ION and BBC HD

HEADRAT · 8 Mar 2011 at 08:11

Hi,

Anybody here got their Zotac ION (or similar) running BBC HD without it spiking the CPU through the roof and being a general pain in the peanuts.

HEADRAT

Subliminal Aura · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:01

Send me a link to a program that is causing you problems

BTW Performance is dependant on your flash player and whether hardware acceleration is switched on or off

HEADRAT · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:07

Hi,

Well I'm using ION GFX driver:-

266.58 and the 10.2 Flash Beta (looks like there is a 10.3 beta now)

none of the BBC Iplayer HD content will play without spiking the CPU making playback juddery and unwatchable.

Thanks

HEADRAT

Schizophonic · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:08

I have trouble running 'FullHD' on youtube and I suspect its down to flash not running GPU and only on CPU dependant. I heard one of the new Flash 10.1 / 10.2 beta or something utilises GPU now.

Might need some research. But yes it will spike and lag when running HD content on your ION.

Subliminal Aura · 8 Mar 2011 at 10:40

Christ !

I just played Eastender - WTF is Phil doing - Getting married ?

Anyway back on topic. Using the machine in the sig it was juddery too. Prolly to do with other processes running.

Switched on Hardware acceleration, closed unwanted processes, restarted browser and it's now smooth

Flash player 10.2.154
Note also that network spikes to 10mbps
cpu usage 40%

Which feels blooming high on a quad core
gpu load 4-5%
gpu mem load 7-8%

I'll test it on ION for you now

HEADRAT · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:11

Subliminal Aura said:
I'll test it on ION for you now

Many Thanks

Jokester · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:17

Tried it on mine and it runs maybe 2-3fps, all 4 threads are about 90% so I suspect it's not offloading it onto the GPU as it plays Blu-Rays flawlessly.

Subliminal Aura · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:34

WOW Amazing results...

This is what I get.

Platform Ubuntu 10.10.. Machine -> http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18247761

Using firefox and I think the non free flash plugin 10.2.154 I get 70-80% on the cpu remember the celeron is faster than the Atom by around 20%

Playback is watchable but will occasionally judder when the machine is loaded with other tasks. I noticed the judder when my cronjobs running every 5 mins kicked in

My Boxee install is faffed up so swiftly moving on .....

XBMC - Now this is where it get interesting, I installed the iplayer addon and everything was as smooth as silk albeit it's playing at 25fps.

I noticed that it wasn't actually HD so went in to the preferences and changed desired video stream to 3500 kbps or whatever it was for best quality.

Back in to testing and it's smooth as silk

GPU usage I think peaked at 25%
CPU at 4-5% on each core

So moral of the story... iplayer or maybe flash player doesn't seem to be very optimised for the web... I mean even on a quad core the cpu usage is way higher than it should be

HEADRAT · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:37

I might try this:-

http://xbmcwmc.teknowebworks.com/

HEADRAT

Subliminal Aura · 8 Mar 2011 at 17:12

How did you get on dude ?

I just tested iplayer on the misses and she couldn't tell that the program was streaming off the net

HEADRAT · 8 Mar 2011 at 17:26

Not home yet

HEADRAT · 9 Mar 2011 at 10:30

Tried XMBC and Iplayer2 (Video Add in) and it was as smooth as a baby's bum.

Subliminal Aura · 9 Mar 2011 at 10:40

HEADRAT said:
Tried XMBC and Iplayer2 (Video Add in) and it was as smooth as a baby's bum.

Nice one

HEADRAT · 9 Mar 2011 at 10:49

Still no idea why it doesn't work properly outside XMBC though, thanks for you testing.

HEADRAT

Subliminal Aura · 9 Mar 2011 at 10:52

HEADRAT said:
Still no idea why it doesn't work properly outside XMBC though, thanks for you testing.

HEADRAT

No worries mate - I also needed to know

Yeah as I mentioned web flash doesn't seem to be as optimised.