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1080P Blu-ray rips Pause and Stutter on VLC Playback

Posted: 09 Mar 2011 00:59
by MrGadget
I’m trying to plan out an HTPC build and want to ensure that I get it right (i.e., that I purchase and assemble an HTPC that is fully functional and meets my needs for at least a few years out). I’m trying to go one step and a time in a “proof of concept” approach, purchasing components such as a “low heat” video card with HDMI (ATI Radeon HD 5450) and I am trying to use VLC as my primary video media player - thus my post here.

So far all is going well, with one major exception. That exception is my ability (inability) to play 1080p BD rips (as MKVs or m2ts files) with VLC without severe stuttering and pauses. My testbed system is a Dell Precision 670 workstation with 2 Xenon 3.2ghz processors, 2 Gigs of Ram, a Radeon HD 4670 video card with HDMI out and 64 bit Windows 7 SP1. I’ve installed the Shark007 codes. The 1080p files will play with Windows Media Player and Arcsoft Total Media Theatre 5 without stutter, but not when I use VLC 1.1.7 or 1.1.8 (nightly build). What is really a bit strange is that they seem to always pause a the same point each time I retry (on the sun-flares at the beginning of 2012 for example - the exact same spot each time).

Just for grins I tried the same file on a 32 bit W7 SP1 Dell XPS 730 with an Intel Core2 Duo processor (E675 @ 2.66Ghz), an ATI Radeon HD 5450 and 2 Gigs of memory and they play fine in VLC on that box and even play in VLC on the XPS 730 streaming over my home network from files housed on the P670 or my NAS.

It just seems that the P670 should be powerful enough to handle the playback of 1080P files and before I order any hardware to build me HTPC, I want to try and understand what my bottleneck on the P670 is so I don’t build a new system with the same issues. The XPS 730 is too big, heavy, noisy and hot to use for a family room HTPC, but I want to make sure I build something powerful enough, but cool and quiet. Any thoughts??

If you can’t point me in the right direction on the VLC issue on my P670, if you have a recommendation on “current” components for a solid HTPC that can play 35GB 1080P Blu-ray rips without a stutter, I would love to hear, but that might need to be a PM given the topic for this board.

TIA

Re: 1080P Blu-ray rips Pause and Stutter on VLC Playback

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 17:15
by Jean-Baptiste Kempf
Try to activate GPU decoding.

Re: 1080P Blu-ray rips Pause and Stutter on VLC Playback

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 20:24
by MrGadget
I did and indeed it did help. I was sure I had tried that before without success, but possibly I didn't save the change correctly and/or exit and restart with GPU decoding activated. Or I'm making too many changes all at once and not getting a clear reading on what is causing what and what is/is not helping. In any case, thanks for the suggestion J-B - I will test it out for a while and see how it all performs. I'll be glad to have a solution that lets me use VLC for all of my video playback.