All,

I have recently built myself a nice little Home Server (sort of a mini HTPC) to manage a website and to play back my downloads.
My previous machine to do this was a VIA C3 666mhz machine with 256mb Ram and on board Intel graphics. It played DivX and most VOB's ok via VLC.

My New machine is a new Dual Core Atom board (mini-itx D945GCLF2) 2gb Ram with onboard Intel 950 graphics (256mb Shared). So it is considerably better by a country mile!! Remember it is only to play media etc... it is not a powerhouse to play games and it only uses about 8w or something to power it.
So, after reading reviews of it I built it over buying a EeePC Desktop (beacuse of the Dual Core-ness plus it's cost my half the price to build!!)

I decided to install XBMC as the old machine would have died trying!! I am impressed massivley by it, very nice and easy to use.

BUT

I have this strange issue with playback which I am putting down to Codecs and not hardware. I already know from benchmarks online it can handle 720p no prob (1080p struggles slightly) but I am seeing the same issues with DivX and VOB/ISO's

Issue 1
Basically on playback the image is sort of 'Tiled' in 4 horizontal tiles. Slow moving shots are fine, no problem, but once you get a fast action sequence the tiles struggle to stay in sync..

Issue 2
I have noticed on 720p that the audio is fine but the video catches up every 10 seconds or so with the playback been faster for a short moment... It can get annoying after a while...

VLC is intalled and just displays mush for 720p, I have not tried it for VOB's or ISO's yet to see if the 'Tiling' is eliminated. I have basically installed it and used it. I have not downloaded any codec packs, made any tweaks etc......

The Memory and CPU usage is minimal so I know it is not a system issue, it has to be Codecs (and possibly Drivers but I doubt that).

Any clues, pointers??

Cheers,

Goldberg