Stuttering Problem Fixed???

[strategus]

Hey,

Okay, I'm one of the people who have been struggling with a stuttering problem during video playback since recent upgrading.

I THINK I've resolved it. At least, I hope I have, after about 1/2 hour of watching a recorded hockey game on "High" quality with virtually no noticeable jerkiness or stuttering (there are a few slight glitches here and there, but they could just as easily be the source broadcast).

Here's what I did:

1. Uninstalled GBPVR on my profile. Rebooted.
2. Logged in to all other profiles on the computer, and made sure GBPVR was properly uninstalled on those, too (there was a phantom partial install on one of them for some reason).
3. Rebooted.
4. Did a "Repair" installation of .Net 2.0. Rebooted.
5. Did a new install of GBPVR 98.13. Checked other profiles to make sure it was installed properly.

I use the DScaler5 decoder, by the way.

I'll try my testing again tomorrow, since some theories floating around seem to be considering the possibilty of the "Hibernation" mode having something to do with it. But so far, so good.

I hope my system stays happy, since I really love the latest build...

S.

[strategus]

Well, I jumped the gun...

The stuttering has returned -- or never actually went away.

Sometimes I get a solid stretch without any issues, but eventually it will degrade and start stuttering pretty badly.

I just went through a lengthy process of unregistering all my filters/codecs, then reinstalling them one by one. I've tried every combination of audio decoders and renderers with DScaler5, but no luck.

I've also done a full uninstall/reboot/install/reboot cycle with .NET 2.0. And tried every quartz.dll version on the planet.

What I HAVEN'T worked with yet is changing the BDA Multiplexer options. Could that be a possible cause?

S.

[sub]

You could try the patch from post #49 at: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=18581&page=5. It might help.

[strategus]

You could try the patch from post #49 at: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=18581&page=5. It might help.

I'm pretty sure I was using it. I definitely applied it when you first posted it. Though, I can't be 100% since I'm struggling to remember when I last re-installed GBPVR... it would have overwritten it, right?

Anyway, I'll apply it again right now and let you know if there's any improvement over the next little bit.

Thanks,
S.

[strategus]

Well, I'm sad to report the stuttering even with the patch applied.

Watching it a bit more closely, I notice 4 different possible playback "behaviors":

1. It plays fine. It's the silky smooth DScaler5 decoding I used to enjoy before with the earlier GBPVR builds and the .NET 2.0 upgrade. It can last for several minutes, when I'm lucky.

2. It plays fine for the most part, but every few seconds, there's a very slight little "bump" in playback. Maybe a frame or two that's out of sync. I've come to expect this to pretty much be the default behaviour of my configuration these days.

3. The bad jitters, where it's almost a steady "strobing" stutter several times a second that makes it very difficult to watch anything. It will sometime just work itself out of this mode on its own (and return to either 1. or 2.). Otherwise, a pause/unpause cycle (or a little jump fast-foward) will often correct it.

4. Out of control, where the stuttering is so bad that it sometimes freezes on frames for a a second or two. The audio never skips a beat, though. This is the hardest to "shake out" of, often taking several pause/unpause cycles. Fortunately, this behavior is very rare (though, it happened today).

By far, the easiest way to notice these problems is by watching something like a hockey game -- fast action and high contrast.

Suggestions gratefully welcomed!

S.

[sub]

Odd. Do you get the same problems with other decoders?

[stefan]

2. It plays fine for the most part, but every few seconds, there's a very slight little "bump" in playback. Maybe a frame or two that's out of sync.

I've started to get these, too. I have a feeling I only get this when I watch something timeshifted (or an in-progress recording), and I also get a feeling it's only when the recording is from my dvb-t receiver. But I really need to do some more testing before I can say that for sure. I tried turning off comskip yesterday, and thought it got better, but that could just be a (lucky) fluke.

I use the purevideo decoder, by the way.

[fusionrx]

Drivers for the NVidia cards?? Try using the latest builds from NVidia. There were a variety of 'stuttering issues during video playback' that got fixed in the latest release.

Here's a link for people (this is for XP/2000, not MCE). http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_93.71.html

[ww4397]

2. It plays fine for the most part, but every few seconds, there's a very slight little "bump" in playback. Maybe a frame or two that's out of sync. I've come to expect this to pretty much be the default behaviour of my configuration these days.

I've been looking for the words that describe my video palyback problem(s). Your's hit the nail square on the head! It all started several versions ago (and, I think, when the .Net 2 requirement was added). Prior to that, all was smooth as silk.

[sub]

I've been looking for the words that describe my video palyback problem(s). Your's hit the nail square on the head! It all started several versions ago (and, I think, when the .Net 2 requirement was added). Prior to that, all was smooth as silk.

Did you try the patch mentioned above?

Have you tried removing all the files from the plugins directory?

Do you run any MVP servers?

There seems to be a few people that get this problem. I've not seen it on any of my test machines, but I dont run any plugins which is why I suggest removing the plugin DLLs to see if it has any effect. Does someone with the problem want to bring their machine around to my place so I can take a look?