Still have some stutter... ideas?

[TornadoTJ]

The new system is working much better than the old. HD is VASTLY improved. Strangely though, I have more SD stutter now than I did on my old system. There is still a little HD stutter, not so bad that I can't live with it - even though I tend to be a perfectionist, but the SD stutter I don't understand. There doesn't seem to be any pattern, as in the stutter doesn't occur when it's panning or anything like that, it just seems to be random.

I also occasionally still see some artifacts in HD, it appears that a field is left behind (interlace) when it's panning. I could probably get a picture of what is occurring if it would help.

My current machine specs are in my sig line.

I do seem to have several audio and video decoders to choose from, unfortunately right now I'm at work and can't remember what they are. I do know the ATI Video Renderer seems to be the WORST of them all.

If I need to add to this for troubleshooting, let me know what you need and I'll add them tonight.

[TornadoTJ]

To add to this, during HD playback, the processor is around 30% if processor affinity is set to true. Setting it to false splits the load somewhat, but makes no difference in picture quality.

The ATI card is set mostly to defaults, 3:2 pulldown is not turned on at the vid card. Overdrive is enabled.

It is driving the TV set at 1080p. I have not tested 720p, but honestly I want to run it at 1080 anyway.

I'll post more as I think of it.

[observer_11]

Just for giggles I would try video overlay mode to see if stuttering quits. I would also try nvidia video decoder even though you are using an ATI video card.

[TornadoTJ]

I quit using overlay when I switched to PVR2.

[stustunz]

buy a new nvidia video card
the ati drivers are crap for mpeg
im sure i read somewhere that the SD hardware acceleration is off by default in the ati 2600 so you have to do some reg tweak
not much help i know but do a search on here and google

[Etacovda]

yeah, ive got good success using the nvidia purevid decoder w/ an ati card, very smooth playback, but only on SD though (no hd source here yet...)

[TornadoTJ]

I did go into the Catalyst and turn on the video accelleration, it doesn't *seem* to have made a difference.

I actually considered switching back to NVidia. I had the card in my hand at the store, but decided to stick with ATI so that I wouldn't have both the ATI catalyst software and the NVidia software both on the machine at the same time, since I have to install the support for the tuner card (ATI Theater 600)

Since I can still take the video card back, I haven't totally overruled that option, maybe I should get an NVidia card, plop it in, see what it does - then take back the one that doesn't work.

[BigMoose]

Have you had a look at this thread?. I've got an HD2600XT AGP and without this thread it'd have gone in the bin long ago. But there are some very useful tips there. I'd give the registry tweaks mentioned here a go plus the latest visiontek drivers. Works well for me. Oddly I think my DVD playback problems are sound driver related and not video.

[TornadoTJ]

No, thank you so much for that link! I did a search and tried to find some info, but I got so many threads back that I could not find any useful information!

Thank you so much, now I'm anxious to get home and try this!

[TornadoTJ]

Oh boy, Not sure why I didn't look on that forum before, I'm over there almost every day looking at fixes for my new TV. That's a bunch of pages. Going to try the registry hacks tonight, have the 8.1 CCC drivers already.

Wish me luck! LOL!