Checklist for solving the stuttering problem

[Atman]

1. Is DMA of the DVD drive enabled?
2. Is it a dedicated HTPC? Is there any other non-essential background process is running?
3. What is the chipset of your mainboard? If it is VIA, please install the latest VIA 4in1 driver.
4. Make sure that your hard drives are set to never turn off.
5. You may also try to move the cards to different PCI slots. IRQ sharing may cause problem in some systems.
6. Is there any DScaler filter enabled? Try to disable some filters as filters consume lot of CPU resources.
7. Are you using any BT878 driver? In some systems, it is better NOT to install the driver. DScaler can drive the PDI/SDI capture card directly.
Regards,
Atman

[DShooter]

Here are my suggestions:

1. Re-install the most updated display driver (in case of instablility)
2. Disable Judder Termination (though it may not be highly related)

[CKL]

(1) I agree that some background running program will occupy the resource of CPU occasionally. It may cause stuttering.

(2) Correct deinterlace mode is also important. The auto detection of film/video may be wrong some times. You can manually select the correct deinterlace mode to eliminate the stuttering.

(3) If the CPU is not too fast, please allocate most of CPU resource for the Dscaler. I mean turning off the sleep interval.

(4) If you try everything but still not work, please uninstall and reinstall the Dscaler.

Good Luck.

[Atman]

A case was reported by a combo user that a P4 SiS 648 mainboard caused video stuttering problem. Now the user is using an Intel chipset mainboard and no more stuttering is observed.

Regards,
Atman

[jelu71]

I have had these problems and in my case it was a beta firmware (regionfree) that caused the problem, the bad firmware forced my DVD into PIO-mode.

When I put the original fimware back on my LG-drive it went right back to DMA-mode and all the stuttering was gone!

I now use the program "DVD-regionfree" instead of a regionfree firmware :-)

[Audio]

I had this problem and it's a Dscaler issue.

It seems like the video will stutter if you are not using thier "standard resolution". Video stutter is the sense, that you may miss a frame a two every 1 to 2 sec and the picture shake very slightly (vertical movement) once 1 to 2 sec.

Tried like crazy to use my Sony VPL-HS20 on native 1368 X 768 at 56Hz. But the moment I did a 1280 X 720 or 1024 X 768, the playback is smooth.

I am using a P4 Prescott 3.0E on a Intel D875PZB motherboard with 1 GB DDR4000 rams, Raptor WD360, Sapphire X800 Pro video card. 1368 X 768 resolution forced by using Powerstrip.

Just my 2 cents feedback.

(Audio)

[CKL]

The stutter is caused by the 56Hz, especially the 60 field video source.

[BigMike20VT]

I am suffereing with the stutter issue.

the problem is running sky+ through sweetspot.

not using a driver (although have tried installing it - no difference)

my standard setup is

MSI K7N2G ILSR using onboard Geforce 4mx (but have also tried genuine agp TNT2 but the image quality seemed worse (maybe in my head) & still stuttered)
xp2400+ (166mhz fsb)
512mb 3200 DDR Sdram in dual channel
160gb WD harddisk (ATA)
sweetspot cart hooked up vai component to my denon amp, & sky hooked up to a scart : component converter going into my denon amp.

normally i have protowall & azurues bit torrent client in background, however have tried disabling them to see if it helped..

(have tried going diect with an svideo signal, but no joy).


have tried various filters, various settings in descaler, & still it stutters.

also tried different refresh rates (60hz, 72hz & 75hz - the latter the one i would expect to work with a pal output on the sky box - i cant do 100hz as the plasma wont do it).

i have posted for help on various forums but no one seems to be able to answer. am teating my hair out as currently have wasted £450.

i know i could get a bette VGA card but am loath to throw more money at this.

maby thanks for your thoughts

Mike.

[Alex Pluggedin]

Hi Mike
Do you see the stutter on a normal monitor as well as the plasma?
Also, have you checked to see how much cpu is being used during playback.
If it's quite a lot 70%+ make sure you've got every filter switched off.
Early on in SweetSpot's life there were quite a few chipset clashes but these seem to be very few these days.
Have you tried number 5 of Atman's list?

Cheers
Alex

[BigMike20VT]

Hi

Thanks for the advice. i am not sure if i changed pci slipts, however i will give it a go later today.

cpu usage is usually below 50% (when configured for priority to descaler)

havent tried another monitor, i guess i can try to get hold of one to put in the lounge for a test.

[BigMike20VT]

hi, changed pci slots no joy.

all that is left now is to hook up my pc monitor & give that a go.

i may also dump my sweetspot into my games PC (XP3200+ with 1GB of pc3200 ram in dual channel with a radeon card)

[BigMike20VT]

after trying all suggestions on the check list above, i decideded it must have been a problem with either not enough memory bandwidth using onboard graphics or 133mhz fsb thoroughbred, or maybe a problem with agp.

sooooo i got hold af a 32mh matrox G450 a new nforce 2 motherboard with a barton XP2500+


& it still stutters :(

suffice to say i am pretty gutted. It seems odd that most peeople seem to be able to sort out this issue, & yet i cant despite changing most of the hardware.

incidently dvd & divx seem to be ok, its just sky running through descaler.

[jsd_d305]

I just built a HTPC and installed a XCard/PDI Deluxe combo, but I'm getting really bad frame drops, as well as juddering when in video mode. This only seems to happen when playing DVDs from the XCard using the PDI input, as there weren't any problems using a game system I used to test the composite input.

I've tried just about everything on the checklist except for things that I couldn't figure out, like how can I get DScaler to drive the PDI Deluxe without the BT878 driver being installed? It doesn't recognize it at all.

The DMA on my drive wasn't on at first, but turning it on didn't help (the XCard plays DVDs fine when using its analog outputs even when the DMA is off). I don't have any of the filters or auto-detects on, I also tried various de-interlacing options and screen resolutions/refresh rates, but nothing helped.

here's my system:

Windows 98 SE
ASUS motherboard with SiS 963L chipset
2.8 GHz P4, 800 MHz CPU FSB
1 Gig PC3200 ram
256MB GeForce FX 5500
DScaler 4.1.7.P4 (also tried several other versions)

Do I need a more powerful graphics card or something? I don't play many PC games and there didn't seem to be any requirements for the graphics card other than it being an AGP, so I just got a 256MB GeForce FX 5500.

Someone mentioned that changing from a SiS chipset to an Intel one worked... The SiS chipset was different than mine, so I hope I don't need a new motherboard as it'd be such a hassle to get everything re-installed AGAIN.

[Mr.DJ]

I think it's the CPU priority setting that needs to be changed. Try changíng it to the "Dscaler alone" option.

Also, remember to disable "judder terminator". As de-interlacer for DVD playback, I use Mocomp2.

Any luck?

[jsd_d305]

Yeah, I tried changing it to DScaler only (and turning off the judder terminator) before, there seems to be an equal amount of dropped frames if priority is given to DScaler or not. :(

There seem to be the least amount of dropped frames when I have it set to one of the 3:2 pulldown settings, but interlaced frames still show up even on discs with perfect 3:2 pulldown, I assume because the dropped frames mess it up. There's lots more dropped frames and juddering when I have it set on Tomsmocomp or Mocomp2, or on Weave for progressive discs.

[BigMan]

Try this,

Open task manager (ctrl+alt+delete) and look under processes for dscaler then right click it and select process priority and set to high.

let me know if it works!

Cheers!

[jsd_d305]

Hmm, well there's no Task Manager included with Windows 98, ctrl-alt-delete just brings up the close program window. I kind of doubt if it would be of any help since my processor is already at 100% when DScaler is running since I have it set to the "DScaler Alone" setting under General Hardware Setup.

I don't know if upgrading to Windows XP would make things any better, so I think I'll just get a new motherboard at this point.

[BigMan]

Sorry mate didn't see that you had win98!


What dscaler filters are you using and what is the refresh rate fot the output you are playing video to?

[jsd_d305]

I'm not using any filters, and I tried several different refresh rates and resolutions. I can't think of anything else to try other than upgrading my system :( Oh well, it's my own fault for choosing to get a cheap motherboard + case instead of getting a reliable motherboard separately. Damn SiS...