Fast Forward that feels "fast"

[gcm]

Hi,

I've tried a few windows based PVR/HTPC software programs like MCE, Media Portal, XBMC and now NextPVR. Until now XBMC is the only one that has a perfect user experience when fast forwarding. With perfect user experience I mean the smoothness with wich XBMC does all this. Only with x8 speed I begin to see skipping of frames. x2, x4 the video is just played back faster but still smooth.

Ever since I've seen XBMC this fast forward thing has become an obsession for me. Pressing the ff buttton in Media Portal or NextPVR doesn't do much good as only making playback jerky. Therfore the feature is useless to me. I do use skipping instead.

I am aware XBMC is probably written in C/C++ and has it's own buildin codecs and therefore has more "power" than any software program that has to go through the .NET runtime but I'm wondering if the same experience like XBMC can be achieved on the .NET platform. Or am I the only one seeing this behavior because my hardware is just not powerfull enough. (sandy bridge i3 2100)

All things beside. I do like to see how fast I'm forwarding (x2, x4 x8) when I press the ff key on the remote. I was unable to find any OSD while ff-ing in NextPVR. Or am I missing something?

[sub]

To be honest, you're unlikely to get this. NextPVR is dependent on directshow for playback, and this just isn't something directshow does well, and not something I have any control over.

[johnsonx42]

can you explain the meaning of the fasyplay settings in config.xml:

Code:

<FastPlayStepSize>1.2</FastPlayStepSize>
    <FastPlayStepFrequencyMS>100</FastPlayStepFrequencyMS>

It seems obvious that increasing the first or decreasing the second would make FastPlay go faster (i.e. bigger steps, and step faster), but can you give any further guidance on changing with those settings? How did you arrive at the default settings?

[sub]

can you explain the meaning of the fasyplay settings in config.xml:

Code:

<FastPlayStepSize>1.2</FastPlayStepSize>
    <FastPlayStepFrequencyMS>100</FastPlayStepFrequencyMS>

It seems obvious that increasing the first or decreasing the second would make FastPlay go faster (i.e. bigger steps, and step faster), but can you give any further guidance on changing with those settings?

It currently uses a faked FastForward, with stepping forward 1.2 milliseconds of playback time every 100ms. How smooth it ends up can be effected by a few things, like GOP size etc, and MPEG2 vs H.264. It's not great but also not terrible.

The lower those numbers though, the less accurate it'll be. So thinking about skipping 400ms every 50ms isn't really going to work out the way you might hope (due to skipping overhead, and accuracy etc).

How did you arrive at the default settings?

I tried a few values and these worked well for me.

[johnsonx42]

1.2 milliseconds or 1.2 seconds? you must mean seconds, as 1.2 milliseconds wouldn't do much of anything.

[sub]

Sorry - seconds.

[gcm]

To be honest, you're unlikely to get this. NextPVR is dependent on directshow for playback, and this just isn't something directshow does well, and not something I have any control over.

Ok clear. Same is true for Media Portal I guess.

[stustunz]

just have xmbc as a custom task and select videos from there