Full HD Playback Stuttering on i5 PC

mrobsessed

Hi All,

I've got an i5 750 PC with 14GB of Ram. I watch a lot of video on it and 720p stuff plays fine, but 1080p video stutters so noticeably it is better to watch at lower resolutions. I have an ATI 5750 graphics card and would really expect the overall hardware to be able to handle full HD playback smoothly.

I realise that full HD is over double the pixel count of 720p, but would you expect the hardware I've got to play full HD smoothly?

There does seem to be a problem with the graphic card control panel, but games still work fine.

Any Ideas?

Many thanks,
MrO

jaydeeuk1

Are you playing these videos from a hard drive, across a network or over internet? Yours should play 1080p flawlessly, regardless of bit rate.


First thing to check is, what are you playing videos back in - is HD decoding enabled?

Re. graphic control panel problem, have you tried reinstalling catalyst?

Elliott_Fox

Could you use windows task manager to check your system resource usage when running a 1080p video? Actually see what is causing the bottle neck.

mrobsessed

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Are you playing these videos from a hard drive, across a network or over internet? Yours should play 1080p flawlessly, regardless of bit rate.


First thing to check is, what are you playing videos back in - is HD decoding enabled?

Re. graphic control panel problem, have you tried reinstalling catalyst?

I'm playing video on VLC from hard disk. I've tried various video decoding settings but it doesn't make any difference. Hardware acceleration is enabled.

Thanks for your help

mrobsessed

Elliott_Fox wrote: »

Could you use windows task manager to check your system resource usage when running a 1080p video? Actually see what is causing the bottle neck.

Playing HD in VLC uses about 30% of CPU.

The playback isn't terrible - its just slightly 'off' but I'm sure it is the framerate. Its most noticable when the picture pans.

cheers

bluesnake

for big files I have found the free Media player classic - Home cinema better, VLC stutters on my i7 with large files

mrobsessed

bluesnake wrote: »

for big files I have found the free Media player classic - Home cinema better, VLC stutters on my i7 with large files

Thanks for that - it plays perfect now using that player. Great Tip.

jaydeeuk1

Was it actual stuttering or screen tearing? I used to get the same when viewing through media center, even on 720p 900mb rips, if a camera panned on a busy scene, it would tear. If it was a game, I would enable v-sync, in this instance I managed to cure it by installing a recommended codec park (shark007.net)

mrobsessed

I'm certain its framerate. Even reasonably static scenes like actors talking lose the smoothness of movement, and while its not quite 'juddering' its a noticeable and distracting loss of fluidity.

Considering the maturity and ubiquity of the otherwise excellent VLC, its seems its handling of full HD leaves a lot to be desired. I downloaded the newest version but there's no improvement.

S0litaire

Have you got the correct motherboard drivers installed?
I've gotten smooth playback on a dual core atom CPU.

Juddery playback is probably a bottleneck between the motherboard and the graphics card. What motherboard do you have? are you using Microsoft default drivers or latest from the MoBo's website?

mrobsessed

S0litaire wrote: »

Have you got the correct motherboard drivers installed?
I've gotten smooth playback on a dual core atom CPU.

Using what software? The fact that I can get perfect playback using Media Player Classic suggests that the problem is with VLC. I can also run games like Arkham City in full HD perfectly. Also, If you work out the data rate for a three hour movie at 4.5GB its only about 25MB a minute - that is hardly going to tax the mobo/cpu, even when the video decompression has occurred.

S0litaire wrote: »

Juddery playback is probably a bottleneck between the motherboard and the graphics card. What motherboard do you have? are you using Microsoft default drivers or latest from the MoBo's website?

It's possible, but I believe I have installed all the correct drivers. Its a Gigabyte mobo. I do intend to reinstall the complete system from scratch, including all drivers, so It'll be interesting to see the result.

Thanks for your help.