Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[14AL]

Hi there,

finally got my htpc up and running , but I'm stuck on one last issue.

I can play back blu ray disks with powerdvd without any problem (outside jriver) and it runs smooth.
When I play the disc via jriver (external program powerdvd) it stutters and does this at any point in a movie.
Watching downloaded 1080p movies or ripped dvd's in jriver is not a problem.

I have already upgrade ram from 2 to 4 gb because I expected this to be the problem, but that didn't help.
When playing blu ray via jriver the cpu usage is around 20-30% and the mem usage around 60%, so I don't see a resource problem. I run windows 7 64 bit, cpu A4 5300, 4gb ram. Checked all the options but there is nothing I can relate to my problem (also because I probably don't understand the majority of them ?)

I really hope there is someone who can help me solving this

Greetings
Ron
 

[jmone]

Is the stutter:
1) Infrequent / Random heavy stuttering
2) Frequent / Regular stuttering

Does it occur on all BD's or only a particular subset and if so, see if you can narrow down what the common factor is (eg VC-1, Interlaced, DTS-HD etc)?

Also - To double check, the options you want to look at to start with are:

Tools --> Options  --> Video --> General Video Settings
- Video Mode : RO Standard
- HW Acceleration (try on /off)
- VideoClock : Checked

Tools --> Options  --> Video --> Display Settings
- Enable (and config if needed)

Tools --> Audio
- Bitstreaming: None

[14AL]

Jmone, thanks for your reply.

It's a regular stutter which is especially noticeable in the background of large scenes, for instance when a camera pans along sky scrapers. In scenes with people talking and moving it is hardly noticeable. But it's very annoying, makes you kind of sea sick.

Checked all the setting and they were as you described.

Now I did some more testing and also asked someone else to watch with me and he convinced me that also in powerdvd (stand alone) it is not running smooth. So I have been fooling myself a little on blaming jriver I'm afraid, sorry about that. We also watched the same movie scene's from a mkv file (1.7 gb download) and that was absolutely smooth. So perhaps it's more of a powerdvd issue or maybe it still is a hardware issue. Need to do broaden my research I'm afraid. But any good tips are welcome.

cheers
ron

[jmone]

Great to narrow it down.  A regular stutter is normally either:
1) Mismatch between the Frame Rate of the Movie and the Frequence of the TV/PJ.  If this is your problem you need to:
 - Tools --> Options  --> Video --> General Video Settings --> VideoClock : Checked ON
 - Tools --> Options  --> Video --> Display Settings --> Enable (and config if needed)

eg, if you have a BD at 23.976 and your TV on 50 or 60hz you will see judder from a Pull Down pattern that is especially noticeable on panning shots etc.

2) What is your GPU?  The other potential issue is that the GPU is not up to the task, but if you are running RO Standard this is less likely.

[14AL]

Thanks again, think you nailed it.

 

eg, if you have a BD at 23.976 and your TV on 50 or 60hz you will see judder from a Pull Down pattern that is especially noticeable on panning shots etc.

Checked the internet and it seems to be a well known and common problem, never heard of it before.

When I put the refresh rate on either 23 or 24Hz (in the display settings directly) the movie runs smooth. With 50, 59 or 60Hz it stutters/judder. But changing this just to watch a blu ray is kind of a hassle. Not sure if it is a problem to leave it on this setting permanently. It does prove however the cause of the problem.

Before this I started with changing the display settings in JRiver, but whatever I set it to the results were the same (judder) so it does not seem to take any affect. I have put Film(23.976 fps) on 1920x1080x32x23/24/50/59 and even did this for all other options (Film(24 fps), NTSC etc) but nothing happens. Display settings is enabled and videoclock is selected.

But I was wandering, the blu ray is played back via an external program (powerdvd10), so I can imagine that powerdvd is in control and the jriver settings are ignored. This would mean the problem lies with powerdvd. unfortunately In powerdvd it is not possible to change refresh rate.

Well I hope you can shed some more light on this.

ron

[14AL]

Small update.

Spend another hour messing around with all possible settings, but not found a 'proper' solution yet.

When I change the  display resolution to 23fps in Tree & view - Full Screen, the movie runs perfectly smooth. So it is clear this is the solution. But I think this is the wrong place to adjust it.

Now the main question is why do the display settings (in Video) have zero effect?

Another thing I observed is that for blu ray the tags do not show a value for FPS. For dvd it says FPS 25.
I'm a total noob but if the fps is unknown how would jrviver know what to do.


ron

[14AL]

darn I’m brilliant
Found a work around, instead of calling powerdvd, call display changer (need little program, can be found at 12noon.com). In the command line you can specify the resolution, refresh rate and lett it run powerdvd. When powerdvd closes it will change the screen settings back to normal. It does what jriver should be doing.

So I’m done.

Still curious whether this is a problem that needs to be fixed by jriver, or is it just me?

Jmone thanks for pointing me in the right direction

Good bye
Ron

[Hendrik]

Changing refresh rate always worked just fine when playing Blu-rays with JRiver for me, but of course you don't get the menus then.
Personally I've never actually tried launching an external player for this.

[14AL]

Did not check that but my issue was about playing physical disks and for that you need an external program

[Hendrik]

If you have a decryption program like AnyDVD HD running, then MC can also play physical discs - main movie only, without menus.
And it will also change refresh rate then. If the disc is still encrypted, I guess it can't figure out the refresh rate from the encrypted content.

[14AL]

That's what I was thinking to, it doesn't know.
So the solution would be to change the settings based on the fact that it is a blu ray and not based on fps
Should be doable

[Hendrik]

Blu-rays can have all sorts of refresh rates, 23.976, 24.000, 25.000, 29.970 .. without actually analyzing the content of the Blu-ray, its rather impossible to get it right.
Of course a majority of discs are 23.976, but that doesn't make it the only valid choice. Once you play a disc which is different, you end up with the same problem again.

[14AL]

Ok get it.
That makes it a though one.

I understand why anydvd will work and would solve this but I don't want to spend another 60 euro, powerdvd comes for free with the player.

For now I'm happy. Thanks for the discussion.