Resolution/Refresh Rate

[chrisv]

Hello all. I have a couple of questions regarding resolution and refresh rates. My apologies in advance for the long message. As an FYI, my setup is in my signature and I am viewing live SD tv (satellite receiver S-Video in) and recordings are a mix of SD and HD. All clips behave the same.

I had previously installed version 1101 of my MB BIOS and 7.9 CCC. Everything was working great except for one thing. Every 5 minutes or so, there would be a slight hiccup. Very fast but noticeable (a slight pause/resume - less than a second). This occurred on live tv as well as recordings. I then decided to try out the new BIOS (version 1404) and 7.10 CCC. Bad mistake.

After rebooting, there was crazy stutter. The pattern was 3 pause/resumes, and it occurred every 1 or 2 seconds. I rolled the BIOS and CCC back to the way it was before but the problem persisted. I then went in to CCC and changed the refresh rate from 60 to 30 and the 3-repeat stutter problem is gone... almost. It only occurs when the guide appears on the screen at the same time as live tv/recording. I did not have time to test the 5-minute stutter problem as it got late last night. I will do that tonight.

I am using PowerDVD 7 for my video decoder, AC3Filter for audio decoder and Default WaveOut for audio renderer. I have tried multiple combinations of decoders/renderers and this is the least problematic combination I found.

Now to my questions.
1. Should the refresh rate play any role in this? Isn't 30 too low?
2. My system specs are really good, especially for SD, so I'm surprised that I'm getting stuttering. Any ideas as to why? Quartz.dll problem has been fixed on my PC.
3. I am connected via component to a Toshiba 46H83 - rear-projection CRT. Does my selected resolution play a role (1600 x 900)?

Thanks in advance.

[stustunz]

im thinking its more the tv not liking the signal you are feeding it
s video cant handle that high resolution you are trying to feed to the tv
lower it 480i or 576i (svideo cant do progressive)
also check to see if you have wait for vertical sync forced on in your video settings
the 30 hz refresh you set you card to is probably interlaced so the tv really is seeing a very similar signal to the 60hz
you had it set to as the 60 hz the card was try to send was probably progressive but the svideo cable was only seeing half of it (either an odd or even line as thats how a interlaced signal works)
so forget about been worried weather you think the refresh is to low go by what you see if you think it looks better go with it
increasing the refresh rate once you lower the resolution may still help with the hick up but unless you are seeing a flicker i wouldnt bother as you are probably not gaining anything by doing it

EDIT i was first told by chrisv he was connected by s video the above is correct for svideo

[chrisv]

Thanks for the reply. The connection is actually a component connection, not S-Video, and the TV does 1080i. I'll still try lowering the resolution but then HD would not look as good, and it currently looks very good.

[stustunz]

well that changes everything pretty much i just said
as component will carry pretty much anything (apart from digital)
you could try setting your card to for wait for vertical sync this locked the frequency to what you have set it to
and try refresh rate in multiple of 30hz
have you tried -fse (you need to add this to a shortcut as setting it config does nothing)

check task manager to see if something is running every 5 minutes causing a spike in the cpu/ram usage aswell

[wwritz]

Your on-board video specs for the ASUS M2A states "Supports YPbPr component TV-out with max. resolutions 1280 x 720p and 1920 x 1080i".

Try dropping your output resolution to 1280x720p (60hz) or 1920x1080i (30hz).

If you're wondering if your computer lacks the horsepower (doubtful) check the CPU load with RUN..|taskmgr performance tab - let it run while the stuttering occurs.

[chrisv]

I have always been running with -fse. As for Force vertical sync, where would I find that option?

[stustunz]

in you video driver control panel
also have play with turning on and off the other 3d settings
i turn pretty much all of them off others say not to but the 3d control stuff is more geared at games than mpeg if you ask me
like i said earlier have a play and see what looks right to you as each tv/setup is different
but if you turn them all off (3d settings) then turn them on one at a time and see what each one does (if anything)

[chrisv]

OK - now things are worse. I have lost all audio on SD playback (2-channel audio). I can only get audio on 5.1. I tried enabling and disabling SPDIF in AC3Filter, plus I tried a bunch of other stuff with no luck. Another weird thing is that while watching SD (live or playback) while the guide is loading its data everything is fine, but as soon as it finishes, I get the constant choppiness. HD plays back perfectly fine at all times (during and after the guide data loads).

[chrisv]

An update on the status. I always had my volume control set to None (external). I temporarily changed it to "Local Volume", then started PVRX2 and raised the volume half way (it was at 0). I then went back into Config and changed it back to "None (external)". Now my volume is fine. Seems like it needed to get reset.

As for the choppiness, I changed my video decoder from PowerDVD to HCW-MPEG-2 Video Decoder and it performs better, but not perfect. WHile the guide is loading everything plays back smoothly both during regular playback and with the guide displayed. As soon as the guide finishes loading regular playback starts acting up slightly (a stutter every 30 seconds or so). With the guide displayed, it stutters constantly.

PowerDVD was being used for 2 weeks without any problems. It almost sounds as if one of my processors falls into an idle state after the guide loads. Not sure if this is the case or not or how I can monitor it, but that's the only logical explanation I can think of.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again.

[chrisv]

I tried out a bunch of things last night and now I got my system back to a better state. No more stuttering on live tv or playback watching SD. As for my original problem of a slight hiccup every 5 minutes, I did notice 1 yesterday but I did not test it enough to determine if it is still a problem. Below is my solution.

I disabled Asus Cool 'N Quiet in my BIOS. I tried my system out after doing this and no more stutter on live tv or while bringing up the transparent guide while watching. I did still have stutter if I went into the main menu (where the live TV becomes a screen on the left). I then rolled back to a previous version of my MB BIOS (Asus M2A-VM HDMI). I had version 1404 installed and rolled back to 801. After doing this, no more stutter in all 3 cases. I also ran WinRAR's built-in benchmark and my performance is much better with BIOS 801. Not sure if this is related or how accurate it is, but there are apparently some others with my board that experience the same thing.