Video glitching

Joe42 · 29 Aug 2006 at 12:44

I'm having a problem with my Htpc, every couple of minutes when playing a video it skips a couple of frames and there is an audible glitching sound like you hear when a cd skips. It does this with both recorded and live tv, sd video and hd video.

Specs:
-A64 3200+
-1gb of ram
-Realtek Hd sound onboard
-Nv 6150 onboard, branded as Nv business platform which means it won't let me use the normal graphics driver, i have to use the business platform driver. I wonder if the graphics driver included with this is out of date, and is there any way i could get it to install the normal graphics driver?

Any ideas of what i could try to get this working?

Thanks

Joe42 · 29 Aug 2006 at 15:37

Well i've emailed nvidia about this but any suggestions from anyone of anything i could try would be well recieved.

Tetras · 29 Aug 2006 at 17:23

What software are you using? I take it the same effect with whatever?

Joe42 · 29 Aug 2006 at 17:48

Windows media player/media centre. Should i try an alternative such as realplayer?

Tetras · 30 Aug 2006 at 12:48

Was just thinking for elimination purposes

kevpuk · 30 Aug 2006 at 13:26

What video codecs ?

I had some issues early on with nVidia PureVideo decoder (in MCE) on a 6150-based board......updating to latest helped, as did RAM in dual-channel configuration.....

Joe42 · 30 Aug 2006 at 14:48

kevpuk said:
What video codecs ?

I had some issues early on with nVidia PureVideo decoder (in MCE) on a 6150-based board......updating to latest helped, as did RAM in dual-channel configuration.....

I am using that combination. What did you update, purevideo? I'm currently using the trial.

As this isn't limited to tv i was assuming that rules out the decoder as without the decoder it can still play normal videos and i think it still glitches.

I have just tried playing a game and it does exactly what videos do, skips a few frames every couple of minutes, which suggests that this has nothing to do with the media player or the decoder.

The ram is in dual channel config.

Thanks for your help.

kevpuk · 30 Aug 2006 at 15:42

TBH, I only really experienced problems with TV (both Live and recorded) and resolved that by changing TV cards (went from what I thought was the bees Leadtek DTV2000H hybrid to Terratec 2400i DT -which is the bees !!!) - guess that does rule out the decoder.....

Sounds like a different issue, then, are there PSU concerns ?

My guess is on the video driver.....easiest route would be to throw in a dedicated video card.....and see if it resolves things. If so, then the onboard (driver) is likely the issue....can you manually overwrite requisite driver files with versions from latest nVidia driver ? Probably a bit messy..... :eek:

TheCrow · 30 Aug 2006 at 16:00

I had video and audio stuttering, turned out to be a HDD problem, i really cant rember what it was now. But what HDD do u have?

Joe42 · 30 Aug 2006 at 16:48

TheCrow said:
I had video and audio stuttering, turned out to be a HDD problem, i really cant rember what it was now. But what HDD do u have?

Hitachi T7K250. Never had a problem with one, we have 4 in total all sata and one 250gb hitachi ide. I have heard of problems with dma on ide harddisks but there is no dma on sata.

kevpuk said:
Sounds like a different issue, then, are there PSU concerns ?

My guess is on the video driver.....easiest route would be to throw in a dedicated video card.....and see if it resolves things. If so, then the onboard (driver) is likely the issue....can you manually overwrite requisite driver files with versions from latest nVidia driver ? Probably a bit messy.....

I also believe its the video driver but as its this stupid nvidia business platform i can't use an updated one, i have to use an old 81.something one that comes bundled with the business platform driver.
I will try putting a graphics card in it, i have an ati pci one i can try which will eliminate the nvidia drivers.
I am also in contact with nvidia to see if there is a way to use the normal video driver so i can get an updated version.

Can't see it being the psu, but i do have a spare so do you think its worth a try?
If it was underpowered i would expect other problems to crop up and they haven't.

Thanks for your help.

kevpuk · 30 Aug 2006 at 16:55

Joe42 said:
Can't see it being the psu, but i do have a spare so do you think its worth a try?
If it was underpowered i would expect other problems to crop up and they haven't.

I agree, not likely really, but process of elimination when all else fails

Joe42 · 30 Aug 2006 at 17:00

I'm going to see if nvidia can help me install an updated driver first, and if that fails then i'll start swapping thigs around.

Thanks for your help.

Joe42 · 6 Sep 2006 at 13:49

Right, installed the latest 91.47 driver which does install on the business platform which the 91.31 did not.
The glitching is now less frequent so it has helped but its still happening.
I have noticed that the glitching does not appear on recordings so its a playback problem only.
Nvidia tech support asked me to look for processes spiking in cpu usage when it skips but there were none, as its a fairly clean system and there isn't much on it.

Joe42 · 6 Sep 2006 at 18:46

I've descovered that there is a new chipset driver thats been released for this and that in combination with a few other drivers seems to have fixed it.

I feel a bit stupid for not trying this first but initially they only allowed a special nvidia business platform driver pack to be installed and because of that i didn't go looking for newer separate drivers.

Anyway thanks to all those who have offered suggestions and lets hope this thing works for good now.