Print

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

[sj1201]

Dear all,

I am using JRiver (latest version 200084) now since several month and I have to admit it is really a nice media center, it took me a while to understand how it works especially the media library, now it works  fine, but there is one thing which drives me nuts.

First, I try to explain, what happen exactly and what I did so far to investigate the issue, unfortunately without much success.

I have running JRiver on a Windows 8.1 HTPC 64bit with Intel Core i5-3550, AMD graphic card HD7750.
The HTPC is connected via HDMI to my AV-receiver. Nothing really special so far.

JRiver crashes sometimes or I think I should say my computer crashes while running JRiver and play a 1080p MKV video. I don’t know what happened and I am seeking now here for help or some hints to fix the problem.
It seems at least the issue is somehow linked to the combination of my hardware and JRiver, since if I am using a different media player like TMT to run that video which makes trouble with JRiver it works fine with the other player.

Playback of most of my HD videos in MKV container works fine, most of them are running at 24Hz and using Red October HQ madVR is working properly, but if I running a 1080p video @60Hz, it is actually a music video, then the computer chrashed after several minutes reproducible. If I switch back to Red October standard, the issue disappears.

With having this issue I search the forum and found a hint that for several cases the anti virus software could be the issue and other maybe inappropriate drivers or filters.

Therefore I did a new installation of Win8.1 on a new partition from the scratch.
Now I have an nearly virgin windows and only running JRiver on it, but the issue is still there, if I playback the video the computer hangs after several minutes without any hints or notification, the sounds stops suddenly and the screen goes black without any blue screen or so.
The computer does not respond to any keyboard command, I have to restart the computer with the power button.
I tried again and activated the protocol to get a log file to investigate what happened, therefore the log file during a crash is available if this would help too. I was also thinking that this is a graphic card issue, but before I try a new graphic card I want to ask you for better ideas or areas to do some further tests and checks.

Your input is highly appreciated.

Thanks
Jonas

[BryanC]

The first thing I would try is updating the video card drivers. Try the Omega driver (14.12) and if you experience the same issues you can try installing the latest Beta driver (15.3). This certainly sounds like a hardware or driver issue.

[Hendrik]

You could check if you have Hardware Accelerated Video decoding (in Video settings) turned on in the settings, and if so, try turning it off. Some older AMD cards don't do very well with high fps content when using hardware decoding.

[sj1201]

Thanks, this is good information, I will check that and test it.
Just one thing I still dont understand why this works with TMT or with Red October standard, but not with HQ, the graphic card is still the same and the drivers too  ?

[CountryBumkin]

Thanks, this is good information, I will check that and test it.
Just one thing I still dont understand why this works with TMT or with Red October standard, but not with HQ, the graphic card is still the same and the drivers too  ?

One difference is that TMT and Red October Standard are not using madVR as the renderer. So same graphics card, but maybe not strong enough for madVR. The review on that graphics card is not so good http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2400255,00.asp

From http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Red_October

Red October Standard -- MC automatically downloads, installs, and configures known good versions of LAV Splitter, and ffdshow. We build the graph and don't allow anything else. This results in video playback that just works.

Red October HQ -- Same as above, but adding madVR as the renderer. This is more GPU intensive, so it only works well on fast, modern DDR5 based GPU's.

[sj1201]

Hello again,

this sounds plausible to me, I was under the impression my graphic card is sufficient for madVR and JRiver.

Are there any experience which graphic cards is good for running ROHQ or some recommendations for suitable graphic cards?
I would test a new one, the only limitation I have is the length of the card, I cannot use cards which are longer than 7inch due to HTPC case limitations.
Also I would like to buy a card with 2 HDMI and/or display port.

Also I checked yesterday with latest graphic card driver as suggested, but same issue again. With that I think all hints pointing to the graphic card.

Thanks
Jonas

[CountryBumkin]

The settings within madVR can be changed to accommodate weaker graphic cards/systems. Perhaps the settings you have just need to be adjusted (lowered). Maybe your issue has nothing to do with the graphics card.

Take a look at this thread on AVS forum. http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-home-theater-computers/1477339-so-you-ve-built-your-htpc-now-what-next-how-get-ultimate-picture-sound-quality-your-htpc-madvr-svp-xbmc-mediabrowser-jriver-3.html  See post #76 on page 3, and perhaps try the lower madVR setting such as "Level 2".

[sj1201]

This is quite interesting stuff, at least from that information my configuration should work, but maybe already at the edge for plavback 1080p@60Hz.
But it seems now clear why 1080p@24Hz shows no issue at all.
I will check tonight with different (lower) settings of madVR, so far I still use madVR without any changes from my side.

Jonas

[sj1201]

Hello again,

I quick update regarding my issues of crashing the HTPC with madVR.

It is actually a setting issue of madVR and my hardware, which means with low end setting in madVR the HTPC runs more stable with playing 1080p@60Hz.
Even with these settings the picture quality is outstanding. I will now increase the level of settings step by step to see which is the best and stable setting for my system.

Thanks for the hints it helped a lot!

Jonas

[JimH]

Split madVR tweaking to the Video board.