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**DJVege** · 2011-03-06, 02:08

Hi guys,

The issue I'm having is with MKV's. I seem to be able to play large AVI's fine, but not MKVs (I haven't tried small MKV files yet to see if it's ALL MKVs).

Whenver I start playing a large MKV (8 - 13GB), it will play, but it will play at a slow speed for a few seconds before the audio syncs with the video, play good for a bit, then stutter, then slow again, and continue in that routine for the duration of the movie.

Pressing 'O' reveals that I am continuously dropping frames. The frame drop seems to slow down during smooth play, and increase in slow/jitter play. After 45 seconds I had dropped 500 frames. Also, the 'PC' field next to the drop frame field goes from 0 to 24 intermittently. No idea what that means.

xbmc log: http://pastebin.com/Q7EnBhGp

System
Dell Inspiron 1525: Dual CPUs; 2GB RAM
Connected via HDMI to Amplifier (both video and audio via hdmi).
XBMC Version: Dharma 10.0

When I ran performance monitor while running an MKV movie, I saw I had fairly high Page Faults/sec... I'm trying to figure out if this is a cache/memory issue, performance issue (like the laptop doesn't have enough grunt) or something else..??

Of course, I could be on the wrong track altogether, so any help is appreciated.

The MKV files I'm using are bluray rips with DTS 5.1 (xbmc passes through DTS core and not HD to the amp, so that is working as it should, I believe).

So far only MKVs have this issue. Everything else works brilliantly. Big Grin

Let me know if you need anymore info.

Thanks.

DJ_Izumi · (This post was last modified: 2011-03-06, 05:22 by DJ_Izumi.)

You didn't actually specify the speed of the dual core CPU nor if you're using DXVA or using pure CPU power to decode it.

Are you sure you're not just running 1080p content and don't have enough CPU power to do the job?

Edit: I googled and apparently, at most, the Dell Inspiron 1525 comes with a dual core 2.0ghz CPU and it has an Intel GMA X3100 video chipset. This chipset is not capable of DXVA 2.0. Yeah, I think you just don't have enough power to do 1080p content.

**DJVege** · 2011-03-06, 06:06

Sorry.

Intel Dual Processors T2330 @1.60GHz.
On board Video, Intel chipset.

I can choose DXVA 2.0 in Xbmc, though don't know if it's being used or not.

In any case, that's a bummer about the not enough grunt.

Thanks for the info!

**DJVege** · 2011-03-06, 06:08

Some of my avi's are 1080p, AC35.1 and they run fine..?? They are 8GB or so.

DJ_Izumi · 2011-03-06, 06:17

I'm a bit unsure. Admittidly that is a DX10 chipset, but Wikipedia suggests that it does not support 'DXVA-HD' and only supports the older form that was used in Windows XP. But I'd be guessing this is a CPU power issue.

'1080p' isn't your issue, it's 'CPU Demand'. Your AVIs use DivX or XviD which demands MUCH less CPU power to decode. Your MKVs are most likely using h.264 which demands far more CPU power but is more efficent. 1080p is high resolution, so high resolution and a very demanding compression system are likely just too much for your CPU. 720p h.264 MKVs may work. Give them a try and see if you have the same issue? Also try 480p ones.

**DJVege** · 2011-03-06, 06:29

Damn it! I think you're right. I just tried a 720p, h264, DTS 5.1 video and it worked perfectly!

Damn the lack of power! lol.

Thanks again! Much appreciated!

When I upgrade my PC in a year or so for Diablo 3, I'll get a better HTPC. :-) I set this one up just for the hell of it because I got the laptop to finally display 1080p res on the tv.

DJ_Izumi · 2011-03-06, 07:15

DJVege Wrote:When I upgrade my PC in a year or so for Diablo 3, I'll get a better HTPC. :-) I set this one up just for the hell of it because I got the laptop to finally display 1080p res on the tv.

I guess DXVA isn't working then because DXVA is a miracle worker. My XBMC machine is an old single core Athlon 64 3200+ (2.2ghz) and by offloading video decoding to the graphics card, it can decode 1080p and use maybe 30% of the CPU power. That machine would BARELY do 720p with software decoding, but I added a DXVA capable AGP graphics card and the hardware acceleration is spectacular.

wiskar · (This post was last modified: 2011-03-07, 14:27 by wiskar.)

Hello

Im having the exact same problem as DJVege, but this is the first time i see this in like 130 movies. It happens in the movie "Tangled". Its an mkv file in 7.4GB who just stutters all the way through the film. I also get a lot of frames dropped.

The thing is that this is the first time i have ever seen this. I have movies on 13GB who plays all fine, with less than 10 frames dropped through the whole film.

Maybe you can tell me how i check, if DXVA is installed or not? It's enabled in xbmc settings.

The system im using is:

ASrock ION 330HT-BD
http://www.asrock.com/nettop/overview.as...20330HT-BD

I just installed windows 7 x64 on it, but dont know if that could have something to do with it.

EDIT: just realized that when i play tangled, i cant choose DXVA under "video scaling method" during playback. I am able to in every other movie, exept "tangled". How can that be? Its logical thats my problem.

DJ_Izumi · 2011-03-07, 14:24

It's an ION chipset, so that has hardware support for DXVA. Is it ONLY this movie? Have you tried this movie on other systems? Maybe the file just has issues?

wiskar · (This post was last modified: 2011-03-07, 16:21 by wiskar.)

Yes, its only this movie. The weird thing is that if i play any other movie, i cant change the settings in playback mode. It just stands at DXVA, and i cant choose any other options. But thats fine.

Then when i playback "tangled", i have a lot of weird options to choose from, exept from DXVA. I begin more and more to think, thats its the file. But then again, if i play it on my other computer in windows media player, it works fine. If i play it on windows media player here on the asrock, it also stutters. But ofc my stationary computer is way better than this asrock.

Would be great if anyone could tell me, what i can do if it really is the file thats my problem.

EDIT: Just installed XBMC on my stationary, and tried to play it there instead. And it worked perfect. It also showed that it uses DXVA correctly. So why on earth do i have a problem here on my asrock with only this single movie Huh

OcnewB · 2011-03-20, 18:54

Having the exact same issues! 400+ movies in mkv no hiccups. This one stutters! Asrock ion 330ht

wiskar Wrote:Yes, its only this movie. The weird thing is that if i play any other movie, i cant change the settings in playback mode. It just stands at DXVA, and i cant choose any other options. But thats fine.

Then when i playback "tangled", i have a lot of weird options to choose from, exept from DXVA. I begin more and more to think, thats its the file. But then again, if i play it on my other computer in windows media player, it works fine. If i play it on windows media player here on the asrock, it also stutters. But ofc my stationary computer is way better than this asrock.

Would be great if anyone could tell me, what i can do if it really is the file thats my problem.

EDIT: Just installed XBMC on my stationary, and tried to play it there instead. And it worked perfect. It also showed that it uses DXVA correctly. So why on earth do i have a problem here on my asrock with only this single movie

DJ_Izumi · 2011-03-20, 20:16

This was answered in another thread. The issue is that this encode of Entangled uses a aspecific resolution that is not supported by the ION1 hardware decoder. There's a lot of resolution ranges it doesn't support and this encode of Tangled is in that range. ION2 hardware eliminates this limitation.

Apparently the ION1 can't even decode 2048 across video. :/