Refresh-rate switching happens late where variable frame rate

[StrangeNoises]

Mostly pasted from the offtopic post to the forum yesterday. :-) NB: This is now repeated with the version just now updated from https://launchpad.net/~wsnipex/+archive/xbmc-xvba-testing - which internally shows to be 12.0-ALPHA3 GIT:Unknown) but which apt reports as:

Version: 2:12.0~git20120708.2243-c6fc742-0precise

Issue is with auto-switching of refresh rates: Some videos for which the refresh rate should be changed, do not trigger that refresh rate change until after a few seconds of playback. The pattern I've been able to find so far is that this only seems to affect videos marked as having a variable frame rate.

(Handbrake uses a variable frame rate as part of its High Profile preset; and has done for at least a couple of years. Even if the frame rate isn't actually going to vary.)

Thing is, at least according to mediainfo, a headline refresh rate is provided anyway, so surely even if it is marked as variable, it should start with the given frame rate as a starting presumption? I think older versions - in particular up to 11.0 eden - did do this as I'm only starting to see this problem now. I had been seeing it on only one fairly old encode before, where that headline frame rate was actually listed (oddly) as 24.998fps; whereas most PAL-type videos show exactly 25.000fps. So even on eden that video started, then changed refresh rate (actually just back to the same one as it's the closest). But with the new build, it's doing it for all such variable-frame-rate recordings.

After that initial refresh rate change, playback continues normally for the duration. It's just that it seems to be waiting to see if it really needs to change refresh rate for such videos. Obviously this is pretty disruptive to the viewing experience.

edit: context:

System is Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit installed on 2010 mac mini server connected by HDMI to a Panasonic Viera TV.

The only deviations from the Ubuntu standard packages are the ppas: ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates (for nvidia 302.17) and wsnipex-xbmc-xvba-testing (for this build of xbmc)

Everything's up to date.

XBMC log of session is here: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=4704

The relevant part (where the refresh rate changes) is at lines 320-331.

mediainfo on the track being played in the log: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=4705

[FernetMenta]

Here is a short sample of 1080i50: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47522966/1080i-50.ts How does it play? I can try to get a similar sample of a 720p channel on the weekend.

[StrangeNoises]

That plays perfectly on Temporal/Spatial on my mac. No change in how it plays the other material, so it's not because of an upgrade being sneaked in! :-) Also, CPU isn't at all elevated on either core. it plays yours at less than 5% CPU on both cores. When playing my 1080i-50-raw-dvbs-001.mkv with Temporal/Spatial (and other sources I have that are BBC HD off-air recordings) I note one core is usually at 100% when dropping frames (and can confirm it is xbmc.bin taking that cpu).

This suggests it might be content-related. There's something easier about your off-air source than mine. But of course I was also having issues with off-bluray sources.

For one thing yours is smaller: resolution is only 1440x1080 anamorphic. BBC HD channels have usually done the same thing, but during this summer, because of Wimbledon, Proms and the Olympics and their 3D demo/trials, they're actually transmitting at 1920x1080. I don't have any raw untranscoded content from before they started doing that.

For another thing, yours is a transport stream. However it's not that; I get the same issues when I play a direct off-air transport stream file as I do when I play it remuxed to mkv. Conversely when I remux your .ts to a mkv it also plays perfectly with Temporal/Spatial.

[StrangeNoises]

btw it even drops frames on the bbc hd test card - as well as, i've noticed, on black. So it's not to do with the complexity of detail or movement on screen; given that happens, and yet it's perfectly happy with your example.

I think this makes my examples Good Test Data. Because there's something difficult about it. :-D It's all direct off-air, not encoding errors - not errors made by me anyway! ;-)

A few days ago I recorded about an hour and a half of BBC HD Preview (basically a show-reel they show during the days on BBC HD, clips of various programmes plus testcard and audio sync test). Am thinking of uploading it; only hesitating because it's over 4GB and my uplink is rubbish... Would it be considered useful? :-)

[StrangeNoises]

this is probably overdue: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=5211

taken during playback of my DVB-S test file. During playback I see jerky motion and occasionally a frame flashing up from maybe as much as a second ago (or ahead, not sure). If I open the CodecInfo pane I see frames being dropped approximately correlating with this sort of sequence in the log:

23:21:08 T:140547033396992 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerVideo::CalcDropRequirement - hurry: 1 23:21:09 T:140547033396992 DEBUG: Previous line repeats 3 times. 23:21:09 T:140547033396992 DEBUG: CDVDPlayerVideo::CalcDropRequirement - dropped de-interlacing cycle, Sleeptime: -0.069993, Bufferlevel: 1

And I see one CPU core at between 95% and 100%; I think the frame drops are also correlated with when it actually is at 100%.

This log was taken with fpsdetect set to 2; but it didn't seem to make any difference when that was left as default.

BTW not sure you're getting the log level you want, given I see this:

23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: Log level changed to 2

followed shortly afterwards by:

23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: Disabled debug logging due to GUI setting. Level 1. 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: Log level changed to 1

[FernetMenta]

The sample I posted was only stereo, so this might be the reason why it plays better on your system. Note that I have banned pulse audio from all of my systems. This is actually the first step I do after a new installation. Can you try purging PA?

[StrangeNoises]

i'll lay a bet now it's not that. :-) Your test track plays perfectly on this pulseaudio-enabled system. My DVB-S test track that I sent you is only stereo too. The BBC HD Preview reel does have 5.1 surround but there's no difference wrt this problem vs the stereo tracks - neither better nor worse. I can believe pulseaudio might be causing sound issues - for instance I find GUI sounds are a bit hit and miss - but I bet it's not causing this. :-)

Googling a tidy way to disable it... Got to be proven one way or the other. :-)

I will also try comparing with a non-BBC DVB-S source, although tbh I've tended to have more trouble with those, not less; usually, I think, because of the discontinuities around the edited-out commercial breaks. I have none in my vault right now as they show less stuff that I like; but if if I can watch football in the interests of xbmc testing, I can watch chat shows and cookery shows too! ;-)

[StrangeNoises]

It's not pulseaudio: Because I log directly into XBMC rather than running it in a unity session, it doesn't even launch. It's running when logged out, in lightdm, but when I log in, it goes.

[fritsch]

@StrangeNoises: Could you set your Audio Output to Analog? As you are using the latest build with AudioEngine included, i suspect some bugs left in this code, to say it modarately.

[StrangeNoises]

wouldn't i lose passthru of ac3/dts audio to the amp?

[fritsch]

Exactly. But please give it a try. It shall not be a solution but a workaround to search this error.

[FernetMenta]

Enumerated ALSA devices: 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: Device 1 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: m_deviceName : default 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: m_displayName : Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM 23:20:18 T:140548451665792 NOTICE: m_channels :

I have seen a couple of cases where PA caused the stuttering. Meanwhile I have tested on ION2. The 50fps sample play fine with temporal/spatial, the 60 with temporal. In neither case I see that high CPU load.

I am just looking for what's different between our systems and might explain the different observations. I set up my systems all the same way: install Ubuntu 12.04 (64bit), purge PA, purge libreoffice, configure ALSA by a single line in asound.conf.

purge PA, purge PA, :)

[StrangeNoises]

well, the audio output device was already set to "Default (HDA NVidia Cirrus Analog)". You can't select a non-digital device for passthru but you can disable their use by turning off the "AC3/DTS/AAC capable receiver" options. I did that and there was no difference.

I had been reckoning that if no pulseaudio processes were running then it's not running. And this, not only when xbmc is running, but when it's actually playing a video:

rachel@rarity:~$ ps aux | grep pulse rachel 26483 0.0 0.0 13580 920 pts/1 S+ 09:48 0:00 grep --color=auto pulse rachel@rarity:~$

but ok, i'll remove it...

(Interestingly with passthrough off, ac3 5.1 doesn't seem to play at all...)

what's the single line in asound.conf?

[FernetMenta]

pcm.!default plug:hdmi:NVidia

for optical this should work:

pcm.!default plug:iec958:<card>

Interesting that on your system card is NVidia for iec958. I haven't seen this before, mostly its Intel.

[StrangeNoises]

right, with pulseaudio gone from the system (and rebooted), and ac3 passthrough off, it's actually worse. Much greater frame dropping.

With an AC3 5.1 source and ac3 passthrough off, there's no sound at all and the video actually only plays at about 1-2 fps. With or without pulseaudio on the system.

Turn passthrough back on and playback on both is the same as when pulseaudio was there.

[FernetMenta]

right, with pulseaudio gone from the system (and rebooted), and ac3 passthrough off, it's actually worse. Much greater frame dropping.

How to interpret this? Even there was no pa process running before, pa did something on your system.

Still this high CPU load?

[StrangeNoises]

On 19/07/2012 10:16, Rainer Hochecker wrote:

right, with pulseaudio gone from the system (and rebooted), and ac3 passthrough off, it's actually worse. Much greater frame dropping. How to interpret this? Even there was no pa process running before, pa did something on your system.

I don't think I tried playback with ac3 passthrough off while pulseaudio was still present. It got worse when i turned passthrough off. With passthrough on, it plays the same as before. Actually i think it might have been a fluke with the first attempt after rebooting after that change. Now when i play the same tracks with passthrough off, video playback is the same as with passthrough on; no better, no worse. So I think removing pulseaudio had zero effect after all.

nb: the only iec958 device listed on aplay -L is digital:

iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

Not sure the asound.conf setting makes any difference, given the exact device used is configured in the xbmc gui - there's no longer just a "default" option for instance. And if i set that to what I think is the same output ("HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital S/PDIF", the only one listed in the gui that actually says S/PDIF, and the only one that says that in aplay -L is also the only one with "iec958") i just get digital noise.

If i put the output device back to normal, leave ac3 passthrough off, but set the speaker configuration to 2.0 and 'output stereo to all speakers' then the ac3 5.1 test track i have plays (except with downmixed stereo sound) the same as when ac3 passthrough is on - ie: it exhibits the same problems with temporal/spatial. So there's a separate issue with playing surround in software in audioengine, but i don't think it's relevant to our issue.

BTW turning off GUI sounds (and restarting) doesn't help. Thought it might be worth trying as that fixed problems on Eden and earlier, but didn't seem to be an issue with audioengine.

Still this high CPU load?

Yes. On one CPU, so presumably it's a single thread of execution somewhere going nuts. ISTR seeing that on the big machine upstairs too - with four real cores, apparently 8 via hyperthreading, only one was high. It does sometimes switch cores, but only one is high at any one time. According to top it's definitely xbmc.bin hogging the CPU. Doesn't do it playing your example.

I suspect that's what we need to be trying to track down, and I suspect audio is a wild goose chase. pulseaudio or not makes no difference. that asound.conf or not makes no difference. As long as it's set to downmix 5.1 to 2.0, ac3 passthrough or not makes no difference.

Complete aplay -L output fyi:

rachel@rarity:~$ aplay -L null Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture) pulse PulseAudio Sound Server default:CARD=NVidia HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Default Audio Device sysdefault:CARD=NVidia HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Default Audio Device front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Front speakers surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 HDMI Audio Output hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 HDMI Audio Output hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 HDMI Audio Output dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Direct sample mixing device dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital Direct sample mixing device dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct sample mixing device dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct sample mixing device dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct sample mixing device dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Direct sample snooping device dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital Direct sample snooping device dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct sample snooping device dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct sample snooping device dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct sample snooping device hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Direct hardware device without any conversions hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital Direct hardware device without any conversions hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct hardware device without any conversions hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct hardware device without any conversions hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Direct hardware device without any conversions plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Analog Hardware device with all software conversions plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1 HDA NVidia, Cirrus Digital Hardware device with all software conversions plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Hardware device with all software conversions plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Hardware device with all software conversions plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8 HDA NVidia, HDMI 0 Hardware device with all software conversions

I note it lists pulse at the top even though i have removed pulseaudio from the system...

Rachel first time posting reply via email; does it strip the sig? if you see this, then i guess not...

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[StrangeNoises]

as an aside about pulseaudio - i know it has definitely been a problem for various people in the past, but over time bugs get fixed, so you have an instinct to remove it that might have outlasted the problem itself. Certainly when i was looking up tidy ways to remove it (ie: without it taking out ubuntu-desktop too) the guides seem to only be for earlier versions of ubuntu, and on one the guy who wrote it actually says "with the current version it works for me, so i won't be updating this guide any more".

in any case i don't think it's relevant here: xbmc doesn't make use of it itself, and if you log in directly to xbmc rather than running it in an ubuntu desktop environment, it really does not seem to be running. (also i relaxed about it taking out ubuntu-desktop when i reminded myself that this is supposed to be a dedicated media box anyway. :-))

Rachel

[fritsch]

Mhh, strange experience. What i wanted to test was: Select Analog in your Sound Settings (not HDMI or Optical), this will disable all the Audioengine Stuff like AC3, DTS, e.g.

At device Selection, select your HDMI output.

[FernetMenta]

Here are some qvdpautest benchmarks listed: http://www.vdr-wiki.de/wiki/index.php/VDPAU-Grafikkarten There are two different models for GT218, one with DDR2 memory: compares to your measurement one with DDR3 which is better.

That might explain the different performance of GT218 but not the high CPU load you even observe on that beast of machine.

[StrangeNoises]

On 19/07/2012 11:17, Peter Frühberger wrote:

Mhh, strange experience. What i wanted to test was: Select Analog in your Sound Settings (not HDMI or Optical), this will disable all the Audioengine Stuff like AC3, DTS, e.g.

OK, no difference to video playback. Still losing frames, getting some flashback frames, still one cpu core at 100%.

At device Selection, select your HDMI output.

Then I lose sound as well (the HDMI device, the TV, is muted in favour of the amp); but video playback is unaffected; shows the same problem.

Really really do think this has nothing to do with sound. :-)

Rachel

[fritsch]

Audio can turn "the global clock" within xbmc, so if audio fails video will also :-) (or in other words: audio will make video fail ...)

               Key-ID:     0x1A995A9B
               keyserver: pgp.mit.edu

Fingerprint: 4606 DA19 EC2E 9A0B 0157 C81B DA07 CF63 1A99 5A9B

[StrangeNoises]

On 19/07/2012 11:24, Rainer Hochecker wrote:

Here are some qvdpautest benchmarks listed: http://www.vdr-wiki.de/wiki/index.php/VDPAU-Grafikkarten There are two different models for GT218, one with DDR2 memory: compares to your measurement one with DDR3 which is better.

That might explain the different performance of GT218 but not the high CPU load you even observe on that beast of machine.

is there a way of confirming definitively what type of memory it uses? The nvidia-settings graphics card information page doesn't show that; except to say it's 1024MB and 64-bit.

hm, i might still have the box it came in... assuming no lies.

Rachel

[fritsch]

What also came to my mind: Can you check with "top" what process is getting 100 per cent? is it really the xbmc process? or some filesystem kernel process?

[FernetMenta]

@StrangeNoises Can you post a xbmc log of the high cpu load case?

[StrangeNoises]

the log posted by me a few posts up is that. http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=5211

pulseaudio was still in the system then; but given the problem persists now pulseaudio is gone, I don't expect a relevant difference. I can do another one though fwiw...

Rachel

On 19/07/2012 11:42, Rainer Hochecker wrote:

@StrangeNoises Can you post a xbmc log of the high cpu load case?

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[StrangeNoises]

On 19/07/2012 11:34, Peter Frühberger wrote:

What also came to my mind: Can you check with "top" what process is getting 100 per cent? is it really the xbmc process? or some filesystem kernel process?

seems to be split between user and system, but there's xbmc.bin at the top.

top - 11:57:59 up 1:32, 1 user, load average: 0.97, 0.99, 0.84 Tasks: 105 total, 1 running, 104 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu0 : 5.3%us, 1.1%sy, 0.0%ni, 89.1%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 4.5%si,
0.0%st Cpu1 : 55.0%us, 45.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si,
0.0%st Mem: 7909436k total, 1074368k used, 6835068k free, 44588k buffers Swap: 7812496k total, 0k used, 7812496k free, 441140k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2702 rachel 20 0 1763m 283m 46m S 113 3.7 15:07.11 xbmc.bin 2791 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:02.66 kworker/0:0 3039 rachel 20 0 17332 1276 948 R 0 0.0 0:00.06 top 1 root 20 0 24596 2556 1348 S 0 0.0 0:00.61 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:15.94 ksoftirqd/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 7 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.20 watchdog/0 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.20 ksoftirqd/1 12 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.07 watchdog/1 13 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 cpuset 14 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kdevtmpfs 16 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kworker/u:1

[StrangeNoises]

I'm prepared to admit that audio is probably involved somehow because:

I remuxed my test track to have no audio track at all and it played perfectly. (although obviously without any sound.) No dropped frames, looked good to the eye, no elevated CPU issue.

however, all the above changes to audio setup suggested by you guys are making no difference at all. Actually stripping the whole audio track from the file is the only thing that's made a difference. :-)

[FernetMenta]

@StrangeNoises I am sorry, I posted a 1440x1080 sample. I never watch this channel, it was listed as HD and thought it was 1920x1080. Will post a new one.

[StrangeNoises]

not the bbc's fault: ITV1 HD's output shows the same issue.

[FernetMenta]

Here is a new sample: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47522966/1920x1080i-50.ts Don't blame me for the content :)

[StrangeNoises]

i call shenanigans in a german changing room!

ok, I made a mistake above: When I said the track with the audio stripped out worked, i was lying; I'd forgotten to set the interlacing type to Temporal/Spatial, it was still on bob. With it set to Temporal/Spatial it shows the problem described.

So does your new sample - again, on its own, no audio, transcoded via handbrake, and with aac sound remuxed from that back to the original video - all exactly the same deinterlacing problem.

[StrangeNoises]

transcoding (with handbrake) your new sample down to 1440x1080 anamorphic (like your first sample) makes it happy; though cpu usage (on both cores) is higher, it's not maxed out; closer to 50% each. The D line in the CodecInfo pane is too long and the dropped frame count can't be seen, but it looks ok in playback.

Needless to say I'd rather keep Bob than transcode to a lower resolution. :-) But we're testing; and this is the only real pattern where a feature of the video stream is affecting the output; and it's the most obvious one of course: size. it's not handling 1920x1080 (storage dimensions - it handles 1440x1080 anamorphically displayed at 1920x1080). that also does suggest that all i need is a gfx card with a bit more oomph.

unsurprisingly, it's very happy to play SD content (576i@50 dvd-rip of 1970s bbc studio-bound production) with Temporal/Spatial.

Transcoding my 1080i-60-raw-bluray-001 test to 1440x1080 anamorphic works with Temporal/Spatial too.

[StrangeNoises]

oddly it does seem to be linked to dimensions rather than complexity, bitrate, anything like that. it'll happily deinterlace temporal/spatial a complex, fast-moving 1440x1080 but loses frames even when showing a static test card, or black, at 1920x1080. (in fact i think it loses more on black than when there's something going on.)

[FernetMenta]

I played the 60i sample on the ION2

vdpau bob: CPU load approx. 25% temporal: 40-60% temporal/spatial 90-120%

It seems that a maxed out GPU affects the CPU. Maybe the CPU threads do a busy wait if they are not able to deliver data to the GPU.

So, to summarize: We can't tell the performance of a GPU just by the model. 512MB is highly recommended. I am not sure what makes you model of a GT218 perform lower than mine. Is it DDR3 to DDR2 or better DMA capabilities on the ID11.

[StrangeNoises]

On 19/07/2012 16:40, Rainer Hochecker wrote:

I played the 60i sample on the ION2

vdpau bob: CPU load approx. 25% temporal: 40-60% temporal/spatial 90-120%

It seems that a maxed out GPU affects the CPU. Maybe the CPU threads do a busy wait if they are not able to deliver data to the GPU.

So, to summarize: We can't tell the performance of a GPU just by the model. 512MB is highly recommended. I am not sure what makes you model of a GT218 perform lower than mine. Is it DDR3 to DDR2 or better DMA capabilities on the ID11.

I don't know, that's why i was asking how one finds out... nvidia-settings doesn't reveal it

Rachel

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[FernetMenta]

nvidia-smi was used to provide useful information like GPU utilization but most parameters are not available anymore. So I don't know either.

[StrangeNoises]

have placed an order for a GT520 for the big box. that's definitely 1GB DDR3. Couldn't find box/manuals for the GT218, couldn't find a way to detect it insystem. but basically the latest results do point to the GPUs just being maxed out doing it with 1920x1080 sources. i did try nvidia-smi, but it didn't give that information

[FernetMenta]

A friend of mine recently built a system with a GT520 low profile. Hopefully it does work for you as well, otherwise we have to dig deeper.

[StrangeNoises]

well it was looking for a while like there might be some systemic problem or misconfiguration (considering both machines were experiencing it). We might be back to that if this doesn't work :-) that's partly why i just bought the card, which is cheap, rather than a whole zotac id80, which is more than i want to go for right now; but i expect if it works that id80 will be a future purchase.

At the moment, however, from the tests I've done where it worked, I can't honestly say it looked startlingly better than bob. But I expect it'll be one of those things: once i've watched stuff with temporal/spatial for a while, i'll notice it if i try to go back. :-) Our expectations always ratchet up.

[StrangeNoises]

big box carried downstairs, new GT520 put in it, set up (fresh ubuntu 12.04 install; i think my quantal setup was sick)... all test material (including the 1920x1080i@60) plays perfectly with Temporal/Spatial deinterlacing.

Am glad I built this machine to be quiet - and i found a fanless GT520 to put in it too, which helps.

One niggle but i don't think it's anything to do with xbmc though might be to do with the xorg.conf: lightdm crashes the machine when you log out. Which is a bit alarming. but once actually logged into xbmc it seems to work perfectly.

NB: the TV shows up as DFP-1 on this fairly standard graphics card too, so it's not just a mac hardware thing.

[StrangeNoises]

looks like i fell afoul of this http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?70619-Logout-freeze-using-Nvidia-Proprietary-driver-(latest-and-even-older-versions)&p=276076#post276076

Workaround applied; I have a happy system. :-)

[FernetMenta]

Great! Welcome to the club of users who can enjoy 60i at high quality.

[FernetMenta]

Checkout ffmpeg logs for the last 2 days: http://git.videolan.org/?p=ffmpeg.git;a=shortlog vc1 field mode is getting fixed.

[StrangeNoises]

I haven't seen a recurrence of this issue for the last year, though I can't be sure whether that's because it's a solved issue or I just don't encounter those files any more. fritsch says you're looking to spring-clean old open issues, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm ok with this being closed. everything is in far later versions now, so even if it does appear again might as well report anew.

[StrangeNoises]

just confirming with some recently handbraked m4v content; i can't reproduce this now.

[newphreak]

I can still reproduce this "issue" with anime series with variable fps.

[StrangeNoises]

well, i lost, um, basically all of my older encodes in a disk failure a little while ago. (Repeat after me: RAID is not backup, doubly so while reshaping.) New encodes, while still showing variable frame rate in mediainfo, certainly don't seem to have this problem. It may have been a bug fixed in handbrake or a library it depends on in the intervening time. Can you post up a file that demonstrates it and I can see if I have a problem with it? (Understand it may be necessary to post the whole file as, scanning back over this thread, it looks like the problem went away if it was mkvmerged, as I'd normally do to extract a clip for upload.

Also of course I'm now running the pre-gotham stuff. And it looks like it was this issue/thread that ended up with me going on to just retain and play the raws rather than transcoding stuff anyway, but by the same token it looks like it went way offtopic.

[newphreak]

http://hwat.be/variable.fps.mkv

[StrangeNoises]

dunno whether it's my download rate or your upload rate that sucks tonight (probably the former) but that's going to take another hour to come down.

In any case, reminder again that the original issue reported this happening with MP4 or M4V files, and extracting or remuxing them to MKV made the problem go away, so for me that was actually my workaround solution at the time. (I also remember now some months later looking at those mkv files and wondering why I'd remuxed them, I'd forgotten all about this!) So even if this file shows a problem, it may in fact not be the same problem. But confirm do you experience the problem WITH THAT FILE? the one you uploaded, not the one it was clipped from?

[StrangeNoises]

it's down, and i can also see in mediainfo that it's actually constant frame rate mode.

But I see it does exhibit similar behaviour: Playback starts at 60Hz (in my case having to switch to that as it's not the default in the GUI), then corrects itself after a few seconds.

I don't know. The symptom looks similar to the issue I used to have, but it's not the same kind of file that I used to experience it on so the cause may be different. So I guess I'll still leave it that I'm OK for the issue to be closed. But you may want to open a new one.