some E350/HD 6310 results - AMD Zacate on MSI E350IA-E45

R4R4 Wrote:720p x264 mkv seems to play fine but 1080p x264 mkv's playback stutters. Just wondering if there are any settings I should change to get it working smoothly? Thanks.

ASrock E350M1 Zacate, 2GB RAM, 2TB HDD holding OS and video storage.
XBMC 10.1 on Windows XP Pro SP3 x86 custom (stripped barebones).

You should change the OS, since Windows XP doesn't support DXVA2 to make use of hardware acceleration, which is needed to play 1080p files on these low power machines.

Windows 7 will be fine, any edition I think.

Yea, second to what PatrickVogeli notes. XP doesn't support the ability to use the GPU to decode your HD media in the same way that Vista and 7 does. So XBMC is going to rely on the e350 CPU to do the workload, and just like Atom, the e350 really doesn't have the power you need for the job.

If you can get a hold of windows 7, or are willing to install a linux or live version of XBMC, then you'll be able to enable the GPU decoding and problem will be resolved.

any1 else got more CPU usage with the drivers for the E-series apu on AMD site ?

HansP Wrote:any1 else got more CPU usage with the drivers for the E-series apu on AMD site ?

Catalyst 11.6?

R4R4 Wrote:720p x264 mkv seems to play fine but 1080p x264 mkv's playback stutters. Just wondering if there are any settings I should change to get it working smoothly? Thanks.

ASrock E350M1 Zacate, 2GB RAM, 2TB HDD holding OS and video storage.
XBMC 10.1 on Windows XP Pro SP3 x86 custom (stripped barebones).

Windows XP does not support hardware acceleration. You need to use Windows 7 for it to run smoothly. An alternative is to use a build with DSplayer or DScodec. You can play all of the 1080p content in XBMC on windows XP. However, it doesn't seem like it's being updated anymore.

Robotica Wrote:Catalyst 11.6?

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/P...n7-64.aspx

this one

HansP Wrote:http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/P...n7-64.aspx

this one

didn't notice. I like the drivers. See list of feature/bugfixes. But this is easy for yourself to determine.

Ok so I took your guys' advice on switching from XP and installed Windows 7 Pro x64, loaded the latest ATI drivers, and enabled DXVA2 in XBMC... none of the video files will even play.

R4R4 Wrote:Ok so I took your guys' advice on switching from XP and installed Windows 7 Pro x64, loaded the latest ATI drivers, and enabled DXVA2 in XBMC... none of the video files will even play.

very strange. what does your debug log tell?

Hey all!
First post here, like the "tone" of the forum and hope to learn a lot from you guys.

Well, with that out of the way, I've just built my first HTPC and had great hopes for this platform but I'm feeling a wee bit cheated with regards to the UI experience when browsing around in the menus of XBMC. (I've tried Confluence, Aeon and Alaska skins)

It's not constantly lagging as such but it's definitely not instantaneous either.

I've read that the CPU is getting pummelled by the constant refreshing of the menu screens but I assumed (and still do) that the processing power should be quite enough.

Playing movies doesn't seem to be a problem, it's navigating around the menus, displaying posters and whatnot that I wish were snappier.

Now, it's probably not the most overclocking friendly setup so I hope that isn't the solution to everything and the reason for my plight is some kind of missed setting or miracle driver.

So, is anyone else having a smooth experience with their E350/HD6310?

Thanks in advance!

Quote:- Asus E35M1-I Deluxe
- Intel 320 Series 2.5" SSD 40GB
- Kingston ValueRAM DDR3 PC8500/1066MHz CL7 4GB
- Morex T3500 80W chassis
- Lite-On DS-8A5S Intern SATA 8x DVD±RW Slim
- Windows 7