bluray + VMP + Mac mini = choppy

[dgktkr]

Hi,

I've upgraded to the latest VMP version (1.0.1.427) [edit -- that is a mistake, it should read 1.0.1.426] and it doesn't seem to work very well on my system: Mac mini (mid 2010) with Nvidia 320m graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, display running at 1080p60. Both video and audio are choppy when playing Avatar bluray.

The attachment is a session log. In it is a warning that libswscale can't be found. Could that be the cause of the problems I'm experiencing? If so, what is the recommended procedure for installing libswscale?

During the session playing Avatar, I ran Nvidia Inspector (http://www.orbmu2k.de) which indicated that the VPU usage averages about 75%, which is good: the previous version of VMP didn't use the VPU at all.

Also during the session, I ran Windows Task Manager, which indicated that both cores were frequently running 100% CPU usage. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but my guess is that that's not good. If I reduced the display resolution to 720p60, then CPU usage stayed below about 80%. Although the audio from the Avatar bluray then seemed fine, the video was still quite choppy.

FWIW, I ran both Nvidia Inspector and Windows Task Manager when I played the same section of Avatar with PowerDVD 8 at 1080p60. In this case the VPU usage averaged 80-90% and for both cores the CPU usage averaged about 26% with peaks no higher than about 35%. With this player the video and audio are without dropouts.

dgktkr

[felicia]

Hi,

Have you tryed to switching to a sound track other than the main DTS HD Master, secondary track should be less demanding and run smoothier.

Best regards,

Felicià

[Claire]

Hello,

When you say

I've upgraded to the latest VMP version (1.0.1.427)

does that mean with a previous version playing the same file you did not have this problem?

[dgktkr]

Felicia: Choosing sound stream #2 (stereo) instead of #1 (DTS) seems to have a small positive effect.

I just discovered that version 1.0.1.427 has been released and I was using 1.0.1.126 starting the day before yesterday until about 20 minutes ago. The "previous version" I referred to in the thread starter was actually 1.0.1.422.

Video still isn't perfectly smooth in 1.0.1.427: in the opening scene of Avatar, flying over the jungle, the motion seems to pulsate. Also in the scene outside the bar, the elevated trains' motion is not smooth, nor is the motion of the spacecraft over Pandora.

Claire: I've gone back to repeat my observations, and to a large extent, they are not reproducible!

In fact, I see what appear to be contradictions (indicating that my understanding of things isn't correct). For instance, when I go to the Advanced panel in Settings, checking or unchecking the box for using CUDA seems to have little effect on the video smoothness or audio anomalies (pauses, dropouts, thumps, crackles, etc) in the movie. Since my system is running close to its performance limits, I would expect that setting to have a much more noticeable effect, one way or the other. With CUDA not engaged, the VPU shows no usage, so I would expect that means that the H264 decoding is being done completely in software. And with CUDA engaged, the VPU is active, so I would expect a lot of the decoding load to be taken off the Intel CPUs. But the Windows Task Manager shows there is not much change in CPU loads!

Similarly for multiprocessing: when that box is not selected, both cores remain equally heavily used.

dgktkr

PS I figure the functionality of libswscale is not needed at all if I choose None for the scaling method on the Settings tab.

[felicia]

Hi again,

For what I've found mac mini 2010, it is capable to playback 1080p resolution videos, but not the ones wit high bitrate and high demanding audio streams (like avatar).

Have you tryed other Blu-rays?
To test if CUDA is well used on your computer by VMP, try launching 00024.m2ts inside AVATAR's Blu-Ray with VLC after activating it's hardware acceleration setting.

Best regards,

Felicià

[dgktkr]

Felicia,

With VLC 2.01, after clicking on the GPU acceleration box in Tools/Preferences/Input and Codecs, the video window stays black and the audio comes in sparse periodic bursts. As near as I can tell the GPU is only being used minimally and the VPU not at all. The progress bar at the bottom of the main window proceeds at the expected rate.

Could you elaborate on why performance of VLC is an indication of VMP performance?

It was only after I worked at, and failed to get VLC to play Blu-Rays, that I googled around and found VMP.

Take care,

dgktkr

[quote="felicia"]Hi again,

For what I've found mac mini 2010, it is capable to playback 1080p resolution videos, but not the ones wit high bitrate and high demanding audio streams (like avatar).

Have you tryed other Blu-rays?
To test if CUDA is well used on your computer by VMP, try launching 00024.m2ts inside AVATAR's Blu-Ray with VLC after activating it's hardware acceleration setting.

Best regards,

Felicià[/quote]

[felicia]

HI,

For VLC I wanted to make sure that CUDA was effectevily used on your computer, my VAIO computer is equiped with CUDA, but due to drivers problem, is unable to use it for playback.
Have you tried other BLu-Rays?

Please launch VMP load and start playing AVATAR, then right-click on player and choose Help/Send bug report, wait (it could take some minutes before send window appears) and send a bug report. I'll be back to you as soon as I have news.

Best regards,

Felicià

[dgktkr]

Hi Felicia,

I've just finished a bit of watching the "2001 - A Space Odyssey" Blu-Ray. Playing it with VMP displays problems similar to what I see with Avatar: most sound tracks are choppy (only track 2, 5.1 channel PCM, was glitch free) and the motion is slightly jerky, which is especially visible in the docking scene at around 25 minutes. It is strange, though, that none of the graphs for CPU, GPU or VPU show anything close to 100% usage. Until now, I was thinking that choppiness was caused by overloading one of these units. Apparently that is not necessarily the case.

I've sent you the bug report you requested.

Take care,

dgktkr