[steppedup]

Has anyone made such a guide? I've searched in the How-To and haven't found it.

I finally got my Asrock Nvidia ION working by disabling an extra HDMI sound device in my Device Manager.

Anyway, I'm interested in compiling a list like below - anyone have any other suggestions, see any problems with what's listed?

Known Unsolved Issues - waiting for patching

1. Nvidia ION boxes in Windows have issues with FF/ RW in that you'll see artifacts when you FF or rewind in Dharma Final.
   

[Edit] - this is a list of things to troubleshoot in case 1080p is not playing perfectly for you.

These are in order of likelihood:

Basics

1. You have to have Windows Vista/7 for hardware acceleration. Or try the XBMC live cd.
   
2. Make sure "Allow Hardware Accelaration (DXVA2) is checked in System/ Video/Playback.
   
3. Make sure XBMC.exe is not running in compatibility mode. For Windows 7 - right-click xbmc.exe, select properties and then under the compatibility tab -> check "disable visual themes", "disable desktop composition" and "disable display scaling on high DPI settings".
   
4. System/Video Output - try toggling Vertical blank sync - Always enabled or Disabled (mine works better enabled).
   
5. Make sure you've updated your graphics card's driver to the latest and greatest.
   

Audio

1. Make sure that there are no duplicate entries in your Device Manager for HDMI Sound - disable one if so.
   
2. Try changing the audio output in the Syste/System/Audio Output - 'audio output device' to "directsound: primary device".
   

Video Settings

1. Deactivate aero and Windows 7 desktop composition.
   
2. Try Render Method set to Auto or Software in System/ Video/Playback
   
3. Turn on "sync playback to display" in System/ Video/Playback.
   
4. Turn off fullscreen windows in System/System/Video Output/ Display Mode.
   

System Resources

1. Use Process Lasso (freeware) to adjust xbmc's priority higher - and any back-end processing like Sickbeard, Sabnzbd lower. It retains those adjusted priorities even after reboots.
   
2. Turn off XBMC notifications from Sickbeard and Sabnzbd.
   
3. Disable real time scanning/checking of xbmc.exe from your anti-virus software - or just lower its priority per the note abovel
   

Esoteric

1. If you're trying to play .m2ts files, there's rumored to be a git release that will fix it. Haven't tracked that down yet, though.
   

Painful/ More Complicated

1. On the back-end, allow SABNZBD to have more memory to cache.
   
2. In the BIOS, maybe allocate more memory to video memory. 256 is borderline, 512M is OK.
   
3. Re-encode the files using Handbrake -personally, I think your time would be better spent grabbing a debug log to see what's actually going on.
   

Cheers!!!

[YodaEXE]

I've got render set to only for SD content, sync playback to display turned off, turned off fullscreen windows, and enabled DXVA2. Beyond that, I've left everything alone and it runs perfectly on my Revo. Aero is on, the desktop is on, etc. I even have things running in the background.

[Prizm4]

Render method should be DXVA2, not Software. Pure software rendering kills HD on an ION. At least on my ION Shuttle.

EDIT: sorry, I see there's an option for Software or Pixel Shaders. I've switched mine from Pixel Shaders to Software with no adverse effects so far.

[huk11]

Hi,

everything runs fine except BBC HD transmissions, neither via tuxbox nor from recorded ts file. fps brakes down using Xbmc Dharma 10.0. Both work fine if played in Windows Media Player (via web interface to the receiver). I fiddled around with settings to no avail. Hardware acceleration is set. No problems with other HD transmission such as Das Erste HD or ZDF HD.

I just realized that viewing the ts file in Xbmc there appear the spoken words as text on the screen (subtitles?). I do not know how to switch this off. With the WMP there is no text. Is this a decoding problem. The text shows only up in BBC HD transmissions.

Any suggestions or comments?

My hardware: Win 7 64 bit, Atom 510, Ion 2, Sony tru HD tv, receiver Vu+Duo (should not play a role).

HUK11

[darkscout]

Get all the codec information for the TS file, it may not be accelerated

[huk11]

How do I get the codec information? From the log file?
thanks,
huk11

PS: look at my last edit about the text appearing...

[steppedup]

GSpot.exe works extremely well for grabbing all info about media files.

Here's a quick write-up I made on non-playing media files.

Hope that helps!

[steve1977]

Still struggling to get smooth 1080p playback on my Win7 Atom/Ion power Foxconn. Most 1080p movies don't play and even my CrystalHD power ATV1 is playing all of them...

I am quite sure it has something to do with the NVIDIA drivers and how I installed them (and/or with the audio drivers).

I looked in software installed and find the following drivers:
* Nvidia 3D vision driver 266.35
* Nvidia Display Control Panel 6.14.12.5896
* Nvidia drivers 1.10.62.40
* Nvidia graphics driver 266.35
* Nvidia HD audio driver 1.1.13.1

Device manager shows:
* Display adapters
--- Nvidia ION 8.17.12.5896
* Sound, video and game controllers
--- High definition audio device 6.1.7600.16385
--- Nvidia high definition audio 1.1.13.1


Any thoughts what I am missing here to get it right?

[kawasabi]

Still struggling to get smooth 1080p playback on my Win7 Atom/Ion power Foxconn. Most 1080p movies don't play and even my CrystalHD power ATV1 is playing all of them...

I am quite sure it has something to do with the NVIDIA drivers and how I installed them (and/or with the audio drivers).

I looked in software installed and find the following drivers:
* Nvidia 3D vision driver 266.35
* Nvidia Display Control Panel 6.14.12.5896
* Nvidia drivers 1.10.62.40
* Nvidia graphics driver 266.35
* Nvidia HD audio driver 1.1.13.1

Device manager shows:
* Display adapters
--- Nvidia ION 8.17.12.5896
* Sound, video and game controllers
--- High definition audio device 6.1.7600.16385
--- Nvidia high definition audio 1.1.13.1


Any thoughts what I am missing here to get it right?

How much memory have shared in your BIOS? if it is set to 256 mb try setting it up to 512 mb.

[steve1977]

How much memory have shared in your BIOS? if it is set to 256 mb try setting it up to 512 mb.

It is set to 512mb. This is driving me crazy. These movie files are even working on my ATV, but I cannot get them to work on Atom/Ion powered Foxconn device (with 4GB Ram)...

[steppedup]

So you have two audio devices enabled, right?

Try disabling first one, then the other.

While testing first Windows volume (to make sure you still have system sound), and then within XBMC.

Doesn't sound like it would be the issue, but it was on mine.

And I've updated the list on the first post, so you might want to blast down that list.

If still no go, grab the debug log like I laid out here.

Cheers!

[steve1977]

If still no go, grab the debug log like I laid out here.

Thanks, tried your suggestions and certain videos still don't play. I have grabbed the xbmc.log file. This one is eye catching:


> 13:25:05 T:2616 M:2636681216 ERROR: DXVA - failed executing
> m_service->CreateVideoDecoder(m_input, &m_format , m_context->cfg ,
> m_context->surface , m_context->surface_count , &m_decoder) at line 680
> with error 80004001
> 13:25:05 T:2616 M:2628636672 INFO: ffmpeg[A38]: [h264] Cannot
> parallelize deblocking type 1, decoding such frames in sequential order

Full log below:
http://pastebin.com/TFG23cW9

[steppedup]

This is starting to get beyond my knowledge,but does this post help?

It's dealing with ffmpeg and h64 - and I think if you google for that with XBMC you might find some other things folks have done.

In the above thread, one person did this "I changed the reference frames from 3 to 2 when encoding, and playback is 99% better. I now only get artifacts when seeking, and even then only for a second."

And in another linked thread someone else updated their graphics driver and that took care of it.