Media Center is Struggling BIGTIME with 1080p

Mayoor

Mayoor

Mayoor

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Joined
9 Jun 2004
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165
Hi there I have the following components

CPU - AMD Athlon X2 4450e £51.69
MOTHERBOARD - ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI 780G £53.08
MEMORY - OCZ DDR2-800 PC6400 2GB £19.96

in my media center, I am using the onboard graphics and sound as I was told this motherboard should be able to handle 1080p files, however playback is jerky and freezes constantly. Can someone help? If I need to get another graphics card them im willing to do that if someone can reccomend one!

M
 
Are you trying to play blu-ray or some kind of video files?

edit, sorry I just saw you said files.

Have you checked to see what your cpu usage is during playback? Can you give us some info on the file type and the codecs/player that you are using.
 
Last edited:
Mayoor said:
Hi there I have the following components

CPU - AMD Athlon X2 4450e £51.69
MOTHERBOARD - ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI 780G £53.08
MEMORY - OCZ DDR2-800 PC6400 2GB £19.96

in my media center, I am using the onboard graphics and sound as I was told this motherboard should be able to handle 1080p files, however playback is jerky and freezes constantly. Can someone help? If I need to get another graphics card them im willing to do that if someone can reccomend one!

M
Click to expand...

Most likey the motherboard chipset you should have got a 790g, or update your drivers.
 
Sounds like a software issue to me, I built my Dad practically the same system and it handles 1080p HD-DVD, BlueRay (via PowerDVD) and 1080p .mkv no problem (Windows Media Player).

Make sure your codecs are using both cores – you can set this in CoreAVC for example, have you got the latest ffdshow as this is also multicore?

Hope this helps
 
I've downloaded Core AVC and installed it but have no idea how to configure it to use both cores. Once Its installed what do I do with it. Does it run in the background.

I havent yet installed ffdshow so I'll give that a go when I get home

I am trying to play The Dark Knight in 1080p .mkv file and running it on VLC media player.
 
Your hardware is fine; it's almost certainly a software issue. I'd suggest you double check your codecs. Make sure CoreAVC is indeed handling H264 video (disable it in FFDshow just to be sure). A quick check of the properties tab should tell you which decoder it's using.
 
Ya, you need Core AVC as VLC or ffdshow are far more system hungry and won't run with that CPU. ffdshow on 1080p mkv's failed on my 2.4ghz quad!
 
Sounds like you need a codec that can handle DXVA to offload h264/x264 to your onboard gfx instead of your cpu.

Would recommend downloading Media Player Classic - Home Cinema and trying your 1080p file in that and see how it handles with DXVA enabled, then you can install the stand-alone filters from MPC:HC to use in Media Centre.

(Would also recommend using Vista Codec Package which will install MPC:HC's stand alone filter for you without messing about with .dll files etc.)
 
b|gf|sh said:
Sounds like you need a codec that can handle DXVA to offload h264/x264 to your onboard gfx instead of your cpu.

Would recommend downloading Media Player Classic - Home Cinema and trying your 1080p file in that and see how it handles with DXVA enabled, then you can install the stand-alone filters from MPC:HC to use in Media Centre.

(Would also recommend using Vista Codec Package which will install MPC:HC's stand alone filter for you without messing about with .dll files etc.)
Click to expand...

780 has problems with h264/x264
 
OK Core AVC is definately handling H264. What media player should I be using to play this file?

Still havent worked out how to tell Core AVC to use multi core, where is this set in the screen?
 
Mayoor said:
OK Core AVC is definately handling H264. What media player should I be using to play this file?

Still havent worked out how to tell Core AVC to use multi core, where is this set in the screen?
Click to expand...

Try the cyberlink h.264 codec, if you install ffdshow make sure that the h.264 codec in that is disabled.

You didn't say what your cpu usage is like when it's stuttering.

What other codecs do you have installed?
 
wolvers69 said:
Try the cyberlink h.264 codec, if you install ffdshow make sure that the h.264 codec in that is disabled.

You didn't say what your cpu usage is like when it's stuttering.

What other codecs do you have installed?
Click to expand...

CPU is running between 75% and 90% and RAM is at 1GB and I have 2GB altogether.

So far this is what I've done.

1) Installed Core AVC and activated the h264 checkbox
2) Installed Windows Media Classic (which doesnt play the file AT ALL)
3) Installed FDDshow and disabled h264
4) Installed CCCP and disabled H264 in there as well.

At the moment the file will only play in VLC Media Player and nothing else.

I've brought up the media information for this file and heres a screenshot

http://www.mayoor.co.uk/darkknightinfo.jpg
 
Mayoor said:
CPU is running between 75% and 90% and RAM is at 1GB and I have 2GB altogether.

So far this is what I've done.

1) Installed Core AVC and activated the h264 checkbox
2) Installed Windows Media Classic (which doesnt play the file AT ALL)
3) Installed FDDshow and disabled h264
4) Installed CCCP and disabled H264 in there as well.

At the moment the file will only play in VLC Media Player and nothing else.

I've brought up the media information for this file and heres a screenshot

http://www.mayoor.co.uk/darkknightinfo.jpg
Click to expand...

Would ditch both CoreAVC and ffdshow as both are software codecs and don't take advantage of your 780g chipset, and so you don't take advantage of hardware deinterlacing and noise reduction etc.

Try the following:

- Download Media Player Classic - Home Cinema and install.
- If you're using Vista, in Options->Playback->Output: Set Directshow Video to 'EVR'
- Now open your video file and see if it plays.
- Then check if hardware acceleration is working by right-clicking on the video window and going to Filters->MPC Video Decoder and if hardware acceleration is working properly is should state "DXVA Mode = H.264 Bitscream Decoder".
 
b|gf|sh said:
Would ditch both CoreAVC and ffdshow as both are software codecs and don't take advantage of your 780g chipset, and so you don't take advantage of hardware deinterlacing and noise reduction etc.

Try the following:

- Download Media Player Classic - Home Cinema and install.
- If you're using Vista, in Options->Playback->Output: Set Directshow Video to 'EVR'
- Now open your video file and see if it plays.
- Then check if hardware acceleration is working by right-clicking on the video window and going to Filters->MPC Video Decoder and if hardware acceleration is working properly is should state "DXVA Mode = H.264 Bitscream Decoder".
Click to expand...


OK did all this and the file trys to play but freezes and then when I checked the DXVA mode it said not using DXVA.

?
 
Mayoor said:
CPU is running between 75% and 90%
Click to expand...

It would seem then that your cpu is doing all of the work and like b|gf|sh says you need to offload that to the gpu. Try uninstalling CoreAVC and install something like the cyberlink h.264 codec that I mentioned earlier. This should work with media player/centre too no problem as well. That, Haali and the right audio codec should be all you need to play that file without issues.
 
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