antony_scott

I hope I’m not jumping the gun here, but I have finally found the cause of the severe frame dropping I’ve been experiencing when playing MKVs (specifically 1080p content) on my (not so) new HTPC.

I spent some time investigating yesterday, trying out different codecs. Once I found out about a very useful overlay display in Media Portal. Pressing Shift-1 (ie – !) brings up a raft of information including the name of the audio and video decoders. So, I could really see what Media Portal was using the play the MKV file. It also has a very useful dropped frame count. So, I didn’t have to sit and watch for dropped frames myself.

The first thing I tried was updating the codec package I use (SAF) to the latest version (6.1). This seemed to work for a while, but I still got dropped frames and once it started going wrong it got progressively worse.

Next, I tried out different video decoders (Cyberlink PowerDVD 11, Microsoft DTV, ffdshow DXVA, LAV). All of them stuttered severely.

Next, I tried copying my test file to the local hard drive. Playback was perfect! I then tried playing back the same file (from my Drobo FS) on a different HTPC, playback was perfect! So, this lead me to believe something was wrong with the networking part of the new HTPC.

So, I went on to the gigabyte website and downloaded the latest version of the network adapter driver. After a reboot I played my test MKV file from the Drobo FS, ie – using the network again, and it played back perfectly. RESULT! To make sure I let it play a lot longer than my normal test, still perfect. I then played a couple of more movies and they also played back perfectly. GREAT I thought.

One problem HTPCs often have is that when resuming from sleep mode they don’t quite work perfectly. So, I switched the PC off via my MCE remote and made myself a cup of tea. A few minutes later I switched the PC back on (again via the MCE remote), played the same test movie again and it was perfect! So, I tried a few more movies and left one of them running for over an hour. Again, as near as makes any difference, PERFECTO.

I’m not counting my chickens just yet, I’ve had this happen before. So, I switched it off (via the MCE remote) again, and went to bed.

The next morning …

I switch the PC on with the remote, fire up the test movie … PERFECT! It’s actually still playing as I write this post.

So, all this hassle and many nights of messing around with codecs and power settings and I don’t know what else; And it’s all down to a dodgy network driver, the one on the CD that came with the motherboard no less!

GIGABYTE FAIL

The PC seems to wake up quicker too. What normally happens on a wake up, is the display comes on real quick but there is a delay while it sorts itself out and reconnects to the TV server. I’m not too bothered about that delay actually, but it would be nice not to have it

Note: When I say PERFECT, it is still dropping the odd frame. It’s only one in every 6 or 7 thousand frames and barely noticeable. I suspect that is down the the frame rate not being exactly right for 24p content. This is apparently a known issue with the Sandy Bridge CPU/GPUs.

I’ve just recently restored my blog from backups after having tried a few alternative blog engines. Well I’m back on wordpress and blogging again!

In restoring my blog I noticed my very first post from way back in 2005, it was all about my computer rack, which I way very proud of at the time. Looking back, it was all a bit OTT.

Anyway, I reckon it’s about time for an update!

I’ve gone through 2 different rack mount cases since 2005. Both 4U and very roomy. My MediaPortal TV server has been upgraded over the years to the state it is now, with 3 dual DVB-T tuners, a quad core AMD CPU and 4 gigabytes of RAM. Until recently it also had a 4 drive RAID5 in there with a hardware raid card. That is now retired (and soon to be appearing on ebay). It’s been replaced by a Drobo FS with 5 x 1TB hard drives and dual drive redundancy enabled.

My server is now in a Fractal Define XL case, but soon to be moved to a much smaller case because of the recent Drobo purchase no longer requiring me to house all those hard drives. It has also been moved out of the loft into a cupboard downstairs for easier access.

I have also upgraded the two network switches to a single 24-port gigabit switch. I have a separate 3com wireless access point for laptop/tablet use. Once I have moved my main PC out of the rack case it currently resides in, I will be dismantling the home made rack and moving all the network gear into a wall mounted rack case.

I’ve recently rebuilt my server and all my clients for my MediaPortal multi-seat configuration. I’ve been experiencing really slow access to the TV part of the software. When selecting TV from the main menu it would take 15-20 seconds before I could do anything else. I turned off my firewall initially, which seemed to fix the problem at first. But it only seemed that way because the delay was on the first access to the TV. So, we’ve been living with it for about a month now. Well, the other day I got a reply on the media portal forum that suggested disabling IPv6. Which I’ve not done on my server and 3 clients. The TV loads up with no delay at all now. So, I’m left thinking what use IPv6 is if it’s so slow. I admit I’m not an expert on networking, I’ve always done just enough to get it working for my own needs. It could be that my switches couldn’t cope with it, so windows was trying IPv6 first and failing and then falling back to IPv4.

I finally figured out how to connect to a vista machine via UltraVNC today.

I upgraded to 1.0.4 RC14 which has a number of fixes for vista. I was constantly getting the “no default password set” message, so I changed the winvnc.exe.config file so the the AuthRequired setting was 0 (zero). This then allowed me to connect and enter my password.

The reason for doing this was to set up my newly built Media PC to work with my HDTV. I had set it up using my Hyundai 24″ monitor, which happens to have a HDMI socket, so that was a bit more convenient that sitting on the floor in front of my TV!

Anyway, I finally managed to get a picture to appear on the HDTV. Now I’ve got that I can plug in a keyboard and mouse (I have a nice wireless one I can get set up on there, see below) and do the final configuration.

I have always used the \MACHINENAME way of traversing my local network. Slowness is just something I assumed came as part of the deal with windows networking, until I did a quick google and found out that windows will look for any shared printers and scheduled tasks. Personally, I don’t want this as I have a networked printer with it’s own built-in server, and I use remote desktop to manage any scheduled tasks. So, I’ve now turned those options off and my network browsing is instantaneous!

I cannot remember where I found the registry way of doing it, but you basically you need to delete a couple of entries here:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerRemoteComputerNameSpace

There are two entries here

I have removed both, but it’s up to you to decide which you need, if any.

• 3u Server PC
  • Chenbro RM311 rackmount case with 8 hotswap drive bays
  • Sempron 64-bit 3000+ processor
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 80 GB O/S Hard Drive
  • 6 x 200 GB Hard Drives in a software RAID-5
  • 2 x Hauppauge PVR 250 analogue TV tuner cards
  • Radeon 7000 video card
• 24-port Cat 5E patch panel
• 24-port 100Mb network switch
• 8-port 1Gb network switch

I also have a UPS in the bottom of the rack. It’s not rack mounted but it’ll do. It only powers the server pc for about a minute when the power cuts out, but it’s enough time to shutdown and not have 7 hard drives crash!

I am awaiting delivery of a picoPSU to complete my router PC. I am modding a generic 1u case to fit it all in. It consists of the following :-

• EPIA800 Motherboard
• 512 MB RAM
• 720 MB laptop hard drive
• 60W power brick

Yesterday i punched in all but one of my wired network ports into the patch panel. They all worked perfectly afterwards too.

Next job will be to tidy up the mess of cables with some clips which i will screw into the wooden frame of the rack.

Then i’ll need to build a shelf on top of the wooden frame to sit the belkin 4-way KWM, mini keyboard, mouse and 10.4″ colour LCD screen i have. They’re all currently sitting on a spare piece of chipboard resting on the top of the rack’s wooden frame.