[davilla]

You wont like this, Plex is playing the file smoothly jitter free.

log file from Plex please.

[neurosis13]

plex works also better for me with 1080p high bitrate videos.
i will try to post a log.
imac 27" with ATI 4850HD

i dont know if this will help, in plex video settings there is an option
enabled called "h264 speed boost"

[davilla]

plex works also better for me with 1080p high bitrate videos.
i will try to post a log.
imac 27" with ATI 4850HD

i dont know if this will help, in plex video settings there is an option
enabled called "h264 speed boost"

"h264 speed boost" controls the ffmpeg skip loop filter setting, XBMC has something similar but it's set using advancedsettings.xml. If you have this set in plex and are comparing to XBMC that's an Apples to Oranges comparison. In other words, turn it off in plex and now you are making a valid comparison.

[fingon]

Interesting point. Plex's hardware accelerated version (without 'h264 speed boost' which helps CPU decoding) seems to work fine for me as well, so it must be some difference in how Plex and XBMC do this stuff. At least I don't see tearing there as I do on XBMC w/o vblank.

[fingon]

(and I don't get dropped frames there, like on XBMC w/ vblank).. not sure what Plex does in terms of vblank handling, it has just some odd 'blank screens' option in their preferences, but I didn't notice it affecting hardware decoded path much with the brief test I did.

[davilla]

Plex handling of just about everything related to video playback is about two years old relative to the current XBMC source tree. They have done some "cherry picks" of bits here and there but their render code looks nothing like current XBMC code. Think of their code as "frozen" in time at about two years ago.

There might be some interaction with our usage of pbo's or something else with VDA decoder enabled. That said, it only seems to effect the new MacMini running 10.6.4 while connected to a real HDTV. VDA decoder works great on my 2.4GHz Al MacBook and with all others with a 9400 GPU, seem like the newer 320 GPU is the issue.

[roads]

Good to know. It just rules out my mac or OSX being defective. I would just use XBMC and right now the jitter makes me turn it off.

here is the log, speed bost is OFF. The debug switch is under advanced settings in windowed mode (CTRL-F) in the finder bar.

LINK

[fingon]

As added note, Plex hardware decode isn't 100% flawless either on my Mac, but better than XBMC which tears so much it's not even funny (and-or drops frames with vblank on).

Independent third party who visited me preferred 1080p XBMC software decoding over Plex hardware, so clearly it is (somewhat) flawed :-p

Relevant bits from the system profiler:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2,53 GHz
Memory: 4 GB

NVIDIA GeForce 9400:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0861
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 3362

[davilla]

As added note, Plex hardware decode isn't 100% flawless either on my Mac, but better than XBMC which tears so much it's not even funny (and-or drops frames with vblank on).

Independent third party who visited me preferred 1080p XBMC software decoding over Plex hardware, so clearly it is (somewhat) flawed :-p

Relevant bits from the system profiler:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2,53 GHz
Memory: 4 GB

NVIDIA GeForce 9400:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0861
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 3362

Humm, 9400M, this running 10.6.4 ? How is your video connect to the Display ?

[davilla]

Good to know. It just rules out my mac or OSX being defective. I would just use XBMC and right now the jitter makes me turn it off.

here is the log, speed bost is OFF. The debug switch is under advanced settings in windowed mode (CTRL-F) in the finder bar.

LINK

Plex is also dropping frames, you just don't see them and that ancient code did not record them correctly in the codec OSD

Classic sign from ffmpeg signaling a dropped frame.

WARNING: Decode - avcodec_decode_video didn't consume the full packet. size: 148431, consumed: 0

[roads]

So what's next? Are you looking into this? I would be happy to betatest any changes you make.

[davilla]

So what's next? Are you looking into this? I would be happy to betatest any changes you make.

I don't have the new MacMini, just MacBook with 9400. So unless I can reproduce the issue, any fix attempts would be just random poking around which is a waste of time.

[fingon]

Humm, 9400M, this running 10.6.4 ? How is your video connect to the Display ?

Yep, 10.6.4 (left that out). Unfortunately I don't have 10.6.3 handy to test if that makes a difference, BUT I have another 2009 Mac with 9400M - 13" Macbook Pro. I think I'll try that just to see if I get same or different results with it.

Connection is mini-DVI => DVI => HDMI => projector (1080p 24-mode); in the MB Pro case, it will be mini-DP => DVI => HDMI projector.

Hmmh. I guess I can also try connecting the Mini with mini-DP instead of mini-DVI and see if it makes a difference.. I'll get back to you on that

[roads]

For me its exactly the same on the projector an epson TW5500 and the imac itself. Its not the screen hz.

[fingon]

I spent two hours plugging cables and watching Avatar's opening sequence too many times..

Case 1: (2009 MBP 13" + Optoma HD20 projector)

MBP + lid open = lose (with external display chosen), tons of dropped frames
suspend =>
MBP + lid closed = consistently win (~10 dropped frames in 10min?)
- clearly one monitor equals win

Case 2: (Mac Mini + Eizo monitor + Optoma HD20 projector)

Mini + Eizo in mini-DP (‘off’ from SwitchResX) + projector in mini-DVI (active main display) = lose-ish (some drops, 85 frames in 7,5min)
Mini + projector in mini-DVI = lose (73 dropped frames in 2min)

.. reset SRX config, disconnect Eizo physically ..

Mini + projector in mini-DP = lose (150 dropped frames in 45 seconds)
Mini + projector in mini-DVI = lose (100 frames dropped in 50 seconds)
Mini + Eizo in mini-DP + projector in mini-DVI = lose (260 frames dropped in 150sec?)

.. uninstall SRX ..

Mini + 2 displays mirrored = lose (100 dropped frames in ~2,5min)
Mini + 2 displays, non-mirrored, second display playing video = epic loss (200 dropped frames in 30sec)
Mini + projector in mini-DVI = win (~21 dropped frames in 10min?)

.. reinstall SRX [1] ..

[cables left alone, few iterations to find out something else]
Mini + Eizo physically ON in mini-DP (‘off’ from SwitchResX) + projector in mini-DVI = lose (ton of dropped frames)
Mini + Eizo physically OFF in mini-DP (‘off’ from SwitchResX) + projector in mini-DVI = win (11 drops in 3,5min)
Mini + Eizo physically ON in mini-DP (‘off’ from SwitchResX) + projector in mini-DVI = win (20 drops in 3,5min)
Mini + Eizo physically ON in mini-DP (‘off’ from SwitchResX) + projector in mini-DVI = win (7 drops in 3min)

MBP works pretty much as advertised every time, assuming there’s only one display active.

Based on the data SRX affects things, but I encountered this problem before I started using SRX, but at that point I was using projector as 2nd display, so may fail to the general 'second display VDA doesn't work' case.

I'd guess iMac users get the problem due to having internal + external display; I get the problem due to ghost in the machine in some cases, and having second disabled display at times.

Now that I reinstalled SRX and tinkered a bit with the options it seems to work with higher %, but knocking on the wood; at least now Blu-ray Fifth Element has played like half an hour with 6 total dropped frames..

We'll see in couple of days if this really fixed it or not.