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Author Topic: Red October and low-end/old hardware  (Read 2379 times)

laerm

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Red October and low-end/old hardware
« on: October 04, 2011, 05:34:59 pm »
Hi all --

I'll concede: my HTPC is positively ancient. It's built on a motherboard that came out in early 2003. I'm still using this HTPC not because I'm cheap, but because it has onboard vacuum tube audio (which sounds wonderful) and it has never had any issues...until now. Playing Netflix and DVDs worked fine until Red October came along. Now, though, both video sources will play fine for about 30 seconds and then I get one frame every five seconds (while audio remains uninterrupted and fine regardless of source).

Does anyone have any recommended settings for video on old hardware (P4 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce 6600)? I went to Windows 7 a couple months ago, and, strangely enough, most of the Aero effects work fine with no slowdown, so something about this works fine as far as W7 is concerned.

Thanks very much...
Micah

PS: This may finally motivate me to get a new HTPC, but, darn, vacuum tubes! They're awesome! ;)
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Matt

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2011, 05:37:11 pm »
You might try "WASAPI - Event Style" with 100ms of buffering.

More here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_Setup
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

laerm

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2011, 05:41:04 pm »
Quote from: Matt on October 04, 2011, 05:37:11 pm
You might try "WASAPI - Event Style" with 100ms of buffering.

Hunh, changing audio settings will help video playback? Never would have guessed! Thanks very much, Matt, I'll give it a shot after work tonight and report back.

Micah
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Matt

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2011, 05:47:03 pm »
Quote from: laerm on October 04, 2011, 05:41:04 pm
Hunh, changing audio settings will help video playback? Never would have guessed! Thanks very much, Matt, I'll give it a shot after work tonight and report back.

Micah

In some cases the default audio buffering size causes trouble with DVD playback.

You could try enabling hardware acceleration in Options > Video.

Finally, make sure you have the latest video drivers from nVidia.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

laerm

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2011, 05:52:07 pm »
Quote from: Matt on October 04, 2011, 05:47:03 pm
In some cases the default audio buffering size causes trouble with DVD playback.

You could try enabling hardware acceleration in Options > Video.

Finally, make sure you have the latest video drivers from nVidia.

Gotcha. I will tweak and see how it goes. I'll turn on hardware acceleration if it isn't already. The first thing I did when I started having this issue (my stuff was in storage most of the summer when I was moving) was update drivers, so I know I'm good there.

Thanks again...
Micah
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laerm

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2011, 10:53:35 pm »
Quote from: Matt on October 04, 2011, 05:47:03 pm
In some cases the default audio buffering size causes trouble with DVD playback.

You could try enabling hardware acceleration in Options > Video.

Finally, make sure you have the latest video drivers from nVidia.

Hmm...turns out, I already had my audio configured as you suggested (WASAPI-Event and buffering at 100ms), and hardware acceleration was turned on. Same video issues as before. I tried Netflix in Chrome and it stunk there, too. DVDs play fine in VLC, though. Any thoughts other than time for me to get a new machine?  :P

Thanks again...
Micah
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Matt

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2011, 09:45:10 am »
Netflix playback happens outside of Media Center in a browser (Netflix's choice, not ours).  This means if it doesn't work, it's pretty much out of our control.

For DVD, it's possible some video decoder would work better than others.  You can use Red October with additional filters and try selecting a different decoder for DVD if you have one (like Cyberlink, etc.).

On the other hand, you'd be doing your part to help the economy if you upgrade ;)
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

laerm

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Re: Red October and low-end/old hardware
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2011, 09:54:53 am »
Quote from: Matt on October 05, 2011, 09:45:10 am
Netflix playback happens outside of Media Center in a browser (Netflix's choice, not ours).  This means if it doesn't work, it's pretty much out of our control.

For DVD, it's possible some video decoder would work better than others.  You can use Red October with additional filters and try selecting a different decoder for DVD if you have one (like Cyberlink, etc.).

Yeah, that's what I figured with Netflix. I tried a DVD last night with madVR but no dice as well. I might be SOL finally...

Quote
On the other hand, you'd be doing your part to help the economy if you upgrade ;)

Haha, I'll be sure to bring that up when I explain to my girlfriend why I need to spend a few hundred dollars. ;) (Though it probably goes to Taiwan anyway...)

Thanks Matt. Now off to the hardware forum for recommendations...

Micah
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