[kees667]

Here also frame drops after switching from 9.11 to Dharma final on an asrock 330 (clean install, no upgrade). Running xbmc live installed on an ssd, playing from an external harddisk. What I notice is that xbmc seems to have no issue playing the file (very low cpu scores) but every few minutes I lose a few frames at once. It seems like it is always in the same parts of the files so I blamed the files at first but they run fine in 9.11

Log and what I was doing at the time
http://pastebin.com/b9HUMfJt

I turned on debugging, started the wrong file first (episode 6), stopped it and started episode 5. It asked me to resume and I recalled finding a spot with a problem. Resuming there I ended up right before the part that I saw stuttering twice. I pressed guide to see the dropped frames onscreen as well, and it occured in the exact spot. I stopped it and downloaded the logfile. I browsed it but can't make much of it other then I see what I pressed on remote etc.

There are some warnings around 21:51:00 right before I pressed stop, so must be about where it skipped.

What have I tried already?
-I checked the file in windows in mediaplayer homecinema and don't get any framedrops there.
-Files work fine when I boot 9.11
-switched to confluence skin, no effect
-tried xbmcfreak boot cd, no effect
-Played files from USB harddisk, internal harddisk and NAS

What I haven't tried yet
-Updating videodrivers or vdpau. Other posts suggest that doesn't work either.

Hardware and settings
-Asrock 330, 2GB, latest bios, video sharing set to 512MB
-32GB SSD
-Clean Dharma install

[bobo1on1]

It seems to be reopening the audio stream for some reason.

[kees667]

Thanks. Files work fine on 9.11. Anything I can do to pinpoint why this is happening?
When playing with info on screen I notice one of the percentages drops to zero. As it hits zero the frames stutter.

P(aq:99% on the first line counts down from 99% to 0% in a few seconds, as it hits 0% it stutters and then goes back up to 99% instantly.

[wonko]

related

I'm about to give up and switch back to 9.11. My HTPC has been in a mostly unusable state for more than 2 weeks and haven't been able to make any
progress in fixing these issues.

Regards

Matthias

[bobo1on1]

Thanks. Files work fine on 9.11. Anything I can do to pinpoint why this is happening?
When playing with info on screen I notice one of the percentages drops to zero. As it hits zero the frames stutter.

P(aq:99% on the first line counts down from 99% to 0% in a few seconds, as it hits 0% it stutters and then goes back up to 99% instantly.

That's the audio queue, it holds encoded audio data.
Does this happen in a place where someone could have cut out tv commercials?

[kees667]

I'd have to check on my setup downstairs. The scene starts at 7.30, and after about 10 seconds this happens. Would appear to be a bit early if commercials start after 7 minutes 30 (that includes full intro so only a few minutes of the show have been played).

I'll doublecheck tomorrow to see exactly if the % decline starts in the scene or at the start of the scene. I'll post back here.

Then there is still the point that 9.11 plays it fine. There ore other parts in these and other files where I've seen drops. I'll try to pinpoint a few more.

[kees667]

Just checked. The shot has started for a few seconds when P(aq:99% starts dropping so I doubt it is a commercial.

[lolobu]

I've got the same framedrop issue on a revo 3610 (Ion). I was working perfectly with 9.11 but since upgrading to Dharma, I've got from time to time some frame dropped (it looks very jerky). This happens only on SD interlaced content (well I don't have HD interlaced but with HD progressive content, no issue).
After trying to turn on and off every other option, it turns out that I get the best results if I turn off VDPAU and use deinterlace. So the issue seems to be the VDPAU deinterlacer. And has far as I know, deinterlace was never hardware with 9.11 so the regression could make sense. But of course, HD content won't play smoothly without VDPAU so I have to switch back and forth VDPAU all the time which is annoying.

[kees667]

My problem occurs on HD material. Turning VDPAU off is not an option. I tried it it to verify your suggestion but it is unwatchable. The part where it stutters still has the 99% countdown though.

[Mr Peacock]

lolobu

I have exactly the same thing on an Asrock. I noticed that vdpau isn't used if the film still has a dvd structure, I believe this is because vdpau can't be used on menus. Anyway, I used dvdauthor to give some of the worst sd films a dvd structure, which worked perfectly.
This is definitely not a solution, especially if you have loads of films. I just wonder if there is a way to disable vdpau on all sd content not just dvd.

[mapa3m]

That's the audio queue, it holds encoded audio data.
Does this happen in a place where someone could have cut out tv commercials?

I was looking through this thread for a different issue, but I noticed you mentioned the TV commercials cut out. I've experienced this before - stuttering immediately after where a commercial would have been - and was curious if there's a way to fix it.

Thanks!

[kees667]

On the first page I now see three topics on framedrops, one on judder and one on stutter. Adding mine makes 6 total. I can't see any link except most problems are stated to occur after upgrading to Dharma. I confirmed that here as 9.11 works without any hickups.

I'd really like to help out with testing, logs and trying stuff out but I can't program (unless 10 print "hello" 20 goto 10 counts).

-I am playing from SSD, USB harddisk and network so network is ruled out
-9.11 plays smooth so there is a change
-running Dharma live on SSD, haven't updated nvidia drivers or vdpau manually
-asrock 330 stock otherwise, bios set to 512MB shared, latest bios

[cantie]

same idea, hopely some change.

[wonko]

I have yet to see a dev acknowledge that there is a problem with the current XBMC release regarding playback of HD content.

I had smooth playback working with 9.11 on all of my HD content on my Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11, no such luck with Dharma.

Sadly, there were no comments by devs on the information that I posted, so I'm pretty much stuck.

[kees667]

I'm considering downgrading to 9/11. The addon stuff in Dharma is really nice, but the core mediaplayer functionality simply isn't what it was in 9.11 which played anything perfectly.