequent irregular timing glitches, skipped frames, whatever. Too distracting to watch for long anyway. I've presumed this to be because it's only barely fast enough to do the h.264 decode in real time, and anything else on the machine demanding cycles tips it over (and mine's a Mac Mini *Server*, so there's always a bit more going on at idle even though I haven't enabled many services yet), but I may not have adequately tested that presumption. But there may be something different going on - or not going on - that means software playback is fine for you.

Fourthly, many of my MakeMKV-generated files worked too (with VDADecoder), but more didn't. It depends on the way those videos were originally encoded by the publisher of the bluray, and so will vary by title. If you have Avatar for instance, I bet it works, but do you have any of the NOT OK ones I listed, and do *they* work for you? (That's why I listed them; wasn't just to brag you know ;-).)

After my last finding last night, when I got 40-odd minutes into a Doctor Who episode with VDADecoder on before the issue turned up, means I now have to sit myself in front of some other videos that in my earlier test showed up OK and play them through to see if they *stay* OK. The ones that were wrong in the earlier test were wrong from the start; I didn't have to sit and wait for it to go wrong. This made testing quicker. :-)

[RckStr]

I'll be happy to post mediainfo for you. I'm using a Sony LCD tv not a monitor. Hw acceleration is turned on. CPU (as reported wen pressing "o" in xbmc) is about 60%
Alice in wonderland and Bolt are both remuxes I have done with makemkv. Both work flawless here with max 1 dropped frame throughout the movie. It comes right when I hit play, dunno why but it doesn't matter anyways.

Edit: I have remuxed Up aswell. Also working.

[Rachel]

I'll be happy to post mediainfo for you. I'm using a Sony LCD tv not a monitor. Hw acceleration is turned on. CPU (as reported wen pressing "o" in xbmc) is about 60%
Alice in wonderland and Bolt are both remuxes I have done with makemkv. Both work flawless here with max 1 dropped frame throughout the movie. It comes right when I hit play, dunno why but it doesn't matter anyways.

Edit: I have remuxed Up aswell. Also working.

Be interested to see that mediainfo for Alice, as I've already posted my MediaInfo output for that (page 6 of this thread) and it didn't work out for me. Interested to see if they're different given mine is also a MakeMKV remux.

Wonder if there's different encoding for different regions. Didn't think there was much reason to do that any more (except for different audio and subtitle languages); thought it was just pointless and annoying market segmentation. :-)

[RckStr]

region 2 here:

Format : Matroska
File size : 19.9 GiB
Duration : 1h 48mn
Overall bit rate : 26.3 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-07-14 12:05:30
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.5.6 beta win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.5.6 beta (0.7.7/0.8.1) win(x64-release)

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Muxing mode : Container [email protected]
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 48mn
Bit rate : 23.6 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.474
Stream size : 17.9 GiB (90%)
Color primaries : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : ES
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 48mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Stream size : 1.15 GiB (6%)
Title : 3/2+1
Language : English

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1h 48mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 497 MiB (2%)
Title : 3/2+1
Language : Norwegian

Text #1
ID : 4
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : English

Text #2
ID : 6
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Norwegian

Text #3
ID : 8
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Norwegian

Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 00
00:04:24.889 : en:Chapter 01
00:10:36.886 : en:Chapter 02
00:18:13.509 : en:Chapter 03
00:24:44.316 : en:Chapter 04
00:28:41.344 : en:Chapter 05
00:36:51.125 : en:Chapter 06
00:46:15.731 : en:Chapter 07
00:52:44.786 : en:Chapter 08
01:04:05.049 : en:Chapter 09
01:10:02.198 : en:Chapter 10
01:15:36.490 : en:Chapter 11
01:23:39.264 : en:Chapter 12
01:34:12.688 : en:Chapter 13
01:36:58.354 : en:Chapter 14
01:40:12.131 : en:Chapter 15

[Rachel]

Hm beats me, they look the same, correcting for slight differences, presumably, in the Linux and Windows versions of MediaInfo. Your slightly higher *overall* bitrate is probably because you have one more audio track in there than I do. The video stream looks the same.

On the offchance the Windows MakeMKV is doing something different to the Linux MakeMKV... I'm uploading the first 100MB of my alice makemkv file for you to try. 100MB isn't much in bluray terms; about 29 seconds in this case. It doesn't even get past the Disney Castle ident at the start :-) but it's enough to see if the problem's there or not. I'll update with the URL once it's up. In the meantime the file I already uploaded at http://electronpusher.org/~rachel/tcom-100m.mkv is still there. It's a handbrake rip, but you said yours are working, so try that and see if that works for you too. :-)

Just trying to eliminate whether it's the encoding or the playing that's the problem. If a single specific file works on one and not on another then it's the playback environment that's different.

Edit: http://electronpusher.org/~rachel/alice-100m.mkv

[D-tyme]

Also Rckstr, post a pic of a screen shot with information on screen, if you can.

[RckStr]

Also Rckstr, post a pic of a screen shot with information on screen, if you can.

I had no idea howto do screenshots from xbmc so i used my iphone. Enjoy.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/e62be588897443
http://www.imagebam.com/image/f8273588897447
http://www.imagebam.com/image/2c95ac88897451
http://www.imagebam.com/image/c8831388897456
http://www.imagebam.com/image/0c15ac88897463

[RckStr]

In the meantime the file I already uploaded at http://electronpusher.org/~rachel/tcom-100m.mkv is still there. It's a handbrake rip, but you said yours are working, so try that and see if that works for you too. :-)

Works fine. As always, it drops one frame when I fire it up but plays smooth from that point. Ive even added more nice iphone screenshots.

Both my new minis are the cheapest ones availiable.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/aaa4ad88899318
http://www.imagebam.com/image/b2eacc88899326
http://www.imagebam.com/image/99554b88899336
http://www.imagebam.com/image/c4cef988899346
http://www.imagebam.com/image/c9c00b88899354

[RckStr]

Secondly, what handbrake settings? Sticking to a preset? Which one? What handbrake *version* for that matter? Post a MediaInfo output of one of these files. :-)

Ill let it be known that im no wiz with handbrake. I hardly ever use it, simply because I dont find it worth my time. Ill just buy more and larger HDDs instead. However, occationally I come by sourses (im region 2 remember) that are 25i and as the HW acceleration demands the sources to be progresive, I sometimes have to reencode regardless. So if you find my settings amusing, they might very well be. having said that, I think the encode looks nice and it plays back with my regular 1 framedrop. Here comes the mediainfo:

Format : Matroska
File size : 9.74 GiB
Duration : 1h 11mn
Overall bit rate : 19.6 Mbps
Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.4

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Muxing mode : Container [email protected]
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 11mn
Bit rate : 15.9 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 072 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.310
Stream size : 7.73 GiB (79%)
Writing library : x264 core 79
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=501 / keyint_min=51 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=15949 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Color primaries : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 11mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Stream size : 767 MiB (8%)
Language : Norwegian

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1h 11mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Stream size : 767 MiB (8%)
Language : Norwegian

Audio #3
ID : 4
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1h 11mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 325 MiB (3%)
Language : Norwegian

[D-tyme]

I had no idea howto do screenshots from xbmc so i used my iphone. Enjoy.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/e62be588897443
http://www.imagebam.com/image/f8273588897447
http://www.imagebam.com/image/2c95ac88897451
http://www.imagebam.com/image/c8831388897456
http://www.imagebam.com/image/0c15ac88897463

Its in the wiki...

[RckStr]

allright well did the screens I provided serve their purpose or do I have to do it again?

[D-tyme]

As far as I'm concern, they do. but for going forward - [command-s]

[Rachel]

RckStr's new mac mini really seems not to show the problem, with the same files that at least mine is.

D-tyme seems to show the same problem as me.

D-tyme, are you running OSX or OSX Server? Mine is the Mac Mini Server. A little later (it's recording something in EyeTV right now) I'm going to install OSX *client* onto the spare partition I luckily haven't started using yet, and see if it still shows the problem. And if it doesn't at first I'll start adding the extra (non-server) apps I also have installed on the server partition (eyetv, handbrake, colloquy, google chrome) and see if it's any of them, though that seems unlikely.

In the meantime, shall we compare system profiles? (I'll show you mine if... ;-)) RckStr as yours seems to work I'm especially keen to see yours. :-)

Go to AppleMenu->About This Mac, open "More Info...", which opens the system profiler. Hit Command-S or go File->Save, save the file with file format "System Profiler 4.0 (XML)". Open it in TextEdit (or texteditor of your choosing), select all (Command-A), copy (Command-C), and paste to the XBMC pastebin http://xbmc.pastebin.com and post the URL here. Here's the one for my Mac Mini: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/YH278PNg

To view more easily, select Download, rename it (the filename doesn't survive pastebin) to eg: madison.spx (<anything>.spx will do but madison is this machine's hostname); then you should be able to load and view it in your System Profiler application.

I'm looking for differences in hardware revisions and kernel/extension versions or something else I don't know yet.

Regardless of whether it works or not I'll also upload the system profile of the OSX *client* install when I get it going later.

[RckStr]

Ill fix it tonight.