x264 playback problems

[craigcharlie]

Hi,

I'm trying to play 720p x264 movies and am having some problems. Some movies play fine, others "go blocky" and then skip ahead a few seconds. I have verified that the files are fine: I've played them without problems on a second pc with the same codec setup.

The machine I'm having problems playing the x264 files on is my (2 yr old) HTPC - here are specs:
p4 3.2 ghz HT
ATI x1650
1 GB Ram

I've tried using ffdshow and coreavc via zoomplayer - using either codec, playback fails in the *exact* same places in the files.

Short of buying a new PC, can anyone recommend anything? The fact that some files play fine and others don't makes me think there's some optimization I'm missing - also, it seems like the x1650 should be able to handle 720p from what I've read.

Any help is appreciated!

thanks,
Charlie

[Dark Shikari]

Are you sure that you're using CoreAVC?

Under MPC/Playback/Filters, does CoreAVC show up?

[craigcharlie]

Thanks for your reply!

I was using ZoomPlayer, not MPC. I can check MPC when I go home tonight - however, a couple of different utilities (mediainfo, gspot) reported the default x264 codec as CoreAVC.

I tried MPC as well, and actually got terrible performance. So that didn't help playback either.

[craigcharlie]

I verified that MPC is using CoreAVC, here's the pininfo from the video renderer item under "Filters":

- Connected to:
CLSID: {09571A4B-F1FE-4C60-9760-DE6D310C7C31}
Filter: CoreAVC Video Decoder
Pin: Output

- Connection media type:
Video: YV12 1280x536 23.98fps

MPC also displays the same problems at the same point in the movie.

In general, do people think my should my setup be able to play this type of file? Other x264 movies have no problems.

Should I try a different player/codec combination? Recommendations?

[craigcharlie]

Another update in case this is helpful, here's what the following players do with the problem movie:

MPC - crashes whenever I seek
KMplayer - stops playing at the parts that were causing the problem in zoomplayer, whether I have the internal decoder or CoreAVC selected.

*edit*

le plot thickens.

So I changed the matroska splitter in KMplayer from the internal one to the Haali splitter, and KMplayer no longer stops playing at the problem areas - it now exhibits the same visual problems as the other players.

Also, I didn't mention before - the other machine that this file plays fine on is a laptop Core 2 Duo T7250 with nonexistent (onboard) graphics capability.

[Dark Shikari]

Try asking in #cccp on Rizon for help; they're the closest to DirectShow wizards that you'll find anywhere.

[craigcharlie]

I'm still waiting for the Rizon forums to send me an activation e-mail - anyone else have any ideas about why this might be happening?

thanks,
Charlie

[Sharktooth]

im sorry, im out of ideas.

[Dark Shikari]

I'm still waiting for the Rizon forums to send me an activation e-mailIRC channels don't require activation emails.

[craigcharlie]

*blush*

I didn't know what rizon was, just googled and found a web site. never really used IRC, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for taking a look at this thread, Dark Shakari and Sharktooth. If you guys don't have an answer, I don't feel too badly about not figuring it out yet :)