Video is not playing as it should

[sannitig]

Hello,

I have recently built a new pc which I am using for home theatre/everday use. I have an ATI HD 4250 on a gigabyte mobo. I am running an AMD Phenom II 855 @ 3.GHz with all four cores unlocked. I have Kingston value ram DDR3 1333 timed at 9-9-9-24...(bad I know)

I seem to have issues playing video files there are little flickers (horizontal lines) when I am wathcing a movie..mkv...avi..no matter. It's like the video isn't rendering all at once...it is very faint but I see it...it makes the video seem laggy at times...usually when the camera is moving around more.

At first I thought it was VLC and then the same thing happens when I play in winamp.

Can some please help? I have installed the Shark codec and still nothing. If I am in the wrong area tell me were to post and I will post there.

 

[aford10]

What resolution are you using?

Is it the same for streaming and downloaded video files? If it's only during streaming, the video may be buffering.

 

[sannitig]

Hey thanks for the reply

It is from my hard disk to either my vga monitor or hdmi to my televison. My tv is 1080p the monitor is not (1680 x 1050). Either way the same horizontal lines randomly show up on either set when i play any of my movies

 

[aford10]

That's a weak graphics package running that resolution. Try decreasing the resolution, and see if it improves the performance.

 

[sannitig]

Is there another way around this fix or is this just a troubleshooting step? because I am planning to run my TV on it's full res. that's why I built this pc.

I was told that an HD 4250 should be plenty to render video and that my CPU would be doing most of the work anyways...

This is nuts....the 4250 can't out put the res. on a 47" tv properly? OR a 22" monitor running at 1680x1050? Is this for real?

This is off of Tom's harware forum

http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/300659-33-cheap-htpc-4250-question

 

[aford10]

There's a difference in being able to display on a certain resolution, and being able to do it well. This is the reason gamers tend to gravitate towards higher powered video cards. With so much going on, the video card needs to be able to keep up.

I'm not saying that it for sure is the problem. I'm just saying it's a good test. If you turn down the resolution, and it looks better, you've found the problem.

You may also want to try adjusting the hardware acceleration.
http/www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/dmc_turnoffhardwareacceleration.aspx

 

[khubani]

ya download the xvid codec?

 

[sannitig]

There's a difference in being able to display on a certain resolution, and being able to do it well. This is the reason gamers tend to gravitate towards higher powered video cards. With so much going on, the video card needs to be able to keep up.

I'm not saying that it for sure is the problem. I'm just saying it's a good test. If you turn down the resolution, and it looks better, you've found the problem.

You may also want to try adjusting the hardware acceleration.
http/www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/dmc_turnoffhardwareacceleration.aspx

I turned down the res to 1280x800...boy was that ugly. I still saw the exact same lines flicker lines though....I welcome any more assistance

 

[sannitig]

ya download the xvid codec?

Ya I just did.

I installed the shark007 codec pack. I use this thing colled codec installer and here is the results. It's a bit messy but the first column is legible

Filter name Company Vers. Driver Co
AVI Decompressor Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... cf4
Color Space Converter Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... 16
CoreAVC Video Decoder CoreCodec 2 c:\program files ﴾x86﴿\... 9
Decrypt/Tag Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... c4c
DirectVobSub ﴾auto­loading versi... Gabest 1 c:\windows\system32... 98
DivX Decoder Filter DivX, Inc. 7.1 c:\program files\divx\d... 78
DV Video Decoder Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... b1
Microsoft DTV­DVD Video Deco... Microsoft Corporation 6.1 c:\windows\system32... 212
MJPEG Decompressor Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... 30
MPEG Video Decoder Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... feb
Mpeg4 Decoder DMO Microsoft Corporation 12 c:\windows\system32... 94
Mpeg43 Decoder DMO Microsoft Corporation 12 c:\windows\system32... 94
Mpeg4s Decoder DMO Microsoft Corporation 12 c:\windows\system32... 94
PBDA DTFilter Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... 91
VGA 16 Color Ditherer Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... 1d
Video Port Manager Microsoft Corporation 6.6 c:\windows\system32... 6f2
WMV Screen decoder DMO Microsoft Corporation 12 c:\windows\system32... 94
WMVideo Decoder DMO Microsoft Corporation 12 c:\windows\system32... 94

 

[khubani]

uninstall that codec pack and just used xvid for now

 

[sannitig]

Ok so I uninstalled Shark007. How do I know that I am only using Xvid?

 

[sannitig]

I have uninstalled Shark but I am still experiencing the issue... I am truley at a loss. I was thinking of buying a video card so I could test but everyone is telling mine is fine. It still has the issue trying to plat a normal 700MB avi file.

 

[rwpritchett]

What you describe sounds like motion judder which is caused by movies being filmed at 23.976Hz (or 24p) and the refresh rate of your TV being 30 or 60Hz. It is mostly noticeable during panning scenes.

It may also be a codec problem.

To troubleshoot your problem, I suggest you first select a single video file that has the problem and only use one media player to test the video. For example, VLC uses its own directshow filters while Windows Media Player uses it's own... and if you are running 64-bit Windows then there are two separate filters for 32-bit media player and 64-bit media player which are both installed at the same time.

Some questions first:

What refresh rate are you running your 1080 TV?
What is the container for the video file that you are playing?
What is the codec (AVC? MPEG-2?, VC-1?) and what fps (23.976Hz?) is the video? Download MediaInfo and toss your video file into it to find out the details.
What media player are you using? If it's WMP, 32-bit or 64-bit?
Are you using DXVA or software decoding?
Latest Catalyst drivers installed?

 

[sannitig]

Yes well most of the movies I have watched in the passed 2 weeks have been PAL. That being said I just tested an nstc DVD (300) and I still see the flickers of lines especially during panning. I have been testing with to files. An mkv and an avi. Avi is 24fps and the mkv is 48fps. This would agree with your theory but why do I still see it with the ntsc dvd?

1. 60hz
2. avi or mkv
3. Mpeg-4 Xvid or H.264
4. vlc or winamp (32-bit) (VLC tends to play most things while winamp does not)
5. I am not sure
6. 8.762.0.0

 

[rwpritchett]

There was a bug in the catalyst drivers from 10.2 through 10.11 that would cause video corruption when playing SD video files with DXVA enabled. Your driver version corresponds to catalyst 10.8 so that could be the problem.

I suggest you download and install the latest catalyst drivers (10.12 as of today, 11.1 is due soon). The 10.12 package has driver version 8.801.0.0. Be sure to uninstall your old drivers first.

It's a start.

 

[sannitig]

Alright I DL 10.12 and the drivers are now at 8.801

I still get the flicker/judder. I am testing with the movie 300 in NTSC. Right now its on my monitor via VGA. But I know the same thing will happen on my TV via hdmi...

I am grateful for your help but this is killing me...

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500146

i use this for my tv hookup works great!

 

[sannitig]

so you think its my video card? how can me hd 4250 not beable to play standard def movies on my monitor or tv?

nice price btw

 

[rwpritchett]

I'm still thinking it's a problem with mismatched frequencies. Too bad a simple driver update didn't cure your problem.

Have a look at this website: http/www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html

Scroll down to the Section titled The Nature of Interlaced TV, Film-to-Video Conversion, and Other Interesting Gambits.

Do any of the examples shown mimic what you are seeing? What you described sounded like the issue on the webpage exemplified by clip with the flying police cars.

 

[sannitig]

It's kind of like that. In that example it is really bad, i assume because it is interlaced. I think my flat panel would be progressive scan. The lines appear across the whole screen. I think this is indeed a judder/artifact issue.

Shouldn't everyone in north america be complaining about this???

Any way I tried to put my TV onto smooth motion and it still does it. I also tried using a setting called de-judder..it did absolutley nothing.

My video card, when plugged into the TV, does not have the option of going up to 120hz. I thought that was odd.

Also at 72hz the issue still exists which is really weird because 24 * 3 = 72

Any thoughts? Great article by the way. A must read for all HTPC guys.