[royalpython]


I'm wondering if anyone is noticing this, or if i've messed up somewhere? I find the raspberry pi i had did a pretty brand new job of 24p to be honest.

 

I find XBMC seems to do an alright job, but still get the odd frame drop, probably noticeable about 4-5 times throughout a movie.

 

MPC-HC clocks up a fair few with the stats... around 200 for a movie. My movies are generally all encoded for iTunes, H264 and AAC audio 2.0 (i only have a speaker pair, and amp/receiver). I tried reclock, doesn't seem to make a difference. From what I see it doesn't seem compatible with H264, as it doesn't recognise a video stream.

 

I'm using the i3 4130, and the CPU doesn't come close to maxing out, probably only about 25% max. I've a sound card - asus xonar with optical out, gigabyte motherboard (Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H), no GPU, just on-board graphics, 16GB RAM (decided to throw in my spare 8GB stick in there).

 

Oddly, i can play back blu ray, and blu ray 3D fine, without dropped frames using power DVD 10 at 24p.

 

I also find it happens more regularly with Netflix as well, my broadband is around 1400kb/s, so i end up just trying to cover it all up with 50p instead of 24p - it makes it less noticeable to me anyway. I tried Netflix support, and they said to reboot the router which makes no difference, and i'm leaning towards a mistake i've made, or a hardware flaw, i.e. wrong choice of motherboard, or requirement of GPU.

 

It's all hard wired with cat 5e ethernet cable from NAS, router, HTPC.

 

I'm considering a dedicated GPU, but it would have to be quiet! 

 

I'm running on windows 8.1.

 

any thoughts on this?

 

[DisplayViewer]


Your hardware seems to be OK, the i3 has a built-in gpu.

 

Check the following:

-- Make sure that all components are running gigabit speeds including the switch

--Netflix - does it happen around the same time every day, could be a general internet slowdown problem

--does the problem happen if you plug the htpc directly into the cable modem

--reboot the cable modem, if it has battery pull it out

--reboot router

-- I am not familiar with MPC-HC, is there a way to increase the buffer cache?

 

Hope this helps.

 

[royalpython]


Thanks for replying.

 

I decided to get myself a cheap GPU; the asus GT610 and see how i'd get on.

 

It has helped considerably, much fewer frame drops, and when it drops it's only one frame at a time on MPC-HC (when the frames were dropping with the HD4400 integrated GPU, it was dropping 4 frames at a time). Seems like i'm doomed with Netflix still, but it also seems to have improved slightly. Netflix via a browser is a disaster for me somehow, the windows 8.1 app is much better.

 

I've not had much time with this new GPU to test it further, i drive the family bonkers once i've had a coffee and get stuck into things like this 

 

I'll try and find a buffer cache, this sounds like a good idea that i never checked for 

 

The cat 5e's are running at gigabit speeds, i did have a rogue cable but i found that early on. We're usually watching Netflix at night when the kids are in bed. I'll need another cable to plug it directly into the router, but... i know my NAS movies have improved now, it's much easier on the eyes. It was probably more like 300 dropped frames per movie with the integrated graphics (every 1-2mins i'd get 4 frame drops)

 

[royalpython]


One thing the Pi could never get right for me was the DVD's i'd ripped... i kept thinking it was myself who was making a mess of it. Anyway, this saga continued with this new HTPC i've built and the i3 4130, but now i've got this cheap GPU in there, 25FPS films now work the way they should! Brilliant. I wasn't expecting to correct this! So there was nothing wrong with the rips i made of my DVD's after all!

 

In case anyone thinks i'm forgetting to change the refresh rate, i'm not. I have XBMC set to automatically change the Hz which automatically changes my TV refresh rate (i've always had it set up like this).

 

So, i've concluded my CPU/motherboard is either dodgy, or i've a driver bug lurking somewhere, or the i3 4130 GPU isn't adequate for HTPC.

 

It's odd, i did the windows score index, and actually... the cheap GPU scores worse than the integrated GPU. Wild eh! If it works it doesn't bother me!