G550 stuttering on 2D bluray

Hi,

I've recently built me a budget system with a purpose to play everything except 3D:
B75M: ASRock B75M, B75, DualDDR3-1600, SATA3, SATA2, HDMI, GBLAN, mATX
BX80623G550: Intel Celeron G550, 2.60GHz, 2MB, LGA1155, 32nm, BOX
AD3U1333C4G9-S: A-DATA DDR3-1333 4G 256*8 CL9 S-TRAY
SSD Crucial M4 64 GB

No discrete video card yet. Running win7 x64 + xbmc. All the latest drivers installed. No DXVA turned on.

Majority of 1080p files play fine (~30% CPU usage), however, i've run into some files, which do not play smoothly - intense action scenes stutter a bit, frames are being dropped. CPU usage on these files average at ~50% and spike up to 70-80%.

Here are the details of files, which do not play smoothly (no difference if it's streamed through wired 100 mbps network or USB hdd):

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 1
File size : 5.90 MiB
Duration : 11s 394ms
Overall bit rate : 4 345 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2008-05-23 08:52:00
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : libebml-0.7.5 & libmatroska-0.7.7
Language : fin

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Bit rate : 3 810 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Original frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 11s 394ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 623 KiB (10%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No

OR

Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 259 MiB
Duration : 1mn 2s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 34.7 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 25.7 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 32.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.517
Stream size : 192 MiB (74%)

Audio #1
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : MA / Core
Muxing mode : Stream extension
Codec ID : 134
Duration : 1mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 4 888 Kbps / 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 8 channels / 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: L R, LFE / Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless / Lossy
Delay relative to video : -122ms
Language : English


Do you think such files could be too demanding for G550 iGPU? If not, where could I start looking for problems? Maybe I should think about discrete video?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I've done a clean install of windows, used the newest drivers from MB website, but still, stuttering is exactly the same.

I've tried to turn on DXVA2 - there is no stutter then, cpu usage is ~10% only.

What are the reasons why DXVA2 can not be used with intel iGPU? Didn't notice any issues yet (maybe had to test more)..

yeah, you're right, tried another file with dxva on and severe macroblocking was present..

I have my htpc hooked up to my panasonic g30 plasma by hdmi. no av receiver for now. i've made some screenshots showing my setup and few files i get stutter on. here's the link: http://imageshack.us/g/1/9809301/

any further ideas? thx

Where could I find such information?

As I said, I've connected my htpc directly to TV, so I'm not bitstreaming audio to AVR. Information about the files I'm trying to play is indicated on my first post.

yes, i've used your guides and followed xbmc guide option 1 for installing (no hd audio capable receiver). Also, as my above posted screenshots show, under audio output i've chosen audio output to be analog, so as far as I understand bitstreaming is disabled, right?

this was set by default. just tested with hdmi output - the result was the same, stuttered on high bitrate scenes.

Does anyone have any other suggestions I could try?
Or maybe >40 mbps video stream is simply too demanding for this CPU to handle? can any other Intel Celeron G5XX owner confirm if they really do not have issues with all 1080p 24p files playback? thx.

No, I have not tried with Quicksync. Is it possible to use that with XBMC ?

I'll post a file for you to test on weekend.

I'm pretty confident I've installed all the drivers - I even did a fresh windows install. I've downloaded drivers from asrock site also updated intel drivers on their website.

Anyway, if some of you guys with g5xx would test a sample I've made and would get a stutter free playback, then I would be looking for further faults on my system. File is ~2 mins in length, I get stuttering and frame drop from ~1:30 to ~1:50. Please test without hardware acceleration, just with software rendering. Here is the file:

http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/14176325/file.html
mirror:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/vqri1i

Dark_Slayer: video file details are indicated in first post of this topic.

So... Are there no G5x0 owners up for a test?

i've played quite a lot of content since my last post. I'd say ~95% of all 1080p files were running smooth. These remaining ~5% did stutter in a few scenes only. anyway, i'm not planning to add discrete card yet..