Choppy HDTV H.264 playback

[technotrend]

Hello,

 

Every time I watch any H.264 HDTV satellite channel on my HTPC (see specs below) I get choppy playback after a while of smooth watching.

I've tried using both DVBViewer v3.6.1.20 and AltDVB 2.2 but both where just as choppy.

I use the Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x) in both programs and the playback is smooth after I change channels to a HDTV station like BBC-HD or Astra HD.

Then a few seconds, sometimes minutes, after I change channel to a HDTV station the playback always starts to get very choppy (seems like frames are dropped).

CPU usage stays somewhere around 60% balanced over the 2 cores, so this shouldn't be causing the problem.

The other codecs I tried (CoreAVC 1.2.0.0 / 1.3.0.0 and FFDShow) gave even worse performance (by using these codecs the playback is choppy the entire time).

The wierd thing is that the playback only seems choppy when I watch a channel "live", if I record a choppy stream to the harddisk as a .TS-file and I play back the file using Media Player Classic it runs smoothly.

 

I was hoping someone could give me some tips to help me fix this problem.

 

Things I've tried so far that didn't help:

- Updating to DVBViewer V3.8.0.0

- Messing around with VMR9/Overlay settings in DVBViewer and AltDVB

- Messing around with "Audio Format Detection" and "Video Format Detection" in DVBViewer

- Setting all the Renderers/decoders to Cyberlink in DVBViewer

- Technotrend driver 4.4.10.17, 4.4.10.18 and 5.0.0.2

- Windows XP 32bit/ Windows Vista 32bit

- Switched mainboard to Asus P5W DH-Deluxe and back

- Switched graphics card to GeForce 8800GTS and back

- Overclocking my CPU to speeds anywhere between the default 1,8GHz and 3GHz

- Overclocking my graphics card

- nVidia Graphics drivers for WinXP: 162.18, 165.01 (BSOD every 5 minutes) and a bunch more.

- nVidia Graphics drivers for Vista: 163.11

- CoreAVC 1.2.0.0 / 1.3.0.0 and FFDShow

 

** HTPC Hardware

Intel Core2Duo 4300 @ 3GHz

GigaByte 965P-DS3

2x1024MB PC5300 Corsair Value Select

GigaByte GeForce 8500GT

160GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9

TechnoTrend S2-3200 (DVB-S2)

Sharp LC-32GA8E @ 1280x720

 

** HTPC Software

Windows XP SP2 fully updated

nVidia 162.18_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_whql

Intel Chipset Software 8.3.0.1013

Technotrend drivers 5.0.0.2

Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3.3104a

DVBViewer V3.8.0.0 ("Use only first CPU" disabled)

 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Technotrend(fan)

[Moses]

The reason coulb be the software H.264 decoder from Cyberlink. The software decoder is used, because under XP 165.01 is the only driver that supports hardware decoding of H.264 material with your graphics board... under vista it won't work at all in DVBViewer pro.

 

There are two possibilities:

1. Download the newest DVBViewer Filter Beta (or check if it's already included in the new release, but I don't think so) and set a high latency for H.264 channels in the DVBSource.ini (in your configuration folder) like this:

[Params]
udH264Latency=4000

 

You may want to tweak the 4000, this means 4sek of latence, that means tuning in to a H.264 channel needs 4 seks of wait time, till the image will appear. Some people reported that it works good with arround 1000ms. You should adjust the buffers in dvbsource filter also, you'll get that with View->View Filter (or similar) in DVBViewer when playback is running.

 

2. Use the Mainconcept / Elecard H.264 Software Decoder. Your CPU should be fast enough for it to work. You'll get a demo here:

http://www.elecard.com/products/products-p...reaming-plugin/

 

If I remember correctly you will have to register it manually, using "regsrv32".

Edited August 5, 2007 by Moses

[technotrend]

Yesterday I stumbled upon nVidia drivers 163.16 for Windows XP.

After I installed the drivers I got smooth playback when watching H.264 HDTV via DVBViewer.

CPU load is low as well (around 20-25%), so I guess these drivers enable PureVideo HD in Windows XP.

The only problem is these drivers make my HTPC freeze from time to time . I guess nVidia is still fixing them since they appear to be a leaked beta version.

 

If my HTPC keeps crashing often, I'll roll back my drivers to 162.18 and try your suggestion to modify DVBSource.ini.

Thanks for the tip Moses!

[Moses]

The 165.01 are also said to activate PureHD in Windows XP, but you wrote that you got bluescreens from them... this also is a known issue with these drivers... there are no officially released drivers for XP and Pure HD, yet... sadly the state of the beta drivers is not that good either...

 

I fear it will still need some time, until there are good Pure HD driver for those graphic boards...

[SweMart]

The 165.01 are also said to activate PureHD in Windows XP, but you wrote that you got bluescreens from them... this also is a known issue with these drivers... there are no officially released drivers for XP and Pure HD, yet... sadly the state of the beta drivers is not that good either...

 

I fear it will still need some time, until there are good Pure HD driver for those graphic boards...

 

I've got similar problems, H.264 stutters when picture is panning. Sort of microstutters. When the picture is still and not panning playback is completely smooth.

 

A very interesting detail is that the "VMR Renderer" says that it's only 33FPS which would explain the "stuttering". Tried VMR7 aswell but same situation..

 

I've tried the latency setting but I don't get a picture if I go above 1000ms.

 

Here are my details:

GPU: 8600GT 256MB PCIe @ 50Hz (vsync force on, also tried auto) connected to Samsung LCD using HDMI

CPU: AMD64 X2 6000+

Codec: PDVD 7.3 rev 3104 (same situation with CoreAVC)

TV Card: 2 * FloppyDTV-C using latest firmware + drivers

Os: XP MCE 2005 + all rollups + patches

Nvidia: 163.44

DVBViewer: 3.8.1.1 + the latest filter

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Moses]

sounds like you are missing deinterlacing. But I'm not sure. Do you have dxva (= hardware cceleration) enabled? Then you should have deinterlacing, too... maybe you can set something inside of the nvidia drivers? If not, try to enable deinterlacing in Cyberlink (while watching H.264 content in DVBViewer click on Cyberlink H.264 Decoder in View->Filter).

[SweMart]

sounds like you are missing deinterlacing. But I'm not sure. Do you have dxva (= hardware cceleration) enabled? Then you should have deinterlacing, too... maybe you can set something inside of the nvidia drivers? If not, try to enable deinterlacing in Cyberlink (while watching H.264 content in DVBViewer click on Cyberlink H.264 Decoder in View->Filter).

 

For Cyberlink I have:

Auto

Bob

Weave(?)

 

Same result with all settings.

 

Shouldn't I turn off deinterlacing since the content is 720p / 50fps?

 

Is there a special registry setting to disable it?

 

8600GT connected to a LCD via DVI/HDMI.