[Rachel]

Ill fix it tonight.

Fix it? Yours ain't broke; just want to look at it. :-)

[Rachel]

The Generic Snow Leopard client install disc doesn't work in the mac mini. The mac mini hardware is more recent than the disc so presumably the disc is lacking hardware/firmware drivers. It starts to boot but I just end up with a symbol of a circle with a diagonal line through it and the spinner spins forever.

I think that's my experiment stymied, unfortunately; without a base-model mac mini mid-2010 install disc. :-(

[D-tyme]

Just the facts...

1. I'm running the non-server Mac Mini
2. Your Alice file runs crapy on mine as well
3. My System Profile: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/mZ6EVUxr
4. My recent Book of Eli (VC-1) and Brooklyn's Finest (h264) sources run fine with ff-vc1 and ff-vda:





I too am thinking of reinstalling my OS. Although I didn't add anything but HandBrake and XBMC.

Rckstr, Which version of XBMC are you running?

[RckStr]

Im out drinking with my buddies tonight, so ill have to check tomorrow. Its s 2.4 GHz with 2 gigs ram. Xbmc and remote buddy is all ive installed on it.

[Rachel]

Just the facts...

1. I'm running the non-server Mac Mini
2. Your Alice file runs crapy on mine as well

Hate to say it, but good. :-)

3. My System Profile: http://xbmc.pastebin.com/mZ6EVUxr

OK, well, it's answered one question. My mac mini has later versions of the kernel and various extensions including a couple of NVDA ones than my other Macs. I had been wondering about that, and I still am.

But your mini has the same versions - it's just running 32-bit mode which would have been the main point of my test. I had been wondering if my later versions were because it was Server, but apparently not.

Software Update says among the updates it installed when I ran it as new was "Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update for Mac mini Mid 2010" (my italics). You probably got the same but without "Server". I wonder if we got a special version of that update because it's a new mini, and it won't be til 10.6.5 that we're back in sync with other macs... At which point maybe this bug will show up on them too. :-)

Just waiting for RckStr; got to be something different... Maybe he hasn't run software update... That might be worth a second install of server onto the spare partition. Install OSX, try XBMC before running software update. (And it might just not work at all of course.)

[D-tyme]

I'm reinstalling now...

Funny thing, the MacMini wouldn't boot from my Snow Leopard Family Pack DVD. So I had to use the CD that came with the MacMini.

[davilla]

I'm reinstalling now...

Funny thing, the MacMini wouldn't boot from my Snow Leopard Family Pack DVD. So I had to use the CD that came with the MacMini.

I would expect that from a OSX box that came out way after the Snow Leopard Family Pack DVDs were released. It might be a "MacMini" but it in no way resembles the previous MacMini family with respect to hw except for maybe the CPU and internal Disk. It's a very different chipset and very different GPU.

[Rachel]

I would expect that from a OSX box that came out way after the Snow Leopard Family Pack DVDs were released. It might be a "MacMini" but it in no way resembles the previous MacMini family with respect to hw except for maybe the CPU and internal Disk. It's a very different chipset and very different GPU.

Yes, basically D-tyme found exactly what I found. As soon as it failed I knew what the problem was (though I did give it a second go 'just in case' as I'd never done a remote disk install before) :-) At the moment these things will only boot from the install disks they came with; until 10.7 Oscillating Ocelot or whatever cat it gets to be...

One *might* have thought it would function at some higher abstraction level (EFI basically) to give basic function until the upgrades could be applied - similar in concept to Linux/Windows using VESA graphics until it has a proper driver available - but... I guess not.

In fact, the existence of that 10.6.4 update *just for mac mini mid 2010* means that probably wouldn't have worked anyway as it would just have applied the normal release which wouldn't have had the necessary drivers.

It did briefly occur to me that it might be hackint0shed (oh the irony) but frankly I'm not *that* bored. :-)

[D-tyme]

1. Fresh Install
2. No Updates (What-so-ever)
3. XBMC 31901
4. Alice 100mb file

EDIT: also left OSX display set to 24 Hertz. Don't know if that made a difference (was set to 60 before).

Ladies and Gentlemen...

[D-tyme]

Don't want to say we are out of the woods yet. I have some things to do before I can test my full BluRay sources.

[Rachel]

1. Fresh Install
2. No Updates (What-so-ever)
3. XBMC 31901
4. Alice 100mb file

EDIT: also left OSX display set to 24 Hertz. Don't know if that made a difference (was set to 60 before).

At an early stage I was trying changing the refresh mode to best match the content as xbmc on mac can't do that yet. It wasn't making any difference; plus the fact that everything played well (except the expected problems you *do* get for not matching refresh rate) at 60Hz on the Macbook Pro's own screen.

So I'd considered the refresh rate issue to be irrelevant to this problem. By all means set it to 1080p NTSC 60Hz and see if it breaks it again and proves me wrong. :-)

But at the moment it looks like it might be a driver issue in the 10.6.4 update for mac mini mid-2010. I'll try to do the same thing tomorrow to confirm. I have a spare partition so it's not like I have to trash the existing install; it's just that even such things as moving a keyboard into the right room atm is hard work, and I moved it back after my failure earlier today. :-)

So who else bets RckStr hasn't run software update yet? :-) (He'll confound us now by showing he has of course...)

[D-tyme]

So I'd considered the refresh rate issue to be irrelevant to this problem. By all means set it to 1080p NTSC 60Hz and see if it breaks it again and proves me wrong. :-)

I was thinking that, but for some reason I'm thinking 24hz disappeared when I changed it to 60hz. Can you confirm that it is still in the Display Options?

[Rachel]

I was thinking that, but for some reason I'm thinking 24hz disappeared when I changed it to 60hz. Can you confirm that it is still in the Display Options?

Well, in my display manager there is 1080p and 1080i. In 1080p there is 24Hz, 50Hz (PAL) and 60Hz (NTSC). In 1080i there's just 50Hz (PAL) and 60Hz (NTSC).

Not all of these get listed in the menu off the display manager menubar icon, so you may need to go to display preferences properly.

I don't know to what extent these modes are defined by the TV and just read by the Mac over HDMI or whether because it's flagged as a TV OSX just adds those modes. If the latter it's more likely it'll be the same for you. But it's also more likely to have been subject to a change in the 10.6.4 update; maybe there's a fix for the 'disappearing 24Hz mode' problem. :-)

[Rachel]

I can confirm D-tyme's findings. I put a fresh install of OSX Server onto my spare partition, did *NOT* allow software update to run, and installed XBMC. This VDADecoder problem is completely absent. All h.264 videos play normally without exhibiting this problem; that is both untranscoded bluray rips and the transcoded versions from HandBrake, both Normal and High Profile. This also applies to HandBrake transcodes from BBC HD transmissions.

There are a few caveats about playback on the Mac - outstanding issues at least some of which are very likely to be fixed by being able to automatically switch refresh rate. Some other issues, like crashing on trying to play untranscoded BBC HD recordings (which XBMC on Linux can do), and sometimes XBMC seems to get 'tired' after playing lots of different files and won't play video any more, which is fixed by a restart of XBMC after which the same videos play fine.

These are *separate* issues from the VDADecoder issue this thread has been about though, so let's not go further into them here. :-)

This is the system profile of my mac mini with a fresh Server install without any updates being run. ie: a configuration on which the VDADecoder issue does not arise: http://pastebin.com/vibjhxzP

Compare with the other pasted system profile from a couple of pages ago; the same physical machine, with software updates applied, exhibiting the VDADecoder issue. For convenience here's that URL again: http://pastebin.com/YH278PNg

What had been occurring to me is that the NVDA* extensions would have been updated in the 10.6.4 update and the problem would be in there. I was going to try copying the un-updated system's NVDA* extensions to the updated system and see what happens. But it turns out those extensions have the same version as the updated system: 1.6.18.

I think at this point we need the attention of a developer again, who can hopefully make use of this data, and can possibly generate a more informed bug report with Apple. I can retain both updated and non-updated systems on my machine for the foreseeable future if that's useful for testing.

NB: I tested the same exact version of XBMC that I had last used on the updated system; so I'm pretty sure I'm not seeing a recent bug fix in XBMC itself. :-) The version currently installed on both is r31846.

[Rachel]

Addendum: I allowed the other updates to run (Safari, iTunes, Java etc.) holding back only the 10.6.4 update. Playback is still fine, so it presumably is still something in 10.6.4.