Acer Revo RL70 Struggling with 1080p on OpenElec XBMC

[tips]

Hi,

I tried an ATV2 and couldn't really get on with the fiddly remote, so I have now plumbed for the Acer Revo RL70 as our HTPC.

I have installed the latest build of OpenElec XBMC (V2.0 Beta 5) which was only released on 6th July 2012 (the build is supposed to address some previous issues with the AMD / Fusion Hardware).

Anyway, I have everything set up fine and dandy other than it just stutters like a good one whilst trying to play 1080p either from my Main PC or from the Dreambox 800 or streaming from VEVO (I cannot really find anything on 1 chan or NaviX to test it with). I have Powerline / Homeplugs that I would think should easily give me the speed required. Also, strangely if I go onto Youtube on 1080p Trailers it works fine.

Any ideas?

[evilsatan]

When I had stuttering on my Revo R3610 I had to get gigabit homeplugs as my 200mbps models weren't up to it. I also had to use gigabit switches.

Why have you opted for openelec over XBMCbuntu from xbmc.org? Do you have hardware acceleration enabled in the settings and matching refresh rates? I did read on here a post by DejaVu warning against the AMD chipsets.

[tips]

Hi.

I don't think the problem is the speed of the homeplugs as I have also tested it connected directly to the SuperHub and it jitters playing 1080p either streaming from VEVO or streamed from my PC.

I have hardware acceleration enabled and have tried every combination available with no luck (strangely it didn't jitter per se with the acceleration turned off but was playing slowly).

I plumbed for Openelec as it was a 5 minute job to install it from scratch from a stick drive. I am not au fait with Ubuntu and thought I would take the easy option. Is the Ubuntu version better?

CHEERS

(plus the Openelec XBMC boots from cold in about 15 seconds)

[tips]

this isn't my system, but it shows the same problem

[liveseytowers]

Do you not fancy installing Windows 7 and just install xbmc on that? Should work fine then.

[tips]

Hi,

I would like to try and fettle it first without going down the Windows route.

I have just tried something I read on the Youtube link (using a different skin) and it seemed to be working then started jittering again. I'm at a loss.

[evilsatan]

XBMCbuntu is easy as its wizard install and you don't need to touch Ubuntu. I suggest grabbing it from xbmc.org and giving it a shot!

[tips]

Looks like I'm going to have to give that a try as I'm p***ing into the wind at present.

[liveseytowers]

Or try it installing it to a SD card? I used to do this on my old R3600.

[evilsatan]

SATA will offer better read write than SD cards, I wanted to just use an SD but decided to go for a SSD instead due to the performance difference. HDD would still be better than SD for performance.

[tips]

Installed XBMCbuntu and it's exactly the same. I am now at a loss (short of trying windows 7).

[CzarJunkie]

Have you tried playing the content from the HDD or an external drive to discount the network?

[DejaVu]

Turn off all Video Hardware Acceleration options apart from XVBA.

If you do not have XVBA under Video Acceleration, read on...

Whilst playing a movie that stutters, press 'o' and see if you are getting a lot of Frames dropping.
You should, from there find the culprit of the dropouts too. See what is hitting towards 100% and let me know what it is and should be able to find the bottle neck for you.

The Revo RL70 is more than capable of doing this, so I imagine there's a flaw in your setup or network.

I'm also mildly confident that the XBMC.org version of XBMCBuntu v11 does not have much support for ATI yet (XVBA is not an option in settings) whereas the latest version from XBMCFreak does http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/en/xbmcbuntu...ak-edition-v2/

It's not a big deal - I managed to get XBMC working perfectly using OpenElec on a Iconia W500 (AMD Tablet) wirelessly a few months back.

[tips]

Hi,

I had tried using an external and it did the same.

Deja Vu. I seems to have just about got it sussed (mine only shows VDPAU and VAAPI acceleration, with only the latter enabled). I had been playing around earlier with the O option looking at the dropped frames and when it was jittering it wasn't showing many, but when it played smoother but slowly they dropped constantly like a running timer.

However, I have changed the resolution (1280 x 720) and refresh rate (60) and it now appears to be running fine (well it has been for the past 20 minutes or so) am I right in thinking this is only for the Skin interface and won't mean the 1080 videos aren't playing in full 1080 will it?

THANKS for the help.

[tips]

Deja Vue: for your info here is the screenshot of the dropouts etc.

screenshot001.jpg

[DejaVu]

Stuttering can still occur even without any frame drops, the GPU is not being used to it's potential and the Video Processing's load is being shared with the CPU.
The last line shows CPU0 and CPU1 (the cores). 13% is a lot, even for 1080p. My vcpu (or GPU) never runs above 2%. Yours being at 8% is working too hard.

This indicates the Video Processing being passed over to the CPU. Almost like not having the driver installed for you GPU in Windows.
Lowering the resolution will improve things, but only because Video Acceleration is not being used correctly.

This is what was happening to most before Dharma and the times before any Video Acceleration in XBMC... Yep, less than 3 years.

I would highly suggest installing XBMCFreak's ATI enabled version and enjoy 1080p films using XvBA.

If you want to try a quick fix solution, try OpenElec's latest Fusion build here.
This should play any 1080p without a hitch, so long as XvBA is enabled. If this works, go for the XBMCFreak's install to get more functionality (optional).

VAAPI is the generic Accelerator for Linux.
VDPAU is the NVidia Accelerator for Linux.
XvBA is the AMD/ATI Accelerator for Linux.

XvBA has been harder for the dev's to put into XBMC, because support for it is very bad - even though it has proven to run far, far better than VDPAU.

This ISO is XBMCBuntu v11, but has the most recent additions for ATI Support added.
It's the one I use on all 3 of my installs.

There is also a Beta version using Ubuntu 12.06, but for now I wouldnt recommend it.

Once you have it all up and hopefully processing nicely, give me a shout and I can help with you advancedsettings.xml to tweak it even better.

[tips]

Hi DejaVU, thanks for the in depth info above, much appreciated.

I thought the version of Openelec that I had previously installed was the latest specifically for the AMD Fusion chip (it was only released 4 days ago), was this the wrong version?. It was linked from http://openelec.tv/news/itemlist/category/21-downloads and to quote them "support High@L5.1 videos with our AMD graphic driver via XVBA.!". <<<<<< That was the one that I just couldn't get to work.

I wouldn't mind trying the XBMCFreak's version you mentioned but will wait to hear from you re the Openelec in case that is a backwards step.

CHEERS

[tips]

I have put the iso that you have on your 3 machines onto a flash drive, and have booted to it rather than installing it (just to test it), and it doesn't mention XvBA anywhere. Should there be an option to enable or disable XvBA?

EDIT: I have installed the above version 11.0 V5 XMBCFreak and I cannot find an option for XvBA anywhere. I have tested it running and the cores show similar readings to the other setup, but the playback is not as smooth.

Any help greatly appreciated.

EDIT2: I have installed a later version still (11.9 V2) and this is now showing XvBA, however the cores etc are showing higher than before and the cpu0 & cpu1 is often at 100%. Im really struggling here, lol.

[DejaVu]

Sorry tips,
Been a bit busy the last few days and forgot you were struggling with this.
How'd you get on in the end? I'm guessing it's working, but the CPU is maxing out (or reporting it is?) still?
It maybe saying it's maxed out as XBMC doesn't know the model.

I've got a system that I'm putting XBMCBuntu on (probably tomorrow) that's running an AMD Sempron and ATI HD4850.
Once I get it all sorted, I'll let you know what I done.

[tips]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me.

It does appear to be working fine (though it does struggle over the network so I have ordered some Gigabit Homeplugs to replace the 200mbps ones).

I will be out of the Country now until early September, but will no doubt be after your advise / expertise upon my return. But at least they have some kind of system they can use why I'm away. Thanks for the pointer to the XBMCFreak version.

CHEERS