[CrystalP]

Interesting theccap10. It matches with the formula used to calculate the max ref frames for Bluray compliant streams. That gave 4 refs for 1080p if I remember correctly, and it barely passes in your formula.

4xxx and 5xxx ATI can go beyond spec, but maybe the UDVD+ could only do up to the Bluray spec?

We could use this information to automatically go to software decoding for out of spec streams.

@All, how does mpc-hc perform on a 3xxx for the same problematic files?

[Dnomaid]

I refuse to believe this is an ATI issue. I'm running XBMC Dharma beta2 with an ATI 5570 on Windows 7 x64. Pixelation and framedrops occur.

What I can tell you is that these issues didn't occur when using XBMC Camelot 9.11 . The issues appeared when formatting my hard drive, reïnstalling Windows 7 and using the new XBMC.

Interesting fact: Camelot wouldn't run until I installed (updated?) DirectX, this wasn't the case with Dharma which just ran without the update. I still need to find the time to update DirectX and see if pixelation/framedrops still happen.

[0wing]

All files with L4.1 compatible encoding (95% of my files) work with DXVA in mpc-hc. If it's above L4.1 DXVA is disabled.

In XBMC I even get artifacts on L3.1 720p video with 2 refs.

[theccap10]

thanks CrystalP.

I think MPC may have a similar feature to the one you've described.

When I had a look at using MPC I noticed that the files that worked in XBMC also worked in MPC with DXVA, but the out of spec file (that didn't work in XBMC) played in MPC without DXVA enabled. It would be interesting to know what parameters they've used to enable that feature....

[djbase]

I'm thinking of upgrading my onboard (igp) geforce 9400 vga card (used for hdmi on 1080p hdtv 24hz) and xbmc dharma beta2 win 7 64x pro.
The reason why I want to upgrade is that I can't install the latest gfx driver from nvidia, if install it my system becomes unstable due to using a nforce 730i chip with gf9400 igp. So I can only used the vga drivers inside the nforce chipset driver which is really outdated

But due to my case limited in power consumption I can't put in a muscle gfx card

And I was thinking of an nvidia gt240 (makes noise) or an ati 5450 (due to being fanless and cheap)

But if I have read this correctly and I only USE XBMC for playback : I should go with the nvidia gt240 due to the current problems ?

Or has it been fixed in the meanwhile with ati driver update ?

My main issue is not 3D power but best picture available for 1080p 24hz output + just stero sound through HDMI. (don't have external sound decoder or speaker set)

Tnx !

[xantari79]

I just want to chime in her as well. I've found the quality of DXVA2 on my machine to be problematic. All MKV (720P and 1080P) files I play are very noisy. The moment I switch back to software based decoding everything looks gorgous again.

What types of things do you guys need me to do to narrow in on the issue? Or should I just go out and try find a NVidia graphics card that can do HDMI and bitstream audio (does such a card exist? At the time I bought my card ATI was the only one who had cards like this).

FYI, I have an ATI video card, don't have specs in front of me right now though.

[Montellese]

@All, how does mpc-hc perform on a 3xxx for the same problematic files?

How can I determine how MPC plays a file? I ran several files which are either extremely noise and/or show lots of artefacts in XBMC with MPC-HC and everything is golden.

I also ran the movie "Pride and Glory" which is extremely noise in XBMC with DXVA enabled AND is absolutely unwatchable in XBMC without DXVA enabled (extremely few frames per second) and in MPC there is neither noise nor bad fps.

I also played that movie in VLC and its both noisy and has a low frame rate but IIRC VLC doesn't support DXVA on UVD+.

If someone can tell me how I can see whether MPC uses DXVA or not I'll be happy to provide further details.

[steelman1991]

Right click with mouse, render settings, display stats, should provide sufficient information . While playing a file obviously.

[defrag]

Just wanted to chime in with a slightly different spanner in the works. I am running an Intel i5 clarkdale and use this solely for video and sound. I too was unable to play video using DXVA2 prior to dharma. When dharma b1 came available hd mkvs play without stutter but I get odd flashes of large pixellation at seemingly random intervals. It just appears then dissapears after a few seconds. With b2 the situation is still the same, switch off DXVA2 and all is fine.

I don't think this is just an ATI issue. The i5 plays bluray through TMT with bitstreaming perfectly, never any corruption. Must admit I haven't tried MPC yet to compare.

[Montellese]

Right click with mouse, render settings, display stats, should provide sufficient information . While playing a file obviously.

I thought that as well but the "Display stats" option is greyed out when I'm playing a file (tried mkv, avi and mov).

I had to switch from EVR to VMR in the options to be able to activate "Display stats". But when using VMR(9) and playing "300" the frame rate drops to something between 22 and 23 fps which results in something that looks like there are frames missing every 1 or 2 seconds which makes the video stutter for a very short instance.

I also played "Pride and Glory" again with VMR9 and the frame rates sometimes drops down to 16 fps (and never rises higher than 21 fps) which makes it absolutely unwatchable (same as in XBMC without DXVA2).

On all file I played with VMR9 it says "Not using DXVA".

Unfortunately I know too little about all the rendering stuff. I only know the basic difference between VMR and EVR (this is only available on Vista and Win7 right?).

If I can provide any more information simply ask

[CrystalP]

I'd like to find out if a compliant/non-compliant check would help out most users. I'm not saying that's the only problem.

I wonder if ATI disclosed in the driver release notes (it was 10.4-ish) which product lines would benefit from the new driver support for out of spec files.

IIRC Ctrl+J toggles through various OSD stats in mpc-hc. The EVR can display stats on my computer.

Though I wasn't clear earlier, I'm looking for information about playback quality (pixellation/noise) and whether DXVA is used or not.
Note that mpc-hc can use different levels of hardware acceleration, so check the whole string. If it says VLD somewhere, that's full acceleration.
Anything else (iDCT for example) is partial accel and can't be done with xbmc/ffmpeg at the moment.

mpc-hc has an option to override the lock on DXVA for out-of-spec video. Properties of the decoder I think? Maybe that would bring the same type of artifacts.

defrag: the Intel i3/5/7 do not support the standard full acceleration method AFAIK and dxva is never used with those. You can easily check in a debug log that the dxva methods are enumerated and rejected.

This thread is the first time I read about ATI 5xxx with noise/artifacts. The only known problem was for a black screen instead of video for a few persons.
I suggest a separate thread with a sample so that others can confirm the issue.

@theccap10 thanks for confirmation on the out-of-spec idea and mpc-hc. mpc-hc is open source and it won't be hard to figure out their formula. Can you try the override on out of spec files?

I'd like to see other confirmations before thinking about doing something similar in xbmc.

[Montellese]

IIRC Ctrl+J toggles through various OSD stats in mpc-hc. The EVR can display stats on my computer.

I found out why I couldn't display the stats. I had to change the renderer from "EVR (Vista / .Net3)" to "EVR Custom".

Though I wasn't clear earlier, I'm looking for information about playback quality (pixellation/noise) and whether DXVA is used or not.
Note that mpc-hc can use different levels of hardware acceleration, so check the whole string. If it says VLD somewhere, that's full acceleration.
Anything else (iDCT for example) is partial accel and can't be done with xbmc/ffmpeg at the moment.

Running "Pride and Glory" (which does not have any artefacts in XBMC but a very noisy image) in MPC-HC shows "H.264 bitstream decoder, no FGT" and the "Mixer output" shows "NV12". The image has the same noise as when playing the file with XBMC and is also running smooth (which is not possible with VMR).

When I played "300" (which consists mostly of artefacts when played with XBMC) it says "Not using DXVA" and the "Mixer output" is "YUY2".

I have absolutely no problem with the noise in the picture as you don't see it anymore as soon as you move a few more feet away from the screen (I'm sitting about 2 feet away now) as long as it allows me to watch a movie which isn't watchable without DXVA.

Having some kind of trigger which automatically disables DXVA on certain files would be much appreciated as now I always have to go to the video settings and disable it manually if I start playing a file and get a screen full of artefacts

[theccap10]

Just to add another 2 cents...

With respect to my earlier post. When I say "this is definitely an ATI issue" I am specifically talking about the ATI HD3xxx (AGP and PCI-e) series cards.

These cards are based on ATI's UVD+ and do not appear to be capable of playing the out of spec H.264 files at some fundamental level (hardware, firmware or both).

The 4xxx and 5xxx cards are all at least UVD 2 (most are UVD 2.2) and they are capable of playing out of spec mkv files to some degree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Video_Decoder

With respect to this issue, I think it dangerous to lump all these cards into the same basket as they have different properties even if the Catalyst drivers are the same.

Even though the symptoms are the same we may well be talking about different root causes......

[0wing]

I put together samples of six different files that don't work properly in XBMC.
They all work fine in mpc-hc.

http://www.multiupload.com/VEKPHNCY56

The artifacts should be very obvious, except for the 720p L3.1 sample which only has slight blocking.

[fraatti]

I put together samples of six different files that don't work properly in XBMC.
They all work fine in mpc-hc.

http://www.multiupload.com/VEKPHNCY56

The artifacts should be very obvious, except for the 720p L3.1 sample which only has slight blocking.

I was just curious and tested these samples with zotac nvidia ion setup. Every sample works very well with both mpc-hc and xbmc.